ENG | The Cursed Scepter

Karnak Temple

If the gentle rocking of the small yacht wasn't enough to shake Jacqueline from the stupor of sleep, the soft and light fabrics alerted her that something was wrong. The last thing she remembered was a huge dark-skinned man grabbing her and bringing a needle to her neck.

Not beds and soft fabrics.

She reached for her neck and felt the bump caused by the way she had been knocked out. She also searched the rest of her body, including the new and clean clothes. Who dressed her? And where was Ignacio? For a brief moment, she feared for herself and what the men who had knocked her out might have done to her.

Damned.

She got up from the double round bed and tried to orient herself. The porthole-like windows were open, and she smelled the water and its gentle rocking. She was on the Nile, on one of the numerous yachts cruising along the ancient waters.

Even the dark jeans and the fine-buttoned blouse of a social nature were chosen carefully. Ignacio. That choice had his fingerprints all over it. She shook her head in denial, grabbed the only pair of white sneakers that fit, and cautiously left the room, trying to make as little noise as possible.

She saw two staff members in the kitchen, absorbed, and might have tried to talk to them if it weren't for the olive-skinned man with a dimpled smile that drove her crazy.

Ignacio lowered his blue-lensed glasses a bit, looking over them for a moment. He gestured for her to follow him to a table full of goodies where she could see the City of the Dead. Luxor, Aswan, and the Karnak Temple also were visible from the yacht's balcony.

The open-necked Hawaiian shirt emphasizing his thin, but somewhat athletic body was intentional. She knew that, but his relaxed and indifferent demeanor wouldn't temper her mind for the much-needed talk.

She would get her answers.

"Come on, spill it." Jackie sat in one of the plastic chairs under the yacht's awning. "What happened after I blacked out?"

"Good afternoon to you too, my love." Ignacio held a cup. "Want some? Chamomile tea."

"Ignacio, you have some audacity..." Jackie brought her hand to the bridge of her nose. It was not the time for sarcastic remarks "I won't get mad; I just want to know what you negotiated. What you offered to get us—" she opened her arms — "here? Can you tell?"

"It was a courtesy of Santiago Cortez." He took a sip of tea. "My brother's men saved us from the kidnappers."

The way Ignacio spun a lie... Yes, the yacht belonged to the incredibly wealthy Santiago Cortez, and she wouldn't doubt the favors her possible brother-in-law would ask of Ignacio. However, it was almost difficult, if not impossible, for the leader of a family with connections to the Spanish crown to know the details of the work of one of his younger brothers.

And to send a team to help them? She didn't buy it. He hadn't sent it before, why would he now? Although Santiago had the means and power to help Ignacio, it was hard to believe he would.

Nothing like a good old investigation to uncover the truth.

Jackie made her lips subtly curve upward and noticed the relief in the man's features, unaware that when they returned to Cairo, she would deconstruct the entire house of cards he had built.

"By the way, why are we going to Luxor?" She narrowed her eyes at him. "I explicitly told you..."

"I discovered an interesting inscription while playing with the scepter." Jacqueline widened her eyes. Did she hear that right? He played with an artifact over two thousand years old?