Mateo grabbed a shovel, buried the blade in the dirt, then leaned on the handle as he spoke. “You must all remember there are poisonous snakes in the area. They are not that common, but some are deadly.”
“Coral snakes,” Gage said. “Rattlesnakes, black cantils, and pit vipers. Abby, you know what to look for, right?”
“Believe me, I know what a rattlesnake looks like. I studied photos of the rest.”
“Good girl.” He thought of her near-deadly snake encounter in the Superstitions, and unease slid down his spine.
“Trace has worked down here, and so have I,” Edge said. “Skye is no stranger to the hostile creatures in this kind of environment.”
Carlos’s skinny legs pounded the earth as he hurried over. “I will keep watch for snakes. I do not like them.”
Abby laughed. “Neither do I, Carlos. You let me know if you see one.”
“Sí, Señora Abby.” Carlos assumed Abby was Gage’s wife, which was the story he had told the innkeeper.Abby Logan. Mrs. Gage Logan.Just thinking about it sent a wave of panic through him.
Gage remembered Cassandra and the tragic end to her life. Maybe there was a time it could have happened for him and Abby. Not anymore.
“Let’s get to work,” he said.
CHAPTER THIRTY
THOUGH THE DAY WAS STILL EARLY, IT WAS ALREADY HOT BY THE TIMEthey began to search. The weather was changing; a big tropical storm was predicted in the coming days, but it wasn’t here yet.
They started with a drone flyover of the main structure, outbuildings, and surrounding hectares of land. The information the drone gathered was interesting but, aside from the discovery of an ancient cenote, only confirmed what they already knew.
Gage couldn’t resist taking a look at the circular sinkhole in the limestone bedrock. There were thousands of cenotes in Mexico, most filled with groundwater. They were deep, and a beautiful shade of blue, but they could be deadly. Years ago, they had supplied water to the Mayans, who had also used them for sacrificial offerings.
The thought gave Gage a chill.
They returned to the ruins of the hacienda and went to work. Raking up vines and flowering plants, and digging up shrubs and small trees was a start. Piles of rubble covered the ground underneath, places where the walls and roof had collapsed. Timbers remained that had once held up the floors, and scores of broken pasta tiles, famous in the Yucatán, in intricate, colorful patterns.
As soon as a portion of the ground was cleared, Mateo went to work with the metal detector. The Garrett Ace 400 was a high-quality sensor specifically geared to finding gold, but it also picked up other metal objects.
So far they’d found barrel staves, the handle of a water bucket, the head of an iron ax, and miscellaneous bits and pieces. No metal door hinges or anything that might indicate an entrance to the lower floor. Definitely no trace of gold.
They took an afternoon break, sat down in the shade beneath the trees, and chowed down on peanut butter and crackers, cans of tuna, and handfuls of beef jerky, all washed down with bottles of water. They rested as the sun passed directly overhead, then went back to work, starting the same routine all over again.
Gage kept an eye on Abby. She had used plenty of sunscreen, but her skin was very fair, and he didn’t want her to get burned. He was responsible for her, and the sun could be vicious, even deadly.
He sank his shovel in, lifted away a blade full of dirt and debris, and tossed it into a wheelbarrow. From the corner of his eye, he watched Abby pulling her rake across a thick patch of vines. A loud shriek broke the silence as a small rodent leapt into the air in her direction.
Gage chuckled. Probably a kangaroo rat, a nocturnal rodent that lived in burrows under the ground. At the mortified look on her face, his smile widened, and he started toward her an instant before the ground opened up and swallowed her whole. Abby shrieked as she was sucked under, and Gage started running.
Mateo and Edge both charged toward her, but all of them slid to a halt a few feet from the hole, the ground around it clearly unstable.
“Abby!” From where he stood, Gage could see a portion of the rotten wooden floor had collapsed. Sprawled on the ground far below, Abby lay stunned, her body covered with debris, her face covered with dirt. Above her, a huge chunk of flooring that had been hidden by shrubs and vines hung precariously over her. The slightest movement could dislodge it.
Gage’s chest clamped down. “Don’t move, Abby!” Gage didn’t dare go any closer. “You hear me, Abby? You’ll bring the rest of it down on top of you!”
Abby’s voice echoed from below. “Looks like we found a way into the lower floor.” She shifted a little, making the floor over her head bob up and down.
Gage’s pulse leaped. “Dammit, I told you not to move!” He surveyed the heavy, rotting chunks of timber, the wooden planks dotted with rusty iron nails, and his mouth dried up.
Edge was already on his way to one of the Hummers to bring back a coil of rope.
“We need two,” Mateo said, his dark eyes worried as he and Carlos reached the spot next to Gage. “One for Abby, and one to secure the floor.”
But Edge, always a step ahead, was already returning with a coil over each shoulder.
