The Secret Sentinel by Alison Chambers

The Secret Sentinel
by Alison Chambers
Available Now at The Wild Rose Press

blurb:

Three lost keys to untold riches. Three cryptic rhymes. A secret society's deadly plot. When museum curator Savannah Rutledge steals her father's treasure map to impress her boss, Winston Gale, and his handsome son Eric, she unleashes a Pandora's box of horror. Her father is killed and she is framed for murder. To atone for her father's death, she sets off on a cross-country chase for the treasure that ends with a dangerous showdown in the Superstition Mountains near Phoenix. To get there she and a sexy stranger, Antonio Desada, follow a perplexing trail of clues that lead them to the keys that will unlock the mystery. Constantly moving, they must elude the police and the vicious Gales, hot on their trail once they realize they're missing a critical part of the map. Seductive and mysterious, Desada also provides the keys to a treasure of another kind. Will Savannah find the treasure—and love--before it's too late?

excerpt:

"Do not keep anything from me. Something tells me you are. Still protecting your father?"

"Right, and when did you get your psychology degree?" She got to her feet and stalked off, combing every room of the second floor, bravely opening closed doors, for the moment unafraid of what she would find.

Desada had touched a nerve, accusing her of holding back, and she didn't like it. Not because he said it, but because she believed it herself.

Had she buried something her father had told her in her subconscious? Was she intentionally sabotaging the effort out of cowardice or fear?

The rooms she searched were empty except for cobwebs, lizards, and a few pieces of crumbling furniture--rocking chairs, a threadbare sofa, a urine-stained mattress, discarded beer bottles.

She felt Desada's brooding presence looming behind her. "Don't go off like that again. Wait for me."

"A lot of help you'd be. Probably let me take the first bullet."

"You know that's not true."

"How do I know that? Your'e only using me to get what you want!"

He grabbed her arm. "Listen, if we're going to continue in this together, we need to set a few rules. Rule one, no emotions. Absolutely none. That's one thing we don't need. We need cold detachment. We need to survive, Savannah. Don't you understand what we're up against here? We've got death facing us around every corner. We can't afford to--"

"I don't need you dictating to me. That's one thing I don't need. Do you understand? That's not going to guarantee my allegiance to you. What we need is a little equality, a little fifty-fifty deal. Besides, you're the one who keeps trying to kiss me."