Broken Lies

Chapter 7

They arrived back at the hotel and sat at the table in silence. The Saint Dismas cross sat in the middle of the table. The tension in the room could've been cut with a knife. They went through hell TWICE to get this damn thing, so Adalyn hoped that it would pay off. Sam sighed and picked up the cross, along with a hammer.

    "Okay..." he placed the cross at the edge of the table, holding one end so it didn't fall off, he raised the hammer and then stopped. "I hope I don't go to hell for this..." He teased. Adalyn chuckled slightly, at his attempt to lighten the mood. Then there was a thud, Sam slammed down on the cross breaking the bottom of it. He looked inside with an excited grin on his face, but it fell suddenly. "Shit." Sam leaned back defeated.

Adalyn looked at him with furrowed eyebrows. "What?" She questioned as she looked between Sam and the cross.

Sam looked up at all of them with saddened eyes. "It's empty." Sam mumbled.

    "What?!" Everyone barked in unison, leaning forward looking at the cross.

Adalyn looked up at Sam and noticed he was smirking. He then turned the cross over and shook it, a scroll falling out. "You asshole!" I fumed, punching his arm.

    "Takes one to know one sweetheart." Sam muttered with a wink.

Adalyn rolled her eyes and looked at the scroll taking a sip of her drink. "Okay. Skull and crossbones. Very good sign." I said with slight sarcasm.

    "That's Avery's insignia…" Sam chimed. He looked like a kid at Christmas time.

Adalyn loved how excited he was. Even though she was only there to help save Sam, she had to admit that she missed that feeling. The adrenaline, and excitement that came with the job.

They all watched in anticipation as Sam opened the seal, and rolled out the old piece of paper. In the middle was a cross with swords crossing in the middle, underneath the swords was a skull and crossbones. On the bottom there were some numbers 16591699. In a circle around the cross was a saying, Hodie mecum eris in Paradiso.

"Today you will join me in paradise…" Adalyn mumbled and laced her fingers together.

"That's what Jesus said to Saint Dismas on the cross but…" Sam said, confused. Then he pointed at the numbers. "What about these? What do you make of this?" Sam asked the other three.

"Some kind of code? Or a phone number?" Sully joked.

I chuckled. "C'mon guys…" I chime. "They're dates." I inform. Everyone looked at me like I was speaking in tongues. I sighed and reached over grabbing the paper. "Look." I covered up the last half of the number. "1659."

"That's the year Avery was born." Sam said, still slightly confused.

I moved my hand over covering the first half of the numbers. "1699."

"Let me guess, the year he died?" Sully questioned.

"By most accounts, yeah, but...That means we have a date of birth, date of death and 'paradise'." Sam remarked, still trying to figure out what that all meant.

"We're looking for Avery's grave guys." Adalyn pointed out, leaning back into her chair.
   
"At Saint Dismas' cathedral..." Nate pitched in. He stood up and walked over to his bag pulling out his journal.

"Hasn't Rafe been scouring that site for ages already?" Sully asked.

"Yeah, the Cathedral." Adalyn corrected.

Nate set down his journal on the table and pointed at it. "These symbols are found on old Scottish gravestones." Nate said. "Now look at this." He opened his journal and pulled out a layout of the cathedral. "Here's the Cathedral." he pointed at one end of the map and then moved his finger to the other. "But the graveyard...is way over here."

"Rafe has been focusing on the wrong area." Adalyn smirked.

"Guys. We're going to Scotland." Sam beamed.

Adalyn couldn't even remember the last time she was able to travel. It was probably when she and Nate went to Syria all those years ago. She loved seeing new places and exploring their terrains. She couldn't hide the excitement in her smile. 

"Wait a minute, guys." Sully interrupted, "You do know Rafe knows your coming?"

Adalyn's smile faded almost immediately. He had a point.

"Yeah, we can deal with that when we get there." Nate pointed out.

"That psycho would like nothing better than for us to show up." Adalyn brought up. "I'm just trying to make sure we know what we're walking into."

"Plus he's got Nadine and her whole army to back him up." Sully added.

"Yeah, but he doesn't have this." Nate said, picking up the paper. "The biggest pirate treasure of all time is within our grasp." Nate remarked.

"I thought this was about saving Sam." Adalyn said, pointing over to Sam.

Nate looked at her "It is. But come on, it's both right?" Nate chimed. "We need the treasure so we can save Sam."

"How is Elena cool with all this?" Adalyn questioned. Nate stayed silent and her eyes went wide. "You didn't…" Adalyn scoffed and sat back.

"Look it's just not that simple." Nate murmured

"With all that you two have been through together…" Adalyn hissed, shaking her head in complete disbelief.

"She wouldn't understand this." Again another excuse.

"You are not giving her enough credit." Adalyn barked pointing at him.

"I can't take that chance." Nate said sincerely.

Adalyn sighed and leaned back in her chair rubbing the bridge of her nose.

There was a long silence but finally Sam broke it. "Nathan she's right." He sighed

"Thank you." Adalyn exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air.

"Things have changed. Rafe's involved now. And...I can--Adalyn and I can take this on our own. Really." Sam tried to reassure his brother.

Nate pulled out his phone "Great. Well, thank you for your input. Both of you. Excuse me." He stood up and dialed a number into his phone walking out onto the balcony.

Adalyn leaned forward against the table and ran her hand over her face.

Sully stood up and told us he needed a smoke break. Adalyn nodded and slowly and ran her fingers through her hair.

Once Sully left, Sam nudged her. "Something on your mind, dear?" He teased.

Adalyn looked over at him and sighed. "Look, I realize it couldn't have been easy… all those years away. Trust me it wasn't easy for me either. But it's not his fault." Adalyn sighed, gesturing to the balcony where Nate was on a call with his wife, making up some big lie.

"I never said it was." Sam shot back.

"It took him a long time to get out of this game Sam…" Adalyn commented.

"You see a gun to his head? He chose this." he barked. "He's meant for this life."

Adalyn exhaled sharply and looked at him. "You really believe that?"

Sam chuckled and looked at her. "Why are you here, Adalyn?" he hissed.

Her heart dropped. She was there for him. To save his stupid ass AGAIN.  "Because somebody's gotta keep an eye out for him." Adalyn said coldly. She stood up not saying another word. As she walked away, Sam called after her to get her to come back. Not happening. He said his piece, and she said hers. She walked into her small room, tears filling her eyes.

Better start packing. Scotland, here I come.