They scrambled into the boat, and Nikolas headed for the steeply rising headland to one side of the lagoon. As they approached the jungle-clad cliffs they could see deep caves in the limestone. They motored into one, and the air immediately cooled around them. After a few minutes, they were losing the light from the wide mouth entrance, so Nikolas slowed the boat and pulled over on the rocky edge, tying up. They looked at each other for a moment. Ben glanced around the walls and roof towering above them slightly anxiously, perhaps remembering his comment about movie cave systems and their horrific occupants. Suddenly, Nikolas lunged theatrically at him with a mock howl. Ben jerked back with a screech; the boat tipped, and they tumbled into the water. Nikolas was still laughing as they hauled the case back to the surface and shoved it up onto the rocks.
It was fastened by a combination lock, but it didn’t stand up to their diving knives for very long. They were both shivering now, as the cave was surprisingly cold, and the warm morning sun was drawing them both back. Nikolas laid his hand on the lid. “Counterfeiting plates?”
Ben considered. “Heroin.”
“Winner takes all?”
“Yeah. Not if it’s heroin, you addict. Just open it. It’s bloody freezing in here.” Nikolas continued to be reluctant. Finally, he opened the lid. There was a transmitter lying on top of an inner case. Ben took it out and smashed it. They grinned at each other. Nikolas pulled out his knife and slit the covering. Something glinted underneath. He pursed his lips and pulled out a bar. Ben laughed, obviously pleased. “Chocolate?” Nikolas handed it to him. It was cold and hard and solid and heavy. Ben looked up. Nikolas pulled out another, then another. He did a quick count.
“Fifty.”
“Okay…This looks like gold, but it’s not, Nik, yeah? I mean…seriously, gold bars dropping from the sky?”
Nikolas picked up his knife again and scraped at one of the bars. It stayed the same colour. He shrugged. “I don’t know. It seems unlikely, even to me, and I was the one who wanted to find treasure. Even I didn’t think we’d find unmarked bars of gold.”
“What’re they worth?”
Nikolas considered. “Kilogram bars? About thirty thousand each, so not a huge amount.”
“Not a huge amount! That’s…” Nikolas waited with an amused smile as Ben tried to do the calculation. “A lot. More than a million, yeah?”
“Yes. One and a half, but gold’s very volatile at the moment. It could be more, it could be less.”
“Oh, my God.” Ben took out another bar and then another. He glanced at Nikolas. “They’ll be wanting this back, whoever they are.”
“Yes. Pity they’ll not get it, isn’t it?”
“Nik…”
“Come, unload it all and check the case for more transmitters. If this were my gold—huh, it is now—I wouldn’t rely onone.” He was right. When they unloaded the case, they found one more active transmitter in the bottom. They smashed this one as well. Rather than take the gold back with them, they reloaded the case, and Ben climbed the wall and stashed it high up on a shelf in a small hollow. Ben seemed very reluctant to leave it, but Nikolas was unconcerned. For him, it wasn’t the value of the gold, which was after all fairly small in consideration to his wealth, but what it represented, sunken treasure, adventure. He hadn’t had this much fun since—Well, he didn’t usually allow himself to think about the things in the past that had given him pleasure. One by one, he’d had to give them up, most of them because Ben had nagged him to. But then Ben provided him more fun than anything else, so he had to admit it was a good trade.
§ § §
Ben could see the contented expression on Nikolas’s face all the way back in the boat. Nikolas was usually so laconic and hid so many of his emotions that to see him happy made Ben’s heart melt on all his good intentions about the gold. He didn’t think it was possible for him to love Nikolas Mikkelsen any more, but in that moment, he sunk a little deeper and became a little more enslaved to the golden god of his existence. He leant over and ruffled Nikolas’s wet hair. Nikolas gave a rueful smile. “I won’t keep it, Ben. I don’t need it. But they’ll not get it either. You didn’t see that man’s face, or hear his scream. He knew all the way down what was happening to him.” He grinned. “We’ll donate it. Be patrons of something worthy.”
“You can’t buy your way into heaven, Nikolas.”
“No, but we can bribe the demons in hell for some respite occasionally. Now, stop thinking so much, you’re giving me another headache.”
He didn’t look as if he was suffering much from anything. He lay back in the boat as Ben drove, the wind ruffling his blond hair, the sun warming his skin, without a care in the world. In this bright, tropical light, his eyes were never the dark-chocolate brown they always were in England, but amber with flecks of gold. They were the eyes of a sleek predator pleased with how his prey behaved. Ben never tempted fate if he could help it, but he sent a small prayer of thanks up to a benevolent universe that had given him this moment with this man.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Ben wasn’t quite so pleased with Nikolas later that day when Nikolas left him to take all the diving equipment back on his own and sauntered off to check the gold prices on his laptop. Vital research, he called it.
He was then even less pleased with Nikolas when he rounded the corner to the shop with as much of the equipment as he could carry in one load and saw three men enter the place who definitely weren’t there to hire diving equipment. Ben had worn a concealed weapon enough times in his life to recognise other men wearing them under their suits. Two of the armed men remained outside, scanning the area, and one went in. Ben backed off to consider his options. He stashed all the equipment out of sight and returned to watch developments. As soon as the men left, he went into the shop and spoke with the boy behind the counter. The lad looked a little nervous, and Ben discovered although he’d been reluctant to hand over the list of those who’d hired diving equipment over the last forty-eight hours, he’d been persuaded to. Ben convinced him to do the same, but with money and not menaces. Fortunately for him and Nik, fifteen people had taken out equipment in that time. It would take a while for the men to work through the list, and by then…That was when Ben hit something of a low with Nikolas. He realised the holiday fun was over.
He went to find the culprit.
Nikolas glanced over the list as he listened to Ben’s tale. He pouted. He clearly didn’t want to leave the hotel either. Ben shook his head at Nik’s expression. “No, we’re not killing them.”
Nikolas looked pained. “As if I’d suggest something like that.”
“It’s not going to take them long to work through this list and come asking questions of us.”
“So? We’re two innocent holiday makers, along with everyone else on this list.”
“Stop being so bloody stupid, will you? We’re the only ones who swim regularly. Everyone knows that. Some of these names are families, here, and here. That’s the girl who sits near us in the evenings. She’s on her own, she couldn’t have lifted it. They’ll know that! So, duh, Nikolas, if I was searching for the people who stole my gold, I might just look at us!”
