Treasured Secrets by Kendall Talbot Page B

closed her eyes and braced for the pain. But it didn’t come. It was several heartbeats before she looked up at him.
    His eyes drilled into her. ‘Are you ready to tell me what you know about the treasure?’
    She unclenched her jaw. ‘All I know is Archer found the necklace when he was eleven.’
    â€˜Where?’
    â€˜I don’t know. He was a kid, scuba diving with his parents. His dad was killed by a shark.’ As the words tumbled out, she grew aware of how completely useless the information was.
    â€˜Where? Tell me where!’
    â€˜I don’t know!’
    He was upon her in an instant and slapped her across her cheek. The force was so brutal, the attack so shocking she was flung off the chair and fell hard onto the stone floor.
    As she clutched at her cheek, whimpering, a stark ringing buzzed in her ears and it took her a moment to realise it was his phone. He lifted it to his ear, but his eyes were fixed on Rosalina.

Chapter Fifteen
    â€˜Tell me.’ Nox’s voice was hoarse from infrequent use. ‘So they did call the police?’ He leered at Rosalina as she inched away from him on the floor.
    â€˜Yes, but they didn’t believe them.’ The voice on the other end of the line was a forced whisper.
    He looked over at Brother Linthani and cupped the mouthpiece. ‘Tie her up.’
    Thanks to a series of damning videos, Linthani was his most devoted follower and Nox had the utmost confidence the feeble priest would do anything he asked.
    â€˜Where are they now?’ Nox spoke into the phone as he watched Linthani help Rosalina into the chair. He wasn’t surprised that the woman didn’t struggle as her wrists were bound with rope. It would have been pointless anyway.
    â€˜Still out the front.’
    â€˜Let me know when they leave.’
    â€˜Yes, sir.’
    Satisfied that the woman was secure, he turned his back on Rosalina and exited the room, confident Brother Linthani would lock it behind him. He closed the phone with a smirk twinging at his lips. This is it! Reward for decades of commitment will soon be mine. Brimming with purpose, he strode the corridors, and behind him he heard Linthani shuffling to catch up. ‘Get everyone together in the Esagonale room.’
    â€˜Yes, sir.’
    ***
    Nox twisted his bulky antique ring around his middle finger. Its presence exuded sovereignty. The ring was impossible to miss as he drummed his fingers on the ancient wooden table, sounding out an urgent heartbeat for the holy space. Even after nearly thirty years, he was still surprised the ring fitted him, given that he now had rather large, knobbly fingers. It only added to the building evidence that he was the chosen one.
    How and where he had found the ring could only be accredited to pure destiny. There was no other way to explain what had happened. At the time, he’d been hiding from a group of boys, his daily tormentors. To this day, he still didn’t know how the terracotta trumpet being played by the baby in the marble statue literally fell into his hands. He would swear on the Bible that he’d barely touched it.
    Nox had been so scared when it had happened that the fragile thing had slipped out of his hands and shattered into dozens of pieces on the floor. He’d actually thought he was going to be struck down by lightning. Nox could still remember his feet being frozen to the floor as he waited for the wrath to come. But as the seconds had ticked by and nothing had happened, and no one had come running at him with balled fists, he’d realised his luck. It wasn’t until he’d bent down to pick up the statue’s broken pieces that he knew just how lucky he was. Hidden within the trumpet tube was his ring, but it was what the ring had secured that changed his life forever.
    The scroll, papery thin animal skin, smooth and feathery to touch, had resisted his unrolling. He had attempted it only once before he’d