Chapter 2

Nyx Templeton stared down at the paper in front of her and then back at her teammates. Ellis Vandenhoff was a wunderkind who'd gotten a doctorate in art history before turning twenty-four, but despite how book smart she was, she'd been sheltered and lacked street smarts. She even looked waifish with her pale blonde hair and big blue eyes.

Francesca Lewis had long auburn hair and deep blue eyes. The team leader and an archivist, she was the one pulling together the data that Nyx and Ellis would act on. It was obvious that Frankie believed in this so-called decoded message as much as Ellis did.

Glancing back down, Nyx reread the words scrawled in Frankie's handwriting: Hidden high. Hidden low. Secrets deep. Ruins. San Isidro .

Random words that made a kind of sense. That's all this was. It seemed it was up to her to bring the reality check. But both women looked so excited. Nyx walked to the kitchenette, pulled a can of soda from the fridge, and sipped at it to buy herself time.

With a quiet sigh, she returned to the table.

"Well?" Ellis demanded as soon as Nyx sat down.

She hated to be the killjoy, but someone needed to be the voice of reason. "I think that while this is an interesting theory, this is only a collection of words that make sense by chance, not design."

"I believe there's a code in Mother Bonifacia Emilia's diary," Frankie said, and there was no mistaking her conviction.

"There might be," Nyx said slowly, "but I don't think this is the solution."

Ellis's smile crashed, but Frankie merely appeared curious. "Why do you think that?"

"Because archaeologists worked those ruins for years," Nyx said, sliding the paper back to Frankie. "If the treasure was hidden there, they would have discovered something."

"The ruins were overgrown," Frankie said. "The archaeological team could only explore a small portion of them before they were forced to quit."

"The ruins were overgrown when the captain who stole the Treasure of Trujillo was looking for a place to hide it. Simply reaching the area in the 1820s would have been difficult for him and do you believe he'd want to risk getting bit or stung by something living in the vegetation? I wouldn't. Not when there were easier places to hide it."

"Would those places have been as effective?" Ellis asked.

"Probably," Nyx said quietly. "And easier for the thieves to access when they wanted to recover it. Think about it. If they had to make a quick escape, how would they travel to the ruins, recover the treasure, and still get out of the country? It's a ninety-minute-plus drive today with modern roads and cars. Back then?" She shrugged and took another sip of her soda.

"Why don't we call Archer?" Frankie suggested.

Sure, bring their boss into it. Nyx was a contractor, and she couldn't rock the boat too hard. "Okay," she agreed.

Frankie took out her new cell phone, tapped the screen, and placed it on the table. Nyx half-expected that one day Archer would answer the phone with hello, angels , but their boss wasn't that much fun. "What can I do for you, Francesca?" he asked when he came on the line.

"Nyx and Ellis are here, too," Frankie said.

"What's necessitated a conference call?"

Frankie explained why she believed it was worth checking out the ruins and summarized Nyx's position on why it wasn't a worthwhile use of time. "Did I miss anything?" Frankie asked, looking across the table to meet her gaze.

"No," Nyx said, "I think you fairly represented my reservations."

"What do you think, Archer?" Frankie asked.

There was a long moment of silence as Archer considered the question. "I believe," he said slowly, "that Nyx is correct and there won't be anything to find there."

"Would it hurt for us to look? Maybe we'll get lucky," Ellis said.

"Yes," Frankie said with a nod. "One of us might spot something for Nyx to examine more closely."

Nyx stiffened. Ellis would be a liability at the ruins, and even Frankie would likely be a hindrance. She liked Frankie and respected her abilities, but her idea of roughing it was drinking warm bottled water. Babysitting her two teammates while looking for a needle in a haystack was too much.

"If you think I should go," Nyx said, "it would be better if I went alone. The terrain is too rough for Ellis or Frankie."

Both women immediately disagreed.

"Frankie, Ellis, there's too much to be done in Trujillo for you to leave." Archer's voice brought silence. "However, it wouldn't hurt for Nyx to take a reconnaissance trip. If she sees something worth investigating further, we'll regroup then."

Archer was going to send her out on the off chance there was something there and that she could identify it without a lidar scan. She liked ruins. She'd taken a side trip out to visit some near Rosario as a tourist activity, but the authorities maintained those as a heritage site. She hadn't needed to slog through the rainforest to look at them. It would be a different story at the Huarona ruins.

She was tough. Her dad and brother had made sure she could take care of herself in circumstances far beyond what most families considered normal. It didn't matter. Nyx still didn't want to deal with the critters that inhabited the rainforest.

"Maybe my time would be better spent helping Frankie and Ellis research," Nyx said.

Archer immediately nipped that attempt in the bud. "Drive out tomorrow, spend the night at the inn in San Isidro, and then examine the ruins on Saturday. If you find something?—"

"I won't."

Archer continued without pause, "—call me and we'll discuss."

"And when I find nothing?"

There was amusement in Archer's voice as he said, "Then spend another night at the inn and return early the following day. I don't want you driving at night through the rainforest, am I clear?"

"Clear," Nyx said glumly.

"I still think that Ellis and I should go with Nyx," Frankie said.

"No." Archer's one word in that tone meant the discussion was finished. "Francesca," he said, "I know you mean well, but you and Ellis will distract Nyx from her job."

"We can help Nyx with her job," Ellis said.

Nyx braced herself, afraid Archer would say something about her teammates not being up to hiking through the rainforest, but he was smarter than that.

"Do you believe Nyx is incapable of doing her assignment without your assistance?" As far as manipulation went, it wasn't particularly subtle, but it worked on Ellis.

"I'm sorry, Nyx," the blonde said. "I didn't mean any offense."

"It's okay. None taken."

"Is everything settled?" Archer asked. When he had acknowledgments from the three of them, he ended the call.

There was a long moment of silence before Nyx said, "I better find somewhere that rents four-wheel-drive vehicles. I don't know how bad the roads will be once I'm off the paved highway."

"Nyx," Frankie said, "I don't think you should make this trip alone no matter what Archer said."

"I'll be fine," she said with more confidence than she felt. "The archaeologists who worked there created paths and cut back the undergrowth. It won't be that bad."

Frankie arched one perfect brow. "Do you seriously expect me to believe you're going to stroll to the ruins? After you argued with Archer that it was too strenuous for us?"

Nyx stiffened. She hated— hated —being accused of lying. She hadn't said anything that wasn't true.

"I didn't say it would be a stroll. I said it wouldn't be that bad." She heard the defensiveness in her voice and suppressed a wince. Trying for a more level tone, she added, "That bad for me . I do hikes like this for fun."

"You have a strange idea of a good time." Frankie said, shaking her head. "You know this country is in disarray."

Nyx nodded. Puerto Jardin was one crisis after another, but the civil war was hundreds of miles away from San Isidro and the ruins. Of course, there were still illegal mining and logging operations, not to mention drug lords, arms dealers, and mercenaries. The image of a blond man with blue eyes flashed in her memory. She'd shared a table with him for maybe twenty minutes yesterday. He should be easy to put out of her mind.

Only he wasn't.

She remembered him at odd moments, and the urge to head back to the market and see if she could run into him again was strong. If Frankie hadn't begun her discussion about secret codes, Nyx might have given in to the temptation. Something about him got to her, and she didn't like it.

Frankie and Ellis were watching her and Nyx brought her mind back to the present. "It's a ninety-minute drive, maybe a little longer. I won't even need to stop for gas. It'll be fine."

Frankie nodded but continued to look unsure. "Call me when you arrive. Call me when you leave for the ruins. Call me when you return from the ruins. Call me before you leave to drive back to?—"

Belatedly, Nyx realized Frankie hadn't accused her of lying. She was worried. With a laugh, Nyx said, "I'll call, Frankie. I'll call you so much, I'll drive you crazy. Relax, okay?"

She headed out of the room. Her smile faded as soon as she closed the door to her bedroom behind her. San Isidro. From what she'd heard of the town, it was safe enough, but it was still Puerto Jardin.

Her friends would laugh over the research she'd done on the country, especially the area around Trujillo, but Nyx didn't believe in taking chances. She wanted to know what she'd be walking into.

As it stood, if either her dad or her brother discovered she'd traveled here, they'd lose their shit. And if they found out she'd eaten lunch with a merc…

Nyx felt her body heat and shook her head. Damn, maybe traveling to San Isidro wasn't a bad thing. At least it would keep her from doing something stupid, like searching for tall, blond, and sexy.