“I thought you were gone,” Hawke said, his voice thick with torment. “Your voice was music to my ears.”

  The implications of his words crumbled all her defenses. He’d been made to go through what had happened to his wife all over again. That would be enough to crush most people, but he held himself together and had rescued her.

  “Do you remember what I taught you about climbing on that mesa?”

  She nodded, newfound feelings clogging her throat. She didn’t want to fall in love. That always meant pain. The two emotions had always gone together in her life, first with her father and later with Terry and Gregory. Somehow she had to shore up the wall around her heart, or she was going to be hurt deeply before this trip was over.

  “We’ll take it slow and easy. Gus is up there, making sure the rope doesn’t come loose.”

  “You would have to say that. Is there a possibility of that?”

  “Always plan for every possibility and then you aren’t surprised.”

  “You planned for this?”

  He grinned, an endearing gesture. “Well, not exactly this, but I thought we might have to do some climbing—just not below ground. I wish I’d brought more appropriate equipment to explore a cave.”

  “So you didn’t know there was one here?”

  “No, that was a surprise.” He took a rope and tied it around her waist. “Where are you hurt?”

  “Everywhere.”

  “Do you think anything’s broken?”

  Kit moved a little to see. “No, just bruises and abrasions.”

  “Okay.” He finished making a harness for her, then started inching back to the part of the shelf directly under the hole.

  “Where are you going?” she asked without thinking.

  “I’m going up first. Then Gus and I will haul you up.”

  “I can climb.”

  “I want to make sure you’re all right. The less you do the better.” He gave her a second flashlight. “When I leave, come over here. Can you do that?”

  “Sure,” she murmured with more bravado than she really felt. She’d never been afraid of heights, but looking down into blackness wasn’t going on her Favorite Things To Do list.

  “I won’t be far away.” He began his ascent. “Remember we are connected by the rope. I’ll tug on it when I’m ready to pull you up. You jerk it when you’re ready.”

  We are connected. She couldn’t get those words out of her mind. They radiated a warm fuzzy feeling down her length.

  As his light grew farther away, Kit shone hers into that dark void beyond her. Once her beam grazed a wall where she managed to see some kind of drawing. Otherwise the flashlight wasn’t strong enough to reveal much.

  Excitement built while she studied the bold black lines and wished again she was an archaeologist and knew their meaning. This might be exactly what she was looking for. If so, no wonder the Lost City of Gold wasn’t ever found. It was below ground, part of a hidden cave system.

  The tug on her line prompted her to sidle toward the other end of the ledge. She almost hated to leave. When she positioned herself where Hawke had been only minutes before, she yanked her rope. Her ascent took longer than her descent but didn’t hurt nearly as much. The back of her hand scraped the side of the wall on a sharp rock that she was glad she hadn’t encountered on the way down.

  When she reached the top, Hawke bent over and lifted her from the hole while Gus held the line. He swung her to the ground but didn’t release his hold. Locked in his arms, he gave her a quick kiss that did more to disrupt her heartbeat than the plunge into the abyss. She tightened her arms around him, wanting to explore this more.

  A sound, a rather loud one for Gus, caused Hawke to set Kit a few feet from him. A flush tinted his tanned features, and if the heat of her cheeks was any indication, she blushed even more than he did when she realized Gus stood near.

  “Gus has set up camp nearby. I’d like to treat your cuts.” He picked up a canteen and gave it to her.

  As she sipped the water, Kit peered around Hawke and watched Gus shuffling toward a place in a protected part of the cliff. “I can take care of myself.” In the fading light of the day she was determined to get some kind of handle on her emotions concerning Hawke, and if he had to touch her over and over while he cleaned her abrasions, she would be in trouble.

  “Humor me.”

  She didn’t want to argue so she kept her mouth shut, but when he approached her with the first-aid kit, she took it from him. “At least I know how to do this. However, thanks for offering.”

  She limped toward her bedding and sat, refusing to look his way. She didn’t need to, because she felt the drill of his gaze boring a hole into her.

  * * *

  The next morning when her feet touched the floor of the cave for the first time, a thrill shot through Kit, and for a moment the feeling eclipsed her many aches. Nothing would stop her from exploring her discovery.

  They each had their flashlight with extra batteries, which afforded them some illumination, but not nearly enough to see everything at once. It would have been nice to have their hands free, their source of light on some helmets, but caving wasn’t something Hawke had planned for. They’d even argued briefly about going back to his ranch to get everything they needed. She’d pointed out there might be nothing down here but a big hole, that they should check it out before going to that kind of trouble. Reluctantly Hawke had agreed.

  She’d wanted to come right back down yesterday, even though she ached from the fall, but Hawke had made her wait until this morning. She might as well, though, have gone back under the ground immediately because she didn’t get any sleep. Her mind had refused to shut down with all the possibilities with the discovery of the cave beneath the mission.

  “Where should we begin?” she asked Hawke, who was the last to descend from the top.

  “I’d rather you not go off by yourself. You and I will stick together.”

  “But…”

  “Yes?” Hawke arched an eyebrow.

  Following Gus’s beam off to the side of her about ten yards, she swallowed her protest. Hawke was right. She wasn’t as equipped to handle an emergency down here as his uncle. Although she hated to admit it, she had to acknowledge her limitations in a world she wasn’t as familiar with as these two men.

  “Nothing,” she said with a shrug.

  “Hawke, come here. You need to see this.”

  Gus’s voice from the darkness sounded excited, not the usually staunch man Kit had come to know.

  “He’s found something.” Kit stepped forward, but Hawke halted her progress.

  “Shine your flashlight on the area you’ll be walking. Make sure it’s safe. We don’t know what to expect. We could have another cave-in and I don’t think your body could go through another fall like yesterday.”

  Kit trailed after Hawke, trying not to limp too much or show any indication that there weren’t too many places that didn’t hurt when she moved. There was no way she would have stayed back. Whatever was here was her find.

  Gus shone his light on a stone near an opening in the rocks. “Not good.” Faded black lines forming a picture of a feathered serpent that had a grip on a man, strangling him, carved a scowl in the old man’s weathered face.

  “What do you mean?” Kit stepped forward and knelt to examine the drawing more closely.

  “It’s a warning of danger.” Gus gestured toward the petroglyph. “The serpent is Quetzalcoatl, an Aztec god.”

  “I can’t let this stop me.” Kit glanced up at Hawke then Gus.

  Hawke chuckled. “I think Zach rubbed off on you.”

  Gus moved his beam toward the opening in the rocks. “She sounds like Zach’s grandfather. We’ll keep going.” The old man slipped through the slit in the wall.

  “Stay right behind me.” Hawke quickly followed his uncle.

  Father, please protect us.

  Kit hurried forward, the beating of her heart increasing as she neared the dark crevice and disappeared into it. Hemmed in, the brush of the cool stone touching both her sides, she kept her attention glued on Hawke, only two feet in front of her. After several twisting turns, the path widened until she had to stretch her arms out to graze each wall.

  The sound of rushing water grew louder the farther Kit went. It’s nothing. Water forms caves. It shouldn’t come as a surprise. Although she repeated those sentences over and over, Kit couldn’t stop the fear from her childhood engulfing her in a cold sweat.

  The passageway slanted downward while the roar of water intensified. Beads of perspiration rolled into her eyes, stinging them. She wiped her free arm across her forehead.

  Gus paused next to another petroglyph and examined it for a moment before starting forward again. Kit came up to Hawke while he inspected the drawing of a monster, a combination of a bear, mountain lion and an unknown animal, driving a spear through a man’s heart.

  “Do you think this is another warning?” Kit asked, glad none of the dread she was experiencing cut through her question.

  “Yes. I want to take you back.”

  “No!” She gripped him, forcing him to look at her. “I won’t break. I can do this. I’ve worked years to get here.”

  “There may be nothing here. Probably isn’t anything.”

  His muscles beneath her palm tensed. She moved into his personal space, the distance between them mere inches, and stared up into his granite-set face. “I need to know. I’ve come too close to let a few warnings stop me. If you want to go back, then do.” As she threw the challenge at him, she dropped her hand from him, severing their tie, and stepped away.

  “Yeah, and leave you down here by yourself.” Sarcasm oozed from each word. “I was thinking you could go back, and Gus and I could do some exploring, check everything out. Then if you must see what we found, you can come down when I determine it is safe.”

  “I’m going ahead with or without you,” she said through gritted teeth.

  “Fine.” His pinpoint gaze bored into her. “Suit yourself, but I’ll carry you out of here if you don’t follow every direction I give you. No matter what.”

  She had to agree because the fierce look in his eyes told her he would do exactly that and she wouldn’t be able to stop him. “Deal.”

  “I don’t like the sound of that water. The cavern below us may be flooded, and if so, that ends our trek.” He pivoted forward.

  She didn’t like the sound, either, but she didn’t intend to tell him that. There would be a way. She felt it deep inside. She hadn’t come this far to turn back.

  Hawke started down the passageway toward the noise. “For all you know this so-called City of Gold could be underwater.”

  The vision of that brought terror to her. She hadn’t thought about that. This was semiarid land, and yet she’d known that water had formed many caves in the area. Plodding after him, she placed each foot carefully on the stone path because the humidity made the rocks slippery. More sweat popped out on her forehead. Her heart continued its maddening beat.

  Ahead the area opened up, and Gus was nowhere to be seen. She hurried her pace to keep up with Hawke. When she emerged from the passage, she halted at the sight before her.

  A few yards away an underground river rushed past them, disappearing into the darkness. Flashes of the last time she’d been swimming, when she was eight, drenched her in even more perspiration, as if she had immersed herself in the water before her. She’d been so sure she could swim that when she tried to in the lake, she’d ignored her sister’s shouts. When she went under halfway to the float, she’d realized her mistake. Later, after her father had pulled her out of the lake and revived her, she’d taken the beating without a whimper. She’d deserved that one because her sister had nearly drowned trying to save her.

  Hawke touched her arm and shouted, “Stay here. I’m going to look around. I’m sure that’s what Gus is doing.”

  Numb from the memory, she could only nod, her gaze transfixed on the river frothing past her as though it was boiling. At eight all she’d wanted to do was show off her new swimming abilities. She hadn’t realized the consequences of her rash action. Her father had beaten her before, but with his drinking increasing, so did the battering until he’d walked out on her and her mother and sister.

  She didn’t know how long Hawke and Gus were gone. Time meant nothing as she stared at her nemesis. But when they returned, the grim expressions on their faces didn’t bode well for her mission.

  “This side comes to a dead end.” Hawke assessed her with a probing gaze as though he could read what she had been thinking.

  Kit shifted away from his sharp regard. “How about the other side?”

  “Not sure. Our lights don’t penetrate all the way,” Hawke said while Gus strode to the edge of the river.

  “Then maybe there’s a way over there.” She flipped her hand toward the black backdrop covering the other side.

  “The only way is to cross the water and find out.”

  She slid her glance to the rushing stream and shuddered at the thought of submerging herself into it.

  “What aren’t you telling me?”

  Although Hawke had lowered his voice to below a shout, she heard him and closed her eyes for a few seconds as if that would rid her of the problem. “I haven’t swum since I was eight years old.”

  “Why not?” He lifted her chin so she was forced to peer at him.

  “It’s a long story, and we don’t have all day to stand around and discuss it.”

  “Do you know how?”

  She nodded, hoping the ability was like riding a horse—that all she had to do was get back up on the animal.

  “Then I’ll go across and check that side out. If there’s a way, then you and Gus can follow. There’s no reason for all of us to get wet if there isn’t.”

  “Sure,” she mumbled, relieved that she had a reprieve and conflicted about what she wanted Hawke to find. She would either be greatly disappointed or have to face one of her worst fears. Not good prospects for her.

  Lord, Your will.

  Hawke shrugged out of his backpack, the only one they had brought down into the cavern, and slung it across the river. The sound of it landing was lost in the noise of the water and the thundering of her heart.

  When he approached the stream, she swung away and pretended an interest in the wall near the opening they had come through. But the rock face blurred as she imagined him battling his way across. What if he was swept away to disappear into the darkness? It would be her fault. How would she live with herself? She didn’t breathe decently until she heard his shout from the other side.

  “I’ll be back in a minute.”

  Finally she pivoted toward the river and picked her way to the edge where Gus stood. He kept his light trained on the far shore, so she shone hers in an area nearby, a beacon in the ebony surroundings.

  Ten long minutes later Hawke appeared in the glow of her flashlight. “There’s a way out of here. Kit, I want you to come first then Gus. Give him your lamp.”

  Like a robot, she thrust it into the old man’s grasp, anything to prolong her getting into the stream. Then when she had no choice, she trudged to the lip and stared at the river as if it were hypnotizing her into submission.

  “Kit. You can’t walk. It’s too deep for you. You’ll have to swim. Are you sure you can?”

  She nodded, not even positive he saw her gesture, but she couldn’t say anything. Even with the high humidity, her throat jammed as if a dry rag was stuffed down it.

  I can do this. I’ve done it before.

  “Here, Gus. Tie this around Kit’s waist.”

  She felt the old man slip some rope around her and his fingers swiftly tie a knot, securing the tether to her. But even with it about her, she shook. Hot and cold darted alternately down her length until she wasn’t sure if she was burning up or freezing.

  “We don’t have to do this, Kit.” Hawke tugged on the line. “But I’ve got hold of you. You’ll be all right. I’m going downstream. It’ll give me more time to pull you to me if I need it.”

  She raised her head and locked gazes with him. She had trusted her life to him when she asked him to be her guide. She would have to again if she wanted to reach her goal. Inhaling a deep, fortifying breath, she eased into the flow.

  Before she could put her arms out in front to execute her first stroke, the stream swept her into its clutches. A childhood fear drenched her. She opened her mouth to yell for help and swallowed a gulp of dirty water. The river sucked her under its seething surface. She grabbed hold of the rope about her and it went slack in her grasp.

  * * *

  Darkness cradled him in its comforting arms. The Guardian ran through his deep-breathing exercises until the last remnants of his anger burned away.

  Standing in the middle of his bedroom, he felt the fractured pieces slip back into place now that he’d had time to calm down. He was back to his old self again and knew he had to clean up all evidence of his rampage in Kit’s house the day before.

  Everything will be all right. It isn’t time to reveal myself to her. But soon. I need to teach her to appreciate what I’ve done for her.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Panic surged through Kit like the river around her. Desperate, she pulled on the limp rope and it tautened. Her mind swirling, she managed to grab the line with both hands and began dragging herself up. When her head broke through the surface, she gasped for air.

  Hawke scrambled along the shore, hauling her toward him. The strong current made progress slower than Kit wished. The cold water, coupled with her fear, numbed her. Although she wanted to help more, terror at losing her grip kept her hands clamped around the rope.

  At the edge Hawke reached down and yanked her from the stream. She clung to him, wet clothes against wet clothes. But through the chill, the warmth from his arms around her seeped into her awareness. Panting, she drew deep breaths of the stale, moisture-laden air into her lungs until her racing pulse calmed slightly.

  Leaning away, she took his face within her grasp and rained kisses on it. “Thank you. Thank you. I thought I was a goner.”