“Let go of me!” she yelled.
“Don’t touch her!” Happy yelled, as well. “It will kill anyone who touches the owner of the dagger. The words are clear. ‘Death comes to the owner and all who come near them before the next full moon.’ I won’t buy this. Get it and her out of my shop!”
What the hell was going on? Happy was yelling. The guy with the long thick locks bound at his nape was holding her wrists tightly while frowning at Happy. And she was going to throw up.
“She’s not capable of hurting me,” the guy said. “Grab the dagger and let’s go.”
“Wait a minute,” she said and pulled her arms away from his grasp. Where the strength had come from to actually achieve that feat, Ravyn had no idea but in seconds she was stumbling back from the guy and her arms were free. “You don’t tell me what to do. I don’t know why you’ve been following me but if you aren’t the law, you need to step off. And you!” She turned toward Happy pointing down at the knife...because she had no idea why they were now calling it a dagger. “Get me my money!”
“You can’t sell what you’re not supposed to have,” said the guy who not only looked a lot sexier up close and personal but also smelled like what she presumed to be a chunk of heaven. The rich savory scent had wafted up her nostrils and through all the crap that had been clogging them up for days until she was not only breathing clearly but was now swooning at the magnificent scent.
“And I’m not buying no cursed dagger. You can just take it and go.” Happy didn’t rewrap the knife, but he did use the edge of his book to push the material holding it closer to the edge of the counter.
“I don’t understand what’s happening,” she admitted because damn was everything around her doing a complete one-eighty these days?
“He’s telling you the dagger is cursed because it was found in the tomb of King Tutankhamun.”
Happy nodded enthusiastically. “That’s right. Listen to him. It’s cursed because the pharaohs put a curse on everything that was packed into the tombs so that anyone who dared disturb the tomb of the ancient Egyptians, especially another pharaoh, would die for their efforts. This dagger is going to kill you, Ravyn, and anybody that sticks around you won’t survive either.”
She looked down at the knife...dagger...and then back up at Happy. “It’s just a knife. And it’s worth a lot of money that I need.”
“Nope. Nope. Nope. I’m not buying that. And I’d like you to hurry up and get it out of my place if you don’t mind.” Happy stepped back again but looked over his shoulder before colliding with the shelf this time. He folded his arms over his chest and shook his head as if to magnify his words.
“He’s right. There is a curse. But I can help you,” the sexy guy with locks said.
He wore dark jeans and a button-front white shirt. His blue jacket looked a little like an enforcer’s minus the gold buttons and regalia on the shoulders. And now that she was staring at him close up in the light of the shop, he was much broader than any enforcer she’d ever seen. From his wide shoulders, to the muscled arms and chest she could tell would be chiseled and well-toned by the way the shirt barely stretched over it, he was a masterpiece. The tips of her fingers tingled with the urge to touch him, to explore and maybe to... Holy crap, was she turned on by this guy?
“Who the hell are you? And why have you been following me?” Those questions made a lot more sense than Why do I want to wrap my legs around you right now?
“My name’s Steele Eze. I can help. Let’s just—” He paused and moved to the counter to reach for the green material.
Something—a lot stronger than the buddings of arousal she’d just been experiencing—soared through Ravyn’s chest, swirling like a hurricane and pushing her forward so that she hurriedly wrapped the dagger and then picked it up to pull closer to her chest.
“You’re not going to steal this from me,” she insisted.
He didn’t seem as afraid of the dagger, or her for that matter, as Happy did. She was so pissed at the pawn dealer she tried not to spare him another look.
“I’m going to help you,” Steele said. “Just come with me and we’ll see what we can do about this situation.”
Ravyn was shaking her head but she couldn’t take her eyes off this man. He hadn’t answered her question about why he’d been following her and she didn’t have time to go round and round with him. If Happy wasn’t going to buy the dagger, then she needed to find someone who would.
Without another word she pushed past the stranger and ran down the stairs, slamming through the door until she was outside in the cool autumn air. Her legs must have been moving fast because people seemed to be everywhere around her, buzzing by in flashes. She was no longer sweating and the twisting and turning of her stomach she’d unfortunately become used to in the past days had ceased. Well, at least that was something good to happen today, she was finally getting over the flu.
There was an antiques dealer a few blocks away. The cool air felt good against her skin so she decided to keep walking.
“Excuse me,” she mumbled when a man was coming right for her and she didn’t have enough time to move out of his way.
The man didn’t reply and she barely felt their bodies collide, but Ravyn didn’t care, she kept on moving. She’d seen the picture of the dagger in that book Happy had. When she’d owned her bookstore, she carried very few archaeology books because, given her proximity to the airport, her best sellers were novels and
