Daughter of Destiny (22 page)

Nodding, Jake saw the road to Alice Springs fading in the dusky light. “I'm sure everyone will respect what
you've done.” He took off his sunglasses and tucked them into the pocket of his short-sleeved white shirt. “By bringing back the crystal mask, you'll show them that you're a warrior of the first order. They'll respect that and respect you. Your Gram will be able to hold her head up with pride once more.”

“That's what I hope will happen,” Kai said in a whisper.

Mouth quirking, Jake said, “It will, don't worry. Hey, I don't know about you, but all I want right now is a cool shower, some hot food and sleep. I'm whipped.”

“Makes two of us,” Kai murmured, giving him a sympathetic look. Jake's beard had darkened and it gave him a dangerous look. When his full mouth curved upward, her heart beat a little faster. Seeing the care in his golden eyes, Kai almost said,
And I want you to hold me, like you did in the hut at Kalduke. Right now, I'm feeling terribly vulnerable and unsure….
But she didn't. Stunned how her feelings were flowing so easily to the surface, Kai knew the crystal was doing
something
to stimulate this overly emotional response. Ordinarily, Kai was never this needy. She hadn't been since she was a little girl….

 

“I feel like I'm going to live,” Jake sighed, coming out of the bathroom, rubbing his wet hair with a towel.

Kai sat on the bed in a fresh set of clothes, combing her recently washed hair. Looking up, she saw Jake was wearing a white towel around his narrow hips, water droplets still clinging to the dark hair on his torso and arms. His chest was wide and well-sprung, and his shoulders, the same shoulders she had cried on when she was a child,
were proud and strong-looking. Jake was in good shape, she realized again. There was nothing she could do to fight her response to his near nakedness. And Kai discovered she didn't want to fight it.

“Good,” she murmured. “There's a restaurant attached to this hotel here in Alice Springs. Get dressed and let's go eat. I'm starving.”

Wiping his face with another towel, Jake smiled. “I'll jump into some clean clothes and we'll boogie on down there in a heartbeat.” Kai looked refreshed and pretty in a white silk camisole with a kelly-green blouse over it, and tan silk trousers. As she combed her hair, he decided it looked like a beautiful ebony cloak around her shoulders. His fingers ached to tunnel through that mass and caress it. Would it feel as silky as it had when he'd held Kai at the hut only a few days ago? Haunting memories flowed through Jake as he turned and padded back into the bathroom to get dressed. As he quietly closed the door, he wondered if it was a good idea for them to stay in one room together. Their fake identities said they were husband and wife. This hotel didn't have adjoining rooms available, so tonight they'd have to bunk together with no door separating them. Of course, they'd slept in the same brush hut at Kalduke, but that was different. Or had things changed?

He wasn't sure, but whatever Kai wanted, he'd go along with. Jake was in no hurry to press her for a personal relationship. She had a lot on her plate right now. No, the timing sucked, Jake knew. Still, he'd held her once. Kai had come to him. Would she do so tonight? He ached for that to happen, but he wasn't going to expect too much.

At the restaurant, Kai sat opposite Jake in a black leather booth toward the rear of the busy restaurant called Kangaroo Jack's. It was a family place, with lots of children of various ages sitting with their parents. The noise level was relatively low, all things considered, and Kai was grateful for that.

“Smart choice of where to sit,” Jake exclaimed as he cut into his well-done prime rib steak.

“Sitting at the rear of the place, facing the door, is the only way to make sure we're not jumped,” Kai said with a slight smile. Famished, she cut into her rare prime rib. The baked potato slathered with butter and sour cream smelled heavenly to her, too. They had already demolished their soup and salad. “I guess I picked up that little fact from my childhood. I always sat in the rear of the kitchen, waiting to see my father come staggering through the door. That way, I knew how drunk he was and what kind of mood he was in.”

Jake lost some of his appetite. He knew Kai had the crystal mask in her shoulder bag. It sat next to her, tucked between her body and the wall of the booth, so that no one could snatch it away from her. “Maybe some of your ways of protecting yourself will help us now,” he told her. Jake saw Kai's black, arched brows move downward for a moment. She, too, stopped eating momentarily.

“It's this crystal,” Kai growled, giving the white leather purse beside her a disgruntled glare. She knew that was the reason the past kept coming up for her.

Giving her a tender look, Jake said gently, “Kai, maybe it isn't all that bad. You've got a lot of good and bad feel
ings tied up inside of you like knots. No one can carry them forever. They have to come out someday.” His mouth hitched slightly. “Look at it this way—better they come out here, between us. We have history with one another. And I won't hurt you—ever. At least, not knowingly.”

“I guess you're right….” With her heart expanding and opening, Kai rubbed her brow. Beneath the table, their feet touched. Ordinarily, Kai would have moved, but for some reason, she didn't. She wanted Jake's nearness as never before.

“Come on, eat up,” he urged. “We have to check in with Mike at Medusa when we get back to our room. He needs an update on what's goin' down.”

 

Kai finished giving Mike Houston a report on where they were and all that had happened. They'd had no time after returning the camels to Coober at the station to call Medusa. Unsure of how many of Marston's men were in Yulara, they had decided to call Mike after things quieted down. Sitting on the bed now, Kai crossed her legs and held the satellite phone to her ear. Jake sat nearby, but not close enough to make her uncomfortable. It always amazed Kai how he seemed to understand that she needed her personal space.

“I'll contact the authorities in Yulara,” Mike told her grimly, “and we'll see what we can get on those two dudes who tried to take you out.”

“What about Marston? What else did you find out about him?”

“He's definitely a global collector of what I'd call power objects. You know that every Native American nation has rattles, feathers, pipes, crystals and other things that are
used for ceremony. Over time, these ceremonial objects collect a lot of power. The more they're used, the more powerful they become. I don't think it'll be a surprise to you that people like Marston want these things precisely because they do have power.”

Nodding, Kai pinched the bridge of her nose. “Yes…my grandmother tried to tell me about people like Marston. We call them power stalkers—people who want to steal an object and use the power in a selfish way—a way that isn't necessarily good for the people.”

“Correct. Now, I'm South American Indian, and my mother told me that within our tradition, if a sacred object was in the wrong hands, it could kill or make someone very sick. It's a lethal weapon of sorts. I don't know about your crystals. We believe Marston has put several men up to steal them for him. Are they like that?”

Shrugging, Kai said, “I'm not sure, Mike. I do know Grams said that the health and wealth of the clan depends upon that crystal mask, and without it, our clan will wither and die over time.”

“Sounds like Marston might want these clan crystals because they could bring him more wealth. Whoever owns them, owns the energy and its expression.”

“That's right,” Kai murmured. “I didn't think of that.”

Chuckling, Houston said, “We can't prove—yet—that Marston took the other totems, but he's a good lead with what you found in Rowland's wallet. Further, you said it was Marston's men who attacked you, so we're starting to build a case against him. If we can catch those two dudes that attacked you and have the police interrogate them, we
might
be able to finger Marston directly. But that's future stuff. Right now we need to get you out of Australia with that Paint Clan mask. What's your plan for tomorrow, Kai?”

“Jake and I talked it over and thought we'd get a commercial flight to Sydney from Alice Springs.”

“And if these people know your names, they could have some way of hacking into the airline's computer system to see if you're taking that flight out tomorrow.”

Frowning, Kai said, “What can we do, then, Mike? It's nearly a three-thousand-mile drive across Australia to Sydney by car. That's not a trip I want to make.”

“What about flying the Bell Longranger? You can hop from one small, local airport to another down to the coast, probably to Adelaide, which is the nearest big city. From there, we can pick you up by Perseus jet and bring you home. Is that doable from your end?”

“Hold on, let me talk to Jake about this….” When Kai filled him in, Jake instantly smiled.

“Sure, I'd love to fly us to Adelaide. No problem. The helo has the range to do it. We can pick up fuel at little airports along the way without any problem.”

“Okay,” Kai told Mike, “that's what we'll do.”

“We have a Perseus jet stationed in Auckland, New Zealand, at the moment. It will take you a day or two to reach Adelaide. I'll get on the horn to the merc pilots flying it and reroute them pronto.”

“Sounds good,” Kai murmured.

“Stay alert,” Mike warned her.

“We will. And we'll contact you again once we reach Adelaide.”

“Roger and out.”

Setting the phone on the bed stand, Kai gave Jake a slight smile. “You're like a kid in the candy store, Carter.”

Holding up his hands, he chuckled. “Hey, flight hands. What can I tell you? I miss flying my Apache. The air is my home.”

“That's one thing we have in common,” she said, standing up. Feeling a bit anxious, she looked around the large room. They had never had to sleep together like this and it made her nervous. Of course, they'd slept in the same hut in Kalduke, so why was she all of a sudden feeling panicky? Jake had held her in the hut, too.

“You take the bed,” Jake told her, rising. Seeing the confusion and worry in Kai's eyes, he decided to stop hoping. It just wasn't the right time for an intimate relationship. He pulled off the bedspread and took one of the two king-size pillows. “I'll sleep on the floor over here.”

Stunned, Kai turned. “Was I that obvious?” She watched as he laid out the spread near the wall.

“A little,” he teased. “It's okay, Kai. We're in a dangerous situation. Maybe, if things were different, I might suggest otherwise, but not right now.”

Hearing his gruff tone, Kai felt her heart expand. “Thanks for being sensitive about this….” She gestured helplessly. “I want to, Jake…but—”

“Wrong time, wrong place.” He sat down and pushed off his tennis shoes. “And it's okay, Kai. It really is. I don't know that I'd be any more trusting if I'd come out of a family like yours. Trust isn't something you give easily.” She'd given her trust to Ted, though, and Jake hoped that Kai
would, in time, trust him. Unbuttoning his shirt, he removed it. Kai was standing on the other side of the bed with a watchful look on her face. He wasn't going to strip down to his boxers until she was in bed and the lights were out. Kai was stressed enough.

“Okay…” She turned away to get her silk nightgown, which she'd hung on the bathroom door.

“I'll have the lights off when you come out,” he told her.

“Thanks….” She shut the door.

Releasing a long, shaky sigh, Kai decided she was the consummate coward when it came to men. She didn't trust them worth a damn since Ted. Still, the thought of Jake's arms around her…Kai waffled about asking him to lie in the bed with her. That would be stupid. What if he kissed her? Or she kissed him? Could they stop? Would she want him to? Groaning, Kai shook her head. Emotionally, she just wasn't ready for that kind of commitment.

Unbuttoning her blouse, she shrugged it off and placed it on a hook on the door. Her heart was crying out with yearning for Jake. Kai was sure, now, it was due to the influence of the crystal upon her. The powerful medicine object was digging out all her fears for her to contend with—and all her dreams. Scowling, Kai slipped out of her clothes and donned her lavender silk nightgown, which came to her knees. The bodice was cut low, with delicate white Bemberg lace decorating the front.

Everything in her life was being thrown upside down and turned inside out. Kai came to that conclusion as she shut off the light and opened the door. Good at his word, Jake had made sure the entire room was drenched in dark
ness. A bit of light was peeking out around the wall-to-wall drapes, so Kai was able to find her way to the king-size bed. Relief trickled through her as she lay down and drew the sheet up over her hips. The pillow was made of goose down, and she sank deeply into it. The crystal was wrapped in red cotton cloth and hidden in the drawer of the bed stand next to where she lay.

“Good night, Jake.”

“Sweet dreams, Kai.”