Her Dirty Archeologists by Mika Lane

Chapter 24

FLEUR HOLMES

“Hey, guys. What’s the pow-wow all about?”

If I weren’t mistaken, they were avoiding my gaze.

What the hell was going on?

I’d been working from sunup to sundown on what I hoped would be a good find. I wanted to contribute to the success of the dig, and share that with the guys. I could see it now… a well-reviewed article about our finds, with all four of our names on the front cover.

It would be so amazing.

But to make that happen, I couldn’t stop working. I only had so much time out here in the desert and had to make every moment count.

Well, except for those when I was naked with the guys. That was a different sort of priority.

They all glanced down at me, where I was working in our little pit. They’d been talking for a long time in the mess tent, and hopefully were thinking it was time to get to work.

What had they been talking about so seriously, anyway? I’d considered joining them to see what was up, but figured I’d catch up later.

“Oh, just some planning. That sort of thing,” Drake said quickly.

Okay…

“What’s that you have there,” Jonas asked, crouching for a better view.

“I believe this is a…” I said, working my tools around the edges of the artifact as gently as I could.

But I couldn’t finish. I didn’t want to jinx myself by wondering out loud if I’d found what I’d hoped I had—a fully intact clay pot.

It would be incredible to find something like this that hadn’t been damaged by the passage of time, but even more so if it indicated there was an entire treasure trove left behind by some ancient civilization just a few feet further below the surface.

This was the sort of things archeologists dreamt of.

And I was pretty sure I’d found what I’d been dreaming of.

They stared where I was still brushing away loose earth, their eyes wide.

Yup, they were thinking the same thing I was.

This was going to be fucking massive.

“You know, Fleur, I was about to tell you to stop working so damn hard, but I can see that would have been a mistake—”

Before Drake had even finished, I gingerly lifted the pot, careful not to let it slip between the fingers of my soft cotton gloves, and balancing it in the open palms of my hands.

“Holy shit. Look at that,” Penn said.

“Jesus,” Jonas yelled, “you know what you’ve done, Fleur? This is fucking massive.”

“Hold it right there,” Drake said, taking one photo after another of the pot from different angles.

I couldn’t believe our find, and I couldn’t believe I was the one who’d uncovered it. It could have been any of us, for sure, but this would cement my role as part of the team.

Some might say it was beginner’s luck, but I hadn’t been digging for hours every day for my freaking health. I knew there was something here. I just knew it.

I put the pot into Drake’s outstretched hands, and Penn reached to help me out of the pit. As soon as I was on my feet, he picked me up and twirled me around.

“Woo-hoo!” he screamed. “This is better than finding gold.”

He kissed me squarely on the lips before his brother elbowed him out of the way to do the same.

Oh my god. How did I get so lucky?

Drake stared at the little pot in his hands. “This is freaking awesome, Fleur.”

I put my hands on my hips. I had something important to say and I wanted the guys to pay attention. “From here on in, we need to have a night watch over our site. I’ll take the first night, and you guys can figure out who goes after that.”

They looked at me like I was crazy.

“Um, good idea about putting together a night patrol, but there’s no way you’re doing something like that alone, Fleur,” Jonas said.

I already had an answer for this. I was prepared.

“All right. Fine. If I even smell any sort of trouble, I promise to get one of you guys. I won’t confront anyone on my own like I did that other time.”

Even though pepper spray had a permanent home in my pocket, it probably made sense to call for backup, should it ever be needed. But I wasn’t going to sit out a night shift. I hadn’t shied away from any of the hard work on this dig, and I wasn’t starting now.

They looked at each other, and Drake slowly nodded. “I can work with that. But no heroics Fleur. All our hard work will have gone to shit if anything happens to you.”

It was settled.

* * *