by Unknown
Jericho scowled. Something smelled fishy. Why had Catrina gone to Winz-Smith instead of directly to Dr. Sinton? And what had she been doing spying on Zoey in the first place? Things weren’t adding up. Especially since he was already uneasy about Catrina.
“This infraction is a clear indication that you do not have the necessary leadership skills for this position. I’m sorry to have to do this, Dr. Chance, but you’ve given me no options. I’m going to have to ask for your immediate resignation.”
ZOEY WAS FLIPPING bacon in the iron skillet when Jericho walked up. She switched off the gas burner on the camp stove and dusted her hands against the seat of her jeans. “How bad is it?”
“The worst.”
“You’ve been fired,” she guessed.
“I have.”
“Oh, Jericho, I’m so sorry. This is all my fault.” She clasped her hands to her face.
“I accept full responsibility for my actions. I knew that loving you was wrong but I chose to do it anyway.”
“Well,” she laughed nervously, “I wouldn’t say wrong exactly.”
“Can we talk?”
“Um, you want to have breakfast first?”
“I’m not hungry.”
Suddenly, neither was she. “What is it?”
He stopped four feet from her, and scratched his head. “I’m perplexed about something.”
Uneasiness spread over her like a bad case of chicken pox. “What’s that?”
“How was it that Catrina saw you excavating the mounds by the lake yesterday afternoon?”
Fear played her up and down her spine. “Catrina saw me?”
“So you’re not going to deny it? You went back to excavate the mounds after you promised me that you would not go back down there?”
“Yes, I did but—”
Jericho held up a silencing palm. “I don’t want to hear any excuses, Zoey, you’ve disappointed me far more than you can know.”
His words ripped her heart right out of her chest, threw it on the ground, and stomped on it until nothing was left but tattered, barely stitched-together threads.
“You … you don’t understand,” she stammered.
He crossed his arms over his chest. “You’re right about that. I certainly do not understand why you went back to the mounds after you swore to me you would not, especially when you knew that if you did, the school could be sued and I could lose my job. That’s not the way friends treat each other, Zoey.”
“I’m so sorry. I … I didn’t think it through.”
“You never do,” he said so bitterly the sound of his voice burned her ears.
“Please, you have to let me explain.”
For one horrible moment, she thought he was not going to let her defend herself, but eventually, he pursed his lips and gave a short, terse nod. Bit by halting bit, she told him where she’d gone after he’d left her the previous day. How she’d found Clarissa’s name in the family genealogy and how she’d been drawn back to the mounds by a compulsion she could not resist. How she’d taken the artifacts to the B&B and carefully cleaned them just the way he had taught.
And at last, she told him the terrible truth she had not been able to tell him last night. That the settlement had once been a McCleary stronghold and they’d burned their own settlement down rather than taking the risk of having their dark secret come out.
When she finished, he just stood there staring at her as if he’d never seen her before. It unnerved her and she hugged herself against the chill that seized in the warm summer morning.
“So you knew all this last night,” he said stiffly.
She nodded.
“And you didn’t trust me enough to tell me that you’d excavated the mounds a second time? You let me go face-to-face with Dr. Sinton completely unaware and unarmed to defend myself?”
“Jericho, I—that’s not how I intended it to happen.”
“Whether you intended it or not, Zoey, that’s exactly what you did.”
“I’m sorry.”
He shook his head, his eyes full of sorrow. “Sorry is not going to cut it, Zoey. Not this time. Actions have consequences.”
“You’re turning your back on me?” Her voice quavered. What about all the promises he’d made her last night? That he would always have her back, no matter what? That he put no demands on her, allowed her to be who she was unconditionally. That he would love her forever, no matter what. Had it been nothing more than heat-of-the-moment vows?
But no, that could not be so. He had been her friend for twenty years. He could not abandon her over this. Not after what they’d done together.
Oh no, oh no. She could not accept this feeling. It hurt too much. She tried smiling. That usually worked. Grin. Get him to grin back at her. She gave it a shot.
He did not return her smile.
“It’s going to be all right. You’ll get another job. I know you will. I’ll go talk to Dr. Sinton, make it clear that this was all my doing, that you had nothing to do with this, that—”
“Stop,” he said. “Just stop talking.”
But she could not. She felt like she was fighting for her life. “I was going to tell you. I came up here to tell you. But no one was here and I just knew in my gut that the mounds were the old McCleary settlement and I had a compulsion I simply couldn’t control, no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t just leave it lie. That’s a big step for me, Jericho. It would have been so easy to just forget about what I’d found, to just pretend—”
“You’ve never had trouble quitting something in the middle before. Why this? Why now?”
“Don’t you see how hanging with this was positive growth for me?”
“And yet the results were disastrous. You know what cuts me to the quick?” he asked.
She shook her head, unable to speak, gulped, and ran a hand over her nose. She wasn’t crying. She was not going to cry. No siree. Not her.
“Do you know what hurts more than you breaking your promise, more than the way you betrayed me by not telling me what you’d done.”
She whimpered. Oh God, oh no! He was turning his back on her. Panic grabbed her by the throat. She felt as if someone had thrown her inside a tiny dark closet, slammed and locked the door and thrown away the key.
“What really stabbed me in the gut was when I told you that I loved you and you couldn’t say it back to me. That’s what kills me, Zoey. You couldn’t say it back. You claim going back to the mounds was positive growth for you, but that’s not the way I see it.”
“How do you see it?”
“The same old, same old. You didn’t think your actions through. Or worse yet, you thought them through and decided to act impulsively anyway.”
“It wasn’t like that, I was—”
“What?” he snapped.
“Trying to get to the truth so I could make amends for the past.”
“Well, you flopped on that, big-time, didn’t you?”
Without another word, he turned and walked back to his pickup truck, climbed in, and sped away, leaving a rooster tail plume of dust in his wake.
JERICHO DROVE, NOT even knowing where he was going. The terrain of the Chihuahuan Desert rolled past his window. He’d lost his job, he’d lost his dignity, his reputation, and now, he was on the verge of losing his best friend.
How had he gotten here? He was a rational man, a practical man, a logical man. He believed in collecting data to help him gain insight into how the world worked. He believed in cause and effect and right and wrong. He believed, like Francis Bacon, that knowledge was power. His personal credo was Cognito ergo sum, I think, therefore I am. And yet, in this matter, he had not thought at all.
When Zoey had shown up at the camp last night, his body had gotten the better of him and he had blindly, impulsively reacted.
Jericho clenched his hands around the steering wheel. Dammit! Zoey wasn’t at fault. He wouldn’t fault a parrot for being brightly colored and inquisitive. Nope. All the blame lay at his clay feet fo
r expecting her to be something she was not. He’d known all along what she was like. Why did it surprise him when she simply acted in character?
He should never have taken the job when he learned she was going to be on the dig team. That was his undoing, his own bad decision.
The thing was, when they were just friends, he hadn’t put any expectations on her. He’d accepted her for exactly who she was, loved her because of her quirks and traits and not in spite of them.
The problem cropped up when he’d started thinking of her as more than a friend, and suddenly, he wanted to change her. He knew she was impulsive. Knew she had trouble getting serious. Knew expressing deep emotions was hard for her. Knew she avoided dark topics like what she’d uncovered about the McCleary side of her family. Knew she preferred to skim the surface of life.
Why was he having a problem with her when he loved the fact that she saw the world as full of open doors? Life to Zoey was an adventure. Her mercurial mind cried out for experiences, feasted on associations and patterns, savored time and space. She lived more succinctly in the now than anyone he’d ever met. She had a knack for remembering the good times, while the bad faded from her memory.
Most likely that was why she had not told him about going back to the mounds. Not because she’d been trying to actively hide her actions from him, but because she hadn’t wanted to face what she’d discovered about her family. She’d come to him for solace, to give and receive pleasure and a way to soothe her troubled soul.
That was Zoey’s way. Always had been, always would be.
He was the one who had let her down, not the other way around. And that was the heart of the issue, the reason that he’d never pursued her before his return to Cupid, the real reason that he’d driven away today.
Jericho did not know if he could keep up with her. Not as a lover anyway. Deep intimacy with Zoey would require everything he had inside him. She needed an upbeat partner who was game for her many activities. Was he nimble enough to keep up with her priorities that could shift at a moment’s notice? Could he keep her interested?
Yes! his heart yelled. Yes, you can. She’ll keep up on your toes, but that’s one of the things you love most about her. She brought out his carefree side and tickled his sense of humor. Whenever he was around her, he was … well, he was quite simply happier.
C’mon, what was he thinking? He had nothing to offer her. Not now. He was unemployed, and getting fired so soon after getting hired didn’t bode well for future employment. It was going to take a lot of work to rebuild his reputation. Not to mention, he had allowed a unique find to be stolen right out from under his nose, and that chapped his hide.
Someone had filed down the rungs on the ladder, not as a prank, not to spook the students into quitting the dig, not even as a threat. Whoever had filed down the rungs and left out the tools could not have accurately predicted that someone would fall on the ice pick, but what they could safely assume was that anyone who fell four feet into the dig pit would be harmed in some way, causing everyone’s attention to be drawn to the victim.
A light bulb went off in his head.
The damaged ladder, the strewn tools had been nothing more than a distraction. Someone had wanted his attention diverted so they could steal the medicine bundle. That’s what it had all been about.
That Catrina had reported seeing Zoey excavating the valley mounds the previous afternoon meant only one thing. Catrina was on Triangle Mount yesterday when no one else had been around.
There was no doubt in Jericho’s mind which culprit had strewn the tools, filed down the ladder rungs, and stolen the metal locker containing the medicine bundle. It had to be Catrina Bello. What he didn’t know was why she would do such a thing.
But he sure as hell was going to find out.
Chapter 20
Depression: An area where cultural activity took place.
DEVASTATED by Jericho’s reaction, Zoey didn’t know what to do. Leave him alone? Go after him? Plead her case with Winz-Smith and beg him to drop the lawsuit? Yeah. There. That one. She’d go to see Winz-Smith and give Jericho time to cool down before she tried again to apologize.
Except getting an audience with Winz-Smith was easier said than done. She had no idea where he was or how to get hold of him, but she knew someone who did.
Tabitha.
And by the time she got to town—Zoey switched on her phone to check the time—Tabitha would be on her way to the tri-weekly meeting of the Letters to Cupid volunteers.
She cleared her possessions out of her tent, loaded them in the van, and headed to the Cupid Community Center. Her sneakers squeaked against the freshly waxed floor as she walked inside, her heart so heavy it ached every time she took a breath.
The door stood open and she could hear voices from those gathered inside.
In a déjà vu moment, she stood in the hallway, listening once more to her family and friends talking about her. What? Did they talk about her constantly? Or was she simply the most fortuitous eavesdropper ever? And hey, the next time she felt inclined to gossip about somebody when she was at one of the meetings, she was darn well going to get up and close the frigging door.
“I’m so proud of Zoey,” Natalie was saying. “She’s really thrown herself heart and soul into this archaeological field school.”
Obviously, neither the fact that she had quit the field school nor word of what had happened this morning on Triangle Mount had yet made its way to the Cupid grapevine, but it wouldn’t be long before everyone knew the truth.
Zoey cringed, bit down on her bottom lip. She would have been better off if she’d never even tried to commit to something in the first place, rather than fail so spectacularly.
“Well,” Carol Ann pointed out. “Walker did put her feet to the fire. She has to stick with this dig or permanently lose her trust.”
“I think he went a bit too far to make his point,” Great-Aunt Delia said. “But it is amazing at how Zoey is staying up there on the mountain. I expected her to come flitting through here at least a time or two, restless as always.”
“Giving up that kitten seemed to take the wind out of her sails,” said Sandra. “You have to admit, the girl does have a tender heart.”
Everyone murmured in agreement.
Yeah, and look where a tender heart had gotten her. Missing a kitty that had never been her own and wrecking her friendship with Jericho. Tears sprang to her eyes but she rapidly blinked them away. When had she turned into such a crybaby? She’d never been this sensitive before.
“I’m wondering if her newfound dedication to archaeology has as much to do with my stepgrandson coming home as anything else,” Junie Mae mused.
“Jericho and Zoey do make a cute couple.” Natalie sighed wistfully. “Jericho is so good for her.”
“And her for him,” Junie Mae said. “She gets him out of his head.”
“What do you think, Lace?” Carol Ann asked. “You were up there with them. Is there something more than friendship going on between Zoey and Jericho?”
“I think they’re head over heels for each other,” Lace said. “Only they’re both too scared to admit it.”
“Heaven’s sakes, why would anyone be afraid of love?” asked Great-Aunt Delia.
Mignon started humming, “Que Je T’Aime.”
“Think about it,” Sandra said. “Jericho and Zoey would make the most beautiful babies, with his raven hair, and her big, green, heartbreaker eyes.”
“And how many people can say they fell in love with their best friend?” asked Junie Mae. “It has its own special kind of magic.”
Here they were so proud of her, so excited about her relationship with Jericho. They had no idea what her newfound dedication had cost her.
Zoey’s throat burned and she put a hand to her neck. She was going to disappoint them all over again, just like she always did. She’d quit the dig to be with Jericho and somehow she’d even managed to screw that up. No way could she go in there and face them af
ter hearing this. That’s what she did. Let people down.
The bitter realization caught her low in the solar plexus, a roundhouse kick that stabbed, stung, twisted. How foolish of her to think she could escape herself. She was who she was, for better or worse. Except right now, it certainly seemed for the worse.
“You know,” Natalie said. “I’ve never been prouder of my sister than I am right now. She really has come into her own.”
Hauling in a deep breath, Zoey spun on her heels and ran away as fast as she could run.
CATRINA DID NOT answer any of the texts or voice mails Jericho left for her. Honestly, he hadn’t expected her to. He texted the other students and none of them had spoken with her. Avery had already been released from the hospital, but he didn’t know where she was either.
Jericho went to the apartment in Alpine that Catrina had listed in the school records as her address. The man who came to the door claimed never to have heard of her.
After that, he drove to his office at Sul Ross. Thankfully, he still had access to it, and he skimmed through his computer enrollment files to discover that Catrina had just recently transferred to the college as a foreign exchange student, and the field school was her first class.
Something wasn’t right about all this.
Had she been nothing but a plant all along? Put in the field school to spy or steal artifacts or both. By whom and to what end? It was only a field school dig. No one could have predicted they’d actually find something monumental. Placing a spy or an artifact thief on the dig team didn’t make any sense.
His immediate inclination was to talk this over with his best friend, except right now things were pretty rocky between him and Zoey. She’d tested his patience plenty of times and they’d had disagreements over the years, but they’d never had a real fight before. Cement settled in his stomach, solidified.
Go talk to her. Just talk this out.
Yeah. They could work through this. Sure they could. Wouldn’t they?
He sat in his pickup truck in the Sul Ross parking lot, blew out a long breath, and tapped on the speed dial icon that had her smiling picture peering up at him from the tiny smart phone screen.
