With a heavy heart, she nodded. “Fine. I’ll let everyone finish out the day, then I’ll close the dig. But only temporarily. Until you find Anders.”
“Tomorrow, we’ll head to Luxor and take the jet back to Cairo.” Declan grabbed her shoulder, and gave it a light squeeze. “It’s only temporary.”
So why did she still feel like a failure?
Layne stared at her dig team.
It was a pitifully small group.
They only had a few workers left, and they’d barely gotten much done today. Everyone was dragging, after having spent the day doing twice as many jobs just to get anything accomplished.
She scraped a hand through her hair. Behind the group, Declan and his team stood, quiet and still.
“Okay, Aaron, send the local workers back to the oasis. They have a week off.”
The archeologist spluttered. “What? You’re going to send the only people we have—?”
“We don’t have enough workers, I know it and you know it.” She put her hands on her hips. “I want you to head into the oasis and recruit more workers.” She did some quick math in her head. “Up the hourly rate.”
He frowned. “That’ll cut into the dig budget—”
“I am in charge of the budget. You let me worry about that.” Without workers, there’d be no dig to spend the money on.
Aaron scowled. “We hired all the best workers from Dakhla. There won’t be more.”
“Fine. Take a jeep and go to Luxor.”
He gave her a stiff nod.
Layne eyed Piper and the others. “You guys have seven days off. Head into Dakhla, or Luxor, or Cairo if you prefer. Relax. Refresh.”
The grad students all grinned and fist-bumped. Piper gave a slow nod.
By the time the sun was setting, the dig was a ghost town. Layne finished making herself a sandwich and headed over to the fire.
Declan sat in the sand, Logan and Hale with him.
She sat. “Where’s Morgan?”
“She’s on watch with the guards,” Declan answered.
Layne had no trouble imagining the woman prowling around in the darkness. As Layne ate, the men talked, ribbing each other, telling jokes. She enjoyed the banter. She’d never had siblings, and in the foster home where she’d stayed, no one teased or joked good-naturedly. Besides, she’d been focused on studying and getting good grades. She’d wanted to make a good life for herself and make her parents proud.
Staring out at the silent dig, she wondered if they’d be proud of this screw up.
She stood. “I’ll be in the work tent for a bit before I head to bed.” She murmured her goodnights and trudged across the sand.
She lost herself in the scroll again. It helped dull the pain of knowing her dig was at best delayed and at worst falling apart. She double-checked her translation, making meticulous notes.
“I’m sorry.”
She jerked. “Goddammit, Declan, make some damn noise.”
He grunted and leaned on the table beside her. All masculine heat, radiating that intensity that seemed to reach inside her and make her tingle.
“What are you sorry about?” she grumped. “Scaring the hell out of me?”
“No. That the dig isn’t working out the way you wanted.”
“Not your fault.” She set her pen down. “You’ve actually been the most helpful person here.” And wasn’t that just strange.
He gave her a small smile. “My mother likes to tell me that out of the darkest moments, the best answers often emerge.”
“That’s kind of deep for a treasure hunter.” She wondered when Declan would have needed his mother to tell him that.
“She likes to get spiritual on me sometimes.”
“Do you believe her?”
“Not really. The darkest moments just seem dark and shitty and drag on far longer than you want them to.”
Her heart clenched. “Declan…what happened? With Anders?”
He was quiet for so long, she thought he was going to ignore her.
“My SEAL team was on a joint mission with his team in the Middle East. I discovered Anders was keeping a little dungeon. He was holding locals there. Torturing them.”
Her stomach turned over. “How could anyone do that?”
“He’s a psychopath, Layne. He likes to kill, and he feels no remorse. He had men, women, children…” Declan shook his head.
“You stopped him? You saved those people?”
When she watched Declan’s jaw go tight, she knew that wasn’t what had happened.
“I was ordered to leave them there to suffer, until we had enough evidence against Anders.”
A tense silence fell.
Layne shook her head. “You aren’t built like that.”