Undiscovered(28)

Dog. She froze. The set-animal amulet! She traced the space again. It looked like it was exactly this size.

A flood of excitement made her leap to her feet. She grabbed her radio. “Hey, whoever’s on, this is Dr. Rush. I’m heading to grab something out of the safe.” She snatched up her flashlight. The set-animal was in the small tent used to hide the safe.

Her flashlight cast a yellow glow on the sand. Beyond the glow, the camp was silent, all the tents dark. As she walked into the extreme desert darkness, her heart clenched. Images of Anders’ attack flashed through her head, making her chest tight.

Calm down, Layne. She breathed in a lungful of air. Somewhere out in the darkness, Declan and his team were keeping an eye on things. She let the image of Declan settle in her head and she felt better.

He might annoy her and kiss like a sex god, but he had that dangerous protector vibe going on.

Those kisses…

No. Oh, no. She started across the sand, heading toward the storage tent to get the set-animal artifact. She wasn’t going to think of hot lips, and the slick feel of his tongue, and the firm pressure of his fingers biting into her butt.

She stumbled over something and barely kept herself from falling. What the hell? Her flashlight rolled away and she scrambled after it.

When she grabbed it, she aimed the light at what had tripped her.

One of her local workers lay curled in the sand, the end of his jellabiya flapping in the breeze.

Anger surged. She’d had to kick one worker off the dig for drinking. If this man was drunk as well, he was on the first vehicle back to Dakhla, no matter how short they were.

“Hey.” She walked closer, shining the light toward his face. “Wake up.”

When she nudged him, he rolled onto his back, and all the air in Layne’s lungs turned to concrete.

His face was battered beyond recognition and blood soaked the front of his robes.

She screamed, the sound shattering the quiet night. She fell backward and landed on her butt. She couldn’t breathe. Her vision blurred, and even after she looked away, all she could see was the poor man’s face.

But worse than that, horrible memories of her parents’ deaths crowded in.

“Rush!”

A lean shadow raced out of the darkness. She tried to say something, but couldn’t do anything more than just shake her head.

Declan took one look at the body and cursed. “Logan, check him out.” Then Declan knelt before Layne, blocking her view.

“I’m…sorry.” God, her hands were shaking, her voice was shaking. “Just give me a second.”

“Breathe.”

She nodded, but she felt tears slipping down her cheeks. She couldn’t wipe the images out of her head. “Is he okay?”

“He’s dead,” Logan said.

Layne felt the color drain from her face. She swayed.

“Screw this.” Declan scooped her up.

Layne hadn’t been carried by anyone since she was a little girl. But he was so warm, all of that strength radiating off him, and she just buried her face against the side of his neck.

“It’s okay, Rush. Hang on.”

There was a flap of canvas and he ducked. She realized they were in her personal tent. Her sleeping bag was rolled out neatly, her duffel bag and books off to the side.

He sat and settled her into his lap.

“I’m sorry.” She forced herself to dredge up some control. “I don’t usually fall apart like this. It just reminded me of my parents.”

A big hand stroked her hair. “Take your time. Finding something like this is always a shock.” Another soothing stroke.

“God, I feel like a helpless teenager again.” But she wasn’t. She was a woman who’d forged a life for herself. A career. She wasn’t a terrified fifteen year old all alone. “My parents are dead.” Her breath hitched again and the old sorrow came roaring in. “They were killed.”

Fingers stroked the shell of her ear and for a second she wondered how such a big, tough man could be so comforting.

“It was a home invasion.” She shook her head. “I was fifteen. It was so damned stupid. We were poor and didn’t have anything. There was nothing to take, so the attacker took their lives, instead.”

“They catch the guy?”

“Yeah. He was a local, high on something and looking to score another fix. He obviously got angry they didn’t have anything valuable. I walked in after school and found them.” She still remembered the blood soaking the carpet.

“Shit. That’s tough, Rush.”

“They loved me. I never doubted that.” She bit her lip, just letting herself absorb the warmth of him for a second. “He’d beaten them beyond recognition.”