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CHAPTER

11

THE SUN WAS ALMOST UNBEARABLE, but the journey was exciting nonetheless. Cal had read about how hot deserts could get, but reading about it and experiencing it were two different things. The temperature came close to that of the jungles of Mexico, but unlike Mexico’s moist air, the dry heat of the Sahara seared down his throat and into his lungs whenever he breathed in too deeply.

Jeff had broken off from the road awhile back, and they were making their way across the desert. Cal was spending most of the ride looking through the lens of his camera, letting his mind wander the landscape. But even thousands of miles from home, his thoughts weren’t far from Sophie. They’d said their goodbyes, but their argument had still been a pile of hot, glowing embers when he’d left.

Maybe he should have regretted his decision to come here, but he had needed to get away, to go someplace different, someplace that carried a real potential for danger to spike his adrenaline. And given the look of the vast, open space around him, he was certain he’d come to the right place.

The land itself could be life-threatening, if not respected. And that was the case without giving credibility to superstitions and the possibility of ancient curses. It was hard to shake Sophie’s harsh reaction to his going and not let it dampen his excitement. Maybe it was because she’d made some valid points, the foremost of which being that his adventures had almost gotten them both killed. Not that he needed her to remind him of that.

He’d countered with the fact that they had money because of his adventures. But what he thought had been a strong defense backfired. She said that was all the more reason not to go. She failed to grasp that his primary motivation for going on expeditions was that they made him happy. And her not understanding that, even after all their years together, cut him the deepest. Her previous claim that she was happy as long as he was happy had sunk with the weight of hypocrisy.

He hated that all this was making him question the stability of their relationship. But how could he marry someone who didn’t respect and appreciate his choices, his dreams? Maybe he was seeing things too black-and-white. She didn’t need to agree with everything he said or did. And given their history, that had never been the case. Life would be rather boring if they never saw things from different perspectives. What ate at him the most was how his going on expeditions had become an increasingly sore subject. Heck, there were times he felt as though he had to hide how much he loved them, as if she’d take it as him loving her less.

But he did appreciate how his decisions affected Sophie, and if they ever had children, it would affect them, too. Yet, he’d always returned home safely in the past, and he had no intention of changing that this time around. Of course, people typically didn’t intend to die.

“You’re awfully quiet back there,” Robyn said, cutting through his musings.

Cal had heard her and Jeff talking away, but most of their conversation had been a drone in the background.

“I’m just doing what I’m here for.” He kept his camera in place, thankful for the portal of escape it provided. It allowed him to hide his emotions from the rest of the world and delve into his work.

“Guess we’ll have a lot of shots of sand,” Jeff said in an easygoing manner.

Sure, the terrain was sand, but it wasn’t without its beauty. The sunlight refracted off the surface, making it look like a sea of diamonds. He also loved how the heat visibly coursed through the air like strands of ribbon on the horizon line. And while he preferred to take photos while standing still, his camera was one of the best money could buy and enabled him to take high-quality shots on the move. Adjusting the shutter speed was only one part of it.

Sweat trickled down the side of his face and had him lowering the camera to wipe it away. In the front seat, Robyn was fanning herself with her hand.

“You realize that will only make you hotter,” Cal tossed out.

She stopped moving and looked back at him, narrowing her eyes.

Cal held up his free hand. “I’m just saying…”

She went back to fanning herself.

Cal returned to looking at their surroundings. There really wasn’t much to see besides sand. “One could easily get lost out here.”

“And you should know all about that.” Robyn smiled at him over her shoulder.

“Really?” He felt himself stiffen. “You’re going there?”

“When we were retrieving an artifact from India, this guy—” she jacked a thumb over a shoulder at him “—tells us to go a certain way and… Why don’t you tell the rest, Cal?”

You make one mistake…

Cal rolled his eyes and took a steadying breath. He saw that Jeff was looking at him in the rearview mirror.

“You’re leaving out something rather important to begin with, don’t you think?” Cal raised his brows.

“Fill us in,” Robyn prodded, seeming to enjoy having fun at his expense.

“Come on. Don’t be shy,” Jeff prompted.

“Guys were shooting at us.” Cal was sick of telling this story, but he obliged anyhow. “So it wasn’t exactly like we were calmly standing around taking in the scenery, when Robyn and Matthew asked me which way we should go.”

“Oh, you remember things a little differently.” Robyn turned and pointed at him. “I don’t remember us asking. I just remember you telling us.”

“Potato, potahto.” He was tempted to just lift his camera again and ignore this conversation.

“Okay, so tell Jeff where you led us.” Robyn was unyielding, and for fun or not, it was starting to tick him off.

“You could have suggested another route,” Cal pointed out.

“But we trusted you.”

“Humph.” Cal waited a few beats, and given the silence, it was apparent both Robyn and Jeff expected him to continue. “I led us to a dead end.”

Robyn was smiling and picked up the story. “So we’re being fired at, as Cal said, and our only options are to surrender the artifact they’re after and hope we’ll be extended mercy or take a flying leap.”

“A flying leap?” Jeff’s voice became animated, his eyes wide in the rearview mirror.

“That’s right,” Robyn confirmed. “He led us to a steep ravine that dropped off to white water below.”

Jeff gasped. “What happened?”

“We went with the flying-leap option.” Robyn laughed.

“Hey, that was Matthew’s choice.” And Cal had experienced nightmares for months. He swore it had been a touch of PTSD.

“Potato, potahto,” she volleyed back at Cal.

Jeff looked over at Robyn and back at Cal in the mirror again. “Seems it turned out all right, though. You’re here to tell about it.”

“Yep.” Cal certainly wasn’t bringing up the night terrors or the fact that it had taken him awhile to forgive Matthew.

“Do you guys normally attract danger? I read all about your expedition for the City of Gold. It was your girlfriend who was abducted, wasn’t it?”

Cal was reluctant to confirm it, and he hated that Jeff knew it had been Sophie. They’d tried to keep her name out of the media, even utilized Mayor Connor’s clout, but their efforts had failed. Sophie had told him how hard it was seeing her name immortalized in print attesting to her ordeal. Cal figured it had made her healing a longer process. Eventually, he nodded.

“You all got lucky,” Jeff said.

Lucky… Luck was an uncontrollable variable but one he was thankful for nonetheless. He could have lost the love of his life. But he hadn’t. And how did he show the universe—show Sophie—his gratitude? He ran straight back into danger. Not straight exactly, as time had lapsed, but maybe this should be his last expedition. The thought dropped like a rock in the pit of his stomach.

He lifted his camera back up to his face, and as he looked out the lens, he began breathing a little easier. There certainly was something peaceful and calming about viewing the world through a camera. For him, it was therapy, and for now, he’d take it.