Mystic Danger 2: From the Ashes (5 page)

“If you say so.” Rance turned his face to the wind once more, ignoring him.

“Ah, hell.” Jake locked the boat’s steering once more with shaky hands then reached for Rance’s shoulders and turned him slowly around so that they were face to face. The blond’s electric blue eyes shimmered, and the look he gave Jake was one of unfulfilled longing, not one of brotherly affection.

Jake lifted the other man’s chin with a thumb and forefinger and traced his lower lip, feeling Rance quiver slightly beneath his touch. He dipped his head tentatively and touched his lips to Rance’s. So hard, yet soft, sweet. Unwillingly, he shuddered and wrapped his arms about Rance, drawing him closer, unable to slake his thirst.

If Rance hadn’t parted his lips invitingly, Jake might have been okay, but the sweet, wet warmth was his undoing. Jake’s tongue mated with Rance’s, sucking slowly, and his breathing became labored. One more kiss like that and he’d take Rance right there in the open for any bird, boater or nosy bastard who happened upon them to see.

Jake withdrew, aching for more. Their breaths mingled, and he slipped mindlessly into Rance’s arms for one more kiss, reeling from the shock that the stranger had snared him so quickly.

As they parted, Jake hoped Rance couldn’t see how he’d unnerved him—Jake, who was unflappable, according to Sarah. Total Indian with the wooden face, void of emotion. Well, the façade had cracked, because Jake hadn’t felt in complete control of anything since meeting Rance.

As his world shifted, he knew he’d begun trusting his instincts, and one thing was indefinable but undeniable. Rance knew about the phoenix, his spirit animal. No one except Hawk and Daniel knew that he was a shape-shifter, and Jake trusted them completely. There was no way either of them would betray him.

Thinking of his cousins, Jake picked up the microphone to radio them. “Phoenix to Hawk. Come in, Hawk.” When his cousin replied, Jake let them know he’d be south of the marina for a few hours and told them his destination. “Not sure why, but we’re headed for the Blackgum, Paradise Hill area,” he answered when Hawk quizzed him. “Lost car. That’s all I know.”

When Rance gave him a questioning look, he put Hawk on mute and explained. “We were supposed to go fishing later tonight if it wasn’t too stormy. Besides, it’s good to let them know.”

Chapter Three

Rance took a deep breath.
Great
, he chastised himself.
You came here for closure of some sort, and instead you’re opening up doors that have been closed for years. When’s the last time you felt like this when you were kissed?

He kept watch, hoping to recognize the landscape, but it had been stormy and he’d been too shaken to take much notice the last time they’d gone through this passage.

“We’re coming up on the beach where I found you,” Jake said behind him.

Rance nodded, but he still didn’t know where they were.

“Do you have any idea where your car might be from here?” Jake asked, cutting the motor and steering toward a dock that looked as if it were in the middle of nowhere.

“I think it’s over there.” Rance pointed towards a thicket of trees. “Dirt road, leading to a sign that…hmm…” He thought a moment. “It said something like
v-da-li
, which I suppose is Cherokee?”

Jake repeated, only he spelled it, letter for letter, and said it phonetically. “Was that word followed by
ga-li-tso-de
?”

“I think so. Do you know where it is?”

When Rance turned to face him, Jake looked relieved.

“Yeah. Sounds like you were at Vera Rogers’s house.” His eyes darkened. “She’s the doc’s widow. “
V-da-li ga-li-tso-de
is pronounced uh-da-lee go-lee-cho-day, and it means Lake House. It’s only a few yards from the lake. We can walk there and ask Vera if she’s seen your car.”

“The doc,” Rance mused. “As in…?”

“Yep. Her husband was murdered alongside Sarah.”

Rance looked at the sky. Bright blue with only a few clouds except to the far south where the colors went from aqua to cornflower and white to gray. No ominous music, no horrific winds, and the earth didn’t quake, so why was he suddenly spooked?

He shook himself mentally.
It’s probably anticipation, dumbass. You’re about to find your car.

Jake helped him disembark, and the two of them walked through shrubbery, following a narrow footpath that led from the dock to the woman’s back door.

Rance looked about but still didn’t recognize any of the landscape, and he didn’t see his car.

Jake knocked on the screen door and called out, “Vera? It’s Jake. You there?”

A short, stout Native American woman who looked to be about seventy came to the door. She wore plain cotton pants with an embroidered blouse, and she had large turquoise and silver rings on nearly every finger and a squash blossom necklace against her throat.

“Jake!” Her face beamed when she saw him, and she opened the door and threw her arms about his neck. “Long time. Who’s your friend?”

Jake seemed embarrassed. “Vera Rogers, this is Rance Clarke, and he thinks he left his car here last night. It’s a long story.” He shifted his weight and nodded toward the front of her house. “Mind if we take a look?”

The older woman seemed puzzled but shrugged. “Sure. I went to the store this morning, though, and I didn’t see any cars until I got to the highway.” She turned to Rance. “You sure you were in this neck of the woods? There’s lots of dirt roads leading from that main stretch.”

Rance chewed his lower lip. “I don’t know where I left it, to be honest. I wound up in a cave of some sort to get out of the rain, and…” His voice trailed.

Vera stepped back then looked at Jake. “Only one cave in these parts. It’s where Mason went when he wanted to be alone and try out some of his experiments. This land has been in his family a long time—he grew up on it, and that cave was where he played as a boy. He kept the canoe and one of those old cast iron safes down there because it was too heavy for the floors in the house.”

She looked at Rance skeptically. “How’d you manage to get lost down there? Where you from anyway?”

Rance cleared his throat nervously. “Las Vegas.”

Vera’s pallor changed, and she clutched the necklace above her breasts. “Jake?”

“Vera, I wish I knew how to tell you everything this guy has said, but it’s impossible. I know we’re imposing, but he says he got lost here, and I believe him.”

“No, you come inside. You tell me before you look for his car. I want to know.” She ushered them inside and led them to the living room. “You sit, and tell me what brings you here.”

When Rance hesitated, Jake nodded for him to go on. “It’s okay. Vera won’t think you’re crazy. In fact, she may think I’m the one who’s nuts for not believing you.” He looked at the older woman fondly. “Vera is what we call Beloved Woman, a medicine woman, so she’s more in tune with spiritual things than most of us. The worst thing that’ll happen is that she’ll believe you.”

Rance felt oddly at ease. His hostess spoke with a definitive dialect, a clip to certain words that he’d heard several times since landing in eastern Oklahoma. And while the Cherokee Hills appeared moody and a harbor for secrets, the Indian woman was welcoming.

After Rance and Jake finished telling Vera what had happened during the past few hours, she sat back quietly, seeming to access the situation before speaking. “And you have no idea why you came here, to this area?”

Rance shook her head. “None. I started driving, and it was as if pieces of a puzzle started coming together. I’d recognize a building, a road, a tree, and before I knew it, I’d parked my car and wandered down to the lake.”

“He looked like a drowned rat when I first saw him,” Jake interjected. “It was obvious he was lost, unsure of himself. To be honest, at first I thought he was some homeless person, but the homeless don’t have Mulholland leather.” He indicated Rance’s backpack. “I may live in the sticks, but I’m not totally without class.” He winked.

Rance smiled. Jake knew his hiking gear.

“Then, when he left the boat,” Jake continued, “he says he wound up at the cave and spoke with some man. I guess he called a cab right after...”

Vera gasped, cutting him off. “What man? What did he look like?” She leaned forward.

Rance was bewildered, trying to recall specific details. “He was an older man, about seventy or so, and he wore jeans, loafers and a chambray shirt.” He snapped his fingers. “Suspenders. They were cute, a novelty…uh…yellow with black markings like a yardstick. And he had thick silver hair and wire-framed glasses.”

Rance stopped, noticing the disbelieving expressions on the other two faces. “What did I say? Oh. And gardening gloves.”

Vera began crying, and Jake comforted her.

“I’m sorry,” Rance said. “I’ve obviously said something wrong.”

He played his own words back in his mind then clarity struck.

He didn’t know whether to believe what he’d seen or question his own sanity. “It was…no, it couldn’t have been.”

Vera rose and crossed the room. She pulled out a couple of tissues from a box and picked up a framed photo. Handing the picture to Rance, she nodded. “Look. You see him?”

Rance traced the face in the photo. The man was smiling, waving. He wore the clothes he’d just described.

“I don’t understand any of this.” He had to leave, to go back to Las Vegas, to get as far from Oklahoma as possible before he completely lost his grip on reality.

“Sarah took that photo,” Vera explained when Rance thrust the picture back. “It was the day before they left for Las Vegas. Mason had been in his cave. We jokingly referred to it as where his spirit hibernated.” She chuckled, despite her tears. “Looks like the joke is on me.”

“Jake, I think I’d better go. I am so sorry for dragging everyone into this…this…whatever it is that’s going on with my mind.”

“No!” Vera touched Rance’s arm. “You must first go to the cave. There’s something there you are supposed to have.” She motioned for Jake to draw closer. “Now, I know what to do.”

Rance noticed that Jake, too, seemed perplexed, but they’d come this far. They might as well walk with Vera to her husband’s earth-sheltered office, or whatever he’d called it.

Mason’s wife left them alone for a moment. When she returned, she held a key. “It’s to the safe. That young man who worked for Ben…he was here the other day and wanted to go through Mason’s things, but I wouldn’t let him. He said Mason told him about some papers that Ben needed.” She paused. “You know Ben?” she asked Rance.

Rance shook his head. “I’ve never met him.”

Jake supplied a short answer for him. “Big dog in the tribe, lots of money. He’s behind pushing for more casinos, and that’s who some suspect of having Sarah and the others killed.”

“Well, this little man—he’s…” Vera waggled her fingers. “He’s funny, if you know what I mean. Something about him I don’t trust. Anyway, at first I didn’t know what he wanted. Now. I think I do. I bet those papers are in that safe.”

Then Vera grabbed Jake’s arm. “One of the reasons Sarah was here before they left for the meeting about the casinos…it concerns you.”

“Me?” Jake looked from one of them to the other. “Why?”

“You’ll see when we get to the cave. I figure we should have told you before, but there was no need. Then this mess with the casino, Mason’s talk about what went on somewhere near the cave. I thought it was just the babbling of an old man. We lived here our whole married life, and I’d heard the stories, but Mason wasn’t Native, so I didn’t think he knew what he was talking about half the time, because he was white and none of it concerned him.” She dabbed her eyes. “Except as a doctor. He was always that, even after he quit practicing. Some things never go away.”