“You said you’d send someone else.”
“You were insistent. What could I do?”
“I was right. Erin needs you.”
“So I’m here.” She was close enough to see his smile. “Now come the last few yards and let me take care of both of you.”
“Just Erin. And, now that we’re away from that damn mountain, you get out of my head.”
“As you wish. But it was much simpler…”
“Cameron?” Erin had caught sight of him on the bank. Her face lit with a radiant smile. “God, I’m glad to see you. Now I know everything will be all right.”
He ruefully shook his head. “Erin, after all you’ve been through? I’m flattered but a little bewildered. The sight of me should make you anything but optimistic.”
“My fault. All my fault.”
“Shh.” He grabbed a dark covering of some sort from the ground. “Now get out of there and let me wrap you up. The minute you’re out of that spring, you’re going to be subject to freezing temperatures.”
“I’ll help.” Catherine swam closer to the bank and steadied Erin. “Watch her shoulder.”
“I’ll do that. I really don’t need your instructions, Catherine.” He reached down and lifted Erin out of the water, enveloping her in the cover with the same motion. He wrapped her carefully, even covering her damp hair. Every movement was done with the most exquisite gentleness Catherine had ever witnessed. Was this a glimpse of Cameron’s treatment of Erin during those days of horror? For the first time, she was beginning to understand the woman’s blind devotion to him.
Cameron glanced at Catherine. “Satisfied?” He shook his head resignedly as he saw that Catherine had levied herself onto the bank. “I brought a cover for you, too.” He gestured to the dark cloth on the ground. “If you’d been more patient, I would have given you—”
She was already wrapping herself in the blanket. “Warm. Very warm.” Her hands were running over the material. Not plastic. Not cloth. Somewhere in between. But it was blocking both sharp wind and frigid cold and seemed to be completely retaining her body heat. “It’s working better than the space-age tech stuff they issued to get me through the mountains. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“There is nothing like it. A friend invented it.”
“What is it?”
He ignored the question. “Cover your head. Don’t bother putting on your boots. They aren’t going to do you any good until they dry out. Just run for the jeep and tuck yourself in with the blanket.” He picked up Erin and carried her toward a jeep parked a distance away.
Catherine jumped to her feet and was right behind him. “Put her in the backseat and let her stretch out. I’ll cover her and make sure she’s—” She stopped. Cameron was already carefully settling Erin in the backseat.
He gently stroked Erin’s cheek. “I’d reset your shoulder, but we don’t have time. The road is rough, but I’ll make sure you don’t feel the pain.”
“I know you will,” she said quietly. She glanced at Catherine. “Get in the car, Catherine. You heard him, we don’t have much time.”
“I believe we established that fact a long time ago,” she said dryly. “We didn’t need him to repeat it.” She got in the passenger seat. “Let’s go, Cameron.”
“Cover up,” he said briefly as he slipped into the driver’s seat and started the jeep. “I’ll put on the heater, but it’s not going to do much good for a while.”
She tucked her feet beneath the blanket and drew it tighter around her. The action brought immediate warmth. “Why didn’t you bring one of these covers for yourself?”
“I’m used to the weather. I spend a good deal of my time in Tibet.”
“Why?”
He smiled. “I find it fertile ground.”
“Really?” She gazed out at the barren landscape. “Then you must be as innovative as Hu Chang about promoting growth. I can’t see how anything could grow here.” Her gaze narrowed on his face. “But that isn’t what you mean, is it?”
“I admire Hu Chang. I understand his latest experiments have been very successful. Mine aren’t nearly as promising. I guess it depends on what you’re trying to grow.”
She was too tired to decipher oblique meanings. “We heard Kadmus back there, and you said he wasn’t as close as we thought. How near is he?”
“I’d judge from the sound of the cadence of those echoes that he’s just reached the hot spring in the mountain. We have a sizable head start.”
“Judge? How the hell can you even guess?” She shook her head. “No, don’t try to explain. I’ll just accept it for right now. I’ll explore it later.”
“I’m sure you will,” he murmured.
“Does that head start guarantee that Kadmus isn’t going to catch up with us?”
“No guarantees. It depends on how much information he was able to gather about the hot springs or if he’s searching blind. But it does give us an excellent chance of avoiding him until I can get you a flight out.”
“Why?”
“I know this mountain very well. I’ve used it for exits before. Kadmus will be running around frantically trying to gather information from the villagers and sending his men all over the mountain.”
“Villagers?” Erin repeated from the backseat. Her voice was tense. “You know what that means, Cameron.”
“I’ve told the monks from the monastery to lead them inland. They’ll do what I say,” Cameron said gently. “Kadmus won’t find anything but empty villages. They won’t be hurt, Erin.”
“Good.” She relaxed. “I couldn’t stand—”
“I know,” Cameron said. “He won’t find anyone to question until after I get you away. Which would make it nonproductive for him to use force on anyone.”
“Except you,” Catherine said. “You’re talking about getting us out. What about you?”
He shrugged. “Perhaps I’ll go with you. Probably not. I’ll make a decision later.”
“And we’re supposed to leave you on this mountain surrounded by Kadmus’s men?”
He smiled. “Would you stay and do battle by my side, Catherine?”
“Don’t be stupid,” she said curtly. “If you decide to do something that crazy, why would I try to stop you? I’ve got a life to live and a son to raise.”
“That’s true. But you have warrior instincts that cause you to do unreasonable things on occasion. You’d be foolish to risk either. Just as it was foolish for you to come to rescue Erin.”
“But you said I had nothing to do with that decision, remember? Pure manipulation.” She grimaced. “Not that I believe you.”
“Oh, I think you might believe it.” He paused. “But I would never do anything to convince you to come and do battle by my side. That would have to come from you.” He met her eyes. “But, oh, what a battle that would be, Catherine.”
Power.
Excitement.
Magnetism.
Heat.
She had to force her gaze away from him. “The only battle I intend to fight is to get Erin to a safe place.” She glanced at Erin in the backseat. Her eyes were closed, and she was breathing deeply, steadily. “I think she’s asleep. Your work?”
“No, but it makes it easier for me to shelter her from the pain. This road is going to get bumpier.”
It was already rough. The jeep was bucking like a bronco, but Cameron seemed to have perfect control. “How long will it take us to get to this hut?”
“Another fifteen minutes. From this side of the mountain, the road winds in and out like a snake and crosses through a dozen passes. That’s good because it will be almost impossible for Kadmus to track us if he starts at that hot spring. Though the road is clearly accessible by vehicle. That’s what I planned on him doing. But, if by some bad luck, he starts at the road on the other side of the mountain, we might have a harder way to go.”
“Why?”
“The trail goes straight up the mountain and leads directly to the hut. They
could take the vehicles as far as the plateau, but then they’d have to go on foot the rest of the way. It would take hours, but they’d be able to locate us fairly simply.”
“It’s an Achilles’ heel,” Catherine said. “But if he’s coming through the hot springs, there’s no reason for him to go clear on the other side of the mountain.”
“So one would suppose. And I left clear tracks on the first few miles of road. We’ll have to see. And the trek up the mountain on foot would certainly discourage them. It’s even rougher than this road. Hu Chang wasn’t pleased that I chose that path.”
“What?” She stared at him, stunned. “Hu Chang?”
“Yes, we had a disagreement about certain difficulties regarding the—”
“When?”
“This afternoon.”
She drew a deep breath. “Let me get this very clear. Hu Chang is here, on this mountain?”
“Yes, he’s at the hut waiting for you. Well, not exactly waiting. I didn’t tell him I was going to go and fetch you. But when I left, he probably deduced that it was something to do with you and Erin. Hu Chang is a brilliant man, and he would be able to put two and two together.”
“May I ask why you didn’t tell me?”
“You were worried about his coming after you. It was better for your concentration that you didn’t know that he was already on the scene.”
“Did you help him get here?”
“Yes, but don’t underestimate Hu Chang, he would have been able to get to you without me. I just furnished the means.”
“But he wouldn’t have been able to get here as quickly.”
“I don’t know about that. He’s an amazing man.”
“I wanted that amazing man to stay safely in Hong Kong,” she said sharply. “That’s why I came after Erin, dammit.”
“He was certainly one of the prime reasons why you did it. But there were several others.”
She could feel the anger begin to mount. “Look, you had me to get Erin off Kadmus’s mountain. You didn’t need Hu Chang. Why couldn’t you have left him out of it?”
“Because he’s my friend, and he deserved his chance to save you,” he said simply. “I first brought him into this because I thought he was the best possibility to free Erin. I was wrong. It was you. But because I was wrong, I couldn’t close him out once the decision to use you was made.”
She stared at him in frustration. “You’re impossible. And probably nuts. You have no right to make decisions and try to shape the whole world to suit yourself.”
“Not the whole world.” He smiled faintly. “Just my part of it.”
“I’m not part of your world, and neither is Hu Chang. So you can just stay away from us.”
He shook his head. “Hu Chang became part of my world years ago, and he understands there’s no going back. And you came into my life as a sort of gift from Hu Chang.”
“The hell I did.”
“Why else are you here?”
“Because of Erin and that bastard, Kadmus.”
“I rest my case.”
He meant that everything that had happened to Erin and Kadmus had been done because of the entire ugly scenario that had revolved around him.
And he was right. She didn’t know how or why it was true, but Cameron was the center. “I won’t have it, Cameron,” she said unevenly. “I have to tolerate your help to get Erin out of here and make sure that Hu Chang is safe, but after that, I want you out of my life. I haven’t known where I was with you since the moment you appeared. You and Hu Chang probably share some strange bond, but I want no part of it.”
“I hope I can keep you free of it,” he said soberly. “And you’re much safer not knowing more than a few shallow things about me. But I don’t believe you’ll allow that to keep on. You’re curious, and you think you can’t be in control unless you have the entire picture.” He added, “Sometimes, the entire picture isn’t pretty.”
“I can do without the entire picture. You’d probably turn out to be like that portrait of Dorian Gray who turned into a monster.”
He suddenly chuckled. “Let’s see, you’ve compared me to Jekyll’s Hyde, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, and now I’m Dorian Gray? You’re full of literary insults. At least you haven’t gotten obscene.”
“That could come.” She was trying to regain her composure. “You had no right to bring Hu Chang here.”
“I only allowed him to come.” He glanced thoughtfully at her expression. “You care as much about him as he does for you. I thought you might. I knew it would be dangerous to try to step between you.”
“You didn’t step between us. And you’d better not have put Hu Chang in any danger by—”
“Shh, you’re getting too upset. You’ve gone through hell tonight, and you don’t need to—”
“I’ll get upset if I choose. You’re not in control of that either.”
“You’re right. Feel free to sit there and fume. We should be at the hut within a few minutes, and the two of you will be able to discuss how unfair and overbearing I am.” He added, “But while you’re doing it, you might remember that Erin is free, and you and Hu Chang have a way out because of who I am and what I can do, overbearing or not.”
There was no anger in his tone, only weariness. She could feel her own anger ebbing and tried to hold on to it. He might have helped getting them away from the mountain, but she resented that she’d had to rely on him. She’d had to struggle to remain independent. And bringing Hu Chang here was completely out of the bounds of—
“It’s how I run my life,” he said quietly. “For every act I take, I have to strike a balance. So many balances you can’t imagine.”
“Then tell me.”
He shook his head. “Hu Chang knows some of it. He can probably be persuaded to share it with you. Though it would be safer for you if he didn’t.”
“I wouldn’t try to persuade him. He’d laugh at me. I would reason with him.” She had a sudden thought. “Why would it be safer? You said once that you’d had two choices after Erin was captured, and she was becoming a danger to you. One was the one you chose, the other was to kill her.” She paused. “You’re saying that you would do the same to me if I learned too much about you?”
“God, I hope not, Catherine.” His voice, his face, suddenly held the same glowing, tenderness she had noticed earlier when he was caring for Erin. “It’s the last thing I want. I’ll do everything I can to avoid it. I’d take the most extraordinary steps possible to prevent that from happening.”
“As you did with Erin?”
“No, you’d be much more difficult. I’d have to stretch…”
“To keep from killing me.”
“It won’t happen.”
“You’re damned right it won’t.”
He chuckled. “Then we’re agreed. Now all I have to do is convince you to see things my way.”
“Bullshit. Stay out of my mind.” She tore her eyes away. “How soon can we get off this mountain?”
“Possibly tomorrow. Kadmus’s men will be streaming across the road from Daksha to this mountain as soon as he’s convinced we made it over here. They’ll be setting up and beginning the search. I’ll send one of the villagers down to keep an eye on them and report back to me. Unless there’s an emergency situation, I’ll have a helicopter here by tomorrow.”
“He’ll detect any electronic signals.”
“No, he won’t.”
She touched the blanket covering her. “Another whiz-bang invention? You can block the signal?”
“No, I won’t handle it like that. It would raise questions that would send ripples and I avoid ripples. Too much could go wrong.”
The answer led to a flood of wild and improbable possibilities. “Then I’m not going to ask you how you’re going to do it.”
He nodded. “That would be best.”
“Though I might ask Hu Chang.”
“Not best, but totally characteristic. You’ll do what you have to do.” He paus
ed. “Just as Hu Chang did what he had to do. You might remember that when you find yourself in a fury with him.”
“I’m not angry with him. I’m angry with you.”
“But that may change. I’d be glad to share that fury with Hu Chang, but it would hurt you more than it would either one of us.”
“What are you talking about?” Her gaze was narrowed on his face. “I don’t understand a lot of what you say, and that annoys the hell out of me. But that sounded remarkably like a warning.”
“Not a warning.” He was slowing the jeep and pulled it over to the side of the road. “Just sincere advice from someone who cares.” He gestured to the hut across the road. “There you are. I’ll leave the headlights on so that you can see Hu Chang, and he can see you.” He got out of the car. “He must have heard us coming. I’m sure he’ll be out here any minute.”
“Cameron…” Erin dazedly lifted her head. “I must have fallen asleep.”
“Yes, you did.” He opened the rear door. “And just as well. It saved you from hearing Catherine scold me.” He picked her up and started for the hut. “It was most disturbing.”
Erin chuckled. “I can see that it bothered you.”
“Catherine never scolds.” Hu Chang stood in the doorway, the light from the fire within the hut outlining his body. “But she’s been known to tear strips from those who displease her.” His gaze was searching the darkness beyond the brilliant headlights. “Catherine?”
Warmth.
Memories.
Love.
And after all the worry, and frustration and anger he was here in front of her, unhurt, a few yards away.
“You shouldn’t have come,” she said unevenly as she struggled to get out of the car. “You deserve to have a strip torn off you. You should have waited in Hong Kong.”
“I’m not good at waiting.” She could hear the humor in his voice. “In that, I’m like you, Catherine. What is that ugly garment that you have about you?”
“Something that your friend, Cameron, gave me. It’s very warm, but I think that I’ll come into that hut and get my feet warm.”
“Good idea.” Cameron said as he passed Hu Chang with Erin. “Hu Chang, I think I’m going to have to tap your medical skills. Erin is going to need some attention.”
Live to See Tomorrow Page 13