Andrew looked up, and I could clearly see gears turning in his head, thinking about it. Then he shook his head. “No. I don’t think he would do that.”
“Okay, fine, so he was this supernicepirate,” William said, making air quotes with his fingers, “who robbed others and killed anyone who got in his way, and who loved ciphers and made everything super secretive and complicated for subsequent generations of venturesome treasure hunters who tried to lay claim to it.”
I sighed. “Where are you going with this?”
He held one finger out. “What if, to make it more pain in the ass for people like us, the bracelet map is a reversed image of a real map? Hm?”
Andrew and I exchanged glances.
“We need a mirror,” I said, looking around. “I have a small one in my bag.”
“We could use the one in the bathroom,” Andrew suggested.
“But it’s mounted,” I said, rising to my feet.
“I can hold it next to it, and you can take a photo.” Andrew also got up.
“Or,” William chimed in, “you can take a photo and flip the image using your fancy Photoshop app.” He dropped an imaginary microphone, making me chuckle.
We took a picture of the sketched map and then I flipped it in the app and airdropped it to Andrew’s and William’s phones.
“Oh, look at the time.” William shook his head, sitting up and slowly moving his legs to the edge of the bed. “You love birds can continue with the chase, but I’m going to my room.” William shuffled to the door, but before he left, he paused. “Also, if I’m not mistaken, you can make the image translucent, overlay it on the Colombia map, and see if you can line up rivers and such.”
Once William left, Andrew’s gaze met mine, and the corners of his eyes crinkled. “Will you spend the night here with me?”
Elation soared through me and landed straight in my core.
“I’d love to,” I said, trying and failing not to grin too wide. “I promise not to be distracting.”
Andrew’s eyebrow went up, and his lips pulled into a sexy smirk. “That’s impossible. You can be in the building next door, and my concentration will still be on you.”
My skin lit on fire, and it took all the willpower I had not to set my phone aside and straddle Andrew. “So, want to work for an hour or two and then go to bed?” I bit my bottom lip.
“Sounds like a good plan.”
I scooted towards him. “Why don’t you download the app on your iPad and we could use my login? It would be easier to do what William suggested on a larger screen.”
Andrew tapped on the App Store icon and typed in Photoshop.
“What are you going to do about Dr. Garcia?”
“I can’t forgive him for betraying me and sabotaging my work. Professionally, there isn’t enough evidence he’s done anything wrong, so he goes unpunished, but after this trip, I won’t be staying in touch with him.” He stared at the screen, focusing on a blue line slowly drawing a circle. “Whether or not we find a possible location of the ruins tonight, tomorrow morning I’ll leave him a message to say that we’re going to the history museum in Nava de Luenga. It’s seven hours from here, which should send Richard on a nice wild goose chase. The further they are from us, the better off we are.”
Several minutes went by while we familiarized ourselves with the app functions, and then we uploaded the images and got to work. At first, the modern map we were using was too dark, so we searched for a better one to use as a base layer, eventually downloading the 1997 map from The Library of Congress website. We played with the sketched map, changing its saturation and sharpness. Then we dropped translucence to fifty percent and began slowly moving the sketch over the base layer in search of the perfect alignment between the two.
My heart skipped a bit when a line from both layers merged into one. “Stop.”
Andrew’s finger paused.
“There.” I pointed to the top right corner where the zigzag of the rivers in both images had consolidated. Andrew carefully scrolled until the rivers and mountains with the old ranch and hallmark representing the alleged location of the palace were in the center of the screen.
“Oh wow,” I breathed out and gaped at Andrew. “We found it.”
Andrew lowered his mouth to mine, his nose gently rubbing my nose, his lips caressing my lips. “Thank you,” he said, and then he gave me the most toe-curling kiss ever. I never wanted it to end.
His tongue explored my mouth, making me whimper and turn into melting goo. His free hand cupped my neck, and he groaned when his teeth made the slightest bite on my lower lip. Andrew’s hand drifted lower, he lifted my shirt, and his hot palm smoothed up my skin until it found the curve of my breast, and his fingers generously massaged it. He deepened the kiss, rolling a hard nipple between his thumb and index finger.
“Should we finish pinpointing the location first?” I said, breaking our kiss, breathless, soaking wet, and irritated at my own words.
