Shadow Bones. Colleen Rhoads
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him. Jake didn’t trust the genial smile on the man’s face. “What are you doing here, Reynolds?”
Cameron put his hand up as if to ward off the hostility in Jake’s voice. “Whoa, Jake, I come in peace.” He chuckled at his own joke.
Jake didn’t find it funny. “Don’t make any Native American jokes around here, or the owner will toss you off the reservation on your ear. On second thought, go right ahead. She’ll save me the bother.”
“Hey, come on, guy. We can at least be civil.”
“Why? The last time you showed up, you horned in on my dig and took the credit for the T-Rex fossils I found.” Jake folded his arms over his chest.
“I mentioned your name in the article. Besides, you need my respectability.” He tossed Jake a smirk then jerked his head toward the woman. “This is my assistant, Brook Sawyer.”
She was in her twenties, Jake judged. She nodded at them then looked down at the ground and didn’t speak. Jake nodded back then started pointedly at Cameron. “Don’t throw me any bones.” He jerked his head toward his dig. “I suppose you want to cut in on the action here. No way.”
“I figure if you’re wasting your whole summer here, you’ve got a really good reason.” Cameron looked around, his face alive with curiosity.
“My family is here. I’m just killing time while I visit with them.”
Cameron chuckled. “Forgive me if I don’t believe that.” He slanted a glance toward Wynne. “You’re just as beautiful as ever, Wynne.”
Wynne smiled but there was no warmth in the expression. “Hello, Cameron. Just as smarmy as ever, I see.”
“Smarmy? That was a sincere compliment. How about dinner one night?” Cameron’s smile never dimmed.
“Don’t you think you’d better scope out the other possibilities first?” Wynne’s eyes were hostile.
Jake was glad to see she hadn’t forgotten the way Cameron had wined and dined her then dropped her when a more ripe candidate had come along.
“Come on, forgive and forget, Wynne. You can show me the sights.” He took her hand.
“I’d be more apt to tip you over a cliff into Superior.” Wynne pulled her hand free. “I’d better get lunch ready.” She turned and walked away from the men.
Jake grinned at the way she put Cameron in his place. “How did you figure out where I was?”
“A little birdie told me,” Cameron said, his eyes still on Wynne. He sighed then walked to the dig and squatted.
“Careful, you might wrinkle your pants.” Jake was suddenly tired of the sparring.
“We were partners a long time, Jake. I think it’s time you got over the personal stuff.”
“I don’t trust you, Reynolds. This is my dig. I don’t need your help.”
Cameron flicked a paper out of his pocket. “The owner says differently.”
Jake’s face tightened as he read the lease from Mary Metis. She’d granted Reynolds permission to dig out here, too, but farther out from this site. “How’d you get around her? Did you tell her we were partners once?”
“Something like that.”
Jake wanted to wipe the smug grin off Cameron’s face. “You stay out of my dig, Reynolds. Go poke around on your own side of the slope. This spot’s mine.”
“We’d be better off to pool our resources,” Cameron suggested. He glanced around. “I know what you’re onto here.”
Jake’s stomach tightened. He had to get rid of Cameron before he saw anything more. “Not going to happen.” Jake glanced at his watch. “I need to get back to work. You can find your own way off my site.”
“If this really is a baby dinosaur nest, you need my help.”
“I’m perfectly capable of making any discoveries on my own,” Jake said. He stared at Cameron until he shrugged and turned toward the path down to the truck. His assistant followed him. Jake joined his sister.
“Is this going to be trouble?” Wynne asked. She handed him a sandwich. “It’s peanut butter. There’s milk in the Thermos.”
Jake unwrapped it. “Might be. It’s a good thing I’m sleeping out here.”
“Is he that desperate?”
“That’s how he’s climbing the ladder—on the backs of other paleontologists. One of these days someone is going to kill him over it.”
Wynne shuddered. “Don’t talk like that.”
“It’s the truth. He’s a barracuda.”
“But a cute one,” Wynne noted.
Jake wrinkled his nose. “I thought you were over him.”
“I am, but I’m not blind, either.” Wynne laughed and took a bite of her sandwich. “Maybe I should do a little hobnobbing with the enemy and see what he’s up to.”
“I don’t want you within ten feet of that snake.” Jake looked in her face and saw the wheels turning. “No way, Wynne! Don’t even think about it. You’re not in the same league with him. He already discarded you once.”
Wynne sniffed. “I can handle myself. I’m not a little girl, Jake.”
“You won’t have time to waste on the likes of Reynolds.” Jake knew he’d get nowhere by ordering Wynne around. She’d always been the independent type. “Let’s get back to work.”
She downed the last swallow of milk and crumpled the paper cup in her hand, then tossed it in the plastic trash bag. “Okay, lead on, fearless one.”
Jake just hoped she’d forget about Cameron Reynolds.
They worked all afternoon in the hot sun. The breeze they’d enjoyed earlier in the week seemed to have evaporated like Superior’s morning mist. The drone of insects and the scraping of their tools had a lulling effect on him, and he had to fight to keep his attention on the task at hand.
About four, he hit something. Using his fingers, he carefully began to clean the spot away. The task was painstaking and tedious in the hard clay dirt. The hole widened. A few more minutes and he’d have the object free. By five, a large egg-shaped rock lay exposed. Jake tried to still the flutters of excitement in his belly as he saw other possible eggs under the top one. The find confirmed his hunch about the rounded shapes in the stones around him.
“I think we’ve done it,” he said, settling in to dig up more and make sure.
The bell tinkled on the door to The Sleeping Turtle. From her position on a ladder with herbs in her hands, Skye couldn’t see the customer. “I’ll be with you in just a minute,” she called.
She heard quick steps and glanced around. Before she could tell who had come in, the ladder began to shake. Skye grabbed hold and hung on.
“You’ll pay for what you’ve done!”
Skye craned her neck and looked down. Tallulah Levenger, a frequent customer, gripped the ladder rails with both hands. Her brows drawn together, she looked savage. Her salt-and-pepper hair hung in strings around her face, and she was still dressed in her nightgown.
Skye clung to the ladder with both hands. She felt dizzy and disoriented from the shaking. For a moment, she thought Tallulah would toss the ladder onto its side with Skye still attached. Poised on her right leg, Skye let go and leaped for the floor. Better to choose her own landing.
She slammed to the wooden floor with a force that buckled her legs. Her knees stung from the impact with the hard wood, and a wave of pain radiated from her left knee. She groaned as she heard cursing behind her. She needed to