East of Redemption (Love on the Edge #2) (21 page)

BOOK: East of Redemption (Love on the Edge #2)
6.25Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

The hope from her promise filled my chest with warmth, almost strong enough to erase the icy fear that kept my heart beating just a tad too fast.

It was amazing what a few solid hours of sleep could do for the body. When the sun rose high in the sky, heating the ground and air enough to make it too uncomfortable for sleep, I’d awoken surprisingly refreshed. I never knew exactly how exhausted I was until I’d woken from a good length of sleep, and sometimes that realization scared the shit out of me. I’d pushed us too hard and too far yesterday, but I hadn’t known that in the moment. I now clearly saw the stupidity of making the entire trek to this location in the dead of night, with very little strength. We’d had to move because of the soldiers, but it was me who’d forced us to
keep
going, driven near mad by my need to reach this place.

With a sharper mind, I walked past Rain’s tent, where the woman managed to somehow stay asleep in her zipped tent, despite the heat. She must’ve pushed it worse than me, though she’d never once complained after agreeing to do this together. To not leave me even though the logical thing was to do just that.

“After a few good hours of rest, I’ve awoken hydrated but starving.” I spoke to the camera perched on my hat above my head and to the wrist-cam I’d slapped on before entering the close-cropped trees hugging the border of the mountain. “The bananas have long since worn off, and the little horned lark my partner found was, I fear, a luxury we won’t find again.” I weaved through the trees, watched my footing, and kept the impact light. The sharp twists in my stomach were so much I’d tear into the first thing that moved. “We may be lucky enough to find some locusts to munch on. They don’t go down the easiest, but a good handful can sustain you for a day if starving.”

I climbed a steep incline, gripping the trunks of the wide trees that grew slanted to propel myself upward. The vantage point gave me a much wider expanse of terrain to focus on, and I sharpened my gaze for any movement, remaining as still as possible. “You know, there are some people who study ancient religious texts that say the people who lived before and during King Solomon’s time would eat bald locusts and honey on the reg.” I kept my voice lowered, trying to listen for movement as well as watch. “Man, what I’d do for a little honey right now.” My mouth watered at the thought, and I forced it from my brain. That was a luxury most certainly not afforded to me. Not here. So I prayed for bugs.

After a good half hour of holding my position, I caught a break. Movement. A skittering across a group of zigzag rocks stacked upon one another, leading up to the top of the mountain, and only a few feet from me. I gripped the sharp, pointed stick I’d brought with me from camp and held my breath as I lunged for the creature.

The tip found its mark as I came down on it with a good thrust. The black lizard was at least six inches long, with white flecks decorating its back. Its body twitched for a few moments before finally ceasing. “A bit of luck after all. No bugs for lunch, but a good, healthy dose of protein courtesy of this little reptile. Not a foot-long sub by any means, but from where I’m standing, with the hunger as deep as it is, he looks as tasty as one.” I jerked its body off the stick, peering into the crevices of rocks he’d crawled on, just in case he had any friends. “Looks like he was a loner. We’ll take what we can get. Now back to camp to get him on a fire. I can’t recall the name, but I do recognize the white flecks dotting his back. He isn’t poisonous, though when I can, I always cook the hell out of my reptiles.”

Rain paced outside her tent as I came out of the trees behind her. She started once she heard my steps.

“Not. Okay!” she snapped, crossing the distance so fast I stopped in my tracks. Her bright eyes were molten, and they were trained on me alone. She smacked my arm—she’d always been wicked cute when she was mad.

“Wake up on the wrong side of the tent, Raindrop?”

Her chest rose and fell rapidly, the anger and panic in her eyes quickly transitioning to relief. I flinched when she flung her arms outward, but she merely wrapped them around my waist, burying her head into my chest.

“I thought you’d gone in without me. I didn’t have a clue where or how I’d get to you.”

And I’m an asshole.
“I didn’t want to wake you. You needed the sleep, and I had to find food quick or I’d have to get creative. Trust me, you don’t want me to get creative.”

She shuddered against me. “Any luck?”

I gently pushed her backward and held up the limp lizard, its tail wiggling back and forth from the motion. She took an extra step back.

“Yum.” She shook her head.

I walked past her to the pile of dry branches and brush I’d gathered before the hunt. I laid my meal on the ground beside me as I grabbed my stick and rock to start the friction method on my bundle.

“You want to try some? I should have it ready in about, oh”—I looked at the wrist-cam before returning my gaze to her—“five hours,” I joked.

She laughed this time, the motion clearing away all the frustration lines that had lingered on her forehead. “No, I’m good. Thank you.”

“You’re missing out.”

She wasn’t. Really.

An hour later I had the fire roaring, and after days without a decent meal, the little lizard actually,
almost
tasted like chicken.

“Needs a little salt. And maybe some hot sauce.” I tore off the last piece of grayish meat from one of its tiny bones, chewing and chewing until I finally could swallow the final bite.

Rain sat across the fire from me. She’d eaten in the privacy of her tent while I worked on the fire, refusing to do it in front of me despite telling her I didn’t mind. In reality, I was grateful she’d elected to hide her MREs from me. I absolutely didn’t need another temptation. I struggled enough as it was.

I tossed aside the stick I’d speared the lizard with, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand. My stomach was grateful for the meal, but a thin line separated it from happiness and sloshy. I had to watch my water consumption more carefully to make sure I wasn’t overindulging after denying my body the sustenance for so long.

Rain gazed at the mountain, and I would’ve traded another two days without water to know what exactly went through her head at that moment. I couldn’t read the look in her eyes, but it bordered between pain and wonder. I didn’t know if she looked at the rock and saw her father and felt his loss like I did, or if she still had hope that we’d find the treasure of his dreams when he’d been alive.

“Are you with me?” I finally asked, unable to take one more second of her silence.

She blinked a couple of times. “Mostly.”

“Where did you go?”

She tucked her knees under her chin, staring at the crackling fire. “Listening to one of Dad’s bedtime stories.”

I swallowed hard, the nostalgia of the memories filled me with warmth, but the cold knowledge that I’d been the reason she’d never gotten to know him as the woman she is now frosted over it. “He always told the best stories.”

“More like history lessons. Or legends.”

“True.”

“Sometimes he’d write himself into them. The savior who kept the treasure out of the enemy’s hands.” She glanced at my hat. “I think he believed he was Indiana Jones.”

I cracked a grin, my eyes darting up toward the brim of the hat he’d given me. I’d made sure I never lost it or damaged it beyond repair. It was as dear to me as his journal had been to Rain. The thought spurred a roll of acid in my gut, and I clenched my fist, cracking my knuckles. I’d get it back from Corrine—or the Israeli soldiers, if they’d confiscated it—if I had to move this fucking mountain. I’d get it back for her.

“I preferred it when he’d read the Song of Solomon, or one of his proverbs, rather than talk about his treasure.” She hugged her knees closer to herself. “I shouldn’t have cared what he talked about. I should’ve appreciated that he took time just for me before bed every single night without fail.”

The Song of Solomon was a piece of text Harrison had me study extensively in his trainings. He wanted me to immerse myself fully in the tone of the world in that time period. It had been one of my first challenges as a kid whose education had come from the streets. After bucking the foster system, I’d learned how to survive, calculate, and endure. Studying was a new feat, but when Harrison set a standard, I had done just about anything to exceed it.


Set me as a seal upon thine heart . . . for love is as strong as death . . . Many waters cannot quench it, neither can the floods drown it.”
I couldn’t remember the entirety of the text, but it was easy enough to recall the portions that had stuck out to me most. I had been a boy in love for the first, and only, time.

Rain’s eyes glistened with tears she didn’t dare let fall, and a smile shaped those perfect pink lips of hers. The fact that she was still here after all the times this expedition had already tried to kill us fueled my hope for a future. My heart ached for it, for her, to truly have her again. To set my own seal on her heart, brand her with the same fire she’d consumed me with.


I have found the one whom my soul loves.”
I placed my hand over my chest, the hope expanding it so much I thought it might crack. Rain held all the power, but not all the facts. I couldn’t truly call her mine, not until she knew the truth. What she did with it . . . well, the thought was enough to crush the tiny taste of a future I could see in the distance. Rain held my seal of redemption and didn’t even know it.

I scooted around the fire until I was close enough to wipe the tears that she’d blinked down her cheeks. I swiped the moisture away and wished the motion could do much more than brush away her tears. I never wanted to be the source of her unhappiness again.

“You have a good memory.” Her voice cracked, and she cleared it.

I shrugged. “Harrison was a thorough teacher.”

She glanced at the mountain again. “What will we find in there?”

My undoing, most likely. The darkness of the thought tainted the moment, and I focused on what I hoped for instead. I sucked in a breath, shifting the subject as she obviously wanted.

“King Solomon’s treasure was extensive and vast. It’s rumored to have ornaments from the Garden of Eden, golden musical instruments, tables of gold made from Eden’s walls, and even the Ark of the Covenant.” I followed her gaze to the rock. “Historical Hebrew texts found throughout the last century have allowed us a glimpse at where his treasure may be located . . . which is all over Israel. He split up where he stored it, because he had
so
much wealth. And when the Babylonians captured his temple at the end of Solomon’s reign, they looted a good chunk of his most-prized possessions. I’m hoping this is where they stored it for safekeeping.”

“How can you really believe it’s in there? I know the stories almost as well as you do. Dad ingrained it in me since I was a kid. Even after he was gone, his journal kept pushing that it was real, but . . .”

“You still can’t believe?” I asked when she hadn’t finished her sentence. “Even after what we found?”

The seals on the paper scroll Harrison had uncovered, the golden adornments, which could very well be from the collection Solomon claimed were from the Garden of Eden, those were the only two artifacts I’d ever presented to the IAA, and the world. I’d kept the bronze tablet to myself. It was Harrison’s claim. Not mine. And I also had known if I would’ve shown it to anyone in the industry, Harrison’s cave would’ve been the focus of every archeologist who could get his hands on it. I hadn’t been ready for that, not with his death so fresh. I still didn’t know if I was ready now.

“Solomon’s seal proved he was a real person, outside of Biblical claim, sure,” Rain said. “It didn’t prove he had a wealth of religious and monetary treasure stashed all over the country he’d ruled.”

I reached for my pack sitting an arm’s length away. My gut twisted as I dug to the bottom, my fingers clutching the velvet cloth I kept the tablet wrapped in. I switched off my camera and flicked Rain’s off, too. Then I pulled the tablet out and handed it to her. “I’ve never showed this to anyone.”

She squinted at the object as she unwrapped the cloth from around it. The bronze was rendered to withstand time, and it had been well preserved in the wooden crate Harrison had found it buried in, though some portions of the text had turned green with age. She flipped it right side up, her eyes squinting to read the text.

The fact that she
could
read it sent a go signal right to my dick. Damn, even the woman’s brain turned me on. After a few moments of reading, she gasped. That was the reaction I’d waited for. She darted her eyes to me, to the text, and back to me.

“How could you keep this a secret?”

She had no idea. I was the king of secrets. I sighed. “I didn’t find it. The coins . . . I had the happenstance of uncovering those artifacts in the chamber.” I pointed to the tablet. “That’s Harrison’s.”

She examined the text. “Did he tell you what all it said?”

“He was able to decipher the main theme of it in the cave.”

“And you never double checked?”

BOOK: East of Redemption (Love on the Edge #2)
6.25Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

Blood of Dawn by Dane, Tami
Hardball by CD Reiss
Fall by Colin McAdam
Confessions of a Teenage Psychic by Pamela Woods-Jackson
The Laughing Falcon by William Deverell
Staying at Daisy's by Jill Mansell