MoonRush (48 page)

Mia glanced back at the uncovered diamond
,
and Cleo’s eyes followed. Even in the morning light, it glowed with
a
breathtaking inner radiance. Mia’s tone was agonized.

“How could something so beautiful cause all… all…” She pointed to the vid-screen. “…this…
?
”

Buton spoke with surprising gentleness. “Mankind simply is not ready.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on there,” Jarod blurted out.  He turned to his tiny copilot. “Simon, take over.”

Jarod leapt out of his seat and was by the diamond in microseconds. He placed a hand on the gem, running his hand over its glowing surface. The gesture was loving, awestruck…and possessive.

“
I’m
ready. I’m really, really ready to unload this baby and retire.” He spoke quickly to preclude any interruptions. “We worked hard for this. We deserve it.”

Cleo laid a gentle hand on Jarod’s shoulder and pulled him to face the screen.

“But does the
world
deserve this?”

The conflict on Jarod’s face as he looked from the stone to the screen and back again was heartrending. The violence on the screen was worse. Cleo knew
that
she was doing the right thing.

Rob appeared from the back end of the ship, hopping on one leg. His other prosthesis was not in evidence. He called out to the silent crew.

“You should have seen the hitchhiker we
—
” Rob’s face changed as he realized
that
practically the whole crew was gathered around the stone. “What’s going on?”

Jarod’s tone was bitter. “They want to throw the diamond overboard!”

“No freaking way!” Rob clearly was not onboard with that idea.

Cleo stepped forward, trying to reach out to the teenage boy
and
explain. “It’s not that simple
.
I
t’s
—
”

“No! No! No! It’s ours! Nobody can take it away!
Nobody!
” Cleo dodge
d
to keep Rob’s flailing fists from hitting her in the face. Rob was apparently not going to listen to a word of what she had to say.

“It’s not about us or them. It’s about war and suffering.” Mia stepped into the conversation.

“Oh,
so
you’re going to tell us what it’s all about now?” Rob yelled back at her.

“Seriously, Mia, I’m not sure how much say you have here.” Jarod added.

As Rob, Jarod
,
and Mia argu
ed
more heated
ly
, Cleo stepped back. Her mind couldn’t wrap itself around all that was happening. She looked at the jewel, glittering with the promise of wealth, and could feel nothing but frustration. She felt Buton come up to her side.

“It seems
thay
no one is ready to let him go.”

Getting another one of Buton’s cryptic utterances was doing nothing for her temper. She snapped at Buton.

“Him who?”

Buton gave a sad smile. “
He
who not only inform
s
your past
,
but
who also
dictates your future.”

Cleo was moments away from throttling the man. Was there a good reason
why
he couldn’t speak in a way that normal humans could understand
?
Then she looked over at Jarod and Rob, yelling at Mia about their “find
.
” There was so much passion in them
.
S
uddenly
,
the two looked alike. But they didn’t look like one another. They looked like someone else entirely.

They looked lik
e Chuck.

Cleo turned toward the fighting trio. She knew what she had to do. What she had to say. To both of them. This had nothing to do with money
,
reward
,
or winning. It had nothing to do with anything that they had thought it was about.

“Guys.”

Their argument was so loud at this point that none of them heard. Time was of the essence, so Cleo decided that this was going to require some shock therapy. She set her voice to “stun
.
”

“Guys!”

The two men stopped ganging up on Mia and turned to face Cleo, surprise registering in both of their faces. Lowering her voice, Cleo spoke with quiet strength.

“There’s really no question of what we need to do.”

“But
—
“

Cleo cut Rob off before he could even get started. “Making twenty gazillion dollars won’t change the fact that because of us, people are going to die.”

Pointing once more to the escalating carnage on the screen, Cleo searched their faces. She tried to put all of her love and compassion for both of them into her eyes. They
had
to understand. She then gazed down at the diamond.

“We need to let it go.”

Cleo reached out her hand for Buton’s. She needed his intellect. She needed his quiet strength. She needed more than that.

And then, when their hands touched and warmth flowed through her, Cleo realized something else. As important as it was for Jarod and Rob to release Chuck, it was just as important for her.

“We need to let Chuck go, too.”

* * *

Rob’s ears rang with Cleo’s last statement. He couldn’t…
wouldn’t
…believe that she had just said that. What gave her the right? He spoke with what felt like the suppressed rage of two years of missing his dad
.
H
is voice rasp
ed
out of his chest.

“Dad would never
—
”

Jarod cut him off, his voice ringing through the hold. “Your dad was reckless!”

The words stunned Rob. They felt like a slap
in
the face, an affront
to
the core of his being,
and
an insult that could never be forgiven. Rob felt bitter bile rush to spill out of his mouth, but then he took a closer look at his uncle. It looked
as though
Jarod was just as shocked as he was.

Jarod lowered his voice and continued. “He was reckless with his life, with yours,
and
with the crew.” Rob could feel his uncle’s pain as Jarod stared deep into Rob’s soul. “He was wrong in Jamaica. He would be wrong here
,
too.” Jarod took a long moment,
and
then whispered, “We have a chance to be right.”

Rob could feel his whole body shaking with
r
age that could no
t be
release
d
. All the pain of losing his dad. Losing his legs. Losing his faith in something…someone…bigger than
himself
. His dad had been his hero. And now everyone was asking him to toss him aside. How could he do that? How could they ask it of him?

Jarod laid a hand on the back of Rob’s neck. Part of Rob wanted to shove the hand away. The other part wanted nothing more than for his uncle to hug him and tell him everything would be okay.

“Your dad was a good man, Rob. A very good man. He just wasn’t perfect. And he didn’t always make the right decisions when it came to you, to us…
and
even to himself.”

It was the truth. Rob could feel that truth pushing against the walls he had built up, the shrine he had made for his dad to keep him close. To keep him in his heart. And now it felt like that heart was breaking into tiny
,
jagged shards.

He groaned in pain, not wanting to look into his uncle’s eyes. Rob couldn’t handle the love he saw there. It was love that was asking too much of him. He couldn’t do it.

Jarod pointed at the monitor. “The world’s at war, Rob. Look.”

Against his will, Rob felt the horror on the screen compel his eyes up. It was bad. It was
really
bad. So much pain. As much as was going on in his heart. More. He glanced down at the diamond.

Jarod’s hand guided Rob’s eyes to meet his own. Rob could see how hard this was for his uncle. He was in pain, too.

“It’s up to you.”

Mia was clearly stunned. “You’re going to let a teenager decide
—
”

“Yeah. I am.”

Rob took one last look at the war covering the world. He looked back at his uncle Jare, at all the love and care he saw there. And then something inside him broke. Tears streamed down his cheeks as he choked out, “And I really wanted a condo with a hot tub.”

Jarod chuckled,
Rob’s
tears reflecting his
own
. “Maybe someday.”

* * *

Jarod had never been proud
er
of his nephew. He watched as the boy…no, not a boy. Rob had more than proved that today he was a man. Jarod watched the man in front of him pull himself together. Rob took a shaky breath
and then spoke
.

“Guess fate wasn’t on our side.”

Cleo elbowed Buton in the side and said with a wry grin, “But it seems karma just might be.”

Jarod snorted. He was sick to death of hearing about karma. That
,
and patience. He looked and saw Cleo’s fingers wrapped around Buton’s. Great. Now
they
were a team.

“We’ll see about that.” He stopped and looked around at the screens. “Where exactly
in
the hell are we?”

Buton pointed to the navigational map. Jarod leaned in for a closer look.

“Whoa. We’re only twenty miles from
—
”