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

When Lucas shifted abruptly to reach for the laptop again, Ian jerked in surprise. “What are you doing?”


Lucas opened the last window. “Taking the last test.”


“I know what you said. I’m going to find out for myself if I would have fallen into your trap.”


The third test required him to lean forward and squint at the small images on the screen. They were photographs that had been cut into equal pieces, then scattered across the page like a puzzle. Each one had a piece of yellowed parchment on it, with script thick with some sort of Eastern language.


“It’s Syriac,” Ian explained without prompting. “Serto, specifically. It’s—”


“Don’t tell me.” He didn’t want it to influence his answer. “But where did you get it?”


“I logged onto the British Museum’s system. It’s part of the test that’s given to potential hires. Modified slightly for you.”


Chapter 19