by Cherry Adair
Before returning to the others, Peri pressed a hidden button, sending the enormous freight elevator down to the caves where it was cool and naturally climate controlled. It would be relatively easy, with the use of a compact forklift, to load the crates onto a boat and move them for shipping anywhere in the world.
Back in the house, she found Ry and Addy seated at the kitchen breakfast bar, drinking coffee. The kitchen/living room combo afforded a panoramic view that never ceased to blow Peri’s mind.
“Where do you dock Sea Witch?” Ry topped off Addy’s mug from the carafe beside him. “Do you have to drive down to the water?”
A logical question. “I have an elevator. Over there.” She indicated the closed door of the pantry. Inside was a small elevator, much more convenient than the giant freight elevator in the garage which she only used when she had large artifacts she wanted to bring up to the house.
Addison had already slid off her stool, coffee forgotten. “I wanna see!”
Peri laughed. “I guess we could fit three in there. It’ll be a tight squeeze.”
“With two of the people I love most in the world? No problem. Show us,” Addy demanded, already across the room. Opening the door, she frowned. “Wait. This is just a pantry. Were you teasing?”
“In back.”
“Why do you even need a pantry?” Ry asked, following the two women inside. Narrow, ceiling-to-floor white shelves, held only small stacks of toilet paper and rolls of paper towels, and a couple of cans of tuna. “The shelves are bare.”
“Resale?” Peri pushed the button and a door immediately slid open to reveal the aluminum interior. “I’m never here. If I’m hungry I raid my freezer.”
“Secret elevators, glass floors- This is like Disneyland.” Addy took the three steps to get to the back corner then turned around. “I love it.”
Peri squeezed in next to Ry. “Press the button.”
“Just one stop?” Ry asked. The elevator started to move.
“Where else do you want to go?” Peri poked him in the back. “Sideways?”
“This is so much fun- Oh, what's that?"
""Nothing alarming," Peri assured Addy as the elevator gave a human-sounding moan. "It always makes that noise about a quarter the way down."
"How deep are we going?" her brother asked.
"Eighty-seven feet."
Ry whistled. " That's impressive. How long did it take to bore through the granite?" He wrapped his arm around Addy as the small elevator descended.
"Just over a year." To drill and construct both shafts. "I hired a company from Norway. They brought the men and equipment and drilled before the house was built." While she'd been helping herself to treasure from Nick Cutter’s Canary Island, El Puerto salvage.
"I want a cute elevator,” Addison said.
“We have an elevator, sweetheart. We never use it.”
“Resale,” his wife reminded him.
“Never gonna happen.”
Addison rested her head on his upper arm. “I love you, Rydell Case.”
“Now and forever, sweetheart.” He brushed a tender kiss on the crown of her glossy marmalade-colored hair. “Now and forever.”
“Ah, geez, you guys, you’re not alone!”
“If we were, we’d b-”
“Dear God.” Peri covered her ears with both hands as the elevator gave its familiar bump when it reached the bottom. “Have mercy.” As the door slid open, the small space filled with the musty, earthy scent of the caves, and the salty tang of the nearby ocean. Crashing surf could be faintly heard, but not seen. “Light switch on your right.”
“Holy shit, Magma,” Ry said as soon as they emerged into the illuminated corridor that ran vertically to the elevator. “How long did this take?”
"This is nothing. Just wait."
Peri smiled at her brother’s appreciation for the spectacular space. The small chamber where the elevator stopped was about ten deep, twenty long, and thirty high. Caged lights illuminated the rough, gray-ish rock walls and floor.
“This section was pretty much as you see it. The channel for the elevator was blasted, and- keep walking straight- and a few of the other chambers had to be enlarged. Mostly, this was how I found it when I bought the land. All in all, it took about two years of explosives and excavation. Getting the dock built was a challenge.” She grinned when her brother glanced at her over his shoulder. “I discovered, during construction, I really, really like things that go boom.”
“God help us. Of course you do.”
“Turn right here.”
“It’s really comfortable down here. I’m surprised it isn’t cold,” Addy, between Peri and Ry, observed, as they took the narrow right-hand corridor. Here, the jagged outcroppings of rocks had been smoothed, since the joining corridors were narrow, and the ceiling low. Bulbs in metal cages were strung on thick wire every ten feet.
“An even sixty-eight degrees all year round.”
“Where do we end up if we go straight?” Ry’s head almost brushed the low ceiling, and the walls were only three feet apart. It made carrying stuff down this way a pain in the ass. The larger elevator opened right beside the dock, and if Peri needed supplies for a long trip she used that one instead.
“An enormous natural chamber. I plan on climbing to the top one of these days.”
“Not if you’re here alone you won’t.”
She smiled- her heart smiled. God, she’d missed this. Him. Family. “What’s the worst that can happen?” she teased. “I drop into the water below?”
“Peri- “
“Don’t worry big brother, I’ll bring an entire rescue and medical team with me. I won’t do anything dangerous.
“Persephone Elizabeth-”
“Fine. Never alone. Got it.” In one ear and out the other, but then her brother knew that about her. She loved that he still tried.
“There’s no direct access to the ocean from there- Turn left here, then take the next right. Although the ocean has direct access to that cavern. It fills with water every high tide. Since I can’t dock there, I haven’t really spent too much time exploring. There are some cave paintings on the ceiling. I’ve taken a few pictures from ground level. I keep meaning to show the photos to Theo to see if he can date them. When he decided my house was too much for him, he missed out on seeing this, too.”
The corridor lightened considerably as daylight started filtering in from the other end. The deep susurrus of the ocean amplified as they got closer. “Almost there.” It was so much fun to show her brother and Addy everything she’d been laboring over for years. Proud of what she’d accomplished, she wanted Ry’s stamp of approval, even though she didn't need it.
“Oh, Peri. This is magical,” Addison marveled as they emerged into a long, wide chamber. The blue-green ocean, seen through an opening that was concealed on the other side by natural brush on the beach, sparkled in the distance. Sunlight sliced across the water, and dock.
Addy stopped dead in her tracks. Peri put out a hand to keep Addy from backing into her as a loud, aggressive bark echoed off the walls. “Oh, my, God, what the hell is that?”
Peri grinned. “That’s Charlie. A four ton, southern elephant seal. He’s taken up residence and is, apparently, too lazy to move south with his harem. He waits for them here, rested, and ready to mate, fifteen times a day when they return every September. Fortunately, most of the action happens on the beach out there.”
“Fifteen times a day? Sounds like your brother.”
Ry lifted an arm and flexed his biceps.
Peri rolled her eyes. “You two are incorrigible. Get your minds off your far too active love life and check out Charlie.”
Perched on the end of the dock, the massive seal was ugly, fat and bad-tempered, his mustache -a la Charlie Chaplin- quivered with annoyance at their intrusion. He swiveled his head to watch them through one beady eye, then let out another bellow.
“Don’t get too close,’ Peri warned. “He’s cranky.”
“Not a problem.” Ry and Charlie locked eyes. Amused, her brother shook his head. “Jesus, why not a kitten like a normal person, Magma?”
“He was here first.” Charlie slipped gracefully off the dock as if he weighed pounds instead of tons. The wood vibrated with his weight. With barely a splash he disappeared under the water.
“Damn impressive. ” Ry took in the well-built dock where her sleek, black-hulled Sea Witch and three runabouts of various sizes, bobbed gently on the water. Nearby, a storage shed held supplies and dive equipment. Beyond the shed, hidden behind a deep jog in the natural rock, the door of the industrial elevator was well hidden. Peri sometimes used it as storage for bigger, more valuable salvage items as well as to get things from the boat up to the house. Currently, it was up in the garage, filled with things she never wanted to explain to her brother.
“This is really something,” Ry’s voice was filled with admiration. “The scope of the herculean job it must’ve been to plan and construct this complex labyrinth beneath the house, and the house itself, shows your fantastic attention to detail. Next time, instead of coming by chopper, I’m coming by sea. This whole complex is amazing, honey. Spectacular job.”
Her brother’s pride, love, admiration, should be sweet, but wasn’t. Peri knew damn well it was all going to be ripped away when he learned the truth.
Finn observed the rays of the mid-afternoon sun as it shone across the gleaming wood floor planks in stripes of shadow and sunlight. The strong rays were half blocked by the blinds on the wide windows wrapping Blackstar's salon. Nothing dimmed the satin-like gleam of the gold tablet, propped up on an easel on the black slate coffee table in the crook of the giant sofa.
The blue and white ‘Diver Is Down Keep Clear’ flag whipped in the high wind on the aft deck. Blackstar’s stabilizers made the wildly choppy water feel almost pond-calm. Dangerous to land the chopper in this kind of wind, but Finn’s pilot was top notch. If Kathleen couldn’t do it, no one could.
The four Cutters, along with Bria and Zane’s wife Teal waited, as did Finn, for his chopper to return with la tavoletta d'oro Merrezo, accompanied by four of Nick’s counterterrorist friends. He’d enlisted their aid in securing the tablet from Italy, assuring Finn that there was no other group he trusted more than T-FLAC to keep the priceless tablet safe. As far as Finn knew, there wasn’t a sign of a terrorist anywhere, but he kept his own counsel.
“Thought you and Callie were coming together,” Logan addressed Zane's wife, Teal. Callie was Jonah's fiancé.
Anticipation for the arrival of la tavoletta d'oro Merrezo thrummed in the air, and small talk was the order of the day until the second tablet arrived.
“She was scheduled to come with me.” Teal scratched a red insect bite on her arm beside a small smear of what looked like engine grease. “But the wedding prep is taking longer than planned. She’s getting a bunch of stuff from God only knows where shipped in. She’s sure going to a crazy amount of work. You guys should’ve done what Zane and I did. Go to the Justice of the Peace in St. Maarten. Thirty-five bucks and I didn’t even have to wear a dress. No fuss. No muss. Win-win.”
“Callie wants a white wedding, and she’s going to get every bell, every whistle, her heart desires,” Jonah told her. “I don’t care if all the trouble is just for the two of us. Which it won’t be because come hell or high water you will all be on Cutter Cay next month for this extravaganza. It's her day. She gets whatever she wants. All I care about is finally getting that ring on her finger.”
“I’ll drink to that.” Logan raised his glass of tea, ice cubes clinking. “Happy wife, happy life, right? Got a call from my bride just before I came over. Dani will be here day after tomorrow. The sale of the building and her gallery in DC went through after a couple of hitches. She’s doing last minute packing, and then she’ll be on her way.” Eyes gleaming, he shook his head. “She’s bringing a cat. How does one cat-proof a ship?” he asked rhetorically.
“Did your Miss Andersen go back to Buenos Aires?” Nick asked casually as he absently stroked his wife’s shoulder, bared by a red and white floral sundress.
I don’t know where the fuck she went, and that’s a problem. “Not that I know of.”
Zane got up to get a couple of cold sodas from behind the bar. His t-shirt read: MY HEART BELONGS TO A MECHANIC. He held up a Coke. “Anyone?” When the others said no, he returned to the L-shaped couch to sit beside wife, handing her the second soda.
Teal, who’d arrived just that morning, was as far from Bria’s sartorial beauty as a woman could be. Not that Zane’s mechanic wife wasn’t attractive. She was, in a quirky better-on-the-second-look way. Her shaggy dark brown hair looked self-barbered, a large bruise on her calf, probably caused by one of the engines she loved, was exposed by wrinkled cargo shorts. Her oversized black t-shirt read: IT’S DIVE ‘O CLOCK.
Finn had always found Teal Cutter pithy, and amusing as hell, and, like himself, she had zero tolerance for bullshit. The woman preferred machines to people and made no bones about it. He could relate.
Zane pulled the tab on his drink and paused. “She came to Decrepit most of Tuesday. She was over on board Scorpion, yesterday, right, Jonah? I think she said something about going somewhere with Case today. I saw his chopper fly over earlier this morning.” He made it sound as though she’d flown off on the back of the Devil himself.
“They were back in under three hours.” Where had they gone and why? Even though Finn had been tempted to give chase when she’d gone over to Tesoro Mio early yesterday morning, he’d resisted.
If he didn’t already have people’s eyes on her almost every minute of the day, he’d have put a goddamned tracker on her. Even though she was staying on board Blackstar, Finn hadn’t seen her since she'd left his bed this morning, to go to her own cabin to shower and change. She hadn't said a word about working onboard Tesoro Mio, nor had she mentioned traveling to the coast with Case.
“I left word for her to join us-” He’d identified the sound of the motor of her runabout arrive five minutes ago.
The whop-whop-whop of the Blackstar chopper landing on the helipad on the bridge deck, two decks above them, made speech impossible for several minutes. He glanced at his watch. “Right on time.”
“This is so exciting!” Bria squeezed her husband’s hand. “Aren’t you excited, amore mio?”
“Yes, my love,” Nick murmured, tone dry as he lifted her hand and pressed it to his lips. “I’ve been in a constant state of excitement-" His pause was long enough for his wife to give him a hard poke in the ribs and a mock scowl. “For days. Ah. Miss Andersen. There you are.”
Finn knew the second she came into the room without even looking. His entire body stiffened at the electrical charge in the air. His heart knocked like some lovesick fool the second he’d heard her steps coming down the corridor.
Pheromones. Radar. An internal homing device. Lust unadulterated.
Crossing the wide expanse of wood floor, then the area rug, her steps were measured, as though she was approaching animals in the wild, and wasn’t quite sure how they’d react when she got closer. Purple shorts exposed long, spectacular legs and the orange and purple striped t-shirt, which left a sliver of midriff bare, draped modestly over her breasts. In his mind’s eye, Finn saw her naked, covered in nothing more than a galaxy of amber freckles and all that glorious hair. In a sleek knot at her nape, it caught every bit of stray sunlight and turned it to molten lava as she moved. Everything about her made Finn’s mouth water.
Behind her was Dr. Thiago Núñez, preppy in chinos and a pink golf shirt. Finn’s knee-jerk was, what the fuck was he doing here? Did their arrival together mean they’d spent the last few hours holed up somewhere? Together and not in a platonic, work-related way?
Their eyes met. Hers were clear, guilt free, but challenging. She knew what he'd been thinking, and wasn't having it. Their gazes lingered, stroked, challenged, invited.
They shared a small, intimate smile.
No, she hadn’t let any other man touch her.
Finn made introductions, and Núñez removed a pile of file folders from a straight-backed chair and sat down. As he moved them to a nearby table, Finn noticed a small round tattoo on the web of skin between the Minister's thumb and index finger. He didn't look the type of man to have a tattoo, but Finn wasn't interested in much about the man.
Ariel hesitated, looking around for a place to sit as Zane introduced her boss to everyone. The only available spot was beside Finn on the loveseat. "Over here, I saved you a seat." Said the spider to the fly.
The cushions dipped as she sat down, about as far away from him as the opposite sofa arm allowed. Which wasn’t far. Finn’s brain filled with the heady fragrance of Casablanca lilies. Close enough to feel the warmth of her skin, Finn stretched out his arm across the back pillows, then stroked a knuckle across her nape. Her skin felt warm. Smooth. She drew in a sharp breath, but didn’t move of out of reach.
“I hope my unannounced arrival won’t put you out,” Núñez directed the question to a distracted Finn. “But when Ariel told me of the salvage of two new Tabletas de oro, and the original on its way from Merrezo, I find this discovery unprecedented, and deeply profound. Three such priceless antiquities. . .I had to come and see them with my own eyes.”
“Two,” Logan informed him.
Núñez gave him an inquiring look. “Two?”
“Two tablets. Not three. The one found by Finn, the other housed in the museum in Italy.”
Dr. Núñez’s brow furrowed as he gave Ariel a perplexed look. “But you are in possession of a third. Not so, cariño?”
ELEVEN
Shit. Peri realized she’d miscalculated by telling Theo about her find. She couldn’t bluff her way out of this. She hadn’t sworn him to secrecy because it hadn’t occurred to her that a- he’d show up out of the blue, or b- he’d blurt out her discovery in front of everyone. And to make matters worse, by revealing that she had a tablet, he had divulged that she had her own dive site. He’d just aimed a blowtorch at a sky-high pile of kindling.