agreed, sitting down on a packing case. She glanced at Adam and raised her brows when he gave her a cold stare. She’d made up her mind last night that no matter what he said or did, she wasn’t going to react. Cool and professional seemed the best method of approach so she would stick to that.
‘Over to you then, Adam,’ she said sweetly.
‘As I was saying, we’ll work the usual twelve-hour shifts to start with. The important thing to remember is that we have to pace ourselves. I don’t want any heroics and people trying to prove they can do the job better than anyone else because it will cause more problems than it will solve. We need good, steady work and that’s all.’
He ignored her as he looked around the assembled group but she could tell from his tone that his remarks had been aimed at her. After all, she was the only one without any experience of working in the field so he didn’t need to remind the others about what was required of them. Her temper moved a notch up the scale although she forbore to say anything. If Adam was trying to provoke a reaction, he’d have to try harder than that.
‘I’m afraid that conditions are worse than I thought. My contact, Matthias, managed to get a message to me last night to warn me that there are several rebel groups still active in the area where we’ll be based. The Mwurandan government is doing everything it can to restore order but there’s no guarantee they’ll have the situation under control by the time we arrive.’
Once again his gaze swept over them and once again he ignored her. Kasey’s temper moved another notch up the scale.
‘This mission is going to be both difficult and dangerous,’ he concluded. ‘So if anyone wishes to back out, now is the time to do so.’
This time his gaze landed squarely on her and her spine stiffened when she saw the challenge in his eyes. It was obvious that he didn’t believe she was up to the job and it stung to know what a poor opinion he had of her.
‘If that was directed at me, Adam, then I hate to disappoint you. You’re not getting rid of me that easily.’
‘It wasn’t directed specifically at anyone. I just want to be sure that everyone understands the problems we will have to face.’
She flushed when she heard the dismissive note in his voice. She knew that he’d used it deliberately to cut her down to size and didn’t need the sympathetic smile June gave her to prove that. The meeting broke up shortly afterwards but she knew that she had to sort out the situation soon. It would be hard enough to cope with the pressures of the job without having Adam getting at her all the time. When he left the main part of the warehouse, she followed him.
‘We need to talk—’
‘I haven’t time to soothe your injured feelings,’ he said shortly, striding into the office. ‘If you don’t like the way I treated you then you know what to do.’
‘And that’s what you want, is it? You want me to leave?’
‘Frankly, I don’t give a damn what you do, Kasey. What I won’t put up with is you expecting special treatment.’ He sat down behind the overflowing desk and picked up a bundle of papers. ‘You’re just another member of the team as far as I’m concerned so don’t go getting it into your head that I’m singling you out.’
‘Rubbish! You wouldn’t have spoken that way to any of the others.’ Her anger rocketed the rest of the way up the scale and she glared at him. ‘You don’t want me on this team because of what happened five years ago so don’t try telling me that you aren’t singling me out when it’s blatantly obvious that’s exactly what you are doing. You haven’t forgiven me for what I did to you, have you, Adam? You can’t accept that I got the better of you!’
‘You’re wrong. I accepted it at the same time I accepted what a fool I’d been to think I was in love with you.’ His eyes grazed over her, filled with such contempt that her heart trembled with sudden pain. ‘The truth is that I was never in love with you, Kasey. The woman I loved was an illusion, someone you conjured up to pay me back for what you mistakenly believed I’d done to your brother. And that Kasey Harris doesn’t exist.’
He pushed back his chair and stood up. Kasey didn’t move as he brushed past her. She couldn’t because movement demanded too much effort. What Adam had accused her of doing was true. She had set out to make him fall for her because of what he’d done to Keiran. What he was wrong about was that she’d taken on a different persona or, as he’d put it, conjured up a different Kasey Harris. She hadn’t needed to do that because from the moment they’d met she had responded to him instinctively.
A sob welled to her lips but she bit it back because there was no point crying now. It wouldn’t help and certainly wouldn’t change what had happened. The truth was that the Kasey Harris he’d fallen in love with had been her real self; the woman who had broken his heart had been the myth, the person she’d created. And what made it all so much worse was that Adam would never believe her if she told him that.
‘Not exactly the Hilton, is it?’
‘Oh, I don’t know. It has a certain exotic charm,’ Kasey replied in response to June’s quip.
They’d just arrived at the hostel where they would be living during their stay in Mwuranda after a long and tiring journey. Their plane had turned out to be an old cargo aircraft, chartered by the Red Cross to deliver a consignment of food and clothing to the country. Make-shift seats had been squeezed into the hold between the packing cases so the noise of the engines had been deafening. After all those hours spent in such noisy and cramped surroundings anywhere looked good.
‘Exotic is right.’ June swatted a massive cockroach off the chest of drawers and shuddered. ‘You don’t get wildlife this big in Surbiton!’
‘Look on the bright side,’ Kasey said, chuckling. ‘Once you’ve dealt with one of these little suckers, your average British beetle is child’s play!’
She looked round when Lorraine and Mary suddenly appeared. There were four beds in the room and they’d obviously decided to join them. ‘Welcome to the bridal suite,’ she declared in her most unctuous tone. ‘We hope your stay here will be everything you expect it to be.’
‘Sadly, that will probably turn out to be the case,’ Lorraine said pithily, looking round. ‘What a dump. It’s a good job my Tim didn’t book us into somewhere like this for our honeymoon or it would have been the shortest marriage on record!’
‘You mean you don’t like it?’ Kasey looked affronted as she swept the cover off one of the narrow single beds. ‘No expense has been spared to provide us with the ultimate in comfort. I mean, just inhale that aroma. Eau de mildew if I’m not mistaken.’
‘You were warned about the conditions before you came, Dr Harris, so I hope you aren’t going to bombard us with an on-going litany of complaints.’
Kasey swung round when she heard Adam’s voice coming from the doorway. She hadn’t spoken to him to since he’d walked out of the office the previous night. He’d been sitting near the front of the plane when she’d boarded it so she’d deliberately chosen a seat at the rear to avoid him. However, his attitude towards her obviously hadn’t softened during the journey, she realised when she saw the chill in his eyes.
‘I wasn’t complaining, Dr Chandler. I was merely making an observation. I assume it isn’t against the rules to voice an opinion?’
‘Not so long as it doesn’t create unrest within the team.’ He stared back at her, unwilling to give an inch let alone concede that he might possibly be over-reacting. ‘Team harmony is essential and I shall come down extremely hard on anyone who undermines it.’
He didn’t add anything else before he went on his way but he’d said more than enough by that point. June grimaced.
‘Someone seems to have left his sense of humour at home. Try not to let it get to you, Kasey. His bark really is worse than his bite.’
‘I’m not