She jumped up from her chair and raced off, calling over her shoulder. “I’ll go pack my favorite stuffed animals!” Then she was out of sight.
“She’s such a remarkable little girl.” Rhett shook his head. “So much like you. That’s the age I met you, isn’t it?” He looked to Emily’s father.
He nodded. “Your mom and I will follow a bit later. And Rhett, Emily, I’m so pleased you’ve finally found each other again.”
Rhett reached for her hand, and Emily didn’t think she could be happier.
Epilogue
Lily came running out of the family wing of the palace. “Daddy!” Her voice could be heard from several hallways over. Her feet pattered as she raced toward them, dodging servants and bursting into her mother’s office.
“Why didn’t you tell me we had a unicorn!” She held up a rumpled, scratched up, and slightly bent stuffed animal.
“Ah, I see you’ve found Pointy.” Rhett stood and picked Lily up, kissing her on the top of her head. “That’s a very special unicorn. Be good to her and your wishes just might come true.”
“Whoa. A magical unicorn.” Lily ran off again, and Rhett turned to Emily, “I will never ever get used to hearing her say daddy. Thrills me every time.”
Emily stood and wrapped her arms around his middle. “I will never get used to it either.” She tipped her head up to look into his face. “I love you, Rhett.”
He studied her for a moment, his eyes full of the same caring she’d seen all the years she’d known him. She knew marrying him was the best thing she could have done. He toyed with her hair, and then he said, “I love you, too.”
Keep reading for Chapter one of the next Royal Billionaire Book. Hiding out with a Royal Billionaire.
Read all books by Sophia Summers
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Other books in the Vacation Billionaires Series
Her Billionaire Lifeguard
Her Billionaire Professor
Her Billionaire Bellboy
Her Love and Marriage Brides Series
The Bride’s Secret
The Bride’s Cowboy
The Bride’s Billionaire
Read all the books in The Swoony Sports Romances
Hitching the Pitcher
Falling for Centerfield
Charming the Shortstop
Snatching the Catcher
Flirting with First
Kissing on Third
Her Billionaire Royals Series:
The Heir
The Crown
The Duke
The Duke’s Brother
The Prince
The American
The Spy
The Princess
Her Billionaire Cowboys Series:
Her Billionaire Cowboy
Her Billionaire Protector
Her Billionaire in Hiding
Her Billionaire Christmas Secret
Her Billionaire to Remember
Her Single Holiday Romances
Taming Scrooge
15
Chapter One: Hiding out with a Royal Billionaire
Chapter One
Brooks Politano and Skye Costas jumped into the clear, blue-green water off Spain. Bubbles rose up in a soft tickle on Skye’s skin. She breathed in her oxygen and adjusted the pressure in her ears bit by bit as she followed Brooks deeper into their dive site.
The filtered sunlight grew dim and the water turned dark green and then brown and then black. They switched on their flashlights, descending even deeper. Skye squealed in excitement even though no one could hear. They were finally going to see the lost Voyager ship of the Spanish Conquistadors, the ship everyone had thought was gone forever. Brooks continued down deeper ahead and she followed. According to her GPS coordinates they should be arriving any second. Right on schedule the tall mast of rotting wood appeared below. Brookes turned and she gave him a double thumbs up. He’d been her best friend since they were kids. And they’d been looking for The Voyager for almost that long.
The deck was old, rotting, green, with plants growing, but not too much. They were deep enough she hoped that more of the vessel would be preserved. They made their way to the cabins’ deck and hovered around an opening. Looked like a doorway. At their feet, holes in the wood, showed a shadowed hull of the ship as their lights reached the furthest depths of the ship. “Do you think it’s in there?” Their radio communication held no crackle. It was a bit eerie in the silence of the depths until she heard his voice respond.
“Only one way to find out.” He lowered himself to the decking and lifted two of the rotting boards. It created an opening wide enough. He slipped through and Skye hurried after. They sunk lower, into the bottom of the ship. The base was covered in thick green moss. They swam just above the bottom of the wreckage. Her flashlight directed beams over the floor beneath her by inches. Brooks did the same. He swam at her side. They would search the whole of the ship, piece by piece. She lifted her beam up to the side, checking out the markings. Perhaps there’d be some, something left? So far, nothing. But she kept looking, alternating between the floor beneath and the sides all around her and then something caught her attention. “Look!”
She swam closer, but Brooks kept searching the bottom. A black scar, looked like a burn in the wood had lasted the test of time. It was a circle with a line through it and then a triangle. She pulled a camera out and captured the image. “Fascinating.”
“Come here.” Brooks’ excited tone had Skye at his side immediately.
“What is it?
“This is it.”
“You sure?”
“One w—”
“Way to find out!” She hurried to his side.
Brooks reached out through the rubble and dug through a large amount of soft mass. The water turned cloudy and green all around them. He pulled and scraped and dug through until his pitch ax clinked. They waited for the cloud to clear. The ax rested on something hard, something solid, and black. “Let’s clear the rest.”
They cleared the top, revealing what looked like the lid of a box. Brooks dug around it, clearing the thick mossy substance off the side, revealing a latch. As they both peered closer, the insignia became more visitble on the latch. A crest of the Mosqueda. Brooks’ eyes lit with excitement even under the mask and Skye laughed through her mouthpiece. Brooks pressed on his comm unit for the boat to send down a transport. And even though Skye was dying to open up that trunk right now, she made a circle around the rest of this cargo area on the boat. They’d send a team down tot do the rest of the excavating since they’d found the most important item already. But she wanted to take a look around first anyway. The rest of the cargo hold looked like a hold for humans. And the skeletons and the chains made her shiver. But she forced herself to check out as much as she could. As her light shone, down in the cravices and low areas, her light reflected off something shiny. Skye’s heart picked up and got closer. She brushed aside some rubbled, possibly sand and a piece of something shiny reflected back at her. Whatever it was had succumbed to the ocean creautres, surrounded by crustaceious residue. She slipped it in her pouch.
Brooks’ light flashed at her so she turned. The transport from above had arrived. She kicked over and together, they shifted the box, nudging it free and slid it up onto the cargo platform. The motorized unit would take it back up to the boat. But not yet. They both watned to be there whne it was opneend.
Buried treasure. It wasn’t the monetary value which was supposed to be incredibly large. For Skye—and she imagined for Brooks also— it was more about the quest. They’d talked about the lost treasure of the Voyager Conquistador for as long as she could remember. They had played, ‘find the lost ship,’ so many times she’d lost count. And here they were, living their own legend. She couldn’t even grasp that this moment was really it, the one they’d talked about foreve
r.
TShe danced in a circle, Brooks laughing at her from where he stood. Then the water rippled close to her cheek, as though something swum by, really close. Brooks was suddencly right in front of her, blocking her view and shielding her from something. “What is it?”
“Stay very still.”
His body was rigid, alert, his head swung around, looking in al directions. Her eyes travelled to the side he wasn’t blocking. A spear stuck in the side of the wood. A modern looking spread, one that had definitely not been there moments before. Her breathing sped up and brooks must have noticed on her oxygen dial. He held a finger up and then held his mask close to hers. Then he winked. And she nodded. She trusted Brooks. She didn’t know how he would possibly know anything about being attacked by spears under water, but if he was winking at her, all would be well. He pushed buttons on the transport and then motioned for her to grab on underneath. She held on tight as the motorized cart started moving through the water. Brooks held onto its side and the two of them allowed the transport to move them up through the depths to the warmer and lighter water and then up to the surface.
As soon as Brooks’ head was above water, he whipped off his mask. “Hurry!”
The guys on the boat jumped into high speed. As soon as Skye was pulled up on board, the boat took off. Brooks stood at her side, holding her steady, but his eyes were once again searching the water all around them. Then he hissed and pointed. The other guys joined them and they began to talk to him and each other about things Skye had never heard of before. “The Green Dragons.”
“I think so. It was their signature move.”
“Why not do more? Why just the warning?
“I’m not sure.”
Skye shifted her weight. “Can we look inside?” Her smile was meant to lighten the mood. The tense faces and urgent tones were making her worried. She’d rarely seen Brooks as anything but professional and cheerful and fully capable to handle anything. This side of him shook her confidence.
“That, is the best news I’ve heard.” Brooks tilted his head toward the captain’s brigg and laced his fingers through hers. “They’ve got it under lock and key already, btu I know someone.” He dangled a keyring.
“Isn’t this your boat and your team?
“That’s what I’m talking about. I know someone.” He shrugged. And she laughed.
They walked faster. Skye jumped on the first step up the stairs then Brooks scooted past her.
“Oh no you don’t.” Skye moved in front of him.
When they got to the top of the stairs, they broke out into a full run for the door at the end of the narrow hallway. Brooks reached it first, but he held it open and let Skye go in first.
“Ugh. I can’t even enjoy it.” But secretly she was grateful for Brooks’ chivalry. It was almost as if he were born with it. She’d always felt important and special to him even when they were scrappy kids, and she knew he’d just as soon have her eat mud as get the first cookie, he still offered it and still let her go first.
His actions made her more courteous as well, and they both approached the trunk together. They knelt in front of it, the lock hanging, dangling in a tantalizing temptation. Brooks pulled out the lock cutters, a huge metal tool which he clamped onto the lock ring and squeezed. Too easily, the lock fell to the ground.
Skye held her breath, and they both leaned in closer while Brooks reached forward and lifted the lid.
At first she thought it was all corroded and gross because all she saw was green but then Brooks put on a pair of gloves and gently moved some of the green mossy substance aside to reveal the warm yellow tones they’d been waiting for.
“No way! We did it!! There’s actually treasure in the Voyager Conquistador.”
“Did you ever doubt?
“Well, I mean…” Skye reached forward and picked up a gold and remarkably shiny coin. “How does it still look so good?”
“I don’t know. The sediment must have protected it from the acidic wood deteriorating all around it. And the water was cool. It must be more pure too because other metals wouldn’t have lasted.”
“Okay, okay, This is so cool. So what does this mean?”
“It means. That the Voyager was right where we thougth she would be. That she was obviously carrying wealth, and that…” He reached in a studied a coin. “We have a lot more to learn about it. Take a look at the back.”
She flipped the coin over. (SOME COOL SPANISH PHRASE) “What does that mean?”
“Something really cool right here that will come up later.”
They both fell backward and the trunk slid towards them a few inches. The boat burst ahead with a ton of speed.
Brooks closed the lid and pushed the trunk forward to a closed cabinet. “Help me open the door.”
Skye rushed forward and lifted the latch to open the cabinet door. Inside was a safe. “Wow, this is really lucky you have this.”
Brooks didn’t say anything. But he slid the box forward and into the cabinet. Then he closed the safe, typed in a code, and closed the cabinet door after. He picked up his radio. “What is it?”
“We’re being chased.”
“Green dragon?”
“No, these look like local pirates. We might know the guy in the lead.”
“Do we stop and talk reason?”
“I don’t think they’re about reason today.”
Skye felt like she was seeing a whole different side of Brooks. “Are they after the gold? And what was that spear all about? Who are the green dragons?”
“So many questions. Which I will answer. But first, let’s just get out of this mess, okay, preferably without losing the treasure we only got to look at for five seconds?”
“I’m so with you there. What do we do?”
“Well, I’m pretty sure we can out race them, but if I know these guys, they will have people at all the normal ports, searching for us, and the boat and the gold.”
“So we go somewhere not typical?”
He tapped her nose which at the moment she found more annoying than endearing. “Precisely.”
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Once Upon a Royal Billionaire Page 10