“What is it?” she whispered. Silly question—he couldn’t see any more than she could.
He didn’t make her feel stupid for asking, though. “Don’t know. The Leonidas team is still in Flores—I checked in with them this morning.” He looked back at her. “Whoever it is, they’re headed the same direction we are.”
The bite of food in her mouth turned to thick paste and she drank water to help swallow it. The picture of Christine being shoved against the car flashed through her mind.
She’d been so selfish, so caught up in the adventure and idea of finding the answer to the riddle, she’d forgotten about the danger they might be facing.
Shane tilted her head up with a finger under her chin. “Hey. Don’t do that. It could be a coincidence. There are a lot of places that helicopter could be going.”
Kinley swallowed hard. “What if I’m making the wrong decision? What if by not going to the authorities, I’ve put Christine in even more danger?”
He pulled her into a hug, his arms around her shoulders. She wrapped her arms low around his hips and rested her head on his chest. Why didn’t he smell like he’d been trudging through the jungle for hours after having hot monkey sex?
“Paige has a team back in Charleston looking into it and tracking down the information we were able to give them. They’ll find answers faster than the local authorities will. That being said, we can turn back anytime you want to.”
“Am I completely deluded to think we can do this?”
“No, you’re not,” he said.
“What are we even going to do if we find anything?”
“Well, I don’t know what the proper procedures are, but we take pictures and send them back to Leonidas. Our IT person is scary smart and she’ll be able to figure out who should get them.”
She nodded her head. That made sense. Or maybe it was complete bullshit, but she wanted to be convinced.
“Can I ask you something?” Shane asked.
Her stomach flipped for reasons that had nothing to do with her worries. “Of course.”
“What do you want to get out of this?”
Did he mean the two of them or finding the ruins? “What do you mean by this?”
“Finding this temple or whatever it is.”
Ah, so not them this. She hid her disappointment by turning her face further into his chest. “People don’t take me seriously. They take one look at me and assume I couldn’t possibly know what I’m talking about. How could I? I’m too pretty to be smart.” She couldn’t hide the bitterness in her voice.
“Has someone actually said that to you?”
“That or some version of it. Christine sent out an email to the team letting them know I’d translated the Lago Azul. One of the PhDs responded that there was no wayIcould have deciphered it because I didn’t have the education or experience. He didn’t realize I was in the cc line.”
“That guy’s a dick.”
She huffed out a small laugh. “Yeah. Which is why I want to prove him wrong. My translations are going to be important—I just want the chance to prove it.”
Shane didn’t respond for several moments. Had she shared too much? Did he think she was too ambitious and out of her league?
“Here’s what we’re going to do,” he said. “We’re going to get to that temple or house or whatever it is and you’re going to translate the hell out of it and then we’ll find that PhDick and you can shove it in his face.”
Kinley laughed and pulled away. “I like that plan.”
“But.” His face grew serious. “If I think the threat is too high, we’re going back to the village and I’m calling the team in to get us. Okay?”
“Okay.” Her pride wasn’t worth her life.
“You ready to go again?”
Hitching on the straps of her pack, she shifted its weight higher on her hips. “Let’s do it.”
