At a table on the beach, Alex used the satellite antenna to check a package-tracking website on his laptop and swore. The order of jewelry he’d put in for Elaina still sat in customs. How many weeks did it take them to clear one carton? More likely, someone had confiscated the necklaces and bracelets for themselves.
Thank God he’d given her the ruby pendant just before they’d left. Hopefully, she’d be okay until he could have another package delivered. If that one disappeared as well, he’d have someone’s head. Maybe several someones’.
Other than that hiccup to his plan, one day of their trip melded into the next with a comfortable routine. He wasn’t sure why, but in addition to snorkeling, relaxing on the beach, and sailing on the Revenge, Elaina frequently wanted to visit the ruins of the main house on the exposed hill at the north end of the island. If she was disappointed in their cottage and wished for nicer accommodations, she never said so directly. Instead, she’d settle on the intact deck and look out over the water below the ridge. Perhaps she simply liked the view.
This afternoon, while he turned to catching up on emails, a hollow look crept over her face. “I’m going to search for pirate treasure.”
“We’re in the right place for it. This area was pirate central.”
He paused mid-chuckle. Something about her expression seemed more serious than just a whim.
“You’ve felt some out there.” He closed his computer and leaned forward. “Where?”
She pivoted her laptop, showing him a satellite image of the island. “Here’s the main house, almost centered on the bluff at the north end.” She traced the northern shoreline. “This is all rocky, not like the beaches along the other sides. If someone had been searching for an easy place to bury something, they’d have dug into the soft sand. But this...” Her finger poked at the north coast. “This would have been harder. The question then becomes, why here?”
That explained why she’d wanted to hang out at the ruins of the main house so often. “A cave?”
Even in the bright sunlight, brilliant blue flared in her eyes. “Maybe. It’d have to be pretty hidden for no one to have noticed it though.”
“How much do you think is there?”
“I don’t know. Even though I’ve been concentrating on it for weeks, the impression I have is still weak. But if someone went through a lot of trouble to hide it, their intention would make the location as strong and protected as a safe. So even though whatever is there has long been abandoned, I can’t summon it without being closer.”
“Good.” He flashed her a wink. “We wouldn’t want this to be too easy.”
Within the hour, Alex had the Revenge anchored in the water north of the island. The promise of adventure shone like the swords of light that cut across the water every night, five flashes every fifteen seconds, from the lighthouse in Hope Town. In contrast to his eagerness, Elaina perched at the boat’s edge and seemed more agitated than excited, her brows etching her forehead.
“This is the place, but I don’t see any openings. Do you?”
“No, but now that we’re closer, can you summon whatever’s there?” At her headshake, he tugged on the anchor rode’s rope. The line’s tension confirmed the anchor’s flukes were well set. “I’ll take a closer look.”
He dove into the water and swam toward the rocky shore. The solid mass of boulders at the foot of the cliff made it impossible to climb around without twisting an ankle. A half hour of swimming back and forth in front of the area Elaina had indicated revealed nothing even close to resembling an opening in the rock face.
Elaina’s tight expression as she kept watch from the Revenge didn’t improve when he spun toward her and shook his head. And with the tide moving out, they’d be driven farther from the cliff unless they decided to chance scrambling over the rocks at the base.
He returned to the first boulder he’d stopped near to gauge how fast the water level was dropping. Instead of seeing other rocks exposed near the surface, as he’d expected, waves lapped under the boulder. Under?
He sank below the surface to investigate. The mass of boulders at the shoreline had appeared solid because they were solid, a shelf of bumpy bedrock sticking out from the shore.
A minute later, water dripped from his limbs onto the Revenge’s deck. He balanced against the rolling waves and hopped into the cockpit area beside Elaina.
“Let’s wait for the tide to go down more. Waves have eroded the bedrock under that ledge of boulders. It’s possible an underwater cave opening is somewhere along there.”
“An underwater cave?” She bounced on her toes. “That would explain why no one’s discovered it yet. Especially if it’s set back from the shoreline and hiding in the shadows.”
“That’s my thought.”
She circled her arms around his neck and kissed him. Really kissed him. Tongue caressing, hands wandering, soft moaning type of kissing him.
Startled, he took a second to respond in kind. She hadn’t kissed him like that recently, and he struggled to figure out when things had changed.
They’d had the confrontation in the closet and the difficult travel a couple of weeks back, but she’d seemed normal after they arrived. Hadn’t she?
But now that he thought about it, she’d slowly become more withdrawn. So slowly that he hadn’t noticed it until now.
She leaned back and gave him the radiant smile he’d missed. “You’re brilliant.”
“I have to find some way to help you get treasure while we’re here.”
A shadow crossed her features so quickly he would have missed it if he’d blinked.
His grasp tightened on her hips. “Why didn’t you tell me how bad it had gotten?”
“I did. Why do you think I mentioned taking those earrings weeks ago? Just to be difficult?”
His chest constricted, forcing a sour taste up the back of his throat. If the fatigue on her face and the slump of her shoulders didn’t give it away, the dull, un-shimmery reflections off her skin made it clear. As if that wasn’t enough evidence, her natural hair colors under the brunette shade she’d chosen for their stay here were pale and lethargic in their movement.
Whatever the signs were of a deathly ill dragon, she was displaying them. And he’d missed every warning.
All this work to keep her safe was killing her slowly. Despite his planning with the jewelry package, nothing had worked out, and he’d failed her again.
“That’s why you’ve been sleeping with your lockbox at your back. And being in my arms at night hasn’t helped you recover?”
“No.” Her weight shifted from one foot to the other. “I think something about your proposal or my rejection of it broke whatever bond we had that was providing energy.”
“Broke our bond?” His heart cracked, and the pieces plummeted into his churning gut. The weight behind his ribs squeezed his lungs so tightly he barely got enough air to put voice to his questions. “So you’d claimed me before, and now you’ve given up your claim?” Shivers crawled up his arms. “I’m not yours anymore?”
“I don’t know.” She pinned her arms against her stomach, adding distance between them. “I just know that a bunch of my energy drained away, and the travel in the cold stole the rest.”
For a moment, her admission hurt even worse than her claim in the garage that she didn’t love him. Hurt bad enough that he questioned whether trying to maintain a relationship with a dragon was worth it. Logically, between the effect on his companies and the effort to deal with her father, he should be questioning whether it made sense.
Just as quickly, his body answered with a compulsion his mind couldn’t ignore. Maybe there would be a point where the trouble wasn’t worth it, but he wasn’t there yet. Good or bad, she was his obsession.
“Don’t worry, I’ll fix this. If I’d known it had gotten this bad, I’d have put in ten orders for jewelry, so at least one of them would make it through. We can head back, and I’ll do that right now.”
No, that would take too long. His skin itched under the evaporating seawater with the urge to take action immediately.
“Or I’ll fight to keep you safe instead of hiding out here, find a way to prevent you from starving. Something.”
“You can’t be serious.” She stepped back out of his hold. “See? This is why I didn’t bring it up again. All you can think about is taking on more danger and risk when it would make the most sense for me to just leave until this blows over.”
“Not an option.” The fact that she’d kept him in the dark mattered more than her point. “You should have told me. We need to know we can trust each other.”
“Right. Because you didn’t lie to me for two months and have been completely honest with me about the effect all of this has had on your companies.”
His body went so still the waves against the side of the boat sounded loud enough to be slaps. He couldn’t deny a word she said. And the worst thing was that he’d lost her trust for nothing—he’d failed. Nothing he’d done had helped her live without fear.
“I do regret lying to you about the deal with the scumbag, more than you would believe. About as much as I regret failing to keep my promise.”
“And what about the lying now?”
He tried to control his expression, but she saw through it, her brows arching high. He’d managed to keep up with voicemails, emails, and meetings, but in reality, his companies were at the mercy of the stock market. Any moment, the market might frown on his leadership—or lack of it—which would affect his companies’ stock value. Even though he’d diversified his holdings over the years, he wouldn’t be able to fix solvency problems from here for the stockholders or the employees.
“I didn’t want you to worry.”
“Uh-huh. Why does that excuse work for you and not for me?” Her shoulders rolled back, emphasizing her resolve. “I don’t want you to worry about me hiding out on my own while you get back to work. You can’t take an indefinite vacation, and I won’t let you destroy your life for me.”
“I said no.”
In his peripheral vision, he saw his hands had lifted instinctively, ready to...
He didn’t know what. Restrain her? Or worse? His control when it came to her was nonexistent. If that was supposed to be a sign he should let her go, he refused to listen.
He clenched and unclenched his fists and picked up his snorkel gear. “I’m going to take a look. I’ll let you know if I see anything.”
Water slipped over his body, his dive carrying him below the waves. The flowing liquid contrasted with his solidifying determination.
He would win her back. He would earn her “claim” again. He would get this treasure for her.