The Lost Chalice (The Relic Seekers Book 3) (25 page)

When she came back, he was sitting on the side of the bed waiting for her. His eyes were warm, full of promises and threats. Life with Jake would never be the same as before. It would be passionate, furious, demanding, but she wasn’t sure she could live without him. Maybe she was in love. He stood and turned back the covers for her, and didn’t try to touch her as she got in. He shut off the light, stripped off his pants, and climbed in beside her. She wasn’t sure if she was glad that he’d left on his underwear, but it was nice that he showed her that consideration when she knew he preferred sleeping naked. He gathered her into his arms and pulled her tight against his chest.

“I missed you,” he whispered, his breath warm at her ear.

She closed her eyes. “I missed you too.”

They fell asleep wrapped in each other’s arms. In the middle of the night she awoke to an empty bed and found Jake standing at the window looking out over the yard. “What’s wrong?”

He turned, his body shadowed in the moonlight. “I heard something.”

Kendall sat up. “Maybe the burglar is back.”

“It’s OK. It was just a fox.” He walked back to bed and settled in next to her. His legs were intertwined with hers as he ran a finger down her nose and over her lips. “Are you sleepy?”

“Not anymore.”

“Me neither.” He shifted so that he was partially over her. “If you don’t want this, say no.” He kissed her softly once, and then leaned back to look at her face. He waited a few seconds and lowered his head again. He kissed her a little harder this time, and she buried her hand in his hair. They made love slowly, breath catching softly, bodies trembling in silence, and when they finished, she fell asleep to the sound of his heartbeat under her ear.

Morning came too soon. Nathan had just fallen asleep when sunlight filled his room. He tormented himself for a moment, thinking about Kendall and Jake across the hall. Then with a frustrated mutter, he dressed and started downstairs. The door opened and Jake stepped out. He had on jeans and no shirt. His hair was mussed, and his eyes sleepy. Through the crack in the door, Nathan saw Kendall in bed, still asleep. Her hair was draped over her naked shoulder, and he wondered if she was wearing anything. Bloody hell. “We need to get moving soon. We have a lot to do.”

“You look like hell,” Jake said.

“I feel like hell. I’ll meet you downstairs.” He walked toward the stairs but stopped at Jake’s call. Nathan turned and looked back. “What?”

Jake looked like he wanted to say something, but then he shook his head. “Nothing.”

The regret in Jake’s eyes didn’t help. Nathan didn’t see anyone around, so he walked outside. The sun was shining, promising a nice day, but it couldn’t banish the memory of the soft sounds he’d heard from Kendall and Jake’s room in the middle of the night. What the hell was wrong with him?

He hopped the fence behind the house and walked to the adjoining farm. He started jogging along the field, just to put some distance between him and his torment. It didn’t work, so he ran faster. He didn’t realize how fast he was moving until he sped past a herd of cows that didn’t even see him.

He stopped, heart pounding with exertion. The smell of cow shit helped erase the thought of Kendall and Jake naked in bed. He went back to the house, but they still weren’t downstairs. A morning quickie? He poured a glass of orange juice and looked out the window. Aunt Edna was in the front yard, her arms flapping up and down. Another woman was there, and from the raised voices and wild gestures, they appeared to be arguing.

Nathan walked outside. The other woman looked about the same age as Aunt Edna, but her hair was auburn, and she was dressed quite elegantly for so early in the morning.

“I assure you it wasn’t one of my guests,” Aunt Edna was saying. “You need to check your own guests.”

The woman clicked her red nails against her dress. “Edna, you know you opened this bed-and-breakfast to get back at me.”

“I did no such thing,” Aunt Edna said. “I needed cruise money.”

“Well, you tell your guests to stay off my property.” The woman walked stiffly back across the street.

“Well, I never,” Aunt Edna said, huffing up to the porch.

“Trouble?” Nathan asked.

“The trouble is with that woman. She’s a pain in my . . . backside.”

“What’s she accusing you of?”

“She thinks one of my guests was trespassing last night.”

Jake? Nathan couldn’t imagine him leaving the comfort of a big cozy bed with Kendall in it to go wandering in the neighbor’s yard. “What time?”

“After midnight, she said. She’s a madwoman.”

They stepped inside, Aunt Edna still fuming, and met Kendall and Jake coming downstairs. “Did you sleep well?” Aunt Edna asked.

Kendall looked guilty. “Yes.”

“Very good,” Jake said, and even he looked a little guilty.

“Kendall, you can help me finish up breakfast.”

“We’ll take a look around outside,” Jake said.

Kendall looked worried, and Nathan wondered what Jake was up to. They walked outside as Aunt Edna chattered on about breakfast being the most important meal of the day. Nathan followed Jake out of morbid curiosity, wondering if Jake was going to tell him to get the hell out of their lives.

“I’m sorry,” Jake said.

That caught him off guard. “For?”

“You know what for. You’re in love with her. I’m in love with her. I’m sorry for you, but we can’t keep having this pissing match, or someone’s going to get killed.”

And it could be her. “You could leave,” Nathan said.

“So could you, but I know you’re not, and I know I’m sure as hell not.”

“Even though you’re the Reaper’s son?”

“Neither one of us is exactly a catch,” Jake said. “Even with all your billions of dollars, you’ve got some serious baggage.”

“You don’t?”

“Never said I didn’t. But neither one of us is leaving, we both know that.”

Nathan gave a raw laugh. “What are you suggesting, a fight to the death?”

Jake didn’t laugh, but his eyes lit. “And let you do your Hulk thing and break all my bones? I’m smarter than that. I’m not asking you to leave, but don’t make her feel guilty for choosing me.”

“You’re sure she’s chosen you?”

A flash of uncertainty troubled Jake’s eyes. “She slept with me, not you.”

Bastard. “That’s low.”

“It wasn’t the first time, and it won’t be the last.”

“I haven’t really tried to stop you,” Nathan said. Other than a few kisses and insults.

Jake’s eyes narrowed. “You saying you’re going to try?”

“I didn’t get where I am by giving up.”

“Is that a challenge?” Jake asked.

“No, I’m saying we should both leave her alone. She doesn’t need this right now. None of us do. You’ve just found out you’re the Reaper’s son. I’ve found out I’m a dead kid named Adam. Hell, we probably all need therapy. We need to give Kendall some space to process everything.”

“What if she doesn’t want space?”

Nathan sighed. “We’ll figure it out then. But we need to back off.”

Jake frowned and looked irritated, but he rubbed his head. “So it’s hands off for both of us?”

Nathan put out his hand. “Deal?”

Jake grunted, but stuck out his hand. “Deal. How about we try the other guest’s room? We can shimmy up that balcony and get in.”

Kendall was only half listening to Aunt Edna as they finished making breakfast. She kept looking out the window at Nathan and Jake, who appeared to be arguing, and then they shook hands. What the heck? Aunt Edna, whose distance vision wasn’t so good, smiled as she watched them. “They’re both handsome devils,” she said. “I’ll give you that. Of course your boss has all that money. You said he keeps a low profile, but he won’t mind a little socializing, will he?”

Kendall felt a ball of apprehension forming in her stomach. She hadn’t spent much time with Aunt Edna in recent years, but it had always been her aunt’s goal to get Kendall married. Now that Jake had dropped his marriage bomb, Kendall worried what Aunt Edna might do. She would probably show up with the entire town in tow to celebrate. “What kind of socializing?”

“Oh, just a little get-together,” Aunt Edna said. “I have a few friends who’ve been dying to see you.”

Aunt Edna’s little get-togethers could mean three or thirty. “Nathan’s a very private man, and I’m not sure I’m up to company. I’ve been kind of stressed—”

“Oh, this is just what you need then. It’ll take your mind off your worries. And Nathan will enjoy this. It’s not like those big city parties.”

Kendall looked out the window, which was offset from the main part of the house, and her eyes popped. Jake was standing on top of Nathan’s shoulders on the balcony outside one of the bedrooms. Jake was doing something to the window, but it didn’t seem to be working. Nathan was staggering, trying to steady him as he pushed. They were frighteningly close to the edge of the balcony. It wasn’t terribly high, but one wrong move—there it was. The window Jake had been working on suddenly gave way and he toppled over. Nathan grabbed for him and they both dropped over the edge. Kendall ran toward the door.

“Are you all right, Kendall?”

“I just remembered something I forgot to do.”

“If you happen to see the men, tell them to come eat.”

She knew exactly where they were. Lying in the hedge after an unsuccessful attempt at breaking in. Hopefully not injured.

She heard them fussing before she rounded the corner. They were both climbing out of the overgrown boxwoods, one of which had a section broken out of the middle. “Are you OK?” she asked.

Nathan brushed a piece of greenery from his hair. “How did you manage to get behind enemy lines when you can’t even get inside a window on a balcony?”

“You were supposed to stand still.”

“How could I stand still with you dancing around on my shoulders?”

“What were you trying to do?” Kendall asked.

“We wanted to try to see who the other guest is,” Nathan said.

“You’re lucky you didn’t break something.” Kendall looked them over to see if they were injured. Other than a few pieces of boxwood stuck in their hair and clothing, they appeared OK.

“We’ll have to try again later,” Jake said.

“Come on, breakfast is ready. Aunt Edna will fuss if we’re late.”

They put aside their worries for the moment and tucked into a big country breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, and biscuits and gravy.

“You won’t get a breakfast like this over at Doris’s. She serves fruit and yogurt and granola. Have you seen how many calories are in granola? I might as well have a Snickers bar.”

“You and Doris are still at it?” Kendall asked. Just like Aunt Edna and old man Wilson.

“That woman is a nuisance to this community.”

Kendall hid a smile. “What are you fighting about now?”

“She had the nerve to accuse one of my guests of trespassing on her property.”

“Maybe someone got lost,” Jake said, his tone sounding a little guilty as he bent over his biscuits and gravy.

Kendall changed the subject and asked Aunt Edna about the man staying in the room next to Kendall’s.

“Why, is he being noisy? I did think I heard some knocking around in the middle of the night.”

Kendall blushed, knowing what her aunt had heard, and avoided both Nathan’s and Jake’s eyes.

“I could speak with him, if you like,” Aunt Edna said, offering Jake more eggs.

“No,” Kendall said. “I was just curious. I thought I saw him.”

“I don’t know much about him, other than he comes from somewhere in the Midwest, and his parents are dead.”

Kendall met Jake’s and Nathan’s troubled gazes. Aunt Edna’s description matched Thomas.

After breakfast, Aunt Edna refused to allow them to help. “You go on and look around for the suitcase. Lord knows where it could be in all this mess I have. I’ll take care of cleaning up.”

They went to Nathan’s room, where Kendall’s father had slept when they visited. Even after he’d died, Kendall had always thought of this as his room. There was a picture of him on a bookshelf. He was holding up an urn he’d found, his face dusty and beaming. Kendall picked it up and her eyes misted. She knew from sharing Nathan’s memory of the crash that even though her father had been dying, he had managed to save Adam first. She touched the glass.
Thank you, Daddy
.

“I’m going to settle this,” Nathan was saying.

“How? Camp out in his room?” Jake asked.

“I’m going to exhume Thomas’s body and make sure he’s dead.”

“You can’t do that,” Kendall said, aghast. “It’s illegal.”

“I don’t care. We need to know if this guy could be Thomas.” He called and spoke to Hank. It was clear from Nathan’s expression that Hank had his own objections to the request. “Do it,” Nathan said. “I’ll take responsibility.”

“Brandi will kill you,” Kendall said.

“She already wants to kill him,” Jake said, but there was admiration in his eyes. “Good move. I’ll check out Thomas’s room again and see if he slipped in last night.”

“Kendall and I can start searching for the chalice,” Nathan said.

Jake started to protest, and then he shrugged. “Keep an eye on her.”

“Just remember,” she said, “I could put either one of you on your ass.”

Both men smiled, and Kendall would have sold her soul to have them all live in peace. Maybe it would be better if they were all just friends, and forgot about attraction and romance.

Kendall and Nathan started in the attic. That’s where Aunt Edna kept most of the family junk. They went through boxes of old things but didn’t find the suitcase or its contents. Nathan was in a quiet mood. She felt kind of awkward being with him alone after spending the night with Jake.

She opened a box and saw the arrowheads she and her father had collected when she was so young she could barely walk. Her first foray into archaeology. She touched the notched edges, remembering his smile. What she wouldn’t give to have him here. She covered a yawn and moved on to the next box.

“Didn’t get enough sleep?” Nathan’s voice was stiff, his message clear.

“Nathan . . .” She didn’t know what to say.

He faced her, his eyes dark. “Are you sure about what you’re doing? Or is this some kind of thrill ride? Women are always attracted to tough guys.”