Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 84102 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84102 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
“Something bad. I can feel it, and you promised you would leave this part up to me.”
He had. He’d told her flat out that he would do what she wanted when it came to his physical protection. He’d promised her. He didn’t want to go home because he knew exactly what that meant. It meant no more time with her. No more time to convince her. No more time to woo her.
She stared at him as though waiting for the inevitable argument. He could see it stamped on her face. She was waiting for him to deny her.
“All right.” His heart felt heavy in his chest. It was an actual ache. “Can I have a few minutes to make a couple of notes?”
She’d gone still again, but there was nothing predatory about her expression. “You’re coming with me?”
He stood up but didn’t close the space between them. “You think it’s dangerous, then I believe you. I don’t feel it, baby, but I don’t have the training you have. I agree something’s going on, but I don’t know what it is. If it were up to me, I would stay.”
“David,” she began.
He stopped her because there was no argument here. “It’s not up to me. We made a deal.”
“And you’re going to honor it.”
“It’s more than that. I trust you, Tessa.” He shoved aside his worry that she was protecting herself. He did trust her, and she wouldn’t lie to him. She wouldn’t force him home if she didn’t think it was necessary.
“Why?” She breathed the question like she wasn’t sure she wanted the answer.
She didn’t, and he wasn’t going to push her. “Let’s leave it at that. I trust you. So I’ll make a couple of notes and ask Eddie if we can get a boat out of here before the one that comes in the morning.”
“There’s not a boat?”
“The one that goes to the mainland left before dark. It won’t be back until noon tomorrow,” he explained. “I heard there’s a storm coming in. Nothing catastrophic, but the seas can be rough. We need a big boat to handle the waves. I’m sure we can pay someone in Mar del Plata to come get us.”
“But then we would have to tip off Eddie that we’re leaving,” she said. “There’s no working landline. They said they have a radio, but I wouldn’t know what frequency to use without asking. I’m not a comms guy.”
“Tip Eddie off?” He had no idea what she thought he would do.
She bit her bottom lip, obviously thinking the problem through. “He’s hiding something. Why would Mateo come running after me? Don’t tell me it’s because the village is dangerous. It’s only dangerous if you don’t want to learn about sea turtles or hate barbecue. But he came after me the minute he realized I was gone.”
“The village isn’t dangerous at all. Mateo did seem upset you’d left.” David had been upset someone had noticed she’d gone when she’d been trying to keep a low profile, but now that he thought about it, it had been an odd reaction from the butler. She’d tried to get another signal before they’d left the village so she could download some information she’d told him McKay-Taggart was sending. They hadn’t been able to get a clear signal. “Does this have something to do with the info you were waiting on?”
“The information I didn’t get.” She was back to looking at the door and then at him again. “You promise you’ll go with me in the morning?”
He sighed. “Tessa, I’ve done everything you’ve asked. I’m not going to stop even though it’s killing me.”
“I know you want to do your research…”
“It’s killing me because I want the time with you,” he admitted.
She blinked, and he could have sworn he saw a sheen of tears in her eyes. “I can’t risk you for some time on the beach. But we can have tonight. It would be dangerous to leave, so we’ll stay the night and head out in the morning. But you have to go to dinner and convince them you’ve changed your mind.”
“Changed my mind?”
“About the treasure hunt. They want you working on finding that treasure,” she pointed out. “They got upset when you said you wouldn’t. So you tell them we talked about it, and I’m enthused at the thought so you’ll do it.”
Eddie had gotten upset at the thought of him not working on the treasure hunt. Which seemed so odd unless he was missing the obvious. “Do you think he needs the money? He mentioned something about his father should have left him cash.”
She nodded. “Something like that. We’ll have to figure that out later. The key tonight is to play things cool. Don’t even give them a hint that we’re leaving tomorrow. I’ll talk about the fact that I’ve never been on a treasure hunt before and I’m excited about it. You say something about how Luis made you think about how it can help you sell the book. Smooth things over. We spend the rest of the night like we’d been planning to before this afternoon. We have dinner and drinks and talk and then we go to bed. We get up tomorrow, have breakfast, and before you settle in for a long day of research, we go for a walk and don’t come back.”