by MJ Fredrick
“Is something wrong?”
Adrian wondered if the grin on his face was as goofy as it felt. When it came to archaeology, he certainly never managed a poker face. He heaved himself up on the barge, removed his flippers with forced nonchalance before getting to his feet.
“Adrian?” Robert pressed.
Adrian walked over to the crank, flipped a switch and waited to see his prize in the sunlight. Linda, Jacob and Toney joined them as they watched the water stir, the shadow of the basket moving through the water.
He went to his knees to bring the basket up to the barge, barely aware of Robert’s hand on his shoulder as he leaned over to inspect it.
“Is there more?” Robert asked.
“We need help,” Adrian said, barely registering the question.
“We’re short of funds.”
“I’ll find a way.” It meant everything.
Twenty minutes later, when Toney guided the boat into the cove and Adrian saw Mallory waiting on the dock, her blonde hair shimmering in the late-afternoon sun, he understood.
This was right. It was meant to be.
Chapter Eight
Adrian didn’t wait for Toney and Jacob to tie the boat off before he leaped to the dock. He barely registered the vibration of the dock beneath his feet as he strode toward her.
“Adrian, I—”
He didn’t let her finish. Damn, she was so pretty, even windblown, even with the flash of uncertainty he saw in her eyes. He took her face in his hands, stroked his thumb over her cheek and kissed her. Surprise had her tensing for a second, and he feared she might pull away. Instead, she relaxed, just a bit, and he came home.
She was as soft, as sexy as he remembered. Her taste hadn’t changed, her mouth moved beneath his the same way, as if those three years had never passed. He dipped his tongue into her mouth, and hers rose to meet him, glided along his, so right, so right.
He rubbed her hair, regretting the calluses on his fingers that snagged on her hair, her skin. Her fingers closed on his bare shoulders, her nails digging in briefly before sliding under the straps of his shirt, and he was lost. Dropping his hands to her hips, he drew her against him, wanting to sink into her, wanting her hands on him, everywhere.
Slowly, it came to him where they were, why they were standing here, and he lifted his head to smile. “You came back.”
She looked a little dazed, her mouth swollen, her eyes dark with a passion he remembered too well. She blinked, lowering her hands from his shoulders.
“Adrian, I—”
“Come see what we found.” He slid his hand down her arm to take her hand and guide her to the Miss M. She resisted at first, then followed him, trying to ignore how everyone else was watching them with interest.
What the hell had she done, coming here? Mallory swayed on the dock and watched Adrian beckon her. Once she’d reached home, she’d put her feelers out. The offers had come in fast and furious, but all she could think of was getting here to help Adrian. She waffled for a long time about how much help she’d give him. The cashier’s check in her bag was the least she could do. Staying to help excavate was the most.
After that greeting, she didn’t know how wise it was to stay, even as everything female inside her proclaimed they were ready to set up camp. Had he been so glad to see her? No, something in his eyes told her there was more. Something out there had gotten his juices flowing.
Something out there always did.
She approached the boat at his urging, refusing to look at the curious crew as Adrian swung aboard and offered his hand.
She took it in the name of expedience, ignoring the heat that infused her from the point of contact. As soon as her feet hit the deck, she pulled her hand away. He didn’t notice, so engrossed was he in showing her what he’d found.
The realization washed all pleasure from his kiss away. She wasn’t here for that, anyway. She was here for the find.
He presented the medallion and turned to watch her reaction. Despite herself, she caught her breath and gripped the edges of the basket. “That’s not Spanish. See the imprint? It might be a buckle. Look here.” She motioned to the slender piece of metal, separate from the medallion and the attached loop. “Is there more?”
He shook his head, his attention on the artifact. “There wasn’t time to find more. A bunch of splinters.”
She skimmed her fingers over the air just above the ancient article, wanting to touch it, knowing she shouldn’t. “We need more resources.”
“I’m calling Jeff at A&M, see if he can get us some students.”
She stepped back as Adrian dismissed the others, sending them with the artifact. He stayed with Mallory. She tensed, knowing what was coming.
He didn’t speak right away, leaned on the railing of the boat, looking out over the waves before he turned to her. “Why are you here?”
She’d planned what to say. “I needed to finish this.” This time. She wanted to say more, but he gave her that smile, that one that started in his eyes, creased his face, flashed those white teeth, infusing his being with joy. The rest of her words stuck in her throat.
“I hoped you would,” he murmured.
“Not for you.” She had to make sure he knew that. She didn’t have the safety of the barriers between them anymore, not unless she could hold her own with him.
He nodded, not expressing any surprise, masking whatever he was feeling. He’d always been good at that, though she thought she knew him well enough to read him. Not today.
“Not for this, either.” She gestured toward the ocean. “For me.” Leaving Jonathan had been hard, but being alone hadn’t been as hard as she expected. That had been the most empowering revelation yet. She reached into her pack for the envelope there. “I took out my savings. And since I cancelled my wedding, I got my deposits back. I want you to use this to help with whatever you need, hire more divers, get more equipment, whatever.”
He took the envelope, his eyes not leaving hers. “Mallory.”
“This is important. It’s important,” she repeated, and inclined her head toward the envelope.
He drew out the check, and his eyes bugged. “No hillside wedding, this.”
“No.”
He held the envelope out, his lips thinned, no trace of joy remaining on his face. “Mallory, I can’t take it.”
“I want you to have it.”
He hesitated. Clearly he needed the money but was unwilling to accept it on her terms. “I’ll keep it on one condition.”
She tensed at his tone. “What?”
“That you stay.” He folded the envelope, creasing it between his thumb and forefinger. “That you help with the dive.”
She drew her lower lip between her teeth, saw his eyes follow the movement. “I don’t know.”
He took a step toward her. “What have you got to go back to?”
She moved away and studied the deck beneath her. “Adrian, staying here, with you, is not a good idea.” She hated admitting that weakness.
“And yet you want to.” The burr deepened.
She lifted her chin. “If I stay, this”—she flipped her finger between the two of them—“can’t happen. I learned my lesson the hard way, Adrian. If I stay, it’s professional behavior only. Deal?”
He cocked his head just the slightest bit, almost a challenge. He tucked the envelope in his back pocket and reached out to her. “Deal.”
Toney waited for Mallory on the path from the shower that evening, his jaw set mutinously. He looked so like Adrian, though his hair was longer, thicker, his features softer. It might be argued that he was the better-looking brother. Good genes certainly ran in that family. As did an excess of testosterone.
Toney’s stance was rigid, confrontational. She slowed, wary.
“Why are you even here?” he demanded.
The words were like bullets, hitting their mark one after the other. She eased away, wishing for another layer of protection, at least another person as a buffer. Ton
ey could carry a grudge so she had been careful to keep her distance. She wasn’t afraid of him, but she’d worried this would happen.
“I’m here to help.”
He folded his arms. “Why? Why now? You’re not helping. All you’re doing is giving him hope when you’re just going to walk away again.”
She couldn’t deny it. “I don’t mean to give him hope. I just want to see him succeed.”
“Why? What does that matter to you? If he fails again, are you going to turn your back on him like last time?”
“Toney—”
He took a step closer. “You thought you saw the worst of it, right after, when the police arrested him and accused him of stealing the casket. Yet here you were snuggling up to Smoller, when he was the one who took it.”
“I wasn’t. I was trying to help.” And there had never been proof that Valentine had taken the box, but she wouldn’t prod Toney with that reminder.
“So you were helping by driving Adrian out of his mind? Good thinking. Yes, he became driven, obsessed, maybe even a little paranoid, but it was all for you. He thought you thought he wasn’t good enough. You know what he went through with our father, and you go and walk away and make him think he screwed up. Then you proved it by filing for divorce. You broke his heart and now that you see he’s back together, you’ve returned to do it again.”
“Stand down, Toney.”
Adrian’s quiet voice behind her made her jolt. How much had he heard? How much of that was true? In trying to save herself, had she destroyed the man she loved?
Toney’s hot gaze flicked over her shoulder at his brother, and he pressed his lips together.
“Apologize,” Adrian commanded.
“No,” Mallory said softly, not looking at him, not trusting herself to look at him. “He doesn’t have to.”
She made it to her tent, leaving the brothers to face off, before she burst into tears.
Movement outside the tent a few moments later had her sitting up and wiping at her eyes. She didn’t want Linda to see how upset she was. After all, Linda was on his side, right? Or worse, what if it was Adrian? After Toney said all those things to her—all those true things—how could she look him in the eye?
Dr. Vigil poked his head through the tent opening. Mallory tugged the T-shirt down her thighs, offered a tight smile she didn’t feel. Dr. Vigil’s smile was more benevolent as he sat on Linda’s cot, movements slow and stiff. He’d gotten so old in the past few years. Her heart constricted over the time she’d lost with him because she’d bolted.
“Did you hear all that?” she asked, her voice tear-roughened.
“Enough.”
“He’s right, isn’t he? It’s my fault. I walked away. All this time I blamed Adrian.”
Dr. Vigil folded his hands over his knees. “I’ve known the two of you since the beginning. I watched you fall in love, and I watched you fall apart.” His smile was tinged with sadness, and his eyes glazed over as if he was seeing into past, happier times. “One thing you’ve always been is equals, even in blame. He trusts you, Mallory, despite everything. Don’t betray his trust. It’s all he has left.”
“You’re wrong. He doesn’t trust me. How could he? He doesn’t know me anymore.”
Dr. Vigil inclined his head indulgently. “You haven’t changed as much as you might think. If you’re looking for it to work this time, you’re going to have to think about that. You’re both going to have to learn from your mistakes.”
“I didn’t come here to get back with Adrian.” But the words she’d said so often sounded hollow to her own ears.
Dr. Vigil stood and gave her braid a playful tug. “You and I both know better. Think about it, Mallory. Adrian will need you.”
The old man left the tent. Mallory stared at the flap as it fluttered closed, wondering how she’d fooled herself with her reason for returning. She wanted to belong, more than anything, to step right back into the role she’d walked away from. That wouldn’t be as easy as she’d hoped.
Mallory approached the Miss M cautiously the next morning. She’d barely slept, unsure of how to face Adrian and Toney after last night. She should have gone to talk to Adrian after Dr. Vigil left, but she was wary of being alone with him, especially with her emotions so close to the surface. If she had, they both might have slept better. Her nerves were scraped raw by the words Toney had spoken, which had played over and over in her head all night.
On deck, Adrian snarled at Jacob. Mallory could see by the surprised look on the boy’s face that his temper wasn’t a common occurrence. This was going to be fun.
“Adrian, can we talk?” she asked from the dock.
He didn’t turn but continued securing the computers under the bench. “I want to get out there, Mal. Can it wait?”
“I really need to talk to you.”
He straightened with a huff of breath. “What?”
“Adrian, can we just talk?” She shoved her hair back with one hand. “The ship will still be there in ten minutes.”
With a scowl, he hopped onto the dock, his long legs carrying him too close to her. She didn’t ease away though her heart gave a kick of alarm. She wanted to retreat for her own sanity, didn’t want to breathe in the scent of him—sweat, salt, sea—not when she needed to keep her wits about her to talk.
To apologize.
He folded his arms over his chest. “Look, if this is about Toney, I tore him a new one. He never should have talked to you like that, and he’ll apologize.”
“This isn’t about Toney. It’s about me and you. I’m sorry. About last night, about three years ago. I’m sorry.”
He stared, head angled to one side. Wow, she’d made him speechless. She hadn’t been able to do that in years.
“Toney was right. I was wrong not to be there for you the way you needed. I put my own needs above yours because I thought I was right and you had lost your mind.”
A corner of his mouth kicked up. “Are you saying I was right?”
She stiffened, hesitating before giving him that victory. “I’m saying I was wrong, and I should have trusted you. I should have listened. I wasn’t who you needed me to be, and I’m sorry.”
“So what does this mean?” He sobered and shifted his hands to his hips.
Did he realize how intimidating that stance could be? He was already a big man, but with his elbows out… Though she knew him better than anyone, she wanted to take a step back. She swallowed. “It means I want to put the past behind us. I know it’s not easy to do, but if we’re going to work together, we need to forgive each other. It’s a lot to ask, but I hope we can.”
“All right then.” He swiveled, then looked over his shoulder at her. “Are you ready to go?”
“All right then? That’s all you have to say?”
“It means I’ve put it behind me. That’s what you want, right, not to talk it to death?”
Okay, her own fault for bringing it up before diving. His mind wasn’t on her apology. She squared her shoulders. Maybe her words would sink in later. Regardless, she would keep the past in the past and not linger on the bad or the good. Resolved, she followed him onto the boat.
Adrian laced his fingers behind his head and stared at the ceiling of his tent that night, Mallory’s words replaying in his head, the despair in her eyes burned into his memory. She really hadn’t thought she’d done anything wrong, and Toney’s words seemed to have hit her like a blow. He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t resented her for her actions at the time, but his own sins had been far worse than the ones he attributed to her.
He understood wanting to leave the past behind them, but for him it was impossible. It was a weight he needed to bear, to remember so he could never repeat that mistake.
Mallory sensed Adrian’s growing frustration as the days passed, felt it herself. Archaeology was not a job for the impatient, but the lack of funds hung over their heads. Because of the fragile nature of the ancient wood, they couldn’t remove the sand with a blower, so
they had to sweep it away by hand. Because of the depth, they couldn’t stay on the bottom too long and were only able to dive twice a day. Four divers couldn’t make too much difference with those limitations.
Excavating the wood was going to be next to impossible. Even with the gentlest of movements, the ancient wood dissolved into splinters, especially from the starboard side, which had been exposed longer. They’d be lucky to be able to salvage one timber, and that would have to be from the port side. Along with the buckle, they’d found some coins and part of a crucifix, celebrated when they were able to pinpoint them as Byzantine. But they couldn’t celebrate long—there was more work to be done.
Jeff hadn’t contacted Adrian about sending more divers and that weighed on Adrian. He worried Jeff had lost faith in him too, but wouldn’t risk sending the artifacts they’d found to him. He couldn’t spare any of them to go to Jeff personally.
So they dove as often as possible and learned as much as they could about their ship, sitting around Dr. Vigil’s tent night after night, studying his books.
Mallory waved her brush farther to the left as they continued excavating what they now had decided was the captain’s quarters, since they’d discovered an inkwell and erasing knife. Even then, that was presuming the captain had that level of education. Still, the quarters were at the stern of the ship, which was clue enough. She left Adrian and Toney to continue excavating the quarters while she pursued her hunch.
Her body clock reminded her that her bottom time was running out and Adrian would be coming to get her. She didn’t let that pressure her to hurry, though. She wanted to save as much of this ship as possible so there was no doubt in anyone’s mind where it had come from.
No more wood. She fanned again and found the ship was curving upward.
She’d found the bow.
Her heart thudding, her breath coming faster than was wise through her regulator, she swam laterally, following the line of the ship with her eyes before lowering herself to sweep again.
It would be here if it still existed. Please God, let it still be here.
