Page 163 of Her Reluctant Hero
Chapter Fifteen
He waited until they were on the street in front of the bank, wanting the distraction of other people, of movement, and not of the hope that they could move forward. To keep her safe, he had to shove that possibility out of the picture.
“We’re not going to the cops.”
“What? Why not?”
He rubbed the knuckle of his thumb between his eyebrows. “What do you think they can do?”
“Find your brother! Find Jacob and Linda! We can’t do this on our own. We’ve done everything we can. And we have to tell them about Dr. Vigil.” She walked backwards, facing him, and pressed her hands against his chest to stop him as he turned toward the docks.
He dodged her, her touch, her body, her gaze.
“Adrian.” She pivoted, scrambling after him on the cracked sidewalk. “Why don’t you want the police involved?” She grabbed at his arm.
Pain shot through him when her fingers dug into his biceps and he jerked away, sending her off balance. He spun to catch her. As soon as her feet were under her, she ripped free, betrayal etched on her face.
Self-loathing slammed through him, piercing his own pain. “Did I hurt you?”
“I’m fine.” She waved off his concern. “You don’t have a permit to dive there, do you?”
“Mallory.”
“And now our friends are in danger because you can’t bring the police out there without getting in trouble.”
“Is that what you think?” He stared. “You think that I would put myself over their safety?”
She set her jaw stubbornly. “If the government finds out you’re excavating without a permit, you can’t excavate here anymore. You’d lose everything you put into this dive.”
“I already have!” The words burst from him. She flinched from the violence that, damn it, he thought he had under control. “I already have. They’re dead, Mallory. They’re dead. My brother, Jacob, Linda, Robert. There’s no other explanation.”
Tears spilled down her cheeks. “They’re not. We looked everywhere. We would have found them. Their bodies would have been there, just like Robert’s.”
He shook his head. “His body was a message. The others could have been taken to the barge and killed, dropped into the water where they may never be found.”
“Why? Why would someone do something like that?”
He stopped to face her. “Do you understand the money involved here? The amount a collector would pay for one box would make my career for a lifetime, fund any dig I wanted to go on forever. All four boxes, you could buy a small country. It makes the money in Robert’s journal look like pocket change.” He started walking. He heard her running behind him but he didn’t look at her. If he did, he couldn’t go through with this.
“Go home, Mallory. Leave. It’s what you do when things get too hard, isn’t it?”
“Not anymore.”
The tightness in her voice made him want to turn, apologize. But her life could depend on him keeping his distance.
“What is wrong with you?” she demanded, right in his ear.
He didn’t slow. “I’m going to do this by myself.”
“You can’t.”
“Go home to Austin.” He hadn’t thought it would be so hard to shake her. Clearly she’d become more stubborn. “I’ll let you know what happens.”
“Adrian.” She stopped in the middle of the sidewalk.
He kept going and prayed she wouldn’t follow.
Then cursed when she didn’t.
