Buried Secrets by Kristi Belcamino (book recommendations for teens txt) 📕

Abet the night off and rented this car. Sam can drive you back to the hotel,” Colton said.

“I don’t understand.” Dallas took a slug of her water.

“I’m camping out here. I’m sleeping in this car.” That’s when Dallas noticed Colton wore a heavy coat. A sleeping bag could be seen in the passenger seat. “I rented this car for the month. Figured it was safer in here than the guard shack.”

“Colton. That’s crazy. You don’t have a gun. What are you going to do if grave robbers arrive?”

“Honk?” He grinned. “No, but seriously. I’ll park right in the road, blocking the way in and turn on my lights.”

“Did you forget about Hemede?”

She wasn’t sure when during her weeks in bed—or how—she’d learned the name of the crew member who’d been murdered, but she knew this was the first time she’d said the man’s name out loud and it made her sick to her stomach.

Colton grew somber. “No. But remember they made an arrest in that case? It was random, right?”

Dallas thought back. That was right. During her depression, Colton had called to tell her that Egyptian authorities had made an arrest. She didn’t believe it then and she didn’t believe it now.

“That’s what they wanted us to think.”

Dallas was convinced that the man who was arrested took the fall for someone else. Whomever had been causing trouble for her from day one, back in the States.

Danny came up with a broad grin, not picking up on the tension.

“Did you hear? Dallas found it We’re close buddy. Real close.”

Dallas couldn’t hide her smile or excitement as she filled Colton in on the day’s discovery.

“I’ll be here bright and early, boss,” Danny said. “I’m going back to my hotel to call the minister and let him know about the latest development and see if they can send us some special camera equipment. Even if they ship it overnight, we won’t see it for another day so I want to get on it right away. I tried to call earlier but couldn’t get a signal”

Cell reception was spotty at the dig site.

After Danny drove away, Dallas took Colton over to the hole, which was now covered with a tarp, she shone a flashlight on it.

“It’s not very big, is it?”

Dallas shook her head. “Big enough for me to fit in, though.”

“Wow. This is incredible, Dallas. You must be on top of the world.”

“I’m a nervous wreck,” she admitted. They walked back to the parking lot.

As the crew finished packing up for the night and piled into the two trucks to return to town, Dallas and Colton stood silently watching. One truck had so many people in it, that a few were standing on the sideboard holding onto the open window. They were laughing and lively despite a hard day working out in the sun. Dallas knew she couldn’t offer them money to stay the night. Because they probably needed the money enough to agree to it.

But that wouldn’t be fair. They deserved to go home to warm meals and families.

She squared her shoulders and headed over to where Sam was waiting for her in his rental car. She leaned in the window and spoke to him. A few seconds later he pulled away and Dallas began walking back toward Colton.

“Hey! Hey!” Colton yelled at the car as it drove away.

When she got to his side, Dallas smiled at Colton and reached for the passenger door handle of the white car.

“I’m staying with you.” She slumped into the seat and leaned it as far back as it would go before closing the door.

“Jeez, Dallas. Seriously?”

“You’re stuck with me now,” she said, pulled her hat down over her face and closed her eyes. “I’m exhausted. Night?”

Colton swore under his breath.

She feigned snoring.

“I’m not amused.”

“Get in,” she said. “I couldn’t sleep now if I had to. I’m too excited about the tunnel. Colton! This is so exciting. This is it. What we’ve been looking for. I just know it.”

“It’s pretty incredible,” he said. He closed her door and came around the car to the driver’s side door.

After he got in, Colton started the engine and cranked up the heater to warm the inside of the car for a few seconds.

“Can you grab those blankets out of the back seat? And there is a huge thermos of coffee and some snacks.”

She smiled. He was already over his irritation.

Bundled up in blankets and warmed with hot coffee and pastries, Dallas finally was able to relax a little. The excitement of today’s find had finally worn off a little. She was starting to grow sleepy. She yawned loudly.

Colton exaggerated his own yawn, making her laugh.

They sat there in the dark for a few minutes. The night sky was a reddish black velvet dotted with pinpricks of stars everywhere she looked.

“It’s so beautiful,” Dallas said with a small audible sigh.

“Sure is.”

Something about his voice made her tilt her head. He was watching her in the dark.

“Why Cleopatra?” he asked.

Dallas’s hand instinctively reached for the ankh on the leather cord around her neck.

“It was the movie with Elizabeth Taylor,” Dallas began.

“Aha. I knew it,” Colton said.

“Wait,” Dallas said and held her palm up. “That was what started it. It was playing on TV and my mom and Dad were watching it. And they got into an argument. It was one of the worst arguments I’d ever seen them have. They didn’t know that I got out of bed and was watching them from the doorway. I was astonished that my mother could be so angry at my father. She was normally a pretty laid back hippie mom, but my dad had said something about how Cleopatra’s beauty could make a man do anything.

“It didn’t seem like a statement that would rile my mother. I mean she might tease him about him and tell him women were the superior sex and so on, but get mad? Unlikely. But like I said, even though she was normally really easygoing, she was ticked off.