Dangerous Journey (22 page)

She turned her head ever so slightly to look at Burnham’s body. She knew she would have only one chance. She couldn’t afford to hit a zipper; the hatpin wasn’t strong enough for that.

The pounding of her heart jarred her whole body. She swallowed hard. Should she try it? Was there any other way? The hatpin seemed so fragile. Could she risk her life on it? A few more steps and she’d be on the boat, escape almost impossible. If she were going to act, it had to be now.

She lifted her hand slightly, then drove it down hard into him. The hatpin hit its mark perfectly, and a strange, gurgling high-pitched shriek escaped Burnham as his whole body jerked.

The shock and pain caused Burnham’s arms to spasmodically jerk, loosening his hold. The instant he did, she hurled herself off the dock into the water. As she went over, a shot rang out. She heard Burnham’s body fall.

She stood, wringing wet, as Darius and Jimmy ran toward her, Jimmy with a gun still in his hand. The water was only up to her waist, but it felt slimy and filthy, and she couldn’t stop shaking. Darius gave her his hand to pull her out and into his arms. Jimmy ran up the dock to the boat.

“What did you do to him?” Darius asked, brushing her wet hair off her face. “I never heard a man sound like that.”

“Look!” Jimmy pointed. C.J. was astonished to see Jimmy’s complexion turn slightly green as he spun away from Burnham’s body.

Darius followed Jimmy’s pointing finger. Burnham lay sprawled out on his back, the hatpin still protruding from where she had placed it, HOORAY FOR HONG KONG, prominently displayed.

“Oooh, C.J….” Darius shuddered.

She stepped back, looking from one man to the other, then folded her arms and shook her head. “He’s lying there with a hole in his shoulder, and you’re like two big babies over a hat pin? I don’t believe it!”

As Darius looked at her, a smile slowly curved his lips. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and led her away from the dock to the hillside where his gun lay. “Are you okay, Cleo? I keep forgetting that you’re one woman who doesn’t need rescuing.”

“I’m okay.” She smiled back, then her face crumbled in tears. “Oh, Darius, I was so worried about you!”

He crushed her against him, kissing her until she was sure the heat from her body would dry her clothes instantaneously.

“Plenty of time for that later, you two,” Jimmy called. “Here come more police. We’ve got more explaining to do.”

When the police arrived, Darius asked them to release C.J. He told them that this was a complicated situation, and that they should call headquarters. They did, and were quickly instructed to do as requested. As C.J. was put into one car, and Darius and Jimmy into another, she was still trying to get answers to her many questions, but to no avail.

She was driven away without a word.

Chapter 20

The police drove her straight to Jimmy Lee’s house without asking a single question. It was baffling.

Jimmy’s butler stood openmouthed as he watched her step out of the police car, then enter the house, wringing wet and smelling of fish and salt water.

She went to her room to shower and change, forcing herself to go through the motions and not think about anything else.

It was only afterward, as she stood alone on the deck at the side of Jimmy’s home overlooking the harbor, that she let herself go. It was as if she had opened the floodgates; all the thoughts she had been suppressing came washing over her.

How had Darius gotten out of Sarawak? How had he gotten free of Robert Davis and the British agents? Of Yeng’s men? He must be working for the British, she concluded.

But if he was, they wouldn’t have been questioning her about him earlier, and he would have contacted them in San Francisco.

No, as soon as she thought about it, she knew she was wrong. Whatever the reason he had been let through at the airport, it wasn’t because he was an agent. He had been after the White Dragon reward. Of that, she was certain.

Or was she?

She slowly stormed around the deck rubbing her arms.

He had been lucky this time, she thought; he could so easily have been killed in Sarawak or at the airport. By Yeng’s men; by the police. But Darius always had plans. He was smug about them. Too smug, she feared.

She would never forget the look on Jimmy’s face when she had told him that Darius was dead. There had been pain, sorrow—but no surprise. In fact, it had almost been as if he were expecting it.

A shudder rippled through her. He had been lucky this time, but what about the next time?

What treasure would he go after next? And with what result?

Darius, give this up,
she pleaded silently.
Please give this up!

She felt as if she were going mad. Her thoughts rushed around in her head, bumping into each other. She shut her eyes and placed her fingertips on her temples, rubbing them, trying to drive the madness away.

She loved him. But was that enough?

She rose and went indoors to the music room. She sat on one of the chairs facing the grand piano.

It took a special kind of woman to live with a man who constantly faced danger. It was one thing to stay with a man who lived that way because it was his work and he believed in it, like a policeman. But a man who lived that way because he couldn’t face the way his life had become, because he was running away from tragedy. It was no way to live. Instinctively, she knew Darius realized it, but he also didn’t know how to stop himself.

The situation was all wrong. She walked through the house to the deck, watching what seemed like half the world pass below her, as thoughts of Darius swirled in her head.

Over three hours had passed, and during every minute she had wondered whether he had been arrested. Finally she heard the car pull into the garage.

She ran to the hallway, watching the entrance from the garage in anxious anticipation.

The door opened, and Darius stepped into the house, home again.

“Thank God,” she whispered, not moving as he rushed to her, smiling broadly. He threw his arms around her waist and spun her around.

“C.J., we’ve got it! We’ve got the reward!”

He put her down and stepped back to look at her, still holding her waist, his face glowing. She placed her hands on his arms as her lungs seemed to constrict, cutting off her breath. His first words had been about the reward. That told her everything she needed to know. She stepped back, away from him.

“It’s ours! And it’s huge!” He moved closer.

“I see.”

“Did you hear me?” Perplexity, then disbelief, filled his eyes.

“Yes. It’s good, Darius. You did well.”

“It’ll take a week or so to get it, but your share—”

She shook her head. “I don’t want it.” She tried to smile at him, to look happy. “I was never in this for the reward. I don’t want money from you. You earned it; you deserve it.”

He didn’t move. “You make it sound like there’s something wrong with it.”

“No. Not at all. I just...” She looked at him again. Her heart melted. She couldn’t talk about the reward. Not now. He was with her; he was alive! That was all that really mattered. “Darius, I’m so glad you’re home.” The words didn’t begin to express the way she felt.

He said nothing, but stared silently at her as he placed his hands on her waist again. She rubbed his shoulders, then lifted her hands to his handsome face, assuring herself that he was really with her now, for this moment. But soon, she knew, the moment would end.

She brushed a lock of hair back from his forehead. “Are you all right? How did you get away from those headhunters, or whatever they were?”

He took her hand, kissed her palm, then continued to hold it. “Do you remember the villagers who were going on a hunting trip when we were there?”

She remembered every detail of those days. “Yes.”

“I got them to work for me,” he said. “They were the ‘headhunters.’”

She felt the blood drain from her face.

His hands tightened their hold, his voice was calm as he continued. “They helped me find the White Dragon and make my way through the jungle, using the rivers. There’s an immense network of waterways. They helped me quite a bit. You and I could never have made it alone, C.J. That was very clear to me.”

“I don’t understand.” Her eyes never left his.

“The problem was John Carter. As soon as I saw him there, I realized he had to be working for Yeng. I had to get the White Dragon out of the country without returning to Bir Sakan, and I had to get you out, too. Once I saw that we were in danger, I had to change our plans.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” She couldn’t believe he had been so thoughtless, so cruel.

“I had to get you out of there.” He rubbed her waist, his thumbs moving upward, playing with her ribcage. “My biggest worry was that you’d figure out that Carter was an impostor. The man was such a fool, he nearly gave himself away a couple of times. Your only chance to escape him was your innocence.”

“My innocence! That’s why you left me?” She pushed him away, stopping his caresses.

He looked at her, puzzled. “I knew Carter wouldn’t let anything happen to you as long as he believed you knew nothing about all this. It’s easy to tell the Malay government a man went off into the jungle and disappeared. It’s not that unusual. But a woman, especially one whose brother was involved in the theft of a major art treasure, could cause a huge investigation. He wouldn’t want that.”

She turned her back on him, not able to look at him, not wanting him to touch her. “I see. For the sake of this jade, you faked your death. You didn’t tell me or Jimmy, knowing how we feel about you, knowing how we would suffer.” Her throat tightened, stopping her words as the agony she felt came back to her anew.

“I told Jimmy as soon as I could!” His voice was harsh. “And I didn’t fake my death! I told you I’d be all right. I told you to trust me. You were the one who decided I was dead! As far as I was concerned, I was just missing. Don’t you understand, woman? I wanted you to be safe! It would have been dangerous, maybe impossible, to get you out alive with Carter there once we found the Dragon!”

“The Dragon...” She nodded. “Funny, I’ve never even seen what it looks like.”

She walked to the living room and sat on a chair facing the large picture window.

Darius followed her and stood behind her. “C.J.! It’s what we were there for!”

Her gaze was veiled. “Yes. Of course.”

“I didn’t think it would make any difference—”

“Oh, Darius!” she cried in dismay as she bent forward, her head in her hands.

“I don’t understand you!” He stormed to her side, lifted her off the chair, and made her look at him, holding her arms. “We did what we set out to do and you’re upset? This is supposed to be a celebration, not a funeral. This is the biggest thing that’s ever happened to me. It’s fantastic!”

“Congratulations.”

He let go of her. “Is that all you can say? I got us a fortune and saved your brother’s worthless neck, and that’s all you have to say about it?”

“I’m sorry.” She turned her head aside, biting her bottom lip.

“Sorry? Look at me!” he shouted. “What do I have to do next time? Find the stash from the Great Train Robbery?”

Next time!

He had said it. Her body suddenly felt rigid, as if all the life had gone out of it and all that was left was a hard shell.

Next time...

It was as if she were looking at him through the wrong end of a telescope. Everything went black around him, and he suddenly seemed very small and far away.

She couldn’t stay there any longer; she couldn’t bear it. She took a step away from him, then another, and somehow she managed to cross the room to the door.

He made a move in her direction and held out his hand, but then stopped and let his hand fall to his side.

She would never forget him standing there, looking so lost, so hurt. She wanted to run back to him and hold him.

But he had told her in Singapore that he didn’t want her with him.

In Sarawak, he called himself a bastard and said it was wrong for him to make love to her.

And then he had left her.

Even now, he continued to choose a life she could never be a part of. And he knew it; he knew it. She felt as if her heart had been taken from her body, laid at his feet, and then kicked aside. Ever since their talk in Singapore, she had known the time would come to leave.

But the knowing and the doing were so very different....

She stopped at the doorway, then with her hand against the doorjamb as if for support, she turned and looked at him one last time. “It’s Clothilde,” she said. “Clothilde Jane Perkins. Good-bye, Darius.”

o0o

Jimmy was waiting for her in the entry hall as she left the guest room with her packed bag. He took her suitcase and placed it on the floor.

“Stay, C.J. You two can work things out.”

“It’s no good, Jimmy. We’re too different. We don’t believe in the same things—basic things, like what’s really important in life.” She blinked hard; she wouldn’t let him see her tears. “Take care of him, Jimmy.”

“I will.”

She hugged him. He held her close and patted her back.

“I’ll drive you,” he said. “And maybe convince you not to go.”

“I’ll accept the ride.”

She looked up at the house as they got into the car. Darius was standing at the window watching them, a bitter, stricken look on his face. She turned away.

As the Porsche descended the Peak, she found her voice again. “I never did hear how Darius got free at the airport. I thought he would be arrested.”

“It was a setup,” Jimmy replied nonchalantly.

“What?”

“Once Darius got the Dragon, he wanted to get the men behind the whole thing, too. After he learned that Chan Li had not only lived in Luchow but had been involved in smuggling, what better place to look for a link between him and Yeng than the border patrol? Darius asked me to alert British intelligence about his plan. That was also why you had to ask the border patrol about Chan Li and let them know Darius would be returning. If Darius’s guess was right, Yeng’s contact in the border patrol would alert him that Darius, and most likely the Dragon, would be at the airport this afternoon. When they saw him ‘smuggle’ it into the country and approach them, they thought he was willing to negotiate with them. That’s when British intelligence stepped in and made some arrests.