East of Redemption (Love on the Edge #2) (28 page)

He didn’t look convinced, but having been on my crew since the beginning, he knew an argument would be a waste of time. “Well, if you break your back again, don’t cry to me. And I won’t be at your bedside with comics.”

“Yeah, you will.”

He flipped me off before checking the rope anchored around a strong piece of the chamber wall. A series of LED lights had been placed strategically along the cave walls, illuminating the darkness in a way that probably hadn’t happened for thousands of years. Colors of gold and bronze dominated the area, and our modern equipment stuck out unnaturally against the natural formation.

Only a week into the expedition and we’d already uncovered two more chambers filled with gold—coins, bars, flatware—and precious stones. King Solomon hadn’t boasted about his wealth; if anything, he may have undershot it in his writings. The idea of him being a humble man was too complicated to comprehend, so I instead focused on his possessions, and what the artifacts told us about the time period.

As far as I could tell with such a short time to study the items, Israel had prospered under his reign in a way it never had before. And he’d integrated a significant system of record keeping, to the point of obsession with documenting items and events he’d found important—even certain meals he’d had prepared for him. The scrolls of text we’d found were by far the most valuable to me out of everything we’d unearthed. They were a direct link to the mindset of a king from thousands of years ago and offered much more value than a bar of gold ever could.

Rain would have loved it. A knife twisted in my chest as I longed for her presence. Not just because I wanted to breathe her in again, but because she’d absolutely get a thrill from reading the scrolls. The Hebrew was different in ancient form, but not enough where she couldn’t read a majority of it. I’d tried calling her at the only number I’d found listed under her name, but never made a connection. She had most likely already started another job. No telling which country or continent she was on now.

“Focus.” Kevin snapped his fingers in front of my face, and I blinked a few times.

“Right.”

“I like blondes as much as the next man,” he said, waggling his eyebrows, “but don’t die because you’re thinking about her, okay?”

“Fuck you, Knot.” I used his call-sign and laughed. My crew had seen a rough cut of the footage we’d shot in our time out here, and the producers had a heavy-handed focus on particular moments between Rain and me. Moments where she’d challenged me, or where she’d stepped up and saved me. The dynamic was awkward to watch, since I’d lived it, but the crew didn’t miss a beat and had given me shit ever since. Anyone who saw the show would know how much I loved her.

“From our rough calculations, the depth of this thing could go farther than eight hundred meters. That would double the depth we’re currently at. I need you sharp.”

“Got it.” I grabbed the rope, grateful we weren’t filming because it enabled me to use all the gear I wanted, including my tough, leather gloves and the much safer harness strapped to my body. I stepped backward, pulling the line taut by pushing my feet against the ledge of the chamber.

“Tell me one thing before you go—you know, just in case you die.” Kevin crossed his arms over his chest, the black hieroglyphic tats bulging out of his T-shirt.

“What?”

“Why the rush to get down there? There are at least six unsearched chambers up here we still have to get through, and that’s not even scratching the surface of this place.”

I glanced down, the once fully-dark pit slightly illuminated from the lights we had in place. I still couldn’t see to the bottom, but I could picture it clearly in my mind. “Most valuable piece of treasure is down there.”

“You’re certain?”

“Yes.”

He shrugged. “All right, man. Don’t die. I really don’t want to get another job.”

I saluted him and propelled myself off of the rock. Gravity sucked me down, the rope in my right hand sliding quick. I tightened the rope in my left hand, pulling it to slow my momentum, and continued to bounce my way down the cave wall, pressing with my feet, and falling, before returning to the wall to do it all over again. It made fast work of reaching the bottom, and the exhilaration behind the rappel was enough to cover the mounting terror I had at facing what I knew I’d find down there.

Sweat covered my skin in minutes, the temperature increasing the deeper I went, like lowering into a preheated oven. The pressure from the depth squeezed my chest and skull, making each of my bones ache for relief. I swallowed hard to clear my ears, and soon set my feet on the solid ground of the cave floor. I radioed to Kevin that I’d safely made it down before retrieving my water bottle from my pack and draining its contents.

The light on my helmet filled the area before me but wasn’t bright enough to penetrate the darkness that seemed thicker down here, like walking through molasses. I grabbed a handful of glow sticks from my pack and cracked them one by one. I tossed them everywhere I could throw. The neon-green glow filled the area and made the atmosphere eerie, which added to the terror that pumped through my blood in icy chunks. The demons I elected to face down here were my own, but if a ghost haunted this place, he wouldn’t hurt me.

To my right I could see two tunnels that led deeper into the cave, and to my left was nothing but solid rock wall. The same in front and behind me, the place not much bigger than a standard basketball court. I’d refused to look at the ground since my boots found it, and finally, I sucked in a deep breath and let my eyes trail downward.

It didn’t take long to find what I sought.

My gut twisted, threatening to spill everything I’d eaten that morning, and I regretted the water I’d chugged moments before. I tried to keep the tears from coating my eyes, but I couldn’t.

“Oh, Harrison.” I pinched the bridge of my nose in an attempt to hold back the flood of emotions threatening to turn me into a sobbing heap on the stone floor.

The sight of my mentor’s skeleton, the clothes he’d worn that day deteriorated and tangled among his bones, made me feel like I was fourteen again—a scared little boy who’d found hope in the form of this man. He’d changed my life. Repeatedly. And now . . .

I stepped toward him, my feet heavy and louder than I would’ve liked. I crouched down. I’d seen human remains many times on my expeditions, but those were hundreds of years old, at least. And I hadn’t known them. This was gruesomely different.

I had loved this man. Wanted to
be
this man. Had let go of this man.

His skull had a deep crack from his nose to its center, the placement against the cave’s floor suggesting he’d landed on his stomach.

Fuck.
I flinched, the scene that had haunted me daily since it happened replayed in my head with a crystal-clear ending for the first time. Of course I had imagined how the impact had happened, had felt, but now the sensation stung every nerve I had, as if I could reach out and touch Harrison’s death with my own fingers.

“I’m so fucking sorry.” I hovered my hand over his skull, electing to not touch him. I’d spoken to him many times in my head, but being right next to him made me feel like he could actually hear me this time. “I didn’t keep good on my promise. I didn’t take care of her like I should have. I was a coward.”

This pile of broken bones used to be Rain’s father. He’d held her as a baby, taught her to ride a bike, showed her how to be compassionate in the face of adversity. He’d instilled the same values in me . . . and now he was cold, alone, and scraped bare.

I sniffed, sucking back the tears that rolled down my cheeks. “I won’t ask for your forgiveness because I don’t deserve it, but I want you to know how deeply I want to make good on the promise now.”

The light on my helmet shone directly on the pack he’d worn, which was half covered in a pile of rocks that had fallen with Harrison as the bridge had crumbled. I would be down here, too, if I hadn’t let go.

My hands shook as I hefted the rocks off the pack, then heaved the thing into my lap. I brushed off the crumbles of rock and dirt and opened it. I didn’t care about the spare socks I’d had in there, or the extra lights, ropes, and hooks. I pulled out the small wooden box that I’d kept the ring in. A huge crack in the shape of a lightning bolt had split the box half open, but the tiny gold ring with one single emerald in the middle was still intact. Rain didn’t care for diamonds, and I’d selected the green stone—her favorite—in the hopes she wouldn’t mind the non-traditional choice. I’d wanted a ring she’d love to wear every day, because I’d intended her to never take it off.

I stared at what could have been my future had I’d kept good on my word.

“I’m sure you know this already, but we found it together, Harrison. You would’ve been so proud of her. The way she faced the challenges of this expedition head on and made it to the end where we discovered the second chamber. The possibilities are endless here . . . I fucking wish you could see it.”

I slipped the broken box into my pack and pulled out the tarp I’d brought down for this purpose. I didn’t want to wrap him in the plastic, but I couldn’t leave him down here like this. He deserved a proper burial, and Rain deserved the full closure of knowing his casket would no longer be empty. The work hurt every inch of my soul, but I managed to collect the remains that didn’t shatter between my fingers and secured the bundle to the outside of my pack.

Retrieving the glow sticks that had landed in front of the two tunnels, I paused, my curiosity pulsing with need. I clicked the button on my radio. “About to enter a tunnel directly to the right of the landing site.”

“Copy that. Watch your line. Don’t let it get tangled.” Kevin’s voice was static-coated, but I could still hear the anxiousness in it. He was the mother-hen of our crew. My regular camera guy, Lance, would’ve told me to not come up until I had something priceless or was bleeding.

I held in front of me a handful of the glow sticks I’d gathered to add to the light from my helmet as I pushed farther into the tunnel. The pressure in my head increased as the walls grew tighter around me, forcing me to hunch over so my head didn’t hit the top. I kept moving, running my free hand along the wall to stay oriented, until it hit a gap.

Static blared through my radio. “ . . .—ing out . . . line.” Kevin’s voice was broken by the lack of reception.

The gap was large enough to fit through, so I leaned over it and shined my light into the open space. My eyes widened and my stomach dropped at the exact same time.

“Well, I’ll be damned, Harrison. Would you look at that?”

“You’re sure?” Tal asked me outside the cave’s entrance where my crew had set up a work space.

“I wouldn’t have called you here if I wasn’t.” I kept my voice lowered as we spoke huddled away from the rest of my team who were, thankfully, too busy doing their individual tasks to listen to us.

Tal fingered his bushy beard, his eyes lighting up with wonder and a hint of fear. “Is it in a condition to be moved?”

I shook my head. “It’d take several men to move it to a location safe enough to hook it up to a machine strong enough to lift it.”

He sighed, adopting a small pace in front of me. After several moments he glanced at the cave’s entrance and then back to me. “You have full control of these men, yes? And this site?”

I glanced at the work stations in front of the cave. “No one can make a move without my say-so.”

“Good. That is good.” He stood still, his eyes boring into mine. “And you have no need to return to those depths again, yes?”

“No. I got what I went in there for.”

“Then I trust you will report the
lack
of discovery to your team.”

I tilted my head. “Is that what you wish? You aren’t the least bit curious?”

“What man of faith wouldn’t be, Mr. Wells? That is not the point. The greater good of my people, and protecting those of our faith, has been the sole purpose of the
Safeguards
for centuries.”

I sucked in a deep breath, burying my own curiosities deep down where I’d never find them again. I held out my hand, and he took it. “I’m sorry I didn’t find anything, Tal. Maybe on the next one?”

Tal’s ultra-white teeth stood out against his dark caramel skin. “Yes. Until the next one, Mr. Wells.”