The door in the kitchen opened and closed. “About time ye two got back. Get yer showers. We’re leaving soon,” Elliott said.
A cabinet door opened, a glass clinked, water flowed from the faucet. “Where are Penny and Rick?” Kenzie asked.
“In the den saying good morning.”
“Why?” Kenzie asked. “They slept together last night.”
“They shared a bed,” Remy said. “I already told you that, and nothing happened.”
“Whatever,” Kenzie said.
Rick shook his head and murmured in Penny’s ear. “Damn. I wish they’d stay out of our business. I’m sorry you have to put up with it.”
“I’m not used to having so many people interested in what I’m doing.”
“Hell. You want to go upstairs and finish this?”
“We better not. We can… I don’t know… Talk again tonight.”
“You’ve got a date, babe.” Rick stepped away from her and took a few deep breaths while he slipped his hands into his pockets and adjusted himself.
“What are you doing?” she giggled.
“Trying to send blood back to my brain. Damn, you turn me on. Why don’t you go in there and talk to Kenzie? If she sees me, she’ll give me a hard time.”
“Okay.” Penny strolled into the kitchen. “Just so there’s no misunderstanding, Remy told the truth. If Rick and I decide to do the dirty, it’ll just be between us. We’re not going to advertise it.”
“Where’s Rick? Trying to quiet the party in his pants?” Kenzie asked.
Rick entered the kitchen and snapped, “Kenzie, knock it off. You were riding this train last night. It’s time to get off of it. And what the hell is the matter with you, anyway? I’ve never seen you act like this.”
Kenzie blew out a deep breath. “Look, I want the best for both of you, and honestly, I’m worried you’re going to screw it up.”
“If we do, it’s our screwup. So stay out of it,” he said.
She chugged a glass of water. “Okay. But remember Penny’s had a rough time—”
“Kenzie, please!” Penny said with more bite in her voice than she intended. But with Meredith wanting to be her BFF, and Kenzie butting into her relationship with Rick, enough was enough.
“I’d rather go back to 1815 than put up with this kind of interference. We told you this last night. But obviously, you didn’t hear us. We know you care, but Rick and I are old enough to make our own decisions and mistakes. We care about each other, and we’re going to try to work this out, but it won’t happen overnight, so—”
“Get your butt out of our business,” Rick said.
Kenzie set her glass down on the countertop with a slight thunk. “Okay, I’ll butt out,”
Penny walked over to Kenzie and stood in her dance space, glaring her down. And then she held up her little finger. “Pinkie swear.”
Kenzie sniffed and wrapped her pinkie around Penny’s. “Pinkie swear.” And then she whispered. “I’ve got to start taking hormones. I’m getting worse. I’m turning into a bitch.”
Penny laughed, hugging Kenzie’s sweaty shoulders. “That might be a good idea.”
Remy tapped his drumsticks on the counter. Ba-dum-CHING. “Can we get back to the treasure?”
“I’m going to shower and should be ready in fifteen minutes,” Kenzie said.
“Do ye need any help keeping yer arm dry?” David asked.
“Not this morning, hon. We’re in a hurry.”
“Well,” Penny said, brushing her hands together. “Looks like I have time to make breakfast. Does anybody want bacon and eggs? French toast? Pancakes? Waffles?”
“If you’re asking if I’d like breakfast, the answer is yes, with hell yes on top, like a cherry,” Rick said.
Remy licked his lips. “How many of those choices can we have? And can you put blueberries in the pancakes?”
“Whatever you want. Speak up now,” Penny said.
Rick snuck a kiss. “Eggs, bacon, and pancakes with some berries.”
“What is this? A restaurant?” Elliott asked, returning to the kitchen. “I’ll just take eggs over easy with two pieces of crispy bacon, and a small bowl of oatmeal with fruit.”
“Same for me, but with pancakes and no oatmeal,” Remy said. “I’ll be back in ten.”
Penny grabbed an apron, ingredients, bowls, and measuring cups, and within minutes had batter mixed, the oats boiling, and bacon sizzling.
Rick came up behind her, put his arms around her waist, and nuzzled her neck. “What can I do? Make you come again?”
She laughed. “That was a first.” He smiled against her neck, and she was surprised at how much of a turn-on it was. “Hey, why don’t you set the table so I won’t burn the pancakes, and I’d like a Mimosa.”
“Anything for my ladylove, but I didn’t know we had champagne.”
“I picked up a bottle when I went to the market yesterday.” She searched the cabinet for tulip glasses and set six on the counter.
“Pour me one,” Elliott said. “This is a day to celebrate.”
“We don’t know that yet,” she said.
“Ye might doubt it, but I don’t.”
Rick opened the wine cooler and pulled out a bottle of Bollinger Brut Special Cuvee. “Nice choice. The bubbles are like velvet, with flavors of pear, hints of roasted apples, and peaches. Always delicious.” He used a wine key and cut off the foil, then untwisted the cage before twisting the bottle gently to uncork it. “Voilà.” It opened with barely a blip.
“Impressive,” Penny said.
Rick slowly poured the bubbly into the glasses, Elliott topped each one with fresh orange juice, and Penny garnished them with slices of orange. Rick handed a glass to her, and just as Elliott lifted his mimosa for a toast, his phone rang.
“Excuse me. It’s Braham. Go ahead without me.” Elliott walked into the den to take the call.
As soon as Elliott left, Rick kissed her. “Come for me again, babe.” Then he started singing…
“Chances are, ’cause I wear a silly grin / The moment you come into view / Chances are you think that I’m in love with you.”
63
New Orleans—Penny
Penny arrived at the tree park fired up and ready to go, convinced that once they found the treasure, this adventure would finally be over. Well, except for the budding relationship with Rick that she hoped would last a long, long time…like forever.
But could she fully heal from her past and be a loving partner? Kenzie had promised they’d find a way to wreak vengeance on Colonel Bowes, so maybe once they did, Penny could sign, seal, and deliver her past traumas to the trashcan.
Maybe. Hopefully. Hell, yeah.
Or was she assuming too much? No, she wasn’t. There had to be a resolution so she could dump all this crap. She’d lugged it around for far too long.
She piled out of the van after Rick, and he looped his arm around her shoulders, hugging her to his side. To which she responded with a smile/fear combo.
“Your brain is chewing on a problem. I can see the wheels churning behind your eyes.” His eyebrows knitted. “You’re thinking about me, aren’t you?”
She gave him a coy smile. “I might be.”
He nuzzled her neck and whispered, “You’re remembering how you came while kissing me.”
“Ya think?”
“I think.”
“You’re wrong. I’m thinking about coming on your dick.”
He gasped. “God, woman. You’re killing me.”
She laughed. “You’re so easy to tease.”
“Go ahead. Keep it up. I’ll get back atcha sooner or later.”
Remy opened the tailgate. “Everybody grab something…from out of the car.” He looked at them and grinned. “You know, to carry over to the dig site?”
There were two duffel bags, two hardshell cases, a cooler, shovels, and a pick. Since Penny packed the cooler with fruit, water, and energy bars, she’d haul it to a shady spot, which wasn’t
hard to find. They were in a tree park, after all.
“Elliott and I will mark the grids based on last night’s research,” David said. “Rick, ye and Remy unpack the equipment and work in two-person teams. One person can carry the detector and the other the system box.”
Penny opened the cooler and grabbed a bottle of water. The temperature was already in the high seventies, and physical exertion in this heat and humidity would quickly dehydrate them. “Does anyone else want water?”
“I do,” Remy said. “So does Elliott.”
“I’m fine,” Elliott said.
Remy held out a bottle of water. “No, you’re not. Drink it now. If you pass out, I’ll have to deal with Meredith. And you know what that’s like. Besides, she hired me for moments like this.”
“I hired ye,” Elliott grumbled.
“You only think you did,” Remy replied.
Penny almost cracked up. Even Remy, doing his best tough-guy impersonation, wasn’t a match for Meredith. She’d walk right over him. The thought of being that woman’s new BFF still freaked Penny out.
But she had to remember that Elliott loved Meredith and probably shared everything with her. So anything Penny told Elliott, he’d tell Meredith. And Penny couldn’t stop talking to Elliott. Surprisingly, she was becoming rather fond of the all-knowing Scotsman and his my-way-or-the-highway personality.
“I have sports drinks and water,” Penny said. “Pick your poison.”
Elliott glared at Remy and grumbled again, “Water. I hate sugary drinks. That’s why I drink whisky.”
“I didn’t bring any whisky. It’s either water or Gatorade,” Penny said. “And you’re hanging out with the wrong people. Philippe always carries a flask.”
Elliott took the proffered bottle. “Mine’s bigger.”
Penny laughed. “I hope to God, Boss, that you’re talking about flasks.”
He grabbed her around the neck in an easy chokehold. “Scotsmen are very sensitive about the size of their…flasks.”
She kissed his cheek. “I prefer Irishmen. They don’t strut around in kilts with their junk hanging free.”
Elliott released her. “They don’t know how freeing it is, lass.”
“Ah, so give me freedom or give me a sexy pair of boxer briefs that present a tight, tempting package. Is that what you’re saying?” Penny asked.
“No, that’s what ye’re saying.”
She shook her head. “Does anyone ever win an argument with you?”
David, Kenzie, Remy, and Rick all said at the same time, “Hell, no!”
Chuckling, Penny passed out drinks, then sidled up next to Rick, who was squatting to open one of the hardshell cases. She put her hand on his back. His gray T-shirt was already damp with sweat. She teased his neck with his icy bottle.
“Shit, that feels good. Oliver might even think so right about now.” Rick handed her a circular bag.
She unzipped it. “What’s this?”
“The search coil. It goes on the end of the shaft, which is in here.” He opened the case, unpacked the two-piece shaft, and snapped the ends together. “Let me have the coil.” She handed it over, and he attached the sensor and search coil to the shaft.
“Is it the sensor that communicates with that little laptop?” she asked.
“Right.” He booted up the system. “The first thing I have to do is calibrate the sensor.”
Penny took the shaft and handle, slipped her arm through the leather cuff, and gripped the handle while Rick pressed the settings button to calibrate. The calibration started, and when it finished, the device reverted to the selection mode detection screen.
“This is similar to what the guys used in Afghanistan,” she said.
“Yep. But we won’t find any IEDs around here, thank God.” Rick adjusted the harness and carrying belt—which supported the system box—over his shoulder. “This is designed so one person can carry the system box while sweeping the ground with the detector, but I figured you’d want to sweep.”
“Is that some kind of joke?”
“No, why?”
“Because that was the first soccer position I played.”
“I could lie and say I knew that, but I didn’t.”
She knew she shouldn’t laugh, but it was impossible not to be amused by his guilty look. “It’s okay. It’s been a while since I played, but you probably don’t follow soccer like you do basketball and football.”
“I go to the kids’ games, but I don’t follow professional soccer. I guess that’s about to change.”
“You’ll be surprised by how much you enjoy it. But let’s get back to sweeping this field.” She waved the detector back and forth. “Okay, what do I do now?”
“Hold it stable and parallel to the ground while you sweep left to right, slightly overlapping each sweep.”
Penny glanced over at Remy, who was assembling the other detector, while she swept her device back and forth. “I got this. Where do we start?”
“We have to wait for David to mark the grid on the ground to correspond to the satellite image,” Rick said. “Go ahead and practice sweeping side to side, but keep it about an inch or so above the ground.”
Penny focused on where she was sweeping and how far she needed to advance so that the next sweep would overlap the last one. “What exactly is this going to tell us?”
“Shape, depth, dimensions, type of metal, plus anomalies like a cave, a tunnel, or even a room. As soon as it detects a metal, it’ll analyze the data and tell us what it is. This system box shows objects in color. The gray sections are ground cavities or tunnels, and reds are metals and rocks.”
“How deep can an object be buried and still be detected?”
“About ten feet. If Lafitte buried a chest, this equipment will find it.”
David came around from the other side of the tree. “As soon as ye’ve calibrated yer equipment, ye can start sweeping while Elliott and I mark this side.”
“Come on, Penny,” Rick said.
They walked around the tree to find a five-foot-wide path about twenty feet long staked with twine on both sides. “How long will this take?”
Rick stepped inside the strings. “If you know where to look, it’ll only take a few minutes.”
She stepped inside the strings, too, her arm already sweaty beneath the Velcro arm cuff. “I’m ready.”
“Go,” Rick said.
She swung the sensor back and forth between the lines of twine while she slowly walked forward.
“You can go a little faster,” Rick said, watching the system box.
“If I was burying a treasure for me to find, I’d put it about nineteen feet from the tree.”
“You would, huh? Why?”
“Well, the year 1814 converts to nineteen feet, two inches.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. Lafitte could use the year he buried it. Say, 1824. Using your conversion method, that would be twenty feet.”
“But how would I know? If Jean was trying to leave me clues, he would give me ones that made sense. How would I know he buried it in 1824?”
“Stop arguing and get to work,” Elliott said.
“We’re not arguing, Boss. We’re discussing,” Penny said. “As long as we’re talking, you know we’re working. If we stopped talking, we’d be doing something else.” She glanced at Rick, and he snuck a quick kiss.
“Yer overlapping sweeps will hit all the years Lafitte would have been alive. Just keep going,” David said.
Rick continued, watching the box while she swept left to right. The machine beeped a couple of times, but the objects were too small to be what they were looking for, so they kept going. When they reached the end of the path, the sensor beeped—eerp, eerp, eerp.
“We’ve got something!” Rick shouted.
Penny looked at the system box showing a 3D image with dimensions. “It’s a three-by-two-by-three-foot shape, the metal is gold, and it’s buried approximately four feet deep.” A surprise wham hit her hard. J
ean really left her a treasure. She beamed at Rick. “We found it!
He grinned, then kissed her soundly. “We sure did, babe, and you were right about the distance.”
She blew on her fingernails and polished them on her shirt. “What can I say?”
He kissed her again. “That you’re brilliant.”
From the other side of the tree, Remy shouted, “We got something, too!”
“I’ll get the shovels and gloves,” David said.
Rick removed the harness and set the system box on the ground. Then he took the detector from Penny and brushed his thumb over her bottom lip. The hot, unfettered sensations from his touch almost melted her where she stood.
“Hell, babe. This deserves a kiss that’ll make you come.”
“You’re determined to do that again, aren’t you?”
“You bet your sweet ass.”
His mouth was on hers before she could answer. The chemistry between them was electrifying. The erotic sensations turned her breath into soft gasps and her nipples into aching peaks. She parted her lips and pressed closer, intending to let him kiss her like crazy, right there in the middle of the tree park with their friends only a few feet away.
David returned with picks, shovels, and gloves. “Ye two need to get yer minds back in the game.”
“Give us a minute to celebrate,” Rick said, capturing her lips again.
“That’s what the mimosas were for,” Elliott said.
“That was the pre-celebration.” Rick ran his hands down her back to her butt and yanked her closer, rubbing her against his erection.
Her breath caught, and she tensed, but only for a second before she kissed him back. Finally, she broke away and patted her hands on his chest. “Let’s get to work, Marine, so we can get out of here and pick up where we left off.”
Rick sighed like he was being put upon and picked up the system box again. “Why don’t you take that tape measure and plant the marking flags when I call out the object’s dimensions so we’ll know where to dig?” He called out the numbers, and Penny planted the flags. “Okay, now move out of the way while I dig.” He slipped on a pair of work gloves and used the pick to outline the boundaries, then removed the flags. “Stay back, so I don’t hit you.”
The Topaz Brooch Page 70