Romancing the Alpha: An Action-Adventure Romance Boxed Set (43 page)

Moira met Katy’s icy glance and laughed. “Touché.”

“Well,” Seán said, straightening. “If you have no more questions for my brother and Dr. Ryan, I’ll see you out.”

Moira and Mr. Devon rose stiffly.

Although a muscle in Moira’s cheek betrayed her irritation, her smile didn’t falter. She extracted a crisp business card from her pocket and handed it to Dex. “If either of you happen to recall anything further, I can be contacted at this number.”

Katy snorted and Dex pinched her arm. Rolling her eyes, she stood. “Fine. If the necklaces show up, I’ll give you a call.”

Moira inclined her head the barest fraction and her mouth curved into an ironic twist. “Thank you, Dr. Ryan.”

After their visitors departed, Seán shut the door of the apartment and slid the numerous locks into place. He shot his brother a knowing look. “I put it in the safe behind Mum’s vinyl collection.”

Katy blinked. “What?
You
have the box?”

“Of course.” Dex flashed her a grin. “After that fucker Con stole it from you, he put in his salvage bag. As soon as I got you back to the boat, I nabbed it. Now where’s this fail proof safe of yours, bro? I can’t see it.”

His brother laughed. “That’s the whole point, you eejit. Why do you think I came out on the landing to meet you? I wanted to give the spooks a chance to root around the apartment and come up empty.”

Seán strode to the wooden shelf containing his vinyl collection and began removing records. At the back of the shelf, he pressed the wood paneling. It sprang open to reveal the door to a small safe.

Katy whistled. “Clever. Why does an Irish cop need a high-tech safe?”

“Because I used to work for the art fraud squad and I value home security.” Seán extracted the rusty box from the safe and held it out to Katy.

“Why are you doing this?” she asked, frowning. “Aren’t you afraid of getting into trouble with your superiors?”

“Fuck them. I don’t take my orders from the British. If the higher-ups want to play nice with British intelligence, let them. I’m an Irish policeman. As Ms. Moira so aptly put it, this is above my pay grade.”

Katy took the metal case and placed it carefully on eating bar. “Want to take a look inside?”

“Hell, yeah,” Dex said and slipped a nifty army knife from his pocket. After a few minutes of fiddling, he eased the lid up and they peered inside.

“Holy crap.” Katy traced a fingertip of the lining. “This box was lined with solid gold. Someone went to an awful lot of trouble to make a jewelry case waterproof.”

Dex reached inside and removed rubbery sheeting from the box’s interior. “This is like playing pass the parcel at a kid’s birthday party.”

When they unraveled the last of the protective covering, a stack of material was revealed.

“Definitely not jewels,” Seán said dryly. “Bummer.”

Dex fingered the stack. “What are these?”

“Those are waxed cotton sheets. Naval forces used them as a form of waterproof paper in the early twentieth century. Courtesy of the gold-lined box and rubber covering, they’re still legible.” Katy picked up the top sheets and gasped. “Fuck me. Is this the plan for a chemical weapon?”

“Not just a plan,” Dex said gravely. “These are the instructions to make it.

Seán peered over Katy’s shoulder. “How do you two know this? You’re archaeologists, not scientists.”

“We took plenty of science classes as part of our degree,” Dex said. “Not enough to understand everything written on these pages, but we get the gist.”

“What sort of a weapon is it?” Seán asked. “Is it similar to the mustard gas the Germans used during the First World War?”

Katy shook her head. “I don’t know, but it looks like some serious shit.”

“What the hell was Alfred Vanderbilt doing with these papers?” Dex demanded. “Why would a wealthy American playboy transport top secret information of this nature to the British?”

Katy was pacing in front of the window. “Okay, with the caveat that we’ll never know what really happened, here’s my theory. Alfred Vanderbilt was traveling on the
Lusitania
to England to attend a meeting of the International Horse Breeders’ Association. This is a fact. Vanderbilt was known to feel very strongly that the United States should enter the war against Germany. According to his family, he intended to offer a fleet of wagons to the Red Cross Society and even volunteer as driver. Given his support of the British war effort, it’s not a huge stretch to imagine he might have agreed to carry sensitive documents with him on the journey.”

Dex nodded. “Right. It would have been the perfect cover. Who would suspect a dandy like Vanderbilt of thinking of anything except his own pleasure?”

“Exactly,” said Katy, “hence the surprise at eyewitness reports of his heroic behavior during the sinking. Which makes me suspect there was more to the man than horse flesh and women.”

Seán frowned. “How did the jewel case end up on the sea floor? Wouldn’t Vanderbilt have kept it locked in a safe during the voyage?”

“I’m guessing he did. When I was sorting through footage with Mickey at the library, he showed me some unpublished photos and eyewitness accounts. One mentioned Vanderbilt’s valet, Ronald Denyer, tossing aside the black box he was carrying to help a woman fasten her life jacket.” Katy tapped the case. “If this was what Denyer was holding, it would explain why it landed on the seabed. Even if it wasn’t on the deck when the ship went down, the safe in Vanderbilt’s room might have burst during the sinking.”

“Regardless of how these papers ended up at the bottom of the sea, what are we going to do with them now that they’re in my living room?”

Katy and Dex looked at Seán and then at one another.

“If the British intelligence are keen to get their paws on the plans after all this time,” Dex said, “I’m betting the substance described here could do serious damage.”

Seán shook his head. “It’s not just British intelligence. Before Moira kicked me out of the interrogation room, I was present when they questioned Con Driscoll. He didn’t mention what the box contained but he did say that James Taylor, the guy who hired him and Rick to salvage the box, was only the middleman. Taylor was to pass the contents of the box to an unnamed Russian.”

The three of them lapsed into a contemplative silence.

“I don’t like the idea of chemical weapons,” Dex said finally.

“Neither do I.” Katy scrutinized the chemical equations on the century-old paper. “Do you smoke, Seán?”

The man glanced at Dex, then laughed. “No, but I have a fireplace and a box of matches.”

She held his gaze and held up a hand. “Toss them my way.”

Nine Months Later

Great Barrier Reef, Australia

Katy lounged on the double deckchair, sipping a fruit smoothie and savoring the salt-tinged breeze. The boat rocked slightly, lulling her into a state of relaxation. “This is bliss.”

Dex rolled over on his side and tickled her gently rounded belly. “Are you enjoying life as Mrs. Fitzgerald?”

“Yes. And given how often I’m expected to do my wifely duty, it’s just as well I’m enjoying it.” She tugged on his newly acquired beard and grinned. “Aren’t you hot beneath the facial fuzz?”

“Cheeky.” Dex blew a raspberry on her baby bump. “Do you think this little person will take after you or me?”

“In the facial fuzz department or otherwise?”

His grin turned Katy’s insides to mush faster than the Australian sun melted the ice cubes in her smoothie. “I’ll shave it off if you don’t like it.”

“No, keep it.” She rubbed his cheek. “It suits you.”

He propped his chin up on his hands. “Whichever one of us Baby Fitzgerald takes after, he or she is destined to be have a fascination for the water and shiny objects.”

Katy fingered the silver and jade ring on her wedding finger. “Or simply good taste in jewels.”

“I can’t decide whether I’m excited about my book launch tomorrow, or nervous as hell.”

She blew him a kiss. “You’ll rock it, babe. Even my brother enjoyed the book and he almost never reads fiction. You’re going to be the next Clive Cussler.”

“That’s the plan,” he said with a smile, “although part of me would rather put reality on hold and stay on this boat with you forever.”

“Hmm,” she murmured, running her fingers through his hair, “tempting as that sounds, I’m looking forward to settling into our new home and digging into my next research project. And—” she took his hand and laid it on her belly, “—I don’t intend to give birth on a boat.”

Dex traced the shape of a heart on her bare belly, making her laugh. And then she gasped. It was a small sensation at first, barely a ripple. “Dex,” she murmured and pressed his hand to her belly. “I think you might finally get to feel this baby move.”

Sure enough, the outline of a tiny foot protruded through Katy’s stomach. Each time Dex moved his hand to feel it, the foot shifted position.

“Contrary little creature, isn’t she?” he said, laughing.

“
He
is a sensible creature with excellent preservation instincts. I wouldn’t want my foot grabbed by a stranger.”

“I’m not a stranger,” Dex protested. “I’m her father.”

“Your hand is too restless. That’s why he always moves away.” Katy scrunched her brow in thought and then beamed. “Hey, I have an idea. Why don’t you put your cheek against my belly? You could sing him a lullaby.”

He eyed the bump warily. “I’m a terrible singer. What if my caterwauling brings on labor?”

“You’re not
that
bad. Now hurry up. He’s active today.”

Dex dropped to his knees and laid his cheek on top of the bump. He hummed a few bars of his favorite rock song. No reaction.

“Keep going,” she urged. “You’re worse than I remember. Your singing is bound to wake up the baby.”

“Gee, thanks,” he said dryly but continued humming.

While the minutes ticked by, they remained frozen in position, Dex singing off key and Katy developing a cramp in her leg. And then it happened: Callee Jane Fitzgerald kicked her father in the face.

—THE END—

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Want to read more about Dex's brother, Seán? His book is
Love and Shamrocks!

For more adventure romance featuring sexy Irish alpha heroes, look for
The Rock Star's Secret Baby
in October 2015. Katy's brother, Liam, makes an appearance and he'll get his own story in
The Navy SEAL's Holiday Fling
.

Love and Shenanigans

Love and Blarney

Love and Leprechauns

Love and Mistletoe

Love and Shamrocks

Her Treasure Hunter Ex

The Rock Star's Secret Baby (October 2015)

The Navy SEAL's Holiday Fling (December 2015)

CLICK HERE TO READ LOVE AND SHAMROCKS

Thank you for reading HER TREASURE HUNTER EX. I hope you enjoyed Dex and Katy’s story.

I took artistic liberty and chose not to use underwater voice communication protocol for the underwater scenes. I did in an early draft but it made the dialogue clunky. In real life, technical divers and underwater archaeologists communicate using the method observed by the military, civil aviation, and emergency services (e.g.: “over” and “roger, out”).

While my book is a work of fiction, the RMS
Lusitania
is a real shipwreck and the controversies surrounding its sinking are based on fact. The wreck lies in 300 feet (91 m) of water, 11 miles (18 km) south of the lighthouse at Kinsale, Ireland. Ballybeg is fictional but its geography is loosely based on Kinsale, Cobh, and Clonakilty. Therefore basing Dex and Katy’s expedition team in Ballybeg made perfect sense.

For those of you interested in the history of the
Lusitania
, here are a few basic facts and links to further resources.

The
Lusitania
was a British luxury ocean liner that belonged to the Cunard Line. She embarked on her maiden voyage in 1907 and made 202 transatlantic crossings before being torpedoed by a German submarine on 7 May 1915, just off the coast of Ireland.

At the time of the sinking, the ship was en route from New York to Liverpool. The passengers included British, Irish, Canadians, and Americans. Among them were the Irish art collector and gallery director, Sir Hugh Lane, and the American millionaire, Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt.

With the exception of the story about the black case, the details I provided about Albert Gwynne Vanderbilt and his valet, Ronald Denyer, are true. Vanderbilt was known to sympathize with the British side in the First World War and to be frustrated by Thomas Woodrow Wilson’s reluctance to allow America to get involved.

The loss of life was devastating. Out of 1,962 verified passengers and crew, 1,201 died. Of the 129 children on board, 94 of perished. Of the 158 American passengers, 128 died. The loss of American lives increased the pro-war movement in America and was a contributing factor to America’s decision to enter the war in 1917.