Yeah. I bet he did. I met her eyes and nodded. "Thank you. He’s in good shape."
She shrugged as if it didn't matter. "I always knew you'd come home." Her voice cracked just a little.
I didn't have the heart to tell her this wasn't home anymore. Or that I didn't plan to stay a second longer than necessary.
Maybe she saw the truth on my face because she stepped forward and ran a hand over Zeus's neck. "You know there's still some good here for you, Mitch."
I forced a smile. "I know."
But I didn't really know anything. Not anymore.
I swung into the saddle, and as I adjusted my grip on the reins, Cassidy stepped back until her shadow fell across the straw.
Zeus snorted, restless and ready to run. So was I.
I gave him a nudge, and we bolted out of the stable into the blinding sun.
Ten years ago I'd fled this place with nothing but dust in my wake.
Now I was back, hunting a man who had damn near broken me.
And if I found him alive, I wasn't sure I'd want to keep him that way.
Chapter 4
Charlie
* * *
I cried out as my boots skidded on loose gravel. Compacted earth and embedded rock sheared away inches from my feet, tumbling into a chasm that swallowed the debris whole. My arms windmilled as my heel slipped over the edge, and I scrambled back on my hands, gasping.
A massive sinkhole yawned open where I'd been standing two seconds ago.
I covered my mouth with my elbow as a cloud of choking dust surrounded me.
After the landslide stopped and the haze settled, I crawled on my hands and knees to the edge of the pit and looked down into the sinkhole.
I gasped.
Holy shit! I was right. This is a pitfall. The bottom was covered in bones. But the cave-in had also exposed more bones in the walls of the natural well.
Layer upon layer of bones. Entire skeletal segments. Thick femurs. Rib arcs shaped like bridge struts. And below the large skull I'd been excavating was a second skull.
I scrambled to my kit bag and grabbed my field camera. Returning to the edge, I snapped photos from every angle, including a selfie with the massive skull in the background and me grinning like I'd shot one too many tequilas.
This was evidence of what I'd found.
Me. Charlie Macintyre. Unknown paleontologist from Brisbane.
Holy shit, this is huge.
Two carnivore skulls were embedded in the pitfall wall. The one I'd found earlier this morning was bigger than Banjo. This second one was smaller. Maybe juvenile.
Oh my God. Please let it be a baby dinosaur.
My mind went crazy, imagining what had happened here. The smaller dinosaur fell into the pit. The larger one that was chasing it dropped into the hole, too. Both got stuck and died. However, after the big one's flesh decayed away, the bones remained. The skeleton became a form of scaffolding, and over the years dirt accumulated over the bones, eventually covering the dinosaur remains and the pit altogether.
And I'm the lucky paleontologist who found it.