Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 81182 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81182 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
“Outside.”
With a nod, he takes my hand and leads me through the bar, the hotel lobby, and then out a set of doors that open to a large patio overlooking a stage in the middle of the courtyard. Even with the stage empty—sans a few people who seem to be setting up—I can only imagine what the space must look like when it’s filled with people who have shown up to watch whoever is performing. I can also see now why this place is so expensive to stay at.
“Have you stayed here before?” I ask.
“No, this is the first time. There’s a DJ performing here for the week that Otto has seen a couple of times, so he chose this place.” He walks us over to a red velvet couch, and sits down next to me once my ass hits the cushion, resting his arm on the back behind me. “You leave for London the day after tomorrow?” he asks.
“Yeah, I have a shift that morning leaving from here, with a stop in Paris, before arriving back home.” I can’t help but hear the surprising tinge of disappointment in my own tone. I love my job. Maybe it’s just the idea of my vacation ending so soon. “Are you guys working near Paris?”
“No, we’re actually in Bournemouth, working about thirty-five miles off the coast. A salvaging site of an old shipwreck.”
“A shipwreck… like from pirate days?” My voice clearly conveys my excitement.
“Not quite.” He laughs his eyes dropping to my mouth for a brief moment. “It does have treasure on it, but it was a merchant ship that sank back in the 1500s on its return to London from Spain.”
“Wow, and they just found it now?”
“The ocean is vast, baby. They searched for years for the site, but until a fishing vessel pulled up the anchor while trolling last year, no one was sure where the ship went down.”
“So, you’re deep-sea diving for treasure?”
“Yeah, except I don’t keep anything I find, and the company who hired us won’t likely keep much of it either, since it still belongs to the crown.”
“That sucks.”
“A little, but the guys who are running the operation have bought everything they could ever want and are bored out of their minds, with money to burn, so this is essentially a very expensive hobby for them.”
“Aww, poor them. It must totally blow to be super rich.” I roll my eyes, and he laughs. “So have you found anything at the site?”
“We’ve found about a million dollars in gold, but there was supposedly close to a billion dollars’—in today’s money—worth of gold, silver, and jewels on board.”
“How do they know that?”
“It was logged. Plus, the captain of the ship and twenty-eight of the men on board survived the accident and were rescued when the ship sank.”
“So, the captain could have staged the accident with twenty-eight of his closest friends and hid the gold and jewels away somewhere.”
“I guess anything is possible.” He smiles, then turns to look to his right, and I follow his gaze. When I see the men who were with him on the plane walking toward us, my nerves, which had finally settled, immediately kick back in.
Standing with him, he places his arm around my waist, curling his fingers around my hip in a possessive hold as his friends get closer. Like Walker, both of them are dressed in all black and are gorgeous, and seeing the three of them together, I’m sure they regularly create chaos wherever they go just from how good-looking they all are.
“Hanna, this is Otto and Ham. You guys remember Hanna.”
“How could we forget flight attendant girl?” Otto, who is tall and blond with boyish good looks and an accent that sound French, smiles.
“Hanna.” Ham dips his chin, sounding as American as Walker and me, and his almost-black hair falls slightly over his forehead. There’s not even a hint of a smile, but I don’t think it’s because I’m here. I get the feeling it’s just his way.
“Thanks for letting me tag along to dinner.” I smile, and Walker gives my hip where his hand is resting a squeeze.
“Speaking of dinner—” Walker lifts his wrist to look at his watch. “—we should probably head over to the restaurant before they give our table away.”
“Are you going to the show tonight?” Otto looks at me over his shoulder as Walker and I follow him and Ham back into the hotel. “The DJ that’s performing is fucking amazing.”
“Umm…” I shake my head. “Probably not. I have a reservation to go snorkeling in the morning. It’s really early, so I don’t want to miss it.”
“That’s cool.” He glances between Walker and me. “But why would you pay someone for that when you have three of the best divers in the world right here?”
“I—”
“We should rent a boat,” he cuts me off and looks over at Ham. “And we could invite those chicks we hung out with last night by the pool.”