Unlawful Chase, C.J. Schnier [best book clubs TXT] 📗

She wanted it too, however, and quickly tired of her game. Jaye leaned down again, forced my lips open with her tongue and let me slide into her. My last act of defiance before losing myself to the moment was to reach back and pull her hair as I forced myself deeper. The battle had just begun.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Adrian Pruitt's colossal house was as alien to me as another planet. In many ways it was indicative of another world. His was a world of wealth, power, and excess. All things that I detested. So far, Pruitt had kept me waiting. I tapped my foot on the smooth tile floor, trying to make my impatience obvious to anyone who cared to look, while simultaneously pretending to study one of his many artifacts. I was alone except for Mr. Liezer, Pruitt's Frankenstein-looking goon who watched over me. I did my best to avoid his gaze. It was cold and emotionless, and it made me shiver every time I caught him looking at me.

I wasn't sure why he was there. I didn't need a babysitter. Pruitt's private compound was a fortress, albeit a very well decorated one. I wasn't sure exactly where it was, and I certainly wasn't going to steal anything or leave until I had my money. Yet, wherever I moved, Liezer's eyes followed. They bore into me. Searching. Accusing. It was a huge relief when Pruitt came prancing into the room.

"Captain Hawkins, how good to see you!" he exclaimed, his neon-white teeth showing behind his plastic smile.

"Pruitt," I responded coolly.

"Tell me, how was your trip?"

"I've had better," I answered.

"I'm sorry to hear that. Nature of the work, I suppose. But, do you have my idol?" His smile fading into the worried expression of a junkie looking to score.

I nodded and picked up the green duffel bag at my feet, "Got it right here."

Pruitt's worried look vanished, replaced by a nervous giddiness. "May I see it?" he asked, vibrating with excitement.

"Have at it," I said, tossing him the hefty canvas bag containing the stone idol. Pruitt's eyes went wide when he realized that I wasn't handing him the bag. He scrambled to catch it, nearly tripping over the red silk robe wrapped around him. Awkwardly, he grabbed the bag out of the air, fumbling with it, but finally securing it. He pulled the bag close to his chest and held it there like a mother protecting her child.

He glared at me as he put the bag down on a table and unzipped it, taking his eyes off me only to extract the idol out of the bag. He held the figure up, studying it, and turning it over in his hands.

"Yes," he whispered, "This will do nicely."

"You know, you could have told me that you had hired a second treasure hunter to find that hunk of rock. She and I nearly killed each other trying to get it from one another," I said.

"Oh yes, I heard that you had a run-in with Ms. Mercury. But it looks like you came out on top, you're here with the idol, and she's not. That makes you the one I'll go to when I need something of value found," he said, putting the idol down. "Well, hopefully something more valuable than this, anyway."

"What do you mean? I thought that was some sort of priceless artifact?"

"That?" he scoffed. "Don't be silly. It's little more than a crudely carved piece of stone. I have dozens just like it."

My mind reeled at what he had said. It didn't make any sense. Unless I got played.

"Why did you go through all the trouble of hiring not one, but two treasure hunters to retrieve it? Even for someone like you that seems a bit theatrical for a job interview."

"Oh my dear boy, you have no idea how theatrical I can be," he said. "It is true. This idol is valuable, and it does hold a certain cultural significance, but the only reason it is worth anything is because I made it so."

"That doesn't make any sense. How could you make it valuable?" I asked.

"It's simple economics, Chase. Supply and demand. You provided the supply," he said, patting the head of the idol, "And I created the demand."

"Ok. But how? You said people had been looking for this for years, wouldn't that create its own demand?"

Pruitt laughed, a sharp shrill chuckle. "The only person that had been looking for this was Dr. Blatt. He says hello by the way. I took the liberty of giving him your contact information. You can keep that sat phone I gave you too, it's paid up for a year."

"If Miles was the only one looking for it why would he tell you?"

"Funding, of course. Do you think the kind of rogue archeology he does comes cheap? Blatt is little more than a treasure hunter himself. Only he has a PhD. That tends to open up a few more doors for him. He stumbled across the probable location of the Treasure of the Taino and sold that information to me to fund whatever it is that he is really after in Cuba," Pruitt stated.

"And with that information, you created the story behind the piece to drive up its value with collectors. And to keep costs down, you hired two amateurs to find it. But what about Bardales? He was hell-bent on retrieving that idol."

"Oh that the was the genius part of my plan, if I do say so myself. I needed legitimacy, collectors had to know that this was a rare and important item, and more importantly, illegal. The sort of collectors that I deal with do not want average antiquities. They want what they cannot have. That is what I am providing," Pruitt said.

"So, you had Blatt leak the info to Bardales, knowing he would do his job as Minister of Antiquities and try to stop us," I said, putting the last pieces of the puzzle together.

"Bardales was nothing