Free Jurassic Heart by Anna Martin Page B

a laugh and looked up the hill, then glanced back at me.
    “What?” I demanded.
    “Nothing,” he said quickly. Too quickly.
    “What’s going on?” I said, allowing a warning tone to color my words. Suddenly his little visit for a chat was suspicious. We didn’t usually disturb each other unless we needed help.
    “Nothing,” he repeated. “I just… oh fuck.”
    I laughed then, wondering why he even bothered coming over. Boner was one of the worst liars I knew. He claimed it had something to do with his upbringing.
    “Come here,” I told him, pulling him into a hug. “Tell Uncle Nick.”
    “You’ll be mad,” he mumbled into my shoulder.
    “I’ll try not to be.”
    “Hunter Joseph is here.”
    I dropped my head back and a thump of annoyance pulsed through me as a deep sigh escaped. I’d done some research since he had last turned up on-site, not wanting to be on the back foot if it came to another battle of wits. According to his blog, his whole raison d’êtrewas to change the way archaeologists and paleontologists dug. The way he did it, as I understood it, was to bug people until they were so sick of the sight of him they conceded a few points to get him off their backs.
    “Okay,” I said wearily and struggled to my feet.
    “No,” Boner said quickly. “I was supposed to come down here and stop you going up there.”
    “Why?”
    “Because you promised Sam you wouldn’t get into any more fights. And if you punch him again, he might press charges, and then Sam would have to fire you, and he really doesn’t want to have to do that.”
    “You called him?”
    “Yeah. Well, River did, when Joseph turned up. She asked him, very politely, to leave.”
    “And did he?”
    “No, of course not.”
    Anger welled up inside me, scaring me a little because I wasn’t an angry person. I was cool and calm under pressure. It was what made me a good scientist. But this guy— this fucking guy —really got under my skin.
    “This is why we don’t dig on this continent!” I yelled at Boner, throwing my arms in the air. He knew I wasn’t yelling at him, I was just yelling in his general direction. And it was better for me to get my anger out at him in a creative way rather than punch someone again.
    “Do we have to deal with this shit in Mongolia?” I continued. “No, we fucking don’t. I’m taking a job in China next.”
    “I know,” he murmured reassuringly. “I know, Nick.”
    The team were popping their heads up from where they were working, looking like meerkats. In any other situation, I would have been amused. Instead, I rubbed my hands over my face in frustration.
    “I get it, though, that’s the worst thing,” I said, turning back to my trench and sitting down, letting my feet dangle over the edge.
    “His beef?”
    “Yeah,” I said. “We do fuck up the landscape. We do scare off the wildlife and mess with breeding sites and all that shit. There’s no point in denying it. All we can do is be aware and try to restore what we can when we leave.”
    “Don’t let Joseph hear you saying that,” Boner said, bumping my arm with his to tell me he was joking. Sort of.
    “I know,” I said and dropped my head to his shoulder. “I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of telling him he’s right.”
    Boner gently combed his fingers through my hair, a comforting gesture he did at night sometimes.
    “I should talk to him.”
    “Nick, no,” Boner said, injecting just a tiny bit too much sarcasm into his voice for my liking.
    “It’s the responsible, grown-up thing to do,” I said, matching his level of drama.
    “Don’t punch him. Please.”
    I allowed Boner to grab my shoulders, force me to straighten my spine, and then plant a sloppy kiss on my cheek before I started the long walk back up the hill. The one rather amusing thought running through my mind was that Sam would flip if he found out Boner’s attempt to keep me away from Hunter Joseph actually ended up with me going to talk to