Buried Secrets

by Kristi Belcamino

  At that moment, there was a loud roaring noise and both of the gunmen turned and looked behind the vehicle. A second later, they ran. Before Dallas and Colton could turn around to look out the back window, there was a near-deafening volley of gunfire that sent them both cowering to the floorboards in front of their seats. Colton was somehow on top of Dallas. She looked over his shoulder at the back window. While the glass still appeared intact, it was splattered with red. Blood.

  “Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!” Colton crawled off her and put his head in his hands.

  “Are you okay?” Dallas asked, suddenly filled with terror. Had Colton been hit? She hadn’t seen the glass break or any bullets come into the car, but it all happened so fast with the window obscured with blood she couldn’t say for sure.

  Colton took a deep breath. “I’m not hurt. Are you?”

  He had thrown himself across her body, which Dallas found sweet in a really screwed up way.

  “I’m fine.”

  They both were startled by a loud knock at the window at the same time the front door was yanked open. A woman in a dark burqa dipped her head into the car for a few seconds. Dallas head the click of the back doors unlocking and immediately threw herself toward the door handle. She and Colton nearly fell out of the vehicle and then stood there looking around wildly, unsure where to go or what to do.

  The bodies of the two gunmen were behind the black SUV. Beyond the bodies was a row of ragtag vehicles. A rusty truck. A dented white van. A massive four-door sedan and a small compact vehicle. The windshield was shot out of the van, which was closest. The doors of all four vehicles were thrown open.

  Dallas whipped her head to the front of the car. Off near the temple, she saw a flurry of movement. It looked like women in burqas holding submachine guns chasing after the men who had captured them.

  And then closer, Dallas noticed her.

  A woman standing with her arms crossed, watching Dallas and Colton.

  For a second Dallas tensed, ready to run, but the woman smiled and walked over.

  “I’m Kyra.” The woman said, moving gracefully in the long skirt. Only her eyes glittered through the slit in the burqa. “Safra sent me.”

  In one fluid movement, she wriggled out of the burqa, slinging it over one arm.

  Dallas was astonished to see Kyra had curly red hair and ivory skin sprinkled with freckles.

  “You’re with the Daughters of Isis?”

  Kyra nodded. Her small, compact body bulged with muscles that showed through her tight green fatigue pants and long-sleeve camouflage T-shirt. Her pants were tucked into dusty, well-worn combat boots.

  “I’m sorry we didn’t make it here sooner. We left as soon as we got word.”

  She was Irish. Her accent wasn’t thick, but it was there, Dallas noticed.

  “You came in time.” Dallas said smiling. “But how did you know?”

  Another woman ran up, panting. Kyra nodded at her and the woman spoke. “Two got away. They fled into the desert.”

  This woman also wore similar clothing to Kyra. She held a burqa over one arm.

  Kyra nodded.

  “We’ll have the others ready for you to question soon.”

  Dallas saw three women each holding a man at gunpoint walking back down the hill.

  “Thank you, Mache.” Kyra said and turned to Dallas.

  “We’ll take over from here. Please go back to your hotel. Make a scene at the hotel restaurant or something so people notice you. That way you’ll have an alibi in case something goes wrong and these bodies are discovered. But you better leave now.”

  At the last, she glanced over at the group coming their way.

  “Will we see you again?” Dallas asked.

  “Yes. I’ll be here to greet you in the morning. The Daughters of Isis are now in charge of guarding the temple.”

  “Thank you.”

  It was only when they were driving back to Alexandria that Colton broke the silence with the same thing racing through Dallas’s head:

  “When she said ‘bodies’ did she mean the ones already dead or did she mean…” he trilled off.

  Dallas thought for a second before answering. “I guess I don’t want to know the answer to that.”

  Colton exhaled loudly. “Me, either.”

  Back at the hotel, Colton and Dallas quickly showered and dressed in clean clothing before they headed to the hotel restaurant and bar.

  “How are we supposed to make a scene?” Dallas asked. “I don’t really want to act like a drunken fool, but I suppose that would be the easiest way to draw attention to ourselves.”

  They glanced around. It was a nice restaurant and people spoke in low voices over candlelight. It was mainly filled with tourists, many seemed to be speaking American English. Soft jazz filtered out of hidden speakers.

  As they waited for the hostess to come seat them, Colton grabbed Dallas. She gasped, but didn’t have time to say anything before he pressed her up against the velvet covered wall and kissed her hard and long, his entire body up against hers. When he drew back, he paused and said, “I think that got their attention.”

  Flustered, Dallas smoothed her hair and looked around. The hostess stood before them holding menus with a flushed face. “Excuse me. Two?”

  “Yes, please.” Colton said and gave the young woman a broad smile.

  As they were led to a seat in the back, there wasn’t a table in the room that didn’t have at least one person shooting glances their way. A low murmur had filled the intimate space. A few women shot dirty looks at Dallas, which made her burst into laughter.

  Colton laughed back. “I thought it was better than a falling down drunk act.”

  Dallas licked her lips. “Much, much better.”

  He took her by the waist. “And just think, we didn’t have to act.”

  “No acting on my part. That was all natural.”

  After they were seated, Colton eyed her over his menu. “I’m not really hungry. At least not for dinner.”

  “Me, either,” Dallas said, blushing. “But we should probably do what Kyra said.”

  He put down the menu and stood. “I think we accomplished exactly what she wanted us to. It will make it even more, um, convincing, if we decide not to eat and go back to our room instead. That will garner us even more attention, don’t you think.”

  Dallas saw several heads turn watching Colton. She nodded.

  He reached over, drew her to standing and kissed her long and hard before he took her hand and led her out of the restaurant.

  The hostess looked up as they passed.

  “We’ve changed our mind,” Dallas said and gave her a long wink.

  When Dallas woke the next morning, she couldn’t figure out why she couldn’t move. When she realized, a slow smile spread across her face.

  She was trapped by Colton’s embrace. He was still asleep but he held her in a python grip. By the lack of light filtering in through the curtains, Dallas decided she had time to sleep, so she snuggled back in, enjoying the warmth and feel of Colton’s body pressed against hers.

  Every time she thought about the night they’d just spent, she grinned.

  Colton.

  She leaned over and kissed his forehead. He stirred, but remained asleep.

  It was time to admit she was falling for him. And hard. All the pent-up attraction over the years had suddenly become much, much more than that.

  She didn’t want to spend another night away from him.

  The realization wiped the smile right off her face. Shit. She wriggled out from under his grasp. He mumbled in his sleep and reached for her as she slipped out of bed and hid in the bathroom.

  There in the glaring fluorescent light she examined her face.

  Her cheeks were flushed. Her eyes looked wild. Her breathing erratic.

  The whirlwind events of yesterday seemed to overcome her. Dead bodies. Making love to Colton for the first time and being completely 100 percent vulnerable. Knowing she was
on the brink of something big at the dig site. All it was overwhelming.

  “Admit it, Jones,” she said to her reflection. “You’re scared shitless.”

  Saying the words somehow made her feel better. Admitting it out loud relieved some of the heart-pounding fear.

  She closed her eyes. With her palms placed on the bathroom counter, she leaned her head down. A small tear slipped between her eyes and dropped into the sink.

  When she looked back up, she saw Colton in the mirror standing behind her. He gave her a small grin. “If it makes you feel better, I’m kind of freaked out, too. By all of it. I mean, not us, I think that’s the only thing keeping me from going off the deep end.” He put his hand on her waist and leaned down to kiss her neck. “That’s what is keeping me together. You.”

  She smiled.

  “Yes. Yesterday was a little crazy. In a lot of ways. Good and bad.”

  He nodded. “Let’s get dressed and get some breakfast. I’m anxious to get back out to the dig site.”

  Relief flooded her. Colton was the same. Her rock. A steady, calming presence in her life. And now, her love. She was damn Dallas. “Thanks,” she said.

  Kyra met them at the site. A small campfire near the guard shack was sending a stream of smoke into the sky. Dallas saw a small camp coffee maker on some rocks. Kyra greeted them holding a mug with steam coming off it.

  “Morning,” she said. “It was a quiet night.”

  Yeah, after you’ve killed a bunch of men anything else would seem like a quiet night, Dallas thought.

  There was no sign of the bodies. No blood. None of the other vehicles. Nothing.

  “Good to hear,” Colton said.

  A van pulled up in the parking lot nearby. Kyra downed the last of the contents of her mug and said, “I’m heading back to town to sleep. I’ll be out here again tonight. We have a fresh team that will be hanging out in case anyone shows up and wants to give you trouble.”

  As she said it she nodded her head toward a group piling out of the van. These women wore pants and tee shirts, not burqas.

  Dallas and Colton thanked her and headed over to the edge of the temple where their work crew was waiting.

  “Eban, can we have a word?” Dallas asked.

  They pulled him aside and filled him in on the deaths the night before and the plan for the day.

  He shook his head and looked down.

  “I wanted you to know that I understand if you want to back out,” Dallas said.

  His head shot up. “No way. I am not afraid of them. I will not let oppressors scare me.”

  Dallas lifted her own head and pulled her shoulders back. “Me, either.”

  Colton high-fived Eban. “Let’s do this.”

  The three walked over to the crew who were exchanging concerned glances with one another.

  “Thank you for coming.” Dallas noticed a few of the faces that had been AWOL the day before had returned. “I understand if you feel working for me is too dangerous and I will pay you two weeks’ wages right now if you want to leave to give you time to find a new job.”

  She paused. A few of the men exchanged glances. She continued.

  “But if you want to stay I can honestly say I think we are on the brink of one of the world’s biggest and greatest discoveries—finding Cleopatra’s tomb. That’s why people are threatening you and your families. That’s why we’ve had some, uh, problems, with our dig. And I’m very sorry about that. I didn’t know him personally, but I know Hemede was an upstanding man and a friend to many of you.”

  A few men nodded.

  “That’s why I understand if you must leave. Even if you stay today and don’t come back tomorrow, I get it.”

  Dallas didn’t say what she was thinking. She also didn’t want their blood on her hands. She didn’t think she could bear knowing another innocent man was dead because of her.

  “But if you do want to stay, I want all our efforts to be focused on the corner we found yesterday. I think we might be close. When Abet and Danny arrive, they will explain our plan for the day.”

  Dallas was surprised that despite it all, every man on the crew had decided to stay. By late afternoon, reinforcements had been made to the hole so that Dallas could be lowered down into it.

  A rope and pulley system with harnesses had been erected at the top of the hole.

  Everything looked good to go.

  Colton tugged on the rope for the sixth time. “I think this is sturdy, but I’m not really wild about the idea of you going down there not knowing what awaits you.”

  Dallas, who was brimming with excitement, tried to be understanding. “I know. But I’m the only one of the three of us who could easily fit in the hole. You men with your broad shoulders might get stuck.”

  They measured the width of the hole all the way down until it opened up into something—a cavern or tunnel—and confirmed that Dallas wouldn’t get stuck on the way down.

  “What if when you get to the wider opening, it’s just a bigger hole that leads to the center of the earth?” Colton said it in a teasing tone, but his eyebrows knit together.

  “Oh Colton. Listen.” Dallas leaned over and dropped a few pebbles. After a few seconds, they could hear the clatter of the rocks hitting something.

  They’d also lowered special equipment to test the air and from what they could tell, the oxygen level was adequate and there didn’t appear to be any dangerous gases.

  That alone had excited Dallas. It meant that the space underground had some other entrance or exit or vent someplace else in the temple.

  “Should we come back and get you down there first thing in the morning,” Colton said.

  Dallas shook her head.

  “Let’s do it now.”

  Danny and Sam nodded. “I have the monitoring equipment ready back in the tent. Let me just get you outfitted.”

  Colton helped her strap on a small camera attached to a head strap.

  “We should be able to hear you and see fine with this,” Danny said. Then he put wireless earbuds in her ear and strapped on a utility belt containing a few tools. He helped her strap the harnesses on her legs and doubled checked them.

  “Feels good,” she said.

  “Looking good. Like a futuristic miner. I should cue the Jefferson’s music,” Danny said. Sam nodded.

  “The what? Jefferson?” Colton said.

  Dallas shrugged.

  Danny snorted. “You’re both too young.”

  “I guess we are,” Dallas said, laughing.

  Sam turned to Dallas. “You’re good. It’s a TV show, so it doesn’t count.”

  “Doesn’t count?” Danny sputtered. “Doesn’t count for what?”

  Colton sighed. “Sam and Dallas have been trying to stump each other with movie lines since they were in the cradle. Film. Not TV.”

  “Gotcha.” Danny said. “Let’s go.”

  Sam gave her one last glance and said, “I’ll go back to the tent and we’ll test this out.”

  Dallas waited until she heard Sam’s voice in her ear: “It’s pretty much my favorite animal. It’s like a lion and a tiger mixed… bred for its skills in magic.”

  “Easy,” Dallas said. “Napoleon Dynamite.”

  “I’ve got good visual,” Sam said. “You’re looking at that hunky partner of yours. Colton.”

  “Sam called you hunky. It wasn’t a movie line, either,” Dallas said.”

  Colton grabbed his own headset, strapped it on and wiggled his eyebrows at Dallas. “I didn’t know you had those sorts of feelings for me, Randall. You do know I’m your boss?”

  The blush spread quickly across Dallas’s cheeks. He was still technically her boss, too. She reached over and punched Colton lightly in the arm. “Stop!”

  He laughed.

  “I’m ready,” she said.

  Colton nodded at the crew and Dallas stepped over the hole.

  The ropes were pulled tight. She hung, suspended for a second.

  Colton leaned in
and met her eyes. “Good luck. Don’t hesitate to yank on the rope if you need us to get you the hell out of there.”

  “I’ll be fine, Colton.” Dallas said with a smile.

  He turned away. “Let’s do this,” he told the crew.

  Then he turned back. Colton and Dallas locked eyes as she was lowered down into the darkness, until her body was immersed in the hole, surrounded by dirt a few inches away on all sides and all she saw was black.

  Seventeen

  Dallas fought the clawing sense of claustrophobia that was trying to overcome her. The hole she was being lowered into seemed to drop for miles. She knew she’d been on the surface only a few seconds ago, but it felt like forever.

  The light at the top of the hole was now a pinprick. “You doing okay down there, Dallas?”

  Now it was Danny’s voice in her ear.

  “Doing good. Thanks. Still haven’t got to the bottom.”

  “All we see is black on the camera, Dallas,” Danny’s voice cracked in her ear.

  “That’s because Colton’s big head is blocking the light,” she said.

  Colton’s head immediately drew back. He’d heard her.

  “Teasing you, Colton. It doesn’t matter. It’s pitch black down here no matter what. Can’t see a thing.”

  Nobody answered and she got worried for a second.

  “Are you reading me?”

  There was the murmur of voices and then Danny spoke. “Sorry about that. Um, yes, we can read you fine.” Before he clicked off, she heard other voices again.

  What the hell?

  “Colton?”

  “Got you loud and clear, Josie.”

  Josie? When did he give her that nickname? And why did everyone above ground sound so distracted?

  Just then Dallas felt something under her feet. She gave one tug on the rope, which meant they could stop lowering it. Two tugs meant “Get me the hell out of here.”

  The rope stopped as her feet touched something solid.

  “Holy crap, guys. I’m standing on something. Ground?”

  She reached down and felt at her feet. A smooth rock.