Max hated to admit it, but he didn’t care for Cairo all that much. He loved Egypt—but not this part of Egypt.
He’d be the first to admit that he never got along all that well with the living, though.
The dead were easier. Yeah, they liked to deliver their unique stories in bits and pieces, but puzzles were fun. He didn’t even mind so much that the dead were often liars. Who didn’t want to scrub away the nasty parts of their past? The mistakes? The embarrassing bits?
But he could sit in silence with the dead and not worry about how weird or awkward they thought he was. Interesting stories filled history.
It also didn’t help that when he was around living people, he occasionally blurted out weird historical facts to fill the silence, which only proved to the other people that he was certifiably insane.
No. Cairo was too busy for him. He preferred to be out in the desert on a dig. Or in the middle of nowhere, sifting through the dirt and the mud as he searched for clues about the people who came before. At least then, he was likely to be with people who didn’t think his stories were all that weird.
“Okay, we can move. Charlie has given the all-clear,” Ed said.
Max’s heart gave a jerky thump, but he didn’t hesitate to jump to his feet at the same time as Ed. They strolled down the block and crossed the quiet street.
Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Ed confidently amble along the street as if he’d been here a million times. Ed was his brain’s other favorite topic right now. When it wasn’t obsessing over the state of his career and the threat to the tomb, he was constantly wondering about the man beside him, but so far, he’d kept his mouth shut against the thousands of questions begging to leap from the tip of his tongue.
When he’d chosen him at the Athens airport, he’d thought he’d never see the man again. Not only was he here, but he was a mercenary who was willing to help him. That was crazy. He wanted to know how he’d gotten to this point in his life, and all the things that interested him.
But he couldn’t ask.
The guy probably didn’t want him prying. These types of people who worked along the edges of the law were secretive in order to protect themselves and their families. Once this job was over, Ed and the rest of them would simply disappear.
Well, that was a shitty thought.
“Max?”
His head snapped up at the sound of concern in Ed’s voice. His companion was watching him, worry filling his warm eyes, and Max forced a bright smile on his lips.
“You okay to do this? We can walk away now, if you want,” Ed offered, seeming to brush aside Max’s fake smile. This man was sharp.
“Yep. I’m good. Ready to do this!” Max replied. He infused all the enthusiasm he could into that statement.
Ed continued to frown at him, not appearing overly convinced. “Okay. We’ll have your back the entire time. You’ve got nothing to worry about.”
“Cool. This shouldn’t take more than five minutes. Maybe even three,” Max said. If the apartment was being watched, the longer they were there, the more danger he was putting Ed, West, and Charlie in.
As soon as there was a break in the traffic, they jogged across the street and Ed led the way up the narrow stairs to the second floor. Max’s heart skipped a beat to see the faded blue door to his place standing open, but Ed was right there to reassure him.
“Charlie is already inside. He checked the place over to make sure no one was waiting for us. They also didn’t install surveillance cameras.”
But all of Ed’s gentle words flew right out of his head when he stepped inside the apartment. He’d expected it to be trashed. When he’d returned from the dig, it had looked like a whirlwind had ripped through the tiny one-bedroom place.
Now it was even worse. Nail and his gang had returned to destroy everything. He didn’t know if this had happened after his first or second escape. Not that it mattered at all when it happened. The sight of walls pockmarked with holes, stuffing from the sofa strewn everywhere, and the few dishes smashed on the floor. They’d shredded every piece of fabric. Even the tiny potted cactus he’d named George had been thrown to the floor. Poor George.
This was more than searching. It was as if someone had thrown a tantrum.
“Is it worth digging through this?” Charlie inquired, drawing Max’s eyes from the disaster area at last. “Do you think they located your research?”
“Um…yeah. I’ll get the notes. I don’t think they found anything.”
Max immediately rushed over to the overturned sofa and twisted the right front leg off. He’d hollowed it out and stuffed three pages of his journal inside. Withdrawing them with a small flourish, he smiled and presented them to Ed. “Would you mind holding on to them for me?”