“I’m worried.” His gaze went to the baleful glare lighting the mountains in the distance. “And a little regretful…”
“Regrets? That’s not like you. About the explosion?” She was frowning, puzzled as she ran down the twisting path ahead of them. “I suppose those guards didn’t actually hurt Lisa.”
“But they didn’t help her, either,” he said coldly. “No regrets there. I just wish I’d been able to set it up so that Santara had been caught in the blast. It would have been more efficient than having to go after him later.”
“You don’t do that,” Lisa said sharply. “Do you hear me, Seth. You don’t do it.”
“Hush…” His gaze was lifted toward the top of the cliff. “I thought I heard something.” He increased his pace and was close behind Jane when she untied the boat and started the engine. He set Lisa down on one of the rear seats and pushed the boat off the beach. Then he jumped in the boat beside Lisa. “Gun it, Jane.”
Jane pressed the accelerator and the speedboat leaped forward with magnum force.
And a bullet exploded on the teak console next to her!
She could hear Caleb cursing behind her. She glanced up at the top of the cliff as she started zigzagging over the water. A tall figure was silhouetted in the moonlight and he was aiming an automatic rifle.
Santara? She couldn’t tell for certain in the darkness, though he looked as if he fit the description of the man in the photo Caleb had shown her. She shouted back at Caleb, “Is it Santara?”
“That’s my bet.”
Another bullet seared by her ear and ricocheted off the windshield!
It didn’t matter who he was; that shot had been too close. He was very, very good. Even in the darkness he knew his target and was accounting for all the evading maneuvers she was making.
And, as the one driving the speedboat, Jane was the target.
“Move over.” Caleb had slid over the top of the seat from the rear and was pushing her down on the floor. “Keep down and let me—”
Another bullet hit the console!
“You can’t do anything more than I was doing,” Jane said fiercely. “Keep zigzagging and keep down yourself. Or let me do it and just stop him from shooting. I’m sure you’re better with guns than I am.”
“I don’t like guns.”
“Oh, shit.”
“I didn’t say I didn’t know how to use them.” He had his gun out. “Grab the wheel. Give me a minute.” He turned and carefully aimed at the figure on the cliff. “But this gun won’t have near the range of that automatic rifle he’s using. The shot would have to be just right to take him down. And he knows it. Arrogant bastard. He thinks he’s in control. Let’s show him he needs to reassess.…”
He took the shot.
Santara fell to the ground.
“Yes!”
But Santara was rolling over, aiming, and the next moment another bullet tore through the windshield only inches from Caleb’s head.
“Seth!” Lisa was suddenly on her feet and launching herself at Caleb from behind, trying to cover him with her body. Her face was white, her eyes frantic. “No!”
“Get down, Lisa.” Jane reached back and tried to jerk her away from Caleb. “For God’s sake, get away from—”
Another shot.
Lisa jerked. She gasped, her back arching. Then she collapsed and fell forward against Caleb.
Dear God.
Jane could see the blood seeping from the wound in Lisa’s upper back, staining her white peasant blouse. Her eyes closed.… Limp, so terribly limp.
Another shot. Close, again.
“Take care of her,” Caleb said hoarsely. He pushed Lisa gently toward Jane. “I’ve got to get us out of here.” He aimed once more. “But first I have to make sure the son of a bitch stays down.”
Jane was already crawling into the rear seat and cradling Lisa in her arms. Blood. And still. So still.
Caleb fired several times in succession and then lowered the gun. “I saw him jerk once. I might not have killed him, but he won’t be getting up anytime soon.” He turned back and started zigzagging once more over the water. He was looking straight ahead, his face even paler than Lisa’s. “Was I too late, Jane?” he asked jerkily. “Did he kill her? Is she dead?”
“I don’t know.” But she was terribly afraid.… Her fingers were probing the pulse point in Lisa’s throat.
Nothing.
She frantically pressed harder.
Her own heart skipped a beat. “I think I feel something. I think she’s alive, Caleb.”
“Then keep her that way.” Caleb said, his eyes on the island just ahead. “Just keep her alive until I can stop and get to her.”
And how am I supposed to do that? Jane wondered desperately.
Try to stop the blood.
It looked as if the bullet had entered from the back and gone straight through. Close to the shoulder. She could only pray it hadn’t struck anything vital. She took off her blouse and tore it into strips and tried to bind the wound. Then she applied pressure, but it only lessened the bleeding, not stopped it. What am I doing? she thought in frustration. This was Caleb’s area of expertise. “She’s bleeding. I’m putting pressure, but it’s not doing much good. Do something.”
“I can’t do much right now. Maybe I can lessen it, but I can’t heal it. And I can’t sense what’s happening inside her while I’m driving the damn boat. Give me another few minutes. Keep the pressure steady.”
Give him another few minutes? She wasn’t the being who could dispense either time or mercy. All she could do was pray and keep up the damn pressure. Lisa was young and vital and had everything to live for and she had tried to give her own life for Caleb’s. Surely that would count in her favor?
Keep the pressure steady.
But whatever Caleb was doing must be working, because the bleeding seemed to be lessening.
Relief rushed through her. She didn’t know what else was happening with Lisa, but she’d take any good sign she could get. “The bleeding isn’t as heavy.”
“No, but that may not be enough.” Caleb was pulling into the dock at Zakyos Island. He jumped out of the boat and took Lisa from Jane and laid her gently on the beach. Then he was kneeling beside her, holding both her hands, his thumbs on the pulse points of her wrists.
Jane got out of the boat and dropped to her knees beside them. She didn’t speak. Caleb’s expression was intense, and whatever he was doing, she didn’t want to risk disturbing that concentration. She had no idea of the intricacies of how he adjusted blood flow and kept damaged arteries and veins from interrupting vital life-force functions, but she had been present before when he had done it.
But, dammit, Lisa was so still.…
“O … kay?” It was only a breath of sound. Lisa’s eyes were open, Jane realized thankfully. She was looking up at Caleb and that word had definitely come from her.
“Hush,” Caleb said. His hands tightened on her wrists. “I’m trying to repair some of this damage you did to yourself. Now be quiet and let me work.”
“You’re … okay?” she repeated.
“Why shouldn’t I be okay? You saw fit to take that bullet for me. Now relax and let me see what you’ve done. I don’t suppose it occurred to you that you could have been killed?”
“No…” Her eyes were closing. “Didn’t … think. But you wouldn’t … let anything bad … happen to me.…” She was unconscious again.
He knelt there, looking down at her. Then he reached out and gently touched her cheek with his forefinger. “No, I’ll never let anything bad happen to you. Never again.”
Jane could feel her eyes sting as she gazed at the two of them. She wasn’t certain what she was seeing, but it was both moving and bewildering. “How is she?”
“Not good.” He turned to her. “But it’s mostly blood issues, thank God. She’s going to need surgery, but I don’t detect any serious damage to her lungs or heart.”
“You’re sure?”
r /> “Could I be mistaken? Yes. But the blood is everywhere in the body and I know how it behaves around any injury.” His gaze went to San Leandro, which was still aflame. “Santara may have been able to call for reinforcements and might have that helicopter on top of us at any minute. We’ve got to get Lisa out of here.”
“Should we move her again?”
“Yes. No choice.” He picked her up in his arms and was carrying her down the beach.
“Wait.” Jane was running after him. “Where are you going? We’re not taking the speedboat?”
“Not that one.” He’d stopped by an orange-and-beige speedboat down the line. “I told you I’d hired some help from a couple of the islanders. I traded our speedboat for this one and a small service from Pieros Naxon, one of the fishermen who was hanging around the beach admiring it.”
“What service?”
“When they see activity on San Leandro and any boats heading in this direction, they just jump in our blue-and-white beauty and lead them a merry chase.”
“A distraction.”
He nodded. “And they know these waters so well that they’ll be able to lose them with no trouble and give us the time we need to get back to Athens. I’ll call him once we’ve started.” He nodded at the wheel. “You drive. I have to be in back to work on Lisa.”
She nodded and jumped into the driver’s seat. “Right. Do we take her to a hospital?”
“Not here. I’ll call and have a doctor meet us at the plane in Athens with X-ray and other equipment and fly with us to Glasgow. I know those doctors at that university hospital from the time when I worked with them to remove the poison from Eve’s bloodstream. I have a better chance of being in control.”
“Not that you wouldn’t be anyway.” She watched him settle carefully with Lisa in his arms and then started the speedboat. “It would just be more difficult for you.”
“If you’ll notice, I haven’t had any real degree of control since all this started.” He was looking down at Lisa, his thumbs once more on her wrists. He whispered, “Yes, that’s definitely going to change.…”
SOUTH GLASGOW UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL
GLASGOW, SCOTLAND
“Stay here,” Caleb said over his shoulder to Jane as he hurried down the hall, following Lisa’s stretcher toward the emergency room. “I’ll be out and give you details as soon as I can. I think we’re okay. The X-rays the doctor took on the plane didn’t show too much damage.”
Then he was gone.
Jane stood there in the hall, looking after him. It had been a breathless, frantic journey from Athens to Glasgow and Lisa had only stirred one time when the doctor’s assistant had positioned her for the X-rays once they were in flight.
She had opened her eyes, frowned at the doctor, and then looked up at Jane. “Don’t … like this. Can’t you … stop them?”
“I could, but I won’t.” She’d taken Lisa’s hand. “Because we have to know how to get you well.” She’d smiled. “And you’re probably thinking, If you can’t give me what I want, then what good are you, Jane MacGuire?”
“No…” Lisa’s eyes had begun closing again. “I … know … what good you are.…” Her hand had tightened on Jane’s. “Stay.…”
“You couldn’t pry me away.”
Jane hadn’t known if Lisa heard her or if she was unconscious again. It didn’t matter; she’d made a promise. She’d sat down on the floor beside Lisa’s stretcher and held her hand throughout the flight.
Now that Caleb had whisked her away from Jane down that corridor, she was feeling strangely empty and without purpose.
Foolishness. Lisa was in the best possible hands and Jane’s role had been played and was over. Caleb would see that she was no longer needed, and Lisa had appeared to be more annoyed with their interaction than pleased. It was probably healthy that she was free to walk away now.
Not now, but soon. Not until she was sure her responsibility for Lisa was completely over.
After all, she’d been chosen.
She smiled as she remembered Eve’s words that night on the porch, which seemed so long ago now. The opportunity to make things brighter, to help them go right, instead of wrong. It had been a very close call, and she was still uncertain what the outcome would be. The fact that Lisa was in that ER was a testament to that narrow escape.
Did I do okay, Eve?
She’d have to call her and ask her—as soon as Caleb came out and gave her a definitive answer.
She dropped down on the bench and leaned back against the wall, waiting for him to come out of the ER.
* * *
“I just called Jock and told him to come pick you up and take you back to the camp,” Caleb said as he strode back toward her over an hour later. “He should be here within the hour.” He held up his hand as she opened her mouth to speak. “Lisa is going to be fine. They’re keeping her a couple days longer for observation, but then she’ll be released.”
“What are they going to observe?” Jane asked as she got to her feet. “She was shot, for God’s sake.”
“The arterial damage.” He shrugged. “Everything else is fairly clean. But they’re always doubting Thomases when it comes to repairing veins and arteries in a patient whose status is critical.”
“But not so critical that you can’t help her?”
“Two days,” he said. “And I’d need those two days anyway.”
Her gaze narrowed on his face. “Why?”
“I think you know.”
“Tell me.”
“Let’s just say I have to rebuild more than those arteries.” His lips twisted. “It’s been five years.”
“From the expression on her face when she saw you, it could have been yesterday for her. She loves you.”
“Then she has to learn not to love me quite so much. I don’t want her ever to be put in that position again.”
“I don’t believe you’re going to be able to convince her,” Jane said. “If a five-year desertion didn’t do it, it’s not going to happen. She’s very stubborn.”
“I’ll find a way.”
“You usually do.” She looked down the hall. “May I see her before I leave?”
He shook his head. “The next twenty-four hours are all mine. But she said she wanted to see you before they wheeled her out of the ER. I’ll call you day after tomorrow and you can come.”
“She wanted to see me?” Jane shook her head. “She’s a constant surprise. I thought once she had you again, I’d be history.”
“Because she’s difficult and self-centered and sometimes completely rude?” He smiled. “That’s another thing I have to take up with her. But it’s hard to do, when all of this was about her trying to give her life to save mine. Just accept that you’ll have to put up with a good deal from both of us if you’re going to permit us to hang around.”
“I haven’t noticed the concept of permission being brought up very often with either of you,” she said drily.
“I’ll have her work on it.”
She raised her brows.
“Too late for me.” He shrugged. “Too late for most things. She’s young enough to be molded. My molding took place when I was very young, and most of it was negative.”
She wondered what form that molding had taken. She wanted to ask him, but she knew he wouldn’t answer. “I want you to call me and tell me how Lisa is doing.” She paused. “And I’ve been worrying about Santara. From what you said about him, I wouldn’t think this would be the end. We still don’t know what was behind his taking Lisa.”
“No, but I’ll find out,” he said grimly. “Stop worrying. On the way here, I phoned Palik, one of the agents I use, and told him to get to San Leandro and keep an eye on Santara and the situation there. I told him not to let Santara out of his sight. I don’t want to lose him while I’m dealing with Lisa.”
“And then you’re going to do exactly what Lisa didn’t want you to do.”
He shook his head. “She didn’t want to be bait. I’
m sure Lisa’s enough like me to have no qualms about removing Santara in the most painful way possible.” His expression hardened. “After all, he inflicted enough pain during their time together.”
“She wouldn’t want you to endanger yourself because of something that happened to her.”
“I disagree. It didn’t ‘happen’; it was planned. We’ll see. At any rate, I won’t address it for another forty-eight hours.” He turned away. “I need to get back to Lisa.” He looked back over his shoulder. “By the way, did I say thank you?”
“I don’t believe you did. Nor should you. I didn’t do anything for you; it was all for Lisa.”
“What a relief. Gratitude is so boring and interferes with my basic egocentric philosophy.”
Jane watched him walk down the hall before she turned and headed for the elevator. She never knew when to take him seriously, and this time was no different. But if there was one thing she had learned from this time with him, it was that he was dead serious about Lisa. With the emphasis on dead, she thought ruefully. There was not going to be any stopping him from going after Santara as soon as it was possible.
And maybe that was good. Both Caleb and Lisa could be in danger if he wasn’t eliminated. Oh, she just didn’t know. She couldn’t think straight. She was tired, and the events of the rescue and the stress of Lisa’s injury had taken their toll.
So she’d have to forget about Caleb and Lisa until she could do something about them. In a short time, she’d be seeing Jock and be on her way back to Loch Gaelkar. Back to MacDuff and Cira and her own life and not being drawn into that passionate, dark torrent orchestrated by Caleb.
It would be a relief. Once she was certain Lisa was safe and out of all danger, life would return to normal.
And it was only the aftereffects of the crackling high energy of the last twenty-four hours that made that normal seem flat by comparison. The last thing she needed was to walk down that path where Caleb stood beckoning.
CHAPTER
8
The hospital room was dark, but Lisa knew that Seth was sitting there in the darkness as soon as she opened her eyes. She could feel him; his force was always too dominant to ignore. Even when it was a mere link with her, it was powerful, but also soothing. Yet there was an underlying vibrancy in him that was like no one else’s in the world.