“I started it,” he admitted.
Ellie voiced the question that had been itching at her since she had seen the fight break out.“Why?”
“It gave Vanika a chance to get away.”
Even though he was filthy, bruised, and exhausted, a familiar brightness gleamed in his eyes.
“You’re happy,” Ellie pointed out.
Adam cocked a skeptical brow.“We’re tied up and completely at Borthwick’s mercy.”
“I know,” she replied significantly.
He leaned back against the boulder.“Maybe it just feels good to be myself again—even if it’s landed us in a pretty big heap of trouble.”
“I don’t mind being in trouble with you.And we’ve been in worse situations,” Ellie asserted.
“Like what?”
“Nearly being poached alive in a room full of Mesoamerican death gods?”
“That was pretty bad,” Adam allowed.
“Ambushed in a tomb full of crimson death sand,” Ellie listed.
“The tomb wasn’t full of death sand.Just the sarcophagus.”
“We had to flee a collapsing cave system.”
Adam smirked.“You did that one on purpose.”
“That was noton purpose.I didn’t know precisely what was going to happen when I threw all of Padre Kuyoc’s dynamite into that hole in the ground.You got us out of all of that trouble by being who you really are.”
“Icontributed,” Adam corrected her.“Seems to me, we’ve frequently benefited from a hell of a lot of help.”
“We might be a bit short on help at the moment,” Ellie admitted.“Neil and Constance are trapped in the stepwell.Subhas is tied up and under guard with the rest of his men.What about Vanika?”
“I told her to get the hell out of here.”
Ellie racked her brain.“I suppose there’s the dog,” she offered with a grimace.
“Good point.”Adam’s mouth quirked mischievously.“I’m sure he’ll sort it all out once he turns back up.”
“You have an inordinate amount of faith in that animal,” she grumbled.
“That’s because he’s a good boy.”
A voice hissed from behind the boulder at their backs.“Whatever you do, don’t turn around!”
Ellie immediately twisted her body to peek around the stone—where a familiar figure crouched between the slender stalks of bamboo.“Connie!?”
Constance waved a furious hand at her.“Shh!You’re going to ruin the plot!”
Ellie quickly pulled herself around to face forward—just as one of the sepoys glanced over at them.
She flashed him a reassuring smile.
The man frowned.
