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"Good luck, Errol. Sounds like you're going to need it."
Chapter Thirty-Two
Ashley
When Errol comes back after making his call, he seems more confident. A phone call did that? He's normally self-assured, but he'd lost some of that during our trip through the canyon, when he grew slightly jealous of his wild-man cousin. Then he'd regained that self-assurance after we found the treasure trove, only to let it slip away shortly after we learned his partner had betrayed him.
But he seems relaxed and confident once again.
Christian Frisk might have been Errol's partner once upon a time, but Errol doesn't need that jerk anymore. He has me—and Munro. We would never use Errol in a scheme to plunder an ancient treasure.
Errol crouches beside Frisk. "You are a thief, Christian. We're not friends anymore, and I will never let you steal the treasures in this hoard. I helped stop an antiquities theft ring, and I convinced a murderer to confess. Your skills donnae matter to me at all." He glances at me, then his cousin. "I've got the best partners in the world."
"My men will break free," Frisk says. "You can't stop us. By the time the police get here, we will be long gone."
"I don't think so." Errol rises. "You see, I have a plan. You don't."
Errol leads me toward the entrance. As we pass by Munro, Errol asks, "Can you keep these men contained while Ashley and I discuss the plan?"
"Aye." Munro aims his flinty stare at Frisk and his men. "They willnae go anywhere, except to hell."
Errol and I walk out into the sunshine, though the canyon walls around us mute the light. It still feels good to have the sun warming my skin, after spending so much time deep inside the caverns. He takes me well away from the entrance he had blasted out, then turns to me.
"What's the plan?" I ask.
"This might sound barmy."
I can't help laughing softly. "Am I supposed to be shocked? Your best ideas are completely insane. That's one of the things I love about you."
"Really? I love a lot of things about you, especially the way you go along with whatever insane plans I cook up." He grows more serious as he studies me. "Christian is more dangerous than I ever knew. He fooled me once, and I cannot let that happen again. We have one chance to make sure Christian and his men go to prison and the hoard falls into the right hands."
"I agree. Whatever you've got up your sleeve, I'm in."
"You haven't heard my plan yet."
"Don't need to. Tell me what to do, and I'll do it."
Errol searches my face as if he can't quite believe I would do anything for him. But I would. He has proved to me time and again that I can trust him with my life and everything else that matters.
He nods once. "All right. Here's the plan. First, I'm going to disable Frisk's raft."
"His raft? How do you know he has one?"
"Nobody swims up the Colorado River. I suppose he and his men could have hiked through the canyon to get here, but I doubt that. The terrain in this sector is rough and difficult to navigate, particularly for novices."
I glance at the cavern entrance. "You think Frisk brought novices with him? Is he that dumb?"
"No, he's that arrogant. I always knew he was up himself, but I didn't realize how far that went until today." Errol jerks his head toward the cavern entrance. "Do those eejits seem like river guides? Or wilderness experts? They probably don't even realize their mobiles won't work here. One of them is wearing a designer T-shirt, for pity's sake."
"Yeah, I did notice that. Hard to miss the logo plastered across that guy's back."
"They are dangerous, though. Donnae forget that."
My gaze wanders to the cavern again, and I wonder what Munro is doing in there with those goons. But I need to focus on what Errol wants to tell me, so I swerve my attention back to him. "How will you disable Frisk's raft?"
"I'm going to slash it."
"I don't understand."
