Unexplored (Treasure Hunter Security Book 3) Read online

  Logan studied it. The statue-like sarcophagi reminded him of small versions of the Moai statues of Easter Island.

  “But another fascinating burial area of theirs was discovered south of here,” Sydney continued. “Several mausoleums were found at a remote lake, high up on the cliffs. It’s called Laguna de los Condores.”

  “Lake of the Condors,” Logan said.

  “It’s also known as Laguna de las Momias.”

  Hale took a sip of his drink. “I don’t speak Spanish, but even I can work that one out.”

  “There were about two hundred mummies entombed there. The six mausoleums, called chullpas, were built into caves on the cliff face above the lake. Unfortunately, looters attacked the site after its discovery, looking for treasure, and a lot of mummies were damaged.”

  “They find any treasure?” Logan asked.

  She shook her head. “Archeologists removed the remaining undamaged mummies and artifacts. They’re all located in a museum in the closest town. It appears the Cloud Warriors had advanced mummification techniques to preserve their dead from the humidity of the forest. And Drew’s also noted that it appears mummification wasn’t just reserved for the rich. Chachapoyans of all status were mummified.”

  Logan took another sip of beer. “You think this lake is where your brother headed next?”

  Sydney frowned. “I’m not sure. Like I said, he didn’t leave me a message. But it’s all I’ve got.”

  Dec pulled his tablet out and set it on the table. He tapped the screen and a second later Darcy’s face popped up, her headset settled over her dark hair.

  Hale leaned into Declan’s shoulder to look at Darcy. “Don’t you have a life?”

  Darcy pulled a face. “My life is keeping you guys out of trouble. What’s happening?”

  “Darcy, looks like we need to get to a place called Laguna de los Condores,” Dec told her.

  Darcy’s brow creased and Logan heard her tapping on a keyboard. Then she groaned. “Well, you didn’t pick the easiest location to get to.”

  “I know you like a challenge,” Dec said dryly.

  “It’s just under a two-hour drive to the village of Leymebamba.”

  “Doesn’t sound too bad,” Logan said.

  Darcy made a scoffing sound. “From there, it’s a nine-to-ten-hour trek into the cloud forests. It looks like it’s best to travel by horse.”

  Logan groaned. “I hate horses.”

  “You’ll need decent gear for the trek,” Darcy added. “And it looks like there is a local guide who takes the occasional tourist group up there. Let me get in touch with him.” Darcy looked up. “And after this lake? Do you know where you’ll head next?”

  “No idea, Darce,” Dec answered. “On this job, we’re playing it by ear. It’s likely we’ll have to spend at least a few days in the forest.”

  Darcy nodded. “Leave it with me. I’ll organize gear for you to pick up there in Chachapoyas and then organize the guide and horses in Leymebamba. Give me at least an hour.”

  Logan shook his head. Only Darcy would only need an hour to find all the equipment they would need for a remote trek into the Andean cloud forests. But he knew she’d get it done. He’d seen her perform miracles.

  “You’re the best,” Dec said.

  Darcy winked. “Remember that when I ask you for a pay raise.”

  An hour and twenty minutes later, Logan was driving out of Chachapoyas, tailing Dec’s SUV. Sydney sat quietly beside him, comfortable with the silence. He liked that she didn’t feel the need to talk to fill the quiet. He hooked up his phone to the car and soon had some heavy rock pumping out of the speakers.

  The road south wasn’t particularly wide, but at least it wasn’t dirt. If they met an oncoming bus or truck, it might be a tight squeeze. Looking ahead at the mountainous terrain, he figured there might be some scary drops off the side of the road in places.

  “Your taste in music sucks,” Sydney said.

  He smiled. “Sorry, left my Mozart at home.”

  He saw her lips quirk. Then he noticed her hands were clenched in her lap. She was nervous about something.

  He realized they hadn’t had a moment alone since that wild kiss back at the hotel in Chachapoyas.

  “Should we talk about the kiss?” she asked quietly.

  Logan flexed his hands on the wheel. “I’m not much of a talker.”

  She looked at him with mock surprise. “No.”

  Smart ass. “Where have your polite society manners gone?”

  Her face shut down. “I’m not some cold society snob, Logan.” She crossed her arms and stared straight ahead out the windshield.

  “I know,” he said after a moment.

  She turned to look at him.

  “I worked it out sometime between discovering you’re an ex-CIA officer, and seeing how much you care for your brother.”

  She swallowed. “I’ve lived my entire life with people only looking at the surface and making assumptions. Most people only see what they want to see.”

  And Logan had been guilty of that, too, when he’d first met her.

  Because he wanted to, he reached out and touched her knee. “You’re smart, Sydney. You have guts. And I’ve felt the heat you keep hidden.” Hell, just the small taste he’d had of her was driving him crazy.

  She stared at his hand resting on her knee. “You seem to ignite something in me, Logan.” Her gaze met his. “Because I’ve never felt anything this hot before.”

  His fingers tightened on her knee. He didn’t know what to say, but he knew what he wanted to do. But he figured pulling the car over, tearing her clothes off, and putting his hands and mouth all over her wasn’t really an option at the moment.

  “If we weren’t in this car, on a mission to find your brother—” He let his words, and the promise in them, hang there.

  She released a long breath. Then he noticed she was frowning, and looking out the window into her side mirror. Beneath his hand, her muscles tensed.

  “Logan…there’s a van speeding up behind us. It’s coming in fast!”

  Chapter Six

  Sydney heard Logan’s rough curse, his big hands clenching on the steering wheel. She watched as the white van got closer and closer. Maybe it was just some idiot driving too quickly on this narrow road?

  They were slowly climbing up a hill. She glanced out at the steep drop next to them.

  “Maybe they’ll go past?” she said.

  A second later, gunfire sprayed the back of their SUV. The back window shattered.

  Sydney screamed.

  “Down!” Logan roared and pushed her head down to her knees.

  Sydney kept her cheek pressed to her legs and tried to calm her racing heart. She couldn’t see what Logan was doing, but she felt the car wrench to the side. Then he accelerated and her seatbelt cut into her shoulder.

  She lifted her head. There was more gunfire and more shattering glass.

  “I said, stay down!”

  She looked at him. “Give me a gun. I’ll return fire.”

  “Stay. Down.”

  Annoyed, she reached over and delved into the waistband of his cargo pants. She felt the brush of warm skin and she heard him utter a curse. When her hand closed around the butt of his handgun, she pulled it out.

  Sitting up, she turned inside her belt, aimed between the seats, and fired. The gun kicked back hard against her. She caught a brief glimpse of faces covered in black masks before the van behind them started to swerve.

  She cursed. “You had to have a damn Desert Eagle.” The gun was huge, and the recoil was a bitch.

  She adjusted for the gun’s kick and fired again. She was a bit rusty. She hadn’t been to the range in a while.

  Suddenly, the van’s engine roared, and it shot forward, ramming into the back of their SUV. Sydney was jerked forward against her belt. She looked up and saw Declan’s vehicle was executing a tight turn to head back in their direction.

  “Hold on.” Logan jerked on the h
andbrake, and suddenly the car was turning in a skid. Sydney’s heart turned to a rock in her chest. The tires screeched, and she was excruciatingly aware that the road was narrow and the drop-off down the side of it was steep.

  They came to an abrupt stop, rocking on their tires, facing the Silk Road van.

  Logan punched the gas.

  Sydney gripped the door. “What are you doing?”

  “I’m going to distract them. Keep them focused on us to let Dec do his thing.”

  The van was speeding up, too, coming straight at them. Her breath lodged in her throat. Logan jerked to the side, and they rode the very edge of the road. Their doors scraped against the other car. More bullets hit the side of their SUV, and Sydney returned fire.

  They sped past each other, and Logan slammed on the brakes. He turned them again, in another sickening slide.

  She saw the van slow and perform the same one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn Logan had. It raced back toward them…apparently oblivious to Declan’s SUV zooming up behind them.

  Barely breathing, Sydney watched Declan’s vehicle close in, and Hale and Morgan peppered the van with bullets.

  The Silk Road van spun out of control.

  Coming straight at Logan and Sydney.

  She tensed. “Oh, God.”

  “Hold on.” Logan tossed an arm across her chest.

  The van smashed into them with a crash and a crunch of metal. Glass shattered. It felt like time moved in slow motion. Sydney felt the SUV slide closer to the drop-off into the valley. It was just feet away.

  Then she felt the car roll.

  They crashed onto the roof. Metal groaned. Then everything went still.

  Sydney sat there, hanging in her belt, breathing hard. “Logan, next time I’m driving.”

  There was no response.

  She turned her head and saw his body slumped, his eyes closed. There was no blood, but she saw a hard knot at his temple.

  “Logan?” It was scary to see him so still and quiet. “Logan!”

  Sydney reached down and undid her belt. She crashed down onto the crumpled roof of the car. Awkwardly, she managed to get her feet under her, and pushed herself out her broken side window.

  Once out of the vehicle, she quickly circled around to Logan’s side. Seeing how close they were to the edge of the cliff made bile rise in her throat.

  She crouched. “Logan? Come on, Wild Man, we need to get out of here.” She reached through the window and pushed his hair back from his face.

  Then she heard a groan, and the crunch of a boot on broken glass. She frowned. Logan hadn’t moved.

  She spun. A Silk Road man stood above her, blood running down his face and soaking into his shirt. His black mask dangled around his neck. He had a gun aimed at her chest and blood smeared on his teeth. “You’re coming with me.”

  Sydney looked back and saw Dec’s vehicle wheeling around, coming back toward them. “There’s nowhere to go. You should run before they get here.”

  “I’m more afraid of my employer than them.”

  He reached down, grabbed her arm, and yanked her to her feet. Sydney tried to stay calm. Then the man swiveled, raising his gun to her right.

  Right at the still-unconscious Logan.

  Her gut hardened and she gathered herself. No way. She turned and rammed her shoulder into the man’s gut.

  He stumbled back with a cry.

  And the gun went off.

  ***

  The gunshot echoed in Logan’s ears. He felt the crunch of glass under his hands, and the hard press of a seatbelt across his chest.

  For a second, he was back with his SEAL team, after they’d been ambushed. He was trapped in the Humvee, his injured friends’ screams and gunfire echoing around them. Along with the sickening realization that they’d been ambushed—and Logan had instantly known the source of the leak. Fucking Annika had screwed him over in more ways than one.

  But as he opened his eyes, the past faded. He realized in an instant where he was.

  He turned his head and saw Sydney struggling with a man.

  Logan wrestled the seatbelt off, and, grunting, he moved to get out of the crumpled vehicle. He felt glass scratch down his arm but he ignored it. He shoved at the door, but it was so bent out of shape that it wouldn’t budge.

  He shoved again, and, with a roar, he gripped the frame and started to strain against the metal. He kept pushing, using all his strength, and he felt the metal bend. A second later, he gave the door another hard shove and it opened. He rolled out of the car.

  Logan jumped to his feet, ready to help Sydney.

  He came to a stop.

  She already had the guy down. He was groaning, holding his bloody face, and writhing on the road.

  Sydney stood there, cool and calm. The air sawed in and out of Logan’s lungs as he tried to calm himself.

  “Hey, it’s okay.” She moved up close to him, studying his face intently. “You’re all right?”

  He managed a nod.

  She reached up and tentatively touched his chest, stroking.

  “You’re not hurt,” he managed to get out.

  “No. I’m fine.”

  Because he needed it, Logan yanked her to his chest. She went still for a second, then softened against him, her arms creeping around his waist.

  There was a squeal of tires, and the other SUV skidded to a stop next to them.

  Dec, Morgan, and Hale rushed out of the vehicle. Dec eyed the crashed SUV, then the wreck of the Silk Road van, and the unmoving bodies of the other Silk Road members inside. Finally, his gaze rested on the thug writhing on the ground.

  Dec rubbed his chin. “Hale and Morgan, check the men in the van. Tie them up if they’re still alive.” Dec looked at Logan. “You guys are okay?”

  “Yeah.” Logan eyed the man. “Maybe he’s not feeling so good, though.”

  A faint smile crossed Dec’s face. “We’ll push the wrecks off the road and then I’ll get Darcy to call the authorities. You two get in the vehicle.”

  “We don’t need to stay?” Sydney asked.

  “No. If we get tied up with the authorities, we’ll be here for days. Darcy will sort things out with them.” He pulled out some black zip ties. “We’ll leave these guys secured and let the police deal with them.” He frowned at Logan. “Logan, you’re bleeding.”

  Logan heard Sydney gasp and pull away from him. He shrugged. “It’s just a scratch.”

  She studied the nasty cut on his arm from the glass. “You call that a scratch?”

  He smiled crookedly. “Sure. You wouldn’t?”

  “How’s that knot on your head?”

  “Fine. I’ve had worse.”

  “And you have a hard head.”

  Dec and the others made short work of shoving the wreckages to the side of the road, and grabbing the gear from Logan’s vehicle. As they climbed back into Dec’s SUV, Logan made sure that Sydney was sitting beside him in the back. He let her fuss over him, pulling things out of the first aid kit, and swiping the blood off his arms.

  “You look like you crawled over glass,” she muttered.

  “I was trying to get to you.”

  Her hand stilled for a moment, then she kept wiping. “Despite what most people think, I can take care of myself.”

  “Never thought you couldn’t.”

  “This one’s deep here. It could do with a bandage.”

  “Here you go.” Declan passed something back from the front seat.

  Logan saw Sydney take the small Band-Aid and then her mouth moved into a smile.

  “This is pink. With princesses on it.”

  Logan made a grumbling sound and crossed his arms over his chest. “Declan thinks he’s a comedian sometimes.”

  She held the small strip up, eyeing Logan’s arm.

  “Don’t even think about it.”

  The car erupted with laughter, easing the tension.

  The rest of the drive to Leymebamba was uneventful. The only vehicles they passed on
the road were local vehicles, and a pair of tourists riding motorbikes.

  They pulled into the quiet town of Leymebamba. It was nestled in a valley, the mountains rising up around it. The narrow streets were lined by simple buildings with tiled roofs.

  Dec pulled the vehicle to a stop and turned back to look at them. “Darcy’s got us rooms at a local hotel. There’s not much to choose from here, so the rooms are basic, but they’ll do. I need to go meet with a local guide. He’s organizing the horses we’ll use for the trip to the lake. We’ll leave first thing in the morning.”

  “I hate horses.” Logan spotted Morgan rolling her eyes and scowled at her. “So will we meet up for dinner?”

  Dec nodded. “Take the chance to have a long shower, soak in the tub. We won’t be getting much of that once we head into the forest. We all need a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow is going to be hard going.”

  Soon, Logan found himself carrying his duffel bag into his hotel room. Basic was being generous. The walls were bare and white, and a single bed occupied the space. He snorted. He was sure his feet would hang over the edge. He looked out the window and saw a central courtyard filled with a variety of lush plants. A bird feeder hung from the roof and a hummingbird flitted around it.

  He dumped the bag and stripped off his clothes on the way to the tiny bathroom. There was a tub. Although he’d never admit it to Declan, Logan liked soaking in the tub. He turned the water to run as hot as he could get it and then sank into the water.

  He let his head drop back, resting against the plain white tiles. With his eyelids closed, he kept seeing that van ramming them from behind, hearing the bullets hitting the car, and then the sickening lurch of the crash.

  Dammit. Sydney could’ve been killed. Fucking Silk Road. Logan focused on the anger. It was a far more familiar and easier emotion to deal with than the other, confusing emotions that he had in him for Sydney Granger.

  He thought of Annika again. She’d burned hot and bright. She’d had a dirty mouth, was aggressive in bed, and he’d believed she was his dream woman… Or so he’d thought.

  None of it had been real. And yet, with Annika, he’d never felt a fraction of the desire he felt for Sydney. Hell, since he’d met her, he’d been walking around half hard. Sydney was a cool, crisp breeze, one that hid a healthy, sexy and very real fire beneath.