On the Hunt - Page 60

“I bet he was,” Fiona said. “I’m sure Domino would have been proud of him. All the more reason why you should come back and show off for us.”

“I take it you’re no longer nagging us to bring you here to see Kalim’s horses?”

“Sure I am,” Fiona said. “But that can wait. I need to get Golden Boy well from his fever. After all, he’s my responsibility.”

“That’s very dutiful of you. I approve,” Kira said. “But I have a few duties to take care of myself this evening. So I guess I’d better hang up and leave you to do yours. I’ll call you again tomorrow to check to see how Golden Boy is doing with your vet. In the meantime, you take good care of him.”

“I will,” Fiona said quietly. “There’s no question about that. I take care of all my horses. Like I said, it’s my responsibility.” She was away from the phone for a moment. “I’m getting a call. It’s probably Sarah telling me my vet has arrived on the island. I’ve got to go, Kira. Bye.” Fiona cut the connection.

Kira was smiling as she slowly pressed the OFF button and slipped the phone back into her pocket. The call had been typical Fiona: a mixture of demands, affection, and responsibility that few fifteen-year-olds needed to develop. She was missing Fiona and found herself wondering if she could somehow arrange to give her that gift for which she’d been asking.

No, she told herself. Don’t even think about it now. Fiona was hard to resist, and she’d let Harlan take care of that particular duty. Plus, as she’d told Fiona, she had made promises and had duties to other people than Fiona. One of those promises was to Jack Harlan, and she had to keep it. She jumped to her feet and strode away from the campfires toward the tents.

Harlan met her at the entrance to her tent with a glass of wine in his hand and a smile on his face. “Hooray,” he said as he handed her the wine. “I was betting with myself if you’d show up on time. You fulfilled all my wishes.”

“It was close. But as I said, I made a promise.” She sipped her wine. “You should have bet on me to keep the faith.”

“I was betting on you. It was Fiona where I had doubts. I thought she’d keep you on the phone a hell of a lot longer. She has a habit of clinging a little too hard if she cares about someone.”

“I regard that as an endearing quality.” Kira went into the tent and lit the lamp beside the bed. “And there’s no such thing as clinging too hard if you care about someone.”

“I agree, but there are times when you need a little personal time to come to terms with certain relationships. Particularly when it’s with an individual as complicated as you.” He sat down on the bed beside her and took a sip of his wine. “Now talk to me. Why were you so upset with me?”

“I’ve already told you. Fiona says you understand everyone and then set out to fix the problems. I didn’t find that in my case. Not this time.”

“Then how can I fix it?” he asked. “Because I am going to do that, Kira. It’s very important to me.”

“Of course it is. If it’s something you might be able to fix, that’s your nature,” she said. “You said that you were going to get to know me, Harlan. I think you’ve succeeded. But have I gotten to know you? All I know is that you’re the one who takes care of everyone. Fiona, Colin, all your employees, all the people on the estate, and your many, many, companies. I can’t count how many people rely on you. And I appear to be just another person you took the trouble to save. But who took care of you, Harlan? Not Fiona, not your brother. Or anyone else that I’ve found. And you won’t let me do it, either. I could see you pulling away from me today when I wanted to go after Taylor.”

“It’s what I do, Kira,” he said. “It’s one of the things I’m trained to do. How could I let you risk your life when it’s a job I know how to do?”

“Because we had a deal and I don’t cheat on deals,” she said jerkily. “And I’ve found I’m particularly sensitive about this one. Imagine that.”

“I’m very happy that you made me an exception. Would you like to elaborate?”

“I would.” She reached out and turned off the lamp, plunging the tent into darkness. “If you don’t mind.” She came down into his arms and held him close. “I just want to hold you for a little while. Not for very long. I just want to take care of you and have you know that you don’t have to do everything, be everything to everyone. Will you let me do that?”

He asked, “What? Great heavens, you haven’t even mentioned sex? All I can say is that you’re asking an awful lot, Kira.”

She held him tighter. “Don’t joke. This isn’t funny to me. So you’ll have to learn to live with it. I know you can do it. I wish I could have been there for you when your brother died. It hurts me that I wasn’t. You were probably telling yourself that you could have somehow stopped it. Because that’s what you’d do. Someone should have been there to tell you that none of it was your fault just because you once trusted that monster. You couldn’t know what a demon he’d turn out to be. If I’d been there, I would have found out and told you.”

“I imagine you would have.” He was gently brushing her hair back from her face. “But I was responsible since Colin asked permission to have him stay at the castle. I could have refused.”

She raised her head. “You see? I knew you’d be thinking some hogwash like that. If I’d said something like that, you’d have told me I was talking bullshit. I bet no one thought to ask what you were feeling. Everyone thought you were strong and mighty and king of the hill and could take anything that came along…” She tucked her head back down against his shoulder. “And you are. But you shouldn’t have to do it all the time. So from now on, we do everything together and you let me have my moments of holding you. It will be a gift to me. Okay?”

“Are you finished?” he asked huskily. “May I tell you how touched I am now?”

“No, that would just embarrass both of us.” She tucked herself closer to him. “Just keep holding me and remember that whatever we do, we’re going to do it together…”

Harlan’s phone was ringing, Kira realized as she got up on one elbow and saw that three hours had passed since she had turned out the lamp. Not only that, Harlan was already dressed and about to exit the tent.

“I don’t believe you quite understood what I meant about doing things together,” she said, covering a yawn. “Which part did you have problems with?”

“The part where Kalim sent me a text and told me that one of his men was going to pick me up and bring me to the village where Abdullah lives and he’d meet me there in the next half hour,” he replied. “You weren’t invited because Kalim thought my credentials were better than yours.”

“That doesn’t matter. And I’ll tell him so.” She started to get dressed. “I would have thought Kalim would know better.”

“He does,” Harlan said. “But the circumstances are a little difficult. Kalim asked you not to come this time.”