"Why?"
He sighed. "Because I love you, Haley. Someday you're going to believe that."
She fell silent, though he could almost hear the wheels of her brain spinning. Finally she said, "It's just… new for me. All these feelings. I… I still have things to tell you."
"Well, at the moment," he said, irony heavy in his voice, "I have nothing but time to listen."
She made a noise that might have been a laugh. "The man chasing us is Lloyd Branson. My ex-boss. I thought he was dead, but he's not. He's the one killing my team."
"Why does he need you?"
She wiggled her wrists entrapped in his hands. "You're hurting me, Cameron."
He loosened his grip, but didn't let go, still afraid she'd take off to surrender herself to save him. Beneath him, he could feel her every line, her every torturous curve.
"Branson needs me to go back because he can't re-create the system, only I can. He doesn't know how. I've studied earth movement, both above and below sea level, for years now. He was just a businessman, though a damn shrewd one."
"What, exactly, was this system?"
"It predicts earth movements."
"Earthquakes?"
"And volcanic eruptions."
He let that soak in. A cold breeze brushed over his skin, but he barely felt it. "I thought your system monitored earth movement."
"I never said that."
She hadn't, he realized. He'd just assumed, because in his wildest dreams, he hadn't imagined this. "A system like that would save a lot of lives."
The sound that escaped her was more like a choked laugh than an agreement. He let go of her, then eased up to cup her face. Concentrating hard, he found that he could just barely make out the outline of her features. He didn't know if it was because he could actually see, or if he was just incredibly in tune with her, but her pain and suffering became his own. "What happened to you down there, Haley?"
"My dream came true."
But it was bitterness and defeat he heard, not joy. "The system worked? You can predict?"
His fingers holding her face became wet. With her tears, he realized with great dismay, and his stomach tightened.
"Could. Before it was destroyed in the bomb blast."
"Oh, darlin', I'm sorry." He pushed up on his arms and knelt over her, awed by what she had accomplished. "Branson got greedy."
"We weren't allowed to go public and make the announcement. I didn't understand then." She sat up and covered her face with her hands. "I can't believe I didn't see it. But we were so high on our discovery…"
"Didn't see what?" he asked gently, holding her shoulders. More wind blew in and this time, he felt it. The chill seeped deep. "Haley, what didn't you see?"
She drew a shaky breath. "He killed them, my whole team. Alda must have suffered so-the others certainly did. I'd gone home to warn them, but was too late." Her voice came muffled in the dark and he knew she'd covered her face again. "There was blood everywhere-smeared on the walls, coating the floors… I was so scared, Cam."
He let out a violent oath, rage boiling so quick and strong he shook with it. He held her close, despite her brief struggle to move away. "Haley, I'm so sorry." Now he understood the mindless terror in which he'd found her that first night.
"Finding uranium was coincidental, but it made it better for him. Now he has the money once he sells the stuff, to stay hidden forever. He can just wait me out."
"Why did he bomb EVS?"
"So there wouldn't be any evidence. He didn't know my notes were there, or that I wasn't in our substation on the water as he'd planned for me to be. He'd flown me there earlier-he's a pilot, you see. But I'd left by boat. He must have thought he'd make me work with him after he'd killed everyone that had knowledge of it. But I saw our apartment-" She took a deep breath. "I had nowhere to go. I panicked. I hardly remembering getting to the airport, but I got on an airplane, the first one I could, and it took me to L.A. But I knew he could trace me there because I'd used my own name and passport, so I hopped on again, and came to Colorado Springs."
Thank God, he thought, squeezing her closer.
"Nellie was so kind to me. Cam, if anything has happened to her-"
"Nothing did," he promised, praying with all his heart that he was right. "She's safe. So's Jason." He couldn't think about Zach or he'd lose it. He could only hope that his brother had gotten out of the house. "Haley, darlin'… Branson thinks you can reproduce the system?"
"Yes, it would take months, maybe more. My notes were all destroyed. The U.S. government would probably pay him for it, but he won't give them the chance. Not now that he's discovered that by finding the weakest points and placing a certain type and amount of explosive there, he can create earthquakes as well as predict them."
Cam leaned closer, unable to believe what he'd just heard. "What?"
"He can cause earthquakes. He can, in fact, hold the entire world for ransom. Blackmail whole governments. Or if he chose, destroy as much or as little land as pleased him."
He sat back, stunned. "My God."
"He had a grand time in South America creating that 7.0. So many died. An entire village was wiped from the face of this earth." She stood abruptly, facing away from him. "I won't make that system again, Cam. I won't. He'll have to kill me. But I wanted to get him away from you and the others first."
He rose to stand behind her. A woman like Haley wouldn't take the loss of one life lightly, much less the thousands she'd talked about. No wonder she'd been in such a state of mind, he thought, aching for her. No wonder she hadn't cared if she'd lived or died-Branson had taken everything from her.
Cam could kill him for that alone, and this time the violent thought didn't give him pause. "I told you. I'm not going to die. And neither are you."
She sighed. "I nearly had a heart attack when I saw you at the airport," she whispered. "I knew if he saw you, he'd-I thought I was going to have to watch you die right in front of me."
He closed his eyes. She loved him, he thought, his heart going a little crazy with relief. She did love him. "We're going to get out of this. Alive."
She let out a little disbelieving laugh. "The optimistic cowboy. We're barricaded in a dark cave in the freezing mountains of Colorado, being hunted down by a psycho, and you tell me we'll get out. Only you, Cam. Only you."
"Actually, you're the genius, here. So technically, you should be able to come up with something better. But seeing as you're distressed and not quite yourself… I'll let you slide."
"This isn't funny."
"If you give up on me now," he said lightly, "I'll have to get tough." He stepped closer and dropped the teasing. "At least we're together." He heard her breath catch. "I thought I'd die, Haley, when I realized you'd left me. Don't do that again."
She wrapped her arms around her middle, bending slightly at the waist. "You hurt," he said in an unintentionally accusing voice, grabbing her shoulders. "Your ulcer?"
"Yes," she whispered.
He could feel her trembling. "Do you have your medicine?"
"It's in my purse. In the truck."
He pushed her gently to the floor. "I'll be right back. Stay here."
He was totally unprepared for her reaction. "No!" she cried, grabbing his arms and yanking hard. He stumbled forward, landing on her. She held him with the tenacious hold of a pit bull. "You're not going back to the truck. He'll kill you. Do you hear me, Cameron Reeves? You're not going!"
He lay sprawled on top of her, probably hurting her as he pressed her into the hard ground. He tried to lift his weight off, but she only held him tighter.
"No!"
With a sound of frustration, he stopped fighting and lowered his forehead to hers. "You're in pain, Haley."
"I'm fine."
He propped himself up on his elbows, searching her face in the dark. "No more lies, Haley. Ever. You're too good at it-it scares me. Promise."