Part 36 (2/2)

”Vuelve a su casa.”

”Si, Fernando. I am going home.” The pieces clicked as they touched each other, still nothing but cold stone under her hand. ”If I understood you correctly, I need these to go there. I know you wanted them backa””

He shook his head. ”No las necesito, seorita. I ask one thing. When you are on the other side, you give las llaves back to the people.”

The people. His people, she thought. Like the guide who had led her to the ruins in the first place.

Crazy thought. But if she couldn't find someone to return them to, she'd leave them in the temple. G.o.d knew she didn't want to mess with them ever again. There were too many questions, and her heart was too heavy to contain even a single answer.

”I will,” she said gravely. She pulled a leather pouch from her pocket and put it into his hand. ”Gracias por su ayuda. I wish I could give you more.”

He didn't even weigh the contents or check the number of coins but simply held the bag and stared at her with something like sadness. Mac offered her hand and found his return grip firm and warm.

She almost mentioned Liam, almost asked Fernando to tell him, if he ever came back to the junglea No. It was over.

”Well,” she said, giving Fernando's hand a final shake. ”Adis, then.”

Abruptly he caught her hand again and put the pouch in her upturned palm. ”Vaya con Dios.”

He gestured to his fellow muleteer, caught the bridle of the lead mule, and never looked back as he vanished through the green wall of undergrowth.

Only then did Mac notice he'd left his machete beside her backpack. She picked it up and called after him, but if he heard he wasn't coming back. She thrust the blade into the soft earth at her feet. Maybe he thought she'd need it to protect herself from roving explorers.

Like Liam O'Shea.

To h.e.l.l with it. No more procrastination. She tossed the pouch of coins into her backpack and hitched the pack over her shoulders. The flashlight was solid and real in her hand. Once she was home she'd learn to deal with reality again. No more mysteries. No more curses. No more crazy and debilitating emotions.

The tunnel was very dark, just as it had been before. She knew she should be afraid. She was blundering into another great unknown; anyone in her right mind would be scared stiff. But she'd left her right mind, as well as her heart, somewhere back in San Francisco. That was a definite advantage; she was numb now, numb and almost indifferent as she made her way to the end of the stone-lined hall.

The wall, too, was as it had been before, carved with a hundred inscrutable designs. Mac held up the flashlight to study it one final time, knowing it had nothing else to reveal. Nothing she wouldn't learn by taking the next and final step.

So this is it. Dr Pepper, here I come. She sucked in a lungful of air and closed her eyes. ”Good-bye, Liam. You gave me the adventure of my life, and I wouldn't change that for the world. Be well, and be happy.” She laughed through an unantic.i.p.ated onslaught of tears. ”Just try not to alter history too much and undo all my work, okay?”

She propped the flashlight against the wall. The stone chips were still cool as she looped them from her neck. They had to work, cold or not; there was no going back.

She clutched one in each hand, squared her shoulders, and walked right into a firm, warm, masculine shape. Powerful hands caught her arms.

”You've led me on a merry chase, MacKenzie Rose Sinclair,” Liam growled, ”but I can safely make that promise.”

He wasn't too late. By the saints, he wasn't too late.

He saw her now, in the dim lantern-light, just as he'd seen her that first time: wide-eyed, boyishly slim, her body taut with readiness to fight or run.

She trembled in his embrace like a wild thing expecting imminent death. Which might not be too far off the mark.

”So you thought it would be so easy to escape me, Mac?” he asked, giving her a little shake. ”Make Liam O'Shea look like a fool and be on your merry way. Only it didn't quite work, did it?”

”How did you get here?” she stammered.

”The usual way. I chartered one of my own s.h.i.+ps to bring me down. Strangely enough, I couldn't find Fernando in Champerico. Heard he'd gone off with a gringa. But when I got here, who did I find leaving the ruins?” He grinned. ”Remarkable coincidence, eh, Mac?”

She pulled away with a jerk. ”Perry,” she said. ”Perry told you.”

”Yes, he told me.”

”Thena””

”I'm not holding this conversation in a b.l.o.o.d.y tunnel. Come on.” He grabbed her arm again and this time she went without resistance, stumbling and awkward, into the suns.h.i.+ne of the jungle afternoon. She blinked, disoriented, fists clenched at her sides.

”If I let you go, swear you won't run,” he said.

Her head jerked up. ”I'm not running from you, Liam O'Shea.”

He dropped her arm and planted his hands on his hips, gazing his fill of her. She was beautiful in her trousers and s.h.i.+rt and ragged hair. Beautiful the way the jungle was beautiful, the way no tame, ordinary woman could ever be.

”You already ran,” he said with a lazy drawl. ”Pretty d.a.m.ned far. And with no intention of coming back, according to Perry. Ha.” He scowled. ”I told Perry to keep watch over you while I was in Napa with Chen. And he let you go.”

”You told hima””

”Oh, he claimed to have misunderstood me, d.a.m.n his English hide.”

She swallowed, though she tried to hide that little betrayal of vulnerability. ”Why did you follow me?”

He leaned against the nearest stone wall and crossed his feet. ”You left something behind, Mac. You were in such an all-fired hurry to escape, you didn't give me a chance to return it.”

He dipped into the pocket of his pants and pulled out her watch. The strange, slick black surface felt alien in his hand, but when he pa.s.sed it to her he touched something far warmer. Her fingers trembled as she s.n.a.t.c.hed them away.

”Thank you,” she said. ”But it wasn't necessary to come all the way herea””

”I don't steal from friends.”

Her eyes revealed more than her stiff expression; they focused on his face and warmed to the color of rich coffee. ”It wasn't necessary,” she repeated. ”I'm sorry you went to all that trouble.”

Her voice held a tremor, infusing everything she said with painful uncertainty. He couldn't tell if she were asking him an unspoken question, or expressing regret because she didn't want him here at all.

In a few minutes he would know, one way or the other.

”You still have something of mine, Mac,” he said.

<script>