Undiscovered (Treasure Hunter Security Book 1) (7 page)

She shook her head and for a second, tried to imagine the intense and slightly scary Logan O’Connor wearing a pink bandage. She couldn’t do it.

Her gaze settled back on Declan’s dark head. She was amazed they weren’t arguing. Since they’d reached the dig, he’d been busy trying to boss her around—security this and security that. Most of the things she’d agreed with—like the emergency backpacks everyone now had stowed in their tents. They contained rations, water and gear for surviving the desert. But some of the rules got in the way of them doing their job. No one was allowed to work alone, and no night digging. She wrinkled her nose. It was really going to slow down their progress.

She cleared her throat and stepped back. She shifted her gaze away from him, and that was when she saw it.

A huge, gaping hole in the side wall.

“Oh, my God.” She hurried over and heard Declan mutter under his breath.

He grabbed her arm. “Where the hell are—”

“Declan, look.”

He spotted the hole and stilled. “The scaffold must have knocked through the wall.” He touched his ear. “Logan, Rush and I are taking a look around. Be up shortly.”

“Come on.” She patted her belt. “Dammit, I don’t have my flashlight.”

A bright beam of light clicked on. She eyed the large, rugged flashlight Declan held. It was nothing like her small, serviceable one.

Together, they approached the opening.

“Stay near me,” he said. “I need to assess the stability—”

“I’ve done this a time or two, Ward.”

She thought she heard him making a growling sound. “Just stay back and listen to me.”

“How about I stay right beside you and we listen to each other?”

“You don’t mind saying exactly what you think, do you, Rush?”

“Life’s too short to beat around the bush.”

Now she thought she heard him mutter something about stubborn mules and smart women. She grinned to herself.

As they neared the ragged hole, her heartbeat picked up. This was one of those moments that made all the long monotony of brushing away sand and dirt, of cataloguing every tiny shard of pottery, and spending hours soaking and cleaning artifacts worthwhile.

These once-in-a-lifetime moments were the ones she’d dreamed about as a little girl. Layne stopped and waited while Declan shone the flashlight around inside.

“Holy hell,” he muttered.

Layne swallowed her giddy excitement.

It was another room and it was richly decorated with art. Declan’s light illuminated the barely faded reds, golds, and blues.

“It’s the main burial chamber,” she whispered. “I
knew
it was here.”

The walls went dark as the light moved and she realized he was studying the roof.

“Looks sturdy,” he said.

“Good.” She slipped in before he could stop her.

“
Dammit
, Rush.”

“It looks New Kingdom, maybe Third Intermediate Period.” She saw an image of everyday life, women in flowing white gowns, one breast exposed. A beautiful temple by the banks of an oasis. A man in the typical rigid pose, one foot forward and holding a jar. “This is really high quality. Whoever is buried here was someone important.”

“This really gets you going, huh?”

She turned and saw Declan studying her like she was a strange specimen under a microscope.

“Come on, you’re telling me none of this excites you? She held her hands out. “Standing in a place no living soul has been in for thousands of years? A chance to uncover a fascinating piece of history?”

He raised one brow. “Maybe a little. Watching you do it is pretty exciting.”

Her heart tripped. If he hadn’t said it so matter-of-factly, she would have accused him of flirting. Not that she guessed Declan Ward ever flirted. Hell, the man didn’t need to, not when he exuded that sexy, dangerous aura that would draw women like bees to honey.

She cleared her throat. “Let’s look at the back—”

Declan swiveled the light and Layne gasped. Her stomach tightened. “A sarcophagus.”

A huge stone box made of granite stood on a raised platform. Above it, the roof had been carved in an arch and painted blue. It was dotted with gold stars and a woman’s long outstretched body.

“She’s Nut, right?” he said.

Layne nodded. “Goddess of the Sky and mother of Seth. She was often painted on the vaults of tombs and inside the lid of a sarcophagus. She protected the dead.”

Then Layne spotted the artwork on the back wall behind the sarcophagus. “Wow.” She’d never seen anything like it.

It was a painting of a huge, dog-like animal. Wild and fierce, it had a straight, forked tail and triangular ears. It was like it was posed over the sarcophagus, also protecting whoever rested inside.

“Looks like the set-animal,” Declan said. “Looks like whoever was buried here didn’t buy into the bad stuff about Seth.”

“No.” She moved closer to the sarcophagus. “If this is from the New Kingdom period, it makes sense. There was a resurgence of support for Seth, led by the great pharaohs Seti and Rameses II.”

She touched the smooth granite of the burial box, wondering at the long-ago artisan who’d toiled to make it.

Who was buried inside?

“Hey, the lid’s broken off in the corner,” Declan said.

Layne frowned. “Dammit. Probably means grave robbers beat us here by a few thousand years.” She shot him a sour look. “Perhaps Hasan’s ancestors.”

Declan looked around. “Doesn’t look like it’s been disturbed. Could they have broken the lid when they put it here?”

“Possibly. Maybe they didn’t have time to replace it. Plus out here, we’re really far from the source of granite used to create this.” She pushed up, trying to see into the hole. She saw nothing but black shadows.

“Here.” Declan moved, and his front pressed up against her back, trapping her against the stone.

God, the man was as hard as the granite. Her pulse tripped and she tried to tell herself it was the excitement of the find. Nothing to do with her annoying, sexy security specialist.

He angled the light to shine into the hole.

“I can’t see anything. I’m not tall enough.”

Hands gripped her waist and before she could say anything, he boosted her up.

Layne rested her hands on the stone, excruciatingly conscious of Declan behind her, around her. Blindly, she focused on the sarcophagus. When she saw what was inside, she went rigid.

Declan leaned over her shoulder.

“Damn,” he breathed, his breath brushing her ear.

The inner sarcophagus glinted…with gold.

Chapter Five

Dec stared at the glittering color visible through the hole.

“The inner sarcophagus is made entirely of gold,” Rush breathed. “Oh, my God, Declan, this is huge!”

She spun in his arms, energy and excitement radiating off her. Her thighs clamped onto his hips and her jubilant laugh raced over him, making his gut clench.

Then she leaned forward and smacked her lips to his. It was only a second, and then she pulled back and laughed again.

Dec blinked, trying to calm the growing roar in his head. It was the sound of a hungry beast, and it wanted more of Dr. Layne Rush.

“Declan?” Her laugh died, her gaze glued to his face in the light of his flashlight. “Sorry. Blame that kiss on the excitement.”

“I don’t think so.”

She blinked. “What?”

“Let’s try it again, to test your theory.”

Her eyes widened, and this time, it was Dec who pressed his mouth to hers.

For a second, she stiffened in his arms. He moved his lips, learned the feel of hers, getting that tantalizing taste of her.

Then she moaned. Her hands slid into his hair and she kissed him back.

Damn
. Desire slammed into Dec like a bullet at close range. He pulled her closer and opened her lips with his tongue. Then her tongue was there, sliding along his.

He thrust deep, tilting her head back. She moaned, her hands tugging on his hair. She kissed him back with an intensity that sucked his breath away. He cupped the firm globes of her ass, pulling her even closer. She was the perfect armful of toned curves.

“Dec, you copy? Dec, if you don’t fucking answer me in the next three seconds, I’m coming down there with the cavalry.”

Logan’s voice echoed in Dec’s desire-fuzzed mind.

He pulled back, heard Layne’s little cry of protest. His chest was heaving and so was hers. She raised a shaky hand and pushed the hair back from her face.

“Well…” She looked down and when she realized he’d rested her on the edge of the outer stone sarcophagus, her eyes widened. “Oh my God, let me down. I could damage this.”

He gripped her waist with one hand and helped her down. He touched his ear with the other hand. “I copy, Logan. We’re fine. Made a discovery. We’ll be up in a minute.”

Layne was watching him. “We can’t go up now, I have too much work to do—”

“Sun will be setting soon, Rush.”

“Dammit, can’t you relax the rules?”

“No. Anders attacked you at night. You need the right equipment down here, and besides, I need time to work out how to contain the news of this find. Because once it gets out—”

“Anders will be back.” Her face paled a little. “Okay, so for now, we keep it quiet.”

He nodded. “Logan and I will watch the excavation site tonight.”

She tossed her head back, rubbing at a streak of dust on her cheek. “What happened before…”

Dec, still feeling the edge of desire riding him hard, cocked his head. “What was that?”

“Oh, don’t make this difficult, Declan.”

“You mean that moment when you had your hands clamped in my hair, your legs wrapped around my hips, and your tongue down my throat?”

She hissed out a breath. “You are so infuriating sometimes. The kiss.”

He leaned in close, his nose brushing hers. “That was more than a kiss, Rush.”

Her gaze dropped and he knew she couldn’t miss his erection straining against his pants. She jerked her eyes up.

“Adrenaline, excitement…look, it isn’t going to happen again.” She shook her head. “It was a lapse. You have a job to do, and I have a job to do.”

Yeah, she had a point. And Dec didn’t mess around with women like Layne. She was made for the whole shebang—career, family, kids. All the stuff Dec knew he couldn’t do. All the stuff he knew he didn’t deserve.

“You got it, Rush. Let’s write it off as temporary insanity.” His gut turned over. Damn, he hated just saying the words.

He expected to see relief on her face, but some other strange mix of emotions crossed her features. “Good. Right.”

“Now let’s get out of here, before Logan storms in looking to rescue us.”

She pressed her palm to the stone. “I can’t wait to get back here tomorrow.”

A loud click echoed in the tomb. Dec tensed. When he saw the stone lid of the sarcophagus start to retract, he quickly pulled Layne closer to him.

“What the hell?” She watched, mouth open, as the entire lid disappeared into the wall. “I’ve never seen or heard of anything like this before. There must be some sort of mechanism—”

They both peered over the edge.

The smaller golden sarcophagus inside was shaped vaguely like a man. The bottom half of it was smooth but covered in hieroglyphs. A large, elaborate necklace covered the chest, and it was decorated in layers of bright-blue, semi-precious stone, and another translucent stone of startling gold-yellow color. In the center was a huge, oval-shaped pendant in the same gold stone.

The face on the sarcophagus wasn’t human. It looked like a dog.

“Set-animal again?” Dec asked.

Layne was staring at the artifact, drinking in all the details. “Maybe. It could be Anubis. He was also depicted with a canine head, and was the god of mummification and the afterlife.” She pulled some thin gloves out of her pocket and pulled them on. Then she reached over to touch the stone amulet in the center of the chest.

“I’ve never seen a rock that color,” Dec said.

“It…my God, I think it’s Libyan desert glass.”

“Which is?”

She looked over her shoulder. “A mysterious yellow glass found strewn across a portion of the Western Desert bordering Libya. It’s suspected it was created when a meteor crashed into the sand. King Tutankhamun had some of this in his treasures, but it was a long and dangerous journey to collect it.”

“Western Desert again.” Everything seemed to be pointing in one direction.

She touched the desert glass again before she snatched her hand back. “Oh.”

The yellow glass started to sink into the sarcophagus.

Suddenly, the chest of the sarcophagus started to open.

“My God. I’ve never seen anything like this,” Rush said. “Oh, no, what if the mummy is exposed?” Panic filled her voice. “It’ll deteriorate.”

The chest plates opened out, like petals on a flower. But no bandage-wrapped mummy was below. “Looks like it’s only a compartment in the gold. It doesn’t go all the way through,” he said.

And inside the space rested a small gold cylinder.

“God.” Rush reached in and carefully lifted the artifact out. “It’s a scroll. Made entirely of gold!”

“I’ve heard of the Copper Scroll,” Declan said. “But not a gold scroll.”

It was only as long as her palm, but perfectly formed. It was made with small hinges and they easily rolled out.

It was filled with hieroglyphs.

“I can’t leave it here,” she said.

“Got something to wrap it in?”

She nodded. “I have a pack in the main excavation area.”

“I’ll get it.”

Dec was back moments later with a backpack. Carefully, Layne lifted the scroll and together they settled it into the bag.

The shadows had really thickened and Dec knew that above, the sun would be setting soon. “All right, Rush, we keep the scroll between you and me and my team. Got it?”

She nodded.

“Good. Now, let’s get out of here.”

“The sarcophagus—?”

“I’ll work out how to close it up and don’t worry, my team and I will keep an eye on it tonight.”

They left the tomb and crossed over to the rope ladder. He gestured for her to go first. She planted a boot on the bottom rung and grabbed another one with her hand.