by Addison Fox
And the very real knowledge that she was in love.
Whatever she’d expected it to feel like, the simple, easy slide that had consumed her over the past few days was more powerful than she’d ever imagined.
And while she knew they still had things to work out, she was confident they’d find a way.
She’d finished up her time in the bathroom and had changed into capri pants and a thin blouse. They’d opted not to go out to dinner, not knowing what still might await them out in the open. Instead, Finn had ordered a lavish dinner from the hotel restaurant, and even now the room-service attendant was setting up their feast at the small table that dominated the far side of their room.
The man added the final flourish of a bottle of wine while Finn dealt with the bill, then gathered up his things to leave with a kind smile. He navigated the small space with his delivery cart and misjudged when he passed the bed.
Their bags lay in a small pile on the floor, and the delivery cart struck her purse and an old leather backpack of Finn’s as their attendant attempted to pass by. His profuse apologies had Rowan smiling and she quickly assured him in Arabic there wasn’t anything to worry about. She let him safely out the door, locking up behind him, then turned, already anticipating the dinner they were about to share.
Her gaze focused on Finn, Rowan made the same mistake as the waiter and stumbled over the thick strap of Finn’s bag.
And then everything happened at once.
The force of her foot pulled his bag loose, dragging it several feet from where it lay on the floor. The contents that filled the bag spilled from the top, and a small velvet pouch, no larger than the width of a baseball, tumbled onto the top of the heap.
Whether it was simple memory or something more, she didn’t know, but as she stared down at the velvet pouch, Rowan knew.
And when she lifted the small bag and untied the drawstring, she could only let out a cry of dismay when the Victoria bracelet fell into her hands.
Chapter 16
Rowan’s shock registered from clear across the room and Finn knew his moment of reckoning had arrived. The warm, rosy glow on her cheeks faded, replaced with something he’d never thought he’d see.
Despair.
“Why is this here?”
“Because I travel with it.”
Her eyes widened but the exaggerated motion did nothing to bring any color or warmth into her pale face. “I’m sorry?”
“I carry it with me.”
“It’s a stolen object of priceless value. What do you mean, you travel with it?”
How did he explain this to her? And why did every excuse springing to his lips feel wholly inadequate?
“I can’t leave it among my personal things in my home. There’s danger in what I do, and I can’t risk dying and having the bracelet discovered.”
“So carrying it in your things is better?”
“I can dispose of it more easily if it’s with me and things get sticky.”
“You don’t worry about customs?”
“I have provenance papers that usually let me pass without question. You know our profession helps on that front.”
“You had it today? In Old Cairo.”
“Yes.”
Her fingers trembled around the edges of the cuff. “And you carry it so you can easily dispose of it? So this priceless object that isn’t even rightfully yours could be tossed away in a jungle or buried in a tomb somewhere if you get into a jam?”
“Yes.”
“But it’s priceless. How could you see it thrown away instead of simply given back to its rightful owner?”
He swallowed hard at the disappointment that rode her face in harsh, tired lines. “It’s mine.”
“No, it’s not yours!”
The shout carried across the room and he moved quickly to stand beside her. “Shh. We don’t know who’s nearby.”
“Fine. Because there’s really nothing more to say.”
“Rowan—” He broke off as she snatched her hand away from his.
“I trusted you. Believed in what could be possible between us. And this is the proof that there can’t be anything between us.”
“An hour ago in the shower you felt differently.”
“An hour ago I thought I was sharing my body with the man I loved. But this?” She tossed the bracelet onto the bed. “I don’t know who you are.”
She loved him?
The knowledge slammed into him with the force of an avalanche.
Rowan loved him.
Before he could say anything, she ran back to the bathroom and he heard the lock click from the inside.
“Rowan, come back. We need to talk.”
Her voice was muffled from the other side of the door. “I can’t leave our hotel room and I can’t be near you right now. Please go away.”
When she said nothing further, he sat down hard on the bed and picked up the bracelet she’d tossed down. He’d always believed the bracelet brought him luck. And now? When faced with the evidence of her shattered feelings for him, Finn knew the bracelet had been nothing but a pile of fool’s gold.
* * *
Bethany Warrington sat back and took in the man sprawled across the cabin from her. For all his cutthroat business practices, Jared Wright was a surprisingly huge rube and she was counting the minutes until she could get rid of him.
He’d grown up on the streets and had never fully eliminated his street-rat tendencies. Or the naïveté of the uncultured masses.
Their flight attendant sauntered out from the back galley of the private plane with a full bottle of champagne and leaned over his sprawled form. “More champagne, Mr. Wright?”
“Yes.” He eagerly lifted his empty glass, and even from a distance, Bethany could tell he’d spent a long, leering minute eyeing the attendant’s cleavage.
Boorish behavior that only reinforced her thoughts.
With a throaty purr she’d perfected before she was even out of her teens, she called to him across the cabin. “Enjoying yourself, darling?”
He lifted his refilled flute. “Quite.” He patted the seat next to him. “Come sit by me.”
“I’m working.”
“I’m working, too, but it’s a long flight. Doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy ourselves a bit before we get down to all that hard work.”
Her smile never dropped, but the press of her fingernails into her palm nearly drew blood. “We’d be working a lot less if your men in Cairo hadn’t bungled the kidnapping.”
“Tomorrow, my love. We’ll get them tomorrow. For now, come join me.” He patted the seat next to him once more.
She fought a huge sigh and crossed the cabin. She was at no one’s beck and call, but it wouldn’t do to get him overly suspicious. They still had several pieces that now needed to fall into place in Luxor, and she couldn’t afford for him to grow a brain at this late hour.
“What did you have in mind, darling?”
“Let me show you.”
She fought an eye roll and let him have his moment, groping her breasts and moaning in her ear all the ways he wanted to take her. Whispering “oh, yes” a few times, she succumbed to his ministrations before taking the upper hand.
Literally.
As his eyes practically crossed in his head, she counted off all she needed to do upon their arrival in Luxor. She’d waited so long for this moment, and her own arousal spiked at the proof that she’d finally have what she’d wanted all these years.
“That was amazing, baby.”
“That’s exactly what I was going to say about you.” She pressed a quick kiss to his cheek and hid her amusement behind the toss of her long mane of hair. She’d avoided his attentions for a long time, but it had become necessary a few years before
to give in to his interests in order to meet her own.
Damn sod had grown a fat head, convinced his successes in London’s seamier activities were all his own doing instead of her careful work behind the scenes. It still amused her how quickly sex rebalanced the scales in her favor.
Thankfully, their moments together were blessedly short, and it never failed to entertain her that he was so easily fooled by a few complimentary words and some light panting.
Men.
They were so quickly distracted by the lure of sex.
In her experience, the quick score of physical pleasure beat out their ability to think rationally each and every time. They believed what flashed on the surface, and if they could taste and touch it, that only made it better. Men held little imagination and even less ability to work toward a goal. Which was why they made the perfect partners for her work.
She’d learned young she had to reach out and take what she wanted. Sitting around waiting for it got her nothing but waiting. Action, however, got results. And if that action was outside the bounds of what was considered right and proper, that was just too bad.
As she envisioned the way the next forty-eight hours would unfold, Bethany had to admire how neatly everything had come full circle.
After all, it was Rowan Steele who had set her on the road to her future.
Oh, her dear childhood friend had thought herself so clever, but Bethany had seen through it all. The girl had a chip on her shoulder the size of Russia and had moped through high school like a zombie. Bethany had steered clear of her until that one day.
That one fateful day.
Rowan nicked a wallet out of Serena MacAlister’s brand-new purse, and that lone action had been enough to give Bethany an idea.
The rest had simply fallen into place.
She’d set the wheels in motion within days, easily luring Rowan’s unknowing cooperation through the promise of information and a few airheaded moves with the alarm code and the safe combination. It had been so easy. So simple.
She’d watched her mother play the fool for years and had mimicked sixteen years’ worth of teaching.
And the anticipation of seeing Rowan thinking things through had been thrilling, even if Bethany had found the waiting game tedious at times.
In the end, despite the fact she didn’t get the bracelet that evening, things had worked out strangely for the best. Her father’s acquisition wasn’t exactly a secret and others had paid attention to the annual holiday departure of one of London’s wealthiest households.
Three separate parties had descended on the house that night, and two came up empty-handed. It had taken years of digging and she’d never discovered the identity of the third until a bit of news came to her attention.
A priceless bracelet Finn Gallagher secretly kept on his person when he traveled.
And just like that day outside Serena’s locker, all the pieces had once again fallen into place.
* * *
Rowan traced the edge of the bath towel in her hands, the pattern likely committed to memory for the rest of her life she’d followed it so many times. Up, down, over, around.
Over and over and over again.
No matter how many ways she tried to see Finn’s point of view—what little he’d actually shared—she couldn’t understand his motivations. Or the crazy, idiotic reason the man chose to carry the bracelet with him.
But as long minutes had stretched into even longer hours, she’d been forced to look inside herself and acknowledge the one area that was her sole responsibility.
The two of them hadn’t resolved their differences of opinion or the disparate ways they chose to live their lives. She’d fallen into a physical relationship with him and he’d never once said he’d changed his mind on keeping the bracelet. He’d even gone so far as to try to stop their first night together because they were still on opposite sides.
Yet she’d blithely believed they’d figure it out and work through their differences. Which, if she were honest with herself, meant she’d convince him to give the bracelet back, stop any extracurricular thieving and settle into the life she wanted him to lead.
While she refused to fault herself for wanting something better for him, she knew full well she’d been narrow-minded in her approach.
And none of it changed the fact that she was still madly in love with the man.
Be bold, Rowan Steele.
Her father’s long-ago words rose up in her mind, stilling her hands on the towel. She hadn’t thought them in years, the warm, encouraging gaze that accompanied his inspiration too difficult to bear thinking about.
But she thought about them now.
Be bold.
Even now, so many years after he was gone, she could hear her father say the words. The deep timbre of his voice filled with equal parts encouragement, excitement and pride.
Be bold.
She’d spent her adult life equating boldness with risk taking. But it was something more.
What if being bold meant you loved with all your heart? What if it meant you had to take a leap with the one you loved, even when all the pieces didn’t add up? Or what if it meant you had to walk away when the values you held dear weren’t the same as those you cared about?
Rowan leaned her head back against the counter and closed her eyes, her father’s voice echoing in her head, encouraging yet providing no answers to her questions.
Be bold.
* * *
The drive to the airport and the short flight to Luxor were uneventful. All signs of the previous day’s danger had vanished as if it had never been. If only the anger she couldn’t let go of could do the same.
She and Finn had kept to opposite sides of the cabin the entire way and it was only now, as they stood before their side-by-side hotel doors, that Rowan knew things were really at an end for them personally.
They’d each do their portion of the excavation—cool, calm, professional—and get the hell out of Dodge. She was committed to preserving whatever came out of the tomb, just as she’d signed on for, but that was it. She’d also mapped out just how she’d get her hands on the wall that outlined Nefertari’s heritage, but she needed to get a feel for the dig team before she could finalize those plans.
“Would you like dinner?”
His quiet words pierced her heart, but she shook her head. “I’m going to order something in my room.”
“We should probably get to the site around seven tomorrow.”
Her cell phone buzzed from where she juggled it in her hands and she absently glanced down at the face. And saw the message from Campbell.
Call me. Nearly rerouted the London internet signature.
“What is it?”
“It’s Campbell. He’s got something.”
Finn was at her side in a moment. “We’re calling him back together.”
“Of course.” She made quick work of the door lock before tossing her things in the corner of the room, with Finn following suit. In moments, she had her phone on speaker and Campbell’s voice greeting them.
“Hey there, Dora the Explorer. How’s Egypt?”
“Eventful.”
As soon as the words were out, she wished she could pull them back as Campbell went into overprotective-big-brother mode. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing. Look. I’ve got Finn here with me. Tell us what’s going on.”
“Only if you promise me you’ll be careful.”
“I’m always careful.” She tossed the words back at her brother, so similar to the conversation she’d had with Kensington before leaving New York.
“No, you’re not. That’s what always worries us.”
Finn’s knowing gaze only added to the wedge of guilt that lodged in her chest. “Come on, Campb
ell. I will be. I promise.”
As if sensing that was all he’d get, Campbell’s somber tone faded, replaced with his trademark geek speak. “I traced the internet signature on the forums. The one coming from London but bouncing around the globe.”
“Yes?”
“So if bouncing the signal wasn’t the first clue something was going on, the significant encryption on it is great big clue number two.”
“You get to the bottom of it?” Finn’s absolute focus on the call and Campbell’s intel had a small wave of regret washing through her. Finn was good at what he did and he knew how to work with others. He’d be a great partner.
They’d be such great partners.
Only they couldn’t be.
“All I have so far is that it’s centered around Knightsbridge.”
Her gaze collided with Finn’s at the mention of their long-ago meeting place. Raw emotion clouded his eyes and Rowan was pretty sure he saw the same in hers.
On a light cough, she refocused on Campbell. “You get an address?”
“That’s my problem. No matter how I try to go into the system, I’m hitting a wall.”
“You can’t scale it?” Rowan couldn’t hide the surprise in her voice, and the hard grunt that echoed through the phone ensured she didn’t want to. Although she and her siblings all carried the trait in spades, Campbell was the one who most loved to figure out puzzles.
And one he couldn’t solve only got him more focused.
“I didn’t say that.” The sound of keys tapping echoed through the phone and she could picture her brother in front of his laptop, his blue-eyed gaze locked on the screen. “But I need a bit more time. T-Bone’s working it with me, so we should have it by midmorning your time.”
“Text me as soon as you do.”
They disconnected and Rowan stared at her now-silent phone, willing her brother to find the address.
“Rowan, there’s something I need to tell you.”
Finn’s serious tone caught her attention.
“There’s more? You keep other things locked up in your safe?”
