“Could you please bring a mango nectar for my brother?” I said to the young lady, pointing at the empty seat. “He’s running late.”
She nodded and then left. Andrew cleared his throat. “I don’t need to open the chest,” he said, defeat tinging his voice.
“Why not?” I added a splash of cream and a spoonful of sugar to my coffee. Worry burned a hole in my gut. What did it mean for our deal?
“Augustine commissioned several types of bracelets—some for chests and the rest for other purposes. After a further comparison of Dr. Garcia’s research papers and mine, we detected the cryptanalyst’s errors and concluded that they had deciphered the letters incorrectly. Augustine meant ‘a trusted person’ not ‘a secured trunk’ has the treasure. The most trusted person would be his brother, Jorge Pérez. Jorge had enough influence to smuggle and hide all Augustine’s treasure under everyone’s noses.”
“What about the chest? You no longer need it?”
“Augustine and Maria had two sons, Simón and Gabriel. This particular chest was a wedding gift from Augustine to Gabriel. It could contain something from the Asiento de Padua ship, but most likely it’s empty.”
I stirred the coffee, brought it to my lips and sipped. My god. Compared to this heavenly juice, coffee back home was made of NFL players’ sweaty underwear. I closed my eyes and moaned. “This is so good. I could stay in Colombia just for this coffee.”
“I’m glad to hear,” Andrew said, wary, “that you might be persuaded to enjoy it for a few more days.”
I stilled, my mind refused to process the words that had come out of his gorgeous mouth. Did I call Andrew’s mouth gorgeous? No. Not gorgeous. It was just a mouth. My brain had no business adding any adjectives to it. I took another sip of liquid gold. I would happily drink it all day long, even though it might cause me to have a heart attack.
“Adriana, are you paying attention?”
My eyes snapped open, and I gave Andrew an unruffled stare. The face staring back at me was tired but hopeful. “You said something about how you’ll continue your search but will send William and me back home with bags of this coffee so I can enjoy it for a few more days.”
Andrew shifted in his seat, his knee gently bumping into mine. “I know we agreed on two days, but I need more time. Just a couple of days.”
I moved my leg to avoid unnecessary contact, folded my arms on the table, and leaned toward him. “Dr. Jones, you’re breaking our verbal contract. We agreed you’d pay me fifty thousand dollars for two days. And now you want me to stay for a few more?”
He angled toward me, mirroring my pose, his elbow touching mine. “Yes.”
“And if I don’t agree?” I said in a low voice.
“Then I’ll have to press charges against you because you stole the artifact from me.” A playful smile tugged on his lips.
He was bluffing. There was no way he would do it. Would he?
“I’m sure I could convince the jury it was a misunderstanding. I’d play innocent.”
“Are you? Innocent?” He bit his bottom lip, raising an eyebrow.
Starting from the point where our arms met heat raced through my body. Jesus. Were we flirting? This was wrong, but somehow it felt so good.
I was a bad person.
Stop this immediately.
Sometimes, my conscience needed to mind her own business.
“All right,” I said, unable or unwilling to move. “Where would we go next, Dr. Jones?”
“We need to visit San Antonio Church,” he said. “I think it has an undisclosed vault where Jorge might have hidden Augustine’s treasure for his brother.”
“Youthink?” I cocked my right eyebrow to mimic him.
He nodded slightly.
“And where is this church?”
“San Sierra. It’s a village about five hours’ drive away. Before you say no, I have a proposition for you. I’ll pay twenty-five thousand for each extra day. It’s not in my interest to lose money, so I promise you, I’ll try to finish my research as fast as I can, and then you’ll never have to see me again.”
For some maddening reason, his last sentence caused a faint twinge somewhere in the vicinity of my heart, but I ignored it.
