The Mark of Cain (39 page)

Tracker was serious when he looked into her eyes,
his gaze unfaltering. “Don’t be so sure, Hara. You have no idea what he’s done
in his life.”

“And
you
have no idea what he’s already told
me!” She was getting defensive and angry. She hadn’t invited Tracker in just so
he could rail on Inac.

“I’m sorry,” he said, looking back down at his hand
in hers. “I guess I’m just protective of you. I want you to know what you’re
getting yourself into.”

“I do know. Or, at least, I
will
. He promised
to tell me everything before we set a date for the wedding.” Tracker looked sad
again. Hoping to brighten his mood, she dropped all negativity to add, “I’m
going to ask Father Carroll if I can get married in the chapel back home.”

“You haven’t told him yet, have you?” Tracker asked
quickly, looking back up at her. Something about her statement had him
panicked, though she didn’t see what about it could make him so.

“No….”

“And he doesn’t know about Inac?”

“No….”

He relaxed with relief. “Good.”

“Why’s that good?”

“I can’t tell you why. Just don’t tell him about
Inac. If he knew….”

“If he knew
what
…?”

“I can’t…” he said, shaking his head. He looked so
young just now….

“Tracker,” she said in her best stern mother impersonation.
Or, at least, stern nun….

“Let’s just say that he’s the one who told me about
Inac.”

Man.
Everyone
seemed to be part of some big
secret. At least everyone but
her
…and, quite frankly, she was getting
really tired of it.

“But he never left the orphanage. How could
he
spy on the Mokolios?”

“He doesn’t. He’s just a part of something bigger.
And this group lost track of Inac a few months ago. If They knew….”

“Then what?” As panic surged through her, she asked,
“They wouldn’t hurt him, would they?!” She couldn’t lose Inac now that she’d
found him.

Tracker snorted. What about that could he possibly
find funny? “No. But let’s just say that They wouldn’t really approve of the
wedding.”

“But why not? The Mokolios are good now! They
stopped World War II. Did you know that?”

“Yeah. But I also know that it was them who put it
into Hitler’s mind to do what he did in the first place.”

“Still, it wasn’t
Inac
who did those things.”

Tracker rolled his eyes. But whatever it was that
made him do that, he didn’t say. Instead, he said, “Yeah, well, look how some
Germans still hate Jews and vice versa. Sometimes people inherit feuds they’re
not a part of.”

She shut up. That she couldn’t deny. So many people
hated because of what had been done to their ancestors.

“I guess you’re right. So what should I do?”

“I don’t know. I say talk to Inac about it first.”

She nodded before going into her own little world.
Was there anybody in her life who wasn’t a part of a secret
something
?
It was beginning to seem like she was the only honest person around.

A hand on her knee brought her out of her thoughts
so she looked up at Tracker, who now had only concern on his face.

“Thanks for being honest with me, Track.”

He smiled. “I’ve always wanted to be. I guess I’ve
just always worried that you’d freak out and reject me.”

She put a hand up to cup his cheek. “I love you,
Track. I’d never reject you being honest with me.”

He had tears in his eyes again so she pulled him
into her arms, letting him weep into her shoulder. She didn’t understand what
he was sad about, but at least she could help him spill his tears until he felt
like he could be
completely
honest. Why was it that the men in her life
both harbored so many secrets?

When he seemed done with the tears she pulled away.
She then wiped away the trails of water along one cheek and then the other.
When he responded with a tired smile, she leaned forward to kiss his forehead.

It was times like this—when she took care of
him—that she felt more like his mother than his sister. At the orphanage they’d
always called her “The Little Mother.” They had told her stories of her at
three years old taking care of the sick nuns and older children.

When she pulled back, Tracker moved in and kissed
her
on the forehead, his hands cradling her cheeks. She closed her eyes, letting
the comfort of his warm hands and mouth relax her. She was glad they were still
friends. When he pulled away, he left his hands there, lightly rubbing one
cheek with his thumb. She opened her eyes to smile at him.

That’s when her heart started pounding. Tracker was
looking at her in the same way that Inac did. She was frozen. How could she
keep this from going where she thought Tracker was going to take it? His face
loomed closer and she still couldn’t move. It wasn’t until she felt his lips on
hers that she was free.

She turned her face away, saying maybe a little too
shrilly, “What are you
doing
?!”

He jumped back, like she had electrocuted him.

“I…you said you’d never reject me….” He looked like
he was going to cry again.

A pang of remorse for how she had overreacted to his
kiss stabbed through her. In an attempt to backpedal so that he would stop
looking at her that way, she said, “Sorry. It just took me by surprise. And I’m
not rejecting you. I just don’t think about you in a romantic way.”

“How’s that not rejecting?” he scoffed.

“Well…what we have is
better
in some ways.”

His respondent laugh sounded border-line crazy. She
had obviously said the wrong thing.

“That’s how it’ll always be then, Hara. You’re always
too nice…too
polite
. Just tell me straight up how I’m not as
good-looking as Inac. How I’m not as smart or funny or chivalrous….”

Something in Tracker had definitely snapped.

“Well you know what?!” he cried like a banshee as he
stood up. “I’m not as crazy either! Do you know how many people he’s killed? In
his own words, more than are even alive on Earth right now! And he doesn’t
really love you, Hara. He just wants to sleep with you. He told me about how
you let him feel you up with me right there when we went camping. He says that
you’re like a peach ripe for the picking!”

She was about to slap him, to stop his rambling, but
how could he know about that morning if Inac hadn’t told him?

“Shut up!” she screamed when she realized that he’d
have to have learned about it the way he’d said.

“And you know what else? He’s going to kill you
next. That’s been his plan all along!”

“I said
shut up
!” she shrieked at a decibel
that could shatter glass, using it to propel her until she was standing up,
ready to face him herself.

“And you’re just walking right into it! I used to
think that you were innocent, but you’re not! You’re giving into him willingly!
Maybe Crystal’s rubbing off on you because you’re a
slut,
just like
her!”

Hara slapped him so hard that he lost his balance
and fell to the floor. His words were just too close to the ones she told
herself…about the S-L-U-T part, at least. The rest…she’d thought the rest
wasn’t true until now. She couldn’t believe Inac was bragging about her as a
conquest….

They both had tears in their eyes again.

“Get out of here, Tracker,” she seethed through
clenched teeth. “I don’t ever want to see you again.”

“Fine with me. Have fun dying,” he said before
leaving, slamming the door behind him.

With that final sound she fell, sobbing, to her
knees.

***

“Sir, you have a visitor,” the rotund doorman Ollie
said as soon as Inac walked into the immaculate white marble lobby, a gunny
sack over one shoulder.

“Who?” he replied as he turned to see Tracker
eagerly striding toward him. One side of his face had a red handprint on it,
but that wasn’t what Inac noticed the most. What he noticed more than anything
was the horror and desperation in the kid’s eyes. He’d obviously done something
idiotic…again….

“Inac! I need some of that drug you gave Hara before
to make her forget!” Tracker shouted.

Inac glanced around the lobby full of haughty people
staring back in fear and shock.

“Please?” Tracker continued, still only halfway
through the lobby. “And don’t pretend like you have qualms about it because we
both know that you just got back from assassinating the Israeli Prime Minister
and then pinning it on the Palestinians so you can get whatever it is you’re
after there.”

If there weren’t so many witnesses, Inac would break
the kid’s neck before he spilled everything.

Inac reached out to Tracker, violently grabbing him
by the scruff of said neck and pushing him toward the elevator. “Come on. Let’s
go upstairs and talk,” he hissed.

Despite his grip, Tracker eagerly nodded until Inac
let go of him.

“Why don’t I meet you by the elevator?” Inac
suggested.

Once Tracker was walking away, Inac said in a loud
enough voice to carry to the witnesses, “Sorry. He’s schizophrenic and
obviously off his medication. But what can I do? He’s my fiancée’s brother.”

Ollie was obviously convinced, as were most of the
spectators. Only a couple of them didn’t look as though they were, and those
were the ones who had been in the perfect position to have seen the murderous
thoughts behind his eyes. He should have acted surprised and disgusted at being
accused of murder instead of worried about what people would think.

“Would you like me to call someone, sir?” Ollie
asked.

“No thanks. I have some of his medication upstairs.”

“Very good, sir.”

As soon as they were inside Inac’s house, he dropped
his gunny sack and turned on Tracker, grabbing him by the arm and pulling it
behind him just like he had in Yellowstone.

“Just what the
hell
do you think you’re
doing? Do you
want
to die? If so, you don’t have to go about it that way.
I will kill you if you only ask.”

He eased up on Tracker’s arm just enough so the kid
would be able to speak through his pain.

“I just need that drug!”

“Why?”

“Because Hara needs to forget!”

“Forget what? What did you tell her?” he hissed,
pushing on Tracker’s arm until he cried out in pain. Getting information out of
this kid was like pulling teeth. And if that’s what he had to do, then he would
do it.

“I kissed her!” Tracker screamed.

Inac let go to look Tracker over. No wonder the kid
was freaking. He’d finally gotten the guts to kiss the woman he loved and she’d
obviously reacted badly.

“That’s no excuse to blow my cover. What am I
supposed to do about that? I’ll probably have the authorities checking me out
now.”

“So? You own them.”

“Not all of them. Some might talk.”

“We’ll deal with that later,” Tracker said. He
walked past Inac and to the stainless steel cabinets in the kitchen and flung
them open as though his salvation was just beyond one of them. “Right now I
need the drug.”

From behind the kid, he said, “No. I’m not giving it
to you.”

Tracker turned, betrayal in his eyes along with all
the other things the kid was feeling.

“Why not? I thought we were friends?”

Inac laughed. “And what gave you that preposterous
idea?”

“Yellowstone. We had that good talk….”

“That doesn’t make us friends. Besides, I’m not
giving it to you because we can’t just keep erasing Hara’s memory every time
you do something stupid. Once people start losing too much time, they get
suspicious.”

“But…I
kissed
her. I can’t have her
remembering that!”

Inac shrugged and began lugging his gunny sack
toward his bedroom. “Not my problem. You should have thought about that
before
you kissed her.”

“Please?!” Tracker sobbed.

His desperation made Inac pause to turn to him and
ask, “And what am I supposed to tell her caused her memory loss?”

“I don’t know.”

“Then no. Now, if you don’t mind, I have some
unpacking to do. You can leave how you entered.” He turned his back on Tracker,
showing him that he had been dismissed.

“That’s not all,” Tracker whispered from behind him.
And not a normal whisper either. The kid was afraid of something.

Inac turned, his eyes full of murder again. “What
did you tell her?”

Tracker had been on the verge of tears, but it was
now that they chose to flow. Tracker was scared; scared for his life.