Treasured Lies Read Online Free

the saloon, she was waiting for them at the dining table. Archer’s eyes were drawn to her breasts and how they heaved with her breathless excitement. The dampened bikini top helped. Clearly she was itching to show them what was now hidden beneath a white towel on the table.
    â€˜Show me!’ Jimmy was puffing now and Archer couldn’t wait to get him seated. The man was solid muscle and his weight reflected it too.
    â€˜When you’re all seated, I’ll show you,’ Rosalina said it like a teacher reacting to an unruly bunch of children. That was a good description of Jimmy and Alessandro at the moment. Both of them had to be constantly reminded of their doctor’s orders to rest. The only reason they were out of hospital and on Archer’s yacht in the first place was because of the assurances both Rosalina and Archer had made to the hospital staff that they’d be well looked after. A doctor flew in every second day to change their bandages, administer medications and check on their wounds. Although it was costing him a fortune, Archer wouldn’t baulk at paying ten times the amount if he had to.
    Jimmy would’ve kept a nurse on board too, if the one that turned up hadn’t resembled more of a prison guard than someone he wanted to play doctors and nurses with. Jimmy had been royally pissed off when she first rocked up. Not only did she look like she’d break his balls with the flick of her hand if he misbehaved, she didn’t smell too crash hot either. The poor woman only put up with his schoolboy antics for a week and Jimmy wasted no time in sweet talking Rosalina into taking over the nursing duties. Archer knew Rosalina didn’t mind. Looking after people was in her blood. She’d grown up looking after her grandmother, and vice versa. It was one of the things he loved about her.
    Ginger remained standing and jiggled from foot to foot as she waited for the men to sit. Once they were seated, Rosalina splayed her fingers on the table and cleared her throat. ‘Archer and I started digging in the same spot as last time, Jimmy.’
    â€˜Ah, for God’s sake, will you just show us?’
    She smiled a cheeky knowing smile, then she gradually peeled back the towel, revealing first the chain then the golden bust.
    Alessandro gasped. ‘ Dio mio . It’s the statue of Achelous. The patron deity of the Silver Swirling or Achelous River … Like, ummm, what you call, River God, I understand.’
    â€˜Is it gold?’ Ginger’s already high-pitched voice soared with that comment.
    â€˜Of course it’s gold, honey.’ Jimmy was quickly the expert. ‘It would’ve wasted away to nothin’ if it was anything else.’
    â€˜Not exactly.’ Alessandro was quick to defend his new love interest. ‘Those nails Archer and Rosalina brought up last time are testament to that.’ He thrust his chin in defiance.
    Archer’s mind bounced to the moment he’d discovered those nails. He’d been beyond excited when he’d dug the giant shipping nails from the sand but it wasn’t until he’d indicated what they were that Rosalina understood enough to share in his celebration too.
    But now that Alessandro mentioned it, he had a good point. In many other locations those nails would’ve crumbled away in the current. He reached for the gold chain and glided the relatively smooth links between his fingers. This dive spot performed its own natural preservation techniques, and hopefully that meant there was a whole bounty just sitting there, waiting to be discovered. It was a sobering thought. Just twenty or so metres below where he was standing were a hoard of items that’d been stolen from an Italian church seven hundred years ago. Hopefully they were the lucky bastards set to bring them back to life.
    Moments like these, and he’d had a couple of them in his life, made him wish his father was still alive to