Undiscovered (Treasure Hunter Security Book 1) Read online

  “I’m honestly not sure. It doesn’t look familiar.”

  “You’ll work it out.” He turned his head, and she was watching him. Damn, his gut went hard. “Rush, keep looking at me like that and I’m going to kiss you again.”

  She licked her lips and Dec swallowed a groan.

  “I won’t deny I’m attracted to you,” she said. “But we have a business arrangement, Declan. And I don’t have time for a man like you.”

  “A man like me?”

  She waved a hand. “Sexy, potent, attractive.” When Declan grinned she rolled her eyes. “This dig has gotten off to a bad start. I need to ensure it goes smoothly from here. I’m sure the sex would be great…”

  “Great? Rush, I assure you, it would be something well above great.”

  That made her pause, a flush of color in her cheeks. “I’ve never really experienced anything above good.”

  Dec made a pained sound. Oh, he wanted to strip her naked and show her just how amazing it could be. “That makes me want you more, not less. But you have a point.”

  She blinked. “I do?”

  He reached out and fiddled with the buttons on her shirt. “I’m not the man for you. I don’t do relationships. I’m not a forever kind of guy.” Jesus, for the first time in his life, he seriously regretted that. “You need someone better than me.” He held out his hands. “I’ve done too much, seen too much—” Dec broke off. Hell, he’d never told any woman anything like this before.

  Rush cocked her hip. “You’re too big and bad for me, is that it?”

  “Yes,” he said warily, her tone setting off warning bells in his head.

  “Oh, I’m too innocent, sheltered, and naïve?”

  “Ah…that’s not what I said.”

  She shook her head at him. “You have no idea what I’ve lived through or experienced. We’ve all suffered horrible things, Declan. It doesn’t give you a free pass to cut yourself off from life.” She waved an angry hand. “Why don’t you just head off and brood in the shadows for a bit, Ward. Maybe find yourself a Batcave. I have work to do.”

  When she gave him her back and turned her attention to the scroll, Dec just stared. What horrible things had Layne lived through? What made her voice quiver and her face go pale like that?

  “Are you still here?” she asked.

  Damn, this woman just loved busting his balls. “Someone will keep an eye on your work tent until you’re finished.” He didn’t tell her he’d shifted the schedule around to make sure he was the one watching her tent. “When you’re done, radio for one of us to walk you back to your tent. Got it?”

  She didn’t even look at him. “Got it.”

  Dec cleared his throat. He needed some distance between him and the lovely Dr. Rush. “Don’t stay up too late, and that hieroglyph you can’t decipher…”

  She lifted her head.

  “It stands for fierce protector.” With that, Dec exited the tent.

  Chapter Six

  The next morning, Layne stomped across the dig site, tucking her shirt into her trousers as she went.

  She’d slept in. She knew she shouldn’t be angry at herself, as she’d stayed up way too late working on the scroll and then dreamed about a certain annoying, hard-bodied man, but she’d slept through her alarm and she hated being late.

  After she’d gotten back to her tent the night before, escorted by the near-silent and intimidating Morgan, it had taken Layne a long time to fall asleep. Then she’d had strange dreams of golden sarcophagi and scrolls, and running through the desert dunes…then the dream had morphed into something else.

  The sexy feel of a certain man’s hands and lips. Declan slowly stripping her naked, his stubble scraping her belly and thighs, her husky cries. She’d woken up with damp panties.

  Ugh, why was she thinking about Declan? Mr. I’m-too-dark-and-brooding-for-you. God, he’d gotten her all twisted up inside.

  He had been right about the obscure hieroglyph, though. It did mean fierce protector. But no matter how she arranged what she’d decoded on the scroll, none of it made sense.

  And just how the hell did a former Navy SEAL-turned-security specialist know how to read hieroglyphs, anyway? She wasn’t buying that bull about ‘absorbing’ it on the job.

  “Dr. Rush, nice to see you finally made an appearance.”

  She barely stopped herself from groaning aloud. She did not have the time or the patience for Dr. Stiller and his attitude this morning.

  “Morning to you, too, Aaron. What do you want?”

  He looked affronted. “I want to know what the hell you are going to do about all this? To ensure our safety. Someone sabotaged the scaffold and nearly killed us! The local workers are starting to whisper about a curse, what with your attack and the theft, and now this.”

  She froze. “Sabotaged the scaffold?”

  A smug look crossed the man’s face. “Yes. Mr. Ward informed us that the scaffold was intentionally made to fall and told us to check all equipment for any signs of tampering.”

  And Declan hadn’t told her. She dragged in a deep breath. “Declan and his team are the security experts. We follow their recommendations.” God, she needed some coffee. Or just some Diet Coke mainlined into her veins.

  She spotted Declan watching a few of her team working a new area of excavation on the surface. Her guys were carefully dusting away sand from the large stone blocks.

  She stomped up to him. “I need a word with you.”

  She saw Piper and two of her students look up. Yeah, they knew that tone meant she was on the warpath.

  Declan didn’t appear concerned.

  “Fine.” He led her a little away from her team. “How are you feeling this morning?”

  “I’m tired and cranky.”

  He raised a brow. “What’s got your panties in a twist?”

  That just made her blood fire more. “My panties are not up for discussion. What is going to be discussed is that you think the scaffold was tampered with and I’m only just hearing about it this morning, from my senior archeologist.”

  Declan sighed. “Stiller, right? I asked him to keep it quiet until I spoke with you. I wanted to finish gathering evidence first, not come to you with half-baked theories. I was checking out the scaffold again this morning, and Stiller asked what I was doing. I didn’t think I needed to keep it a secret before updating you. I’d planned to talk to you this morning, but you were getting some much needed sleep.”

  She lifted her hat and resettled it on her head. “Okay, sorry if I jumped all over you.”

  Those fine lips twitched again. “You keep this up, I’ll lose track of the number of apologies I have from you.”

  “Ward, tell me about the scaffold.” Or she was going to hit him.

  He nodded. “Definite marks that it was tampered with. But someone put a lot of effort into making it look like it happened all by itself.”

  A cold shiver went through her. “Why?”

  “My guess? They wanted an accident to happen that might cause the dig to be cancelled, or at least put on hold. Everyone leaves the site…”

  “And Anders and his black-market looters move in,” she said grimly. “No one is getting anything from this dig.” She chewed it all over. “So someone snuck in and did this?”

  Declan’s gaze narrowed. “I don’t think so. I think it was an inside job.”

  She hissed out a breath. “No.”

  “Maybe one of your archeologists—”

  She shook her head. “No. I know them all personally, hand-picked them for the team. None of them could do this.”

  “Dr. Stiller?”

  Layne shook her head. “We don’t see eye-to-eye, but I can’t see him doing anything to jeopardize the dig.”

  “Even if it means casting you in a poor light and gaining the top job for himself?”

  “God, are you always so cynical?”

  “Yep. I’m a realist.”

  She eyed him for a second, the strong lines of his fa
ce and the shadows in his eyes. While she wasn’t going to let him get away with using his past as a barrier, she had no doubt Declan had seen too much of the worst the world had to offer. She turned her thoughts to Dr. Stiller. “I wouldn’t put it past Aaron to try to do something to get me removed, if the opportunity presented itself. But this? It’s one step too far, even for him.”

  “Then the local workers.”

  She grimaced. “I don’t know them all, but they all came recommended. And the ones I’ve been working with, well, they seem loyal, and they’re hard, efficient workers.”

  “Rush, Anders and the people behind the black-market antiquities trade have deep pockets. If one of your people has a debt, a sick mother, or a family to feed…”

  He left the thought hanging there and it dug into her skin. “Okay, so we keep an eye out. Make sure nothing like this can happen again.”

  “That’s the plan.”

  She fiddled with her hat. “I don’t understand how people can kill over this.”

  Declan’s face hardened. “I’ve seen people kill for far less. Hell, I saw Anders kill just for the fun of it.”

  She stilled. “You saw Anders kill people?”

  Declan muttered a soft curse, his face hardening. “I’m not going to let Anders get anywhere near you again.”

  God, the pain. It was buried deep in his voice, his eyes. Whatever had happened with Anders, it had left a lasting scar on Declan Ward. One he hadn’t let heal. “I know. And I’m not going to let him take any more artifacts. They should be there for us to learn from, for everyone to see.”

  Declan shrugged. “The past is the past. Are they really that important?”

  Her blood fired. “Yes. We can learn so much from our ancestors, maybe even avoid past mistakes.”

  His gray eyes churned and chilled. “There have been wars in the past and in the present, and I’m pretty sure there will be wars in the future. I don’t think we learn from hunks of pottery and gold statues, Rush.”

  There was that pain again, and it hurt her heart.

  “We can,” she said softly. “That’s why I do my job, keep discovering, keep learning and keep trying to get the stories out there.” She studied him. “How did you know what that hieroglyph was? It’s an obscure variant, not known to many.”

  “My parents are pretty interested in Egyptian history.”

  “No history teacher would know this, Declan.”

  A faint smile on his lips. “My parents aren’t history teachers. Well, I guess you could say my father is. He’s a professor at Denver University.”

  The name clicked and Layne gasped. “Your father is Dr. Oliver Ward?”

  Declan nodded. “And my mother is—”

  “Persephone Ward.” Shock filled Layne. She couldn’t believe it.

  Declan’s smile widened. “Yeah, she’s—”

  “A treasure hunter,” Layne said.

  A rueful look crossed his face. “I prefer artifact acquisition specialist, but she prefers treasure hunter.”

  Layne couldn’t believe one of the greatest teachers of ancient history was Declan’s father, and one of the wildest, most daring treasure hunters was his mother. Declan neither screamed academic nor wild risk taker.

  “They must have been shocked when you joined the Navy.” And joined one of the toughest Special Forces teams in the world.

  “At first. Then my brother, Callum, joined, too. They got used to it.”

  “Well, thanks to your help, I got most of the glyphs translated last night. Not that they make any sense.” She frowned. “They seem disjointed, incomplete.”

  Declan straightened and touched his ear. “Logan needs me. I’ll let you get back to your work. And Rush?”

  “Yes?”

  “Let me know before you move the gold sarcophagus. I want to make sure it’s moved safely.”

  She watched him go. He moved with a controlled grace, a coiled strength that said he could explode into action at any moment.

  She was glad Declan Ward was watching over her dig.

  “Dr. Rush, I do not blame you for getting yourself an eyeful of that.”

  Layne turned and spotted Piper. “We just finished discussing some security business—”

  “Uh-huh.” Piper pulled a hard, grape-flavored candy out of her pocket, unwrapped it, and popped it in her mouth. “Yeah, I could see by the way you were watching the man’s mighty fine ass that you were thinking of security business.”

  Layne pinched the bridge of her nose. Which she seemed to do a lot when she was talking with Piper. She liked the woman, but sometimes she made Layne want to take a painkiller and lie down.

  Piper sucked loudly on her candy. “Sure is a shame I prefer girls, otherwise I’d give you a run for your money with that one, Doc.”

  Layne heaved out a breath. “Did you need me for something, Piper?”

  “Yeah.” Piper’s cute face turned serious. “The workers are all pretty freaked out about everything.”

  Layne groaned. “Dr. Stiller mentioned a rumor of a curse is getting around.”

  “Yep. And a few of the workers and a couple of our team are sick this morning. Bad tummies and lots of trips to the toilets.” Piper grimaced. “Since they’re those horrible portable toilets, I’m guessing it isn’t going to be pretty for the rest of us who need to go.”

  Things like this were common problems on a dig. “Upset stomachs are the norm in Egypt. We need to make sure everyone is drinking the bottled water provided.”

  “But the local workers as well?”

  Now Layne frowned. Piper was right, the locals shouldn’t be upset by the water or the food. “Okay, well it must have been something bad in the food last night. Pretty sure no mummies climbed out of the excavation to poison anyone. Come on, let’s make sure everyone who’s not feeling well is settled in their tents.”

  Piper nodded. “Guess that means the rest of us will have more work to do today.”

  “Yes. It does. But I have something that’ll help lighten the load.”

  “Oh?” Piper looked intrigued.

  “When the scaffold collapsed, it knocked a hole in the wall.”

  Piper straightened. “And?”

  Layne grinned. “I found something.”

  “You’re killing me here, Doc.” Piper bounced on her feet. “What?”

  “Wonderful things.”

  ***

  Dec dodged the punch.

  He spun and kicked out, his foot connecting with a hard abdomen.

  There was a grunt. “Easy, Dec.”

  Dec pulled back, bouncing on his feet in the sand. He and Logan had a bit of down time, so they were sparring. Logan was bigger and stronger, but Dec was faster. Besides, they’d been sparring for years now. They knew each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

  Dec came in low and managed a blow to Logan’s side. The big man dodged away, cursing.

  “Getting rusty, old man.” Dec grinned.

  Logan growled. “I’ll show you old.”

  The next few blows were hard and fierce. It took everything Dec had to block them. Then, with a roar, Logan tackled him. They both landed hard on the ground.

  “We’ll call it a draw,” Dec rasped, spitting out a mouthful of sand.

  Logan flopped back in the sand, shading his face with an arm. “How long until we’re on duty?”

  “An hour. I’m sure Hale and Morgan are keen for a break by now.” Dec drew his knees up. Even though he wasn’t officially on duty, they were still sparring on Dec’s favorite sand dune. The one that gave him a perfect view of the dig and surroundings.

  Since the scaffold, there had been no problems. No sign of intruders. No sign of Anders.

  Nothing.

  It made Dec nervous and itchy. He much preferred action.

  “You’re on edge, my friend,” Logan said.

  Dec turned his head and saw Logan watching him. He shrugged. “Anders isn’t really the patient type. I expected him to make a move before now.” Espe
cially since they’d brought the golden sarcophagus up. While he and Layne had kept the scroll under wraps, he was certain news of the sarcophagus would have reached Dakhla and beyond.

  “Everything’s quiet,” Logan said. “We should be grateful.”

  “I know.”

  “Maybe it’s not just the job getting to you. Maybe it has something to do with a certain sexy, mouthy archeologist?”

  Dec narrowed his gaze at his friend but stayed silent.

  “Come on, Dec.” Logan sat up. “I’ve seen the way you look at her. Watch her when she isn’t looking. I haven’t seen you look at anyone that way—”

  “Drop it, O’Connor. There is nothing going on with Rush and me.”

  “Oh? In that case, you won’t mind if I take a stab at her? That mouth of hers—”

  Dec moved without thinking. He blinked and realized he had the front of Logan’s shirt bunched in his hands.

  His friend had a smug grin on his face.

  “You’re an asshole.” Dec let him go.

  “I like her,” Logan said.

  Shit. Dec ran his hands through his hair. He did, too. Too much. “I’m a one night kind of guy, that’s all I have to offer. She’s not.” She deserved so much better.

  “You don’t have to be. I know you’re dragging around all that stuff with Anders—”

  Dec sliced a hand through the air. “Right now, all I can focus on is keeping her safe.”

  Logan raised a brow. “I thought you were focused on catching Anders.”

  Dec stilled. “That, too.” But his gaze moved over the dig until he found the head covered by a battered hat, and the tight, compact body. She was hunched over, working with that fierce concentration of hers.

  Dec had been after Anders for years. But he knew if it came down to Layne or Anders, Dec would protect her with his last breath.

  “Dec, do you copy?”

  Morgan’s voice came through his earpiece. “Yeah, Morgan?”

  “I’ve got something. Hale and I are coming to you.”

  “Roger that.”

  A moment later, Hale and Morgan jogged up the dune.

  “What is it?” Dec asked.

  “Informant in Dakhla got in touch with me,” Morgan said. She’d spent a day at the oasis cultivating a few informants. Morgan might have a tough exterior, but when she turned on the charm, people warmed to her instantly. “Anders has been spotted.”