Why the hell is he carrying around an ancient Egyptian artifact as if it were a case of beer?
Fangirl moment aside, the whole night had taken averystrange turn, and despite all the friendly banter, Charley couldn’t shake the feeling these three co-conspirators were up to something big.
“All right boys.” She popped her hands on her hips. “Spill it.”
The three of them looked at her with sheepish, guilt-ridden faces.
Charley held out her arms for the statue, and Cole handed it over without protest.
She inspected it carefully—the head of a lioness, the body of a woman. The base was carved with hieroglyphs—spells to aid the royal deceased through his underworld journey.
Charley was shocked. Even in the darkness, she could tell it was the real deal.
“Where did you get this?” she demanded. But then, before any of them could respond, the pieces clicked into place. “Shit. You made contact with Vincent Estas.”
Wisely, Dorian didn’t deny it.
“How much?” she asked.
“Five hundred thousand,” Dorian said. “Cash.”
Charley let out a low whistle. “Personally, I wouldn’t have paid aquarterof that, but to each his own.”
“Do you recognize it?” he asked.
“Sure. It’s Sekhmet.” Despite the circumstances, she couldn’t help but be awed by the beautiful carving, the gold overlay shimmering in the darkness as if it had its own life force. “Part of the vast Egyptian pantheon—a powerful goddess whose breath was said to cause the desert winds. I don’t know much about the cult, but her bloodlust was legendary.”
“I told you,” Aiden said to Dorian. “She was practically the first vampire.”
“Authentic?” Dorian asked.
“One hundred percent,” Charley said. “This piece was discovered in the tomb of King Tut and was reported missing from the museum at Cairo in the seventies. Authorities believed one of the workers stole it, but they could never prove it.”
“Cairo?” Dorian’s brow furrowed. “I was hoping it was from the One Night Stand cache.”
“Sorry to rain on your secret-mission parade, boys.”
“But you said there were several statues of Sekhmet in that cache. Bronze, faience, gilded—”
“Do you know how many Egyptian antiquities are floating around on the black market?” Charley returned the statue to Cole, her frustration mounting. “Hell, Dorian. You can buy a royal mummy if you know the right people. They used to eat them.”
“Is that true?” Aiden asked.
Dorian scoffed. “Forgive me for not knowing the quote unquoteright peoplein your vast underground network of criminals and thieves.”
“You can really buy a mummy?” Aiden asked. “How much do they—”
Charley cut him off with a look that could shrivel his balls.
Dorian sighed. “Fine. It was a long shot, granted.”
“You spent a half-million dollars on a long shot? I’m selling a bridge in Brooklyn if you’re interested.”
“I might be,” he snapped, “if I thought for onemomentit would help us nail the bastard who likely wants you and your sister dead, and—lest we forget—is working for the bloody demons, who likely wantallof us dead.”
Dorian’s words found their target, piercing Charley’s heart with stunning accuracy.
What could she say to that? He was right, and despite wracking her brain all week for information on Rudy, she hadn’t been able to come up with anything particularly useful.
