East of Redemption (Love on the Edge #2)

by Molly E. Lee

  “Yum.” She shook her head.

  I walked past her to the pile of dry branches and brush I’d gathered before the hunt. I laid my meal on the ground beside me as I grabbed my stick and rock to start the friction method on my bundle.

  “You want to try some? I should have it ready in about, oh”—I looked at the wrist-cam before returning my gaze to her—“five hours,” I joked.

  She laughed this time, the motion clearing away all the frustration lines that had lingered on her forehead. “No, I’m good. Thank you.”

  “You’re missing out.”

  She wasn’t. Really.

  An hour later I had the fire roaring, and after days without a decent meal, the little lizard actually, almost tasted like chicken.

  “Needs a little salt. And maybe some hot sauce.” I tore off the last piece of grayish meat from one of its tiny bones, chewing and chewing until I finally could swallow the final bite.

  Rain sat across the fire from me. She’d eaten in the privacy of her tent while I worked on the fire, refusing to do it in front of me despite telling her I didn’t mind. In reality, I was grateful she’d elected to hide her MREs from me. I absolutely didn’t need another temptation. I struggled enough as it was.

  I tossed aside the stick I’d speared the lizard with, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand. My stomach was grateful for the meal, but a thin line separated it from happiness and sloshy. I had to watch my water consumption more carefully to make sure I wasn’t overindulging after denying my body the sustenance for so long.

  Rain gazed at the mountain, and I would’ve traded another two days without water to know what exactly went through her head at that moment. I couldn’t read the look in her eyes, but it bordered between pain and wonder. I didn’t know if she looked at the rock and saw her father and felt his loss like I did, or if she still had hope that we’d find the treasure of his dreams when he’d been alive.

  “Are you with me?” I finally asked, unable to take one more second of her silence.

  She blinked a couple of times. “Mostly.”

  “Where did you go?”

  She tucked her knees under her chin, staring at the crackling fire. “Listening to one of Dad’s bedtime stories.”

  I swallowed hard, the nostalgia of the memories filled me with warmth, but the cold knowledge that I’d been the reason she’d never gotten to know him as the woman she is now frosted over it. “He always told the best stories.”

  “More like history lessons. Or legends.”

  “True.”

  “Sometimes he’d write himself into them. The savior who kept the treasure out of the enemy’s hands.” She glanced at my hat. “I think he believed he was Indiana Jones.”

  I cracked a grin, my eyes darting up toward the brim of the hat he’d given me. I’d made sure I never lost it or damaged it beyond repair. It was as dear to me as his journal had been to Rain. The thought spurred a roll of acid in my gut, and I clenched my fist, cracking my knuckles. I’d get it back from Corrine—or the Israeli soldiers, if they’d confiscated it—if I had to move this fucking mountain. I’d get it back for her.

  “I preferred it when he’d read the Song of Solomon, or one of his proverbs, rather than talk about his treasure.” She hugged her knees closer to herself. “I shouldn’t have cared what he talked about. I should’ve appreciated that he took time just for me before bed every single night without fail.”

  The Song of Solomon was a piece of text Harrison had me study extensively in his trainings. He wanted me to immerse myself fully in the tone of the world in that time period. It had been one of my first challenges as a kid whose education had come from the streets. After bucking the foster system, I’d learned how to survive, calculate, and endure. Studying was a new feat, but when Harrison set a standard, I had done just about anything to exceed it.

  “Set me as a seal upon thine heart . . . for love is as strong as death . . . Many waters cannot quench it, neither can the floods drown it.” I couldn’t remember the entirety of the text, but it was easy enough to recall the portions that had stuck out to me most. I had been a boy in love for the first, and only, time.

  Rain’s eyes glistened with tears she didn’t dare let fall, and a smile shaped those perfect pink lips of hers. The fact that she was still here after all the times this expedition had already tried to kill us fueled my hope for a future. My heart ached for it, for her, to truly have her again. To set my own seal on her heart, brand her with the same fire she’d consumed me with.

  “I have found the one whom my soul loves.” I placed my hand over my chest, the hope expanding it so much I thought it might crack. Rain held all the power, but not all the facts. I couldn’t truly call her mine, not until she knew the truth. What she did with it . . . well, the thought was enough to crush the tiny taste of a future I could see in the distance. Rain held my seal of redemption and didn’t even know it.

  I scooted around the fire until I was close enough to wipe the tears that she’d blinked down her cheeks. I swiped the moisture away and wished the motion could do much more than brush away her tears. I never wanted to be the source of her unhappiness again.

  “You have a good memory.” Her voice cracked, and she cleared it.

  I shrugged. “Harrison was a thorough teacher.”

  She glanced at the mountain again. “What will we find in there?”

  My undoing, most likely. The darkness of the thought tainted the moment, and I focused on what I hoped for instead. I sucked in a breath, shifting the subject as she obviously wanted.

  “King Solomon’s treasure was extensive and vast. It’s rumored to have ornaments from the Garden of Eden, golden musical instruments, tables of gold made from Eden’s walls, and even the Ark of the Covenant.” I followed her gaze to the rock. “Historical Hebrew texts found throughout the last century have allowed us a glimpse at where his treasure may be located . . . which is all over Israel. He split up where he stored it, because he had so much wealth. And when the Babylonians captured his temple at the end of Solomon’s reign, they looted a good chunk of his most-prized possessions. I’m hoping this is where they stored it for safekeeping.”

  “How can you really believe it’s in there? I know the stories almost as well as you do. Dad ingrained it in me since I was a kid. Even after he was gone, his journal kept pushing that it was real, but . . .”

  “You still can’t believe?” I asked when she hadn’t finished her sentence. “Even after what we found?”

  The seals on the paper scroll Harrison had uncovered, the golden adornments, which could very well be from the collection Solomon claimed were from the Garden of Eden, those were the only two artifacts I’d ever presented to the IAA, and the world. I’d kept the bronze tablet to myself. It was Harrison’s claim. Not mine. And I also had known if I would’ve shown it to anyone in the industry, Harrison’s cave would’ve been the focus of every archeologist who could get his hands on it. I hadn’t been ready for that, not with his death so fresh. I still didn’t know if I was ready now.

  “Solomon’s seal proved he was a real person, outside of Biblical claim, sure,” Rain said. “It didn’t prove he had a wealth of religious and monetary treasure stashed all over the country he’d ruled.”

  I reached for my pack sitting an arm’s length away. My gut twisted as I dug to the bottom, my fingers clutching the velvet cloth I kept the tablet wrapped in. I switched off my camera and flicked Rain’s off, too. Then I pulled the tablet out and handed it to her. “I’ve never showed this to anyone.”

  She squinted at the object as she unwrapped the cloth from around it. The bronze was rendered to withstand time, and it had been well preserved in the wooden crate Harrison had found it buried in, though some portions of the text had turned green with age. She flipped it right side up, her eyes squinting to read the text.

  The fact that she could read it sent a go signal right to my dick. Damn, even the woman’s brain turned me on. After a few moments of reading, she g
asped. That was the reaction I’d waited for. She darted her eyes to me, to the text, and back to me.

  “How could you keep this a secret?”

  She had no idea. I was the king of secrets. I sighed. “I didn’t find it. The coins . . . I had the happenstance of uncovering those artifacts in the chamber.” I pointed to the tablet. “That’s Harrison’s.”

  She examined the text. “Did he tell you what all it said?”

  “He was able to decipher the main theme of it in the cave.”

  “And you never double checked?”

  I shrugged. “I trusted him. He was the expert . . . on this in particular. I tried to decipher it on my own, but it was harder than I expected. Especially since I was terrified if I asked for help translating a particular copied line of text from it, it would trigger something in someone, and I would lose my shot at coming back here without any other archeologists on my trail.”

  “He would’ve wanted you to claim this as your own. That day. He would’ve wanted you to fully excavate this cave, Easton.” She tilted her head, her eyes wide. “This is a detailed record of Solomon’s treasures. To the weight, the amount. It even has chamber numbers on it.”

  “Those won’t do us any good now, assuming it was written based off where it was in his temple.”

  “Of course, but this . . . this is closer to proof.” She wrapped it up carefully and handed it back to me. “Lucky for us Corrine didn’t have a clue. We’d be dead over that for sure. The journal seems a sad comparison now.”

  “It’s important, trust me. I only hope the soldiers didn’t confiscate it.”

  She pressed her lips together. “Do you plan to claim that now? As if you just found it?”

  “I haven’t decided.”

  She rubbed her palms over her face. “What the hell happened in there?”

  I shrugged, pathetically trying to act like she wasn’t dangerously close to unearthing everything.

  “Something . . . give me anything. What could’ve possibly kept you away all these years, when you had tangible evidence hinting at one of the biggest finds of our generation? Possibly my father’s, too?”

  I carefully returned the tablet to the bottom of my pack, keeping my eyes on it instead of her. Not now. I couldn’t do this now.

  “Isn’t Harrison dying enough?” I snapped, using the anger to push away the pain that had doubled since setting eyes on the cave’s entrance.

  Rain flinched, and I instantly regretted it.

  “We buried an empty coffin! Me and Mom. And where the hell were you? Huh?” The fire behind her words seared every inch of my insides. She took a deep breath and pressed up from her knees until she stood.

  The image of Rain and her mother surrounded by extended family and colleagues of Harrison’s burned in my mind. She hadn’t seen me watching her, my heart shattering all over again as I watched her cry into her mother’s shoulder. I’d gone to the funeral with the intention of telling Rain the truth . . . but one look at her, and all I’d seen was Harrison. It turned my blood to ice, and my soul to ash.

  She turned to walk to her tent but stopped and focused her gaze on me. “I lost half my family that day. One to a fall, and the other . . . I still don’t know the reasoning. And, Easton, you better figure out what the hell you want, because you can only hold me at an arm’s length for so long before I stop pushing back.” She slipped inside her tent and zipped it up. “Wake me when you want to go in there,” she said through the thin screen.

  Well, shit. I’d successfully moved her off the path she’d picked that led straight to the dark truth I didn’t want her to know, but I’d burned through a good chunk of my chances with her at the same time. Her acceptance of my needing time wore thin. I hoped the line would hold until after we’d returned safely from the one and only excavation that had ever scared the hell out of me.

  Easton

  “STEP WHERE I do.” Outside the cave’s entrance, I held a burning bundle I’d brought for a light source. Rain nodded, clutching her flashlight to her chest. She bounced on her feet, and I couldn’t tell if she was anxious to finally get this over with, or if it was genuine excitement and curiosity that moved her.

  “The cave had several weak spots the last time I was here. With as many years that have passed, it could be worse. It’s vital that you mirror my movements.”

  “Got it. Trust me.”

  I turned my back to her, staring down the dark entrance that had ruined my life and stolen my mentor. How the hell had I thought it’d be a good idea to bring Rain here? What if I lost her, too?

  No. I was stronger now. And there was nothing powerful enough on this earth to take Rain from me.

  Except myself. Driving her away? I had what it took to do that. Not that I wanted it to happen, but how could I expect her to forgive me once she knew I’d lied to her and the world about Harrison’s death? Even finding the treasure wouldn’t be enough to buy her forgiveness.

  The orange glow from the flames at the end of the branch I held coated the brown walls, turning them almost gold. I stopped just inside the cave because ten feet ahead of us a sharp drop-off plunged into darkness. I surveyed the only two options for deeper entry.

  “Last time, Harrison and I chose the left path, because it’d been the more visible one.” I pointed toward the right, which had an opening to go deeper into the cave, but it was a narrow tunnel we’d have to crawl through. “We didn’t like that we couldn’t see where this tunnel would take us.”

  “And now?”

  I glanced to the left, seeing the same, clear path that Harrison and I had taken. The thin ledge that hugged the cave wall and had led us to the rock bridge that connected to the chamber on the other side. It had given us good enough visibility as to where option number two would’ve taken us, but not clear enough to take the route back. If only we had taken that risk instead of the bridge again. I sucked in a breath and pointed to the right. “This is the safer option. It has to be. And if there is a hint that it isn’t, we’ll turn back.”

  As I crouched down, slipping myself inside the narrow tunnel and army-crawling, it felt like no time had passed at all. I was that nineteen-year-old kid whose biggest problem at the time had been figuring out a way to ask Harrison for his daughter’s hand in marriage.

  Acid surged in my gut and filled the fissure in my chest. My heart pounded with each movement, penetrating the silence of the vast cave and fueling the image of Harrison’s hand slipping from my grasp on repeat.

  “This is incredible.” Rain’s voice broke through the darkness churning in my mind as we finally made it out of the nearly suffocating tunnel and onto a path of solid rock only wide enough for each of us to stand on. I spared a glance behind me.

  She had her flashlight trained on the rock floor, which was slick with moisture from the water that ran outside.

  “It’s also dangerous. Watch. Your. Footing.”

  She squinted at my tone but kept her mouth closed.

  The sounds of the dripping water, which I finally could hear over the sound of my pounding heart, were like drops of liquid fire on an exposed nerve. They sounded worse than in my nightmares, and its repetitiveness quickly tied my muscles in knots. The rock path carried us lower and lower, the floor leading further down than one would think possible. After what felt like hours, we made it to our first checkpoint.

  “There’s a wide split coming up on our left,” I said, remembering the sight from the vantage point we’d had on the bridge all those years ago. “And the ledge we stand on will become thinner than the one we crossed a few days ago.”

  “How deep is this place?” Rain asked, slightly breathless.

  “We’re about as deep as I’ve been, but like I said, there is still another huge drop-off coming up.”

  “Wonderful.”

  I scanned every inch of the golden-brown interior that my torch illuminated. Nothing stood out, and, like I suspected, we’d need to make it to the original chamber in order to surmise where to hunt n
ext. I stopped and turned around as we came upon the massive drop-off, digging out the last rappel rope I had left in my pack.

  Silently, I hooked myself to Rain, all the while hating myself even more for not convincing Harrison to turn back and retry the next day the way Rain and I had just come. This path had proved much easier to tackle, despite the visibility issues. From where we stood now, I could see the chamber entrance, and though the ledge to get there was thinner, it would be a short climb across it.

  If I closed my eyes hard enough, the rock bridge would still be there, connecting the chamber to the other side of the cave, and to the path Harrison and I had taken.

  If we’d simply gone the opposite direction, Harrison would still be alive, Rain and I would be hitting our ten-year-wedding anniversary, and I’d be teaching our sons how to climb while simultaneously keeping our daughter from seeking out mountain lions for photo-ops. The visual of the stolen future, placed right next to the reality of my haunting past, shredded my already twisting insides to bits as if I’d swallowed a mouthful of metal tacks.

  “Easton?”

  I snapped my eyes up to hers, the plea in her voice grounding me in the present.

  “What is it?” she pressed when I hadn’t responded.

  I pointed ahead of me, where a lip of a ledge hugged the cave wall. “You’ll go first.” I pointed to the chamber. “That way, if you slip, I’ll be able to catch you and pull you back up. And when you make it to the chamber, you can be the anchor for me.” The last part was a bold-faced lie, but I’d do anything to keep her safe. If something happened, and I fell, I wouldn’t take her down with me. She’d muster up the courage to make it back across the ledge without a rope, and through the tunnel, to safety. She wouldn’t be stranded. And I sure as hell wouldn’t risk her here. If I thought she’d let me go alone, I would’ve asked her to stay put. There wasn’t a chance in hell of that, though, not after what she’d been through to get here. “Face forward, hug the rock, and use your calves and core to balance. Don’t lift your toes. Slide sideways. Go slow.”