The Eden Factor (Kathlyn Trent/Marcus Burton Romance Adventure Series Book 2) (21 page)

Marcus nodded dully; he was
positively ashen. "Because the labor was so long."

"Because her heart was
working so hard that her doctor was afraid."

"The doctor knew and he
didn't tell me?"

"She didn't want you to know.
She didn't want to worry you."

Marcus stood up, running his
fingers through his mussed hair. His agitation was obvious. "That's
bullshit," he growled. "I'm her husband. I'm supposed to know
everything about her. And the twins – hell, the pregnancy could have killed
her.”

“But it didn’t.”

He glared at her, hands
outstretched. “That’s not the point. The point is that she had no right to keep
this from me, not only for her sake, but for the boys’ sake. They’re my kids,
too. She could have passed this defect on to them. I had every goddamn right to
know."

“I agree with you and I tried to
tell her,” Juliana said steadily. “She wasn’t trying to be selfish, Marcus,
really. It’s just that you had so much on your mind already and she didn’t want
to worry you with something like this.”

“Something like this?” he
snorted. “I’d say ‘this’ is a pretty goddamn big deal, Juliana.” He suddenly
looked at her, suspicion in his eyes. "Is there anything else I should
know? Anything else you two have been conspiring to keep from me?"

Juliana took into account that he
was extremely upset.  "We haven't been conspiring," she said softly.
"It's just something she really doesn't think about. She doesn't even take
drugs for it. It's something she's lived with all her life and she didn't want
to needlessly worry you over something neither of you can control."

Marcus stood in the center of the
tent, watching the morning dawn from beyond the open tent flap. Out in the
camp, life was going on. His dig was progressing, and time passed. But inside
the tent, it was as if time was standing still.  He was so angry he could
hardly think, but on the other hand, all he wanted to do was hold his wife. He
just couldn't understand how she could have kept something so serious from
him.  More than anything, he was desperately hurt.

 "But she confided in you
about this."

"I've known her most of my
life.  I didn't even find out until we were in high school, and even then it
was by accident." She went over and put her hand on him, gently.
"Don't be upset, Marcus. Now's not the time. We've got bigger things to
worry about than this."

"I think this is a pretty
big deal if it killed her father," he looked at her. "I've let her
remain silent about what happened between her and her folks since I've known
her. I've never even asked you, but I'm asking you now.  No more secrets. What
happened between Kathlyn and her parents that she cut off ties with them?"

Juliana hoped Kathlyn would
forgive her. She paused appropriately, so Marcus would know she was divulging
privileged information. "Ever heard of the law firm of Trent, Jones,
Sheppard and Rosskopf?"

Marcus shook his head.
"Should I?"

"How about the J.T. Sellman
trial?"

"Where that ex-baseball
player was accused of killing his wife and her lover a few years ago by cutting
up their bodies and burying the parts in nursery school sand piles around Los
Angeles?"

"That one."

Marcus picked up on the
implication immediately. "Her dad defended the guy?"

"Her dad and her brother.
They got him acquitted."

Marcus vaguely remembered the
trial and all of the publicity surrounding it a few years ago. But he had been
in Egypt, mostly, and hadn’t paid an over amount of attention to it.

“So why did Kathlyn stop talking
to them?”

“Because she didn’t want to go to
law school. Her great-grandfather started the firm and it was just expected,
within the Trent family, that everyone would support the practice. Kathlyn
didn’t want to. Jason Trent was a real blow-hard, Marcus. He could be a real
ass. When Kathlyn told him she wanted to pursue a degree in Archaeology, he hit
the roof. He told her that no kid of his was going to disgrace the family with
that kind of a profession, especially Kathlyn. She was always the shining star
of the family, smarter than her two siblings. They expected big things from
her. When she had her own ideas about things, her dad gave her an ultimatum;
the family or her career. She chose her own path, and she never looked back.”

Marcus thought about his wife,
how strong and independent and stubborn she could be. Traits that would have
made her a fantastic lawyer now made her a fantastic archaeologist. “So she cut
off all ties?”

Juliana shrugged. “It really
wasn’t her choice, but her dad didn’t want to talk to her. She’d try to contact
her mother and her dad would just intercept the calls. I think Sallie Trent was
really crushed by it, but she wouldn’t go against her husband. When Kathlyn
graduated summa cum laude from SCU, her dad showed up at her graduation to tell
her how ashamed he was of her. I was there; I saw him. He was unbelievably mean
to her. But you know what? Even after that, she still adored him. I've never
heard her talk negatively about her dad, no matter what happened. His death is
really going to kill her.”

Marcus felt an anger building
toward the man he never knew, where just minutes before had been grief. But on
the other hand, he ached for his wife. “So she put herself through college?”

“Working nights as a bartender in
a fancy club. She made pretty good money, but her dad had contacts all over the
city that told him what she was up to. It embarrassed him even more. And when
she started coming out with her cable programs, I heard through my mom that
Jason Trent just about had a coronary. The more Kathlyn did, the more ashamed
he was of her.”

Marcus scratched his chin,
thinking on his wife. The morning had been full of surprises about her. “Then
it makes sense, psychologically speaking, why she does what she does.
Constantly striving for approval from a father who will never give it.”

Juliana nodded. “Yes, that and
her heart. She doesn’t really know how much time she has on this planet and
it’s like she’s determined to cram in as much as she can. She could live
another sixty years, or die tomorrow.”

"The same could be said for
all of us."

"That's true. But in her
case, there's a bit more to it."

Marcus looked at Juliana. It took
her a moment to realize there were tears in his eyes. “Oh, my God," he
breathed. "I don’t want her to die tomorrow, Juli. I'm scared out of my
goddamn mind.”

Juliana didn’t have a reply.
There was nothing more to be said.  She just grasped Marcus’ big hand and
prayed.

CHAPTER
TEN

Five times a day, the call rang
out over the city to call worshippers to the gold-domed, blue-tiled Mosque. 
The heat was incredibly intense, rising in golden waves off the desert terrain.
Kathlyn had listened to the songs from the Mosque for more than a day now. 
Fayd still wouldn’t tell her where she was, but Kathlyn suspected. If CeMEH had
such a great genetics laboratory, she couldn’t believe they would take her
anywhere other than Amman.

But she was in someone’s house.
Someone’s very closely guarded house. It could have been Fayd’s, but she didn’t
think so. He didn’t make this much money, unless he was on the take, which he
probably was, so maybe it was his house.  In any event, she was getting cabin
fever and the time had come to plot her escape. The past few days had been
filled with confusion, trying to grasp what was going on around her. Now, her
next step was the obvious.

It was early morning. A woman in
the traditional chador, unusual for the fairly metropolitan Amman, had brought
her breakfast consisting of boiled fruit juice, flat baked bread, cheese, and
some sort of meat that she didn’t want to guess at. She ate the bread and
cheese and drank the juice, all the while thinking that this could be a lovely,
leisurely vacation had the circumstances not been so harrowing.  She wished
Marcus were here with her. She missed him so horribly that it made her ill to
think about him. She knew how frantic he must be.

Fayd decided to grace her with
his presence about an hour after her breakfast. He was dressed in white, his
long hair flowing, his mustache and beard perfectly trimmed.   He knocked at
her door and entered the room, smiling as if nothing in the world was amiss. 
But Kathlyn could feel her hatred for him growing.

“Good morning,” he said amiably.
“Did you sleep well?”

Kathlyn was in no mood for his
pleasantries. “Fayd, I want to go.”

Fayd’s smile wavered.  He didn’t
reply immediately as he sat himself down on the end of the bed.  "Kathlyn,
I know this all seems a bit extreme, but...."

"Extreme?" she
exclaimed. "Fayd, you and whomever you're in cahoots with have kidnapped
me. That's a crime, in case you didn't realize it."

"But it won't be a kidnapping
when you come to realize the importance of what we are trying to accomplish
here. You'll stay of your own free will."

"Of course, I forgot,"
she said sarcastically. "You and I have sex, fertilize an egg, which will
then have its DNA sequence supplanted by the DNA extracted from our relic.
You're out of your damn mind!"

"We don't have to sleep
together. The fertilization can be done in a laboratory."

"Like I would ever sleep
with you anyway. You're nuts!"

"Make it all sound so
outlandish."

"It is. And I want to get
the hell out of here."

Fayd had hoped this morning would
bring about a slightly more rational atmosphere. He could see they were going
to come to blows immediately and he was very much prepared.

"It's not that easy."

"Yes, it is," she moved
away from the window where she had been standing.  She was dressed in white
gauze pants and a button-up shirt with only one button, the one between her
breasts, fastened.  Washed and rested, she looked fabulous in spite of her
fury.  "You have absolutely no right to keep me here. In fact, I find this
entire circumstance just too wild to believe. You fed my theories about the
Apocalypse, encouraging me to connect the find to the Bible, when all along you
were planning this... this freaky experiment with me as a key ingredient."

"It was necessary," he
watched her turn away in frustration. "If I had told you the truth, would
you have gone along with me? I think not. This kind of thing is far too
important to be left to chance."

She bumped against the wall,
aggravated and angry.  "You have no right to include me in something I
have no desire to be a part of."

Fayd stood up. "Kathlyn, you
used to be very much in favor of anything that would substantiate your
field," he said. "But I can see in just the few short days we've
spent together that you've changed.  I had heard that over the past couple of
years, of course, ever since you met Burton, but not until I saw it with my own
eyes did I believe it."

Kathlyn glared at him.
"Don't bring Marcus into this. He has nothing to do with this."

"He has everything to do
with this. Before you met him, you were someone we all admired for your bravery
and determination and brilliance. But you went to Egypt, settled down with
Burton, and became something ordinary instead," his liquid eyes glittered.
"But you're not ordinary, Kathlyn.  You’re a dedicated scientist walking
the edge between Creation and Evolution. Now that we finally have a chance to
prove everything you've dedicated your life to, you don't want to participate.
You want to run back to Burton so he can smother you with his conservative
views. You're a gilded bird, Dr. Trent, and your husband has locked you up in a
cage and thrown away the key."

 Kathlyn stared at him.  "My
husband doesn't smother me," she countered. "He's common sense to my
sometimes reckless views."

"The Kathlyn Trent I knew a
few years ago would never had said that she had reckless views. She had
unconventional visions that were waiting to be released." He shook his
head. "Can't you see how Burton is polluting you? He's got you convinced
you're some sort of wild brigand."

"Don't say that about
him,'" she growled. "He's a wonderful, dedicated husband and father.
We all have to grow up some time, Fayd. Maybe I've just grown up."

Fayd sighed, watching her as she
ran her fingers through her long, honey-colored hair. He could see he had her
wavering somewhat and he was determined to push he over.

"He's stifled you," he
turned away and sat back down on the bed. "I never thought I'd see the day
when Kathlyn Trent would be stifled."

Kathlyn looked over at him.
"So if I agree with your wild scheme, I'm not stifled. But if I disagree,
my husband's influence has smothered me." She shook her head slowly.
"Your jealously is so obvious, Fayd. You're jealous that Marcus married
me."

Now she had him wavering.
"It is not jealousy, Kathlyn, but fact. The fire has gone out of you and
Marcus Burton has doused it."