Read Online Uncharted (Treasure Hunter Security Book 2) by Anna Hackett - Free Book Online

the lightweight tents to his pack and pulled it onto his back. He checked to see the others were all ready and then started slashing a path through the jungle. He heard the click of a camera and glanced behind him. Dani was crouched, the camera blocking most of her face.
    “Ask,” he said
    She lowered the camera and looked up at him. “May I take your picture, please?” Her tone was saccharine-sweet.
    He lowered his voice. “Only if I can take yours later.” The image of her naked and spread across one of the four-poster beds back at the hotel flashed through his head.
    Her face changed. “No.”
    He detected something in her tone. “Why not?”
    She shrugged and stood. “Photographs in my family were all about being lined up wearing our Sunday best. I inevitably got my clothes dirty or messed up my hair. My mother was never happy.” Dani lifted the camera “I prefer to be on this side of the camera.”
    Cal moved closer, so only she could hear him. “I could get a good shot of you. And so you won’t worry about dirty clothes, you could be naked on silk sheets. I think that would suit you.”
    Her lips parted, then she shook her head. “Jungle to cut down, Ward. You’d better focus on that.”
    With a laugh, he did. Cal had used a machete too many times to count, and got into his usual rhythm, hacking away the vines and undergrowth to make a path for them. Jean-Luc and Sakada proved pretty good with the machetes as well. While they couldn’t move as fast as they had on the bikes, they were making good progress, moving deeper into the uncharted jungle. Every now and then, they passed piles of rubble or weathered statues. Hints of the remnants of the lost city resting beneath the vegetation.
    “You enjoy this.” Dani had caught up to him again.
    Cal paused and swiped his arm across his sweaty forehead. “Beats a war zone.”
    “The SEAL teams…it was rough?”
    “War is.” His gut turned over. “I lost some good friends.”
    “Like your friend Marty?”
    His gut went hard now. “Yeah. Like Marty.”
    “I’m sorry.” She paused. “You said your brother was a SEAL, as well?”
    “Yeah. Dec took a bullet and got out.”
    “I guess providing security for archeologists, even on remote expeditions, is safer than what you did before.”
    Cal grunted. “You’d think. Actually, Dec took a bullet a few months back on a job. He almost died.”
    Dani blinked. “I thought chasing artifacts would be less dangerous than fighting bad guys.”
    “Usually. Some jobs are downright boring. But Dec was on a job in Egypt and tangled with some antiquities thieves.”
    He saw Dani’s eyes widen. “The Zerzura discovery? That was your brother?”
    “Yep.”
    “Oh, I would give my first born childto photograph there. A lost, underground oasis in the desert…I can only imagine the images I could capture there.” Her mouth slid into a frown. “They aren’t letting anyone in there, yet. I’ve tried.”
    “It is pretty amazing.”
    She pulled to a stop. “You’ve been there?”
    God, her face. “I went in with our team to rescue Dec and Layne, the archeologist he was with.”
    To be honest, Cal hadn’t really paid that much attention to the ancient city carved into the rock walls of the underground oasis. He’d been too busy saving Dec’s life. His brother had been bleeding out from a bullet wound.
    Cal channeled extra energy into hacking away at the vines in front of them. Just the memory of his brother, bloody and dying, reminded Cal of the friend he hadn’t been able to save.
    Suddenly his blade hit rock with a clang.
    Beside him, Dani gasped. He reached out and pushed aside the vines.
    Staring back at them, was a stone statue.
    The seven-headed snake rose up like a cobra. The statue was taller than Cal, and badly weathered.
    “Beautiful,” Dr. Oakley said. He was a little out of breath, sweat beading on his face. “A naga. The Cambodian people believe they came from the union of a Brahman and the