Page 54 of Cheyenne

Cheyenne

If World War III had broken out right now, Cheyenne would have been less surprised. Fear pricked at her chest. “My brothers are here?”

“My dad and uncles are here?” Micah echoed beside her.

Raine nodded. “I thought it would be best politically for your families if I let them all in on the situation. But I also didn’t want to take away your agency. We’d better get back to the van. You kids have some explaining to do. Although I explained a lot of it for you.”

Micah gave her a look of panic, and she knew she wore an identical expression.

They all got out of the truck and walked down the sidewalk to an open parking lot. Raine was right: there was a monster van parked there. It looked like the whole control station had been set up in the back. There were a lot of guys packed into one van and discussing what to do.

Trey spotted them and made a beeline for Micah. “What the hell?”

Micah puffed out his chest and met Trey’s gaze. Cheyenne was proud of him. He was just as tall and every bit as big as Trey, maybe even bigger. “Back off. Let’s go talk about it.”

Cheyenne could tell that Trey really didn’t like that, but she had her own people to deal with.

Porter was the first one in line. “I knew this trip was a bad idea.”

Cheyenne wasn’t as brave as Micah, but she tried. “Listen, did I make a mistake by stealing the amulet? Yes. But is looking for the treasure a mistake?” She looked at each of her brothers. “If it is, then it’s a mistake you’ve all made. Don’t you think I wanted to help with this? Don’t you think I wanted to be part of it? Don’t you think I deserve to be part of it?”

Colt moved to Porter’s side. “It’s our job to keep you safe. Now you put your life in danger.”

Cheyenne shrugged. “I got arrested, but my life wasn’t in danger.”

A guy who Cheyenne was pretty sure was Brooks Stone stepped forward. “I wouldn’t say your life was in danger…” He glanced at Micah and then moved his gaze back to her. “But whenever you get involved in a hunt for gold, you have to know there are at least a hundred more people looking for that same gold.”

He pulled out a picture from an envelope and showed it to her.

She gasped. “Eli?” He was taking an envelope from a guy she didn’t recognize.

“My sources say that your ex got wind that you were coming to South Port. Of course, he put it on social media and talked about the hunt for gold, which flagged my sources at the FBI. My guys have been watching him. And you.” He turned to Micah. “And you.”

Micah put his hands up in surrender. “Trey told me to go check in with her.”

“I didnottell you to go on a gold hunt,” Trey countered.

Micah shook his head. “Fine. So we went hunting for gold. You’ve all done it, just like Cheyenne pointed out. And I stand by what we did.” He took Cheyenne’s hand.

Cheyenne imagined that if these were women, they would be audibly gasping. As it was, they just responded by grunting and rolling their eyes.

A rolling laugh came out of someone she recognized as Marshall. “He did it for a woman. That figures.”

His words elicited some laughter.

Brooks wasn’t laughing, though. “After Raine reached out to us last night, we decided to gather and wait for you. Since my unit of the FBI is involved in all things related to this gold—not just finding a treasure but also tracking any kind of gold that’s been melted down and put into US currency—I have to be involved. I don’t like it. I don’t like that you guys are involved. These things can be dangerous, and you’re lucky we’re all here. But I do think the best thing to do is to have Micah go into that grave, get the amulet, and bring it back to us. Then we can see if anything comes up with this map Raine gave us.”

Cheyenne was baffled. “You think the amulet can read the conquistadors’ map?”

“I thought it was a long shot,” Micah said.

Brooks shrugged. “The thing I will say about Truman Birch is that he was smart.”

Another of the Stone brothers laughed. “That’s a compliment coming from my brother.” Cheyenne didn’t know if that was Hunter or Trent.

Raine nodded in thanks.

“So what specifically do you want us to do?” Micah asked.

---