“What is it?” she whispered.
“I don’t know but must be important if they hid it.” He took out his phone and snapped a picture before reaching in to remove it.
Phoenix held it up, and they had only a moment to admire their discovery before someone said, “I’ll take it from here.”
Chapter Twelve
How hadPhoenix not heard anyone approaching? Missing their scent, he could understand. It had been masked by the burning braziers, but his keen hearing somehow missed their arrival—distracted by Nadirah with her tempting lips.
It could possibly be a fatal mistake, as he and Nadirah faced a trio of hard-looking, armed men, the same ones he’d noticed when scouting the camp earlier that day.
The guy he’d taken to be the archeologist of the group smiled with the pleasantness of a shark about to bite. “Took you long enough to show up.” A worrisome statement, since no one knew they’d be coming.
“Who are you?” Phoenix eyed the older male, obviously not from the region with his perfect English.
“This isn’t a meet-and-greet. Hand over the tablet,” the man ordered, stretching out his hand.
Every fibre in Phoenix wanted to tell this guy to fuck off. Finders, keepers. At the same time, given the way the other two fellows had their guns trained on him—with hard expressions that indicated they’d use them—did he really want to die over an old carving that might not even have any of the answers he sought?
“Want me to give him some incentive, Sarge?” asked the burly fellow with the patchy beard and mustache. Sarge, indicating military, as opposed to doctor, like an actual archeologist.
Sarge’s gaze remained fixed on Phoenix. “Are we doing this the easy or hard way?”
With evidence reluctance, Phoenix held out the artifact, and Sarge snatched it, exclaiming, “My bank account is about to get mighty fat.”
Another clue. Someone had hired him to steal from the ruin. “You know you could say thank you. Without us, you wouldn’t have found it.” Phoenix couldn’t help but sound salty.
“Thank you?” Sarge sneered. “You only got to it first because you stole the key before we could retrieve it.”
Phoenix didn’t make the connection, but Nadirah did and exclaimed, “You were responsible for what happened at the museum?”
“When the stolen artifacts from this ruin surfaced, our employer tasked us with retrieving them.”
“You destroyed the museum,” Nadirah accused.
“Because it was the easiest way to camouflage what we took. And what do you know, it worked. The news is blaming eco terrorists.”
“Who’s your employer?” Phoenix questioned, even as he feared he knew the answer.
“I don’t know who they are, other than someone very interested in all the items found in this ruin.” Sarge paused to give Phoenix a slow smile. “And that includes you. It must be my lucky day, since I not only get a hefty sum for retrieving the artifacts, but I’ll also be collecting the bounty on your head.”
“What bounty?”
“Seems you’re a wanted man. Almost didn’t recognize you. The image posted with the bounty showed you with much shorter hair.”
Most likely because it had been his military headshot. Phoenix’s blood ran cold at the confirmation. “You work for General Davidson.”
“Is that his name?” Sarge shrugged. “I wouldn’t know. Never met the person. Everything was done online, and it seemed simple enough. Retrieve some artifacts at the museum, then scour this ruin for any that might have been missed. Would have been days ago if we’d been able to access this temple, but we lacked the key.”
Sarge reached around Phoenix and snared the box they’d used to unlock the doors and secret hatch.
With gritted teeth, Phoenix clenched his fists, lest he swing. While tempted to act, he remained very much aware of the guns trained on him.
A smirking Sarge waggled the key. “This is what we really went to the museum for. Our employer indicated it had been stolen when the ruin was first discovered.”
“How did you know that?” Nadirah softly asked.
“Because the archeologist who found the ruin took pictures of everything inside. The statues, the batik, the three dead bodies, one of which still clutched the key.”
