He was a liar and a thief, but Pierce smiled anyway, as they pulled into the town where the monastery waited. Melody had fallen asleep hours ago. Her brows twitched against her short bangs. His fingers itched to brush her hair aside, but it wasn’t his place and his hand dropped lamely to his lap.
She wasn’t his to console. Protection was one thing, but when his feelings started moving towards something more than minor flirtation, he redirected his focus back to the artifact.
Olmec treasures were hard to get. The market on them was small – everyone preferred Aztec, Mayan or Toltec treasures – and those who did own Olmec artifacts rarely sold them. Then there was the fucking heartbreaking thought that more Olmec items did exist, but so many early archeologists had mislabeled them as having belonged to some other culture, and the pieces were now locked away.
Well, he’d do his small part in making the world right again by stealing a piece of that history tonight. He looked back over at the beauty to his right. She complicated things, but on the whole, she’d kept his mind occupied. Instead of worrying about saving his ass, he’d fallen into the oddly comforting role of saving hers.
He’d come to Mexico certain that it was the adventures that he missed most about his past life. Turns out, that was only the half of it. He missed saving people too. Pierce rubbed his knee. It felt good to be at the forefront of that again.
“Now who’s smiling?” Melody asked. Her brassy voice was croaked and dry.
“So are you.”
The corners of her droopy lips slowly rose again. “Dreaming of pozol. What’s your excuse?”
“Knowing that I introduced it to you. And...”
She wiped the corners of her mouth and egged him on. “And?”
“And we’re here.”
“Here doesn’t look like much.”
“It wouldn’t. See that building over there? It’s a monastery. The thing I need to take care of is inside.” Her hand dropped as fast as her jaw did. “What?”
“Take care of? Like...” She made pew-pew sounds and pointed her fingers.
“Jesus, Melody, I’m not killing anyone.”
As if every bone in her body had turned to jelly, she folded back onto the seat in open relief. “Good. I mean, ‘cause they’re monks. I’m thinking, what kind of asshole am I with, who’d do something to monks?”
“Yeah.”
“I mean, I’d get if they were some secretly evil monks,” she said with laughter in her voice. “You had me going for a second.”
Yeah. More and more, he wished they were evil too. It’d chip away the guilt a little. He mentally added another five grand to the cash he intended to send to the monastery afterwards. Guilt’s a bitch...with spiky hair. “So, look I’ll be right back.”
“Wait, you’re walking up there? It’s gotta be a mile away.”
“Half a mile and it’s the middle of the night. This place is surrounded by lights and protections. I come rolling up there in this loud jeep and everyone wakes up,” he said, shrugging on a black backpack that included his gun, a backup gun, tranquilizers and every anti counter-theft device known to man.
“But they are expecting you.”
“Of course. Look, they’ve got lauds at three in the morning. I figured I’d give them a few extra minutes of sleep. Like I said, they’re good—”
“Lauds?”
“Morning prayers. These guys are up from three in the morning, all the way until nine at night. It’s only the one guy I need to meet anyway. He’s meeting me at the hostelry a bit off grounds. Go back to sleep, okay? It might take me about forty minutes to finish up.”
“I don’t even want to know how you know that.” Her eyes scrunched in confusion, but she nodded against the headrest and her lids swooped back down. In the cool light of day and with a clear head, no way would she have bought the full load of shit he’d just thrown at her. But her exhaustion was on his side. As long as he was back here safe and sound and they were off to handle her business before sunrise, she’d never have to know the truth.