The Other Half of Your Heart Read online

  When they hit the relative smoothness of the macadamed road, she risked speaking. “You’re stealing this truck!”

  Dave gave her a grim glance. “We’ve got to get out of here, and this is the fastest way.”

  “How can you...” A particularly bad bump made Cara bite the inside of her mouth, which did not improve her temper. Ignoring her aching cheek, she shouted, “How can you steal this truck when they’ve been so nice to us?”

  “Shut up!”

  “I will not! I demand you stop this instant! I...”

  “I said shut up!” he growled through clenched teeth.

  “No, I won’t!” Cara shrieked almost hysterically. “I’m tired of running and hiding, I’m tired of this dratted jungle, and I’m tired of you, whoever you are! I want to be back with Buck in the normal world, so stop this truck right now!”

  Dave made a derisive sound, but Cara didn’t notice. The road was straight for an unusually long stretch and coming towards them was a car. Neither the make nor the kind made any impression on Cara; all she knew was that it was a car and that it was her chance of escape.

  “There’s a car! Stop!” Even as she spoke, Cara leaped for the wheel, frantic in her determination.

  “Quit that!” The truck swerved erratically, but Dave maintained control, even with one hand; with the other, he sent Cara flying against the dash. The violence was dispassionate and uncalculated, but still enough to send Cara’s head crashing against the windscreen with a solid thunk. Her arm flew upward solely of its own volition; the heavy silver bracelet that had been Buck’s present smashed against the unlined roof with a loud grating of metal on metal.

  The bracelet!

  “Are you all right?” Dave was asking, but Cara paid no attention.

  From the first moment Buck had locked that enormous chunk of silver on her arm Cara had thought it too big, too ornate, too heavy. Gradually she had gotten used to it, her attention distracted by other things. Now she was startlingly aware of it, not just as an adornment, but as a potential weapon.

  Using every bit of her strength and agility, she came up off the floor like a rocket. One hand grabbed the key and yanked it from the ignition, while the other unrepentantly brought the bracelet down on Dave’s head with every bit of power Cara could muster. The soft, hollow noise it made seemed to fill the cab and would probably echo in her dreams.

  Dave slumped over the wheel as the truck slid and spun crazily, snapping Cara back to a terror-filled alertness. Pushing back her captor’s dead weight, she wrestled with the wheel for the longest seconds of her life, wrestling it first one way and then the other. At last, its momentum slowed, but Cara couldn’t reach the brake. As she struggled to move Dave’s limp but unyielding legs, the truck skewed to the left, yanking the wheel from Cara’s unobservant grasp. The wheels left the road; the truck tipped sharply and as Cara screamed fell forward, then shuddered to a halt almost standing on its nose in a ditch filled with tall, thick grass.

  Sliding out from under the surprisingly heavy weight of Dave limp body, Cara didn’t dare wait. She couldn’t let that other car go by. She couldn’t! She struggled up the tilted seat and wrestled the door until it opened, then jumped into the scratchy grass and as much swam as ran through it up to the road.

  “Wait! Wait!” she was screaming, waving her arms in a wild gesture that under any other circumstances would have been embarrassing. “Please help me!”

  The other car, long, dark, and expensive looking, stopped in the center of the road. Its doors opened and to Cara’s intense relief people were getting out. Almost blinded by tears, she flung herself forward the last few feet into anonymous, welcoming arms.

  Other arms took and lifted her. Strong, muscular arms that bulged as if they had been stuffed with bowling balls.

  “Cara?”

  Opening her eyes to the dazzle of the tropic sun, at first Cara could see only a dark shape looming over her. One by one, the features filled themselves into a familiar and loved pattern.

  “Buck?” she breathed in joyous fulfillment, almost too dazed with happiness to believe it. Then she fainted.

  * * * * *

  Señora Arvisu was not happy. Her entire demeanor radiated displeasure and while Cara could hardly blame her, it didn’t make for a pleasant atmosphere. Cara was only glad that the señor was not there. Her Jaime, the señora had been at pains to point out, did not approve of a man being in an unmarried woman’s bedroom, especially when that woman was in bed. Irreverently Cara thought at least she wasn’t wearing trousers this time, but stayed silent; she didn’t think Señora Arvisu would appreciate the humor.

  Apparently, Buck was an exception. From the moment she had waked, he had been by her side, his fingertips gently touching her hand. Señora Arvisu, commanding in a chic little black dress and an even blacker expression, had sat on the other side of the bed, as rigid and disapproving as the most puritan of chaperones.

  “I hope you have an explanation for us, Miss Waters,” she said in icy tones almost the minute Cara’s eyes opened.

  “Hold on... give her a few minutes. She’s had a rough time.”

  “A time that could have been avoided had she just confided in us. One wonders why she did not.” The señora’s words were like little darts and after one look at her implacable expression, Cara had simply closed her eyes.

  Yes, she probably could have avoided her adventure, but how could she tell this angry, implacable woman that she trusted a kidnapper more than she did either her or her precious, prejudiced Jaime? Buck understood; the gentle touch of his fingertips against her hand told her that.

  “He said he would kill me if I told you anything. He said that if I didn’t cooperate he’d kill all of you,” Cara said with only a shadow of regret at telling such a whopper. Dave Burkhart, already captured, and soon be convicted of kidnapping and Heaven only knew what else, so a little embellishment couldn’t make any difference to him.

  Buck’s expression was almost as fierce as the oath he swore.

  “Señor!” chided the señora, but her expression softened a little bit. A very little bit. “And with our house and guards and dogs, you did not think we could handle the situation?”

  “He got away, didn’t he?” Buck rumbled and the señora had the sensibility to look away. Any other person, Cara would have said was blushing, but it was impossible to attach such a delicate reaction to this steel-tempered woman.

  “Tell us what happened after you left here, leaving us, I might add, with a great many tires to replace?”

  “I had nothing to do with that,” Cara said bluntly. She was tired of fencing with this woman. She hadn’t liked her the first time she was here, when the señora was all friendly and fluttery and the perfect hostess; now, since the lady had turned into a ruthless inquisitor, she surely didn’t.

  “You did not think to run while he was doing it?”

  “At that particular moment I was much more afraid of the dogs than of him. Besides, I didn’t know what he was doing until it was over and we were out of here.”

  “Now don’t strain yourself, sugar,” Buck said softly. Gently he raised her scratched and bruised hand to his lips for a feather-soft kiss. “What happened after you left here?”

  “We drove through the jungle, then stopped for the night. The next morning we found a road and he ditched the jeep... he said everyone would be looking for us. Then we walked. He tied me like I was a dog,” she added piteously, showing Buck the faint red mark under his bracelet.

  Buck exclaimed and, uttering oaths that made Mr. Burkhart’s future seem grim if not next to non-existent, gently kissed the fading pink line too.

  “Do you know where he ‘ditched’ the jeep? We should like to recover it.”

  “For Heavens’ sake, Señora Arvisu! How would she know where it was?”

  The señora smiled tightly and without mirth. “I have no idea, but Miss Waters apparently knows a lot she has not told.”

  Cara shot the woman a glance of p
ure hatred. Why couldn’t she just go away and leave her alone with Buck? “I have no idea where your jeep is. The last time I saw it, it was in a ditch beside a road and covered with vines and stuff. I wish you had it back. Frankly, I wish it had never left your possession! I wish...”

  “Hush, honey, hush...” Standing protectively over her, Buck ended her climb towards hysteria with a fingertip across her lips. When she was quiet, he stroked her hair until the mutinous look in her eyes died, then sat down again.

  “I realize this is not the easiest of situations, Miss Waters, but we will get further faster if you control yourself. So what happened after this Mr. Burkhart hid our jeep?”

  Memories of heat and jungle washed back over Cara and she shuddered. “We walked.”

  “Where?”

  “Señora...” Buck began, but for once Cara ignored him.

  “Beside the road.”

  The señora’s dark eyes flashed with something dark and ugly. “Impossible! Our patrols have driven every inch of every road for at least twenty miles in every direction!”

  She’d love to catch me in a lie, Cara realized. She didn’t want to think about what would happen if this strange, two-faced woman actually did.

  “Every time he heard a car coming, he’d jump into the ditch and we’d hide in the jungle or whatever was there.”

  “Is that how you got so bunged up, sugar?” Buck asked.

  Someone had been at work on Cara; she was clean and dressed in a simple white cotton nightgown, another gift of the señora’s, she wondered? Her cuts and scratches had been treated and painted with antiseptic until she looked like a wild Indian, and she was still a mess of bruises and insect bites. At least the itching had stopped and that alone was a blessing.

  “Yes. It seemed we were never out of the jungle,” Cara answered with real feeling.

  “And how did you find the Fonsecas? Were they too wandering in the jungle?”

  Something in the señora’s cold tone set off alarm bells in Cara’s head. The Arvisus were very wealthy and powerful and could, if they wished, make life very uncomfortable for the family that had been so kind to her. Somehow she had the feeling the señora would enjoy that.

  “They were driving on the road and stopped for us. He told them the same story he told you and they gave us food and shelter... and then he stole their truck as a way of saying thank you.”

  Señora Arvisu’s face tightened like a child’s when denied a sweet. “Very well. That is all for now, though I am sure once you are up, Jaime will have more questions for you. Señor Tarrant...?”

  Buck stood his ground. “Thank you, Señora Arvisu, but I’m going to stay here with Cara for a while.”

  “Jaime does not like...”

  “With all due respect, ma’am,” he said in a voice singularly devoid of politeness, “I am going to stay with Cara for a while.”

  Her face registering nothing, Señora Arvisu stood and in icy hauteur, swept from the room.

  Buck whistled softly. “Wow! That is one overwhelming lady!”

  “Before she seemed sort of feather-headed and kind of nice, in a bossy way,” Cara murmured, snuggling her fingers into the sweet security of Buck’s grasp. “I wouldn’t have known she was the same woman.”

  “Before, she thought you were a poor mental case of a wife. Now she probably thinks you’re some sort of master criminal. After all, you did lie to her.”

  “I didn’t, not really,” Cara said with a mental crossing of the fingers. What her mother had said was true; lies did grow more and more complicated with every word. “He did all the talking, and I really was scared. And after he told them I was crazy, I didn’t dare tell her the truth.... You saw how she is. The first thing she’d do would be go tell him like a good wife should. Her husband doesn’t even like women to wear trousers!”

  “Hush, honey, hush...” Leaning forward, Buck caressed her hair and placed a gentle kiss on her cheek. “Don’t get so excited.”

  Cara took a deep breath. The quiver in her voice had alarmed her; full-blown hysterics had been only a word or two away and she had been powerless to stop. Thank goodness for Buck’s gentle good sense.

  “I’m sorry... it’s just been such a horrible time...” Hold me, she thought, grab me close as if I were the most precious thing in the world...

  Leaning forward, Buck put both his elbows on the bed and, raising her hand, held it softly between his own. His lips played delicately over her fingertips and without seeming to do so deliberately, he avoided looking at her.

  “Tell me, sweetheart,” he said half hesitantly, “those two nights you were alone with this Burkhart guy... did he try anything?”

  Try anything? With sudden clarity, Cara remembered that hot, sticky morning in the jeep when Dave Burkhart had taken her in his arms and set her soul afire with his lips. She also remembered the enthusiastic way her body had responded, and it embarrassed her. Last night she had lain in his arms, as comforted and comfortable as if she had been in her own bed. The memory of that was even more embarrassing.

  “No.”

  Buck was quick to pick up on her hesitation. “He did try something.”

  “He kissed me. Once. And it wasn’t that kind of kiss...” Lies, lies! Dave Burkhart’s kiss had seared her to her very bones. “We were too busy trying to escape and then just to stay alive in the jungle for him to think about that kind of thing... I’m thirsty.”

  “Again?” Buck asked with a laugh, but he poured her a glass of water and then held up her head while she drank it.

  Cara drank deeply. It seemed that she would never get enough to drink ever again. “I’ve never been so tired or so thirsty or so hungry in my life! If it hadn’t been for the Fonsecas, I’d be dead. Buck, he even kept me on the leash while I had to go to the bathroom!”

  “Honey! Don’t...”

  He’s embarrassed, Cara thought with uncomfortable surprise. I lived through it, but he’s embarrassed just to talk about it.

  “He didn’t look... at least, I don’t think he did, but there were nothing but trees...”

  “Cara, honey, you don’t have to relive all that ugliness. It’s over now.”

  “When can we go back to the hotel?”

  He looked surprised at that. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, I want to get out of here. I want to go back to the hotel, or even go back home.”

  “Why, sugar? This place is as luxurious as any hotel, and there’s no tourists to put up with.”

  “I want a place where we can be alone together. Just the two of us.” Cara looked up at him appealingly. He had come looking for her, he had rescued her, he loved her...surely he should be able to sense how uneasy she was here.

  Why was she uneasy here? Cara couldn’t say, not even to herself; she just knew she couldn’t relax until she was away from the creepy Arvisus and this fortress of a house.

  “We can be alone here, sugar, a lot more than we can be alone in hotel crawling with tourists...” Once again, Buck nibbled gently on her fingertips.

  “Not with the Arvisus around. Buck, I don’t like them.”

  “Why, honey? They’ve been nothing but nice to you...a lot nicer than we should have any right to expect. After all, you did lie to them, and stole their jeep...”

  Cara stared at him, as startled as if he had bitten her. “I didn’t do any of those things! I was a prisoner! I was afraid that man would kill me and maybe them too if I didn’t do exactly what he wanted!”

  “I know it was a bad time for you, Cara, but it seems you didn’t have to cooperate quite so much...”

  Cara snatched her hand back and struggled into a sitting position. It didn’t hurt as much as she had feared, which was a pleasant surprise. In spite of everything she had endured, there was only a slight discomfort in her abused muscles and skin.

  “Would you like to explain that remark?”

  “Well, you have to admit it does look suspicious. You were here, you were alone with Señora Arvisu, and
you didn’t say anything, then you just broke out of the house with him instead of raising an alarm...”

  Put that way, it did sound damning. Did the Mexican courts recognize gut feelings as a legal defense?

  “I told you...”

  “I know you were scared, sweetheart, but with all the guards and everything, didn’t you know they could protect you?”

  And who would protect me from them? Cara’s mind asked of its own volition. “I didn’t trust them,” she said softly. “And I still don’t.”

  “Honey! You mean you trusted the man who kidnapped you more?”

  “At the moment. I’m not used to people who have their own private armies. I want to go back to town.”

  “But why, sugar? I’m here now. Don’t you trust me to take care of you?”

  Cara looked at him with dispassionate eyes. At one time, she would have trusted him with anything, including her entire future. Now she wasn’t sure. Why wouldn’t the man she loved want to please her, especially in such a small thing as taking her away from a place where she clearly felt uncomfortable?

  Apparently her answer was visible, because Buck’s face crumbled, revealing a depth of emotion she had never seen before.

  “You don’t trust me.”

  Instantly Cara was contrite. “Of course I do, Buck, I... I love you, remember? I’m just trying to make you see how I feel.”

  “These are important people, honey, rich people. The señor used to be in the government and they’ve got a lot of political connections. They could be valuable contacts.”

  “For what?”

  “I don’t know just yet, but it never hurts to have rich people on your side.”

  “And they’re going to help you after, as you said, I’ve lied to them and help steal their jeep, and God only knows what else?”

  “They understand you were under undue pressures...”

  “Then they’ll understand if we want to go back to town, won’t they?”