Found in the Lost

by Tarina Deaton

  It didn’t stop him though. As soon as she was in front of him, he grabbed her around the waist and hauled her up against him, his mouth devouring hers.

  Kinley wrapped her arms around his neck and lost herself in the kiss. It was like being home after a long absence—familiar and safe, but exciting to find out what had changed since she’d been gone.

  “Ivers, put her down before you pull something and end up back in the hospital. I can’t afford to be here for another week.”

  Shane broke their kiss. “Shit,” he muttered.

  Kinley smiled and touched her forehead to his.

  He put her down and loosened his hold around her waist. “Graham.”

  The tall man approached and held out his hand, forcing Shane to let go of her. Aiden Graham had taken some getting used to. His gruff, no-nonsense, do-it-my-way-so-it’s-done-right attitude had made her nervous at first, but he was amusing when he wasn’t in work mode and he’d gone to bat for her on more than one occasion with the Foundation.

  “Good to see you, Boss,” Shane said.

  “You, too. I know you guys have some catching up to do, but I have a flight to catch in a few hours and I need to bring you up to speed.”

  Shane glanced at Kinley and looked as disappointed as she felt. Standing on her toes she kissed him on the cheek. “Go. Work comes first. Eduardo can take your bags to our tent.”

  He leaned close. “Our tent?”

  Kinley glanced at Graham and blushed when she realized there were two other people she didn’t recognize who had gotten out of the back of the SUV.

  Shane smirked and kissed her quickly. “Students,” he said. “Eduardo said you’d take care of them.”

  She sighed. As word had gotten out, they’d been getting half a dozen or so students every other day. These two would put them close to thirty. She needed to talk to Dr. Biert about putting up another dormitory tent.

  “Okay,” she said. “Do what you need to and I’ll get them checked in. I’ll see you later.” It looked like her plan was going to be delayed.

  She looked across the hood at the driver. “Eduardo, can you take Shane’s bags to our tent?”

  “Sí, Señorita. I also have supplies for the cantina.”

  “Wonderful. Gracias.” She looked at Shane. “Welcome back.”

  He winked and walked off with Graham.

  Her whole body sighed until she remembered the two new additions. Spinning around on her toes, she gave them her best I am a serious academic and I did not just make a fool of myself in front of complete strangers smile.

  “Right. Welcome to El Tesoro. At least, that’s what we’re calling it until we find the actual name of the city. I’m Kinley Dunn.” She shook each of their hands as they introduced themselves.

  “Daniel.”

  “Brittany. Spelled like it’s supposed to be spelled, not with an ‘i’.” She blushed and looked down. “Sorry. I ramble when I’m nervous and I’m really excited to meet you, so I’m nervous and I’m rambling again.”

  Kinley pulled her lips between her teeth to keep from laughing. She remembered being in that position, awestruck that she was meeting one of her idols. Hard to believe she was now that person for someone. “It’s all right. There’s nothing to be nervous about. I’ll take you to the administration tent and we’ll get your bunk assignments and you can get settled in. You won’t get your work assignments until the morning.”

  They grabbed their bags from the back of the SUV and followed her across the camp.

  “Can I ask you something?” Daniel asked.

  “Sure.” Kinley braced, knowing what was coming since each new addition asked the same questions. It was almost comical at that point.

  “Is it true Dr. Banks sacrificed her lover to try to open the hidden burial chamber?”

  “No.”

  “But she did kill him?” Brittany asked.

  “Yes, that part is true,” Kinley said.

  “Is it true you killed her?” Daniel asked.

  It was always the men who asked that question. “No. She was killed when she tried to shoot me. Shane was shot protecting me.”

  “He’s your boyfriend?” Brittany asked.

  And it was always the women who asked that. “Yes, he’s my boyfriend.”

  She heard Brittany’s heartfelt sigh and smiled. Right there with you.

  She dropped them off at check in and stopped by the cataloguing tent next door. She pushed the tent flap aside and ducked in. It always felt like organized chaos in there. Each artifact they found was cleaned, photographed, catalogued, packed, and sealed in crates to be shipped on to the Ministry of Antiquities. The smaller pieces, anyway. Many of the pieces appeared to have been carved in place inside the temple and other buildings they’d uncovered so far.

  “Dr. Biert?”

  He looked up from the stone piece he’d been bent over. “Kinley, come look at this.”

  She smiled at the excitement in his voice. He was like that with every artifact they found.

  Dr. Biert had been a revelation. She’d been less than thrilled when the Foundation had appointed him to oversee the excavation, but hadn’t had any say in the matter.

  He’d apologized within minutes of arriving at camp and finding her. When she’d called him from the airport in Flores, he’d just gotten off the phone with his ex-wife. The divorce had been far from harmonious and he’d taken his anger out on her. He told her he didn’t even realize what she’d been talking about until he saw it on the news.

  He also claimed not to know about the emails or Christine’s plans, even though she’d told Kinley he was one of the team leads.

  Kinley had been cautious and understandably guarded at the beginning, but Dr. Biert had shown her nothing but respect and had consulted with her every step of the way, even though she was technically one of the least experienced members of the team. It hadn’t hurt that Graham had run a background check on him and reassured her he was clean.

  She let him ramble on about the significance of the piece, knowing he was wrapping up when he said, “It’s marvelous. Simply marvelous.”

  “It is,” she agreed.

  “How are the translations going in the temple?” he asked.

  “Much faster now that we’ve definitively established the bases. Do you have time after dinner tonight to go over some of the ones we did today?”

  “Why don’t we do it in the morning? I heard Shane arrived in camp not too long ago.”

  “Wow! Gossip spreads fast,” she said.

  Dr. Biert chuckled. “Eduardo stopped by to let me know he found some canned pears. But you two are like our own celebrity couple. I’m surprised you’re here instead of catching up.”

  The way the inflection of his voice rose at the end let her know he meant sex when he said “catching up”. She couldn’t hold his gaze. It was almost as bad as if her father had asked why she wasn’t getting laid.

  Kinley cleared her throat. “He’s with Graham going over the security since he has to leave this afternoon.”

  “Oh, that’s right. Well, don’t worry about tonight. We can go over all that in the morning,” he said.

  “Okay. After breakfast?”

  “Perfect.”

  She said goodbye and stopped at one of the water tanks since she’d run off without her water bottle. A quick glance around the camp showed no sign of Shane or Graham. She checked her watch. Still at least two hours before Graham had to leave—she may as well head back to the temple.

  Shane turned slowly and tried not to look like he was lost. Not lost exactly, but he couldn’t remember which tent was his and Kinley’s. He had it narrowed down to two, but didn’t want to be the dick that walked into the wrong one. First thing tomorrow he was numbering all the damn tents.

  “Hey. Whatcha doin’?”

  He spun at the sound of Kinley’s voice as she stepped from between two of the tents.

  “Uh.” He had no good answer for that.

  She raised her eye
brows. “Lost?”

  “Not exactly,” he said.

  Pulling her lips between her teeth she nodded. “Turned around?”

  “More accurate.”

  Kinley chuckled and pointed to the third tent from the end. “That one.”

  It was the first of his two choices so he hadn’t been too far off. He let her lead the way, but as soon as they cleared the doorway, he swept her up in his arms and kissed her.

  She groaned and opened for him, her tongue meeting his while her fingers gripped the back of his hair.

  He laid her on the bed and followed her down nestling his hips between her thighs.

  “I missed you.” Dragging his mouth along her jaw and neck, he slipped the buttons of her shirt through the holes, revealing the soft skin between her breasts.

  Kinley sighed and bowed her back. “I missed you, too. I’m so happy you’re back.”

  Shane pulled the tails of her shirt from the waist of her pants. “I’m not going anywhere anytime soon.”

  “Wait. Wait, wait.” Kinley pushed against his shoulders and wriggled out from under him.

  His heart thumped and froze in his chest. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing, but I want to show you something and if we get naked I’m not going to want to put clothes back on to show you.” She buttoned her shirt and stood.

  Shane flopped onto his back, both relieved and increasingly frustrated. “Now?”

  Kinley scanned his body and he held out hope she’d change her mind and jump his bones, but she shook her head like she was freeing herself from a trance. “Yes. Now.”

  She patted his thigh and grabbed a large flashlight from the storage chest at the end of the bed. “Come on, we’re losing the light.”

  Groaning, Shane rolled to a stand and followed her out of the tent, taking her hand as she smiled up at him. Okay, that made his blue balls worth it.

  Leading him across the clearing between the camp and temple, she surprised him by veering around the base of the temple. She glanced up at the setting sun and picked up her pace, forcing Shane to lengthen his stride.

  On the far side of the temple, she led down a path that was still overgrown, but led to a smaller pyramid.

  “Is this…?”

  Glancing over her shoulder, she smiled and nodded.

  A much simpler structure than the large pyramid, the steps ended in one large chamber at the top. Positioned in the center of the room was a gold sun, larger than the span of his arms, ablaze as it reflected the last rays of daylight.

  “I’m calling it the house of the setting sun.”

  “Nice,” he said. “And fitting.”

  The gold sun stopped shining as the sun dropped below the horizon.

  Kinley clicked on the flashlight and shined it on the walls. “It’s their story. The story of their lives. A blight overcame their crops and poisoned the water.” She shined the light along the wall as she spoke. “Their children and elders began to die, so their chief consulted the gods. Sometime after there was a solar eclipse and he took that as a sign to follow the path of the rising sun. They abandoned their city and traveled east and the chief sacrificed himself to the gods to ensure the safety of his people.”

  “So he didn’t kill all his people and bury himself with his treasure?” he asked.

  She shook her head and wiped away the tears streaming down her face as she recounted the tale. Shane pulled her into his arms and pressed his lips to her temple. “The team must have been excited when you showed them this.”

  “I haven’t yet.” She tilted her head back. “I wanted you to be the first person I told. This is our story. This is what we came to find.”

  Shane tried to breathe past the lump in his throat. It meant more than he could voice that she waited for him to return to share her discovery. A discovery that would cement her standing in the archaeological community. The whole reason she had traveled to Guatemala in the first place.

  He tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. “Butt Ass Naked.”

  Her brows pinched together. “What?”

  “That’s what Ban stands for.”

  She grinned. “Why do they call you that?”

  “We were drinking one night after we graduated BUD/S and I decided it would be a good idea to streak the base commander’s house. Butt ass naked.”

  Her head fell back as she laughed. “I get why you didn’t want to tell me when we first met.”

  He brushed tears from her cheek. “I love you, Kinley Dunn. I want to always be the first person you share your discoveries with. I want you to be the one I always share my silly stories with.

  “For the last few years I’ve felt lost. I only ever wanted to be a SEAL and when I couldn’t be that anymore, I didn’t know what to do with my life. I’ve been searching for something. I thought I came to Guatemala to find some adventure. Turns out all I needed to find was you.”

  She sobbed out a laugh. “I love you too. I promise to always be the adventure you need.”

  Their lips met, their kiss full of promises. He grasped the sides of her face and brushed a tear from her cheek.

  “Does this mean we can go take our clothes off now?” he asked.

  Kinley laughed and threw her arms around his neck. “Yes. Let’s go get butt ass naked.”

  THE END

  Acknowledgments

  I need to begin with a confession: I know next to absolutely nothing about Mayan culture and history. I made it all up. Well, most of it.

  LIDAR (Light Detection and Imaging) is a real capability and it has detected previously undiscovered, ancient ruins in the jungles of Central and South America.

  The Lago Azul text is based on the San Bartolo text which is still undeciphered.

  El Mirador is a real place in Guatemala and there are several tour companies that offer five- to eight-day hikes of the ruins along the trail. My research put Guatemala at the top of my travel bucket list.

  All of my research for this story was fascinating and there was no way to encompass or include everything I learned, so I used what I needed to drive the suspense. However, because I took extreme license with the information I did find, I apologize profusely to any real Mayan experts or archaeologists.

  On to my profound and undying gratitude.

  Thank you, Susan Stoker, for this fabulous opportunity. Thank you for inviting me into your world and lending me some of your guys. I hope they had fun on their vacation and didn’t get into too much trouble.

  Ann Riza and Ann Suhs of the Happily Editing Anns for taking me on at kind of the last minute. I’m so happy we got to spend time together at RWA!

  Kelley Jefferson of Wonder, PR: You always find the perfect image for the cover given the least amount of information to work with. “I don’t know…he’s blond and hot.” (shrug)

  Which is then handed off to Lori Jackson to work her magic and design the most delicious covers.

  Thank you to the readers, new and old, for your support and emails and friendship. Without you, these would still be the voices in my head.

  Finally, my family, for your unwavering support and encouragement. Your words have meant the most, even if you won’t read the steamy parts.

  About the Author

  Tarina is an award winning author who has spent her entire life in and around the military - first as a dependent and then as an enlisted Air Force member. She uses her life as inspiration for many of her stories, because truth is stranger (and funnier) than fiction.

  Tarina is still active duty and a single mom of seven-year-old twins. Her favorite hobby is sleep. She has delusions of retiring from the military and being a stay-at-home mom.

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  Also by Tarina Deaton

  The Combat Hearts Series

  Stitched Up Heart

  Half-Broke Heart

  Locked-Down Heart

  Rescued Heart

  Imperfect Heart
<
br />   Holiday Heart (only available to newsletter subscribers)

  The Jilted Duet

  Make Me Believe

  Believe In Me (Coming Soon)

  The Leonidas Corporation

  Found in the Lost

  Truth in the Lie (Coming November 2019)

  There are many more books in this fan fiction world than listed here, for an up-to-date list go to www.AcesPress.com

  You can also visit our Amazon page at:

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