Guardians of Stone (The Relic Seekers) (18 page)

She got a cloth from the bathroom and cleaned his face and hands. He’d sacrificed himself to save her. There was more to Jake Stone than just a smart-ass flirt. It made her wonder if he had always been this tough. What his childhood was like. If she looked deep enough, she might find out for herself, but she tried not to read lives if she could help it. It was like stealing. She
usually limited her prying to objects...when it was within her control.

She tucked the covers around him and went to close the curtains, so the daylight wouldn’t disturb his sleep. Through the window, she saw Brandi hurrying up to the inn with a big tote over her shoulder. She’d certainly left quickly. She had seemed distracted.

Puzzling over the nurse, Kendall went to bathroom to clean up. Her reflection in the mirror told her that she looked worse than Jake. There was a spot of red on her cheek. Blood? She leaned closer and swiped it off with her finger. Her head started buzzing.

They ran through the woods. Some of the girls were crying. She was whispering to them to be quiet, but it wasn’t her voice. It was a man’s. Shouts came from behind them and everyone started to scream. They’d been caught. She looked back and saw a man raise a gun. She heard a blast and felt the bullet pierce her body as blackness fell
.

The vision left as quickly as it came. She was herself again, if a little jarred. Jake’s blood must have been triggered one of his memories. What had happened to him? She couldn’t explain why she’d had the vision now and not earlier when she was bandaging his wound and cleaning him up. Another quirk of her frustrating gift.

The bathtub tempted Kendall from the corner, yet energy from the past hovered over it like a cloud. She started toward the shower, frustrated that she couldn’t take a blasted bath because of all these memories that weren’t even hers. It wasn’t fair. After a moment, she turned from the shower and instead reached for the faucet on the bathtub and cranked on the water. Someone had died in there, but she was alive and she was dirty.

Stripping, she eased into the hot water. The bruises were starting to show. She blanked out the whispers from the past and let the warmth soak into aching muscles. She was about to get out when the door opened and Jake stepped in. They were
both surprised. She covered herself with her hands and he looked away.

“Didn’t know you were in here.” He looked so lousy she knew it wasn’t an act.

“I thought I locked the door,” she said, slipping lower in the water. “Are you OK?”

He leaned against the counter. “I need a shower. Feels like I’m covered in bones.”

“I’ll get out and help you.”

He attempted a weak leer but gave up. “What about you?” he asked. “You’ve got some bad bruises.”

She nodded, embarrassed that he’d seen them.

“You could’ve been killed,” he said.

“I wasn’t, thanks to you.”

“That’s what I’m here for. To guard your body. If you’re done, I’m going to start the shower so it’s hot.” He walked past her, but had to stop after a few feet. He sat on the toilet and rested his head in his hands. “Maybe not.”

“You shouldn’t be out of bed.”

“I’ll get back in after I shower. Uh, did you undress me?”

“Yes. I didn’t want to ruin the sheets. Why?”

“Just wanted to make sure it wasn’t Roberto.”

Kendall smiled. “Are you going to leave so I can get out?”

“I’d rather sit here. I won’t look. Promise.”

She reached for a towel and held it as a cover as she stood. True to his word, he didn’t lift his head. She started to think he’d fallen asleep when he spoke.

“You decent?” His voice was muffled.

She wrapped the towel around her and let the water out of the tub. “Sort of,” she said, moving toward the door.

He stood and winced.

“You should see a doctor, and that cut needs to be stitched or it’ll scar.”

“Chicks dig scars, right?”

It would be a shame to mar that beautiful forehead, she thought, even though he had other scars—little ones here and there: in front of his ear, at the top of his thumb. Maybe it added character, but one that size could easily get infected.

“If you’re so worried about it leaving a scar, fix it yourself.”

“Sew up that cut? I don’t think so.”

“Don’t need to sew it. I have superglue in my pack.”

She’d used it on cuts, but that was in the desert when the closest doctor was over one hundred miles away.

Jake reached for the shower and turned it on.

“Maybe you should take a bath instead. You don’t look very steady.”

“I’ve been hurt worse than this. I think I can manage a shower.”

“You’ll probably drown.”

“Then you’ll be rid of me,” he said, stripping off his underwear.

She hurried out and quickly got dressed, listening for any crashes coming from the bathroom, but all was quiet. His backpack was on a chair. The first-aid kit was tucked in a side pocket. She pulled it out and saw a piece of paper behind it. It must be the warning note that Thomas had written at the hotel.

“Find what you were looking for?” Jake stepped into the room wearing his usual towel.

“Sorry, I was getting the superglue.” She held it up. “See.”

Frowning, he walked to the bed and sat down. His eyes looked tired.

Kendall put his backpack on the floor and moved the chair closer to the bed. “You look rotten.”

“You don’t.” He leaned back against the pillows. “You going to read a book to me?”

“I’m going to fix your cut.” She sat down and opened the kit. It had bandages, antiseptic, thread, needles, and superglue. She took a breath and hoped touching his injury now wouldn’t have
the same effect his blood had had in the bathroom. She pulled the old bandage off. Not much blood now anyway, but it must still hurt. “I’m sorry about your head.”

“How sorry?” He lifted one sexy brow—the one near the cut—and winced.

“Not that sorry.” Kendall gently pushed the edges of the wound together, cleaned off the new blood and applied the superglue without a single foreign memory rushing through her head. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to her sixth sense. After the glue dried, she covered it with a bandage. “Brandi left some Tylenol, but I don’t trust her completely. She rescued us, but someone here must’ve drugged my bottle of water. My money’s on her. She’s a nurse and could easily acquire medications.”

“It’s possible. Her legs look familiar.”

“What?”

“When we were leaving the hotel, you said you felt like someone was watching us. There was a woman there. I couldn’t see her face, but I saw her legs. I think it was Brandi.”

Kendall shook her head. “You really have a thing for legs, don’t you?”

“Has nothing to do with appreciation. That was all I could see. You should be proud of me for IDing her just by her legs.”

“Forgive me if I seem less than enthusiastic. Why didn’t you mention it before?”

“I wasn’t sure then. I’m still not, but she’s definitely acting strange.”

“Assuming she was the one who drugged the water, she was probably trying to keep me from finding the box. But why help us get back here? Why not just leave us there?”

“Maybe she doesn’t want us dead, just out of the way.”

Kendall gave him some of her own Tylenol and a bottle of water that had been left on the dresser, compliments of the inn. “You need to eat.”

“I need a steak.”

“It’s breakfast and we’re in Italy. How about pastry or some fruit?”

He wrinkled his nose. “Let me get dressed and we’ll go downstairs.”

“You need rest. I’ll run down and bring something back.”

“I don’t want you to go alone.”

“I’ll be fine. If Brandi wanted to hurt me, she would have already done it. I’ll go straight there and back.”

Loretta was in the dining room looking over a table filled with assorted pastries, cheese, fruit, juices, and coffee. Her curls looked like cabbage rolls today. “I’m starving to death. I haven’t eaten since yesterday afternoon. I went to bed and slept like the dead. I think I got some bad pizza.” She picked up some kind of pastry and sighed. “I miss bacon and eggs.” She put the pastry on her plate and found a seat. “How’s the patient?”

“He’s resting. I came to get some food.”

“Poor thing, falling on his honeymoon. I hope it doesn’t interfere with the...you know...activities.”

Kendall felt herself blush. “I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

“You think he’ll feel well enough for the tour? There’s a haunted graveyard.”

“We’ll see.” Kendall prepared a breakfast tray and started upstairs. When she reached the landing, she saw Brandi’s door cracked. She was talking to someone. Kendall eased closer, trying to listen.

“Why haven’t you called? I’m getting worried.”

Kendall’s tray bumped the door. She cursed under her breath and turned to go but before she got to her room, Brandi stepped out. “Ke...Kara? Is Jason OK?”

Kendall put on a smile. “Yes. He’s resting. Sorry, I was bringing his breakfast when I saw your door open.” Kendall moved closer, trying to see inside Brandi’s room. “I wanted to thank you again for helping us out, but I didn’t realize you were on the phone. I don’t know what we could have done if you hadn’t shown up. It was almost...miraculous.”

Brandi stood in the door, making it hard for Kendall to see past her. “You’re welcome. I’m glad I was there.” Brandi’s bottom lip was red, as if she’d been biting it.

“You seem worried. I couldn’t help but overhear part of your conversation. Is everything OK?”

Brandi straightened her shoulders. “It’s fine. I just have a...patient who’s not doing well.”

She was lying. The emotion was genuine, but not its source. “I’m sorry. If I can help, just let me know. Even if you want to talk.”

Because I sure as heck want to know what you’re up to
.

“The best thing you can do is keep Jason in bed.” Brandi put on a smile as fake as Kendall’s. “One less patient to worry about.”

“Right.” Kendall went back to her room. Jake was sitting on the edge of the bed staring at his cell phone. He was still in his towel. She placed the tray on the table near him. “I thought you were resting. What are you doing?”

“Phone’s fried.”

“Maybe it’s the battery,” Kendall suggested.

“I put a new one in.” Jake tossed the phone on the bed and picked up a bottle of water. He frowned and exchanged it for a cup of coffee. “Those statues must have destroyed it.”

“You don’t trust the water?”

“Do you?”

“I suppose not. We know someone here must have drugged the bottle I took to the castle. I assumed Thomas followed us here, but what if Thomas had an accomplice? I just overheard Brandi leaving a message for someone. She said she hadn’t heard from the person and was getting worried.”

“It’s possible.” He rubbed his head. “We need to find a new place to stay.”

“You can’t leave. You can barely stand up.”

Jake touched his forehead. “If she’s working with Thomas, I want you out of here. That might explain what she was doing at the car.”

“She said she was running an errand nearby. Roberto asked her to keep an eye out for us.”

“She could have been waiting to give Thomas a ride. Maybe they planned to take the box and run away.”

“Then where is Thomas now?”

“I wish I knew.” Jake took a bite of pastry. “Did anyone else see us sneak in?”

“A couple of people.”

“We’ll get some sleep, and then leave.”

“And go where? We don’t know where the box is.”

“Isn’t that what you do, find things?”

“Sometimes, but I can’t always control it. Finding relics is one thing. We have people trying to kill us. We need to call Nathan and let him know what’s going on.”

“Do you want to tell him we lost the box?”

“No, but we need to let someone know about Raphael. Nathan can call the police.”

“Raphael’s dead. We can’t help him. I don’t want the police involved yet. Nathan might feel compelled to tell them.”

“He’s not going to be happy.”

“Nathan’s never happy.”

He wasn’t, Kendall thought. He was too serious, too stressed. He’d never offered to discuss his personal life with her, and she didn’t feel like their relationship was such that she could ask. She wasn’t the only one who worried about him. Fergus watched over him like a mother hen.

“Why aren’t you eating?” Jake asked.

“I’ll get something in a minute. Do you think Thomas was the shooter?”

“Seems like a long time to hang around and wait to ambush us when he didn’t know if we would escape the catacombs. Not to mention there was a car bomb waiting.”

“Maybe it was the goat herder. I would suggest Brandi, but why would she shoot at us and then give us a ride?”

Jake shook his head and took another sip of coffee. “Unless she was trying to scare us off. If she wanted to kill us, she had the perfect opportunity. She wouldn’t take us from the secluded woods to a crowded inn so she could knock us off.”

Kendall studied his posture: the way he didn’t quite look at her, the set of his shoulders. “You don’t believe the person who shot at us set the bomb.”

“Are you using your mind tricks on me?”

“I can tell from your body language. You think there’s more than one person after us?”

Jake sighed and set the cup down. “It would seem that way, but maybe they were just being very thorough.”

“If the killer finds the car he’ll know we made it out.”

“Let’s hope he didn’t go back to check it out.”

“How did you know the car was going to blow up?”

“I saw tracks and a cigarette butt. Then I spotted the wires.”

“How did they time it to go off just as we got there?”

“Might have been watching. Might have been a coincidence. Damn, I can’t keep my eyes open.”

“Sleep for a couple of hours. We can’t really leave anyway since we’re playing dead.”

“A few hours’ rest, and then we’ll plan our next step.” He lay back on the bed and pulled the covers over him.

“Do you want to put on something besides a towel?”

He shook his head, his eyes already closed. “Don’t leave the room. And eat something.”

For several minutes, she watched his chest rise and fall, the pulse ticking at his throat, and knew he was asleep. His face didn’t relax. He looked just as alert as when he was awake. His
hair was still wet, and there was a spot of shampoo he’d missed above one ear. She dabbed it off and he flinched. She wondered if he was reliving the bomb.