Guardians of Stone (The Relic Seekers) (21 page)

The tour group had gathered in front of the church, their lanterns held high. Roberto stood at the front of the group, announcing in a loud voice the first stop; the graveyard, haunted by a man who had been buried alive. Even this far away, Jake could hear Loretta squealing with fright. Brandi put her head down and hurried past the tour group. She darted onto a side street just past the chapel. Kendall quickly took the street on the other side of the chapel, her shoulders set with purpose.

Jake followed, trying to figure out what the hell either one of them was doing. He hadn’t gotten far, when he heard a scream.

Kendall cut through the graveyard, hoping she hadn’t lost Brandi. She was going to figure out what the nurse was up to if it killed her. She immediately regretted the thought, since dying had been so frequently imminent in the past twenty-four hours. It was time for answers. Like what was Jake doing in her room with Brandi on the bed? Kendall hurried past the headstones. She could hear them calling to her, whispering their stories. A shadow stepped out from behind a grave and a hand closed over her mouth.

S
HE FELT DEATH
, greed, and desperation in the arms clamped around her chest. The cigarette smoker. Kendall fought and kicked as her assailant dragged her between the headstones. A mausoleum near the back of the graveyard appeared to be his destination. Kendall knew from the tour map Roberto had given her at the inn that the mausoleum was the entrance to a small catacomb. There was no way she was going to be held prisoner inside a tomb again.

The sound of voices reached her ears, and she saw the flicker of lights approaching from the other side of the graveyard. She recognized Roberto, speaking louder than the others. “They say his spirit still roams at night.”

She couldn’t move her arms, but she managed to open her mouth enough to bite down on her captor’s finger. He swore and let go. She turned and threw a kick that she hoped connected with his groin. Groaning, he doubled over. Kendall screamed at the top of her lungs and shot across the graveyard.

She registered the looks of horror a second before the place erupted into chaos, lights swaying and falling as members of the tour group fled, tripping over headstones and crashing into one another. A hand reached out again, pulling her into the shadows. She screamed, but no one heard her. Everybody else was screaming too.

“It’s me.”

“Jake. My God. Someone just tried to kidnap me.”

“Again?”

“It must have been Thomas. Maybe we can catch him. Do you have your gun?”

A bone-chilling scream sounded nearby and Jake swung his flashlight. Loretta had fallen in an open grave and Gilbert was trying to pull her out.

“It wasn’t Thomas,” Jake said. The beam from his light dropped behind Loretta to the other occupant of the grave. “That’s Thomas.” Jake held the light on the face long enough for Kendall to recognize him.

“Oh my God! You killed Thomas.”

Jake didn’t answer, so Kendall looked at him for an explanation. He was staring at the body, a stunned expression on his face. “His beard is fake.”

Kendall looked at Thomas. His beard was coming loose, and his ball cap had fallen off. “Did you do this?”

“I didn’t kill him.” Jake’s voice sounded hollow, a harsh contrast to the chaos surrounding them. “It must have been whoever tried to kidnap you.”

“Should we check to see if he has the box?” She hated the thought of searching a dead body, but they had to get the artifact. Two other men had joined Gilbert, and together they were trying to extract Loretta from the grave.

“Stay here.” Jake hurried over and jumped down in the grave. He gave Loretta a boost from behind and the four of them managed to free her. While the others pulled her away from the grave, Jake squatted beside Thomas, holding his light close to the body so he didn’t draw attention to the fact that he was searching the dead man. Kendall could see from Jake’s posture that he was still shocked. What was wrong with him? She would have suspected that he didn’t deal well with death—he did have that aversion to bones—but he’d touched Raphael’s corpse without any problem.

In less than two minutes, he was back. “Whoever killed him must have taken it.” His voice was still flat. “He had that leather bag with him in the catacombs. That’s what he put the necklace in. I would guess it held the box also. It’s empty now.”

“How long has he been dead?” Kendall asked. “Maybe it’s just been stolen.”

“Hours. The body is stiff.”

“So the killer is probably long gone. Then who tried to grab me?”

“He could have come back to hide the body.”

Guilt mixed with her grief at the loss of human life, even a thief’s. It was probably hitting her hard because she had known he was going to die. Should she have warned him? Would it have made any difference? “I wonder who Thomas was pretending to be.”

“Come on. The police are arriving.” Jake nudged her out from behind the tombstone where he had pulled her. Roberto was calling out to the group, trying to gather them in one place. A few onlookers circled around Loretta, who was lying prone on the ground, while others moved toward the grave. There was confusion as to whether the ruckus was real or staged.

As they left, Kendall saw red hair and a pallid face at the back of the confused crowd, staring in shock at the grave. Jake took Kendall’s hand and they slipped through the crowd, joining the onlookers on the streets who had gathered to see what all the commotion was about. Jake put his arm around Kendall’s shoulders and pulled her close, as if they were tourists, yet she could feel the conflicting emotions in his body. He was still angry at her for leaving the inn, and he was also confused by whatever had happened back there at the grave.

“I told you not to leave,” he said.

“I wanted to see where Brandi was going.”

“And it almost got you killed. How long before you learn?” He pulled her into the cover of bushes near the lane leading to
the inn. It looked deserted. Only a couple of lights were on inside. “Be quiet and follow me.” They approached from the side, slipping past the trellis to the back entrance. They made it upstairs unseen. Everyone else must still be at the graveyard.

“Wait here while I check the room.” He unlocked the door and walked inside. He left the door open, and she could see him moving around the room. She dreaded the lecture she knew was coming. A couple of minutes later, he motioned her inside. “It’s clear.” He stopped her when she reached for the light. “Don’t.” He crept to the window and looked out.

“You think he’s watching?”

“If he’s smart.” Jake rubbed the back of his neck. “What were you thinking, leaving like that? You climbed down the damned trellis. What the hell am I going to do with you?”

“I’m sorry. I’m not used to having a handler. You seem to think it’s hunky-dory to do whatever you want without telling me. I saw you go into Brandi’s room.”

“You’re jealous?” he said in disbelief.

“The fact that you would have sex with anything that moves is none of my concern, but you seem to think you can do whatever you like, while I have to report to you like a kindergartner.”

“Your devotion overwhelms me.” He moved close, causing her to take a step back. “I wasn’t screwing Brandi, I was searching her room.”

“I saw you with her on the bed.”

“You saw me checking on her after I knocked her out,” Jake hissed.

“You knocked her out?”

“How else was I supposed to look for the box? The only
thing
I want to have sex with is you.” He stepped even closer and she could feel frustration and heat rolling off him. “I don’t even know why. You won’t follow orders. You take risks. And you get under my skin like an itch. Sometimes I just want to...Ah, hell.” He yanked her to him and kissed her. It was an angry kiss, as much
teeth as lips. His hand moved up to grip her hair, pulling her head back. A soft rumble escaped his throat and the kiss softened, but his breath came harder, tangling with hers. His hands slid down her back, pulling her tighter against him. His hips nudged hers and she felt her insides flip. She didn’t even realize they’d moved until her thighs bumped the bed. He gently pushed her down and moved over her, his hard body pressing against hers, his mouth and tongue making mush of her common sense. His groan melted with hers as one large hand slipped under her shirt.

Without warning, he lifted his head. One second he was doing things to her mouth she’d never felt before, the next he whispered “Hide” and moved like a jungle cat toward the door.

Kendall sat up, dazed. She saw the knob turning and heard the soft sounds of someone picking the lock. She slid off the bed and hurried toward the closet. The door eased open and a shadowy figure stepped inside. All hell broke loose. There were slams and thumps and grunts as shapes flew across the room. Something crashed into the bed, slamming it against the wall. She jumped up to help, but it was too dark to tell which shadow was Jake. Dodging the grunts and growls—growls?—she flipped on the light. She squinted at the brightness and then blinked in shock. Jake and Nathan were in the middle of the room, bodies locked in combat. They jumped apart, and lowered their fists. Nathan shielded his eyes.

The two men appeared equally stunned to see each other. Nathan scrubbed a knuckle over a split lip and stared at Kendall with eyes that were strangely bright. Then he did something he’d never done. He crossed the room and hugged her. “I thought I’d lost you,” he whispered so low she almost didn’t hear him.

At first she was too stunned to react, but then she hugged him back, wrapping her hands around his waist, feeling his heart pounding against her cheek. There was something different
about him. Not just the fact that they were hugging, whereas he’d rarely touched her before. He felt strange, not himself. Her skin started tingling and she became light-headed. Sensations and smells started pulling together and forming...

“If this lovefest is over, I’d like some answers. For starters, why are you breaking into our room?”

At the sound of Jake’s scathing voice, Nathan let go of Kendall, breaking the spell. Jake watched them, his jaw clenched, forehead bleeding again, and the beginnings of a black eye to match Nathan’s split lip. Both men were bruised and disheveled, their clothes torn. Nathan wasn’t wearing his usual suit but jeans and a black shirt, which was gaping where buttons had been ripped.

“You didn’t check in so I came to find you,” Nathan said. “What happened to the car?”

“How do you know about that?” Kendall asked.

“He knows every step we’ve taken. He has a tracking device hidden in our duffel bags.” Jake looked at Nathan and raised an eyebrow. “What? You didn’t think I knew? You’ve tracked me on every assignment.”

“You’ve been tracking us?” Kendall said.

Nathan’s jaw clenched. “If you get in trouble, I know where to send help. What happened?”

Jake gave a rude laugh. “We’ve been imprisoned in a tower, almost killed by booby traps, left to starve to death in the catacombs, shot at, our car was blown up, and Kendall’s almost been kidnapped twice. We barely made it out of that castle alive. Hell, we were almost electrocuted by giant statues. What were you thinking, sending her into a death trap? You might not give a damn about me, but think about her.”

A muscle worked in Nathan’s jaw. “You think I knew all that would happen?”

“You knew more than you told us.”

“It’s over now. I’m calling off the search.”

Jake shook his head. “I’m not calling anything off. Someone tried to kill us. I’m not letting that go.”

“I’m not letting this go either. I’ll handle it.”

“What? Send in your goons?”

“What do you think
you
are?” Kendall asked, regretting it when she saw Jake’s frown. He was far more than a goon. She turned to Nathan. She could see disappointment in the set of his shoulders. “But what about the box? And your cross? They stole it too.”

“We’ll have to find them later,” Nathan said. “Who were the thieves? I don’t suppose you got any names?”

“You sure you don’t already know?” Jake said, earning a surprised look from Kendall and Nathan.