The Scent of Jasmine Read online

  Tally was a tall young man, with dark hair that had a reddish tint. He was handsome in a mischievous way that Alex thought women would like, and he looked as though laughter was never far from him. Silently, Tally left the lighted hotel doorway and walked into the dark back alley. Alex wondered why Tally wasn’t calling to his sister. Instead, the young man walked slowly, looking about him cautiously.

  When Cay stepped to the edge of the roof and looked like she was about to jump, Alex left the shadows. What in the world was she doing?

  Tally stopped walking when he saw Alex, and his eyes widened. In the next second, Cay emitted a sound that was a combination of Indian war cry and an alligator roar, and she leaped from the roof onto Tally.

  Alex ran forward to try to catch her, but she hit Tally hard. He staggered backward but didn’t fall. And Alex could see the way he was holding her, protecting her, so that not even a strand of her hair was hurt.

  Alex stepped back and watched. Obviously, this was something that had happened between them many times. But, still, just in case, Alex stood nearby, ready to step in if he was needed.

  “What the hell are you wearing?” Tally asked as he struggled against her.

  It was Alex’s guess that Tally wasn’t used to the muscle his sister had developed in the last weeks, so he was unprepared when she slipped her ankle about his foot and pulled. Tally hit the ground hard, but as he fell, he held Cay in a way that kept her from being injured.

  “I’m going to tell Mother that you were cursing and Alex made me into a boy.”

  Tally looked up from the ground at Alex; Cay was on top of him. “Is this the man that kidnapped you and put you in mortal danger?” When he started to get up, Alex braced himself.

  Cay put all her weight on Tally’s left arm, and it looked like she was going to break it. “Who! Who, you idiot!”

  Tally stopped struggling and looked at her in consternation. “What?”

  “It’s ‘who’ not ‘that.’ Alex is the bastard who stole me and took me into the wilds of the Florida jungle. I can see that you haven’t been studying while I was away.”

  “I was traipsing all over the country looking for you, so how was I to read anything?” He twisted his arm out from under her and tried to get up, but Cay threw her body over the top of his.

  “You touch him and I’ll make you into a girl,” Cay said as she pushed him down.

  Out of the shadows came another young man, one Alex had not seen inside. He had dark blond hair, very serious eyes, and he was handsome, but in a calm way, very unlike Tally’s fiery good looks. In an instant, Alex knew who he was, and for a moment the two of them stood there in the dim light and stared at each other. They’d been corresponding since they were children and they knew more about each other than anyone else did. They had confided things in their letters that they had never told another person.

  “No one is castrating anyone,” Nate said calmly as he put his body in front of Alex and looked down at his brother and sister wrestling on the ground.

  Cay didn’t hesitate as she got off of Tally and threw her arms around Nate. There was no wrestling, no falling to the ground, and no raucous remarks, just a quiet embrace.

  “You’re all right?” Nate asked. “Not hurt in any way?”

  “Not at all,” Cay said, standing on tiptoe, her arms around her brother’s neck.

  “Did you learn anything on your journey?”

  “Everything. And more than that, I drew pictures of it all.”

  Nate’s eyebrows rose. “Did you? Where are they?”

  “Jamie Armitage has them.”

  “What?” Tally asked as he got up from the ground and dusted himself off. “An Armitage is involved in all this?”

  “He calls himself Mr. Grady, and he led the trek.”

  “How many of there were you?” Nate asked. “And where did you go? Down the St. Johns? What wildlife did you encounter? What—?”

  Cay kissed Nate’s cheek. “I think you should talk to Alex about all that. He studied the books and knows the names of everything. I’m going to give the drawings to Uncle T.C. and let him identify the plants.”

  “And I guess this is Alex?” Tally asked, still looking as though he’d like to hit him.

  “Yes.” Cay moved away from her brothers to stand near Alex. It was all she could do not to slip her hand into his, but she thought that would be too much for Tally to handle. With his hotheaded temper, touching Alex might make Tally start hitting. “Alex and I—”

  She broke off when she saw Tally look to his right, down the side of the building, and draw in his breath. Cay looked at Nate, and he gave a brief nod. She didn’t see that he gave another look to Alex.

  “He’s here?” Cay asked in a whisper.

  “Who’s here?” Alex asked, speaking for the first time in minutes. Only Nate saw the way Alex stepped closer to Cay, as though to protect her from whatever, whomever, Tally was looking at.

  But when Cay looked at Alex and shook her head, he stepped back. Nate noted that it had been a silent communication between them, saying that she was safe and he didn’t need to protect her.

  Slowly, Cay walked around the side of the building, Alex close behind her. Walking toward them was a big man, as tall as Alex, but with several more pounds on him, and from the way he moved, it was all muscle. Alex instantly knew he was the brother Cay talked about so often: Adam. From what Alex had gathered, her eldest brother was a stern and formidable character, and Alex braced himself. He didn’t care if Adam was her brother or not, if he said even one unkind word to her, if he started to bawl her out, Alex was going to take him on. After all Cay had been through, no one, not even a brother, had the right to hurt her in any way.

  Alex watched as Cay stood still and her brother stopped several feet away from them. Alex looked to see if she was so still because she was afraid of him, but he couldn’t read her expression. Alex’s hands made into fists. He might lose a fight with the man, but he’d die protecting her.

  When Adam went down on the ground on one knee, Alex wasn’t sure what was happening, but in the next second Adam opened his arms, and Cay went running. With his kneeling, she was almost the same height as he was. She threw her arms around him and buried her face in his neck. And in the next second, the air was full of the sobs of both of them.

  Embarrassed at such a display of raw emotion, Alex turned to look at Nate and Tally. Their eyes were on their siblings, who were locked together, their heads bent in a position of surrender, their quiet sobs coming to them on the hot night air. There were tears running down the cheeks of both Nate and Tally, but they didn’t bother to wipe them away.

  Alex stepped away from them and into the shadows. It was as though he’d already lost Cay, as though their time together had never been, and she was now going back to where she belonged. Alex had never felt more superfluous or unneeded in his life than he did at that moment. What was going on was between her and her brothers, and he had no place in it.

  Quietly, he turned and started to walk away, but Nate’s hand on his arm stopped him.

  “Don’t leave. They’ll calm down in a moment, Adam will start telling her how she scared all of us, and how she’s never going to be allowed out of the house alone again. When it gets back to normal, you and I can go somewhere and talk. You look different than I imagined.”

  Alex knew what Nate meant. Both of them had been very modest in their letters about what they looked like. Alex had said he looked like a horse, and Nate had said he was as plain faced as all scientists. But Alex had the dark good looks of a Renaissance angel, and Nate had the chiseled features of a Greek sculpture.

  “I’d hoped you were better-looking,” Alex said with a straight face.

  “It’s evident that you’ve spent a great deal of time in the company of my sister,” Nate said just as seriously. “There is no situation about which she doesn’t make a jest. Ah! I see that the two of them have stopped crying. Perhaps we can get some dinner out of them. I hav