Chapter 7

"You have to be kidding me," Lara exclaimed opened mouthed, she was unsure how to respond to Kurtis's apparent jealously.

"I just need to know," Kurtis replied abruptly.

"Russell is Winston's son, for gods sake Kurtis grow up." Lara slouched down in the kitchen chair to ease her back slightly. Hadrian certainly had a good aim, a point that Lara had mentally noted down.

"I don't think I'm the one who needs to grow up Lara. You think the world is your playground and you can take what you want; but you can't, you just can't. Kurtis whispered harshly, he was aware of the footsteps descending down the stairs.

"Maybe I do, but do you not think I live with the consequences? Everything is a risk in life, you just need to evaluate them," Lara shot Kurtis an angry glare, "Maybe you should start to do the same".

"You know what maybe I do, starting with helping you, it's like walking around with a death note on my head being within thirty yards of you. Consider me out." Kurtis stormed out into the small courtyard at the back, leaving Lara in a conundrum whether she was glad that Kurtis was finally not following her around. At that moment, she couldn't care less.

"Everything okay?" Russell enquired as he set to work on Lara's wounds.

"Yes, yes, just the usual...hazards of the job."

Russell gave her a questioning look, he knew that wounds that adorned her body did not come from working on a field site.

"So why did you come here? You have a lovely suite at Raffles to go to; I know I said pop in for dinner, but I think you have missed it by a couple of hours!"

"I'm so sorry Russ, I don't mean to be a burden." Lara said with a slight sadness in her voice.

"I'm joking Lara, relax! I'm guessing you didn't feel safe there, in your suite?" Russell had learnt from his father that the less you asked, the better the conversation flowed.

"Not really, I'm flying to Laos tomorrow; will you do me a big favour and email your father to ask him to set up some transport? I've lost my phone so I can't do much until I get to my suite."

Russell agreed without hesitation as he continued to wipe and patch up Lara's lightly tanned skin. His attention was drawn to a cluster a floating smoke rings that fluttered past the open back door.

"Who's that?" Russell asked.

"Collateral damage," Lara muttered as she watched Russell dab iodine on her shoulder. The mustard yellow liquid ran into her blouse, dying yet another limited spare space of white fabric. Russell glanced up with a questioning look, collateral damage was never a good thing.

"He's someone I know from a while back, he kind of help me in when I was on the run that one time". Lara corrected

"You never did explain that fully, where did you go? Not even my dad knows, and he knows everything that goes on!"

"European mini break, that's all," Lara smiled, "Right, I think I'm done now." Lara shrugged her blouse back on her shoulders, thanked Russell for all his help and began to make her way upstairs to the room that Russell had set up for her.

"Well, that's politeness for you," Kurtis brooded, leaning on the door frame and flicking back a stand of black hair that had fallen over his eyes.

"I won't lie, I don't know you and I don't know what you want; but I don't trust you." Russell said, keeping his distance from the shadowy figure.

"Look, I'm only here because I need to be; but she is making it so damn hard to be around her."

"Probably because she doesn't want you around her, ever think about that?"

"I need to be".

"Why? I need to be isn't a good reason." Russell raised his tone of voice to indicate his distrust of Kurtis. Kurtis shook his head, it was Lara he needed to speak to, not her minion.

"Fine, I get it you don't want to say. Just please, do me a favour and be truthful to her. I've not seen her like this for many years, not since she came back from Japan actually."

"I will," Kurtis stated without a hint of emotion, "but you should ask Lara to be truthful, not me". Kurtis walked past Russell and up the small flight of stairs.

"Where the hell do you think you're going? This is my house!" Russell harshly whispered.

"Don't worry, my ass will be snuggled right up on that sofa after I've freshened up." Kurtis followed Russell's reluctant directions to the bathroom. Or at least he pretended to.

ooOOoo

Lara shrugged off her tattered blood stained blouse, throwing it in a crumpled heap on the floor ready to be disposed of in the morning. Russell had done an excellent job of cleaning up her wounds with only a few bruises and closing cuts to remind her of the nights activity. The small bedside light illuminated the room with a soft vanilla light that reflected off faint silvery scars that scattered across Lara's body; mistakes, lucky escapes and memories of adventures gone. She gazed silently at the mirror, flicking her attention to one, perhaps two, in particular. A large section of crumpled skin on her left lower torso, held together with a sliver line. She touched the skin, but there were no sensations from it, the nerve endings had been damaged for too long now. A similar patch graced her lower back like a mirror image, a stamp of survival. Lara had reluctantly learnt to accept that scar, rather than being part of the job, the crumpled skin dug deeper and was a lot more personal than any other injury. It marked the start of her personal development from an eager university graduate to battle hardened adventurer. She sometimes wondered how different her life would had been if, eleven years ago, she didn't suggest to the Endurance crew to sail so close to the Dragon's triangle to uncover Himiko's secrets. Lara was a big believer of fate, as horrible as it was, Yamatai happened for a reason. In a morbid way, it opened opportunities for her, allowing Lara to become her own master, creating a public opinion of herself as a highly intellectual woman who happened to have a considerable inheritance that allowed her to meet her wanderlust ways. As the years passed, Lara had noted that she had become almost an urban myth.

A click of the door handle broke Lara away from her personal reflection as Kurtis slipped through the door.

"Don't you ever think of knocking?" Lara exclaimed as she snatched the worn blouse off the floor to cover her chest.

"I thought you'd be asleep," whispered Kurtis, shutting the door behind him. He was considerably calmer than when he hauled abuse at her half an hour ago.

"That doesn't make your intentions any better, makes them worst in fact. What do you want? I thought you didn't want to hang around with the walking death note".

"I just wanted to...check how you are."

"While I slept? Is it your personal mission to be the creepiest stalker I know of?"

"Well no...not intentionally anyway," Kurtis muttered as his eyes caught the collection of scars on Lara's body. "My god Lara what the hell happened to your side?"

"It was an accident I had when I was younger that's all." Lara was not in the mood to discuss her past life and Kurtis sensed the uneasiness in the air, holding his hands up in mock surrender, backing out of the room.

"Stop shutting people out Lara, one day they won't be there anymore." Kurtis said, leaving Lara still holding a bloodstained blouse to her chest. Snorting at his comment, she continued to undress thinking about what needed to be done when she arrived in Laos.

"I'm always alone, it wouldn't make much of a difference."