She stood, slowly, feeling an ache in her belly and in her heart as she realized how badly she’d miscalculated. If he wouldn’t take the mask, she really had stolen it. She’d already lost her client, but now she might lose her business. She could even go to jail. But the worst part was her sister—co-owner of Aubrey Sisters Heritage Preservation—was going to kill her.
But Larkspur had been in Hawaii for the last two months and didn’t know what was going on with Sienna and their museum client. Larkspur had no idea the mask had taken over. Or that maybe Sienna had gone insane. One or the other.
But the mask being possessed by a spirit was the preferred option.
“The mask is yours. Why refuse it? I’ve never met a tribal cultural resources manager who wasn’t eager to reclaim a piece of their tribe’s cultural heritage.”
“You show up here after hours, drop an ancient mask on the desk, and expect me to sign a scribbled delivery receipt when you haven’t even shown me so much as a business card? We may be out in the Alaskan boonies, Ms. Aubrey, but that doesn’t make me ignorant. I recognize when something is off. And you are definitely off.”
She stiffened her spine, hating that he was right but ready to defend herself anyway. “I was supposed to arrive much earlier, but my flight from Seattle was late into Anchorage, plus they lost my bag, so I missed the ten thirty flight to Itqaklut and had to catch the four o’clock. Then I got a flat tire on the way here. It took me almost forty-five minutes to get the bolts off. I had a seat on the nine o’clock flight back to Anchorage tonight. Without the flat, I might have made it.”
The man cocked his head. “What if I hadn’t been here? Was your plan to dump the mask on the front steps and leave?”
“Heavens, no! I would never be so negligent with an artifact! I’m a curation specialist.” She sighed and sat back in her seat. “I didn’t expect you to be here, but it was worth a shot. I don’t exactly have anywhere else to go. With the Midnight Sun Festival this week, there isn’t a hotel room or bed and breakfast with a bed available—which was why I’d booked a flight back to Anchorage tonight. So it was either drive here and see if I could catch you, and maybe even catch the return flight, or sit in the airport until morning and then drive here.”
If she were less desperate, she’d never have risked getting on the flight from Anchorage in the first place. She’d known the odds of catching the return flight were slim, but the idea of spending even one more night with the demon mask was too much. She’d had to try to get rid of it.
She dug around in her purse and pulled out a business card. “Here’s my card. I’m legit. Please, sign the release so I can get to one of the restaurants in Itqaklut before they close. I haven’t eaten since before my six a.m. flight from Seattle this morning. I’m exhausted, hungry, and I’ve got a long night ahead of me without a bed in my future.”
Vaughan stared at her, his face blank and those blue, blue eyes unreadable. Finally he said, “I won’t sign the release, but I can offer you dinner and a bed.”
Want to read more? You can find links to purchase Midnight Sun here. For more information on Midnight Sun and my other books, please visit my website at www.Rachel-Grant.net.
Books by Rachel Grant
Evidence Series (all books stand alone)
Evidence Series Box Set Volume 1: Books 1-3
Concrete Evidence (#1)
Body of Evidence (#2)
Withholding Evidence (#3)
Incriminating Evidence (#4)
Covert Evidence (#5)
Cold Evidence (#6)
Grave Danger
Midnight Sun
About the Author
Four-time Golden Heart® finalist Rachel Grant worked for over a decade as a professional archaeologist and mines her experiences for storylines and settings, which are as diverse as excavating a cemetery underneath an historic art museum in San Francisco, survey and excavation of many prehistoric Native American sites in the Pacific Northwest, researching an historic concrete house in Virginia, and mapping a seventeenth century Spanish and Dutch fort on the island of Sint Maarten in the Netherlands Antilles.
She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and children and can be found on the web at www.Rachel-Grant.net.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Epilogue
Author’s Note
Acknowledgments
Finding Lyla Excerpt
Midnight Sun Excerpt
Books by Rachel Grant
About the Author
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Epilogue
Author’s Note
Acknowledgments
Finding Lyla Excerpt
Midnight Sun Excerpt
Books by Rachel Grant
About the Author
Table of Contents
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