The Mark of Cain (46 page)

Masterfully pushing away the emotions his thoughts
had brought upon him, he said, “We have a couple of hours.” Today they were
flying to New Hampshire…which should be interesting. Neither the Vatican nor
The Order knew where he was, but today he was walking right back into their
sights. What he did for Hara….

“Ugh…. I don’t want to get out of bed,” she
complained.

“We don’t have to,” he suggested, not even
half-kidding. “We can cancel the trip.”

She chuckled and looked up at him, finally opening
those pretty eyes of hers. “I bet you’d like that.”

“Like I said, I don’t want them talking you out of
being with me.”

She kissed his jaw. “And, like
I
said,
nothing they could say would change my mind.”

“I’m sure there are a couple of things…” he
grumbled. There were three major things he could think of right off the bat….

“Nope. Nothing.” He was guessing that her kissing
his stab wound after saying this was her way of getting in the last word
because soon their mouths were too busy enjoying a full-blown make-out session
to speak anything but breathy moans.

When Hara stopped them from going too far—he hadn’t
been allowed under her shirt since Yellowstone—and they were once again only
cuddling, he said, “Hara?”

“Hmm?”

“I was thinking that maybe…maybe when we get back…we
could move in together. These last two weeks…let’s just say that I’ve really
enjoyed them.”

Because she was lying on top of him with her chin on
his chest, he could feel it moving as she thought about his proposal.

Finally, she said, “I don’t know. Where would we
live? Your apartment’s so far from campus and my apartment’s such a dump….”

“I’m sure we could find something nice near campus.
We can even decorate it together since my place is too cold for your tastes and
your room is too feminine for mine.”

“What? You don’t like all the purple?” she teased as
she lobbed a dark violet pillow at his face.

“Not really,” he joked as he grabbed it and hit her
back with it.

Now serious, she said, “I’ll think about it. But
have you ever heard of a couple living together who hadn’t even had sex yet?”

He smiled. Every day she did something new that
before she had thought to be completely wrong. Two weeks ago, she never would
have even said the word “sex.” He so had her. Todd and Tracker were definitely
going to lose….

“Hello? Earth to Inac!” she said, sliding her body
up his until their faces were level.

“Huh?”

She giggled. “I asked you if you’ve ever—”

“Oh, yeah,” he said, kissing her velvety lips. When
she pulled away, he added, “And no, I haven’t. But we haven’t had sex and I’ve
been here a ton.”

“I know.”

“See? I told you that you weren’t ready,” he said as
though they’d been having a completely different conversation. “If you were,
you wouldn’t have stopped us every time.”

“It’s not that,” she said, suddenly looking
uncomfortable. “I just want to be honest with Father Carroll. I don’t want him
to have any reason to hate you.”

Inac almost snorted. “Baby, I think you’ve stopped
us in vain then.”

“You don’t know that. He may not have heard of your
family.”

“Yeah. Maybe not,” he lied.

***

“Isn’t it beautiful?!” Hara cried when they got out
of the car.

Inac looked up at the enormous, two-storied ancient
reddish-brown brick building. Its west wing looked different than the east one.
Different architects from different times, he supposed. Despite how much he
didn’t want to be here, he had to admit that it was impressive, and it was friendlier-looking
than the mental hospital look many orphanages held. This one was a Georgian
Colonial style, with everything flat and lacking personality, but it wasn’t
creepy or intimidating in the least.

The large oak front door opened to a mass of giggling
children spilling out of it like a flash flood coming to sweep them away to
their deaths.

“Hara! Hara!” they all called with their wide-eyed
enthusiasm.

Hara had a wide smile on her face as she hugged and
kissed each child in turn. She was so happy she had tears in her eyes.

In all her excitement, Hara left Inac forgotten
behind her, letting the children herd her inside, asking her question after
question. It was obvious that she loved them as much as they loved her.

Tracker turned to him and said, “So, here we go.”

“Yup,” Inac replied. “You sound about as thrilled as
I am.”

“Well, I’ll probably get yelled at for not telling
him about you.”

“Yeah….” Inac was holding both his and Hara’s bags
while remaining within the borders of his footprints in the fresh snow. He
really didn’t want to do this. How Hara had talked him into it was beyond him….

“What are you so worried about?” Tracker asked.

“Losing Hara. I don’t want her to know the truth.
She’ll hate me….”

“They won’t tell her,” Tracker said quietly. When Inac
looked at him in question, he added, “They think that she won’t fulfill the
prophecy if she knows about it. If she knows that you plan to kill her, she’d
ask why….”

Inac let out a deep breath that he watched escape
him as it fogged up the immediate vicinity around him. With its escape, he felt
better. Why he was so worried in the first place…. He didn’t want to think
about how Hara was getting under his skin. He just wasn’t ready to kill her
yet. He was still enjoying her.

“Come on. Let’s go make our grand entrance,” he said
to Tracker as he lightly nudged the kid with Hara’s brand new dark violet
polyester suitcase. If nothing else, this was certainly bound to be
interesting.

***

Hara stood in the vast tiled entryway, bundled up in
a thick cream button-up knitted sweater that Inac had bought her with its
oversized wooden buttons and large lapels she could pull up to hinder the cold.
She wore it over a black knee-length dress with transparent tiers saturated
with small flowers in oranges and reds. However, because Inac had bought her
brown leather equestrian boots so she could wear her usual skirts and dresses
in the New Hampshire snow, only a few inches of skin were visible. She’d
already hugged all of the children, and now was doing so to the priests and
nuns who had raised her.

“You look well,” Father Carroll said when it was
finally his turn.

“Thank you,” she said with an enthusiastic grin.
“You do, too.”

She loved how, no matter how much things changed,
Father Carroll and the other priests and nuns never would. They would still
wear their black gowns with the white collars. And, above their clothes, they
would always have the same beautiful rosaries and wooden crosses. The priests
would age, their hair becoming silver like Father Carroll’s was now, but each
nun’s hair would always be hidden under what the younger kids liked to call
“their funny hats,” their age only visible in the deepening of the lines in
their makeup-free faces.

 “So where is this friend of yours?” he asked,
looking over her head.

Ignoring how thin Father Carroll was becoming, as
well as the smell of age that was stronger than it had been when she’d come out
last spring, she turned around. But the front door was closed. “He must be
outside with Tracker tending to the bags….”

“He?” Father Carroll asked, surprise opening his
drooping eyes until he appeared years younger.

She lightly pat his arm draped with the black cloth
she was accustomed to. “Yes. But don’t worry. You’ll
love
him.”

She pretended not to notice the worried glance between
Father Carroll and Sister Kelly, the pugnacious head nun.

The door creaked open and Tracker walked in followed
closely by Inac. She hadn’t ever realized just how tall Inac was until he was
standing here. He looked like a giant among them. She’d always known that he
had to duck getting through her front door, but seeing him only barely clear
their
massive
door was different.

“Inac!” she called, waving him over. “Come here. I
want you to meet some people.”

He set down the bags and walked through the now silent
sea of children gaping up at him in awe. As he walked, he scrunched up his long
sleeves out of nervousness, showing his tattooed arm. That was something these
kids had never seen before, or at least most of them. They were all kept so
absolutely sheltered here….

When Inac reached her, he set a possessive arm
around her waist, almost daring them to say something. It was obvious that,
with it, he was saying that he was hers, and she was his.

“This is Inac Adamson, my fiancé,” she said, lifting
her ring to show Father Carroll and Sister Kelly. They both looked stunned…if
not a little nauseous.

“Nice to meet you,” Inac said, offering his hand to
a ghostly pale Father Carroll. Inac seemed to be gloating. He was probably just
proud to be her fiancé.

“Father? Are you all right?” Hara asked. She
couldn’t help but notice that all of the priests and nuns were crossing
themselves before the nuns began praying with their rosaries. Maybe Inac had
been right. Maybe they
couldn’t
get past what his family had done.

Father Carroll didn’t take Inac’s hand. Instead, he
looked at Tracker, accusing him with his eyes. She didn’t know what was going
on, but she worried that the old man was going to have a heart attack. As
someone brought him a chair, she couldn’t help but notice Inac’s “I told you
so” glare.

Once Father Carroll was sitting and had taken a sip
of water from a glass one of the nuns had handed him, he rearranged his silver
tufts of hair and looked up at Inac.

“What are
you
doing here? You aren’t welcome
here.”

Inac looked around at the frightened children and
hissed, “Do you really want to do this in front of them?”

“Don’t act as though you have a soul.” Again,
everyone crossed themselves.

“Look, I’m just here because Hara wanted me to see
where she grew up after her family was killed in the fire. I don’t want anybody
here to get hurt.”

It was an odd thing to say and, for some reason, it
only angered Father Carroll.

“You don’t want anybody hurt? That is
all
you
desire,” he said with such malice that Hara couldn’t help but inhale sharply.

Inac didn’t get angry. Instead, he turned to Hara
with eyes that screamed of his annoyance. “I should go,” he whispered to her.

She threw her arms around him like any of these
orphans would to their deceased parents if they could see them once more,
pressing her cheek to his chest. “No. Please? Inac, you promised. You swore
that you wouldn’t leave me!”

He pulled her face away, holding it delicately in
his hands as he wiped her tears away with his thumbs.

“Baby, please don’t cry. I just…I
can’t
stay.
Believe me, the last thing I want to do right now is leave you. But I can’t
stay.”

“Why not?” she sniffled.

“Would you really want to stay somewhere where the
people cross themselves and pray to their rosary every time you come near? It’s
like they’re trying to ward off Satan.”

“I’d stay if
you
were there,” she whimpered.

He lightly chucked her under the chin and smiled,
though she noticed that it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “That’s where you’re
stronger than me.” He kissed her then. A
good
kiss. It was him trying to
give her something to get by with until she went back home to Los Angeles.

She ignored the snickering of the children. “Please,
Inac? Please stay for me?” She batted her eyelashes, giving him an expression
that she hoped would make him cave.

She saw the smile finally reach his eyes as they
sparkled with both love and guilt. “Hara…that isn’t fair,” he said before
giving her kiss after kiss after kiss—it was like he couldn’t stop kissing her
because, once he did, then he would have to leave. With each descent of his
mouth, it was concreted in her mind that she was going to win. But she didn’t
want him
miserable
while here….

Once Inac stopped kissing her, she turned to Father
Carroll and said, “Look, I know that his ancestors did a lot of horrible
things, but Inac’s different. Yes, he’s done things he’s not proud of, but that
was who he was
before
. I’ve seen his heart and soul, and they’re
beautiful
.
He has so much love deep inside of him. And he shows that to
me
. He
respects
me
. So, if you want me in your life, you’ll have to accept all
of me. And that means that you’ll have to accept Inac.”

Father Carroll stood and shuffled to Inac,
reluctantly offering his wizened, old liver-spotted hand to the much taller
man. Inac looked dazed as he took it, which again, with how small Father
Carroll’s large hand was in Inac’s even larger one, had her contemplating just
how tall Inac really was. With the handshake, she started crying again; this
time from joy.