by Melissa Frey
She really wished she did. Since that night in the cavern—a little over a week ago now—her mind had been driving her crazy with thoughts of Grady. How he looked, how he acted—everything about him had been suddenly on her radar, as if he had become the most important person in her life. She smiled. She supposed he had.
But, as she kept trying to remind herself repeatedly, she’d been down this road before. Her two-year relationship with one of her professors, Dr. Jonathan Cartier—the last, and by far the worst, in a string of heartbreaks—hadn’t ended well, and that was a gross understatement. He’d left her in their shared apartment for a prestigious job across the country—abruptly—and Kayla, still young and finishing up her doctorate, had been devastated. Looking back, she knew her career was the only reason she’d survived. And now it was all she had.
For years, she’d been telling herself that she liked it that way, that her work was important and if she was going to be the best in her field, she didn’t have time for anything else. Or anyone else.
Her work was certainly important, but, if she was being honest with herself, she was lonely. When her dad inevitably asked, she told him it was because she worked too much, or because she hadn’t found the right person yet, but the truth was that she was scared. Scared to try something new, put herself out there again.
As much as she found herself attracted to Grady—and attraction was just the tip of the iceberg, again being honest with herself—she had to wonder: would Grady be the same? One of her many heartbreaks? She didn’t know if she trusted herself enough to be able to put her heart on the line—yet another time—only to have it handed back to her in pieces. She had to take whatever this was with Grady very slowly. Wait for him to make the first move.
She doubted he was even interested. Or maybe, even if he was interested, he was a wiser person than she was and knew that it would never work.
That’s when Grady’s voice broke the silence with three words: “You captivate me.”
His quiet, almost whispered sentence came out of nowhere. Kayla’s eyes flew toward the sound. She never suspected—would never have thought in a million years—that his thoughts had headed that direction. Had he read her mind? As she stared out into the darkness, unable to keep the stunned expression off her face, she almost wondered if he had.
“What?” It seemed to be the only word she could choke out.
Grady shrugged beside her. “You always have, since that first night when we found the cave.” He seemed unable, or unwilling, to raise his eyes, instead choosing to continue his staring contest with the flames in front of them. From the look on his face, he seemed determined to win.
Kayla drew in a shaky breath. She turned to him and stared at the side of his face, trying to make sense of what he had just said. Had she heard right? She had just told herself she would wait for him to make the first move, and in the next second he had—at least she thought he had. Maybe something—God, the universe—was trying to get her attention. Then again, maybe not.
Grady shifted on the log beneath them. “I’ve never really been able to understand you, Kayla, how your mind works. I’ve always wanted to know what’s going on behind those intriguing brown eyes.” He turned to look at her, catching her gaze and holding it.
Kayla attempted a shaky smile and tried to keep it light, an automatic reaction she hated but couldn’t quite help. “Sorry to be so frustrating.”
Grady smiled back at her. But, despite Kayla’s unwitting attempt to save him from the conversation, he continued on, clearing his throat before speaking again. “You’re not as frustrating as it would seem.” Then his smile slowly faded, replaced by an uncertainty in his expression that made Kayla’s heart beat just a little bit harder in her chest. “I would love to know what you’re thinking, though, so I can bow out gracefully if I need to.”
Kayla hesitated. Was she ready for this? She sighed in spite of herself. Ready for what, exactly? It wasn’t like Grady was asking her to move in with him or anything. This was an undefined, open invitation to see where this thing might go. And she couldn’t deny the admittedly strong feelings she had for him.
So she decided to take that leap of faith. “I actually don’t think you’re too far off at all.” She bit her bottom lip for a moment, carefully contemplating her next words. She gazed off into the nearby woods, taking a deep breath before continuing, gathering every ounce of courage she had before turning back to him. This next part was going to be hard. Sometimes the truth was. “I find myself thinking of you when I least expect it. In the little time we’ve spent together you’ve become the most important person in my life.” She drew another deep breath, shifting her eyes away from Grady. She found herself praying that he wouldn’t throw this all back in her face, tell her she was crazy, play off what he’d said as a misunderstanding. She almost stopped talking, then steeled herself and finished. “I’m . . .”—she struggled with the next word—“uncomfortable with the thought of being without you.” She timidly turned back toward him, keenly aware in that moment of exactly how much her heart was in his hands.
Grady caught her gaze and stared intently into her eyes. Kayla could see him struggling to catch his breath and found it suddenly hard to breathe herself. “I don’t want to lose you either,” he said breathlessly. Grady slowly raised his hand to her face, brushing her hair from her forehead. At his touch, Kayla felt her heart speed up, felt her skin start to tingle.
The fire crackled beside them as Grady held her gaze, his thumb lightly touching her forehead. For a brief, fleeting moment she felt a little uncomfortable, but the moment stretched on, and the discomfort was soon replaced by wonder. Kayla didn’t want to look away. The significance of the moment stunned her. She was lost in his eyes—and by the look she saw in them, he was lost, too.
“So where do we go from here?” Kayla breathed, her voice barely a whisper.
Grady sighed, resting his hand on her cheek. Kayla’s eyes slid shut. “I don’t want to lose you,” Grady repeated.
Kayla opened her eyes again, watching Grady’s face as he lowered his hand and took both of hers in his, his eyes fixed on the spot where their hands met. She took another breath. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Grady caught her gaze again and smiled, nodding slightly. “Neither am I.”
Kayla smiled back at him, feeling something she knew was not physically possible, but felt very real nonetheless—she felt her heart expanding in her chest. In that moment, looking into Grady’s deep sapphire eyes with even a small part of the truth of how they felt about each other out in the open, she suddenly felt a strange release, a strange joy. Kayla chewed on her lip—hard—to keep herself from grinning ear to ear.
Just outside the Mercenaries’ Camp
Na-um still couldn’t believe it. Over the past few days, he’d sent dozens of groups of soldiers into the surrounding forest. And every single man had returned with the same report: the Americans were gone. How could a group of four people elude them so completely? Na-um could accept one or two groups missing something, but by now he’d sent everyone he had—and not a single one had been able to track them down. Even Holun was still clueless.
Something was off; Na-um could feel it in the air. It was almost as if Destiny . . . no. He couldn’t admit that, even to himself. They were right in their quest, he and his men. The Secret could not be released upon the world. It was much too dangerous.
But somewhere, deep in the recesses of his mind, that small voice repeated, over and over again: What if something was helping those four Americans, something bigger than all of them? Wouldn’t that mean that their cause was just?
Not seeing another choice, Na-um returned all his men to their training. Let the Americans go now; he would catch them later on.
After all, he did know where they were going.
Belize Rainforest
Kayla’s food supply was quickly depleting, and, even with rationing it, the water was almost gone. The long night of rest had helped them
regain their strength, but Kayla was eager to get home. She wouldn’t feel safe until they were back at the dig, or, better yet, out of the country. Maybe not even then.
On the morning of the fifth day, Kayla heard a muffled sound. The others had heard it, too; all four crouched instinctively, concealing themselves in the tall undergrowth. Who knew that five days in the wilderness would so drastically hone their survival instincts?
The sound was coming from in front of them, and seemed to be getting closer. Kayla glanced over at Grady, whose expression matched what she was feeling exactly. Had the Mercenaries been close all along, waiting for them to wear down, waiting for the perfect moment to attack? Had the menacing army of men finally tracked them down?
As the noise came closer, Kayla slowly began to recognize the sound—was that a car? All four remained frozen in their defensive positions, but began looking at each other with questions in their eyes. What now?
Then a Jeep came into view. They were well hidden in the trees, but from her vantage point, Kayla could see the driver of the vehicle. She exhaled, then heard the others follow suit as they recognized their savior. Jack McFarland drove up to them as they came out of the trees, waving him down.
Justin spoke first—a little too loudly, Kayla thought. They had been out here for far too long—her instincts were all off. Certainly the danger had passed. “Man, are we glad to see you!”
Jack grinned as he stopped and the four weary travelers climbed aboard. As soon as they were inside, he headed back the way he came, not wasting any time. “I thought I’d never find you guys! I’ve been out looking for days, hoping against hope that I would somehow find you. Looks like I was right.”
Kayla tried to get her bearings, but after nearly a week in the forest, the trees had all started to look the same. “How close are we to the dig?” She desperately wanted to shower and get out of the clothes she’d been wearing for the past week.
“Only a few miles.” They all groaned loudly. Jack laughed. “You’ve been gone awhile. We’ve all missed you.” He patted the hand that Kayla was resting on the passenger seat.
She smiled over at him. “You have no idea how grateful we are. We’ve been walking for five days.”
Jack whistled low in surprise. “No worries. We’ll get you all cleaned up and feeling up to par in no time.” Jack smiled, then his expression suddenly changed. “Oh! Kayla, I almost forgot. I’ve got a gift back there for you.” He jabbed his right thumb between the seats toward the back of the vehicle. “Grady, a little help?”
Grady leaned back and reached for something stashed behind the Jeep’s backseat. When he turned around, he was holding Kayla’s backpack, the bag that held every one of her prized possessions—at least the ones that’d traveled with her to Belize.
“Oh, Jack, thank you so much!” She reached back and grabbed the bag from Grady, hoisting it between the seats while being careful not to hit Jack with it. “You don’t know how lost I’ve been without this.” She began rifling through it, utterly relieved to find everything still in its place, if a little worse for wear.
Jack smiled at her. “I thought as much. It was just laying there in the tall grass, near the Jeep . . .”
His voice trailed off and Kayla’s mind immediately recalled that fateful explosion. When she thought of the men she’d really only met an hour or so before they were gone, she was grateful that Jack had declined their invitation to join them on the trip. The decision to stay had saved his life.
The remainder of the short ride was quiet. Kayla stared out the window while Mandy and Grady laid back, resting their eyes, and Justin sat with his eyes closed, rubbing his temples. Kayla glanced back at him and sighed. Glad this whole mess is finally over.
If she had been able to see what was coming, she wouldn’t have jinxed it.
The mess was just beginning.
CHAPTER 9
Vision
Somewhere Between Belize City and Fairbanks
Kayla sighed, then set the sci-fi novel she was reading on the empty seat next to her. She couldn’t concentrate, and being tens of thousands of feet above the ground didn’t help. The events of the past few days had taken their toll, and she was exhausted.
She laid her head back on the headrest and closed her eyes; maybe she could sleep. Considering that she hadn’t been able to sleep much at all last night—the previous day had been largely restful, but strange dreams she couldn’t even remember now had made for a very restless night—she should have been asleep already, even despite the hundreds of tons of metal and steel beneath her, suspending her and her traveling companions in the sky. But something somewhere deep inside her was unsettled, and she couldn’t relax. She couldn’t put her finger on it, didn’t have the slightest clue what it was—she just knew that something was off.
Frustrating.
Kayla shifted in her seat and settled down deeper, trying to focus her thoughts solely on the rock music streaming through her earbuds—oddly enough, the only music that she could relax to; something about the incessant beat was soothing to her—hoping against hope that she could get comfortable enough to fall asleep.
Ha. Not in coach.
Then it happened.
Lamanai Archeological Project, Northern Belize Rainforest
“Mr. McFarland?”
Jack froze instinctively, wrench in hand, and stared up at the underside of the Jeep he was working on, as if the man calling his name couldn’t see him if he didn’t move. Yeah, right. That ship had already sailed. What does this joker want now?
Jack cringed as he scooted out from under the vehicle and sat up, leaning against the old Jeep’s passenger door, knowing full well who was beckoning him. He pulled out a greasy used-to-be-red rag and began wiping his hands as he squinted up into the sunlight to see a dark-haired, tanned, middle-aged man in a monkey suit staring down at him. Surprise, surprise. “Yes, Mr. Barring, what can I do for you?” He asked, not bothering to hide his disdain.
The suited man, Lamanai’s liaison—Jack used that word very loosely—from the Central American Institute of Archaeology, just kept staring down at him. “Um, I need to see some paperwork, and no one seems to be able to help me. I was told you’re in charge around here, so I was hoping you would be able to find it for me.”
Jack let out an exaggerated sigh, pausing before lumbering to his feet. He tucked the filthy rag into his pocket, smudging more grease on his dingy blue overalls, then headed off toward the work trailer.
Mr. Fancy Pants was mopping his forehead with his own rag, a white one that looked like it had come straight from the store. He probably had an entire suitcase dedicated just to rags such as these—though rag wasn’t quite the right word. Handkerchief, probably. Just a day of using a handkerchief like that would certainly have destroyed it. Jack snickered to himself.
He led the way to the work trailer, the central hub of pretty much everything at the dig, including all the legal goings-on of this place. Jack referred to all the paperwork they kept as “a pile of worthless cow dung”—why did they need all that legal crap, anyway?—but apparently Mr. Barring here needed to see it, needed to make sure everything was in order. Jack wouldn’t be able to make heads or tails of any of it. Hopefully Mr. Barring could, because he was on his own.
When Jack pulled open the curiously unlatched door to the trailer, he saw Jackie, his favorite student worker at the dig, sitting in front of the dig’s only desktop computer. When he closed the door behind them, she jumped.
“Oh, Mr. McFarland! You scared me!” Jackie leapt to her feet, sending the wheeled office chair she was using crashing into a table a few feet away. “What are you doing here?”
A smug smile tugged at his lips as Jack crossed his arms. “I could ask you the same question.” Kayla—who’d left with Grady and the other two Einsteins just this morning—had left him in charge in their absence. Sometimes having the authority card to play came in handy.
But Jackie had regained her composure, and seemed unfa
zed by Jack’s reply. She smiled sweetly. “I was just sending an email to a friend back home. I hope I wasn’t overstepping my bounds.” Her brow creased in a worried line.
Jack let the smile he was fighting break through to his lips. “No, not at all.”
Just then, Mr. Barring, hidden all this time behind Jack’s large frame, coughed loudly. Jack stepped to one side, his eyes still on Jackie.
It was so small he could’ve missed it. If he hadn’t been looking directly at her, he wouldn’t have been able to tell. But in the split second that Jackie laid eyes on the man behind him, Jack saw something flash through her eyes. Something nearly imperceptible, yet utterly unmistakable.
Recognition.
Jack blinked, and Jackie’s face was suddenly back to normal. “And who is your friend?” Her sweet smile had returned.
Jack blinked again, taking a little longer than he should have to answer her question. “Uh . . . um, this is Mr. Barring, with the Institute. He’s here checking on our humble dig.” He offered a silent “congratulations” to himself on his quick recovery.
Jackie crossed the space between them and offered her hand. Mr. Barring took it with what Jack could’ve sworn was confusion on his face.
Jackie spoke as soon as their hands met. “Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Barring. My name is Jackie.”
The man still seemed a little flustered, but managed to find his voice. “Please, it’s Alex. And the pleasure is mine, I’m sure.” He finally eked out a smile.
Jack looked at both of their faces, one after the other. Their faces were both set in amiable smiles, perfectly normal. Had he been imagining things?
Jackie dropped the man’s hand. “So, Mr. McFarland here says you’re checking up on us. Is there anything I can help you find?”
Mr. Barring—Alex to Jackie, apparently—flashed a quick smile. “I believe so. I’m looking for the legal documents on the dig—permits and such—just to make sure all your files are up to date.”
