In her private ecstasy, she felt Simon lie down beside her. Felt him gather all her shattered pieces into his arms and stroke her hair. She felt everything—the heat of his skin, the grass cool beneath her skin. The fabric of his shorts and the hard ridge between them. She inhaled his warm, sexy scent. Listened to his every breath.
Will you be able to let it go?
Jillian frowned and shook the intrusion from her mind even as her heart twisted.
“Babe?” Simon whispered roughly.
She pressed her fingers to his mouth. Don’t. Don’t say anything. Don’t say you like me or care about me or, God help you, love me. Because this isn’t real. It’s too beautiful. It can’t possibly last.
She replaced her fingers with her lips, silencing anything that might become reality.
Jillian pressed her hand to his chest and pushed him to his back, her lips never leaving his as she straddled his hips. She closed her eyes and let her senses absorb him.
Slowly, methodically, she kissed his face and throat. He tasted salty and warm on her lips. His hands rubbed her arms and back as she worked her way down his chest and belly.
By the time she reached his straining shorts, every muscle in his body was taut and burning. She slipped her fingers under the waistband and slid his shorts down.
A low, feral growl vibrated deep in his chest as she dragged her tongue along his length. With every tender caress, Simon shuddered. A wave of satisfaction flowed over her. She did this to him, made him feel that wonderful. She could give as good as he did.
In a flash, she could tell he was on the edge, and she stopped. He let out a tortured groan as she settled on top of him and took him into her—inch by amazing inch.
She eased all the way down and moaned at the perfect fit. His teeth bared, and his fingers gripped her thighs tight. For a moment, neither of them moved.
Need and hunger mixed in his eyes. She leaned forward and kissed him gently. He watched her with tormented intensity as she sat back up.
Then she lifted her hips and slid back down over him.
He let out a fierce growl and pushed her off him and back down again as he arched into her. She followed his frantic rhythm, the power building in her core with every lunge.
The world spun out of control, leaving only Simon and their desperate need. Release poured through her, stars crowding her mind. Simon’s final thrust matched his loud shout.
She collapsed on top of him, spent. For a long time, she lay there in her perfect world. No worries. No pain. No fear. No decisions. Just Simon.
I love you, she said, in the deepest, most sacred part of her heart. It didn’t matter anymore. Because whatever choice she made, she was going to lose.
CHAPTER
22
Kesel sat on the outskirts of the town with no name and watched the shack in the distance, silhouetted by the night sky.
It had been an eventful afternoon. He had not thought the woman capable of pulling off the stunt at the garage. There was more to her than he anticipated.
And more to this situation than he expected. Why were the cops on their tail? He couldn’t imagine that Bonner was stupid enough to leave a trail from the Mexican to himself. No, there was something else at play here. Something had changed. Was it the timing? Was it the body? Or was someone else involved?
Whatever the reason, he needed another man and a new vehicle pronto. He opened his cell phone and dialed Carlos.
“Where are you?” Kesel asked him before he even had time to say hello.
“At home in bed. Where else would I be at this hour?”
“What did you learn about Raul?”
Carlos swore. “You woke me up for that? You can’t wait until morning?”
“No. What do you have?”
There was a lot of noise on the other end before Carlos came back. Paper was shuffled in the background. “Raul Vega. No family. No job. No address. No nothing.”
Kesel stilled. “Fake license?”
“Looks like.”
The only reason a man would need a fake license was if he didn’t want anyone to know who he was or who he was working for. Warning bells were ringing in Kesel’s head.
“Get on the road, Carlos. It’s time.”
Carlos groaned. “I have relatives coming tomorrow. My wife will kill me if I leave now.”
“I don’t care,” he told him. “Be in La Ventosa by tomorrow morning.”
“La Ventosa? Do you have any idea how long that’s going to take me? I’ll be driving all night.”
“Are you in or not?”
Carlos sighed. “I’m in. I’ll call you when I get there.”
Kesel knew that greed would motivate him. Greed will make a man forget about his family. Greed will make a man forget his honor.
Kesel said, “Come alone, Carlos.”
Carlos balked. “What? Now you don’t trust me?”
“I just don’t feel like getting rid of another body.”
Simon grappled for the ringing cell phone by the bedside. He flipped it open without looking at the caller. “Paulie, I’m going to kill you if this is before six a.m.”
“Nice way to answer the phone,” he replied. “Is Jillian okay?”
She made a little sound and snuggled closer to Simon. He forgot about his too-early wake-up call. “Fine. How’d it go last night? I see you survived Alexis. I’m impressed.”
“For your information, we didn’t do anything.”
“Now I’m really impressed. How’d you manage that? Drug her?”
There was a short pause. “You really worry me sometimes. No, we just talked all night.”
Simon yawned. “I didn’t know Alexis was capable of that. What did you talk about?”
“Everything. Anything. She’s a nice lady. She hates this business. Says it’s killing her. She wants to get away and start over new somewhere.”
“Uh-huh. And who’s going to finance that? Because Alexis likes her high life.”
Paulie said, “We didn’t get that far. Right now, she’s doing odd jobs.”
“No shit,” Simon told him. “For whoever pays the most.”
“Like your friend Kesel,” Paulie added.
That got Simon’s attention. He sat up on the edge of the bed. “She told you that? What’d you give her to cough that up?”
“Nothing. Well, I kind of told her about the lens.”
“Jesus,” Simon muttered. “Paulie, you can’t trust her. You’ll get us all killed.”
“I don’t think so. From what I hear, you don’t want to cross Kesel, and she’s doing just that. She told me that the word on the street is that he’s after our lens because someone stole it from him.”
Jillian stirred behind Simon, and he lowered his voice. “He was the one who found the lens?”
“Yup. And it seems Kesel has serious betrayal issues. He wants whoever screwed him.”
Simon rubbed his eyes. “That explains why he hasn’t moved on us. He’s waiting until we hook up with the kidnappers. They must be the ones who took the lens.”
“That’s my thinking, too. You realize this is all going to hell the minute you turn over that treasure to the kidnappers. I don’t think Kesel is too particular about who he kills.”
Simon stood up and looked out the window. “Don’t worry. I’ll shake him long before that.”
“Glad to hear it. And now for the good news.”
Simon muttered, “About time.”
Paulie continued, “There’s no APB on you or Jillian.”
Now that didn’t make sense. “Those cops recognized me. I’m sure of it.”
“If they did, it wasn’t from this train wreck. Weren’t you in trouble here before?”
“A long time ago.” Too long. This was different.
Paulie said, “I can’t help you there. And your dead body hasn’t surfaced, either. I’ve checked every wire I got. Nothing.”
That was impossible. The body had to have been discovered by now. It was righ
t by the road. Even a big animal couldn’t have dragged it out of that ditch. It hadn’t rained recently—
“You don’t sound happy,” Paulie said, breaking the silence. “This was the good news, remember?”
“Something’s not right,” Simon murmured, half to himself.
“Sorry, bud, that’s the best I got. How’s it going on your end? Any new disasters to report in the past twelve hours?”
Simon glanced at Jillian, who was sleeping like an angel. Nothing I can tell you about, Paulie. “We’re closing in on the site. Probably be within walking distance today.”
“Walking? Through the jungle?”
“Ancient civilizations don’t usually provide a paved road up to the door of their hidden treasures,” he said.
“Crap. Now I gotta worry about venomous snakes,” Paulie said.
Simon shook his head. “It’s not those kinds of snakes you should be worrying about.”
Paulie added, “By the way, tell Jillian that Raven called. I stalled for her, but Raven’s not particularly patient. Jillian needs to call her sister immediately.”
“I’ll let her know. And, Paulie, call tomorrow. Later than six a.m.”
“Wimp,” Paulie said and hung up.
Simon tossed the phone into his bag. The sun was rising through the window, casting a golden glow over Jillian’s face. He wished he could lie on a beach somewhere with her or take her out to dinner and watch her laugh. He wished he could treat her right instead of . . . this.
As he stood there, he realized that he couldn’t live with himself if anything happened to her. He’d dealt with a lot of death in his life and somehow survived. But losing her . . . he wouldn’t survive that.
Jillian was glad that Simon chose to do the driving, because the back roads were barely passable. She would have gotten them stuck a hundred times by now. As it was, she had developed a hell of headache from all the bouncing around.
She ducked instinctively as yet another low-lying branch smacked the windshield. The Jeep rocked from side to side as they crawled along two worn tire tracks in a dense forest. The mountain terrain was slow going, and it was already noon.
Simon asked, “Can you tell how much longer we have to suffer this damn road?”
She checked the map. “About two kilometers. Maybe we’ll be there by tonight.”
That got a little smile out of him. “I’ll just be happy to get off this road without wrecking the Jeep.”
Oh, God. She hadn’t even thought about that.
“On the upside, not many people will be able to follow us through this,” he added.
She had thought about that one. “Do you think Celina is with the kidnappers who are following us?”
“I sure hope so.”
Jillian nodded. So did she. “How long were you married?”
He gave her a quick glance before concentrating on the pothole landmines. “Almost two years.”
Jillian smoothed out her shorts. “How did you meet?”
“She was a raider. We became partners. Worked on a bunch of finds. Made some good money. And then things went bad.”
“What happened?”
He seemed to brace himself as he answered. “She got bit by the bug.”
Jillian blinked at him. “What kind of bug?”
“Greed. Obsession. It changed her, just like it changes everyone. Whatever we found was never enough. She always wanted more. Started taking risks. Almost got me killed a couple times. Finally, I said no to her. I figured she’d see reason and stop.”
“But she didn’t,” Jillian noted with complete understanding. She knew all about greed. About not being able to stop the madness. The bug had bitten her father, too.
Simon shook his head. “She just went out and found someone who was willing to take those risks.”
Now it made sense. “Jackson.”
“Jackson,” Simon concurred.
“So, you’re finding the woman who left you for another man, for the other man?”
Simon wrenched the wheel to the right to avoid a huge rut in the road. “That’s right. There are very few people in this world who matter to me, and I’ve lost a lot of them already. I don’t want to lose any more.”
He seemed to mean every word. Didn’t he realize that they probably weren’t going to get out of this alive, anyway? Why did he keep going? Faith? Maybe. She’d like to think so. There wasn’t much else to hold on to right now.
She looked down and noticed a paper covered in glyphs, in with all the maps. “What are these?”
Simon glanced over. “Mancuso’s notes on the lens glyphs. He gave them to me before we left.”
She studied each of the five drawings across the top of the paper, and then the words assigned to them. Moon. Shut eye. Simple circle. Hand. New sun.
She grabbed the dashboard as the Jeep bounced over a big bump. “Did he say how they relate to each other?”
“No.”
She studied the long sets of lines he’d traced below each of the five glyphs. Those must be the intricate writing she’d seen between the glyphs. “Did he get a translation on the writing?”
“No. He said he’d never seen it before.”
“That’s too bad,” she said. “If I had something more to work with—”
“You’ll do fine,” Simon cut in.
She gave him an uncertain look, and he grinned back. He had far more faith in her than she did.
The road suddenly smoothed out, and the jungle opened up to a grassy plain. Simon blew out a breath. “About time.”
Jillian took the lens out of her pocket and swept the sky to the east. The blue beam was there, beckoning over a low mountaintop. “I think we need to hang a right.”
Simon replied, “Will do. Stop looking through that.”
She blinked and turned to him. “What?”
His expression was grim. “Every time you spend too long with that thing, it takes control of you.”
So much for faith. “You don’t think I’m strong enough.”
“That’s not the point.”
“That’s exactly the point,” she countered. “You asked me last night if I’d be able to let it go.”
He gave her a strange look. “No, I didn’t.”
A chill ran up her spine. If it wasn’t his voice asking the question, then whose voice was it? She swallowed and tucked the lens in her shirt. “Never mind.”
They drove in silence for some time before Simon spoke. “How close are we?”
“Close. I can’t give you an exact ETA but . . . It’s just a gut feeling.”
He nodded. “We have time, then.”
She eyed him. “Time for what?”
“To find the location and then go back to a safe place where we can call the kidnappers. We give them the location and the lens in exchange for Celina.”
“You mean not find the treasure?” she asked, thrown by the curveball. “Just leave everything and walk away?”
He turned to her. “That’s what I mean.”
She shook her head. “But they can’t get to the treasure without me.”
He shrugged. “We tell them they can. Write up some fabricated instructions. Just to give us enough time to save Celina and get away.”
Her heart sank, and she tried to control the waver of her voice. “I suppose we could try.”
Simon ran his hands over the wheel. “So you’re good with that plan?”
She stared at the glyphs in her lap. In a way, it would be a blessing. She wouldn’t have to choose. She wouldn’t have to decide man’s fate. She wouldn’t find out why she had this gift. She wouldn’t find peace.
“Sure.”
CHAPTER
23
Home sweet home.” Simon dropped their bags in a nondescript hotel room. He was so sick of hotel rooms. The small mountain town of Pluma Hidalgo, perched on the Sierra Madre del Sur mountains, was a hell of a lot farther south than he’d expected to end up. Never in a million years would he have guessed the ar
chives would be here.
“For tonight,” Jillian added. “I need a shower.”
Those were the first words she’d uttered in the past eight hours aside from an occasional “yes” or “no.” Her disappointment was palpable. She wanted to find that treasure.
Not for Celina.
For mankind and for herself.
Although, if it was really for mankind, she would have argued with him a little. Which meant it was for herself. Not for the wealth or for the thrill of the find. But for answers, knowledge, reverence, to be “the one.” Take your pick. The bug came in all forms.
He had hoped if he took her out of the equation, she wouldn’t blame herself for whatever happened in the end. She could hate him instead. And as much as that hurt, at least she wouldn’t live in guilt. She could be free. More importantly, she’d live through it.
Apparently, she didn’t see it that way.
She flicked on the light in the bathroom, and he asked, “Need any help in there?”
“I think I need to take this one alone. I’m pretty disgusting.”
There was a sadness in her eyes that betrayed her smile. The bug. He hated it.
He hitched his head toward the door. “I’m going to rustle up some supplies and dinner.”
Jillian nodded. “Okay.”
Fight it, he wanted to tell her. Don’t let it win. But she just shut the door and left him alone with his thoughts. He had taken it all away from her. Everything she’d ever dreamed of or about. The archaeological discovery of all time. He’d pitted her compassion against her passion, knowing full well which one she’d sacrifice.
She would never be able to forgive him for that. He didn’t expect her to.
Jillian stepped out of the bathroom to a quiet hotel room and sat on the bed facing the wall mirror. She looked different. Eyes world-weary and wary. Like Simon’s.
This world had done terrible things to him. It’d stolen his heart and his soul and his faith. Now she understood exactly how he felt.
All along she’d thought she would find the treasure and perhaps answers to the questions that haunted her. Why me? Why the sight? Why now?
But a life was at stake, and somewhere along the line, she’d forgotten about that. How could she compare a few selfish moments to a human being? She couldn’t.
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