East of Redemption (Love on the Edge #2) (22 page)

I shrugged. “I trusted him. He was the expert . . . on this in particular. I tried to decipher it on my own, but it was harder than I expected. Especially since I was terrified if I asked for help translating a particular copied line of text from it, it would trigger something in someone, and I would lose my shot at coming back here without any other archeologists on my trail.”

“He would’ve wanted you to claim this as your own.
That day
. He would’ve wanted you to fully excavate this cave, Easton.” She tilted her head, her eyes wide. “This is a detailed record of Solomon’s treasures. To the weight, the amount. It even has chamber numbers on it.”

“Those won’t do us any good now, assuming it was written based off where it was in his temple.”

“Of course, but this . . .
this
is closer to proof.” She wrapped it up carefully and handed it back to me. “Lucky for us Corrine didn’t have a clue. We’d be dead over that for sure. The journal seems a sad comparison now.”

“It’s important, trust me. I only hope the soldiers didn’t confiscate it.”

She pressed her lips together. “Do you plan to claim that now? As if you just found it?”

“I haven’t decided.”

She rubbed her palms over her face. “What the hell happened in there?”

I shrugged, pathetically trying to act like she wasn’t dangerously close to unearthing everything.

“Something . . . give me anything. What could’ve possibly kept you away all these years, when you had tangible evidence hinting at one of the biggest finds of our generation? Possibly my father’s, too?”

I carefully returned the tablet to the bottom of my pack, keeping my eyes on it instead of her. Not now. I couldn’t do this now.

“Isn’t Harrison dying enough?” I snapped, using the anger to push away the pain that had doubled since setting eyes on the cave’s entrance.

Rain flinched, and I instantly regretted it.

“We buried an empty coffin! Me and Mom. And where the hell were you? Huh?” The fire behind her words seared every inch of my insides. She took a deep breath and pressed up from her knees until she stood.

The image of Rain and her mother surrounded by extended family and colleagues of Harrison’s burned in my mind. She hadn’t seen me watching her, my heart shattering all over again as I watched her cry into her mother’s shoulder. I’d gone to the funeral with the intention of telling Rain the truth . . . but one look at her, and all I’d seen was Harrison. It turned my blood to ice, and my soul to ash.

She turned to walk to her tent but stopped and focused her gaze on me. “I lost half my family that day. One to a fall, and the other . . . I still don’t know the reasoning. And, Easton, you better figure out what the hell you want, because you can only hold me at an arm’s length for so long before I stop pushing back.” She slipped inside her tent and zipped it up. “Wake me when you want to go in there,” she said through the thin screen.

Well, shit. I’d successfully moved her off the path she’d picked that led straight to the dark truth I didn’t want her to know, but I’d burned through a good chunk of my chances with her at the same time. Her acceptance of my needing time wore thin. I hoped the line would hold until after we’d returned safely from the one and only excavation that had ever scared the hell out of me.

Easton

“STEP WHERE I
do.” Outside the cave’s entrance, I held a burning bundle I’d brought for a light source. Rain nodded, clutching her flashlight to her chest. She bounced on her feet, and I couldn’t tell if she was anxious to finally get this over with, or if it was genuine excitement and curiosity that moved her.

“The cave had several weak spots the last time I was here. With as many years that have passed, it could be worse. It’s vital that you mirror my movements.”

“Got it. Trust me.”

I turned my back to her, staring down the dark entrance that had ruined my life and stolen my mentor. How the hell had I thought it’d be a good idea to bring Rain here? What if I lost her, too?

No.
I was stronger now. And there was nothing powerful enough on this earth to take Rain from me.

Except myself.
Driving her away?
I had what it took to do that. Not that I wanted it to happen, but how could I expect her to forgive me once she knew I’d lied to her and the world about Harrison’s death? Even finding the treasure wouldn’t be enough to buy her forgiveness.

The orange glow from the flames at the end of the branch I held coated the brown walls, turning them almost gold. I stopped just inside the cave because ten feet ahead of us a sharp drop-off plunged into darkness. I surveyed the only two options for deeper entry.

“Last time, Harrison and I chose the left path, because it’d been the more visible one.” I pointed toward the right, which had an opening to go deeper into the cave, but it was a narrow tunnel we’d have to crawl through. “We didn’t like that we couldn’t see where this tunnel would take us.”

“And now?”

I glanced to the left, seeing the same, clear path that Harrison and I had taken. The thin ledge that hugged the cave wall and had led us to the rock bridge that connected to the chamber on the other side. It had given us good enough visibility as to where option number two would’ve taken us, but not clear enough to take the route back. If only we had taken that risk instead of the bridge again. I sucked in a breath and pointed to the right. “This is the safer option. It has to be. And if there is a hint that it isn’t, we’ll turn back.”

As I crouched down, slipping myself inside the narrow tunnel and army-crawling, it felt like no time had passed at all. I was that nineteen-year-old kid whose biggest problem at the time had been figuring out a way to ask Harrison for his daughter’s hand in marriage.

Acid surged in my gut and filled the fissure in my chest. My heart pounded with each movement, penetrating the silence of the vast cave and fueling the image of Harrison’s hand slipping from my grasp on repeat.

“This is incredible.” Rain’s voice broke through the darkness churning in my mind as we finally made it out of the nearly suffocating tunnel and onto a path of solid rock only wide enough for each of us to stand on. I spared a glance behind me.

She had her flashlight trained on the rock floor, which was slick with moisture from the water that ran outside.

“It’s also dangerous. Watch. Your. Footing.”

She squinted at my tone but kept her mouth closed.

The sounds of the dripping water, which I finally could hear over the sound of my pounding heart, were like drops of liquid fire on an exposed nerve. They sounded worse than in my nightmares, and its repetitiveness quickly tied my muscles in knots. The rock path carried us lower and lower, the floor leading further down than one would think possible. After what felt like hours, we made it to our first checkpoint.

“There’s a wide split coming up on our left,” I said, remembering the sight from the vantage point we’d had on the bridge all those years ago. “And the ledge we stand on will become thinner than the one we crossed a few days ago.”

“How deep is this place?” Rain asked, slightly breathless.

“We’re about as deep as I’ve been, but like I said, there is still another huge drop-off coming up.”

“Wonderful.”

I scanned every inch of the golden-brown interior that my torch illuminated. Nothing stood out, and, like I suspected, we’d need to make it to the original chamber in order to surmise where to hunt next. I stopped and turned around as we came upon the massive drop-off, digging out the last rappel rope I had left in my pack.

Silently, I hooked myself to Rain, all the while hating myself even more for not convincing Harrison to turn back and retry the next day the way Rain and I had just come. This path had proved much easier to tackle, despite the visibility issues. From where we stood now, I could see the chamber entrance, and though the ledge to get there was thinner, it would be a short climb across it.

If I closed my eyes hard enough, the rock bridge would still be there, connecting the chamber to the other side of the cave, and to the path Harrison and I had taken.

If we’d simply gone the opposite direction, Harrison would still be alive, Rain and I would be hitting our ten-year-wedding anniversary, and I’d be teaching our sons how to climb while simultaneously keeping our daughter from seeking out mountain lions for photo-ops. The visual of the stolen future, placed right next to the reality of my haunting past, shredded my already twisting insides to bits as if I’d swallowed a mouthful of metal tacks.

“Easton?”

I snapped my eyes up to hers, the plea in her voice grounding me in the present.

“What is it?” she pressed when I hadn’t responded.

I pointed ahead of me, where a lip of a ledge hugged the cave wall. “You’ll go first.” I pointed to the chamber. “That way, if you slip, I’ll be able to catch you and pull you back up. And when you make it to the chamber, you can be the anchor for me.” The last part was a bold-faced lie, but I’d do anything to keep her safe. If something happened, and I fell, I wouldn’t take her down with me. She’d muster up the courage to make it back across the ledge without a rope, and through the tunnel, to safety. She wouldn’t be stranded. And I sure as hell wouldn’t risk her here. If I thought she’d let me go alone, I would’ve asked her to stay put. There wasn’t a chance in hell of that, though, not after what she’d been through to get here. “Face forward, hug the rock, and use your calves and core to balance. Don’t lift your toes. Slide sideways. Go slow.”

“Okay.”

I tugged on her end of the rope, making sure it was harnessed properly through the steel clips, and flicked on the light above her GoPro, switching mine on as well. I tossed my torch on the rock floor beside me, planting my feet and bracing my knees as Rain stepped out on the ledge.

She moved much quicker than I would’ve guessed, but I don’t know why it surprised me—the woman was fearless. The climb was still incredibly difficult, even if it was a shorter distance than the length of ledge Harrison and I had navigated. Another stab of guilt seared my gut and twisted as Rain hefted herself up the small incline and into the chamber safely. The relief at her safe crossing was nothing against the weight of heavier guilt, knowing that one fucking directional choice had altered the course of our lives and ended Harrison’s.

Rain waved at me as she positioned herself on her knees, the chamber too small for her to stand up fully. She widened the gap between her legs and braced herself against the wall with her hands firmly clutching the rope.

I reached down and unfastened the end that was tied around my waist. I knew she’d kill me once I got across, but there was no way in hell I would let her be my anchor. Not here. One slip from me and I could drag her to her death. I let the rope drop and stepped onto the ledge.

“What the hell are you doing?” she yelled across the distance, but I ignored her angered question.

I flattened myself against the moist wall, the cold seeping into my palms as I pressed for support. Adrenaline coursed through my veins, focusing me on the task at hand and momentarily removing all other thoughts from my brain.

My muscles seared, but I welcomed the ache, feeding off the pain. The water continued its chant:
one wrong step you die.
I mentally told it to go fuck itself.

I reached the chamber opening in such a short time I was almost pissed. It had been too easy, and just one more reminder that if we had merely backtracked and tried the different route, Harrison would still be alive.

I pulled myself upward and crouched on the solid floor of the chamber, the rock ceiling lower than I remembered. Rain instantly smacked my shoulders, hitting me with a ferocity I had totally expected.

“You asshole!” she screamed, her voice echoing off the cave walls. “How could you untie yourself? You could have fallen, and I wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it!” She swung a right hook at my jaw, but I ducked instinctively.

The unconnected hit threw off her crouched balance, and the sound of her boots slipping backward against the slick rock, toward the chamber’s ledge, followed by her gasp, had my heart in my fucking throat. I reached out, clutching her wrist with a firm grip despite her good hold on the rock. I yanked her arm, dragging her farther inside the safety of the solid chamber quicker than she could blink.