At nine in the morning the sun already beat down with merciless power. To keep from burning her skin to a crisp, Liz was wearing a long sleeve shirt and jeans. As a concession to the heat, the front buttons were open, exposing the thin t-shirt beneath. A flat-crowned straw hat, the brim pulled low to shield her eyes, protected her head and on her feet she wore leather boots to keep out any small critters that might lurk in the dirt and rocks at the washout’s bottom.
She and Zac had already been at the site for an hour. They’d come early to work in the relative cool of early morning. They’d take a break and find shade when the sun was at its highest, then snatch a few more hours as when afternoon eased toward night and the heat dissipated.
They were mapping the skeleton, analyzing the rock to see how friable it was, and how difficult it would be to remove the bones. At this point they weren’t actively trying to identify the creature, but Liz was keeping a sharp lookout for clues. She desperately wanted to find the head. It was the key and so far, not in evidence. Somehow, over the millennia, it had been separated from the rest of the body. Without it the find would be interesting, particularly if it appeared to be a new species, but not definitive.
Figuring out where the animal had died was an important step. If it was in an ancient streambed, water could have washed the skull away from the body. If it was on land, it might be close by and just a matter of clearing away some of the hillside not exposed by the washout.
The creature, whatever it was, was one of the giants that lived at the end of the dinosaur era. It had large bones and strong hind legs. The neck was medium length, which meant that it wasn’t one of the long-necked sauropods, but it might be one of the other herbivore species. Or it might be a carnivore. Now that would be exciting.
“Iguanodon family,” Zac said, standing back to look at the whole creature, not just the rib cage where Liz was busy taking measurements.
“Possibly,” she said. “I’m not ready to make a prediction yet.”
“Unless we find the head, it’s most likely that the final decision will be made in the lab. I’ll let you know before we publish.” He smiled when he said that, the cruel baring of teeth showing Liz that the jab was deliberate.
Creep, she thought. She hoped Mike Edmonds had thought to instruct his lawyer to include lab rights in his contract demands, because if the creature went back to Scarr’s lab, he’d take all the credit for its find and the analysis of the remains. That was certainly the way Zac was thinking, and equally clearly, he planned to be part of the lab team.
She didn’t reply. She kept her eyes on the dinosaur bones and tried to imagine what the area would have been like when this creature had lived. Over in the valley where Scarr was camped they’d found evidence that showed that 70 million years ago, this whole area had been on the edge of a waterway and covered in vegetation. There would have been plenty of food and water for the herbivores and lots of herbivores to feed hungry carnivores. Wouldn’t it be great if this creature was a rare carnivore, not one of the many herbivores? Carnivore finds were unusual because the animals were apex feeders. In life they were few. In death they were almost never found.
“You’re right. I shouldn’t jump to conclusions. This might be a hadrosaur. Or even a parasaurolophus,” Zac said, taunting.
“Yup,” Liz said, and went back to her envisioning of an ancient world. No matter how brutal that distant time might have been, she figured it couldn’t be much worse than working with the hyper-competitive Zac Doyle.
The sound of a truck engine, no, many truck engines, had her stepping back and straightening. She arched her back and stretched as she turned toward the sound, which was coming from the direction of Highway 25 on Mike Edmonds’ side of the rift.
“Sounds like the guy’s brought an army,” Zac muttered.
Liz glanced over at him. He looked a little worried. As well he might, since he was checking out the hind end of the creature, strictly on Mike’s side of the permit line. If Edmonds caught Zac at it, he’d be annoyed, if not worse.
The engines died as trucks parked. Men and women swarmed out of cabs and started to pull gear out of the backs. Liz decided to climb up to the edge on Mike’s side of the rift. Not only would she be able to find out why he had brought such a big crew, but she’d be able to leave Zac Doyle behind. No small blessing, that.
She picked out Mike immediately. It wasn’t just that he was tall—there were other tall men in his crew—or that his broad shoulders and slim hips stood out from the others. It was the way the mob of people reacted to him that identified him. They looked to him for direction, which he gave with good humor and attention to detail, no matter how small the query was. His crew was clearly used to him taking command and they were comfortable letting him have it.
She watched as he sent a large group away from the rim. The direction puzzled her, until she saw them placing stakes and realized that they were setting up a campground. A smaller group was wrestling with what looked like high tech equipment. That was even more puzzling. Liz couldn’t find an answer. Mike and a skinny, quite young, male fell into a discussion. The male pointed in the direction of the skeleton and Mike turned.
Liz knew the moment his gaze fell upon her, because her whole body tingled. She swallowed hard. She was being ridiculous. His eyes were shaded by sunglasses and he was busy with whatever he was doing. He wasn’t actually looking at her, but at the find. That was all. She was imagining that he was staring at her, that there was a mutual punch of awareness between them. Wishful thinking.
No, not wishful. Indulgent. She had a career to make. She didn’t have time to fall into a relationship. With this man, or any other.
She walked toward him, setting a deliberate pace. Now that he had seen her it wouldn’t do to linger at the edges of whatever he was up to. She was Scarr’s representative on the dig. She’d needed to make her presence known and her position clear.
As she neared he nodded to the skinny kid and turned away from him, to watch her approach. A smile, slow, lazy, sensual, curled his lips. “Dr. Hamilton, I thought I’d find you here.”
She nodded, wary of the promise in that smile. “You have a pretty big crew with you.” A statement, but also a question. Why?
The smile lingered as he looked down at her. She wished she could see his eyes. He nodded toward the skinny kid. “I’m setting up a dino cam to cover the dig. It will live stream from Discovering Dinos’ website once we are underway. Anyone who wants to tune in and watch us in action, can.”
She frowned and looked down into the rife where the kid was pacing about framing angles with his hands. Zac had abandoned the hindquarters and was watching him warily. “Like the camera that documented the birth of some eagles in Florida a couple of years ago?”
Mike nodded. The sensual curve of his lips quirked up into amusement. “Josh—that’s the kid I was talking to—is a computer whiz. He’ll do all the technical set up. My video director will actually arrange the camera angles.”
“Your video director?”
That lazy smile returned as he turned his attention back to her. “Hmmm. I’ve also brought the head of my paleo team. His name is Will Lavery. You’ll meet him later. He’s going to explore the rift to see if there are any more remains that might be interesting.”
Will Lavery. The name struck a bell, but at the moment Liz couldn’t place the reference. She decided not to worry about it. “A good plan. I was going to do something similar down at my end.”
“I thought you might,” Mike said. There was a bit of mockery in his tone, but there was also approval. He did a half turn so he could point to the busy individuals setting up the camp area. “I like to keep my crew close to the dig. Saves time and makes it easier for everyone involved.”
“Makes sense,” she said. She thought about long hours in one of Scarr’s trucks, driving back and forth with Zac Doyle. The mental image wasn’t appealing.
“I’ve got an extra tent for you, if you want.”
She pulled her gaze away from the builders, to look back up into his face. “What did you say?”
His mouth quirked. “You heard me.”
She couldn’t tell what he was thinking with those sunglasses shielding the expression in his eyes. “Take your glasses off.”
After a moment, he slowly did as she asked.
“You offered me a tent. Why?”
“You are suspicious, aren’t you?” There was amusement in his voice, but it was also there in his eyes, along with a warmth that was almost a caress.
The expression affected her in ways she couldn’t allow. She swallowed hard, tamping down a stupid softening that had no place at this career-making dig. “We’re enemies, Mr. Edmonds. You don’t usually invite the enemy into your camp. It’s dangerous.”
“It could be,” he murmured. “But I don’t see us as enemies. Adversaries, perhaps, but not enemies.”
She waved that away impatiently. “Semantics. Dr. Scarr does not see this as a cooperative venture.”
“How do you see it, Dr. Hamilton?” His voice was silky, the amusement still there in his eyes. He was enjoying this.
How did she see it? How did she see him? She looked into those warm hazel eyes and thought about the night in his truck. He’d been protective, but respectful; commanding, but not overbearing. If she let him know where she stood now, she thought, he’d honor her position for the rest of the dig.
“Equals, but not partners.” She watched his eyes, caught the arrested look there. “Not yet, at least.”
“Well, well, well,” he murmured. “An interesting answer. Not one I’d expected. The tent is still yours, Dr. Hamilton. If you want it.”
That last statement sounded like a challenge and had something wild taking flight inside her. She went with her gut and nodded. “Thank you, I’ll take you up on your offer.”
He flashed her a grin that set that wild creature fluttering. “Good. We’ll probably be able to move in the day after tomorrow. Bring your gear.”
She swallowed hard and scrambled for someway to break the spell he’d put on her with a few words and a killer smile. “What about Zac?”
The smile hardened, then disappeared. “Not invited.” He turned away, leaving her to wonder if sleeping with the enemy really was such a good idea.