But my smile meant that Andrew’s comment had done what it needed to. Looking pleased with himself, he added another stick to the burning pile, sending yellow embers into the dark sky. My heartrate slowly returned to normal as we fell into silence, staring into the darkness and listening to the night creatures’ uninterrupted pulsating chirp. Perhaps whatever had made noise earlier had already left or had never been there in the first place.
“Once we’re back at the hotel and rested, let’s return to our earlier conversation.” Andrew leaned back against the wall and extended his arm, inviting me to snuggle into him. “We can work it out. I like you too much, Adriana Jones, to give up so easily.”
I eased into Andrew’s embrace, and he kissed my temple.
“I like you too,” I said with a yawn. “And if we aren’t eaten tonight by some large animal, we can figureusout later.”
ChapterTwenty-Seven
It was eight in the morning, and the air was humid and quaked with a racket of daytime creatures. There wasn’t a single muscle in my body that wasn’t sore. After Andrew redressed my wound—thankfully, the redness hadn’t passed the blue-inked border—we snuffed out the fire and combatted overgrown vines. Well, he was battling with nature. I was supervising while wearing Andrew’s hat and holding his gun, his backpack at my feet. My lustful eyes devoured Andrew’s broad back and flexing shoulders, every muscle visible under the sweat-drenched fabric as he swung his strong arm, his pleasure-eliciting hands gripping the machete, slicing and severing and tearing through the web of vines and roots.
After Andrew finally carved us a portal into the palace, we turned on our flashlights and climbed over the collapsed archway, its cracked and faceless keystone in the center. Passing through a moss-covered passageway, we entered the inner sanctum that was as much jungle as outside. The structure had no roof, and nature’s canopy above shielded us from the sun and blanketed us with a damp coolness. Giant trees grew out of the floor, their roots crawling across vast blocks of leftover marble slabs. Vines wound over walls and columns, and ferns covered the ground. Dark shadows slithered over every surface, playing tricks with my mind. Snakes, lizards, spiders, and maybe larger animals were clearly long-time tenants of this unfinished alcazar.
My neck hair raised, and I shivered. The damn treasure better be here somewhere.
“Over there is the beginning of the grand staircase.” Andrew pointed at the crumbling stone stairs that twisted and rose across the ascending arch. Twigs and dead layers of leaves crunched under our weight as our feet gingerly tread on the spongy ground. We meandered between rocks, navigated past the stairs, and didn’t stop until we reached an overgrown gateway.
“Do you know where you’re going?” I asked, looking over my shoulder to ensure nothing followed and was about to pounce on us.
“I’m hunting for a way to the basement.” Andrew shone the flashlight into the network of plants. “And this might just be it. Step back.” He swung the machete and severed the hanging roots.
Andrew and I edged around vegetation and trailed through a vaulted passageway with pastiche Romanesque arches. A net of ancient spiderwebs clung to the metal but Andrew waved it away with the machete.
Soon, we approached an opening with narrow stairs leading down. My pulse pounded painfully against my skin, and my brain screamed that climbing above a long-dead skeleton was one thing—it was dead and couldn’t hurt me—but going into a dark basement potentially filled with very much alive killer animals was something else entirely.
“Maybe it’s not there.” I pulled on Andrew’s arm, silently pleading for him to stop. “We should go back.”
The side of Andrew’s mouth curled up. “You slept in a jungle, and now you’re afraid?”
“It would be tough for anybody to carry a chest full of gold down this way.” My fingers dug into Andrew’s skin.
“We’re already here; we can’t leave without checking it out.” He offered the rifle to me. “If you want, stay here. I’ll go and call you if I need you.”
I scoffed.Nope.
He pushed aside a dangling vine, and we descended a circular staircase, inhaling earthy wet soil tang.
We came to a tapered room the size of a sixteen-foot storage container enclosed with granite walls. The floor was strewn with leaves and twigs and as I cast my flashlight over the walls, my heart lurched to my throat. A human skeleton reclined on the ground in the corner next to us, its skull angled, jaw slack.
“Fuck!” I yelped and jumped aside, yanking Andrew with me.
“Christ, Adriana,” Andrew breathed out. “You scared me.”
I clutched my injured hand to my chest. “I scared you? That scared me.” I pointed my flashlight at the sad remains still dressed in blue breeches and a brown vest.
“It’s just a skeleton.” Andrew squatted near the poor fellow and picked up the remains of a black hat with a red band.
“How old is it?”
“Based on what’s left of his uniform, I believe he was a soldados de cuera. A leather-jacket soldier who served in the northern Viceroyalty of New Spain.” Andrew leaned over to examine a musket the skeleton still held. “And this soldier has been here over two centuries. I’m unsure if he was lost or had a reason to come here but…” Andrew placed the hat on the soldier’s lap and stood up. He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into the heat of his chest. “He isn’t harmful,” he said into my hair, before kissing the top of my head.
I didn’t understand how he could be so collected and calm. Maybe it was years of digging where skeletons were buried, or perhaps it was just him. I let out a shuddering breath and slumped into him.
After several minutes, Andrew withdrew and looked at me with a coy smile. “Are you good now?”
Not in the least.
I nodded.
