Desert Guardian (27 page)

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Within
minutes, Sam had both generators shut down. He knelt beside the collapsed man
at his feet and checked his pulse. The sentry wouldn't be making any
interstellar trips today. He was still alive.

He
yanked a length of twine from one of his pockets and tied the man's hands
behind his back. While testing the knot to make sure it held, fast footsteps came
up behind him. He stood and spun around to face who he thought would be another
sentry but saw Consuela instead. And she held a crying, coughing Lynette in her
arms.

Relief
washed over him as he limped over to retrieve his daughter. "Sweetie, are
you okay?"

Lynette
nodded, still sobbing, and threw her arms around his neck.

He
glanced around, looking for Kelly. "Where's Kelly?"

Consuela's
dark eyes widened, her expression fearful. She shook her head, then pointed
toward the black tent. Her hands clutching her throat, she pantomimed coughing
and gestured toward the tent again.

"She's
still in there?" Sam asked, panic tightening his chest.

She
bobbed her head. Eyes closed, she pressed her palms together and placed both
hands to one cheek, cocking her head to the side.

"She's
passed out?"

Consuela
jerked a nod.

His
mouth went desert dry, and he choked out, "The other tent. The people
inside. They'll die if they don't get air—"

She
held up a hand to sign her response and exaggerated taking deep breaths.

"You
opened up the tent to air it out?"

She
nodded.

He
set Lynette down, and when the child wailed in protest, he told her, "I'm
coming back. I promise." To Consuela, he said, "Please take care of
her for me." He set off to help Kelly.

Ignoring
the pain in his leg, Sam ran full-out toward the black tent at the center of
camp. He gasped for air, his throat clogged with fatique and fear.
 
He found Kelly prone on the floor inside
the tent, her arms reaching away from her, one knee bent and the other straight
as if she were still running.

Sam's
heart leapt into his throat. "Kelly?" he whispered, then more loudly,
"Kelly? Wake up!" He crouched down beside her, ignoring the white-hot
pain that shot through his throbbing leg. He placed two fingers at the pulse in
her neck. She was alive.

He
grabbed her beneath the arms and dragged her from the tent, hoping that once
outside she'd wake up. But when he lay her on her back and slipped the cloth
mask down from her nose and mouth, she still didn't move.

He
slapped her lightly on the cheek. "Wake up, damn it."

No
response.

His
throat constricted, and he swallowed the fear that had lodged there. She'd be
all right. She had to be. At that moment, he couldn't imagine a day without
her. He'd miss her sassy comebacks, would long for her dimpled smile and those
luminous blue eyes that captured his soul whenever he gazed into them. She had
more heart than any woman he had known. Her bravery surpassed that of most of
the men he knew. He realized then that he needed her, truly needed her. His
life would be empty without her.

"Kelly,"
he said in a cracked voice, then pressed his ear to her breast. Her heart beat
steady and slow, her chest rising with shallow breaths. "Please come back
to me. I..." He swallowed and said the three words he'd never told another
living soul. "I love you."

She
heaved in a breath and coughed, her upper body rising with the violent force of
exhaled air. She gagged, rolled to her side, and retched. He wrapped his arms
around her to hold her up. He didn't want to ever let her go.

"Sam?"
She pulled back to look at him, her face streaked with dirty tears. "Lynette?
Is she—"

"She's
fine," he said, struggling to keep his voice steady. Cupping her face in
his hands, he repeated, "She's just fine. Thank you."

The
ghost of a grin settled on her lips then quickly vanished. "I have to tell
you something."

He
scowled, concern dampening the elation he'd felt only seconds ago. "Is it
about what I just said?"

She
looked puzzled. "Why? What did you just say?"

"Nothing.
Go ahead and tell me what's on your mind."

"I..."
The distant sound of sirens brought her up short. "Police? But how do they
know?"

Kelly
staggered to her feet, and together they ambled toward the camp's perimeter to check
out what was going on. When they passed the tent that held the remaining
cultists, Sam was relieved to see people rousing from their cots, most of them
coughing, some sick as Kelly had been, but all of them alive.

He
and Kelly held each other up as they made their way to Consuela, who sat on the
ground beside one of the campers. Her arms were wrapped in a comforting hug
around Lynette. The child's face looked impassive, and Sam agonized over the
extent of emotional damage she had suffered. She would need time to heal, and
he'd be there to help her through every minute of it. If he had his way, Kelly would
be, too.

He
gathered Lynette's limp body in his arms and hugged her. "I told you I'd
come back."

She
didn't respond, her entire body lax as though unconscious, yet her eyes were
opened wide.

"Lynette,
sweetheart? Will you talk to me?"

She
still didn't speak.

A
lump of emotion clogged his throat as he hugged her tightly. "I'm so, so
sorry, baby." He breathed deep her child's scent of baby shampoo and what
smelled like grape jelly. "When you come back to me, you and I will be a
family, the best family you could ever have. I promise."

The
child blinked, her thick lashes fluttering over eyes that glistened with tears.
She focused on Sam's face, then her chin quivered as her lips opened to release
a high-pitched wail of heartbreaking sorrow.

He
clasped her to him, tucking her head beneath his chin and feeling her racking
sobs against his neck. "You go right ahead, sweetheart. Cry all you want.
It's all over now."

He
felt a hand on his arm and glanced down to find Kelly standing beside him, her
eyes swimming. "She's going to be okay," he said. It took some effort
to keep his voice from cracking. "Yes, she's okay."

Three
police cruisers rolled across the desert plane toward them, followed by two
ambulances and a pair of all-terrain vehicles that rode side by side. When the
ATVs stopped, a dog jumped off the back of one and came running at Sam.

"Cody?"
he called to the galloping canine. The coyote reared up on his hind legs and
planted his front paws on Sam's chest. "Where've you been, boy?"

He barked
and licked Sam's face.

"Jake?"
Kelly asked, turning in a circle, her hand held up to shield her eyes from the
sun. "Jake?" she called out to the sea of officers spilling from the
cruisers.

Two
more patrol cars pulled up. Still holding a crying Lynette, Sam hurried to
catch up with Kelly as she walked swiftly through the crowd of policemen. "Have
you seen my brother?" she asked, and was directed to the two ATVs.

Her
eyes spilled over with fresh tears, and her voice shook when she addressed the
two scruffy young men on their rugged little vehicles. "My brother. He's
sick and he's lost—"

"Yeah,"
said the blond one, who looked fresh out of high school. "We found him
wandering out in the middle of nowhere with that coyote glued to his side.
Tamest critter I ever seen, but it wouldn't let us get close at first. By the
way, your brother is seriously jagged."

Every
muscle in her body looked tight enough to break. Sam heard the restraint in her
voice when she asked, "Where is he?"

Scruffy
guy number two, a red-haired kid with more freckles than there were stars in
the sky, pointed at an ambulance. "He's in one of those. After we found
him we took him back to our trailer where we got a CB radio. He kept mumbling
something about Star Mother and a comet, said crazy stuff about a mass suicide
in the desert. The dude wasn't making sense, but he was in bad shape so we knew
somethin' was up. That's why we radioed the cops."

"I
figured this was the place he meant," the blond kid said, waving a hand at
Star Mother's camp. "I'd ridden past it after they set up. Everyone wearin'
white robes, prayin' all the time. A bunch of freaks."

Without
a word, Kelly stalked off toward the ambulances.

"Thanks,
guys," Sam said, and shook each of their hands. "You just saved a man's
life."

The
teens nodded and gave each other a high five. "Yo, dude! We're heroes!"

A
police officer approached Sam. "Excuse me, sir, but we need to ask you and
your wife a few questions."

Wife?
He rather liked the sound of that. "Sure. But she's not my wife. And we've
both just been through hell, so if you wouldn't mind bringing us some water and
something to eat first, we'd be glad to help. And my daughter needs medical
attention right away."

"So
do you," the cop said, his gaze directed at the dried blood staining his
bare leg.

Sam
waved him off. "I can wait, but there's more than eighty people in that
tent over there who can't. By the way, you better check on the fat guy tied up
out back."

After
the cop and several others headed for the recovering cultists, Sam looked for
Kelly. He found her in back of the second ambulance, holding Jake's hand.
Though filthy from head to toe, Jake looked content in sleep. He might already
feel relieved to be free of his bondage to Star Mother. Like Lynette, he had a
lot of healing to do.

"The
EMTs say he'll be fine," Kelly told Sam without looking up, her eyes
trained on Jake's sleeping face. "He's dehydrated so they're giving him
fluids. He'll probably need to stay in the hospital a while."

She
looked relieved, but exhaustion had taken its toll. Fatigue had made dark circles
under her eyes, and despite their victory, she looked defeated. He glanced down
at Lynette, who lay drowsing in his arms, and understood exactly how Kelly
felt.

Sam
jerked his chin toward the camp. "Jake won't be alone in detox."

Kelly
nodded and glanced up. "One of the officers told me Consuela wrote out a
statement."

"Really?"
He lifted an eyebrow. "Consuela hates to write anything, even letters.
What did she say?"

"She
said that once she saw the Star Mother cult for what it really was, she knew
she couldn't go through with the suicide. She only pretended to take Valya's
elixir because she saw what it was doing to everyone. That's why her mind
remained clear. What convinced her the cult was just a madwoman's fantasy was
when Valya arranged the deaths of her own children." Kelly drew in a shaky
breath. "By drawing pictures in the sand to communicate, Consuela was able
to convince Lynette to spill her drugged drink this morning, the same way
Consuela spilled hers. After everyone was passed out and the generators
started, she ventilated the main tent as best she could before going after
Lynette. That's when she found me."

Perhaps
his work with Consuela had done some good after all. "And Valya?"

She
looked warily at Lynette then silently mouthed:
She didn't make it.

A
part of him ached over that, but it was the part that cared for Lynette.
Hearing of her mother's death would be especially hard on the child, and now
was not the time to tell her. "How are you holding up?"

Kelly
shrugged. "Dizzy. Hungry." She held up a bottle of water. "And
thirsty." She handed it to him.

He
chugged half of it before giving it back. "Thanks."

A
strained silence settled between them, then both said in unison, "I'm
sorry."

They
laughed, and Kelly said, "You first."

"I'd
rather you did." He climbed into the ambulance and sat beside her,
cradling a now-sleeping Lynette in his lap. "You were about to tell me
something just before the police got here."

An
EMT approached them and held out his arms. "I'll take her for you,"
he said, nodding at Lynette. "We need to check her vitals, treat her for
shock."

Sam
stared down at the sweet little girl in his arms and bent to kiss her gently on
the forehead. Reluctantly, he handed her to the EMT. "She's very precious.
Please take care of her."

The
pasty-faced EMT nodded and grinned as he gently took Lynette from his arms. "Don't
worry, sir. She's in good hands."

Sam
watched the man vanish around the corner of the ambulance before saying, "So..."

Beneath
the layers of grime on her face, he saw her blush. She focused on Jake's hand
again. "I'm sorry for putting you through all this to save my brother. Now
that it's done, I have to take him back to Phoenix, back to our father."

Sam's
heart caved in. "I understand."

"I'm
staying with him, Sam. He needs me."

"I
need you."

Her
head snapped up. "You do?"