Yet the shadows weren’t empty. There were shapes on the ledge, shapes with square corners and straight edges that seemed to grow from the rock itself.
Too many feelings crashed over Anthony at once. Excitement, anger, dread, rage. And propelling them all, there was an overwhelming sense of purpose. Yes. Yes! After months of frustration, after years of waiting, the time had come. Without looking further, he knew.
This was it. His search was over.
“Oh, good God,” Melina whispered. “Is that what I think it is?”
Anthony passed her the binoculars, his throat too tight for words.
Their theory had been right. Benedict had been drawn here because he wanted the mystical power from Indian artifacts.
They just hadn’t guessed how big the artifact was.
The Anasazi village was a marvel of ancient engineering, designed for defense, constructed of sandstone slabs held together with mud, hundreds of feet up the side of the cliff. Seven centuries ago, it would have served as a fortress, sheltering an entire community from whatever danger prowled the valley floor.
Melina had read that there were thousands of sites like this scattered throughout Colorado and New Mexico. Little was known of the people who had built them. They had vanished mysteriously, abandoning their painstakingly built cliff cities to the ravages of time. They were called the Anasazi, a Navajo word meaning “ancient enemies,” yet to their Pueblo descendants, they were known simply as The Old Ones.
A shiver went through her as she lowered the binoculars. Now that she had stopped moving, the chill of the night was catching up to her. Yet the chill was from more than that. It seemed that just when she thought the scope of Benedict’s crimes couldn’t get any bigger, it did. Only he would have the audacity to exploit something like this treasure. Despite its crumbling walls, the place projected a sense of power through its very age. It should be preserved. It should be respected.
Instead, its purpose had been perverted. It was serving as a cover, as window dressing, to hide a criminal’s headquarters.
He’s in plain sight, but even if you look, you won’t see him.
Poor Fredo. Now she understood what he had meant. Benedict had camouflaged his stronghold brilliantly. Melina shifted onto her stomach and turned the binoculars to the floodlit area at the base of the cliff. There was an area of neatly dug shallow pits and piles of dirt near the trailers. It was crisscrossed with a grid made of posts and strings. There were even a few scattered shovels and sieves made of wire mesh nearby, as if someone were excavating a genuine archeological site.
That was probably how Benedict had kept his construction under the radar. He could have ferried in his supplies by air, relying on the site’s isolation and his security patrols to keep unwanted visitors away while the stronghold was being built. He could even claim his guards were there to protect the archeological site from looters. And if any authorities should question him, he likely had all the proper permits to justify his presence.
No one would realize there was anything within the cliff. No one, that is, except someone with the ability to sense the electricity that powered it. Anthony speculated there was probably a natural cavern system that extended into the cliff behind the village. A large complex of rooms could have been constructed there with only minimal excavation. He had sounded strained when he’d told her. Was he concerned that Benedict might be able to get away?
She should reassure him that her contact at the FBI wanted Titan as much as Anthony did. Liam Brooks had dedicated years to pursuing the man. Once she told Liam where Benedict was hiding—and she wasn’t going to let any receptionist put her on hold next time she called—he had the clout to make it, well, a federal case. The FBI had the resources to surround this entire valley. No matter how big the cavern system was, they would eventually hunt Benedict down.
Melina set down the binoculars to study the man beside her. For the past ten minutes Anthony hadn’t moved. Not physically, anyway. Yet he was far from still. The energy that always pulsed through him was closer to the surface than she had ever seen it. His body was snapping with tension like a spring being coiled.
What must be going through his head? she wondered. Was he thinking about his family, about the suffering Benedict’s actions had brought on them all? Was he envisioning Benedict finally behind bars where he could do no more harm?
She felt a lump in her throat. Anthony had been so matter-of-fact when he’d related that horror story from his childhood, it had been all the more heartbreaking. His strength was amazing, as was his resilience. He hadn’t needed to say it in so many words, but his love for his sisters was obvious. Melina had seen it each time he mentioned his family. His wasn’t a showy kind of love; it was a bone-deep devotion that colored everything he did.
What would it be like to be loved like that?
As if he felt her gaze on him, he turned his head to look at her.
The fury in his eyes took her off guard. It was naked violence on the edge of exploding.
Instead of being afraid, she felt more than ever like crying. There was so much anger inside him, and it was all linked to Benedict. It was so unfair. A man with Anthony’s deep passion would have so much love to give.
He motioned behind them with his head. “It’s time to go, Melina.”
She nodded. He’d already warned her that it would be safest if they were out of the valley by daylight. Besides, there was no need to stay longer. They had gotten what they’d come for. They knew where Benedict’s stronghold was. According to Fredo, Benedict was too paranoid now to leave it. The man known as Titan, who was wanted by every law enforcement agency in the world, was at this moment only a few hundred yards from this spot.
This was what she and Anthony had set out to do a week ago. This was the reason for their partnership.
It was almost over.
She should be pleased.
She was going to get the story of a lifetime.
“This is for your story,” Anthony said, switching on a light as he walked into her room. He tossed a thick brown envelope on the bed.
Melina closed the door behind him and followed him to the bed. She folded one leg underneath her as she sat on the edge of the mattress. She reached out to pick it up. “What is it?” she asked, picking up the envelope.
“My files.”
It took her a moment to register what he had said. She was still groggy from sleep. She had been so exhausted she hadn’t bothered undressing when she had reached her room after they had returned from their scouting trip this morning. It seemed as if she had just toed off her sneakers and fallen into bed when Anthony’s knock on her door had awakened her. But the sky outside her window was black. Night had already fallen. She had slept the entire day.
She yawned as she turned the envelope over in her hands. “What files?”
“The records from the fertility clinic and Benedict’s notes.”
The grogginess fled. Her jaw snapped shut in midyawn. She lifted the flap of the envelope and looked inside. There was a faded yellow file folder that was stuffed with sheets of paper. “Benedict’s handwritten notes?”
“Yes.” He crossed the room to her window and pulled the curtains closed. He switched on another light.
“Anthony, this is…” She didn’t have a word that was adequate. Even without this, she had the scoop to end all scoops. But having these documents was like hitting a journalistic mother lode.
He dropped a floppy disk beside her knee. “Here are some computer files I acquired a few months ago during my last job for Jeremy. They were encrypted, but I managed to decode a small fraction of them. They appear to deal mostly with Benedict’s sister Agnes’s work, but I couldn’t decipher any details.”
She glanced at the disk, her pulse racing. “Why are you giving all this to me now?”
“Now that we’ve found Benedict, I have no more use for this material.”
“Why don’t you give it to the police yourself? This is evidence.”
“My deal was with you, not the police.”
“Your deal.”
“We agreed to share our information. You kept your half of the bargain. Now I’m keeping mine.”
She set the envelope down and got to her feet. She straightened her sweater and brushed at the lingering dust on her pants. She raked a hand through her hair. It was hopelessly tangled. She wished she’d had the presence of mind to clean up before she had let him in. Vain as it was, she didn’t want him to remember her this way.
But then, he’d seen her at her worst, when she had been hurting and desperate and crawling over him for relief. It shouldn’t matter if he saw a few sleep wrinkles now. She was only thinking about this because it was far easier to focus on the mess she was outside instead of the train wreck that was happening inside.
All right. She had known this was coming the moment Anthony had traced that energy source to the Anasazi village. He was dissolving their partnership.
Couldn’t they at least have discussed it first?
Well, why should they? How many times had they both made it clear that Benedict was all they were after?
There. Logical and reasonable. No need to feel upset. This was exactly what she had wanted, the story that would make her career.
“Thank you,” she said. “This is more than I could have imagined.”
“You worked hard. You deserve to get what you wanted.”
“You do too, Anthony. It’s only a matter of time now before Benedict is arrested.” She hesitated. “But I haven’t called anyone yet.”
“I know.”
Of course, he would know. If he had been anywhere nearby, he would have been able to sense the phone signal as soon as she dialed.
Then why hadn’t she done it? Why had she delayed making that phone call? Every minute she postponed it increased the possibility of someone else breaking the story.
Yet once the authorities got involved, she would be swept into the madhouse of deadlines and official statements and scrambling to file copy while it was still hot. And she would have to say goodbye to Anthony.
Was that the real reason she had gone to sleep this morning instead of typing up the first draft of her story? Oh, God. She really was a mess.
“About the cops, Melina,” he began.
“I’ve been thinking about that,” she said. “I can’t risk calling the Antelope Ridge sheriff, not with the Titan Syndicate’s record of corruption. Benedict must have somebody local on his payroll or he couldn’t have stayed out of sight so long.”
“I agree. He likely bribed some people at the Antelope Pueblo, too. They must have been paid to keep quiet about his phony dig site. Trusting anyone local is out of the question.”
“I think it would be best if I went through my contact at the FBI. I trust him.”
He looked at her in silence, his jaw twitching with tension. He paced across the room, pivoted and came back to stand at the foot of her bed. He reached into his pants pocket and took out a folded piece of paper. “Here are the coordinates of the site I got from my GPS unit. Make sure you give them to the FBI when you call. I’ve also marked on our map the route we took.”
She took the paper and slipped it into her own pocket. “It would be easier if I guided them myself.”
He grabbed her shoulders and jerked her to face him. “No. Absolutely not. I don’t want you going back to that valley under any circumstances.”
It would be simpler if she could get angry. There he went, ordering her around again. Being the bossy, controlling, overprotective bully.
But she couldn’t get angry. She understood why he was wired this way. He thought it was his responsibility to keep everyone he cared about safe from Benedict.
Everyone he cared about?
His grip on her shoulders softened. He ran his palms down her arms to her hands. “Melina, I know what this man is capable of. You can’t take any chances.”
Her skin tingled under his touch. Tremors chased up her arms. Was this caring? Or just another side effect of his abilities? “All right.”
“Good.” He passed his thumbs over her knuckles. “I want you to be safe.”
“Anthony, I’m not going to use it.”
“What?”
She nodded toward the envelope. “The information about your family’s psychic powers. I have plenty of material on Benedict already without going into that part of his schemes. You don’t need to have the curious invading your privacy. You’ve all suffered enough.”
He squeezed her fingers. “Thank you, Melina. I had agreed to give you my story, so I knew I had no right to ask you to withhold that part, but I don’t want the others to be hurt.”
Melina felt that pesky lump come back in her throat. The others. He gave no thought to how his own life would be disrupted if people knew about his power. Did his sisters realize what a good man he was?
Oh, she was such a coward. Why didn’t she just come out and say it? Why was it so hard to tell him she didn’t want their partnership to end?
She wanted far more from him than her story. There was still so much she wanted to learn about him, so many layers to uncover, so many possibilities to explore. Safe or not, how could she let him go?
How many times did a man like Anthony Caldwell come into a woman’s life? It wasn’t only his power that made him special.
“There’s something I want you to do, Melina. It wasn’t part of our original deal.”
Her heart pounded. Her hands trembled in his. “Yes, Anthony?”
“Wait until tomorrow at dawn before you make your call to the FBI.”
For an instant, she felt a surge of joy. He wanted to postpone the end, too. He didn’t want to say goodbye any more than she did.
But then she saw the tension in his jaw. She saw it in his gaze next. More than tension. Anger. Rage. It was the same way he had looked before they had left the Anasazi village. He had looked this way in the restaurant a week ago when he’d told her about his mother’s murder.
“Melina? All I need is twelve hours.”
She didn’t have to ask. She knew.
It was the last piece of the puzzle. The final part of the truth that she hadn’t wanted to see. But it fit. Oh, it fit so well it should have been obvious from the beginning.
He worked outside the law. He preferred to be in control and didn’t trust authority. All along he had never intended to wait for the police. That had been her suggestion, not his. A man who had taken a baseball bat to someone who had tried to molest his sister would never leave his mother’s murderer to the courts.
He didn’t want justice. He wanted vengeance.
She lifted herself on her toes, looking him in the eye. “You’re planning to take on Benedict alone.”
“It’s the only way to be sure he’s stopped.”
“That’s why you gave me your files now. You were just waiting until it got dark again. You intend to go back there tonight.”
“I know where the sensors are. It won’t take me as long to get past them.”
“You’ll be one man against a veritable army in a hidden fortress.” She yanked her hands from his and grabbed his head, anchoring her fingers in his hair. She gave him a hard shake. “And you had the nerve to ask me to be careful?”
“I have to do this to protect my family.”
“Even with all your special powers, you can’t stop bullets, Anthony. You’re too angry to think straight. Confronting Benedict on your own is suicide. If he doesn’t kill you outright, he’ll use you. You’re playing right into his hands. He’ll…experiment on you.”
“That’s the chance I’m willing to take.”
“Well, I’m not.” She let go of him and stepped back. She looked around the room for her cell phone and spotted it on the wooden blanket chest where she had left her purse. She ran to pick it up and jabbed Liam’s number.
“Melina, no.”
She heard two rings before the signal went dead. A sensation of warmth flashed down her spin
e. She recognized it—it was a tickle of stray power. She tried to ignore the effect, gritted her teeth and walked to the small table that held the room’s regular phone. She dialed the number again. This time the phone didn’t ring even once before it cut off in a burst of static. Heat pulsed between her thighs so fast, she moaned. She dropped the receiver and whirled on Anthony. “Your tricks won’t stop me. You’re not going in alone, even if I have to try every phone in town.”
“Don’t interfere, Melina. I’ve been preparing for this day for twenty-eight years. I need to do this.”
“No, you don’t. You’ve spent your whole life putting your own needs last. You’ve done enough. It’s time to think about yourself.”
The lights in the room flickered. “This is my life, Melina.”
Something sliced at her heart. Her breasts tightened. She grasped a corner of the table for balance. “It doesn’t have to be, Anthony. You could have so much more if you put aside your anger.”
“You don’t realize what you’re asking.”
“Maybe I don’t understand what you’ve been through, but I do understand what it’s like to live your present through your past.”
He hesitated, then took a step toward her.
“I understand about needing a goal to focus on so you won’t have to think about the pain. That’s what you’re doing, isn’t it?”
His jaw hardened. “Finding Benedict and dealing out justice for my mother and my family is what keeps me going. It’s what I live for.”
“Yes, I know. It’s like my work. That’s what keeps me going. It’s what I live for. But I’ve already shown you I’m willing to compromise about this story. I’m not going to publish all the information you gave me.”
“Why, Melina?”
“I told you. I don’t want you and your family hurt.”
“I meant why is your work so important?”
“We’re talking about you.”
“No. We’re talking about you now. What happened in your past? Where did your pain come from?”
For eight years she had kept this inside. She had locked up the pain along with the passion. She had chosen to be safe instead of opening her heart. She had even contemplated entering into a loveless marriage as a way to have part of the dream she had left behind.
In Destiny’s Shadow Page 14