Declan’s arms tightened around her.
Slowly she felt her strength coming back, the horror receding. “That poor man.”
“Don’t think of it yet.”
“I’m fine now.” She reluctantly pulled away from him. In the tight confines of her tent, they were face-to-face. “Thank you.”
He touched her hair, pushing it behind her ear. “There you go, Rush.”
“I need to know who it was and what happened.” Her hands curled. “How did someone get into camp?”
Declan shook his head, his face grim. “No one did. Logan, Hale and I have been patrolling—”
“Someone snuck past you, then—”
“Not possible, Rush.”
“All right. Then we need to work out what the hell happened.” She rubbed the side of her face. “Everyone’s going to be scared. Theft is one thing…”
“Why don’t you stay here?” Declan suggested.
She straightened her shoulders. “Thanks, but no. I’m in charge, and it’s my responsibility to take care of my people.”
She thought she saw a spark of admiration in Declan’s gray eyes.
“Come on then.” He helped her up.
They walked over to where she’d found the man, and she saw Logan had covered the body with a sheet. A few of the local security guards milled around nearby.
Logan’s big silhouette appeared out of the shadows. He was holding a handgun. Hale and Morgan appeared behind him.
“Worker came into camp like this. I tracked his footprints out into the dunes. Looks like he met someone out there.”
Declan nodded. “So we probably saw him walking around, knew he was one of ours, and didn’t question it.”
“You’re saying he was in on this?” Layne wrapped her arms around herself. The desert breeze felt downright chilly now.
“Looks like he was poking around the work tent,” Logan said.
She closed her eyes. “So he probably saw the scroll.”
“And he met someone,” Logan growled. “And that someone beat the shit out of him.”
“He wandered back in here, maybe looking for help, but didn’t make it.” Declan scanned the shadow-soaked dunes. “What a fucking mess.”
“Is it Anders?” she asked.
“I don’t know.” Declan’s tone was hard. “But I’m going to damn well find out. Right now, though, I need to call the authorities and deal with finding the dead man’s family.”
She nodded. “And I need to wake everyone up and tell them what’s happened.”
Her long night was about to get longer.
In the early hours of the morning, Dec faced his team. “Report?”
“We scoured the dunes,” Logan said with a frown. “Nothing.”
Dammit. “Anders is out there. I contacted Darcy. She’s looking into the dead worker. Name’s Karim Abasi. If he’s received any payments from anyone, she’ll find it. Police out of Dakhla are on the way. They’ll take the man’s body.”
“So it was probably this Karim who sabotaged the scaffold,” Hale said.
Dec shrugged a shoulder. “Probably. We have to assume he’s been feeding Anders information as well. And Anders knows about the scroll.”
Dec looked over to where Layne was talking to her people. Everyone was shocked and horrified. The local workers were huddled together, whispering. Rush looked exhausted.
“All right, Morgan and Hale, you’re on shift. Make sure no one gets in. You see anyone moving around, anything suspicious, call me.”
“You got it, boss,” Hale said.
Morgan nodded.
“Logan, grab some shut eye.”
His friend tossed him a lazy salute.
Dec headed toward Layne. He grabbed her shoulders. “Okay, Rush. Bed.”
Her eyes widened.
“Not with me.” Images tried to crowd into his head, but he regretfully shut them down. “In your tent. You’re asleep on your feet.” He herded her toward her tent.
“I still need to grab the set-animal artifact. That’s where I was headed when…” she swallowed. Then she grabbed Dec’s wrists. “Declan, before I found Karim, I realized what the fierce protector hieroglyph and those small grooves on the scroll mean. The set-animal amulet…I think it fits into the scroll. I think it’s the key to decoding the scroll and whatever is written on it.”
All the tiredness had washed off her face. Like it did every time she talked about her work.
“Okay, Rush. That’s pretty interesting, but you need some sleep.”
She frowned. “Are you my mother now?”
“Hell, no. But you need sleep before you fall down. You can test your theory tomorrow.”