East of Redemption (Love on the Edge #2) (24 page)

“Let’s move,” I said, keeping my father at the forefront of my mind and my heart. I ignored the twisting pain in my chest and the uncertainty of what would happen once we left this cave. I set myself to task, prepared to go to extreme lengths to be part of finding the treasure of my father’s dreams.

Easton sucked in his tears with a deep breath.

“Okay.” He glanced inside the chamber, not focusing at all.

I shifted in front of him. “Are you with me?”

He blinked hard and fast. “Yes.”

“Good. I need you focused. I can’t do this alone. You’re the expert. Just like my father. He would’ve been so proud of what you’ve become, Easton. Regardless of . . . everything, you have to at least know that.”

He opened his mouth but closed it quickly, turning toward the larger ledge on the outside of the chamber. He glanced over his shoulder. “Same deal. Mirror my movements.” He sighed. “I’m sorry I snapped earlier . . . but I can’t lose you, Rain. Not like . . .”

“Understood. I’m not going anywhere.”

He cut his eyes to the darkness before returning them to me. “And after?”

I didn’t have an answer for him. I wanted to say nothing had changed, but in a matter of moments
everything
had. “Let’s get through this first.”

Easton

SHE DIDN’T BLAME
me. I don’t know how . . . but she didn’t. The weight of Harrison’s death had sat on my chest for years, and the act of confession had lifted some of it, despite not knowing where I stood with her. She didn’t hold me responsible—she should—but I felt like I could try to earn my way back into her heart if all she was angry about was the lies. And for leaving. It was something in my power to do, because nothing could make up for the loss of her father.

Focusing on the task at hand kept me in the present as much as possible. The battle of the past, and the hope for the future, was more than I could take right now, so I simply put one foot in front of the other and tried not to slip.

The wall felt more slick than it had moments ago, but it could’ve been that I was sweating from the stagnant heat that filled the cave. Drops of perspiration had formed under my hat, and I desperately itched to wipe it clean, but that movement wasn’t possible in the position I was in—flattened against the wall and sidestepping to what we hoped would be another chamber.

Every now and then I heard Rain sniffle behind me. It stung each time she did it. Her tears earlier had been a direct result of years’ worth of lies and confusion. All because of me. My choices. She’d been right. I may not have seen another way back then, but I’d made the choice to end what could’ve been a brilliant future for us without thinking twice on the fact that she had deserved a say.

I exhaled and inhaled, the thin air reaching to the bottom of my lungs with ease. Rain wasn’t as used to the change in atmosphere that came with an excursion this deep, and I wished I could help her get a handle on it, remembering how suffocating the lack of a full breath could make me feel.

The muscles in my calves seared from holding all my weight for so long. I didn’t know how much longer I could press on before I’d have to call it quits and work our way back to the first chamber. I hoped Rain was faring better, her body at least had gotten the fuel it needed on this expedition, where mine had been denied.

“Good God,” Rain hissed behind me. “How the hell did the Babylonians cart a crap-ton of treasure in here?”

I tried not to laugh as I paused on the ledge to carefully turn my head in her direction. Her cheek plastered against the wall, her hands outstretched horizontally a fingertip’s length away from mine. “Two thousand years ago, the ledge we stand on was most certainly a wide, winding path. There were probably several working paths, large enough for carts, and I’m sure they initiated a pulley system to help with the loads.”

She rolled her eyes, beads of sweat dotting her forehead as well. “Lucky.”

“Do you want to turn back?”

“Would you?”

“I don’t want to, but I would for you.”

“Maybe I was wrong. Maybe there isn’t anything but wall here.”

“Let’s go a little farther. You weren’t wrong about chambers being built in sequences. Logic says there should be another one soon.”

“Logic. Yeah, logic wouldn’t suggest we do any of this without better gear and a bigger team.”

“Touché.” I turned my head in the opposite direction, grunting against the pain my legs screamed with as I forced them to move again.

After another hundred and twenty steps my hand connected with a corner of rock. “There’s something up here,” I called back to Rain, whose pace had fallen slightly behind mine.

“Well it’s about damn time!”

“It could just be a right turn.”

“It better be a freaking burger joint.”

I chuckled. I never thought I could smile in a place filled with such darkness. Having a partner, a true one who knew all my secrets—regardless of how she felt about them—made this excavation seem possible. Worth everything it took to get here . . . because
she
was here with me. We hadn’t even found the treasure yet, and I felt like the richest man in the world.

Easing my way the rest of the distance, I craned my head around the corner. “Yes!” I wanted to fist-bump the air. “It’s another chamber!”

“I knew it!” Rain called, the excitement in her voice throwing red flags across my vision.

“
Don’t
hurry!” I turned back to look at her. “Slow down, Raindrop. Please,” I begged.

She glared at me.

Sure, I was being overprotective, but I had a damn right to be. “This place isn’t going anywhere.”

Thankfully, she slowed to her original pace, and I returned my focus to the chamber. Lifting my left leg, I used it to push myself up and into the small incline, until I crouched on a beautiful, solid-rock floor. This chamber was twice as big as the last, so much so I could stand up. The full floor beneath me was like a godsend, and I stretched my limbs.

Rain’s hands smacked the rock at the edge a few seconds later. I gave her a hand, pulling her up and into the chamber gently. The motion brought her body flush against mine, and the heat of my body tripled.
Really? Even here? Lock it up, man.

I let her go, and she straightened, quickly backing away. Well, that fucking stung, but I deserved a lot worse than her needing some space.

She dug the flashlight out of her pack, adding more light where our GoPro ones couldn’t penetrate.

“Holy shit,” we said in unison.

She cut her eyes to me and gave an exasperated laugh before returning her gaze to what had elicited our responses.

The chamber had to be the size of an average living room, and in front of the farthest back wall were tables. Three, perfectly intact,
gold
tables. The legs were pillar-like, thick, and beautifully decorated with a swirling pattern that intersected with a straight row of triangles. The tops were covered with items, some in dust-covered sacks, others I didn’t recognize upon first glance.

I crossed the distance without realizing it, like a tractor beam had pulled me in. I sighed when my fingers connected with the solid gold table in the middle. “It’s real.”

“May I?” Rain asked with her hand poised over one of the large bags on the first table.

“Of course. This is as much yours as it is mine.”

She carefully unraveled the twine that secured the threadbare bag, her delicate motions reminding me so much of Harrison. Her eyes widened as she peered inside the opening and reached inside. Rain’s mouth hung open as she held a handful of dusty but still white pearls out to me. She grinned from ear to ear.

Look at that. How proud of her are you?

A huge chunk of my heart ached. I wished Harrison was here to see this, but I had a feeling he already was. No chance he didn’t talk his way out of the gates in order to get a peek at what we were up to.

“The bag is filled to the brim with them,” she said, gently returning the pearls. Her eyes grazed over the thirty or more bags that lay scattered across all the tables, surrounded by jeweled goblets and at least twenty silver instruments that looked somewhere between a trumpet and a French horn, which had more than a little patina on them.

I opened the bag closest to me and sucked in a sharp breath, picking up one of the dark green stones cut in the shape of a rectangle. “Emeralds.”

Rain covered her mouth with her hands. “Each of these items was on the tablet, Easton.”

“You’re sure?”

She nodded. “Golden tables, musical instruments, and precious jewels.”

“What else?”

“So much more . . . I’d have to re-read it, but it went on to list more religious objects like gold from the walls of Eden, and even the ark.”

“I don’t put stock in those. But this . . .” I motioned to the more than substantial loot before us. “This is real. And it was Solomon’s.”

“You never know. Like you said, it was thousands of years ago. Maybe the ark did exist. Maybe it is here.”

“Now you
really
sound like Harrison.”

“Good.”

Silence filled the chamber as we carefully picked over the goods, searching, documenting with our cameras, and losing ourselves in the studies of our find. After opening the last bag, which was filled with gold coins with Solomon’s seal, I took a step back, surveying the room.

“There should be more.”

Rain scoffed. “This isn’t enough?”

“It’s evidence enough, sure. But with what’s on that tablet and the legend of his wealth? There should be more.”

“Didn’t the Babylonians only get a portion of it?”

“A large portion.”

“This is huge.”

“Not when you’re the prosperous King of Israel who reigned for forty years.”

She bit the corner of her lip, worry lines carving the middle of her forehead as she looked back at the expanse of treasure on top of the tables. “So what do we do?”

I rubbed my palms over my face, wiping away the sweat with the bottom of my shirt for the umpteenth time. Instinct told me to press on. Hunt for another ledge, another path, another chamber, and not stop until we’d discovered every piece of treasure this cave had to offer. A voice in the back of my head, that sounded nothing like me and a hell of a lot like Harrison, reminded me what happened the last time we’d ignored reason and pushed purely on desire.

“We go back. Camp. Get to town and send an edit of the footage to my producer. It’ll be enough. He’ll send a team out here and we’ll . . .”

Rain tilted her head. “What?”

“That is, if you stick around . . .”

She blinked a couple times, the elation of the discovery vanishing. I could see the minute reality clicked in her eyes. She sighed. “We can’t keep looking?”

I shook my head.

She walked to the edge of the chamber, craning her head around the farthest corner. Too far over the ledge for my comfort. I made my way to her quickly, gently clutching her arm. “We’ll come back. We can’t uncover everything in a day. Especially with the limits we have with our lack of gear.”

She let me tug her inside the chamber, but she pointed toward the right. “A wider lip. Easier route.”

“No.”

She paced the length of the chamber. “Dad always talked about the significance of the number seven in relation to the time period . . . if we could figure out a numbered system for the chambers, I bet you anything the most valuable pieces will be in the seventh.” The rush of her speech made it seem like she spoke more to herself than to me. When she chewed on her thumbnail—a nervous tick she’d clearly never lost—I stepped into her path, clutching her shoulders.

“That’s good. Keep your mind running like that. Think about everything he ever told you. We’ll write it down. Use it when we come back.”

“Can’t we just—?”

“No!” I snapped, and it echoed throughout the cave. “Don’t you see? It’s the same problem as last time. We want this so badly, we’re ready to ignore the limits of our bodies and press on. I know what happens when you do that, and I will never make that mistake again.”

“But . . .”

“This isn’t up for discussion. I’d do just about anything for you, Raindrop, but I refuse to put your life at risk. Nothing here is going anywhere.”