Page 66 of Take Me Under

“It was nothing. Just a meaningless stone—nothing that will generate new funding,” I replied, struggling to keep the melancholy from my voice.

“Don’t sweat it. You know how these things work. We’ll get a new donor, you’ll see.” Jared tried to reassure me. He didn’t know about my deal with Anton—yet. And that was assuming there still was a deal. While Jared was forever the optimist, I never celebrated until I had proof of funds.

“Time will tell,” I murmured.

“Our work would have stalled anyway due to the summer holiday travelers. They make it too hard to focus. Tourist traffic has already picked up, and you know this place will be swarming before long.”

I nodded in agreement. That was the problem with digging in a popular area. The tourists often had little care for the clearly marked excavation site, and thePolizia di Statohad to make regular patrols to make sure people didn’t cross the line into dangerous zones.

“Maybe you’re right, Jared. For now, it’s getting late, and I still have to get with the city about our permits. I’m hoping they’ll grant us an exception and allow us to leave things as they are. I don’t want to have to backfill all the trenches if I can help it.”

Jared’s eyes widened and he groaned. “We’ll lose so much if we have to start from scratch.”

I pursed my lips and tried to tamp down the apprehension I felt. If Anton didn’t follow through on his promise, there was a very high probability that we’d never get to finish our work here.

“I’m going to tell the crew to call it and start packing up the site. Have you seen Craig anywhere?” I asked, wondering why I hadn’t seen my lead researcher all day.

“He’s actually headed this way now,” Jared said, pointing to the right. I followed his finger to see Craig Davies jogging toward us.

“Your ears must have been ringing. I was just looking for you,” I remarked when Craig reached us.

“Hiya, Serena. I was stuck in the lab all bloody day and just heard about our funding getting pulled early. That’s rubbish!” he said with disgust. Craig’s British slang was always most prominent when he was upset by something. He shook his head, the action causing his wire-rimmed glasses to slide down his nose. Pushing them back into place, he continued. “So much work has gone into this. Absolutely gutting news, it is. Anyway, I came to find you because there’s a strange bloke here looking for you. He said his name is Anton something or other.”

My heart skipped a beat.

Anton.

The name echoed through me, stirring a jolt of something I dared not acknowledge. And once again, images of our last night together flashed in my mind. The best sex of my life. His eyes had been dark and intense, like he was peeling back the layers to find my soul. I could almost feel the way his hands had slid over my skin, making me forget where I was until my only focus was on the desperate heat of the moment.

“What did he say?” I asked as casually as I could.

“Not much. He showed up in a black Maserati right after I arrived. Asked to see Dr. Martinelli. I figured you might be busy, so I asked him why he was looking for you. I thought maybe I could help. He said you were expecting him. Shall I tell him to bugger off?”

“No,” I said, albeit a little too quickly. “I can handle it. Where is he now?”

“Last I saw, he was near the trailer. He’s with some other guy in a suit. The pair will be hard to miss,” Craig said.

Most likely, Zeke was the second suit.

“Why do you say that?” I asked.

“Because they are the only fellows gallivanting around in the dust wearing posh suits and shiny shoes.”

Jared snorted, but I ignored him. Turning away from Jared and Craig, I began walking down Via Sacra, the main pedestrian road in the Forum.

When I reached the crew trailer, I looked around. In the distance, I saw the sleek Maserati parked illegally near the bottom of Capitoline Hill but there was no sign of Anton or Zeke. Scanning the area, I stopped short when I spotted the tops of two heads, their bodies hidden behind a large soil heap. The absence of hardhats set me on alert. If they were field workers, they’d know better than to go into a trench without the proper gear. It was an unsafe location, even for an experienced excavator. Whoever it was didn’t belong there.

Probably a tourist.Dammit!

I hurried off to shoo the people away from the freshly dug hole.

“Hey, you two!” I called to them. “È pericoloso!It’s dangerous! You need to clear that area.”

They began to make their way up the bank and around the large pile of dirt and rock sediment until they came into full view.

And lo and behold.

The two careless fools were none other than Anton and Zeke.

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