Chapter 35
What the hell was happening?
Kaitlin peered through the trees but could see nothing.
Had they stopped them? Were they even still alive?
Kane couldn’t be dead.
She’d know.
Beside her, Christa knelt over the body of her father, her face streaked with tears as she gripped his hand in hers.
Kaitlin hated the fucker. But Christa had loved him.
And by all accounts—weird though it seemed—he’d loved Christa.
That was how she’d come into their lives.
The colonel had taken some of their people hostage, including Kaitlin, and was threatening to kill them unless Jake and the others surrendered themselves.
They’d needed some leverage. Kaitlin had once been in the colonel’s mind, and knew Christa was the only person the colonel cared about.
So Jake had kidnapped her.
The rest was history.
At that moment, Christa raised her head and gazed in the direction the others had disappeared. “What’s happening?”
“I have no clue, but at least there hasn’t been an explosion.”
“If they’d blown the bomb, we wouldn’t be here. We’d just be a great big crater.”
Kaitlin hadn’t thought of that. She’d just expected a big bang. But Christa was right—they were still here. Was that good or bad? “Are you okay?” she asked.
“Not really,” Christa replied. “I know you hated him, but he was my father, and he always looked after me. Loved me.”
“I know. And he gave up his life to save mine. He must have known it was suicide. He was a brave man, if occasionally a little misguided.”
“Sometimes we can’t always see that we’re taking a step in the wrong direction until it’s too late. His motives were good.”
Kaitlin didn’t think it mattered what your motives were if you stopped thinking that individuals were important. But Kaitlin didn’t want to get into that with Christa right now.
“Oh God, where are they?” Christa took a deep breath. “I’ll be better when Jake comes back. Can you reach them?”
She closed her eyes and reached out tentatively with her mind. “Kane?”
No answer.
“Nothing,” she said. “Doesn’t mean much, though. Presumably, they’re still wearing the reflector devices.” She closed her eyes for a moment. “Come on,” she muttered. “Take them off.”
“Well?” Christa asked.
“Still nothing.” She tried to push herself up, but pain shot through her ankle, and she collapsed to the ground again. God, she felt so helpless. She hated that. She looked around for something to strap her ankle up and her gaze rested on the medical kit Christa had dropped to the ground.
“Can you pass me that?” she asked, waving her hand at the kit.
“Oh God, I’m sorry. You’re hurt. I should be helping you.”
“Your father just died. I think we’ll allow you a little leeway.”
Christa gave the colonel one last look, then released his hand, resting it on his chest. She scrambled to her feet, grabbed the kit, and came over to her. Hunkering down next to Kaitlin, she stared at her ankle. “That looks nasty.”
“It doesn’t feel too good.”
“Is it broken?”
“No. I’m pretty sure it’s just sprained, but it hurts like hell.”
“I’ll strap it up for now. But maybe we can x-ray it back in the clinic.”
They’d set up a medical center at the base. It had all the mod cons, including an x-ray machine. But she didn’t think that was necessary.
She held herself very still as Christa gingerly lifted her foot up a little and ran her hand over her lower leg.
Kaitlin winced but managed to hold back her cry of pain.
Every muscle tensed as Christa wound a bandage around her ankle, pulling it tight.
But it felt better once the bandage was on, and at least it took her mind off the idea that she might be vaporized at any moment.
When it was done, she sat back until the churning in her stomach calmed. Sweat beaded her brow, and she swallowed down the nausea. When she opened her eyes, Christa was holding out a couple of pills on her open palm. Kaitlin took the pills and dry-swallowed them. They stuck in her throat.
“Kaitlin?”
A voice spoke in her head. Jake not Kane.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“We’re all okay.”
“Then where’s Kane?”
“He’s right next to me.”
“So why the fuck isn’t he talking to me?” She shook her head. He was alive. She’d worry about everything else later. “What happened?”
“They’ve taken the machine.”
“Shit.”
“At least they didn’t blow us all up.”
“I’m guessing because they want to blow something else up.”
“Like the whole world.”
Something prodded her in the side, and she opened her eyes to find Christa glaring at her. “They’re fine,” Kaitlin said. “But the Tel people stole the machine.”
“Damn.”
She leaned back and tried to relax. There wasn’t much else she could do right now. Christa sat beside her, tears slowly seeping from her eyes as she stared at her father’s body.
The day had started so well. How had it all gone to crap so quickly?
Jake appeared at that moment, and Christa scrambled to her feet and hurled herself at him. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close, looking at Kaitlin over her shoulder. She glanced past him searching for Kane. But Jake was alone.
“They’re checking out the bodies,” he said.
“Is anyone else…?”
“No one else was even hurt—just Leila and Brandon.”
She raised a brow and stared pointedly at her ankle.
“And you,” he added. “How are you?”
“I’ll live.” She’d feel better once she’d seen Kane. Or at least heard from him.
“Kane?” She reached out to him.
“Later.”
She pressed her lips together. She was starting to feel a little pissed off. The emotion was familiar and a whole lot better than feeling pathetic. “Can you find me something to use as a crutch?” she asked Jake.
“Maybe you should just stay where you are for the moment.”
“I don’t want to stay here. I want to see Kane.”
“Give him a little space, Kaitlin. He’s hurting.”
So was she. And wasn’t she supposed to comfort him? Weren’t they supposed to comfort each other? Isn’t that what love was all about? Jake was comforting Christa.
“Give him a little space. He’ll come around. He blames himself.”
“For what?”
“For Leila dying.”
“It was hardly his fault.” She wasn’t feeling too sympathetic at the moment.
After all, Leila had been shooting at her.
Well, not specifically at her, but with no concern as to whether she was hit or not.
She was sorry Leila was dead, but things could have been much, much worse.
Like, she could have been dead. Maybe that was selfish, but she hadn’t wanted to die. She still didn’t.
“Please get me that crutch?”
Jake put Christa gently away from him. He kicked around on the forest floor and finally tugged a thick stick out of the undergrowth. It was too long, and he pulled a wicked looking knife from somewhere and hacked off the top. Then he came toward her.
Bending down, he hooked a hand under one of her arms, then tugged her to her feet…or rather, foot. She hopped for a moment, then Jake pressed the stick into her hand, and she balanced on it, before slowly putting her foot down…and straight back up again. “Ouch.”
“Let me carry you back to the house,” Jake said. “We’ll get it strapped up properly.”
“Later.”
The painkillers were kicking in, and the throbbing in her ankle had faded to a dull ache. Taking a deep breath, she lowered her foot to the ground. This time, she managed to take a step.
“Okay, I can do this.”
Jake pursed his lips but gave a nod. Likely, he knew from experience that nothing he could say would change her mind.
“We’re going to clean up. And we need to sort out some sort of funeral.
” He glanced sideways to where the colonel lay.
“I can’t believe he’s dead. He’s been a part of our lives for so long. It’s like the end of an era.”
“He saved me.”
“I’m glad. You’re a pain in the ass, but you’re our pain in the ass.”
“Thanks. Okay, I’m going to find Kane and see what sort of mess I’ve made of my life this time.”
Jake shook his head but didn’t try and stop her as she hobbled away.
It took her what seemed like an age to get up the track toward where Leila had fallen. Rose and Imogen passed her carrying Brandon’s body between them. They didn’t slow, just gave her a nod.
“Good luck,” Rose said.
Was she going to need it?