What Doesn't Kill Her (Cape Charade #2)(57)

“No, it’s not. I could kiss you every moment of every day, no matter who stops us.”

They leaned together again.

“Mommy! Daddy!” Rae’s cranky sleepy voice halted their advance. “I want a drink of water.”

Kellen looked deep into Max’s eyes. “No matter who stops us?”

“Except her.” Max stood. “I’ll do it. My butt hurts from sitting on the floor anyway.” He looked her over. “You need to go back to bed.” Which was a tactful way of saying she’d been upset and crying, was tired and injured and in general looked like hell. He offered his hand.

She let him pull her to her feet. Come to think of it, her butt hurt, too.

Rae was sitting up, rubbing her eyes. “What were you doing back there?”

“Not kissing, that’s for sure,” Max muttered.

“I was telling your daddy about some little girls I used to know,” Kellen said. “Some little girls I met from when I was a soldier.”

“I’m not sleepy.” Rae could hardly hold her head up. “Tell me.”

“Someday I will. They deserve to be remembered.”



30


The next morning, Zone scratched his chin through his beard. “That peckerhead Nils Brooks is having a fit over that goddess. That guy is a pain in the ass.”

“You won’t get an argument from me,” Max replied.

The men were in grumpy moods, Zone because he was going to have to give up the Triple Goddess before he was done examining it, and Max because last night...well. Kellen slid a look toward him and caught him watching her. Because of last night’s kissus interruptus.

She wasn’t feeling grumpy at all. All that crying and gut-wrenching conversation followed by a good hard sleep and a decent breakfast had left her feeling positively cheerful. Getting dressed in the clean clothes Max had brought her and strapping her holster to her side returned her sense of accomplishment and reminded her of her own competence. It had been a difficult, dirty, murderous few days, but she and Rae had survived, and by the grace of God and Max, they had completed Kellen’s mission.

She gave herself a mental high five, took her cup of Zone’s killer coffee and went out on the lookout’s porch, high on a ridge and twelve feet above the ground. A wind came up in the night, pushing the fog and clouds away, leaving a morning so pristine she saw the view Wade had spoken of—mountains and valleys, greens and browns and grays, blue sky fading to a pale horizon, and far, far in the distance, the ruffled deep blue Pacific. The cool air smelled like old gods in a new world, kissing her cheeks to give them color and bring her joy in this one moment when she still lived...and hoped. It was so peaceful—

Rae opened the door and dragged a kitchen chair out in a terrible scraping of wood and metal against wood. “Mommy, this is for you to sit down because Daddy says you shouldn’t be standing all the time yet and Zone said you have a limp and they called Bills Brooks and he’s on his way.”

“Nils Brooks.”

“Nils Brooks,” Rae repeated. “He’s on his way in a helicopter. Isn’t that cool? Do you like my leggings? Daddy brought them. When I get to day camp, I’m going to do a show-and-tell and tell everyone about the Triple Goddess, but I can’t show a photo because Zone won’t let me. Did you know the Triple Goddess is valuable and priceless? It’s going to be in a museum. I kissed her goodbye on all three mouths. Did you kiss her?”

Peace was overrated.

Kellen helped her daughter place the chair against the wall out of the worst of the breeze.

From inside the lookout, Zone shouted, “You born in a barn? Shut the door!”

Rae rolled her eyes at Kellen and slammed the door. “Sit down!” she commanded Kellen, and when Kellen did, she sat on her lap and was, miraculously, quiet. She leaned against Kellen and looked around and shivered because she hadn’t bothered to wear more than a sparkly short-sleeved T-shirt, leggings and a tutu.

So Kellen put her arms around her and hugged her close.

Rae quickly decided there was such a thing as too much peace. “I like this place. Can we live here?”

“You can’t have karate classes if you’re up here.”

“Karate!” Rae’s fist shot out. “Hyah!”

“But maybe we could rent a lookout next summer.”

“I’d need a cell phone.”

Oh, this was going to be good. “Why?”

“How else could I call my friends?” Apparently, even before the words were out of her mouth, Rae realized that wasn’t going to fly, so she added, “How can I call Daddy to come and save us if I don’t have a cell phone?”

Kellen’s temper rose fast and hot. “Daddy did not come and save us! I’m willing to give him credit for the last sprint, but we—”

“Listen!” Rae jumped to her feet. “Do you hear that?”

Kellen exhaled her frustration. “I do.” She opened the door and called, “The helicopter is here.”

Max glanced at the monitor on the kitchen table. “There’s no one out there.”

Zone strapped on his sidearm and handed Max a rifle. “Let’s take every precaution.” He looked at Kellen.

She patted the holster strapped to her side under her jacket. Because the helicopter should be carrying Nils Brooks, coming to pick up the Triple Goddess and carry it to safety. But by the time Kellen and Rae woke this morning, Max and Zone had been out to the battle site and located the bodies, mangled by the predators who nightly patrolled the woods: bear, coyotes, bobcats and hawks. The firearms had all disappeared. That left one man out there, a ruthless killer, unforgiving of failure, who if he could, left no evidence of his passing.