Page 50 of Poison Evidence

Dimitri came to a halt in front of her. She was so preoccupied with her thoughts, she bumped into him. This caused her to stumble on the slope, and, quick as a flash, he dropped the cases and slipped his arm around her waist, preventing her from pitching backward.

A smile played about his lips as he continued to hold her close. “You don’t have to play games, Ivy. You want me to hold you, just say so.”

She rolled her eyes and pushed on his chest. He released her, and she couldn’t help but regret not taking another moment to savor being pressed against him first. “Why did you stop?”

“We’re here.” He brushed aside a curtain of vegetation, revealing a low opening in rock.

She took a step back. “No way. I’m not going in a small, dark cave.”

“It’s just small at the opening. It widens out.”

“It’s not small spaces I don’t like, it’s the lack of windows. No light. No way to see out. Nothing to triangulate from.” It was hard to articulate this concern, not without sounding crazy. But then, maybe she was crazy.

Dimitri just smiled and took a step closer to her. He cupped her cheek with one broad palm, then leaned down and brushed his lips across hers. The kiss was sweet, yet savory.

Like a fool, she opened her lips and deepened it, sliding her tongue over his.

This was forbidden, this kiss, which she allowed for no reason other than she wanted it. Which was probably why it felt so damn good.

His hand moved from her cheek to the back of her head, and he groaned against her lips as he pressed his erection against her belly. She let out her own groan. She wanted him. In spite of everything, she wanted him inside her body. Her memory of the other night was so crisp, it was almost eidetic, and she wanted every hard inch of him again.

He ended the kiss, his breathing uneven. “Damn. You’re going to be the death of me, Poison.”

If only they could return to that surreal night when he’d been a stranger she’d dubbed Death Valley and they’d shared the empowerment of recreational, healing sex.

His hand returned to her cheek again, where the kiss had started. “Do you trust me, Ivy?”

“No.”

His eyes lit. “Not even a little bit?”

She frowned and considered his question. “Okay, maybe a little.”

He brushed his lips over hers, soft and light, one more time before releasing her. “This cave has windows. If you can squeeze through the opening, you’ll be fine.”

She wanted to argue, but in the end, she agreed to follow him in, and if she didn’t like it, she could leave.

He slid the cases inside in front of him, a train of them, each one nudging the one before it forward. She’d freak at the potential for them to be lost in an unknown abyss, but at this point, it was clear CAM was as important to him as it was to her, and he knew this place.

At last, she’d crawled through the two-foot-high hole, through a slightly larger tunnel until the opening expanded into a chamber. She gasped at the light shining through two openings in the cave ceiling.

“Skylights?” she asked in awe.

“Four of them. Two here, two over the lower chamber. Carved though the limestone by Japanese soldiers during the war.”

He handed her a flashlight, which she cast on the walls and ceiling. “The cave looks natural.”

“It is, but the entrance we came through was cut, as were the skylights. And the stairs.”

She frowned, then her light landed on what appeared to be steps cut into the natural downward slope of the limestone floor that extended into darkness. “What’s down there?” The ceiling also sloped downward, mirroring the floor.

“A chamber with a pool that leads to the sea.”

She ran the light over the walls. “This is amazing. I knew caves like this existed in the Rock Islands, but this is more extensive…” Her words trailed off as the light landed on writing on the wall. Japanese and Palauan writing.

She studied the characters, which were kanji. Her ability to read Japanese was limited, and she couldn’t read Palauan at all—but the symbols were familiar. “Names, maybe,” she murmured. “I wonder if this was created by the Palauans who were pressed into duty by the Japanese during the war? There are stories that eighty young men were trained to participate in suicide guerrilla raids against American forces. TheKirikomi-tai. Some said they set up outposts on other islands, refuge from the Americans.”

“I believe that’s exactly what this was. Ulai said there are rumors of a handful of caves like this one in the Rock Islands. I found this one thanks to the tunnel through the pool. The tunnel we crawled through was filled with dirt and well hidden.”

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