“Good.” She relaxed. “I couldn’t stand—”
“I know,” Cameron said. “He won’t find anyone to question until after I get you away. Which would make it nonproductive for him to use force on anyone.”
“Except you,” Catherine said. “You’re talking about getting us out. What about you?”
He shrugged. “Perhaps I’ll go with you. Probably not. I’ll make a decision later.”
“And we’re supposed to leave you on this mountain surrounded by Kadmus’s men?”
He smiled. “Would you stay and do battle by my side, Catherine?”
“Don’t be stupid,” she said curtly. “If you decide to do something that crazy, why would I try to stop you? I’ve got a life to live and a son to raise.”
“That’s true. But you have warrior instincts that cause you to do unreasonable things on occasion. You’d be foolish to risk either. Just as it was foolish for you to come to rescue Erin.”
“But you said I had nothing to do with that decision, remember? Pure manipulation.” She grimaced. “Not that I believe you.”
“Oh, I think you might believe it.” He paused. “But I would never do anything to convince you to come and do battle by my side. That would have to come from you.” He met her eyes. “But, oh, what a battle that would be, Catherine.”
Power.
Excitement.
Magnetism.
Heat.
She had to force her gaze away from him. “The only battle I intend to fight is to get Erin to a safe place.” She glanced at Erin in the backseat. Her eyes were closed, and she was breathing deeply, steadily. “I think she’s asleep. Your work?”
“No, but it makes it easier for me to shelter her from the pain. This road is going to get bumpier.”
It was already rough. The jeep was bucking like a bronco, but Cameron seemed to have perfect control. “How long will it take us to get to this hut?”
“Another fifteen minutes. From this side of the mountain, the road winds in and out like a snake and crosses through a dozen passes. That’s good because it will be almost impossible for Kadmus to track us if he starts at that hot spring. Though the road is clearly accessible by vehicle. That’s what I planned on him doing. But, if by some bad luck, he starts at the road on the other side of the mountain, we might have a harder way to go.”
“Why?”
“The trail goes straight up the mountain and leads directly to the hut. They could take the vehicles as far as the plateau, but then they’d have to go on foot the rest of the way. It would take hours, but they’d be able to locate us fairly simply.”
“It’s an Achilles’ heel,” Catherine said. “But if he’s coming through the hot springs, there’s no reason for him to go clear on the other side of the mountain.”
“So one would suppose. And I left clear tracks on the first few miles of road. We’ll have to see. And the trek up the mountain on foot would certainly discourage them. It’s even rougher than this road. Hu Chang wasn’t pleased that I chose that path.”
“What?” She stared at him, stunned. “Hu Chang?”
“Yes, we had a disagreement about certain difficulties regarding the—”
“When?”
“This afternoon.”
She drew a deep breath. “Let me get this very clear. Hu Chang is here, on this mountain?”
“Yes, he’s at the hut waiting for you. Well, not exactly waiting. I didn’t tell him I was going to go and fetch you. But when I left, he probably deduced that it was something to do with you and Erin. Hu Chang is a brilliant man, and he would be able to put two and two together.”
“May I ask why you didn’t tell me?”
“You were worried about his coming after you. It was better for your concentration that you didn’t know that he was already on the scene.”
“Did you help him get here?”
“Yes, but don’t underestimate Hu Chang, he would have been able to get to you without me. I just furnished the means.”
“But he wouldn’t have been able to get here as quickly.”
“I don’t know about that. He’s an amazing man.”
“I wanted that amazing man to stay safely in Hong Kong,” she said sharply. “That’s why I came after Erin, dammit.”
“He was certainly one of the prime reasons why you did it. But there were several others.”
She could feel the anger begin to mount. “Look, you had me to get Erin off Kadmus’s mountain. You didn’t need Hu Chang. Why couldn’t you have left him out of it?”
“Because he’s my friend, and he deserved his chance to save you,” he said simply. “I first brought him into this because I thought he was the best possibility to free Erin. I was wrong. It was you. But because I was wrong, I couldn’t close him out once the decision to use you was made.”
She stared at him in frustration. “You’re impossible. And probably nuts. You have no right to make decisions and try to shape the whole world to suit yourself.”
“Not the whole world.” He smiled faintly. “Just my part of it.”
“I’m not part of your world, and neither is Hu Chang. So you can just stay away from us.”
He shook his head. “Hu Chang became part of my world years ago, and he understands there’s no going back. And you came into my life as a sort of gift from Hu Chang.”
“The hell I did.”
“Why else are you here?”
“Because of Erin and that bastard, Kadmus.”
“I rest my case.”
He meant that everything that had happened to Erin and Kadmus had been done because of the entire ugly scenario that had revolved around him.
And he was right. She didn’t know how or why it was true, but Cameron was the center. “I won’t have it, Cameron,” she said unevenly. “I have to tolerate your help to get Erin out of here and make sure that Hu Chang is safe, but after that, I want you out of my life. I haven’t known where I was with you since the moment you appeared. You and Hu Chang probably share some strange bond, but I want no part of it.”
“I hope I can keep you free of it,” he said soberly. “And you’re much safer not knowing more than a few shallow things about me. But I don’t believe you’ll allow that to keep on. You’re curious, and you think you can’t be in control unless you have the entire picture.” He added, “Sometimes, the entire picture isn’t pretty.”
“I can do without the entire picture. You’d probably turn out to be like that portrait of Dorian Gray who turned into a monster.”
He suddenly chuckled. “Let’s see, you’ve compared me to Jekyll’s Hyde, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, and now I’m Dorian Gray? You’re full of literary insults. At least you haven’t gotten obscene.”
“That could come.” She was trying to regain her composure. “You had no right to bring Hu Chang here.”
“I only allowed him to come.” He glanced thoughtfully at her expression. “You care as much about him as he does for you. I thought you might. I knew it would be dangerous to try to step between you.”
“You didn’t step between us. And you’d better not have put Hu Chang in any danger by—”
“Shh, you’re getting too upset. You’ve gone through hell tonight, and you don’t need to—”
“I’ll get upset if I choose. You’re not in control of that either.”
“You’re right. Feel free to sit there and fume. We should be at the hut within a few minutes, and the two of you will be able to discuss how unfair and overbearing I am.” He added, “But while you’re doing it, you might remember that Erin is free, and you and Hu Chang have a way out because of who I am and what I can do, overbearing or not.”
There was no anger in his tone, only weariness. She could feel her own anger ebbing and tried to hold on to it. He might have helped getting them away from the mountain, but she resented that she’d had to rely on him. She’d had to struggle to remain independent. And bringing Hu Chang here was completely out of the bounds of—
“It’s how I run my life,” he said quietly. “For every act I take, I have to strike a balance. So many balances you can’t imagine.”
“Then tell me.”
He shook his head. “Hu Chang knows some of it. He can probably be persuaded to share it with you. Though it would be safer for you if he didn’t.”