The Eden Factor (Kathlyn Trent/Marcus Burton Romance Adventure Series Book 2) (25 page)

Lynn ignored him. Gazing into
Juliana's shocked olive-green eyes, he could see what an ass he had just made
out of himself. "I'm sorry," he could feel his cheeks heating up.
"I didn't mean that the way it sounded."

Juliana cocked an eyebrow.
"Then just what did you mean?"

Lynn wished he could dig himself
a hole and hide. "I meant... well, hell, I've been meaning to ask you out
since we met, but this isn't exactly how I planned to do it."

Juliana glanced at Marcus, who
just shook his head. She looked back at Lynn. "You've waited two years to
ask me out, Lynn Davis?"

"Yes. It sounds stupid, I
know. I'm sorry, I don't have any excuses. Just.... stupidity, I guess."

"And you just thought I'd
wait around for you to do it?"

Lynn was feeling worse and worse.
"Well, no, but... well, if you don't want to, just say so."

"I would love to, only I
can't."

Lynn felt as if had been hit in
the stomach. "You can't? Why not?"

He didn't mean to pry, but he
was. Juliana had been waiting two years for Lynn to make his move and he had
been slow to the draw. Now, in a weak, sadistic, totally female way, she was
going to punish him for making her wait so long.

"Because Dr. Reams and I
have plans. Sorry."

They didn't have a date, but they
had planned to concentrate their efforts on an old chest they had removed from
the tomb earlier that day. But Lynn didn't need to know that part. She walked
off across the encampment, leaving Lynn standing with his mouth open and Marcus
laughing so hard that he was starting to choke.

 "Dennis," Lynn hissed.
"I'm going to kill that bastard. Just wait until I get my hands on
him."

Marcus tried to recover his
breath. "Hey, you snooze, you lose.  It's not Dennis' fault for asking out
a free woman."

"But he knows I like
her!"

"You sure have a funny way
of showing it."

Indignant, Lynn stomped off. 
Marcus went back into his tent, laughing so hard he couldn't breathe. His wife
thought he was having a heart attack.

***

It was another few weeks before
they could make solid plans to move, but when the word was finally given by McGrath,
Kathlyn’s crew swung into action. Jobe stood by, watching his people work,
wondering if this was ultimately a wise move. But Kathlyn was determined and he
knew it was useless to stand in her way. This time, he could promise her a
substantial amount of financial support from the university, at least enough
for a decent study, which was why there had been such a time delay. 

World Geography Magazine still
hadn’t made any attempt to contact Kathlyn in the several weeks since her visit
to their Chicago headquarters; it was obvious that Ballard was being extremely
conservative regarding her work, something that didn’t sit well with Kathlyn. 
They didn’t even know about her abduction. When they had usually been her
strongest supporter, it was strange to realize that with a changing of the
guard had come a changing of attitude.  Kathlyn was disappointed but unworried;
she could always publish her find with a host of other archaeological journals.
If World Geography was going to sit on their ass, then they were going to have
to pay the price.

  Kathlyn was ready roll by late
afternoon. She had checked and rechecked her inventory. Marcus was up in the
tomb, going over the next week’s excavations plans with Gary. As she headed
back to the administrative tent, Debra Jo met her half way. She had the Iridium
cellular phone in her hand.

“Kat,” she said quietly. “It’s
for you.”

Kathlyn removed a glove as she
reached for the phone. “Who is it?”

Debra Jo had known Kathlyn since
high school. She was well aware of the conflicts Kathlyn had with her parents,
which was why she didn’t relish answering her question.

“It’s your mom.”

Kathlyn nearly had the phone to
her ear. She froze, staring at Debra Jo with a shocked expression. Unable to
think of anything else to do other than put the phone against her ear, she
struggled desperately to regain her composure.

“H-hello?”

The voice on the other end of the
line was soft and familiar. “Kathlyn, it’s your mother.”

Kathlyn felt weak. She hadn’t
heard her mother’s voice in so long that it took all of the wind out of her.
“Hello, Mom.  How are you?”

“I’m fine, honey,” her mother
said. “How are you?”

“I’m good,” Kathlyn didn’t know
why she felt so close to tears, but she did. “How’s Daddy?”

Her mother didn’t say anything
for a moment. “Honey, I called Mrs. Maurer a few weeks ago. I asked her to get
a message to you. But when I didn’t hear back from you, I called her again and
asked for your number. I know she’s been in touch with Juliana and I was hoping
to reach you the same way.”

Kathlyn didn’t sense anything out
of the ordinary, only her mother’s desire to hear her voice. “It’s okay, Mom,”
she said softly. “I’m glad you called. I promise I won’t tell Daddy.”

The tone in her mother’s voice
grew strained. “Kathlyn, didn’t you get my message? Mrs. Maurer said that she
told Juliana.”

“Told Juliana what?”

Sallie Trent was at a loss. She
wasn’t sure how to delicately put it and realized there was no easy way.
“Kathlyn, you’re father passed away a few weeks ago. I wanted you to know as….”

Kathlyn didn’t hear any more. She
dropped the phone, screaming, her hands flying to her mouth as if to hold back
the grief that was exploding outward. Debra Jo tried to steady her and pick up
the phone at the same time, telling Mrs. Trent that she would call her back.
Kathlyn was running off. Debra Jo ran after her, tracking her back to the
administrative tent where she found her collapsed against a wall, her face
pressed into the cushion of an old collapsible chair. She was sobbing
hysterically. Debra Jo didn’t know what else to do but to go for Marcus.

He came flying back into the
camp, racing at full speed with Juliana and Lynn on his tail. He found his wife
in a fetal position on the floor.

 “Sweetheart,” he dropped beside
her, trying to pick her up. “I’m here, I’m here.”

She had cried so hard that she
had vomited. It was down the front of her shirt. Juliana just stood there,
tears in her eyes, while Lynn made sure the tent flap was closed from prying
eyes.

“Kat,” Juliana whispered. “I’m
sorry, I’m so sorry. I know that….”

Kathlyn heard her voice and
seemed to snap out of her trance. She flew at Juliana, fists hurling.

“Damn you!” she screamed. “You
knew and you didn’t tell me. Why didn’t you tell me?”

Marcus grabbed her before she
could strike her very best friend. “I asked her not to,” he murmured into her
ear. “With everything you had been through, I wanted to wait until….”

Kathlyn wouldn’t hear him out.
When she realized that Marcus had known, too, and hadn’t told her, she wrenched
herself from his embrace by throwing a fist into his nose. She was all fits and
fire, totally irrational. The wild look in her eye was astonishing.

“You knew,” she hissed. “You knew
and you didn’t tell me. God damn you to hell, Marcus Burton. You had no right
to keep this from me!”

Marcus wiped the trickle of blood
from his nose, gazing at his wife and thinking that all of his fears for her
sanity had been correct; she had leapt over the side of the chasm and was
spiraling downward at an alarming rate. He had to throw out a rope and stop her
or there was no telling what would happen.

“Kathlyn,” he said steadily. “You
had just been through a major traumatic incident. There was so much on your
mind that I wanted to wait until the time was right before breaking this to
you. I’m sorry, sweetheart, I never meant to hurt you, only protect you. You
know that.”

Kathlyn just stood there and
shook her head, tears and snot on her face, vomit on her shirt. She was eerily
pale. “You’re a liar,” she spat. “A goddamn liar. You were going to keep this
from me just like you were going to keep your bastard daughter from me. Weren’t
you?”

The ambiance of the room
plummeted into a cold, dark miasma.  Marcus felt as if he had been hit by a ton
of bricks; the room swayed and he stood there, staring at his wife, never
feeling more stunned. There was no use denying it. How in the hell did she
know?

“That’s not true,” his voice was
shaking. “I love you, Kathlyn. I would never lie to you. And I would never keep
anything from you unless I had a damn good reason.”

“You have no reason for this!”
she shouted, spit flying from her lips. “My father is dead and you weren’t
going to tell me. And what about this daughter you have? What is your reason
for not telling me about that?”

Juliana and Lynn looked at each
other, horrified. Lynn hung his head after a moment, reaching out to take
Juliana by the hand, gently pulling the reluctant woman from the tent. They
didn’t need to be witness to this. Marcus didn’t even realize they had left; at
this point, he didn’t care.

“It happened way back in high
school,” he said softly, feeling like he was pleading with her. “I haven’t even
seen her since she was born. She’s twenty years old and in college and I’ve
never had any contact with her.  Her mother asked that I not.”

Kathlyn just stood there and
stared at him, so much pain in her eyes that it was difficult to comprehend. 
“But you send her money. She must know who her father is.”

Marcus shook his head. “I paid
child support through a trust fund up until two years ago, right before I met
you. She knows who her father is, but as of five years ago, she wanted nothing
to do with me.”

Kathlyn started weeping again,
pitifully. “Why didn’t you ever tell me?”

Tears stung his eyes. Any answer
he could come up with, including the truth, seemed ridiculous. “I started to,
many times, but I just chickened out. I had married the woman of my dreams, had
two beautiful sons, and I didn’t want to mess anything up.  It was such a big
thing when it happened and my parents were incredibly disappointed in me. She
had a college scholarship and this great future, and then I came along and
ruined it for her. The shame I felt at the time was incredible because the
entire town shunned me. I guess… I guess I still live with that guilt. I
suppose I didn’t want you to think any less of me, either.”

Kathlyn let out a loud grunt of
frustration, grabbing the thing nearest her, which happened to be chair, and
banged it around until a leg fell off and it toppled over.

 “That’s crazy, Marcus,” she
sobbed. “It would have been no big deal to me, don’t you know that? Or didn’t
you trust me enough to tell me?”

Marcus found himself blinking
back tears. “I trust you with my life, Kathlyn. And I love you more deeply than
any man has ever loved a woman. What I feel for you goes beyond words and
emotions. You are literally my life and without you I am nothing.”

“Then you should have told me,”
she didn’t bother to wipe the rivers of tears on her face.

“I know. I’m so sorry,
sweetheart. Please forgive me, I was goddamn stupid.”

“What else have you kept from
me?”

“Nothing, I swear to God.”

She just turned away from him. 
It was like plunging a red-hot knife into his belly. He wanted so badly to hold
her but dare not touch her.

“Oh, God,” she gasped. “You and…
and Daddy is dead. Oh, God… I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

Marcus had tears running down his
face. “Just let me hold you. We’ll get through this together, I promise.
Just... don't shut me out, Kathlyn.”

She was quickly approaching all
out hysteria. Her emotions were swinging wildly out of control and there was no
way to stop them. With a couple of heaving gasps, she vomited again and
promptly passed out.  Marcus caught her before she hit the ground.

CHAPTER
TWELVE

"I had to give her something
to calm her down," the young Egyptian doctor had a Boston accent.
"She needs a lot of rest and she's just not going to get it unless she
relaxes."

Marcus stood in the stark white
hallway of the small hospital in Luxor, an exclusive infirmary that charged a
lot of money for private care. He and McGrath had brought Kathlyn to the place
after she had collapsed. Unwilling to sit back and wait for news, Juliana, Lynn
and Mark accompanied them. They made an anxious group.

"Can I see her?" Marcus
was pale.

The doctor shook his head.
"Not right now. I need to ask you a few questions." He eyed Marcus,
trying to find the right words. "Dr. Burton, we really didn't have much
chance to talk when you brought her in. Do you mind telling me what has her so
upset?"

Marcus took a long, deep breath.
"It's kind of hard to explain, but one of the reasons is that she just
found out her father passed away. She was estranged from him and his death
really flipped her out."