The Mark of Cain (47 page)

“Come. Let’s get you settled in your rooms before dinner,”
Father Carroll said.

“We brought boxes full of games and toys,” she said
as they started walking down the long hallway that led to the living quarters.
“They’re in the SUV parked outside that Inac rented.”

“We’ll get those later as well. Sister Kelly, can
you show Hara and…and…”—it was like he couldn’t say Inac’s name—“…and her
fiancé to their rooms? I’m going to show Tracker which one he’ll be staying
in.”

She nodded and they split up. Hara already knew
where they were going but decided to pretend like she didn’t. As they walked,
she silently prayed that they would accept Inac. He just looked so sad….

***

Tracker wasn’t looking forward to the interrogation
he knew he was about to receive. Like any of this had anything to do with him….

“And this is your room, Mr. Thomas,” Father Carroll
said. As soon as they were both in it, he closed the door and rounded on
Tracker. “Why didn’t you tell us that he’d found her?!”

Tracker tried to play at nonchalance, shrugging.
“Sampson knows. It’s his job to report to you guys, not mine.”

“So why hasn’t he?” he asked, his eyes narrowing
into fine slits. Father Carroll was
peeved
.

“Because he made a deal with Inac. One he thinks
we’ll win. And I happen to agree with him, so get off my back.”

“What kind of deal? He has no authority to do so.”

“
Inac
gave him that authority.”

“Stop saying his name!” Father Carroll cried,
crossing himself yet again.

“You know what I’ve learned from all of this? It’s
that if you show disapproval, Hara will run straight to Inac.”

Looking slightly calmer, Father Carroll asked, “How
do you mean?”

“She overheard me and Sampson talking about how Inac
was going to kill her. We were planning on how to kidnap her. You know? The
contingency plan?”

“Yes. And? She doesn’t seem to know anything about
that.”

“Well that’s because she ran to
him
. Asking
him to protect her from crazy old us. He was gonna take her away with him, but
instead made the deal. He made her forget about it to give us a chance at
winning. Sampson gave in because he has faith in Hara. Just to let you know,
any time somebody says something bad about Inac, she runs straight to him.
They’re in love.”

“Yes. She did seem rather fond—”

“No,” he said, interrupting the Father. “
They’re
in love. He loves her too.”

“He couldn’t possibly—”

“He does. He didn’t have to come here. In fact, it
risks his winning, as well as shows The Order where he is. He came only because
she wanted him to and it was really important to her. As long as he loves her,
he won’t kill her. I wouldn’t give them any reason to break up if you want her
to live. Besides, he’s actually done a lot of good lately. He was the one who
got Iran to become an ally of the United States.”

“For selfish purposes only.”

“So? Who cares if it keeps people from getting
killed? He’s
changed
. I don’t think he realizes it yet, but he has.
I
even respect him now.”

Tracker then went on to tell Father Carroll
everything that had occurred since Inac had come into Hara’s life. He didn’t
leave anything out. Not even about Inac bragging about how far he’d gotten with
Hara sexually. During the entire story, Father Carroll just sat there, his
expression grim.

When all was said, Father Carroll stood up, saying,
“Well, it sounds like we better make him feel welcome for Hara’s sake.”

And that’s what everything always boiled down to.
She might not always like it or want it, but everything They did was for her.

***

Inac really hadn’t expected things to go the way
they had gone. Especially when he’d found himself with his feelings hurt. He
had to keep reminding himself that
his
feelings weren’t hurt, it was the
character
he was playing who got a pang deep down every time the priests
and nuns crossed themselves and prayed around him.

Inac’s room here in the orphanage was smaller than
his closet back home. It was almost completely bare, with the only furniture
being a simple twin bed set along one of the long walls and a small dresser on
the other. Above the dresser was a beautifully carved wooden sculpture of
Christ on the cross. Not wanting to see
that
all weekend, he threw one
of his shirts over it.

“Hey,” Hara’s voice said from behind him.

He turned around, giving her his best smile despite
his lowly thoughts. “Hey yourself.”

“So, sorry about all that drama,” she said as she
slowly meandered in. “I didn’t know that was going to happen.”

He shrugged. “I did. I’m actually surprised they
didn’t try to perform an exorcism on me.”

“Oh that,” she said, waving it off. “That’s not
until tonight after the kids have all gone to bed.” He heard her words, but it
was her gaze that chased away any vestiges of unease being at the orphanage had
stirred within him.

“Is that right?” he asked, opening his arms so she
would walk into them.

“Mm-hmm,” she said, breathing out as she did just
that.

“So how far away is
your
room?” he asked into
her hair a few breaths later.

“Just around the corner and down a few doors. They
gave me the room I grew up in.”

“You didn’t sleep in the same wing as the other
girls?” Sister Kelly might not have even glanced at him, but Hara had explained
what each part of the building was used for as they’d made their way to their
rooms—dropping him off first. The nun probably didn’t want Inac aware of where he
could find Hara….

“Nope. I never figured out why, but I was always
treated differently than the other kids. They even made sure that I was never
adopted.”

“What makes you think that?” he asked, pulling away
to unpack as she sat on his bed, smoothing the thin, quilted navy comforter as
she did so, which meant that she wasn’t as at ease as she was pretending to be.

“They never let potential parents meet me. You
should’ve seen when I decided to leave here. They acted as though the outside
world was
so
dangerous,” she said, rolling her eyes and clasping her
fidgety hands in her lap. Lifting her chin, she added, “They were always too
overprotective. But I’m not as fragile as I look. Someday, I hope they’ll see
that.”

“I’m sure they did today.”

Her chin and voice dropped when she replied with a
sad, “Maybe….”

Inac watched her for a minute, trying to figure out
what she was so nervous and sad about. There were so many possibilities….
Usually, he would have been able to figure it out, but just now he had his own
issues to push away.

Turning back to his job of transferring his folded
clothes from his luggage to the dresser, he cleared his throat and said,
“Anyway, I’m glad you weren’t ever adopted.”

He glanced at her and saw that her brows were
furrowed.

“Why?” she asked.

He closed the dresser drawer, done unpacking. He
then turned to her as he leaned back against it.

“Because what would the chances be that we still
would have met?” he asked. “Both our roads had to happen the way they did for
us to be together.”

“I never thought about that. I guess I’m glad too,
then.” She thought for a moment, the wheels turning, before she brightened and
said, “However, if my family had never died in the first place, I still could
have ended up working at the club.”

But
he
wouldn’t have been there…. His life
would be so different if he hadn’t relaxed after thinking that his obsession
had come to a resolution. He couldn’t say that, though. Instead he only made a
noise of agreement.

“Whatever the case, at least we’re together,” he
finally said, walking the few steps over to her. He kissed her then, using her
to comfort him. He could already feel his past attempting to surface in this
place surrounded with the story of his fall from grace….

“Inac?” she asked, sounding concerned and bringing
him back to the moment.

“I’m okay.” He flashed his most dazzling smile. She
obviously didn’t believe it, though, because her expression ruffled further.
Instead of allowing her time to think too much on it, he held his arm out to
her and said, “Come on, babe. We’ll be late for dinner.”

She took his offered arm without saying a word, and
he couldn’t help but be thankful that she knew not to question him further.

Dinner for the adults and older children was only
slightly better than the macaroni the younger kids had. It consisted of some
cheap kind of darkish mystery meat in gravy, mashed potatoes, and corn. Father
Carroll only had a thick beefy stew and bread, instead of the full meal the
other adults partook of. Inac could tell with the first bite why the younger
kids had normal food; it was because this would have been spit out within
moments. Nobody else seemed to mind it much, but Inac was used to eating the
best of the best, not cheap meat slathered with too much salt—his restaurants
used it minimally.

“This is interesting,” he said, loud enough for all
the adults to hear. “What is it?”

Hara smiled at him, obviously not catching the
disdain in his tone. “Pork chops. They’re our cook’s specialty.”

Inac looked down at his plate, unable to keep his
lip from curling in disgust. If this was her specialty, then how bad was
everything else going to taste? Maybe he should offer to take care of the
Thanksgiving feast tomorrow.

“Really?” he asked, trying to appear as pleasant as
possible. The food was just too damn salty for his tastes—modern humans used
way too much of the spice. Maybe the food wouldn’t be so bad with a pound less
of the stuff. As he spooned up the horrible salt-gravy and watched it fall like
a dark waterfall to his plate, Inac quietly recited, “’But his wife looked back
to the city behind her, to the wealth and splendor that she loved and feared to
never have again. And when she did, because of the true desires of her heart,
she became a pillar of salt.’”

“Excuse me?” asked Father Carroll.

Inac glanced up at him, the ancient shrewd eyes
challenging Inac for dominance. “Lot’s wife,” Inac explained. “She became a
pillar of salt. You know, when they fled from Sodom?”

“Yes, I’m familiar with the story. And the
scripture,” he said, his frown deepening until Inac was sure it would touch his
toes. “You recited it incorrectly.”

Inac studied the priest for a moment, trying to
figure him out. It wasn’t difficult. The man was a zealot. And the only way to
truly get to him and the other zealots around him would be to sow doubt in
their souls. He glanced at Hara. Whatever he did to play with the priest, she
couldn’t notice….

“Did I?” Inac asked, a serious expression on his
face and a large grin in his mind. “I think that I know the Bible better than
you could ever know it. Did you know that, just like our historical accounts,
most every scriptural reference has been changed over the years until it barely
resembles its original form?”

Father Carroll’s frown deepened even further, if
that was possible. Inac thought he knew why. As a member of The Order, Father
Carroll would know the true history of the world and how far off it was from
the history the world knew. And still, he must know that even then, what he
knew was still far from accurate….

“Do you know what one of my favorite passages is?”
Inac asked, lying because he cared very little for the scripture in his mind
and was only bringing it up to faze the “good” Father. “Forbidding to marry,
and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received
with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature
of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving.
For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.”

With a little grin, he added, “Of course, that
translation is horrendous seeing as how no Mokolio linguist helped with it. The
most pure form would be something like this: ‘Forbidding to marry, and likewise
commanding to abstain from meats, which God Himself hath created to be received
with thanksgiving for those who believeth and knoweth the truth, will be
cursed
.
For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it be
received with thanksgiving. For both marriage and meat are sanctified by prayer
and the word of God, cleansing that which might be unclean.’”

Father Carroll pulled back, his chin disappearing
into the folds of skin that made up his neck. It was obvious that he was
affronted, just as he should be seeing as Inac had basically just said that
celibacy and vegetarianism were wrong and ungodly according to that passage.
Still, he could go a little further by explaining
his
take on that very
odd, very confusing scripture.