Page 116 of Risky Obsession

Fear blazed in her eyes. “Why?”

“The bellhop and the woman who greeted us last night were on the television, too. I couldn’t read what the headlines said, but the next screenshot showed a body in a bag being put into an ambulance.”

“Oh God.” She covered her hands over her face, and her breath shot in and out.

“Want me to pull over again?”

“No. It’s not that. Those poor people.” She lowered her hands and gripped the edge of the seat like she was trying to hold herself together.

“It wasn’t our fault, Tory.” My heart thumped against my ribcage as I confirmed our direction on the GPS. We were coming up to a crossroads. Much like our mission. Should we continue? Or should we quit before we ended up dead? “Do you still want to do this?”

She blinked at me. “I’m not giving up. Not now. We need to get that gold, figure out who is fucking with us, and prove our innocence.”

“You make it sound easy.”

“No, I don’t,” she snapped. “But we didn’t kill Gunter or those poor people.”

“Okay. I’m on your side.”

Her shoulders sagged. “Sorry. I’m just so . . .”

“I know. Me too. So, what’s our next step?”

At the intersection, I turned right and drove along a deserted road flanked by massive hedges oneither side.

“We have to figure out the clue on your map. That’s what we do next,” she said.

“That clue could lead to nothing.”

“It could also lead to the gold.”

I glanced in the rearview mirror for the umpteenth time. The long straight stretch of road behind us was empty. If anyone was following, they were doing it in stealth mode.

Her eyes glimmered with anger and frustration in the dim light of the dashboard. “We have to keep going.”

If she wanted to continue, then I was absolutely in. “Okay, but we need help now.”

She frowned. “I thought we agreed?—”

“I have a friend I trust.”

Her frown deepened. “Who?”

“His name is Archer Mahoney. He’s a treasure hunter, too, and we met about five years ago.”

She pulled a protein bar out of the plastic bag, tore it open with her teeth, and handed it to me. “And you’re certain about this guy?”

“Absolutely. Archer and I started out as adversaries when we were both commissioned by a wealthy collector to find a lost artifact in the Amazon jungle. Archer had already located some stolen Nazi treasure that had been hidden in that jungle for decades, so he was a perfect choice.”

She opened a second protein bar. “That’s interesting. So why did this wealthy collector choose you?”

“You make it sound like I was a poor choice.” I bit off a chunk of the chewy bar.

She tutted. “Just answer the question.”

“All right, bossy boots. I had the knowledge and history behind the artifact the collector was after.”

I checked the GPS for our estimated arrival in Cuxhaven. We had four more hours to go. “Can you unbox the phone and get it charging?”