Part 14 (1/2)

”Help? Have you lost your mind? He's dead.” She swatted the tears from her eyes, feeling the pain ripping her apart. Strangely, though, a part of her that operated on a level beyond awareness began to act to protect the one she loved that still lived. ”Take the Jeep and leave,” she said, tears streaming down her face. ”Drive straight to Mexico. I'll be all right. Quite a few people saw me heading this way. If I'm not back by nightfall, they'll come find me.”

”Bria-”

”Listen to me. By that time you'll be very close to the border. You should be able to make it over with no trouble at all.” She had no idea if her words had made any impact on Kells. His eyes were darker than midnight and completely unreadable.

With a curse and a quick glance over his shoulder at something he ran toward the Jeep.

She fought back sobs as she turned to her dad. He had always been so strong, so all-powerful. She hadn't been able to keep him from being killed, but she could hold him and stay with him so that he wouldn't be alone until someone came to find them.

Without regard for the blood she slid her hands beneath his shoulders so that she could cradle him against her.

He groaned. Her breath caught in her throat. ”Dad? ”

He didn't say anything; his eyes remained closed.

She glanced back at the Jeep. It was still there and so was Kells. He looked as though he was delving for something in the backseat.

”Kells. Dad's alive!”

He raced back to her. With another look over his shoulder he jerked off his jacket, then his s.h.i.+rt. ”I tried to find something for a compress, but this will have to do.” Kneeling, he folded his s.h.i.+rt, then pressed it against Burke's shoulder. ”Hold this to his wound. I've called for help. They should be scrambling a copter within the minute.”

She hurriedly wiped the tears from her eyes and did as he said, willing the compress to work. And all the while her head filled with questions. ”You knew he wasn't dead?”

”I didn't kill him, Bria,” he said grimly. ”I told you I wouldn't.” He lay his black leather jacket across Burke, leaving his own upper body bare to the December cold. ”The bullet got him in the shoulder, but it must have nicked an artery. He'll be okay, though, if we can stop the flow of blood and get him to a hospital.”

”But-”

”Later.” He jerked to his feet and strode to one of the horses. Quickly, expertly, he untied the rope from her dad's saddle and carried it toward another body, a body she hadn't seen until this moment because it was half hidden by brush and boulders.

”Who is that?”

”The man who shot your father,” he said, tying the unconscious man's hands together, then his feet.

”Kells... saved my life.”

Her dad's voice sent relief pouring through her. ”Thank G.o.d you're alive. I thought-”

”I know. Kells... told me about the mirror.”

She fought back sobs of happiness. ”You're weak. Please don't talk. Help is on the way.”

”I'm all right, and I... I want you to know something. I knew everything.”

”Bria's right. Burke,” Kells called. ”You've already lost consciousness once. Try to stay awake this time, but don't use up your energy trying to talk.”

Even wounded and bleeding Burke didn't take orders. He concentrated on his daughter. ”I knew when... Kells's dad committed suicide, and though I knew I wasn't responsible... I've kept an eye on Kells all these years.”

”Dad, please be quiet. There'll be plenty of time-”

”I wouldn't have invited him here if I hadn't known he was a good man... and that I could trust him.”

Tears continued to stream down Bria's face. She remembered thinking that her father was too smart to invite an enemy to Killara. Why hadn't she trusted her father's instincts and left the d.a.m.n mirror alone?

She heard the whir of helicopters and saw three approaching, no doubt one of them carrying her mother. In the distance she could see the dust whirls that meant several Jeeps were driving toward them, accelerators jammed to the floor. There was a faint reverberation beneath the ground, indicating hors.e.m.e.n riding flat out to reach them.

Burke Delaney was down The alarm would have been sounded throughout Killara, including h.e.l.l's Bluff and Shamrock. There wasn't a man, woman, or child on Killara who would draw an easy breath until they knew he would be all right.

She smiled down at him and pressed a kiss to his forehead. ”I love you, Dad.”

A faint smile touched his lips, and having said what he wanted to, he closed his eyes. In the next minutes it seemed as if half of Killara converged on them. But there was no confusion. Everyone worked single-mindedly to help Burke.

After he was carefully loaded onto the helicopter, Cara climbed in after him, then glanced back at Bria. ”York and Rafe are meeting us at the hospital. You're coming too, aren't you?”

She hesitated as her gaze went back to Kells. Someone had returned his jacket to him and had wrapped it around his shoulders, leaving his chest still bare. But he looked as if the cold wasn't touching him, as if nothing could. ”Kells?”

”You go with your dad,” he said tonelessly, his eyes bleak. ”Someone is seeing to the horses. The sheriff will be flying in here any minute to pick up the man who shot Burke. As soon as he does, I'll drive the Jeep back.”

There were so many things unresolved between them, so many things that she wasn't certain could be resolved or forgotten. She certainly couldn't forget her first words to him when she had leapt from the Jeep. You killed him. ”Are you sure you don't want to come with us?”

For an answer he silently turned and walked toward his prisoner. With one last look at him, Bria climbed into the copter with her parents.

As soon as the doctors a.s.sured Bria that her dad was going to be fine, she flew back to Killara. Her mother had her uncles, York and Rafe, plus her aunts, Siena and Maggie, to stay with her, but Kells had no one.

And by this time she had heard the whole story from her dad and from the sheriff. An escaped prisoner from a local jail had jumped out from behind the boulders and demanded not only money from her dad and Kells, but also their clothes, boots, and horses. Her dad had been trying to reason with the man, who panicked and shot him. Her dad had fallen from his horse but managed to remain conscious long enough to see Kells launch himself off his horse at the man. A fight ensued. Then, apparently, once Kells had managed to knock the man out, he had run back to Burke. It was at that point that Bria had arrived and immediately jumped to the wrong conclusion.

He would never be able to forgive her, she thought sadly, and she wasn't sure she blamed him.

What she had seen in the mirror had come true, but while it had shown her a truth, it hadn't interpreted that truth. The scene also hadn't included the man lying on the ground behind Kells.

She had tried to change fate and failed. Her father had been shot, but not by Kells, and thankfully her father was still very much alive.

Ironically, ultimately it had turned out that she hadn't really needed to change fate after all.

As soon as Bria landed on Killara, she went in search of Kells. She knew she was probably the last person he wanted to see, but at the very least she owed him an apology. Before he returned to Australia, she wanted him to know how sorry she was that she had believed in the mirror instead of in him. She also wanted to tell him that she loved him. The knowledge wouldn't make any difference to him, but somehow, in some way, it would to her.

But she couldn't find him. He had returned, someone said, put on a fresh s.h.i.+rt, and then left again. For a split second she panicked, but then she forced her mind to clear.

And suddenly she knew exactly where Kells was.

She jumped into another Jeep and headed for the mountains.

She pulled the Jeep off the gravel mountain road and onto the lay-by and parked it by the vehicle that Kells had driven.