Gunshots waken Ian Tunbridge, an assistant curator of classical antiquities at the British Museum, on his first day on a dig in California. The only way to save his life is to run for it, but luck is not on his side. At least, not until he meets Lucas Arpini, the brash American photographer who seems to have some sort of clue what’s going on. Together, they’re supposed to be the tools in finding an artifact nobody believes is real -- nobody, that is, except Lucas and the man kidnaps them both.<br><br>Ian doesn’t know what to believe. His colleagues are dead, he’s injured, and he has no choice but to put his faith in a gorgeous stranger. Their escape should lead them straight to the police, but when Lucas shows him pieces of the puzzle they were meant to solve, Ian is too intrigued to walk away. He wants to solve the riddle as badly as Lucas does.<br><br>Unfortunately, they aren’t the only ones ...

Riddle Me Wicked

The first hint of indecision appeared on Ian’s face. “You see it, then?”


“How do you even know what fractals are?”


Ian’s dismissal of his intelligence stung. Lucas swiveled around to avoid telegraphing his hurt feelings. “I know enough to understand they base chaos science on them. That it’s just a matter of generating them by doing the same thing over and over again.” He traced the shape of the fractal Ian had buried in the mishmash of white noise on the screen. “And that you couldn’t even pick a hard one for me to find.”


The bed rustled behind him. Ian was squirming. Good. He deserved to be a little embarrassed for automatically classifying Lucas as an idiot.


He found the other four fractals without giving Ian another glance. When he was done, he clicked to the next window without a word.


Chapter 18