That was it. No elaboration. The cowboy was a damn wall.
Doug's jaw twitched. "Have you ever seen dinosaur bones on this land before?"
Mitch cracked his neck and locked eyes with him. "None of your damn business."
The words hit like a whipcrack.
Doug flinched but didn't look away. They were two bulls, sizing each other up, both ready to charge.
The air thickened with tension.
I opened my mouth to say something that would steer the conversation somewhere safer, but my thoughts veered to those incredible dinosaur specimens I'd uncovered with my own hands. The prehistoric skull with its intact jawline, the perfectly preserved teeth still attached to the bone.
My chest squeezed tight.
I stared at the red dirt between my boots, blinking hard, but I couldn't hold back my tears.
That had been my discovery. My moment. After years of clawing my way back from Marcus's lies, which had ruined my reputation, and digging through dirt and dusty archives, I'd finally made a monumental discovery. However, this wasn't just about me.
Millions of years of history could have been erased by this violent flood.
My throat tightened. I swallowed, but the lump only grew bigger.
I'd spent hundreds of late nights researching, cross-referencing maps, and fighting for funding. I'd poured every ounce of my energy into this project. I'd needed to prove to the university that I could lead a field team, find real specimens worthy of displays, and publish an interesting paper that would actually get read.
And if this site didn't pan out, I'd have to face the humiliating possibility of crawling back to Brisbane and admitting that maybe I'd run out of options. I had a hundred grand of student debt hanging over my head, courtesy of two university degrees, and I couldn't survive forever on passion alone.
I'd graduated top of my class, but it turned out that passion and qualifications didn't guarantee shit.
I couldn't even rent my own apartment. For six years, I'd been living under my best friend's house in a one-room, unapproved space with a makeshift bathroom that leaked all the damn time. What had started as a temporary place to stay had turned into a long-term embarrassment. Lately, her pain-in-the-ass husband, Tommy, had been dropping not-so-subtle hints that it was time I moved on.
Trouble was, I didn't have anywhere to move to. I had no official rental history to prove I was a great tenant, and no deposit to buy my own place. Saving was impossible when every spare cent I had after loan payments was funneled into digs similar to this.
I sucked in a wobbly breath. Even my camera was gone. The photos I'd taken had been my evidence that the discovery was mine. Now that digital evidence had been washed away, too.
I felt like I was drowning. In sorrow. In exhaustion. And frustration. Why was this happening to me? I’d worked so damn hard. I put everything into my career, and for what?
I wiped my eyes, furious at myself for breaking down. The last thing I needed was to show weakness in front of him. Or Doug.
"Hey, you all right?" Mitch's voice was a gentle rumble, at odds with the rugged lines of his face.
I tried to stem the tears, but they kept coming.
"Hey," Mitch said again, his tone softening further, "it's going to be okay."
His words melted my resolve. More tears escaped, and I struggled to breathe past the knot in my throat. I shook my head, feeling the weight of my failure. "No, it's not."
Mitch's warm hand closed around my shoulder. "Don't worry about the permit."
"It's not that." My voice cracked, and I turned to him, probably looking like a mess with mud all over me and my hair plastered to my head. "It's the prehistoric skeletons I found. They're gone."
Mitch's grip tightened as his eyes locked onto mine. "They'll be fine," he said with a small smile curling at his lips.
I let out a shaky breath. "No, they won't. Everything in that pit will have washed away."
Mitch's expression softened, and he shook his head. "Not everything. I saw the size of that skull. Trust me, it's not going anywhere."
I blinked at him, caught off-guard by his certainty. Did he know the significance of that skull?