Maggie watched her a moment more, then seemed to relax. “Thank you for being so frank. Gage has never really gotten over what happened to Cassandra. Maybe you’ll be able to help him put it behind him.”
Abby felt a bond forming between them. They both cared about Gage—in different ways, more than cared. “I know he’s still suffering. I’ll help him any way I can.”
Maggie smiled. “Then we had better get to work. It takes a world of preparation to put a trip like this together.”
Abby returned the smile. “That’s for sure.” Turning, she went back to work on her computer.
Aside from finding, printing, and otherwise securing maps of the area, and helping Gage with miscellaneous research, over the next weeks Abby purchased personal items she would need, checked with her doctor, and took care of a tetanus booster. She’d already had her hep A and B shots. She and Gage were prescribed malaria drugs to begin a few days before they left.
She was only taking her small camera, the Canon Powershot Elph, this time. The danger element had grown tenfold. Everyone needed to concentrate on staying safe and finding the treasure. If she got a few good photos to document their efforts, she would be happy.
As the research unfolded, Abby discovered this was going to be a far different trip from the first. Though surrounded by tropical forest, the ruins of the hacienda were less than twenty miles from the nearest small village. And the forest itself was very different from what she expected.
A tropical dry forest consisted of thick scrubby trees and bushes, dense plant life, tenacious vines, and sticky leaves. The weather was hot and dry, not moist and wet like a rain forest, with its drenching daily showers.
But even the inhospitable terrain of the forest wouldn’t be their primary obstacle, the way the desert had been in the Superstitions.
Here, man was their greatest danger.
A little tremor went through her as she remembered the feel of the gun barrel pressed against the side of her head. As Gage had said, she could have died that day.
Abby shook the memory away. She was committed. At this stage, nothing could sway her.
Abby went back to work. Gage would also be working, doing everything in his power to acquire the permits necessary for a journey into the tropical forests of the Yucatán.
The work was exhausting, and it was thrilling. Abby couldn’t wait to get on the plane.
* * *
Gage did what he always did when he was heading up a new expedition. He immersed himself in the work that needed to be done, focusing entirely on collecting the necessary information, organizing, and pulling everything together.
It could take up to several months to prepare for a search as extensive as this. With Abby’s help, he figured they could cut it to the bone and be ready in a couple of weeks.
As she had done before, Abby worked on the various maps of the area around the ruins and the abandoned plantation itself—ironically named Hacienda del Oro Verde, House of the Green Gold, a reference to the value of the sisal plants grown there, also known as henequen.
In its heyday, henequen was an extremely valuable fiber used for making twine and rope. Or perhaps the hacienda’s name had a double meaning that hinted at the gold buried underneath.
Gage was involved in planning every aspect of the journey, which included researching the historical aspects of the area, once part of the vast Mayan civilization.
He knew a little about the Yucatán Peninsula, knew it was composed of miles of dense, nearly impenetrable tropical dry forest. There were also miles of shoreline, and the capital, Mérida, the place they would arrive after a stop in Mexico City, was one of the country’s largest cities.
Gage had worked in Mexico before. He knew some of the power players in the Mexican government. A man named Juan Guerra Ortega was an undersecretary at the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, the department that oversaw the protection of the prehistoric, archeological, and anthropological heritage of Mexico.
Ortega, along with several of his colleagues, was interested in what Gage might find during his search of a remote area of the Yucatán—Gage’s description of the expedition.
Ortega arranged a meeting with Victor Luego Alamán, an assistant to the Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit, the department that handled taxes, spending, debt, and income, anything to do with sustained economic growth.
Alamán was a powerful man in the government. He was also, according to Ortega, a greedy, slightly amoral bastard who managed to line his pockets with federal funds and not get caught.
If Gage could make a deal with Alamán for the government to receive a percentage of whatever treasure they might find, he would gain access to the vast forests and lands that included the ruins of the eighteenth-century Hacienda del Oro Verde.
Of course, the deal would include mordida—cash on the side—for Alamán.
The meet was set for a week from tomorrow at a small café across the street from the Palacio Nacional, the location of the executive branch of government.
Shoving up from his chair, Gage left his office and went in search of Maggie, seated at her desk in the main part of the building.
“We’ve got a start date, Mag. I need you to arrange a flight to Mexico City, arriving a week from today. Get us a suite at the Gran Hotel. I’ve got a meeting close by the next morning. If it’s successful, we’ll head for Mérida the following day. Book us an open-ended flight in case we have to stay longer in Mexico City.” In case we have to do a little more convincing.
“I’ll take care of it.” Maggie didn’t ask who the we included. Abby had been staying in his apartment since their return from Arizona, spending every night in his bed.
Unfortunately, both of them had been working round the clock, their energy entirely focused on the trip, which put a big dent in his sex life. Still, it felt good just to have her there, curling up with him when they finally fell exhausted into bed.
Inwardly, he grinned to think of the way she had awakened him this morning. Enjoying a dream about Abby pressing soft kisses over his chest, he awoke to find it wasn’t a dream at all, that his body was responding to the pretty mouth doing erotic things to him he had only imagined.
Gage reminded himself that eventually the affair would take its natural course and come to an end, just as it had the times he’d been involved with a woman before. His job was not conducive to a long-term relationship.
Gage felt an unexpected pang at the thought, a reminder not to let down his guard and get in too deep. He needed to keep things simple. Good sex, friendship, and a profitable business relationship. That was all.
“One more thing,” he said to Maggie, forcing his mind back where it belonged. “There’s a place outside Mérida, the Hacienda San José. We’ll need rooms for at least three nights.” Mateo would be meeting them there. He was already in Mexico, talking to locals, working up information on the area around the old hacienda, arranging for a base of operations somewhere nearby.
“I’ll make it happen,” Maggie said.
Gage returned to his office and went back to work, going over the list of things he needed to do before they left Denver. Since the business of finding treasure was part discovery and an equal part danger, they needed competent security.
His next call went to his brother.
* * *