Out of Time

by Samantha Graves

  She adjusted her shoulder harness and gun. “Sorry, but I need to be able to move in order to track them.”

  He didn’t look convinced and slapped a mosquito. “How much longer?”

  She looked at the tracks. “I can’t tell for certain. We’re about thirty minutes to an hour behind them, though. They will stop for the night. We’ll be able to catch up then.”

  Lance squinted at her. “What about us? Don’t we sleep?”

  “We’ll be fine, I promise. This is my specialty, remember?”

  He gave her a strange look. “Yeah, I know. Shouldn’t we have a donkey like they do, instead of one backpack?”

  She turned back to the trail. “Once we catch up with them, we’ll be able to use their supplies.”

  Lance tromped behind her. “But they only have enough for two people.”

  Exactly, she thought.

  “Here!” Jillian yelled suddenly.

  Twenty feet ahead of her, Simon stopped and turned. She was stock-still in the shadow of a steep knoll, holding the lens up toward the summit. Despite a full day of hard hiking, she beamed with excitement.

  He stepped back to where she stood and gazed at the hill. It was a good forty feet high, with a flat top, and was as wide as far as he could see. The sides were heavily encased in moss, giant leaves, and vines.

  “Stay here,” he said and hiked to the right to scout it out. All the way, the hill maintained the same slope, the same structure everywhere, seeming very possibly man-made.

  Pay dirt.

  This was usually the time when adrenaline hit him, but all he felt right now was relief.

  By the time he got back, Jillian had tied the mule to a nearby tree and given it some water. She met him as he approached, her eyes bright. “This is it. I know it is.”

  He started pulling the gear off the mule. “I believe you’re right.”

  “So what are you doing?” she asked while he started sorting the camp equipment. He could hear the enthusiasm in her voice. She wanted to run up that hill, race inside, find the treasure. Rookies. Dead stuff didn’t go anywhere.

  “This is a good place to spend the night. Give me half an hour, then we’ll head up. It’s only five p.m., but the sun will go down fast in the mountains. I want camp ready when we get back.”

  Jillian bit her lip as she looked up at the hill, but she didn’t argue with him. They set up camp quickly. Jillian was practically fidgety as he went through what they’d carry in their small packs—headlamps, water, the lens for her, gun for him—just your average hiking gear. He helped her with her pack and then sprayed more mosquito repellent on her as she danced from foot to foot.

  “Are we ready yet?” she asked impatiently. Her hat was on, her body tense, eyes bright.

  He grinned. “I can see we’re going to have control issues here.”

  “Oh, you have no idea.”

  He spun around to the familiar voice.

  On the edge of camp, Celina stood pointing a gun at them, and Lance was behind her. It was all so wrong; Simon thought he was imagining it.

  Celina smiled, pleased. “Hello, Simon. Long time no see.”

  She looked perfectly fine. No bruises, no sign of abuse, no signs of struggle. No sign of having been kidnapped.

  His disbelief was replaced by a betrayal that hit him square in the gut. Reality settled over him, and fury rose in its wake—powerful, lethal, and full of pain.

  No. Not with so much at stake here. She wouldn’t do this to him. She couldn’t be that crazy. She couldn’t use them like this—Jillian and everyone else drawn into this mess. People he’d drawn into this mess. Because he’d trusted Celina. He’d believed her. He’d believed. How could he have been so stupid?

  “Fuck,” he hissed.

  CHAPTER

  25

  For a moment, Jillian’s mind shut down. This wasn’t right. Celina wasn’t supposed to be here. She was kidnapped, hurt and helpless. But she was holding them at gunpoint. And Lance was here—

  Then it all came crashing down in a sickening, gut-wrenching wave that threatened to bring Jillian to her knees. Lance had lied to her. Celina had lied to Simon. It was all a lie, all of it. There was no kidnapping, no death threats, no one in danger. She and Simon had gone through all this—the fear and torment and trouble—for nothing.

  For worse than nothing.

  For betrayal.

  “How could you do this?” she said, stuttering the words from sheer emotional overload.

  Lance stepped forward, looking ludicrous and completely out of place in his color-coordinated jungle wear. “Jillian, I’m sorry—”

  “Shut up, Lance,” she snapped. Then she faced Celina and the gun. “How could you do this to Simon?”

  The woman had the nerve to grin. “Money.”

  “I don’t mean that,” Jillian said, trying to maintain her self-control through the rage. “Do you have any idea what he has done for you? Gone through for you?”

  “Found me the archives?”

  “He cared about you,” Jillian said tightly.

  Celina laughed lightly, her voice ringing across the woods. “That’s sweet. But, of course, I would expect no less after all Lance has told me. He said you were the most trusting soul he’d ever met. Always finding the good in everyone.”

  “Well, I guess you proved me wrong. There is no good in either of you,” Jillian replied as she cut Lance a sharp glare. He shoved his hands in his pockets and stared at the ground. What had she been thinking? How could she ever have dreamed he was the right man for her?

  “Lance, darling, check Simon for weapons,” Celina said.

  Lance’s head snapped up. “What?”

  Celina gave him a placating smile like a patient mother. She was using him, just like she’d used everyone else. Jillian seethed. Lance, you idiot.

  As Lance followed the order, Jillian’s eyes met Simon’s. Judging from his absolute stillness and silence, he was furious but under control while Lance patted him down.

  She didn’t need her psychic skills to know what Simon was thinking—all this was his fault. He never should have trusted Celina. He should have walked away and let humanity screw themselves.

  She wanted to tell him she understood, that it wasn’t his fault. Being human and caring were not wrong. The problem was the people who didn’t think that way.

  “No weapons on him,” Lance announced.

  Celina narrowed her eyes. “Check his pack.”

  Jillian gave a sigh. Sure enough, Lance found the gun in the pack. This was bad.

  “Now her,” Celina said.

  Lance stepped up to Jillian. She looked him dead in the eye. “If you touch me, I’ll kill you.”

  He froze.

  “Just take the pack and give it to me,” Celina snapped, losing patience fast.

  Jillian slipped the pack off and handed it to Lance. He hesitated before turning back to Celina. “I really am sorry.”

  “You’re a dead man, and you don’t even know it,” she whispered.

  Lance blinked furiously. Then he handed the pack to Celina.

  She passed Lance a gun. “Cover them.”

  Then she riffled through the pack until she found the pouch. The lens slipped out into her hand and caught daylight with a vengeance. Jillian’s gut twisted at the way Celina’s eyes lit up. The bug.

  Celina slipped the pouch into her pants pocket and tossed the pack back to Jillian. “You carry this.”

  Celina pulled out a second gun and checked it. Jillian shrugged the pack onto her back. “I can’t find the treasure without the lens.”

  “You’ll get it when you need it.” Celina turned to Lance. “You stay here with Simon. If he moves, shoot him.”

  Lance looked from Celina to Simon, a frown darkening his face. “Where are you going?”

  “I’m taking Jillian to find the treasure for us.”

  “But I thought we were doing this together.”

  “This is my specialty, remember?” she s
aid with a demure smile. “Unless you want to shoot Simon now?”

  Lance blanched. “Well, no . . .”

  “Then it’s settled.”

  Say something, Lance, Jillian thought. She’s lying to you. Call her on it. But he didn’t. He wasn’t strong enough to fight Celina.

  Jillian’s attention turned to Celina, who walked over to Simon and said, “I didn’t expect you to be such an easy target. You’re getting soft in your old age, darling.”

  Simon didn’t bite. For a moment, Jillian worried that he might do something stupid like try to tackle Celina with a gun in her hand.

  Celina put her hand to her chest. “Although I was very touched when you tried to save me with that crazy plan to give us just the location.”

  Jillian said, “You were crazy enough to take it.”

  Celina eyed her, and then Simon. He didn’t move a muscle. Her smile grew. “Oh, you didn’t tell her, Simon? Why am I not surprised?”

  Simon watched as Celina came face-to-face with Jillian. “We turned down the offer. In fact, we cut the deadline in half knowing that you two were trying to weasel out. Wouldn’t want you changing your mind at the last minute.”

  Jillian stared at Celina, unwilling to face Simon. Was she telling the truth? Why would he lie to her? Why would he tell her they needed to find the way inside—

  The answer came quickly and with a sting that radiated through her being. Because he was going to come back alone. Without her.

  She looked at him then, and the raw emotion in his face confirmed her fears.

  I trusted you with everything I had, she said silently. My heart, my body, my soul. And even that wasn’t enough to save you.

  “Well,” Celina said happily into the silence. “Let’s go find us a treasure.”

  Donovan trudged behind Walsh, who wasn’t even sweating, despite carrying a fully loaded pack.

  Maybe he was too old for this, but he’d be damned if he’d allow his sixty-four-year-old body to let him down now. He was so close he could taste it.

  Walsh’s radio beeped softly, and he stopped to answer it. He was listening and nodding silently when Donovan finally caught up.

  “Just hold your positions,” Walsh said and signed off. He checked his GPS while he filled Donovan in. “Jillian and Simon pitched camp about three miles ahead beside a large knoll. Celina and Lance just showed up, and now Celina and Jillian are climbing the hill. We have a report that Kesel and an unidentified man are about a mile behind. Two miles ahead of our location.”

  Donovan’s heart was racing, and not just from the unaccustomed exercise. “They found the archives. It must be buried in the hill.”

  Walsh eyed him with the calmness of a man who hadn’t spent his life waiting for this moment. “Don’t give yourself a heart attack. We have a long way to go.”

  Donovan waved his hand. “Not on your life. Lead the way, boy.”

  Anger radiated across his body as Simon stood his ground and stared Lance down from ten feet away. In the five minutes since Celina and Jillian had left, he hadn’t even dared to speak. That’s how close he was to losing it. Not that there was much else to lose at this point. But if this was going to be his last stand, he wasn’t leaving anything on the table. If it killed him, he was going to find Jillian and get her out of this alive—even if she never wanted to see him again. Even if she walked away from this freak show of a life he’d built for himself. He couldn’t blame her there, but one way or another, he would get his chance to apologize to her.

  Lance was going down first.

  “You really think Celina is coming back for you?” Simon asked.

  Lance looked nervous behind the gun. “She’ll be back.”

  Simon nodded slowly. “Let me guess. She offered you half? She told you that if you went along with her plan, she’d take care of everything? She handled all the dirty work, made all the connections?”

  Lance frowned deeply. “This is her area of expertise. I’m just an art dealer.”

  “So why are you here?” Simon asked with cool deliberation. “Aside from spilling Jillian’s little secret, I can’t for the life of me figure out why Celina’s keeping you around.”

  The gun wobbled in his hand. “She loves me.”

  Oh, this was going to be a piece of cake. “Celina is incapable of love. You should have figured that out by now.”

  Lance pursed his lips. “She does love me. She’s doing all this to get me out of a huge debt.”

  “From the goodness of her heart? Not possible.”

  “So that we could start a new life together,” Lance said, his voice rising with each justification.

  He needed to keep Lance talking, second-guessing himself and Celina, until he realized just how deep he was in this and how disposable he was in this entire scenario. “Uh-huh. So why didn’t the two of you go get Jillian? Why send Jackson?”

  Lance pulled off his hat and wiped his forehead with his sleeve. “Because I can’t go back to the U.S. until I pay off the debt. Plus Kesel got wind that Celina took his lens.”

  Celina stole the lens from Kesel. It figured. That explained why Kesel hadn’t moved on Simon all this time. He was waiting for Celina to show up. Kesel was working for himself. This was personal. And Lance was in one whoop-ass pile of trouble. “So Celina set up the kidnapping to force her husband to go get the treasure for you?”

  “Jackson wasn’t supposed to die,” Lance said with a look of dismay. “I didn’t realize how badly Kesel wanted his lens back.”

  “Now you know,” Simon told him. Good ol’ Lance was sweating like a pig. Time to turn up the heat. “Kesel will kill you both when he finds you. And he will find you.”

  Lance’s face flushed in the heat. “Celina said he wouldn’t be a problem. She’d take care of him.”

  “She didn’t.” He paused to let that sink in, then gave Lance a cursory look. “Or maybe she has. Ever hear of the sacrificial lamb?”

  “What do you mean?”

  Simon smiled wide. “I just figured out why you’re still here.”

  Lance blinked about a hundred times before taking a step back. “No. She wouldn’t do that to me. She loves me.”

  Simon took two steps forward. “You think? She sacrificed her own husband for this. She nearly got me killed when we were married. You aren’t detecting a pattern here?”

  He raised the gun. “Shut up, Bonner. Just shut up. And don’t move or—”

  “Or what? You’ll kill me? I think that’s probably in Celina’s plans, anyway—” Then Simon stopped talking, timing his ruse carefully. He looked into the forest behind Lance and listened.

  Lance’s eyes darted around. “What?”

  “Keep your voice down. I heard something,” he whispered.

  Lance was getting more nervous by the second. “Like what?”

  Simon held a hand up to silence him. He had to play this just right. “Quiet.”

  Lance twisted his body while he kept the gun on Simon. “I don’t hear anything.”

  Simon stared at one spot in the forest behind him. “If it’s Kesel, you probably won’t. He’s only half human.”

  “Celina said he was just a man.”

  “Haven’t you learned, Lance? Celina lies. I’d watch my back if I were you, because she’s not going to.”

  Lance turned his head to look at the forest, and Simon leapt forward, grabbed Lance’s arm, and shoved the gun up. Lance yelped in pain as Simon twisted his wrist and punched him square in the face.

  He went down like a rock. Simon took the gun from Lance’s limp hand. Then he snagged his backpack and slung it over his shoulder as he raced for the hill.

  Lance was on his own—the sacrificial lamb. He deserved no less for what he’d done to Jillian. Although in truth, Lance would be no more than a speed bump for Kesel.

  Jillian stopped in the tangled vines that covered the plateau of the monument. And it was a man-made monument. On the way up, she’d discovered stepped stones that reached the top leve
l. Not that Mother Nature hadn’t done her damnedest to cover the entire structure with trees and roots. They were making progress at a snail’s pace.

  “Keep moving,” Celina said for the hundredth time. Jillian was getting pretty sick of being poked in the back with a gun. They had to be getting close. The plateau could be only so big. It was time to play her one and only card.

  “I can’t,” Jillian said as she stopped and turned to look at her. “I’m lost. I need the lens.”

  Celina glared and handed her the pouch. “Don’t try anything. Or I’ll call Lance and tell him to kill Simon.”

  Bitch. Jillian took the bag. “You never loved him, did you?”

  “Love is overrated. A waste of energy and time with no return on investment. Gold is forever,” she said without even batting an eye.

  As Jillian slipped the lens into her hand, she recalled her conversation with Charlie back at the museum. Vases last forever. You can’t mend a broken heart. That makes hearts more valuable.

  Looked like Charlie was right. Hearts were more valuable. Breakable, but also more courageous. Risking all for love.

  Halfway up the climb, Jillian had realized that Simon had lied to her to save her. Because he loved her. He never got past that point. Probably didn’t think about how it would hurt her if she found out. It was pure love—right or wrong, fair or not. Now Jillian understood why her mother had loved her father despite everything he’d done to her. Why she’d believed he’d come back.

  She’d had faith in love.

  And so did Jillian. Right or wrong, fair or not. Clear or cloudy.

  “Love is forever,” she said to Celina and stared at the lens. “But you’ll never know.”

  Then she turned her back to Celina to scan the sky. The blue beam was dead ahead and very close.

  “Go.”

  Jillian pushed ahead between the trees and undergrowth, ducking branches and wrestling with vines. Just when she was about to give up, the forest relented and she stepped out into a small circular clearing crisscrossed with roots. Waning sunlight glowed over a paved courtyard.

  The jungle hadn’t encroached here, as if showing reverence to the low stone doorway seasoned with fifteen thousand years of nature and weather. Above, around, and behind it, the forest protected its ancient secret.