Into the Fray (Daring Escapes #3) - Margaret Daley Page 0,38

connected to this site. At first, when he met Tory and she told him she needed someone to help her at the Temple of the Stars, he didn’t want to have anything to do with the site. In the long run, it wasn’t Juan who changed his mind, but the Lord.

He paused for a moment on the top of the ancient ruin and scanned the area with his binoculars, noting where the workers were and what they were doing. Everything seemed to be all right, yet, like Tory, he didn’t have a good feeling about what was to come.

Chapter Eight

Tory dove into the pool of water at the base of the waterfall. The refreshing coolness washed away the sweat of a day’s work, which had revealed the female body of what might be a queen or, at the least, a noblewoman. She shot upward, breaking through the surface to find Guerrero sitting on a stone ledge not far from where she was.

Treading water, she smiled at her bodyguard, who took his job very seriously. “I promised myself I would come here once I finished with the headpiece and take a real bath, not a sponge one. That’s why I’m wearing a bathing suit. I knew you would follow me.”

“What if I hadn’t?”

She laughed. “You’ll never know.” She swam toward the ledge where she’d left her bar of soap and grabbed it.

He had on his serious face. “Again, I’ll remind you that leaving the dig without me is not an option.”

“I can see the outskirts of the site.”

“Technically, that doesn’t qualify as being there.”

He was right, but over the past two days, everything seemed all right. She didn’t even have one of those creepy sensations of being watched. Ramon was working in the larger room under the temple and had found a couple of artifacts while Mario and Katie were working in the trench before the Temple of the Stars on the back side, facing away from their campsite.

“I was testing your bodyguard skills.” She grinned. “You’re doing a very effective job.”

With her soap in one hand, she headed toward the rock she used to climb out. After hoisting herself up on the stone seat, she began soaping her body then her hair. When she was finished, she jumped back into the pool and ducked under the water to rid herself of the soapy suds, then shot upward. The second she surfaced, a crack sound filled the air.

Guerrero rose, withdrawing his weapon from his holster and aiming into the dense jungle on the other side of the water. “Get out and hide. Now.”

He returned fire while she quickly swam toward the edge and hoisted herself out of the pool. Tory ducked behind a boulder with her towel and backpack, catching a partial view of Guerrero.

More shots came from the rainforest, forcing him to find better cover. He rapidly unloaded a round of bullets in a clip while running and diving behind her refuge. Blood ran down his left arm.

“You’ve been shot.” Tory dug into her bag and withdrew her pistol.

“It’s nothing.” He raised up and fired.

She followed suit, aiming at the area where the gunfire was coming from. With her clip emptied, she glanced back at the dig site. Two of their guards rushed toward them, fanning out and finding their own shelter nearby.

“What if this is a diversion?” Tory asked, keeping an eye on the Temple of the Stars.

“That’s crossed my mind. I think there’s only one person shooting at us. The shots are only coming from one place.” Guerrero popped up to draw fire.

A minute passed and nothing happened. Guerrero gestured toward the two guards then raked his bullets over the area where the shooter had been. The two security men did the same.

When nothing happened, Guerrero said in a low voice, “I’m taking Tory back to camp. Check the area.”

Low running, using the stones to shield them, Tory and Guerrero headed toward the dig site. While holding her weapon and the backpack in one hand, she stuffed her towel into it to cover the golden headdress. She occasionally glanced back at the guards, praying they were all right. The two Mayans were both moving cautiously toward the edge of the thick jungle. She hoped the two of them returned with good news.

At the outskirts of the camp, Guerrero stopped, using a huge tree as their shelter. “I hope you have the headdress because it’s no longer in the burial room.”

She patted the canvas sack. “In here. I didn’t