16

Kolabati blotted herself dry, wrapped the towel around her, and came out into the hall. She found Jack sitting on the bed—just where she wanted him. Desire surged up at the sight of him.

She needed a man right now, someone to lie beside her, to help her lose herself in sensation and wash away all thought. And of all the men she knew, she needed Jack the most. He had pulled her from Kusum’s clutches, something no man she had ever known could have done. She wanted Jack very much right now.

She dropped the towel and fell onto the bed beside him.

“Come,” she said, caressing his inner thigh. “Lie down with me. We’ll find a way to forget what we’ve been through tonight.”

“We can’t forget,” he said, pulling away. “Not if he’s coming after us.”

“We have time, I’m sure.” She wanted him so. “Come.”

Jack held his hand out to her. She thought it was an invitation to pull him down and she reached up. But his hand was not empty.

“Take it,” he said, placing something cold and heavy in her palm.

“A gun?” The sight of it jolted her. She had never held one before… so heavy. The dark blue of its finish glinted in the subdued light of the bedroom. “What for? This won’t stop a rakosh.”

“Maybe not. I’ve yet to be convinced of that. But I’m not giving it to you for protection again rakoshi.”

Kolabati pulled her eyes away from the weapon in her hand to look at him. “Then what… ?” His grim expression provided a chilling answer to her question. “Oh, Jack. I don’t know if I could.”

“You don’t have to worry about it now. It may never come to that. On the other hand it may come down to a choice between being dragged off to that ship again and shooting your brother. It’s a decision you’ll have to make at the time.”

She looked back at the gun, hating it and yet fascinated by it—much the same as she had felt when Kusum had given her that first look into the ship’s hold last night.

“But I’ve never… “

“It’s double-action: You’ve got to cock it before you can fire.” He showed her how. “You’ve got five shots.”

He began to undress and Kolabati put the gun aside as she watched him, thinking he was about to join her on the bed. Instead he went to the bureau. When he turned to face her again he had fresh underwear in one hand and in the other a long-barreled pistol that dwarfed hers.

“I’m taking a shower,” he said. “Stay alert, and use that” —he gestured to her pistol on the nightstand— “if you have to. Don’t start thinking of ways to get your brother’s necklace. Shoot first, then worry about the necklace.”

He stepped out into the hall and soon she heard the shower running.

Kolabati laid back and pulled the sheet over her. She moved her legs around, spreading and closing them, enjoying the touch of the sheets on her skin. She needed Jack very much tonight. But he seemed so distant, immune to her nakedness.

There was another woman. Kolabati had sensed her presence in Jack the very first night they met. Was it the attractive blond she had seen him talking to at the U.K. reception? It had not concerned her then because the influence had been so weak. Now it was strong.

No matter. She knew how to have her way with a man, knew ways to make him forget the other women in his life. She would make Jack want her and only her. She had to, for Jack was important to her. She wanted him beside her always.

Always…

She fingered her necklace.

She thought of Kusum and looked at the pistol on the nightstand. Could she shoot her brother if he came in now?

Yes. Most definitely, yes. Twenty-four hours ago her answer would have been different. Now… the loathing crawled up from her stomach to her throat… “Kaka-ji!”… the rakoshi called her brother “Kaka-ji!” Yes, she could pull the trigger. Knowing the level of depravity to which he had sunk, knowing that his sanity was irredeemable, killing Kusum could almost be looked on as an act of compassion, done to save him from any further acts of depravity and self-degradation.

More than anything she wanted his necklace. Possessing it would end his threat to her forever—and allow her to clasp it about the throat of the only man worthy to spend the rest of his days with her—Jack.

She closed her eyes and nestled her head deeper into the pillow. After only a few minutes of fitful slumber on that wafer-thin mattress in the pilot’s cabin last night, she was tired. She’d just close her eyes for a few minutes until Jack came out of the shower, then she would make him hers again. He’d soon forget the other woman on his mind.