Page 369 of The Romance Adventure

Only, the silhouette has shaggy hair and a loping walk much like CJ.

“What are you doing?” I ask.

He doesn’t even gasp or startle.

“Hunting for treasure.”

“Of course you are.” I check my watch. “At one a.m.?”

“Why are you up?” he asks.

“I’m hunting for you.” With each word spoken, CJ has backed me out of the garage and into the main part of the house.

The fine lines around his eyes suggest fatigue, but in them I also see purpose. “Now, why would you hunt for me when I’m right here?”

“You weren’t in bed.”

CJ flicks on the kitchen light over the center island. One by one, he sets four pieces of brittle, brown paper on the marble countertop.

My breath catches and I try to hide it with a yawn.

It’s the map. He doesn’t only have three pieces. He has four.

Did he find mine or is it a fake?

Leaning casually on my elbow, I say, “What do you have here?”

“The map in its entirety. Uncovered the final piece today.”

“Did your grandmother have it?” I ask innocently as I calculate how to get out of this.

“No.” The simple reply is delivered with a very solid piece of punctuation at the end, but I can’t be sure whether it’s a period or a question mark.

The second one could be the result of my guilty conscience. There’s no way he can know. Right?

Studying the fourth piece carefully, I verify it’s my piece because I accidentally bent one corner and it looked like a puppy ear. “Where did you get it?”

“I found it.”

Uh uh. He doesn’t get credit. I was the one who risked life and limb to grab it from Von Dräger’s cigar humidor.

I blurt, “No, I found it.”

CJ looks around. “Is there an echo in here?”

“No, CJ, I found that.” I stab the counter with my pointer finger.

“Then you admit it.”

“I was going to surprise you. Do a big reveal.” Only, my grand statement sounds more like a question because I had no such intention.

“Is that so? When?” He knows he has me. That cocky surfer is so sly.

“Why did you have this? Where did you get it?” CJ’s spine stiffens. His eyes turn to slits and his voice gets deeper, commanding. Gone is the go-with-the-flow guy.

Forget a meeting in a dark alley, I don’t want to be interrogated by him.

“Jolie, my grandfather taught me many things. Deep diving, an appreciation for pearls, precious stones, and treasure, magic tricks. You should know that I’m an expert pickpocket. However, I didn’t use any of those skills to find this. I used the most important one I learned from Chip. How to tell a real from a fake.”