Page 118 of Stella
He grips my chin lightly, then dips his head to kiss me chastely. “You don’t ever have to be sorry, understand?”
“I want to come with you,” I whisper.
He shakes his head. “You’re safer here. I’ll call you later.” He gives me one more long, meaningful look and then takes off, Calli by his side.
I hug myself as I watch him leave. His head down and his hands buried in his pockets. My big, beautiful, strong man. He’s had so much conflict and trauma happen in his life, and here he is, doing the right thing. Sure, he had to tell Cash that he was his son, but the rest? Cale could’ve just done nothing and let them come and arrest my prez. He’s sacrificed his entire career by leaking that information. I can’t sit around and do nothing. After one last glance, my heart breaking just a little, I take off back inside and head straight to Jett’s office.
“What do you mean? Isn’t there a blueprint finder?” I frown.
Jett gives me a look. “A what?”
“You know, you put it into Google and it finds out the origins or something?”
“It doesn’t quite work like that, Stell. It’s like finding a needle in a haystack.”
I stare at the image, not really knowing what I can do to help, but I can’t just sit here and do nothing.
“What’s that thing that looks like a chapel?” I point at the diagram.
“Where?” Jett squints.
“Here.” I turn the image around. “Kinda, doesn’t it?”
“You don’t know what you’re lookin’ at,” he sighs.
“What about the key?”
“What about it?”
“Can I see it?”
He slides the picture towards me. Cale was kind enough to email them through so the boys could try to figure something out, but so far, nothing has jumped out at them. “It’s really old, and we don’t know what those numbers stand for.”
“I do,” I say, looking at it. “We studied this in history, it was really boring, but the City of the Dead was pretty cool.”
He turns to look at me. “For real?”
“Yeah, they signify the number on a tomb.”
“A tomb?”
“Like in the graveyard, you know, those scary places in New Orleans that have above ground graves. The really old ones have keys to keep their loved ones safe, I guess.”
“You’re shittin’ me?”
“Did none of you go to school?” I shake my head, but excitement buzzes in my stomach. “I wish you’d shown me earlier.”
“So if we can find the corresponding tomb?—”
“You find part of the puzzle, maybe?”
He jumps up from his seat. “This is somethin’.”
“Wait, did I actually do something useful?” I laugh.
“For once.” He winks. “You may have done just that.”
“I guess you didn’t know when they pulled up Bourbon Street years ago for reconstruction they found an old railroad and secret tunnels,” I say. “It was an archaeologist’s dream come true. That part I remembered because it was pretty cool thinking there was a buried city underneath us.”
