Leo scowled. “Then she can pay the expense of digging. I can’t.”
Dante limped his way back to the entrance. “My students need a project. Give them a chance to follow that lower tunnel. If nothing else, you can turn it into a rathskellar.” He threw a defiant glance over his shoulder, almost in her direction.
Pris ignored the flutter in her midsection. “You have students?”
“I work with a local university. They usually have to volunteer in Rome. This gives them something different to explore. The Etruscans were savvy traders, but we’ve learned they were also accomplished artisans. Centuries before Roman rule they were making exquisite jewelry, pottery, bronze work...You name it, they made it.”
Leo looked mildly interested. “We plow up pottery shards all the time. Could we sell pottery or bronze? Surely the government wouldn’t have any interest in junk. They have more than enough already.”
“You can’t sell history, no. Although your ancestors may have, and that’s why you haven’t found anything. You need to go into this in the interest of knowledge, not profit.”
Pris didn’t even need to open her mind to know what Leo thought about that. But the idea of buried treasure was far more entertaining than hunting poisoners or whatever in heck she was doing here. Instead of following the men out, she walked deeper into the cavern. “What’s this huge stone round thing? Did the first cave man invent the wheel here?”
Leo reluctantly turned back. “Victorian oil mill, probably the same essential method as the Etruscans—back breaking labor or mule driven.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Looks unsanitary to me, especially if mules were involved.” Not concerned with being rude, she wandered deeper into the cave and shuddered. “Is it just me, or is there a cold air current back here?”
Leo grunted skeptically and walked out.
“It’s just you. We spent a lot of time chasing drafts when we were kids and found nothing. Let’s move on. I want to see what’s happening at the other entrance.” Instead of leaving, Dante clumped impatiently on her heels, using the rocky wall for balance.
Pris was pretty certain it wasn’t just her. “We need Evie to explore. Maybe the ghosts of ancient slaves haunt this place and could tell us where the treasure is.” She turned back, keeping her eye open for other tunnel entrances. She didn’t know what she could do if she found one, but it didn’t hurt to look.
In the dim light, Dante gave her a weird glare, but she was used to that. What she wasn’t used to was his mental shiver—one that suggested he might feel the ghosts too.
But he would never admit it. He silently swung his crutch back toward the entrance.
An icy chill ran down Pris’s spine as she followed him out.
“There’san open tunnel in the back of that cave and Leo knows about it,” Witchy Woman announced while parking the car at the steps to his villa.
Dante didn’t immediately climb out but frowned at the windshield. “Leo only visited in summers while we were growing up. How would he know more than Lucia?”
“How well did you know Lucia?” she asked acidly, swinging out of the low seat.
Apparently not as well as he’d believed, but they’d been young. He’d gone off to university. She’d stayed on the farm. In those rare times he’d been home, he’d been horny. She’d been willing. She didn’t mind being left behind while he roamed—or so he’d thought. He figured they’d marry once he established his career. She hadn’t waited.
Devil Woman waited now—impatiently. The silver streaks in her wiry curls practically danced as she tapped her toe.
Dante swung his stiff leg out of the car and glared. “How do you know Leo isn’t telling us everything?”
She rolled her dramatic amber eyes. “I will accept that you’re a scientist and need proof. You’ll have to accept that the only proof I can offer is knowing things I haven’t been told. Let’s just go with that, okay?”
He didn’t want to. It was on the tip of his tongue to saythat’s preposterous. She rubbed him in all the wrong ways, and he wanted her out of the house and out of the life he’d built these last years.
He needed to go back to what he knew best. But despite all attempts to deny it, there was a reason he was better than most at what he did—and it wasn’t normal.
After today, he had to lift his head from the dirt and take a good long look at why Lucia had done what she’d done. Why hadn’t she told him she was pregnant? Why had she left and never reached out to him again? Sure, he’d been a neglectful lover and hadn’t exactly promised love, marriage, or even faithfulness. He’d kicked himself for years after she’d dumped the twins on him.
But he’d had years to tamp down his fury. Logic finally prevailed.
If an interfering Malcolm could help him reach Lucia—he should probably call on one of his meddling, too-perceptive cousins, not this veritable stranger.
But Pris was right here at hand and had her own driving reasons to hunt Lucia.
Which meant he had to admit that he knew things he shouldn’t know too.
“If I tell you that you might be right about Leo, will you believe me?” He swung ungracefully up the villa’s steps. Damn good thing he wasn’t attempting to make an impression.
