Dangerous Treasure

by Olivia West

  “Oh, that feels wonderful,” she breathed as his mouth found its way to her thighs, kissing and nibbling his way up and down the inside of her long legs before resting on her heated pink folds. A gasp escaped her lips as he found his way to her center and teased her slowly until she didn’t think she could stand any more of his taunting. His tongue twirled and probed her inner recesses until she found she could no longer hold back, her hips arching forward to meet him and spilling over the volcano he had brought to life.

  “You taste amazing,” he told her, pulling away and standing above her as he undressed. His perfect abs glistened in the moonlight now spilling into the room as he crawled forward onto the bed, hovering over her and kissing her deeply. Then he was inside her, uniting them in a bond that felt more right than anything she had known for quite some time. Their bodies moved slowly back and forth against one another in ecstasy, bringing them closer to the edge of climax.

  Jana quickly lost count of the orgasms that soon began erupting with his increasingly passionate lovemaking until they seemed to just be one extended pleasure that never quite ended but escalated with each wave. Her nails dug into his back as he seemed to erupt inside of her and then collapse against her, murmuring her name as he kissed her now scorching skin. It was the most perfect ending to this day she could have imagined as she fell asleep in his arms.

  Chapter 6

  Waking in the early morning hours, Jana sat bolt upright in bed. Looking over, she realized that Pete was gone. She felt foolish that she had thought their night meant as much to him as it had to her, when it had apparently not if he had chosen to sneak out during the night. She curled back up against her pillow and tried to fall back asleep, but there was no use. Instead, she got up, showered and dressed before making coffee using the small French press she had purchased on their trip into San Diego previously.

  Rather than going to the dining tent for breakfast, she prepared a bowl of the oatmeal she had brought for mornings when she just wanted something simple and sat looking at the flowers Pete had given her the night before as she ate it. It was going to be a long dig now that she would have an awkward encounter with Pete to deal with. That is what she got for crossing a line she had previously declared she wouldn’t, she thought to herself. She resigned herself to getting it over with as she finished her food and went to brush her teeth. Moments later, she made her way out the door, heading straight to the dig site without so much as a glance around her.

  She had barely gotten to work there when she saw Hank approaching, his face red. It wasn’t like him to be so flustered and especially since he had just gotten really good news, so she couldn’t imagine what he was upset about. It was hard to miss the two rather large men on either side of him, as well. They must be a part of the new security he had hired to watch over the site until the dig was completed. Standing up, she turned to fully face him, brushing away the dirt from her pants and looking at him with a note of concern.

  “You weren’t in the breakfast tent,” he said curtly. It was unlike him to be so brusque. Did he know already about her and Pete and was it a concern for him that she had fraternized with another contractor? She knew it had been a bad idea to get involved with someone she was working with so closely.

  “Um, no. I decided to just have something quick in my cabin this morning. Is something wrong, Hank?” she asked.

  “Yes. I need you to put down your tools and come with us,” he replied, nodding toward the two security men before turning to leave. The two men approached Jana, one of them waving an arm as an indication that she should go with them.

  “What is this about?” she asked, already following, flanked on either side by the two men. That same feeling she had experienced last night crept back over her as she began following the men back to Hank’s trailer. Inside, she found herself looking at Hank’s open safe. Hank’s open, empty safe. Still, it didn’t occur to her what was happening.

  “Where are the keys I gave you to my trailer and the safe?” he asked her.

  “They are in my pocket where I put them,” she replied, reaching into her pocket and fishing them out to hand back to him. She noticed that he didn’t touch them, allowing one of the men to accept them in a tissue he pulled from a nearby box. At first she thought that was a bit strange, but it quickly dawned on her what was happening. The safe was empty and the keys were being preserved as evidence. Surely he couldn’t think she could have anything to do with something happening to the statue?

  “The second statue you told me you put into the safe is missing. Do you have any idea where it is?” he asked in a nasty tone. Jana was shell-shocked for a moment and hesitated before answering.

  “Of course not. I locked it in the safe and then locked your trailer. I haven’t seen it since then,” she replied. “Why would you think I know anything about this?”

  “Were you alone when you put it in?” he asked, ignoring her question.

  Jana hesitated again. She didn’t want to bring Pete into this, but she didn’t want to look guilty of something she hadn’t done by lying. Then again, what did she really know about him? Could he have done this? He would have had access to her keys when they were in her cabin, but when would he have had time to sneak out and do this? While she was asleep? Wouldn’t she have noticed? It occurred to her that she hadn’t noticed he was gone this morning for a while. When had he left? Her mind ran wildly with possibilities.

  “Jana?” Hank said, bringing her back to the current situation. He was studying her face closely, as if he could read it for truth or lies.

  “No. I wasn’t alone. Pete came with me to put the statue away,” she said quietly.

  “Did Pete have access to the keys I gave you?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. Maybe,” she replied.

  “He either did or didn’t, Jana,” he replied. “When and how would he have had access to them?”

  “Like I said, I don’t know,” she said, meeting his gaze. He was beginning to make her angry by treating her like a criminal. There was no reason he should accuse Pete either. Pete may have done this or not, but she didn’t know for sure and she cared about him. No way was she going to just toss him under a fast bus.

  “Very well,” he replied. “Until we sort this out, you will need to stay in your cabin. The police will be here shortly to investigate fully.”

  “I will go back to my cabin and wait, but only because I choose to, not because I have to do so. I’ve done nothing wrong and, as far as I know, neither has Pete. I can’t believe you’d even consider that I would after all the years we’ve worked together,” she said.

  “I’m just doing what I need to recover my statue,” he told her coolly. “Security will walk you to your cabin.”

  Jana stormed out with the two men right behind her. Her mind was still racing, wondering where Pete was and if they had already talked to him. Was there more to his leaving this morning than just some sort of awkward morning-after thoughts? Damn Pete for making her second-guess him like this. She had wanted so much to be close to him and now, there was this.

  Chapter 7

  The police were here, Pete noted as he walked back into the camp from the wooded area not far from the dig site. He walked over to where they stood talking to Hank and asked what was going on.

  “Where have you been?” Hank asked, giving him a sharp look.

  “I went for an early morning walk to clear my head,” Pete replied. “Is there a problem?”

  “Yes. I have a missing statue and you were one of the last two people to see it,” Hank replied.

  “Missing? I don’t understand,” Pete replied.

  “What don’t you understand? My statue is missing. The one that you and Jana supposedly put in my safe last night. Tell me, did you take it alone or did you coerce her into helping you?” Hank spat at him.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me. You think that Jana and I had something to do with this?” Pete asked incredulously. “That is the most absurd thing I’ve heard i
n quite a while, I have to say.”

  “I think that one or both of you had everything to do with it,” Hank replied.

  “Then you are sadly mistaken,” Pete told him, turning to walk away. No way was he going to stand around and be accused of something that he didn’t do and, though he didn’t really know Jana all that well, was fairly certain she wouldn’t have done either. She had dealt with far more valuable items than this.

  “Not so quick, Mr. Abernathy,” one of the policemen said. “We need to take you to the station to ask some formal questions.”

  “Am I under arrest?” Pete asked angrily.

  “No, not at this time,” the officer replied.

  “Then, I don’t have time for this nonsense,” Pete told him, pulling his arm away from where the officer had placed his hand on it.

  “Mr. Abernathy, if you don’t cooperate, we will have to get a warrant and arrest you in order to compel you to do so,” the officer told him.

  “Then, you best call a judge and get him to filling out one of those little go-to-jail slips of paper,” Pete told him, stomping back to his cabin to retrieve his belongings.

  “You can’t go in there,” Hank barked at him.

  “I can and I will,” Pete replied, continuing to walk toward the cabin. An officer held up a hand in Hank’s direction and followed Pete, standing inside his open doorway after he entered and watching as he gathered his belongings. Pete took his time doing so, even taking a moment to go use the bathroom before exiting the cabin. As soon as he was finished, he was escorted to his truck.

  “Don’t go far, Mr. Abernathy. We will be in touch,” one of the policemen told him.

  Pete departed the dig site and pulled over, picking up his cell phone to call Manny, who answered on the first ring. He found that he was shaking as he held the phone. Whether it was fear or anger was debatable. All he knew for sure was that this was a load of crap like he had never experienced before.

  “What is going on, boss?” his foreman asked from the other end of the line.

  “The statue that came out of the ground yesterday went missing. I’m sure they will be questioning each of you. As my employee, you are not required to cooperate, but you are welcome to do so if you feel more comfortable doing so. In the meantime, I need you to pull the grids and equipment and pack up. Let everyone know I will pay them through the end of the week,” Pete told him.

  “Will do, boss. We’ll get out of here as quickly as possible,” Manny assured him.

  Pete hung up the phone and started to get back on the road. He wanted to call Jana and see where she was in all of this. Surely Hank wouldn’t accuse someone he had worked so closely with for years. Still, people did funny things when there was a lot of money at stake. It might be best just to cool his heels for a while in the city while this got sorted out. He decided to head back into San Diego and check into the first decent hotel he came across.

  Ordinarily, he would fly right home, but he didn’t want to appear as if he had done anything wrong. At least, that was what he told himself. The truth was that he had other considerations. He wanted to know what was going on with Jana, if she had gotten caught up in all of this or was in the clear. Mostly, he just wanted to be able to continue seeing her, though that might prove difficult under current circumstances. He would take care of what he needed to today and then tomorrow he would contact her to feel things out.

  Manny called him later in the day to let him know they had been able to extract everything from the dig site, despite it being a rough day. As expected, the police had interviewed the entire crew and then the new security team had overseen their extraction, checking everything that left the premises for the statue or any other kind of contraband. Hank had been very frustrated that they had come up empty-handed, but he was the last of Pete’s concerns.

  “Alright, transport the equipment back to base. Even if Hank decides that he wants us back on the dig, we won’t be returning. I’ll let you know where we are moving on to just as soon as I get it lined up,” Pete told him, already worrying about what was going to happen to his business and his crew when word of this got out.

  “Good deal, boss,” Manny told him, hanging up on his end.

  Pete went to the window in his hotel room and looked out. It was barely seven p.m. and he felt exhausted. He would love to have Jana here in his arms tonight, but he didn’t think that was an option. Instead, he showered and dressed to go downstairs to the hotel bar and grill. He sat at the bar and ordered a club sandwich, fries and a beer as he tried to lose himself in the baseball game playing on the flat-screen overhead. Three beers later, he felt calmer and returned to his room. He fell asleep while watching the rest of the game in bed.

  The following morning, he awoke with a start from a bad dream. In his dream, the statue had been found in his luggage and he was being arrested. Two big, burly men were throwing him in a cell, except it wasn’t a modern one. It was more like something you’d find in an old castle. On one side stood an iron maiden.

  “Enjoy looking at her while you can. Tomorrow, you’ll be meeting the hell she holds within her walls,” one of the guards taunted.

  “I’ve done nothing wrong!” Pete shouted back out at him, but his pleas of innocence were met with laughter as the two men disappeared down a dark hallway. Pete sat looking at what he knew would be his fate until he fell asleep on the hard floor beneath him. He was awakened by the guards the following morning as they barreled into his room and pulled him to his feet. A man entered behind him, Pete recognized him as Hank. He was smiling as he opened the door to the iron maiden and revealed the spikes within.

  “No one steals from me,” Hank told him. “Enjoy your fate.”

  “I am innocent. You have to let me go,” Pete pleaded as the two men pushed him inside the device and began shutting the door. Spikes drove into his flesh as the pain became increasingly unbearable. Peter woke up from the dream screaming.

  Pete began to shake off the dream as he got into the shower and let the hot water flow over him. It was a strange one to have, but he supposed it made sense with what was going on. Those kinds of dreams were rare for him, but then again, so was getting accused of stealing anything. Once he was clean, he got out and went out for breakfast, trying to keep as much normalcy in his life as possible and contemplating whether or not to try to call Jana, as well as whether to stay here any longer or go home. That question was answered for him very shortly thereafter while he was getting breakfast.

  Chapter 8

  “Pete?” she said as she stepped into the small diner down the street from where she was staying.

  She hadn’t been sure it was him from the back, but as he turned toward her, she saw that it was. Now, she wasn’t really sure what to say next. After all, this man might very well be a thief. He hadn’t wasted any time in getting off the premises, that was for certain. Her instincts told her she needed to stay far away from him, but something else pulled her to him instead. There was a reason she had been attracted to him, but now she had to wonder if his attention to her had been just to get close to the statue.

  “Jana, I was going to call you a little later to see how you were,” he told her, glad that she had turned up unexpectedly so he would not have to make some awkward phone call.

  “How I am? How I am?” she repeated, knowing that her agitation was very clearly showing through.

  “Yes,” he replied, seeming confused by her annoyance.

  “I have been grilled like a common criminal and kicked off the dig like I did something wrong,” she told him, sliding into the booth across from him. She sat there waiting for some revelation that might make all of this make sense or just go away.

  “You and me both,” he replied.

  “It’s just crazy. I put that statue in the safe. You saw me. I locked it and that was the end of it,” she said.

  “Correct,” Pete agreed.

  “I just don’t understand what happened, how anyone could have even gotten in there. They w
ould have to have gotten into the trailer and then into the safe without being seen. There weren’t even any signs of forced entry, the cops said. Whoever did it had a key,” she said.

  “Did it ever occur to you that Hank did it himself?” he asked.

  “What? No. Why would he?” she asked.

  “I don’t know. You said those statues were worth a half million each. Perhaps he needed one of them free and clear for some reason,” he said.

  “I can’t think of why that would benefit him or believe he would do that, especially with him accusing of us of it,” she said.