Page 49

“Diego Ramos worked at the Huarona archaeological site. He was the foreman for the dig, but he was more than that. The man loved the old legends of Puerto Jardin and he studied them extensively. Apparently, that included the Lost Treasure.”
“The Huarona site. Those are the ruins near San Isidro where we got engaged.”
For a moment, she looked surprised, and then Nyx laughed. The sound caressed him and made his body come back alive after he’d worked so hard to tamp down the arousal.
“That’s the place. Anyway, Diego Ramos is well known in archaeological circles among those interested in pre-Columbian civilizations. His notes are probably more important than the documents I left behind in the library. It’s too bad he passed away years ago. He would have been a big help in the search for the treasure.”
“Do you think he was looking for it?” Case asked.
Nyx shrugged. “I can’t say for sure since I never met him.”
Case weighed what she said and scowled. “You read the notes in the library before taking them, didn’t you?”
“Well, yeah. I wasn’t going to risk setting off a firestorm without a good reason.”
“What did you find? The location of the treasure?”
Nyx shook her head. “That would be too easy.”
She was answering his questions without saying much. Case didn’t like it. “Be more specific. What did you read?”
Nyx stiffened and her cheeks flushed. She looked angry, and for a minute, he thought she was going to go off, but she took a few deep breaths and her expression cleared. “I’m not lying to you.” Her voice was tight. She was still pissed. “I didn’t find anything concrete, but I think Señor Ramos found something. There was a change in the tenor of his notes about two-thirds of the way through. He became cagier. Less forthright.”
He thought about it for a moment. “If there was nothing in his notes, why take them? Why not take some of the documents his notes are based on?”
“Because Frankie would harangue me every time we saw each other for the rest of my life if I folded two-hundred-year-old documents. Besides, I didn’t know which of the papers were important or if the notable ones were even on the table. Maybe there’s a second stack that Vargas would have brought in later.”
“You didn’t find anything in what you read.” It wasn’t a question.
“No, and you didn’t either because you would have said something if you had.” Her voice sounded more normal now, a sign she was gaining control of her emotions.
“Why take Ramos’s notes?” Case asked again.
“Because I think he left hints and I need more time to comb through them.”
Nyx pursed her lips briefly, provoking a fantasy about her mouth wrapped around his cock. Heat swamped him and Case couldn’t find his voice. Luckily for him, she continued talking, oblivious to his thoughts.
“And because I want Frankie to look at them. She understands research at a level far beyond me. I view it as a necessary evil. She actually enjoys it.”
Now Nyx looked at him, waiting, and when he remained silent, her eyebrows went up. Case cleared his throat, searching for something to say. “We’re going to assume Vargas is coming after you. It’s the safest course of action. If he’s aware of those notes, and if he knows you took them, he’s going to want them back. You, too.”
She frowned. “I don’t understand why everyone is suddenly interested in this treasure. It’s been missing for more than two hundred years. People have searched for it from nearly the instant it disappeared. The odds of finding it now are minuscule, even if a brooch reported to be part of it went up for auction.”
“Wait. What?”
“Which part are you asking about?”
Case leaned forward. He had multiple questions. “Let’s go chronologically. What do you mean everyone is interested?”
“Not everyone, of course, but a lot of people.”
“Nyx,” he said, a clear warning in his voice. She didn’t appear intimidated.
“My teammates were in danger from a Norwegian treasure hunter a couple of weeks ago. I had to stay out of the way, up in Rosario, and Frankie and Ellis ended up being protected by Frankie’s ex. Although I guess I could say her current since they’re engaged now.”
Frankie was Captain Nguyen’s woman. “Who else?”
“Well, this is the interesting part. Someone named Jorge Torres is chasing it.”