Page 138 of Risky Obsession

She skipped ahead of me. “Hey, what about there?” She pointed at an arched doorway where the wooden door had long ago rotted away. A mass of ivy dangled over the entrance like a living curtain, as if hiding what lay beyond. “Looks like as good a place to start as any.” She stepped over the threshold.

Annoyed that she took that decision from me, I followed her through the archway into a cavernous foyer. Dust motes drifted through the shafts of light filtering in from cracks that spiderwebbed across the ancient stonework.

Lacey let out a low whistle. “This would have been beautiful back in the day. What do you think this room was for?” She stepped back, trying to take it all in. “Maybe they did ballroom dancing here?”

I walked over debris and rubbish that covered the stone floor. The grand stone walls were streaked with moss and water damage, and the vaulted ceiling overhead was partly collapsed, allowing beams of sunlight to filter in and illuminate the area. There was nowhere to hide the gold in this space.

Spying a dark doorway at the back of the hall, I headed toward it. On the other side of the exit, I stepped into a dim passage.

“We should have bought a flashlight.” Lacey’s voice echoed behind me.

The air was musty with scents of decaying stone and dampness, and I had to duck under several low sections to avoid banging my head.

Each time we found a doorway, Lacey bounded in with youthfulness, but exited like her dreams had been crushed.

I had no idea what she expected. Finding treasure wasn’t easy.

We entered a large room with a massive fireplace and a table in the middle that looked like it had been made from one large stone.

“This must’ve been the original kitchen,” I said.

Lacey ran her fingers along the crumbling stone countertops. “Look at the size of this fireplace. It probably baked enough bread to feed an army!”

My boots crunched on the debris-strewn floor as I crossed to a few alcoves on the opposite side of the room. The rough shelving would have once stored equipment and food.

“Find anything?” Lacey asked, upbeat.

“Oh yeah. Look. There are some gold bars just sitting here.”

She gave me a massive grin. “You’re a funny guy, Kane.”

“And you’re a pain in the ass.”

“I know. Where to next?” she said, heading toward the exit.

“How the fuck should I know?”

“Okay. I’ll lead the way.”

We explored room after room, traipsing along corridors that were so narrow my shoulders touched both sides of the wall. A few times, Lacey’s breathing was labored, and I couldn’t tell if she was exhausted, or scared.

I didn’t ask.

Some corridors had narrow cracks where sunlight pierced through, allowing us to see where we were going, and I wondered if they had been designed for exactly that purpose.

My stomach grumbled, and I felt like we’d been searching for hours, and yet we found nothing.

As I followed Lacey up the circular steps to the top of the turret, I tried to force my gaze away from her sexy ass. But it was impossible.

Damn, she’s fit.

At the top, we each stood at an arched window, peering across the ocean landscape.

“Look,” Lacey said. “There’s the port.”

The sprawling industrial site was only just visible through the trees.

“We’re a long way up from the ocean,” she said.