Chapter12

They went outside and waited for Lee.

"What's the matter with you, Lara, you are so quiet?" Kazuya said after a while.

"It's nothing" she said, "I was just thinking about what has happened today."

Lee came up to them.

"Waiting for me, that's so very nice of you." he said.

"Yes, it is, and I don't know why I do it. After all you are the one who brought Nina into our lives." Kazuya said annoyed.

"Don't remind me of that bitch. I wonder what they have done to my car. You two can leave me here, I will see if I can get my car back."

"Don't get yourself into trouble. I will show Lara a little surprise." he looked at Lara.

"Have a nice evening." Lee said and walked away.

"A surprise?" Lara said.

"You will see."

****

They went to the car and got inside. They drove towards the coast. Lara first thought that he wanted to go to the beach. But instead of stopping here they drove along the coast line for some time.

"Where are we going?"

"You will see. If I tell you it's no surprise."

Ten minutes later the Porsche stopped at the harbour.

"Ok, fine, don't tell me what you have planned."

Kazuya didn't answer. He parked the car and got out. Lara followed him. He walked towards a huge yacht.

"I thought I would take you on a little boat trip." Kazuya finally said.

"Great idea." Lara said excited.

The fact that she was excited scared her a bit. She wasn't sure if she might be going too far. If Kazuya learned too much about her, he might see her plans. She had found out enough about him to know that he wasn't as evil as Downey or some of the other fighters had described him, but he wasn't harmless either. She feared that he might even be able to kill if betrayed, and this was betrayal. She was using him and she knew it. She wanted to stop but somehow she couldn't. She was drawn towards him like a moth to a flame.

****

Kazuya led Lara up the gangway.

"I have sent all but two people home. But we will need those two, unless you want to spend the evening behind the wheel." he said to her.

"No thanks."

"Come on. I'll show you around. This ship has two pools, one outdoors and one indoors. We also have a dojo. Fighting is the most important thing in my father's life. When I was a child I didn't really share his interest. But I had no choice. He trained me."

He paused for a moment.

"If you had a bathing suit, I would ask you if you want to go swimming."

Lara pointed at her bag pack. "I am always prepared for everything, remember."

"Do you want to?"

"Why not."

"Come on. I'll show you to a room, where you can get changed."

He led her inside and to a cabin.

"We have five guest cabins. This one, the one next door and three on the other side of the ship."

Lara looked around. The cabin was decorated in Japanese style and looked very different from her yacht.

"Shall we meet at the pool then? Let's say in five minutes?" Kazuya said to her.

"Ok." she replied.

****

He went out and Lara got changed. 5 minutes later she arrived at the pool. Kazuya was already in the water. Lara tested the temperature with her foot. She was surprised to find that the water was actually quite warm.

"And I was scared that I would freeze."

"The water has been heated up. It would be too cold otherwise."

Lara made a swan dive to get into the pool. She dived over to the other side where she came up to the surface again.

"Wow, I'm impressed." Kazuya said "But I guess treasure hunters have to be good divers."

This came to Lara as quite a shock, he certainly knew too much about her. But apparently he didn't know what his father was up to.

"How about a little race? 5 rows?" Kazuya challenged Lara.

"Ok."

At first Lara was quite confident. She got a good start and was moving fast. But after the second turn she had to realise that Kazuya's strokes were much stronger. And at the end he arrived 3 seconds before Lara.

"Now I'm the one who is impressed." she said "I always thought of myself as a good swimmer. But 3 seconds are 3 seconds."

"Don't worry; you'd still have to wait another 7 seconds till Chaolan would arrive."

And with that Kazuya climbed out of the water. Lara's eyes fell onto the scar on his chest once more. Since she had seen it during the fight as well she didn't have to pretend to see it for the first time.

"So where did you get that?" Lara finally asked.

"The scar? My father... He pushed me off a cliff when I was very young. He said only the ones strong enough to survive are worthy to be his son. Well apparently I did survive, but I brought a little souvenir."

Lara decided to leave it there. Again she had felt anger in his voice, when he spoke of his father. And somehow she was beginning to understand why.