Page 393 of The Romance Adventure

“Kill us? You can’t tell us because you’d have to kill us?!” Isla recites a common line from old spy movies, then scuttles behind Royal.

“No, not that, but I’d like to open the chest.” I hold up the keys.

“Fine, but Jolie leaves the room when we do it,” Royal barks.

“She’s not going to steal it with the seven of us right here,” I say.

“But she could release some kind of concealment cloud into the room or a poison gas to make us all pass out,” Harley says from behind Ryan, having picked up on Isla’s cue.

“Fair point. Did you see her with those axes?” Lally asks.

All the while, my wife remains quiet just as she’s been trained to do. She doesn’t give a long monologue to reveal her plan or distract us to divert our attention. She’s good. A total pro.

“You have the keys, but I have the chest,” Royal says. “She leaves.”

I fully trust my brothers and my wife, mostly. But I don’t want to put this off a moment longer. My mission goes above and beyond a crown. But with it, I can do what needs to be done. “We’ll both leave the room. Together. You guys can report the findings.”

“CJ, you’re the one who dove for the treasure chest. You have to be here,” Ryan says.

“No, I don’t. I’m confident the six of you can open the treasure chest and have a look at the crown.”

Gesturing to Jolie, we exit to the hall. But we don’t stop walking. Having a first glimpse of the Lost Crown of Tears would be monumental, but as Lally said, family over fortune. My wife just took a swipe at my trust. This, I hope to fix.

We’re quiet as we walk toward the peninsula. When we reach Chip’s mausoleum, I tell Jolie what he meant to me, not being able to grow up with my father.

Her eyes fill with tears.

“Chip was larger than life but also kept himself cloaked in mystery. We weren’t especially close when I was a kid. It was later, when he got older, that I got to know him better. With my brothers gone, it was up to me to look after things. Funny how roles can change like that.”

Jolie gazes toward the water.

“I’d trade anything to have been able to know my dad.”

“Me too,” Jolie whispers.

“We’re more alike than I ever imagined.”

“Yeah, but your father isn’t a criminal.”

I snort a laugh. “His record isn’t exactly clean.”

Her watery eyes meet mine. “You talk about him like he’s still alive.”

I nod. “He is.” It’s not just a feeling either. I hear whispers, rumors, and have my ear to the ground in the worst kinds of circles. My mother and father are out there.

At last, I play my hand. “If the Jaguar is still looking for El Dorado, my father is still alive.”

Jolie presses her hand to her mouth and her shoulders shake with sobs. She must be having such a strong emotional reaction to my hope because hers was dashed. She lost both her parents and there’s nothing that can bring them back. I rub her back and tug her close.

“By now, I imagine my brothers and the others have gotten the chest open.” I shift to face Jolie and wipe away her tears. “We can each keep trying to sneak around and obfuscate the truth. We will fail. That’s the trouble about anything but the truth. Sooner or later, it falls apart. We can go round and round, chasing each other all over the island with the sparse details we have, and then have a grand showdown.”

She sniffles.

“It will break us.”

“I don’t like the picture you’re painting.”

“I don’t like secrets.”