Trent leaned his shovel against the side and went to help get her out of the dig site. She politely thanked him and started to head for her horse.
"Thanks for your help today Deshavi." She nodded and lifted a hand, but didn't turn back.
He grimaced as he noticed her limping slightly. Her ankle had folded over earlier when her foot had slipped off the shovel.
They'd work for the most part in silence, but Trent's mind had been busy solving the riddle of Deshavi's appearance at the dig site today. "Is your grandfather offering you some form of payment to be with me?"
Deshavi stopped dead in her tracks, her body seeming to hum with an intensity of some decision. Trent was pretty sure he'd hit the nail on the head.
"Turn around and tell me the truth or we are finished right here and now."
Reluctantly she turned back to face him, her face full of the indecision of what to say. She looked down and to the left briefly before she started to speak. He cut her off by stepping closer to her and grasping her chin, which he pulled up until their faces were close.
"Look me in the eye and tell me."
It was more of a moan than a legible syllable, but he recognized, "Yes".
"How much?"
Her eyes darted to the side and he abruptly shook her head hard his fingers somewhat rough in their strong grasp of her chin.
"How much?" He repeated.
She mumbled something.
"Louder!"
"Thirteen and a half million! Now let go of me!"
She shoved backward from him and turned back toward her horse, but not before he saw the quick tears coming down her face. From some well of hidden energy she ran the rest of the way to her horse and vaulted up into the saddle with an ease that bespoke of her Indian heritage. She tore out down the valley, as if the devil himself was behind her.
"He just managed to drag out something extremely hard to find in Deshavi." I commented as Ted and I watched the passionate breakup scene.
"Oh and what's that?" Ted asked.
"The truth. That's no act she put on storming out of there like that. I think you were wrong about something Ted."
"What?"
"I don't think Trent is the surrendering party in this affair."
We both watched as the solitary figure that was Trent slapped his thigh viciously with a fist.
Ted chuckled, "I think we were both wrong my friend! I'm leaning more toward a mutual surrender now."
He had a point, "You could be onto something there."