She went still. “They took photos?”
“That caught your interest. It caught mine as well. But you’d be disappointed. They’re only a white blur. The sketches weren’t much better.”
“Sketches?”
“I knew that would pique your interest. Yes, one of the students had a sketchbook. But, as I said, nothing much more revealing than the photos.”
“And the notes?”
“They didn’t have much time to take notes. Only maybe four, five hours. Nothing interesting.”
She looked back down at the map. “Any mention of the topography? Rocks, caves, mud, sinkholes, cleared areas?”
“They couldn’t see, they didn’t have time to set up their lighting equipment.” He added, “Of course, I’m not an expert at examining that kind of data. Would you like to look at them yourself?”
“Yes.”
“That was instant and vehement. You clearly don’t trust me to have noticed whatever you’re looking for. Would you care to tell me what that is?”
“I don’t know.” She would not lie to him, but to tell the entire truth would immediately set off that very active mind. “I have no logical reason.”
“And it has nothing to do with why I brought you here?”
“That’s definitely not why I’m interested in those reports.”
And now I believe it’s time to take our son into that mist so that he can begin his great adventures.
A search for a dream, some small proof that it didn’t really exist.
She met his eyes. “I don’t want to discuss it, MacDuff. Do I have to do it to have you get those reports for me?”
“Oh, the temptation.” He shook his head. “No, I’ll have my assistant, MacTavish, dig out the originals and clarify them as much as possible and e-mail them to me. They’ll be in your hands by tomorrow sometime.”
“Thank you.” She turned to leave.
“But you do know I’ll be making guesses, and my imagination will run free?”
“I wouldn’t expect anything else of you.”
“By the way, what do you think of our progress here at the castle?”
She had half expected that question. “I don’t see any progress, but something could happen at any moment. What do you think?”
“I think that it’s worthwhile exploring the dungeon for a day or two more, then we’ll reassess.” He smiled at her. “I wouldn’t want to waste the time you’ve so generously given me.”
“It’s good to be appreciated.” She left the tent and drew a deep breath of the cool night air. She had found what information she could but she’d probably given up as much as she’d received. MacDuff was ultrasharp, and he’d been processing and analyzing every bit of what she’d said. He would weave scenarios, then come back to her and wouldn’t stop until she told him what he wanted to know. And what he wanted to know was if the dreams of Cira had come back as he thought they might. It would only confirm to him how right he’d been to bulldoze her into coming on this hunt.
Okay, back off from that burst of annoyance. He’d also taken Eve and Cara under his wing at a danger to himself. You had to accept the bad with the good with MacDuff, and most of the time that good came out on top. He had his agendas, but he was loyal and you could count—”
“What were you doing in MacDuff’s tent?”
She turned to see Caleb standing a few yards away. He was standing at ease, but there was a faint tension to the muscles of his shoulders and stomach. She could feel the edge of heat and darkness surrounding him. She instinctively stiffened defensively. “That’s really none of your business.”
He was silent, then the tension was suddenly gone, and he was smiling. “Of course it’s not. Forget I asked. Or tell me, and then you’ll know I’m not storing it away and letting it fester. Being the sexual creature I am, I immediately jumped to a conclusion that’s probably totally wrong.”
“Yes, but you shouldn’t be lurking around like some peeping Tom anyway.”
“I wasn’t lurking, not that I’m not capable of lurking if it suits me. But I wanted to speak to you before you went to bed. It didn’t make me happy to see you duck into MacDuff’s tent. It was fortunate that you didn’t spend more time than you did with him. That would have made me feel dangerously unhappy.”
“Is that supposed to mean something to me? It’s still none of your business.”
“That’s where we have a problem. It depends on the viewpoint. You see I have a small problem with MacDuff. Ordinarily, I think you have too many frictions to decide to go to bed with him, but he’s one of the good guys. Not as good as Trevor was, but still in the same ballpark. And you have a tendency to lean that way.”
She turned and walked toward her tent.
He caught up and strolled with her. “But all that indignation can’t be directed toward my interference. Your time with MacDuff must have been squeaky clean.”
“I believe this conversation is over.”
“Almost.” He stopped outside her tent. “I wanted to tell you that I was glad that you told Eve you knew about the child and that it came out all right.”
“I didn’t have any doubt. You see complications where they don’t exist. We love each other. That makes all the difference.”
“Does it? I’ll have to bow to your superior knowledge.” He paused. “I like to see the two of you together. It … warms me.”
She gazed at him. The words had been almost … she didn’t know what. But then she often didn’t understand Caleb. “She told me that you said you would protect her. Now, that warms me, Caleb.”
He smiled. “You see, I can please you occasionally. I just never know when or where. But give me a chance, and I’ll show you how.”
That instant of rapport was gone, and she turned to go into her tent. “Good night, Caleb.”
She heard him laugh as she entered the tent and turned on her lantern.
As usual, those few minutes had put Jane on edge and made her vibrantly, sensually, aware of Caleb. And this time she had thought she had sensed a vulnerability beneath the mockery.
Vulnerability? Not Caleb. There was no one tougher or more impervious to the forces around him. She had to keep thinking that way. If she softened, he would swoop down, and she might be lost.
Forget about Caleb. Think about Cira and that dream that had come out of the night after all these years. She had thought she had beaten it down and dismissed the idea that those dreams had any basis in reality. She had reluctantly accepted the idea of racial or ancestral memory being a vague possibility. But she had been grateful when those dreams had ceased, and she didn’t want them to return. She wanted to deny them in any way she could.
But that lake of mists had definitely been the lake of her dream. The only way to disprove that it had nothing to do with Cira was to find out that the content was totally false.
No casket with the carnelian and copper inlays. No sign or clearing of a grave site where Marcus had been taken to start his final adventure. The small boy’s body must have disintegrated to nothing in the centuries since he had died, but there might be pieces of that casket still intact.
Good Lord, she was playing a long shot. One she fervently wished to lose.
Because if the dreams were back, it might mean Cira was trying to tell her something.
And, with Eve pregnant and Cara in constant danger, the knowledge that the dream had been about a dead child gave Jane a feeling of chilling foreboding.
CHAPTER
10
EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND
“Aren’t you done yet?” Salazar was standing in the doorway of the hotel bedroom, watching Natalie rub her vanilla body oil over her naked body. It was a lazy, sensual movement that was an act of pure seduction. “You’ve been in here an hour. Manuela never takes this long.”
“Perhaps that’s why you prefer me to your wife.” She turned to face him and lifted her naked breasts and offered them to him. “I take time in everything I do. Haven’t you not
iced?”
“Yes,” he said hoarsely, his gaze on her breasts. “Sometimes you drive me crazy. Why don’t we just go back to bed and start over?”
“Because I have things to do.” She pulled on her red-silk robe and came toward him. “And so do you. Before we leave Scotland, we’re going to have this problem resolved.” She gave him a kiss as she passed him and went into the bedroom–sitting room. “And then we have to make other decisions.” She sat down on the couch and reached for her phone. “But first, I have to call my father and prepare him.”
“You think that Castino may call your father and check up to make sure that you flew to see him?”
“Perhaps, but that’s not what I meant. I’ll let you listen if you like.” She started to dial. “Call room service and order breakfast, will you?”
Salazar shrugged and picked up the room phone. “That’s not what I have an appetite for right now.”
“Perhaps I’ll concoct something wonderfully exotic for you after—” Her father had picked up, and she spoke into the phone, “Natalie, Daddy, I had to speak to you. Are you too busy to talk? I don’t want to bother—”
“Hush,” her father said impatiently. “When am I ever too busy to speak to you? What do you need?”
“Nothing. I just wanted to hear your voice, speak to you. I’ve been feeling so alone … without my girls.” She cleared her voice. “It will be Cara’s birthday in a few days. I don’t even know if she’s alive, Daddy. Sometimes it gets to be too much.”
“You should come home to me.”
“It’s my duty to stand by my husband. We’ve been through so much together. Jenny, Cara … You know he’s been very good to me.”
“And so he should be. You’re the mother of his children and he should have kept them safe for you. I remember when you brought them to Moscow the summer before they were taken.” His voice was hoarse. “It was like having you again when you were little and happy…”
“It was a great summer,” she said unsteadily. “I never dreamed this could happen to my little girls. If I hadn’t had you to talk to, I don’t know what I’d have done.” She paused. “I have to tell you something. I know you probably won’t like it, but I’m desperate.”
“Natalie.”
“Just listen. I’ve had a telephone call from a man who says he has my daughters. He’s promised to return them to me if I give him money.”
Her father was cursing. “It’s a scam, Natalie. After all this time? How much money?”
“Four million dollars.”
“What does your husband say?”
“He says he won’t pay it. He says it’s a scam, like you. But what if it isn’t? What if I could have my girls back?” Her voice lowered. “Or what if they kill them because I don’t pay?”
“Then I’ll search them down and tear them apart.”
“Too late…”
“I’ll give you the money, Natalie.”
“I know you will.” Her voice was shaking. “But I can’t ask that of you yet. I have to be sure they have my girls. I just wanted to tell you what was happening. I’ll call you later after I hear from them again. Good-bye, Daddy.” She hung up.
“Quite a performance,” Salazar said. “Daddy’s little girl. How long have you been playing him like this?”
“Don’t be disrespectful of my father.”
“How long?”
“We’ve understood each other from the time I was a teenager.”
“And he’s never caught you in a lie?”
“He never looked too deep. Everyone else lied to him. He needed to believe I wouldn’t do it.” She smiled. “So I made him happy, and he gave me what I wanted.”
“What was all that business about ransom?”
“Preparation. What happens if you don’t pay ransom? The kids end up dead. And I’m not under suspicion.”
“It would be tricky.”
“I don’t know if I’ll do it. I just want to be prepared. I think I could work it out.” She got up and wandered over to the table and took a piece of toast from the tray. “I’ve gotten this far, haven’t I?”
“You’ve had me.”
She nodded. “We’ve had each other.” She sat down and lifted the dome off her plate. “Though you’ve been close to failing me, Salazar.” She started to eat her eggs. “I did everything to make it easy for you, and you couldn’t even follow through for me.”
“It wasn’t my fault. Walsh screwed up.”
“We won’t argue.” She gave him a brilliant smile. “Just so it ends well.”
He watched her eat with voracious yet delicate hunger. “You set it up to end well with your father.”
“It’s more complicated than that. He’s very important in anything I plan. He has power, he has money. I just had to make sure he would believe me if the time came.”
“Everyone believes you.” He shook his head as he sat down opposite her. “They have from the beginning. No one thinks that a mother would have anything to do with the death of her children.”
“Kidnapping. I have to keep correcting you.”
“When you came to me and asked if I wanted to do something that would hurt Castino, you never mentioned kidnapping. You just said get rid of them. No specification.”
“I assumed you’d know what I meant. But I left it up to you.” She smiled serenely. “After all, I’m only a woman.”
It wasn’t the first time that he’d heard that from her. But she’d known that if she turned him loose on her children exactly what the result would be. “Manuela would never have thought about doing anything like that.”
“Manuela was not married to Juan Castino. It was a completely different situation.” She looked up at Salazar. “And she was a wimp who would never argue with you or hunt for a way to better herself.”
“Is that what you did? Better yourself?”
“I defended myself.” Her voice was suddenly fierce. “I’d had two girls, and Juan wanted sons. He blamed me. He’d started taking mistresses. It was only a matter of time before one of those whores gave him his damn boy. His current whore, Gracia, already had a son by another man.”
“So?”
“He would have discarded me. He would have put that slut, Gracia, in my place. That would never happen. I liked being Castino’s wife and having everyone bow down before me.” She wrinkled her nose. “Even your dear Manuela. She came to my parties and applauded when my Jenny played the piano.” Her lips tightened. “She told me about her boys. She even showed me photos. She was a little too pleased with herself.” She poured coffee into her cup. “And that’s when I decided we had to meet, Salazar.”
“Why, Natalie? You’ve only told me you wanted to get rid of them, that they were in your way. But weren’t you afraid that getting rid of the children would do exactly what you were trying to avoid? That Castino would leave you and go try to find some woman to give him a son?”
“Not if I handled it the right way. And I always handle my affairs in the right way.” She leaned back and smiled at him. “I was never meant to be a mother. Can’t you see that it would get in my way? But I tried, when that bastard, Juan, insisted. It wasn’t my fault that he couldn’t produce a son. He even tried to blame me. Did he think I was a breeding animal? I was ready to be done with him when he took that Gracia as his mistress.”
“But you weren’t ready to be done with being Queen of Mexico City,” Salazar said softly.
“No, that would have been unfortunate.” She took a sip of coffee. “And completely unfair to me after all I’d done. So I decided to go another way.”
“Get rid of the children.”
She nodded. “In such a way that I would be a tragic figure for the rest of my marriage to Juan.” She smiled. “And everyone would think Juan was a monster if he even thought of divorcing me and going to another woman. Particularly my father. My father was the key to it all.” She took another sip of coffee. “Did I mention that my father had a great fondness for Jenny and Cara? He
didn’t have Juan’s foolish prejudice that a man must have sons. I saw to that. Did you know that I had a brother, Salazar?”
“No.”
“Alex was a great disappointment to my father. He finally betrayed him on a drug deal and had to be disposed of. My father was very sad.” She met Salazar’s eyes. “But I comforted him. He learned once again how valuable a daughter could be.”
“And you had nothing to do with his ‘disappointment’ in your brother?” Salazar asked sarcastically.
“Why, I don’t know why you would think such a thing. My father certainly didn’t.” She leaned back in her chair. “He believes I’m close to perfect. He’s correct in many ways. But Juan always knew that he’d better step lightly with me, or all his deals with the Russian Mafia could go right down the drain. He even pretended to be besotted with the girls to please my father.” Her lips twisted. “But his obsession with having a son was growing all the time. I knew he’d take the risk of tossing me out soon.”
“And what would your father have done then?”
“Cut off dealings with Juan, but my father is a practical man. He was making a good deal of money using Juan’s connections in the U.S. He would have eventually resumed dealing, then tried to make it up to me in other ways.” Her eyes were suddenly glittering in her taut face. “There would have been no other way that would have satisfied me. But I might have lost the power I had over both of them if I’d had to go to battle.”
“So you used the children.”
“Why shouldn’t I? They were mine. I brought them into this world, and I had the right to do what I wished with them. I was the one who was important, they were nothing.”
“And your father would have had a completely different viewpoint if Castino had broken up with you after the kids disappeared.”
“Yes, I was a mother who’d had a tragic, life-changing experience. My father wouldn’t have tolerated me being hurt more after that blow.” She looked at him over the edge of her cup. “Would you like me to tell you how he would have retaliated? First, he would have broken off the deals, then he would have started undermining the cartel, then, after a discrete time had passed, Juan would have suddenly been terminated in a very painful manner. Juan is not stupid, he knew what would happen. So he became a very sympathetic husband, and I kept my position intact. It will remain intact, Salazar. I may have to shift strategies a bit, but I won’t let your carelessness destroy me.”
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