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

Gideon glanced at Cole. “What do you think?”


Cole sighed. “I don’t like the idea, but it’s possible. Or…Yeah. Given the timeframe, his divorce, needing money, then the looting. Quint, check Alvarez’s and Davis’s backgrounds. And Elliot’s. See if any one of them was ever in the vicinity of other digs that were looted, especially ones Keith was at when it happened. If you need a list of which ones he worked—”


“I have them already,” Gideon said. “Part of what my guy dug up on Brooks.” He went over to the desk, turned on his laptop, then—after connecting it to a portable printer—he opened a file and printed out the information for Quint.


Thanking him, Quint said, “I’ll run a check first thing tomorrow morning. If Cole’s right and Brooks did run into one of them—either looting, or trying to loot a site—then we’ve got our connection.”


“Not that it does any good if we can’t find the man himself,” Gideon said, retaking his seat on the sofa.


Chapter 21