Undiscovered (Treasure Hunter Security Book 1) Page 14

  “I can’t stop it.” Hell, he wouldn’t stop it if he could.

  “We need to find this damned lost oasis.” Her shoulders sagged, some of the life going out of her eyes. “Or just find a way back to civilization.”

  “Rush. We’re going to find it. You know when I first met you, I thought you were a pain in the ass?”

  Her nose wrinkled. “Right back at you, Ward.”

  He smiled and stroked his thumb down her cheek. “Then I watched you work. Got to know you. Got zinged by that mouth of yours a few times. I realized you weren’t what I thought you were.”

  She smiled now and pressed her hand over his. “And I thought you were a tough, macho, alpha pain in the ass. I’m not sure I was wrong.”

  He laughed. “But you learned to like it.”

  Her face turned serious. “Yes. I’ve learned to like it a lot.”

  His heart skipped a beat. “Good.”

  “You aren’t going to run off to brood and tell me you’re no good, too dark, and I’m better off without you—”

  “Shut it.” He pressed a slow kiss to her lips.

  Her mouth clung to his for a second, then she pushed him away. “Uh-uh, no kissing. That means sex, and I really kind of want that, and then we’ll be here for hours. Long pleasurable hours…” Her nose wrinkled. “I can’t remember why I’m complaining about this.”

  “Lost oasis, valuable treasure, bad guy.”

  She grimaced. “Oh yeah.”

  “Come on, Rush.” He tugged her up. “Time to get back to work.”

  They scoured the cave paintings again. Went in circles again. He watched her get more frustrated and dejected.

  “I can’t work it out.” She kicked the ground.

  “So, you aren’t a tomb raider after all,” he said, hoping for a smile. “Bummer.”

  She thrust her hands onto her hips. “My breasts aren’t big enough anyway.”

  He snorted. “Your breasts are perfectly fine.”

  She laughed. “You did that to make me laugh.”

  “Maybe.”

  “We’ve been following the set-animal symbols, the symbol of Seth and Zerzura, and it just takes us in circles. I don’t understand!”

  “At least we haven’t seen any snakes.”

  “I guess that’s a positive.” Then her gaze went unfocused.

  “What?” he asked.

  “The realm of Apep. We have to pass through it.”

  “Yeah…”

  She hurried over to the wall. “Then maybe I should be looking for symbols of Apep.” She moved her hand as she searched the engravings. “There! Look!”

  He saw the snake symbol. A glyph of a cobra.

  Layne was off like a rocket. She raced along the tunnel and then spun, a smile on her face. She pointed at another snake glyph—this one showing the snake lying down.

  Before they took a step, Dec heard something. Frowning, he motioned her to stop. He turned back, facing the tunnel they’d come down.

  More sounds.

  Voices.

  “Shit.” Dec nudged her on. “Anders is coming.”

  Her eyes went wide. They moved into a jog.

  Every time she found the snake symbol, she pointed. The sounds behind them faded and soon, the tunnel narrowed. Dec saw they were in a new part of the cave complex.

  Now the walls were bare. No paintings, no carvings.

  At the end of the tunnel, his flashlight illuminated a huge carving on the wall.

  A giant snake with endless coils.

  “I think we found it,” she whispered. “That’s the classic image of Apep.”

  “Why couldn’t it have been a cat?”

  “Don’t tell me you’re afraid of snakes? It’ll ruin your macho SEAL image.”

  “I’m not afraid, but I wouldn’t want one as a pet.”

  She looked at the engraving. “Look at its eye.”

  He saw the gleam of yellow. “Desert glass?”

  “I think so.” She reached up and touched it.

  There was a grinding sound. Dec snatched her back and they watched the portion of the wall with the engraving slide back, leaving a black, yawning opening.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Well,” Layne said. “I think we’ve found the realm of Apep.”

  “I’ll go first.”

  “No, I’m the archeologist, so I’ll go first.”

  “I’m the macho former SEAL in charge of your security. That means I go first.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Have at it, macho man.”

  She watched him move forward, his broad shoulders almost spanning the entire opening. He moved his flashlight around.

  “Tunnel continues,” he called back. “No snakes.”

  She followed close behind, trying to peer around him. She spotted engravings on the wall. “These scenes, they look like the spells from the Book of the Dead, but a little different.” God, they were beautiful, the colors still as bright as the day they were painted. “Look, there’s Seth spearing Apep.”

  They kept moving.

  “Hold up.” Declan held up a hand. “There’s a chasm.”

  She pushed up beside him and gasped.

  A small, narrow bridge of rock crossed over a wide, dark opening.

  Declan swung the flashlight downward. “Shit.”

  She hissed out a breath. “At least they aren’t giants.”

  The base of the chasm was filled with writhing snakes. She couldn’t make out too many details but she could tell they were different sizes and a few different breeds.

  Declan shook his head. “Ready to cross?”

  She eyed the narrow walkway. It was barely wide enough for her boot. “Not really.”

  “I’ll go first.”

  Declan didn’t even hesitate to step out onto the bridge. He kept his hands out and his steps steady. There was just calm concentration on his face.

  Okay, you can do this, Layne. She pulled in a deep breath and followed him out. It was okay, as long as she didn’t look down and didn’t move too fast.

  Ahead, she saw that Declan had made it to the other side.

  Something fell from above and brushed her arm. She paused, her heart thumping. “Declan. Something just fell down from the ceiling.”

  He frowned, shining his light upward. His eyes widened. “Just keep coming, Rush. Don’t look up. Take your time.”

  “What?” She looked up.

  Her stomach rolled. Above, the curved roof was dotted with small ledges.

  And the ledges were all covered in snakes. As she watched, one fell down, tumbling into the gorge below.

  God. One had touched her. She shivered.

  “Rush. Look at me.”

  She swallowed the bile in her throat. If one landed on her…

  “Rush!”

  Declan’s harsh voice snapped her head up. He moved his fingers in a “come here” gesture. “Just look at me and keep moving.”

  She put one wobbly foot ahead. Then another. Her balance felt off and she felt a burning need to look up.

  “Keep coming.”

  Something flopped on her boot.

  She stifled a scream and lifted her foot. The snake slid off…and Layne’s balance teetered precariously.

  “Foot down,” Declan snapped. “Keep coming.”

  She did and righted herself. She took another step, fighting not to rush. If she ran, she’d lose her balance. She looked down but the space was too shadowed for her to see the nightmare below. She had no trouble imagining it, though.

  “Almost there, sweetheart.”

  Just a few more feet.

  A snake landed on her shoulder.

  She froze. She felt the damn thing move, heard it hiss.

  She whimpered.

  “Flick it off,” Declan called out. “Keep moving.”

  Layne shrugged her shoulder, trying not to cry out. She felt the creature slide away.

  But she felt frozen. She couldn’t move.

  Suddenly, trails
of light winged through the dark space. Voices shouted.

  “Ah, it is lovely to see you again, Dr. Rush.”

  Anders’ cultured, icy voice made her close her eyes. She heard gunshots and lifted her head. They slammed into the rock wall behind Declan. He was raising his gun and returning fire.

  “Rush! Get over here!” he roared.

  The thought that he could get shot spurred her into action. She moved steadily and carefully, fighting down the competing feelings inside her body—to run, to scream, to cry.

  She stepped off the bridge.

  Declan grabbed her arm, his fingers biting into her skin. He yanked her away from the chasm, firing over her shoulder. The echo of the shots was deafening.

  He pulled her through an arched doorway and Anders and his men disappeared from their sight.

  “You okay?” Declan cupped her cheeks.

  “Not really.”

  He smiled. “You’ll do. We need to move. Fast.”

  They sprinted down the long tunnel. At the end, it speared off into three different tunnels.

  “Which way?” he prompted.

  “Umm.” She was madly reading all the glyphs. “I can’t see a set-animal. All the hieroglyphs are just talking about Seth.”

  Noise and voices echoed from behind them, getting louder.

  “Come on, Rush. You can do this.”

  She sucked in a breath and blocked out the sounds. The hieroglyphs came into focus. “The middle tunnel.”

  They ran again.

  The tunnel ended, opening into a small cavern.

  “Careful,” Declan said, flashing the light above. “There’s a booby trap here. Looks like this spot on the floor triggers a slab of rock to slam down and seal this entrance.”

  Layne carefully skirted the darker colored patch on the ground. Her heart pounded, and she half expected to see some ruins in the cavern, or more tunnel entrances, something.

  There was nothing but a still pool of water.

  It was a dead end.

  Oh, God. “I must have gotten it wrong. Declan, I’m so sorry—”

  “Shh.” He was looking around. “We need to hide.”

  She guessed they could hide in the water, but she’d never be able to hold her breath long enough.

  “God, I screwed up.”

  “Hey.” He grabbed her chin. “No giving up, remember?”

  She nodded. “If anything happens to us…”

  “Rush, that’s giving up.”

  “No, it’s not.” She remembered the terrible pain of not having the chance to say goodbye to her parents. She hadn’t been able to tell them how much she loved them.

  It wasn’t happening again. Even if the man she was crazy enough to fall for didn’t want to hear the words.

  “Declan, I want you to know that I’m falling in love with you.”

  He went still, his gaze on her face.

  She shrugged one shoulder. “I know, you don’t want to hear it, and this is really bad timing—”

  “Shut it, Rush.” The grip on her chin turned to a soft caress. “You love me?”

  “Yes.” Her lips trembled and she saw something warm in his eyes. “I see past all those defensive ‘I’m too bad for everyone’ walls you put up.”

  “God, Rush, I—” He broke off on a curse.

  A red wavering dot caught her attention. It was hovering on the center of her chest. She gasped in a breath and raised her head…

  Just as Declan slammed into her.

  The sound of the gunshot was like thunder in her ears.

  She felt Declan’s body jerk. She felt him turn and she saw him raise his gun. He fired back down the tunnel.

  But not at their assailants.

  At the floor.

  He triggered the booby trap.

  A huge slab of rock slammed down and closed off the tunnel. She heard the horrible sounds of screams as someone got caught.

  Then she heard Declan’s quiet groan.

  “Declan.” God, he’d been shot. How bad was it?

  He slumped against her and she helped him down to the ground. He’d leaped in front of a bullet for her.

  “How bad?” Please be a flesh wound, please be a flesh wound.

  He sat back, and when she saw the blood over the front of his shirt, her heart stopped. “Declan—”

  “Can’t…worry about it now. Need to get out of here.”

  She could hear Anders and his men banging on the other side of the rock slab.

  “To where? You’re hurt.” The enormity of it crashed down on her. He was hurt, and they were stuck far from civilization, with a psychopath on their trail.

  Declan needed help and she couldn’t get it for him. Anxiety and fear twisted inside her.

  “Need you to bandage my stomach. First aid kit is in my backpack,” he ground out, sucking in a breath. “Then we go.”

  She reached over and opened his backpack. She grabbed the small kit and then lifted his T-shirt. The bullet wound was to the side of his stomach. Bright-red blood bloomed. She pressed a wad of gauze onto the wound, hating it when he groaned.

  “Wrap it.”

  She wound the larger bandage around him.

  “Help me up.”

  She slid her arm behind his back and jammed her shoulder under his arm. Awkwardly, they got to their feet.

  “Water,” he said.

  She frowned. “You need a drink? Let me—”

  “No. The water, there’s a current at the back.”

  She looked and saw that at the back of the pool, the water was moving.

  Like it was draining downward.

  “There’s an opening under there—” he heaved in a shaky breath “—I think we need to swim.”

  His usually tan face was pale, and when she looked down, she saw blood had already soaked through her bandage. And he was talking about swimming through caves.

  “Declan, we can’t—”

  “Not going to let fucking Anders touch you.”

  The fierceness in his voice made her heart clench. Well, she wasn’t going to let Anders hurt Declan, either. Not any more than he already had.

  “Come on,” she said decisively.

  They hobbled to the edge of the pool, then waded in. It gradually got deeper and deeper. When the cool water hit his wounds, Declan muttered a curse.

  “Hang in there,” she said.

  “Get my flashlight out,” he said. “It’s waterproof.”

  She did as he asked.

  “Rush…”

  She raised her face and for a second was caught by the emotion on his face. Here was the Declan he kept hidden from everyone else. Her Declan.

  He pressed his mouth to hers, the kiss slow and frustratingly short. She vowed it wouldn’t be the last one.

  What if the underwater tunnel went on too far? She tried not to think about drowning.

  He grabbed her hand. “Ready? Go!”

  Together, they plunged into the water.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Dec tried to ignore the pain, but it was bad.

  Even swimming through the dark, calm water, he felt the energy flowing out of him.

  Get Layne to safety. That was all he could focus on right now. Get her away from Anders and find a way to contact his team.

  She was holding his hand in a death grip, and his flashlight gave off the tiniest beam of light in the dark water. The tunnel was wide enough for them to swim side by side.

  But they needed to surface soon.

  He kept kicking, could feel his lungs start to burn. Beside him, Layne’s movements were starting to slow and become uncoordinated.

  He kicked harder, wincing at the burn in his gut.

  Layne’s kicks had slowed to sporadic movements. She was still valiantly trying to go forward, but he knew she’d be fighting not to take a breath.

  They weren’t going to fucking drown in the middle of the world’s largest desert.

  He delved deep and found some last well of strength. He kicked hard
. Above, he thought he saw a glimmer of light.

  Layne went limp.

  No, dammit. He kicked, his lungs at the breaking point, his energy gone.

  They broke the surface.

  He heaved in air and dragged Layne up. She coughed and spluttered, her hair plastered to her head.

  A few steps and he felt the bottom. Together, they stumbled out of the pool.

  As they collapsed on the ground, Dec’s stomach felt like it was on fire. He was bleeding badly. He pressed the sodden bandage down harder.

  He didn’t tell Layne that he’d bleed to death within the next hour.

  God, to think he’d survived so many battles and missions. To think he’d finally found the one woman who’d broken through his self-imposed misery and made him fall in love…

  And he was going to lose it all.

  “How’s the wound?” She pressed a hand to his shoulder.

  “It’ll do.” He said it with all the strength he could muster. She’d found her parents dead, the last thing he wanted was for her to watch him die. Then he looked over her shoulder and everything in him stilled. “Layne—”

  “God, Declan. You hold on. I’m getting you out of here.”

  “Layne. Behind you. I think we found Zerzura.”

  A sad smile flittered over her lips. “You think I care about Zerzura right now?”

  “I think you’ve dreamed about it all your life and worked hard to find it—”

  “I love you, Declan. And I know that injury is bad.”

  Yeah, his woman was smart. At least he could give her this last thing. He nudged her around. “Look.”

  Her face filled with wonder. “Oh, my…”

  The cavern was huge and the rock lining it was a bright white. Light filtered down from above, illuminating the city that had been carved into the walls, and the large temple in the center. Flitting through the air were flocks of cave birds.

  “Unbelievable,” she breathed. “No one found Zerzura because it was underground.”

  “Come on. Let’s take a look.”

  He kept his arm on her shoulders because he was pretty sure he couldn’t hold himself up.

  The temple was still in good condition, only one corner of it crumbling.

  “So easy to imagine the people who lived here,” she murmured, stroking some engravings.

  Yeah, it was pretty easy to imagine people living here, making their life here.