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“I deserved that.” He jogged to the car.
“That and more,” Joe called after him. He turned to Julia. “Let’s go.” His voice had softened.
She couldn’t move her feet. “How bad is it?”
He glanced up at the material still hanging from the top of the fence and then back down at her. “It depends on your perspective.”
She felt behind her, and her fingers touched skin. Her dress was missing from her shoulder blades down. Her backside was bare for the world to see.
“Get in the car!” Callum revved the engine.
Police sirens joined the wailing house alarm. Joe grabbed her hand and ran for the car. They squeezed into the back seat beside her grandmother, who was hugging a dead person.
Patricia reached out to pat Julia’s hand as Callum sped down the street.
“Julia love, women who want to have sex don’t buy their underwear in multipacks. They wear silk. Or lace. And never have messages written on their backsides.” Patricia groaned. “I need to have a serious talk with your mother when we get back. I blame her.”
Julia hung her head as Ryan laughed raucously from the front passenger seat.
Joe wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her into his side. He kissed the top of her head. They zoomed through the back streets of La Paz, until they hit the main street leading up to their hotel.
“I need something to cover this,” Patricia said as they pulled up at the hotel’s main entrance. “I can’t walk through the lobby with a stolen mummy.”
“Ryan, give her your shirt,” Callum ordered.
“Why me? That means I have to walk into the hotel half-naked. This is a classy hotel. I don’t think they’d like that.”
“Give her your shirt.”
“This is my favourite T-shirt.” He stroked a hand down the Grateful Dead logo.
“Give. Her. Your. Shirt.” It sounded like Callum was about to explode.
Ryan stripped off his shirt and tossed it to Patricia, who pulled it over the mummy’s head.
“He’s not the only one half-naked,” Julia said to Joe. “I can’t walk in there like this. You’ll have to go up to my room and get me something to wear. I’ll wait here.”
“Nobody’s waiting here. We’ve got half of Bolivia chasing us after that screw-u
p. We need to get inside, get packed and get out of here.” Callum looked back at Patricia. “You need to read the dead person and get us a location, because we’re leaving La Paz within the hour. I don’t care where we go, but we’re getting out of here. Now, everybody, stop whining at me and get out of the damn car.”
Ryan and Patricia scrambled out. Julia sat frozen in place.
“Don’t worry,” Joe said. “I know what to do. I’ll cover your back. Stick with me.”
Having no other choice, she followed Joe out of the car. As soon as they were out, he stood behind her and wrapped his arm around her body, beneath her breasts. He was plastered against the length of her, his front to her back.
“Okay,” he said. “Step with me. You ready?”
No! she wanted to scream. She wasn’t anywhere near ready. He took her silence as assent.
“Right foot, left foot,” he said as they moved forward.
The bewildered doorman held the door for them as they passed him. A shirtless man, followed by an old woman carrying a mummy who was wearing a Grateful Dead t-shirt and then a couple who were joined at the hips—literally.
“Right, left, right, left,” Joe said against her ear as everyone in the lobby turned to watch their procession to the lifts.
If Julia could have died from humiliation, it would have happened at that exact moment.
