"That's right. He did exist, and I can prove it."
He sits up straighter, his gaze nailed to mine. "You found proof? Did you verify the existence of S.A. Jordan too?"
"Yes. But before we get into that, I'd like to remind you of the details Kincaid recorded about where he found the cave complex." I set the article on the table. "He said he traveled approximately forty-two miles from El Tovar when he noticed interesting colorations in the rock formations along the canyon and decided to investigate. He had to climb about two thousand feet up. A rock shelf hid the cave from view from ground level."
"Aye, but he magically found a way up the sheer cliff so he could stumble onto the hidden shelf."
"Not magically. But let's put that information aside for now. You wanted to know how I found proof that Kincaid and Jordan really did exist."
Errol lays a hand on my knee. "Yes, Ashley, I want to know."
The feel of his hand on my knee triggers a ridiculous flutter in my tummy. But I ignore it. "The Smithsonian insists no such person as S.A. Jordan ever existed, but they've got archives galore that include tons of data that hasn't been digitized yet. I scoured those documents for months, and I scoured the Library of Congress too, until I finally found proof that Professor Jordan did exist. His excavation reports were hidden deep inside the archives, and I don't think anybody had looked at them since shortly after the turn of the twentieth century. Then I also dug through genealogical records, on websites and in the National Archives, to find someone with that name. I found multiple men with the initials S.A., but only one who identified himself as an archaeologist affiliated with the Smithsonian. His name was Samuel Arthur Jordan."
Errol stares at me as if I've baffled him. What's confounding about the evidence I unearthed? I thought he'd be excited to hear what I've learned.
"You spent months hunting for that information?" he says. Then he pats my knee and gives me a patient smile. "Ye didnae need to do that. If you'd found me sooner, I could've tracked down Professor Jordan in a few hours, a day at most."
"I hadn't heard about you yet. Only when you and your cousin showed up in newspapers did I realize someone like you existed."
He straightens and spreads his arms wide, smiling with genuine sweetness. "Well, now you've got me. You will never again need to scour archives or websites. I tracked down the cryptocurrency trail of an evilbod ceann, after all. And I deduced from those transactions and from his movements that Royce Hammond was involved in antiquities smuggling. I can find the Grand Canyon treasure. That's a dead certainty."
"But you kept saying it's a myth, and it's a 'barmy' expedition."
And part of me still can't believe I've gained his cooperation. I'm waiting for that other shoe to drop—and expecting that shoe to come in the form of a pair of concrete galoshes.
Chapter Nine
Errol
"You've convinced me that I need to do this." I lower my arms and sigh, resigned to explaining myself to Ashley. The truth is not the most exciting story, and it doesn't make me look that good. But I tell her anyway. "Honestly, I didn't think I'd ever want to go treasure hunting again. After my adventure with Piper and Magnus, nothing else could live up to the thrill of hunting down a murderer. I felt burned out on dangerous missions. That's why I resisted so much when you tried to talk me into this expedition. But I realize now that even if the Grand Canyon treasure turns out to be bollocks, I need to see this mission through to the end."
"Because it will be exciting."
"Aye. But also because I've lost my mojo, and I need to get it back."
She bites her lip, releasing it slowly while she admires my body from head to toe. "Seemed to me like you had all your mojo last night. And then some."
"You didn't know me before the Istanbul escapade and the assault on Dùndubhan."
Ashley crinkles her brows, an expression that always makes me want to kiss the adorable lass. "You've mentioned the assault on the castle before, but you didn't tell me what happened."
"Royce Hammond brought a small army of hired men to breach the castle compound and kill Piper and Magnus, probably me too. But Hammond did not take into account the size of the MacTaggart clan or how dedicated we are to helping each other, no matter how dangerous doing that might be."
"Was your mother a MacTaggart? Your last name is Murdoch, so I assumed that was the case."
"Aye, Ma is a MacTaggart. She married my father, Jock Murdoch, and they named me after Ma's favorite actor, Errol Flynn. And that's how I became the amazing Errol Murdoch."
She tries not to smile, but her lips twitch just enough that I know she wants to let that expression come to life. "Well, I can't deny you are amazing. Any man who blows up a corporate server and blasts his way out of a building with C-4 deserves that title."
"Ye havenae seen my most amazing feats yet."
A half-suppressed laugh splutters out of her. "Maybe not, but I'm getting a good look at your supreme self-confidence. Are you always like this? I've never seen this side of you, but I guess that's because you've been off your game since before we met."
"You need a self-assured man for this mission. Only someone as crackbrained and confident as I am will have any chance of finding the treasure for you."
"I guess I like crackbrained men, considering that I had sex with you last night."
"Sex?" I chuckle. "Oh no, lass, that wasn't just a shag. We set off a different kind of explosives on the green, so I think it would be more appropriate to say we fucked the living daylights out of each other."