Gideon Monahan is a man dedicated to what he does -- recovering stolen art -- to the exclusion of anything else, including a personal life. There's a reason for that, something that happened in his past that he can't forget.<br><br>Cole Newell is an archaeologist with a problem. He needs to find out who looted a dig he worked the previous summer, after one of the artifacts shows up at his gallery. Cole calls on Gideon to lend his expertise, which, much against his better judgment, Gideon does.<br><br>When one of the looters is murdered, they set out to find answers, with the help of Detective Quint Hawk. In the process, Cole realizes he's attracted to Gideon, even though he's certain the man is straight. After he helps Gideon open up about -- and accept -- his past, can the two men become more than friends? Both Gideon and Cole hope so, once they overcome the myriad problems facing them.

It Takes an Archaeologist

“It’ll pass. But, it is a nice dream—and only that.”


Cole wished it wasn’t. Since Gideon had left, he found the man was in his thoughts more than was logical, all things considered. I’m like a teenager with a crush on the hot jock who has a dozen girls hanging around him. Been there, done that, actually, and it wasn’t fun. But I got over it then, and I will now.


“I’ll call if I find out anything more,” Quint said.


“Okay. And I’ll see if I can figure out if it was Franks or Phillips who hired the men to loot the dig—if that’s what happened. Or which one of them the looters convinced to let them into the site.”


“Good. Talk to you later,” Quint replied before leaving the gallery.   5


Gideon adjusted his phone so he could take notes as he listened to Quint. When the detective finished updating him about what he’d learned—and hadn’t learned—from Davis and Alvarez, Gideon said, “Thanks for filling me in.”


“No problem. I figured you’d want to know where things stood.”


Chapter 13