CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
“Stop where you are,” a deep voice called out.
Elias pressed his fingers to the cut at his temple and swore. The bullet had hit the stone behind him and shattered, sending shards into his face. He was lucky he hadn’t lost an eye.
“Justin?” he called out, recognizing the voice. “You asshole. You could’ve shot your sister.” Miller was still on the ground, but he felt her scramble up to a standing position and gasp in surprise. He kept his arm out and held her behind him until he could completely assess the situation.
They were in a huge clearing, overgrown with green and ancient ruins. An Incan civilization had once called it home.
“Ohmigod,” Miller said behind him, peeking over his shoulder. “It’s the fallen column,” she said. “We found it.”
Sure enough, there was a large column of pitted stone that had fallen haphazardly across the center of the clearing. The other column still stood perfectly erect, and they had obviously once been the entrance to the city.
“Who is that?” Justin called out.
Elias saw a flash of a hand or arm from behind one of the ruins.
“Who the hell do you think it is?” Elias asked back.
“No fucking way,” he said. “You’re dead.” And he finally came out from around the ruins to face him. “Miller,” he said. “You need to come here now.”
“Umm, how about a hello or a nice to see you too, you big jerk? You scared the hell out of me. I thought you were dead.”
Justin looked worse for the wear. His eye was a combination of interesting shades of purple, yellow, and black and almost swollen shut, and his lip and jaw were swollen too beneath several days of beard. His right hand was wrapped tightly, but blood seeped through the bandages.
“Miller, I don’t know what the hell you’ve gotten yourself mixed up in with this guy, but you need to get over here now. I’m not going to tell you again.”
“I’m not twelve years old,” she said. “Don’t talk to me like a child. I can promise you that Elias isn’t what you think he is. You need to give him a chance and listen.”
“For fuck’s sake, Miller. Please tell me you aren’t with this guy. For once in your life would you stop being so stubborn and get your ass over here? And what the hell did you do to your hair? You look like Tinker Bell. It’s absurd.”
“You listen here, Justin Darling,” she yelled. Elias couldn’t help the smile. He’d been on the receiving end of that tongue and was looking forward to the fireworks. “I’m in love with him. What are you going to do about that? Oh, right. Nothing. Because I’m a grown-ass adult and you can’t tell me what to do. Just because you bother to flit in and out of my life once or twice a year doesn’t mean you get a say in my love life. And who the hell are you to make comments about who I’m sleeping with? I had to put up with that moron Hannah James at Thanksgiving that year. She laughed at every possible inappropriate time and she kept putting dinner rolls in her purse.”
“Miller,” Justin warned. “You’re overreacting. I have a damned good reason for not wanting you anywhere near that bastard.”
“He was your friend,” she said, furious.
“Yes, he was. But he’s a traitor,” Justin called out. “And he’s supposed to be dead.”
“It’s pointless, Miller,” Elias said, touching her gently on the arm. “He’ll believe the truth when he wants to believe it. My path is set. I don’t need to prove my worth to anyone but you.”
“You killed an innocent man in cold blood,” Justin yelled. “And get your hand off my sister.”
“Would a traitor be here to save your sorry ass?”
“That still doesn’t explain how he’s alive when he was given the death penalty. He died. We all saw it. We were there.”
“Maybe there are things bigger than the both of us that you just don’t understand,” Elias said. “But your sister has been through hell to get you back home safe.”
Justin looked back and forth between them and came a little closer. His clothes were torn and filthy and she could see the fatigue beginning to take its toll on him once he let his guard down and realized she wasn’t moving from Elias’s side.
“The important thing is Solomon’s treasure,” he said. “We’ve got to make sure Cordova doesn’t get his hands on it.”
“Fuck the treasure,” Miller said, her voice breaking. “I am so damned sick of hearing about Solomon’s treasure. I don’t care if it ever existed or if it still exists. It’s done nothing but tear our family apart. Look at you,” she said. “You’ve sold your soul to a legend. You don’t care about anything else. We’re here to save you, putting our own lives in danger, and still that’s all you can talk about. I came here for you. If you don’t want to come home, then we’re leaving.”
“You don’t understand, Miller,” he said, the frustration evident in his voice. “I don’t have a choice. Just like Dad never had a choice. It’s the greatest honor and the biggest curse to be chosen.”
“How do we get out of here?” Miller asked, turning to Elias and ignoring Justin’s pleas. “I’m not going through that cave again. There’s got to be another way out.”
“I can show you the way out,” Justin said, coming closer. “But please, just listen to me.”
“Like you just listened to me when I told you Elias was innocent?” she asked.
Justin looked at Elias again and then back at her. “Maybe he is,” he said. “I don’t know. I only know what I saw with my own eyes. But I also know that before all the shit hit the fan, I would’ve died for him. None of us ever believed it when the charges were brought against him, but it was hard to dispute the evidence. I can give him a chance if it means getting you out of here safely.”
“I’d never let anything happen to her,” Elias told him. “I love her.”
Justin snorted and shook his head, but there was sadness on his face. “God help you. She’s got a temper like a banshee.”
“So I’ve learned.”
“I’m actually right here,” Miller said. “You don’t have to talk around me. But I’m so glad you two are having this emotional moment. Maybe we can go now. I’ve decided I don’t need to be a world traveler, and I’d like to go home.”
“I found the wreckage of the plane,” Justin told her. His gaze was steady on hers—serious, searching. He had their father’s eyes, a rich brown that could go from dreamy to determined in a split second.
Elias heard her indrawn sob, and he moved so he could touch her. He hated to think of the pain she was feeling. She laid her head against his back and took a couple of shaky breaths and said, “I saw the compass, so I figured you did.”
“I buried them,” he said gently. “It seemed like the right thing to do. We never got the chance to have that finality of a true burial. I can take you to see them.”
“Maybe,” she said. “But honestly, I don’t know if I can deal with it right now. I’m a little overwhelmed at the moment. This hasn’t been the easiest week.”
“At least you have all your fingers,” Justin said.
“I’m about to tell you what to do with that finger,” Miller shot back angrily, and Elias had to stifle a laugh. Lord, he loved that woman.
Elias looked around, trying to find an escape route where they could be extracted from, and he noticed the two streams on each side of the clearing. It would’ve been easy access to fresh water for the Incans, and he could see why they’d settled in this particular area.
“Look at the water,” he told Miller, ignoring Justin.
“What about it?” she said.
“It’s not flowing toward the falls at the opposite side of the cave. It’s flowing in a different direction.”
“Which means it has to eventually lead to somewhere,” she finished for him.
“You can’t go out there,” Justin told them. “Ever since I escaped from Cordova, he’s sent teams of his men to search for me. This place is completely secluded and protected. Those two streams lead into the Aguas Mortales. No one can enter from that direction. The water is too treacherous. And by equal measures, no one can escape from that way either. You and I could probably swim it if we had our dive gear, but there’s no way Miller could. The chances of us making it are iffy at best. How embarrassing would it be for two SEALs to die by drowning?”
“Doesn’t matter to me,” Elias said. “I’m already dead. You’re the one who will look like an idiot. We’ve got an extraction team ready to pick us up as soon as we give the signal. They should’ve had plenty of time to take care of Cordova’s men.”
“An extraction team?” Justin asked. “Why the hell is an extraction team here? Who are you? Why’d they fake your death?”
“That’s a lot of questions that I really don’t feel like answering right now,” he said. “My biggest priority at the moment is getting Miller off the island safely. I told her I’d help you find her and that I’d help her find your parents’ wreckage. Both of those things have been accomplished. The treasure can go to the devil for all I care.”
“Don’t say that,” Justin said. And then he reached down and picked up his pack and pulled out a cloth-wrapped cylinder. “Do you know what this is?”
“I’m guessing it’s the leg from the table of Solomon,” Miller said.
“I hear the resentment in your voice,” he said. “But you’ve never understood.”
“Understood what, Justin?” she asked.
“You have my ring?” he asked her.
“It’s back in Last Stop with your finger,” she said.
“There are only twelve of them in existence,” he said. “It’s incredible to see them all together, each exactly the same and forged by one of the greatest kings in history.”
“You’ve seen all twelve?” she asked, eyes narrowed. “Those rings are a couple thousand years old. How could they have possibly survived?”
“Because that is our destiny,” he said. “They call us the Shamira. It was our ancestor who Solomon chose to be one of the prophets of the twelve tribes of Israel. Not only a prophet, but a protector of the most sacred items. The items of the most holy rituals. This was a fitting table to hold the Ark of the Covenant.”
He unwrapped it and the gold glowed with an unearthly luminance, jewels of every kind glittering in his hands. Elias couldn’t describe the feeling that came over him when looking at it for the first time. It was both pain and peace, and he took hold of Miller’s hand because he instinctively knew she was feeling the exact same thing.
“When the temple was destroyed and the treasures looted, it was impossible for the Shamira to discover what had been done with it. Many died trying to find it and bring it back to its rightful place. And when those deaths occurred, it fell to the next in line to take up the cause. And on and on for generations, we’ve been looking for the items that rightfully belong in the temple. We cannot rest until it is done. Until the temple is rebuilt in Jerusalem and the items are in place. This is our destiny.”
“Justin,” Miller said.
“Don’t you see?” he asked. “I had no choice. When Dad died, the duty came to me. He was so close, and he’d alerted the others, and there was great excitement and speculation. But the treasure would have to stay hidden until the temple is rebuilt, so we would become guardians of the treasure once it was found. Dad was close,” he said. “And in his notes he led me right to it.”
“They abandoned their daughter, and you abandoned your sister,” she said. “Maybe if you’d told me sooner, I would’ve tried to understand. But I’m finding that I just don’t give a damn right now. You’re nothing but a selfish jerk. But at least you had the decency to not drag a wife and kid into your insanity.”
“Mom and Dad loved you,” he said softly, the sadness there in his eyes.
“Stop,” she said, her voice breaking. “They didn’t love me enough.”
“I love you,” he said. “I didn’t know what to do with you or how to handle you. I was grieving too. I don’t know how to apologize. How to correct the past.”
“You can’t, Justin. You just have to keep moving forward. The past doesn’t bring anything but pain.” She took a deep breath and said, “I really want to go now. I’m glad you’re alive.”
“Yeah,” he said. “Me too.”