Page 48 of These Reckless Hearts

I scowl at him. “Just fuck you all.”

Wyatt places his hands on the top of his jeans. “If you’re offering….”

I shake my head and lean back on Stone’s legs. He shifts so I’m lying against his chest with his arms wrapped around my waist, holding me there. “I’m sorry,” he breathes. “Getting back your things is important to me.”

I pat his leg. “We’ll figure out a way.”

We stay there for hours. Having them next to me—talking treasure, Wyatt cooking in the kitchen—is what my dreams are now made of. Half the fun of having a treasure to find is searching for it. I lose sight of that sometimes with everything else that has happened and with the added pressure of needing to recover it before Lance. But, I could be happy just searching with them. After all, what’s life without hopes and dreams?

21

The next day, we’re back at it. Stone’s fine; I made him show me his arm before we left early this morning, and it really is only a scratch. Cole thinks it was a warning shot. A bullet meant to ward them off. It’s all just speculation though.

Cole informed us this morning that he’s close to tracking down the identity of the team Lance hired. If they can graze Stone’s arm like that, I have no doubt they’re the professionals we always believed they were.

Ninja and the new guard, whose name is Pete, sit under an overhang in the shade as Lucas, Wyatt, Stone, and I walk up the pass between the two rock faces. We brought rock climbing gear with us, but right now, we’re taking turns using binoculars to search out any caves.

“We have to remember, too, that whoever deposited the treasure had to get it up there.” If that’s where it really is…. I frown at the sheer height and incredible feat that would’ve been.

“The thing is,” Stone starts, peering through the binoculars. “We don’t know what they used to get up there. They could’ve built something like scaffolding or some other contraption. Do you remember that article from the paper a few years ago about the wooden ladder they found near the lake? Everyone thought they’d finally found it.”

I almost roll my eyes. Not everyone believed they did. Dad and I laughed our asses off when the article came out. “Yeah, I remember. The ladder itself was impressive. Dad and I have been all through here, though, and never found any climbing tools.”

Wyatt practically snorts. “Of course not. If you were going to hide gold and jewels, why would you leave a ladder leading up to the cave?”

“Or a gold vein,” I add, laughing right alongside him. Even if—and it’s a very big if—the men who hid the cache left a ladder or scaffolding, my ancestor would’ve dismantled it as soon as he found his vein. He wouldn’t have left any clue as to where his claim was—or the treasure.

“Let’s pretend we’re Maria Luisa’s men,” Lucas proposes, shielding his eyes from the sun as he stares upward. It’s unseasonably hot today, and the collar of his shirt is damp with sweat. “The area is flooding, and they have to get the horde somewhere safe, so they bring it up into the mountains.”

“They’re in a foreign territory,” I add. “They wouldn’t have understood anything about this area. They just kept climbing to get away from the water.”

“Exactly,” Wyatt agrees. “And they needed a place to dump it safely, then return later so they all didn’t get hanged for losing the treasure.”

“They didn’t get hanged,” I protest.

Wyatt laughs. “Of course they did. When the history books say no one knows what happened to this set of people or that set of people, you can guarantee they met with a bad end. Especially people who lose a treasure. Can you imagine? Of course they got their heads chopped off or something equally gruesome.”

“Iwouldn’t have returned,” Stone claims, finally passing the binoculars to Lucas.

“Maybe they didn’t.” Wyatt suggests. “They knew what was awaiting them.”

“Then why didn’t they stay here, come back for the jewels, and use it for themselves?” I offer.

“It would’ve been pretty obvious what they were doing when they tried trading tiaras and precious gems. It’s not like they were inconspicuous items.”

He has a point there. Wyatt winks at me, then inspects the cliff face. He might be the most changed from when we first met. This morning, he wrapped me up in a hug so tight he almost broke my ribs. Instead of shying away from intimate moments, now he gravitates toward them. He’s fully accepted me into this group, even though he’s only ever trusted the two men next to us. After what happened between his mother and father, I can’t blame him. That’s why he doesn’t approve of Cole in my life yet. Cole represents the things his mother did. Cole’s the guy you hire to kill your husband for money, and for Wyatt, being associated with someone like him isn’t acceptable.

I reach out, closing my hand around his. He squeezes me back, wrinkles appearing at the corners of his eyes as he smiles. “What would you do if we found the treasure?” I ask him.

He turns toward me, blue eyes blazing in the brightness of the sun like icy diamonds. “This is the Dakota and Stone show. I’m just here to help.” I tilt my head at him, and his face softens. “The only thing I want is my ranch.” He glances away, but not before I see the worry lines return to his face. “Too bad it’s tainted.”

“If you don’t want to start that one up again, you could start another one,” I offer.

He shakes his head, sighing. “You’re too much like Stone. I’m pretty sure he’s told me the same thing about a hundred times.”

“So? What would you do?” I press.

He rubs the back of his neck. Stone and Lucas slow as if they want to hear his answer as much as I do. “I don’t know,” he muses. “I’ve actually been thinking lately that I’d like to go back there. Try it out.” He bites his lip, peering at me with the most vulnerable eyes I’ve ever seen. “I want to show you where I grew up. Show you my horses. Since I saw you on that other ranch, I’ve had a picture of you in the big ol’ open space of my family’s land.”

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