AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Mr. Hayes arched a brow and remained infuriatingly silent.
“What exactly do you do for my uncle?”
“A little of everything.”
I considered kicking him. “Are you his secretary?”
He laughed.
The quality of it gave me pause. “Is your work dangerous?”
“It can be.”
“Is it legal?”
His grin dazzled me. “Sometimes.”
“Mr. Hayes, whatever you and my uncle are—”
“What’s legal and illegal in this country is very fluid, Señorita Olivera.”
“Well,Iwant to know what happened to my parents,” I said in a low voice. “Why were they wandering around in the desert? What were they looking for? And why wasn’t Tío Ricardo with them?”
“Your parents were free to do what they wished,” he said smoothly. “They were the money behind the whole operation and weren’t often told what to do. The only person who had any sway over them was Abdullah.” Mr. Hayes paused. “You do know who he is, correct?”
I’d heard the name hundreds of times. Abdullah was the brains behind every dig site. He was my parents’ business partner, the brilliant man who knew everything there was to know about ancient Egyptians. Over the years, my parents would sometimes idly share where Abdullah’s team was digging, but they’d never said a word about their latest excavation.
The one that had something to do with Cleopatra.
“Tell me more about the operation.”
Mr. Hayes shot to his feet, and I startled. He drew closer to my parents’ bedroom, the door flung open, and peered inside their chamber and let out a low whistle. I stood and joined him under the doorframe, once again struck by the discord.
“They weren’t messy people. Well, Papá is—was—incredibly absentminded. But this is something else.”
“Yes, it is,” he agreed, and for once he sounded serious. “Ricardo isn’t messy either.”
“I wouldn’t know,” I said coolly. “I’ve been in his company exactly one time, ten years ago.”
Mr. Hayes made no comment, but silently stepped forward, carefully picking up the discarded clothing. I didn’t like a stranger pawing at my parents’ belongings, and I almost said so, but a realization silenced me.
He wasn’t the stranger—I was.
Mr. Hayes knew a side of my parents I’d never seen. Knew them in ways that I never would. He had memories of them I would never be a part of. He worked alongside them, shared meals, and slept at the same campsite.
“Have you been inside the room before?”
He nodded. “Many times.”
So, he had more than a working relationship with them. They were more likely to invite a friend inside their private hotel room, and not a work colleague. “Have you been inside since they’ve disappeared?”
His shoulders tensed. He leveled a look in my direction and stared at me for a few seconds in silent contemplation. Incredibly, the hard line of his mouth softened. “You understand, don’t you, that they’re gone?”
“What kind of question is that?”
“I want you to comprehend that you’ll gain nothing with your questions.”
I swallowed a painful lump at the back of my throat. “I will discover what happened to them.”
