And just how the hell did a former Navy SEAL-turned-security specialist know how to read hieroglyphs, anyway? She wasn’t buying that bull about ‘absorbing’ it on the job.
“Dr. Rush, nice to see you finally made an appearance.”
She barely stopped herself from groaning aloud. She did not have the time or the patience for Dr. Stiller and his attitude this morning.
“Morning to you, too, Aaron. What do you want?”
He looked affronted. “I want to know what the hell you are going to do about all this? To ensure our safety. Someone sabotaged the scaffold and nearly killed us! The local workers are starting to whisper about a curse, what with your attack and the theft, and now this.”
She froze. “Sabotaged the scaffold?”
A smug look crossed the man’s face. “Yes. Mr. Ward informed us that the scaffold was intentionally made to fall and told us to check all equipment for any signs of tampering.”
And Declan hadn’t told her. She dragged in a deep breath. “Declan and his team are the security experts. We follow their recommendations.” God, she needed some coffee. Or just some Diet Coke mainlined into her veins.
She spotted Declan watching a few of her team working a new area of excavation on the surface. Her guys were carefully dusting away sand from the large stone blocks.
She stomped up to him. “I need a word with you.”
She saw Piper and two of her students look up. Yeah, they knew that tone meant she was on the warpath.
Declan didn’t appear concerned.
“Fine.” He led her a little away from her team. “How are you feeling this morning?”
“I’m tired and cranky.”
He raised a brow. “What’s got your panties in a twist?”
That just made her blood fire more. “My panties are not up for discussion. What is going to be discussed is that you think the scaffold was tampered with and I’m only just hearing about it this morning, from my senior archeologist.”
Declan sighed. “Stiller, right? I asked him to keep it quiet until I spoke with you. I wanted to finish gathering evidence first, not come to you with half-baked theories. I was checking out the scaffold again this morning, and Stiller asked what I was doing. I didn’t think I needed to keep it a secret before updating you. I’d planned to talk to you this morning, but you were getting some much needed sleep.”
She lifted her hat and resettled it on her head. “Okay, sorry if I jumped all over you.”
Those fine lips twitched again. “You keep this up, I’ll lose track of the number of apologies I have from you.”
“Ward, tell me about the scaffold.” Or she was going to hit him.
He nodded. “Definite marks that it was tampered with. But someone put a lot of effort into making it look like it happened all by itself.”
A cold shiver went through her. “Why?”
“My guess? They wanted an accident to happen that might cause the dig to be cancelled, or at least put on hold. Everyone leaves the site…”
“And Anders and his black-market looters move in,” she said grimly. “No one is getting anything from this dig.” She chewed it all over. “So someone snuck in and did this?”
Declan’s gaze narrowed. “I don’t think so. I think it was an inside job.”
She hissed out a breath. “No.”
“Maybe one of your archeologists—”
She shook her head. “No. I know them all personally, hand-picked them for the team. None of them could do this.”
“Dr. Stiller?”
Layne shook her head. “We don’t see eye-to-eye, but I can’t see him doing anything to jeopardize the dig.”
“Even if it means casting you in a poor light and gaining the top job for himself?”
“God, are you always so cynical?”
“Yep. I’m a realist.”
She eyed him for a second, the strong lines of his face and the shadows in his eyes. While she wasn’t going to let him get away with using his past as a barrier, she had no doubt Declan had seen too much of the worst the world had to offer. She turned her thoughts to Dr. Stiller. “I wouldn’t put it past Aaron to try to do something to get me removed, if the opportunity presented itself. But this? It’s one step too far, even for him.”
“Then the local workers.”
She grimaced. “I don’t know them all, but they all came recommended. And the ones I’ve been working with, well, they seem loyal, and they’re hard, efficient workers.”
“Rush, Anders and the people behind the black-market antiquities trade have deep pockets. If one of your people has a debt, a sick mother, or a family to feed…”