East of Redemption (Love on the Edge #2)

by Molly E. Lee

  The muscles in my calves seared from holding all my weight for so long. I didn’t know how much longer I could press on before I’d have to call it quits and work our way back to the first chamber. I hoped Rain was faring better, her body at least had gotten the fuel it needed on this expedition, where mine had been denied.

  “Good God,” Rain hissed behind me. “How the hell did the Babylonians cart a crap-ton of treasure in here?”

  I tried not to laugh as I paused on the ledge to carefully turn my head in her direction. Her cheek plastered against the wall, her hands outstretched horizontally a fingertip’s length away from mine. “Two thousand years ago, the ledge we stand on was most certainly a wide, winding path. There were probably several working paths, large enough for carts, and I’m sure they initiated a pulley system to help with the loads.”

  She rolled her eyes, beads of sweat dotting her forehead as well. “Lucky.”

  “Do you want to turn back?”

  “Would you?”

  “I don’t want to, but I would for you.”

  “Maybe I was wrong. Maybe there isn’t anything but wall here.”

  “Let’s go a little farther. You weren’t wrong about chambers being built in sequences. Logic says there should be another one soon.”

  “Logic. Yeah, logic wouldn’t suggest we do any of this without better gear and a bigger team.”

  “Touché.” I turned my head in the opposite direction, grunting against the pain my legs screamed with as I forced them to move again.

  After another hundred and twenty steps my hand connected with a corner of rock. “There’s something up here,” I called back to Rain, whose pace had fallen slightly behind mine.

  “Well it’s about damn time!”

  “It could just be a right turn.”

  “It better be a freaking burger joint.”

  I chuckled. I never thought I could smile in a place filled with such darkness. Having a partner, a true one who knew all my secrets—regardless of how she felt about them—made this excavation seem possible. Worth everything it took to get here . . . because she was here with me. We hadn’t even found the treasure yet, and I felt like the richest man in the world.

  Easing my way the rest of the distance, I craned my head around the corner. “Yes!” I wanted to fist-bump the air. “It’s another chamber!”

  “I knew it!” Rain called, the excitement in her voice throwing red flags across my vision.

  “Don’t hurry!” I turned back to look at her. “Slow down, Raindrop. Please,” I begged.

  She glared at me.

  Sure, I was being overprotective, but I had a damn right to be. “This place isn’t going anywhere.”

  Thankfully, she slowed to her original pace, and I returned my focus to the chamber. Lifting my left leg, I used it to push myself up and into the small incline, until I crouched on a beautiful, solid-rock floor. This chamber was twice as big as the last, so much so I could stand up. The full floor beneath me was like a godsend, and I stretched my limbs.

  Rain’s hands smacked the rock at the edge a few seconds later. I gave her a hand, pulling her up and into the chamber gently. The motion brought her body flush against mine, and the heat of my body tripled. Really? Even here? Lock it up, man.

  I let her go, and she straightened, quickly backing away. Well, that fucking stung, but I deserved a lot worse than her needing some space.

  She dug the flashlight out of her pack, adding more light where our GoPro ones couldn’t penetrate.

  “Holy shit,” we said in unison.

  She cut her eyes to me and gave an exasperated laugh before returning her gaze to what had elicited our responses.

  The chamber had to be the size of an average living room, and in front of the farthest back wall were tables. Three, perfectly intact, gold tables. The legs were pillar-like, thick, and beautifully decorated with a swirling pattern that intersected with a straight row of triangles. The tops were covered with items, some in dust-covered sacks, others I didn’t recognize upon first glance.

  I crossed the distance without realizing it, like a tractor beam had pulled me in. I sighed when my fingers connected with the solid gold table in the middle. “It’s real.”

  “May I?” Rain asked with her hand poised over one of the large bags on the first table.

  “Of course. This is as much yours as it is mine.”

  She carefully unraveled the twine that secured the threadbare bag, her delicate motions reminding me so much of Harrison. Her eyes widened as she peered inside the opening and reached inside. Rain’s mouth hung open as she held a handful of dusty but still white pearls out to me. She grinned from ear to ear.

  Look at that. How proud of her are you?

  A huge chunk of my heart ached. I wished Harrison was here to see this, but I had a feeling he already was. No chance he didn’t talk his way out of the gates in order to get a peek at what we were up to.

  “The bag is filled to the brim with them,” she said, gently returning the pearls. Her eyes grazed over the thirty or more bags that lay scattered across all the tables, surrounded by jeweled goblets and at least twenty silver instruments that looked somewhere between a trumpet and a French horn, which had more than a little patina on them.

  I opened the bag closest to me and sucked in a sharp breath, picking up one of the dark green stones cut in the shape of a rectangle. “Emeralds.”

  Rain covered her mouth with her hands. “Each of these items was on the tablet, Easton.”

  “You’re sure?”

  She nodded. “Golden tables, musical instruments, and precious jewels.”

  “What else?”

  “So much more . . . I’d have to re-read it, but it went on to list more religious objects like gold from the walls of Eden, and even the ark.”

  “I don’t put stock in those. But this . . .” I motioned to the more than substantial loot before us. “This is real. And it was Solomon’s.”

  “You never know. Like you said, it was thousands of years ago. Maybe the ark did exist. Maybe it is here.”

  “Now you really sound like Harrison.”

  “Good.”

  Silence filled the chamber as we carefully picked over the goods, searching, documenting with our cameras, and losing ourselves in the studies of our find. After opening the last bag, which was filled with gold coins with Solomon’s seal, I took a step back, surveying the room.

  “There should be more.”

  Rain scoffed. “This isn’t enough?”

  “It’s evidence enough, sure. But with what’s on that tablet and the legend of his wealth? There should be more.”

  “Didn’t the Babylonians only get a portion of it?”

  “A large portion.”

  “This is huge.”

  “Not when you’re the prosperous King of Israel who reigned for forty years.”

  She bit the corner of her lip, worry lines carving the middle of her forehead as she looked back at the expanse of treasure on top of the tables. “So what do we do?”

  I rubbed my palms over my face, wiping away the sweat with the bottom of my shirt for the umpteenth time. Instinct told me to press on. Hunt for another ledge, another path, another chamber, and not stop until we’d discovered every piece of treasure this cave had to offer. A voice in the back of my head, that sounded nothing like me and a hell of a lot like Harrison, reminded me what happened the last time we’d ignored reason and pushed purely on desire.

  “We go back. Camp. Get to town and send an edit of the footage to my producer. It’ll be enough. He’ll send a team out here and we’ll . . .”

  Rain tilted her head. “What?”

  “That is, if you stick around . . .”

  She blinked a couple times, the elation of the discovery vanishing. I could see the minute reality clicked in her eyes. She sighed. “We can’t keep looking?”

  I shook my head.

  She walked to the edge of the chamber, craning her head around the farthest corner. T
oo far over the ledge for my comfort. I made my way to her quickly, gently clutching her arm. “We’ll come back. We can’t uncover everything in a day. Especially with the limits we have with our lack of gear.”

  She let me tug her inside the chamber, but she pointed toward the right. “A wider lip. Easier route.”

  “No.”

  She paced the length of the chamber. “Dad always talked about the significance of the number seven in relation to the time period . . . if we could figure out a numbered system for the chambers, I bet you anything the most valuable pieces will be in the seventh.” The rush of her speech made it seem like she spoke more to herself than to me. When she chewed on her thumbnail—a nervous tick she’d clearly never lost—I stepped into her path, clutching her shoulders.

  “That’s good. Keep your mind running like that. Think about everything he ever told you. We’ll write it down. Use it when we come back.”

  “Can’t we just—?”

  “No!” I snapped, and it echoed throughout the cave. “Don’t you see? It’s the same problem as last time. We want this so badly, we’re ready to ignore the limits of our bodies and press on. I know what happens when you do that, and I will never make that mistake again.”

  “But . . .”

  “This isn’t up for discussion. I’d do just about anything for you, Raindrop, but I refuse to put your life at risk. Nothing here is going anywhere.”

  Her eyes shifted to the floor, and she hugged her arms around herself. It only took a moment for it to click in my overtired, overexcited brain. My shoulders dropped.

  “That’s not what this is about, though, is it? It’s because you won’t be here.” I swallowed the rock that had lodged in my throat. I’d thought, perhaps, she’d want to stick around for a beat, give me enough time to make everything I’d done wrong up to her. “That’s understandable.” I nearly choked on the words. “I promise to keep you updated on the excavation’s progress, if you’ll allow me.”

  She snapped her eyes up to me. “Keep me updated?” She scoffed and popped her hands on her hips.

  I braced myself.

  “I’ve stayed with you throughout every single one of the life-threatening, bullshit obstacles that has gotten in our way. I never turned back when I had more than grounds to do so.” She didn’t need to yell, her quiet tone was sharper than any amount of screaming ever could be. “And now that I need a minute to think about what happens once we set foot outside this cave, you shut down? You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

  “What would you have me do, Rain?” I stepped closer to her. “Look me in the eye and tell me you don’t see your father’s death all over me. Tell me you don’t see me as a murderer.”

  “You’re not a murderer.” Fresh tears coated her eyes, the battle in them clear.

  “Maybe not, but if I’d made one right choice that day . . . he wouldn’t have died—”

  “Stop!” She finally yelled, and it felt good, the raw power in her scream. I deserved worse. “You have to stop, Easton. You can’t keep this up. He would’ve never blamed you, and I know that because I don’t, and I was his fucking carbon copy.”

  I swallowed hard, the pain in my chest cracking, like a chisel hammered into its center. “You can’t say it.”

  “What?” She asked.

  “You still haven’t said it.”

  She pressed her lips into a line.

  “You see why I’ve pushed you away all this time? The look in your eyes right there.” There wasn’t much left to hurt within me, but that look managed to hit every single exposed nerve I had left. “You see him.”

  She clenched her eyes shut and shook her head. “If you believe that, then ask yourself the same question.” She opened her eyes, fresh tears trailing down her cheeks. “I’m your mirror, Compass. You look at me and see only the darkness in yourself.” Her shoulders dropped, the fight clearly going out of her. “I don’t know where we go from here”—she motioned around the chamber—“but you have to lead the way.”

  The realization that there was still work to do—and not knowing if she referred to that or where we went from this point in our relationship—snapped me worse than a broken rappel line.

  With no words capable of explaining what I wanted from her—forgiveness and love I didn’t deserve—I simply pointed to the table. “Have to load up what we can. Then we can move.”

  She silently packed away a variety of the precious stones and a few goblets, while I took an instrument that weighed more than any trumpet I’d ever picked up. Once I triple checked that our packs were secure, I tilted her chin up to meet my eyes. “There is a significant weight difference now. You’ll have to adjust your balance for it.”

  “Got it.”

  Her voice was soft, defeated. The happiness we’d shared in the find had disappeared. Reality weighed heavier than the treasure in our packs, and the closer we got to the cave’s entrance, the worse I felt.

  I should’ve been ecstatic. I’d made a discovery that the world would soon swoon over. I’d honored Harrison’s death by returning to the cave that swallowed him and locating the treasure he’d spent his whole life hunting. And I’d told Rain the truth. Though, where I had been stupid enough to hope for redemption, I quickly realized I would get exactly what I deserved—a lonely life full of study, survival, and risk. Not love.

  By the time the cool night air hit my face as we left the cave behind and returned to camp, I’d accepted my fate. At least I’d had her back for a few fleeting moments. That was more than I could have ever asked for. As she retired to her tent, and me to my still-standing branch enclosure, I prayed at least some day, even if it was decades from now, she’d forgive me.

  Rain

  THE TRIP BACK to the small village where we’d stayed before embarking on the expedition went much faster and smoother than the trek out here. My hatred for Corrine doubled, realizing how safer we would’ve been if we hadn’t been forced to lose them so they wouldn’t discover the treasure’s location.

  And for a damn good reason. I would rather take the dangerous road six times over than have her or her team anywhere near my dad’s cave. Near the treasure he’d talked about, hunted for, since before I was born.

  Despite the quicker trip back, it was still long in the sense that I had no idea what to say to Easton. He’d shut down after we’d spilled the dark truths in the depths of that cave—him with the guilt he carried, and me with the uncertainty of how either of us could look at each other without causing the opposite a significant amount of unnecessary pain. Right now, I only saw his back—how he had left me, stripped me of any right to fight for our relationship when I would’ve done anything to keep him regardless of what had happened with my father. And that pain sliced open the old wound as if I was eighteen years old again, fatherless, and without the love of my life.

  He had adopted his robotic “I’ll keep you updated” bullshit tone instead of saying what was on his damn mind.

  I would’ve spoken my mind, if I’d been able to sort through one of the millions of emotions attacking my heart. I felt like I’d completely taken on the weight of Easton’s secret, and while I was happy to lift the load from him—because regardless of his actions, he didn’t deserve to live like that—I still had a hard time breathing, let alone figuring out how to handle him now that we weren’t obligated by an expedition to work with each other.

  Unloading our packs into the same hotel room we’d left was both a relief and totally sucked. In the mountain range we’d shared something. We’d gotten a taste of how exquisite it could’ve been between us all these years had he not intentionally pushed me away.

  Now, back in reality, where showers thankfully existed alongside food and wine, the magic feeling of being the only two people in the world had burst, and I mourned the loss.

  “I’m going to call the IAA,” Easton said. The first words he’d uttered to me in the last three hours.

  “Shower.” Leaving him at the nightstand where he’d pic
ked up the phone, I climbed under the scalding hot water minutes later.

  It was the most glorious shower I’d ever experienced, just hot enough to burn the dirt and grit out of my skin. I was thankful Easton was making good on the promise I’d made to the Safegaurds, whom I was sure would get wind of our return before we’d even eaten. I thought about asking Easton to include them in the excavation of the cave, after he’d made a proper, legal claim on it, but it wasn’t my place. This was his find, and he would run the dig how he wanted, and with whomever he wanted.

  And I honestly didn’t know if that included me. How could it? I obviously acted as a portal to the most painful moment of his life. Even if he truly did want me to stick around, how could I do that to him? To me? It hurt like hell thinking of the years he’d robbed from us—how one choice altered the course of our lives.

  The memory of his body against mine, his lips, his scent, took over my thoughts as I towel dried my hair. It replayed with such sensory strength, my entire body reacted, my skin tingling in all the places he’d touched, my nipples hardening against the fabric of the robe I wore. An ache wrenched between my thighs, the powerful need as strong as it’d ever been. Maybe there would never be a time where I didn’t want Easton to consume me. So, I knew where my body stood. My heart? She was a complicated, broken-once-before bitch who needed to get a grip before she let it happen again.

  Because how else could this end? Maybe we stayed together and we’d be happy for a period of time, but then one day Easton would wake up and look at me and realize I was nothing but a reminder of the worst day of his life. And then he’d leave me again. Make the decision without including me. Just like he had. And this time, knowing what I did now, I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to put the pieces of my heart back together again.

  Easton

  IT TOOK SEVERAL emailed pictures of what we’d taken out of Harrison’s cave before the IAA believed me. Once they did, we were in business, and within an hour I’d received the general mock-up claims form—which I’d requested be placed in Harrison’s name. I’d also called Calev, buying another favor with a promise to let him poke around once the excavation started. He was a good man, and definitely not the one who’d ratted out our location to Corrine, and the information I wanted had been well worth the promise.