Page 44 of Tempting Fate
He rolled his eyes and hammered into the ground, making real headway. “Get the handheld detector again.”
She bent over the hole, turned it on, and moved the wand the same way he had. “Oh, oh, I think it’s right here.”
“I think you’re right.” He got down on the ground and used the trowel, shoveling out small batches of dirt at a time. “I feel something.” He banged the trowel against a hard object in the dirt.
“Is it a box?”
“Can’t tell.” But five seconds later he pulled up an old rotted log.
“That can’t be it.”
“Hand me the detector.”
She gave it to him and he tested it on the log. “It’s in here.”
“How can that be?” According to Rosser legend, Levi had buried the gold in the ground, not a tree.
“I don’t know, Ray, but we’re about to find out. Stand clear.” Gabe put the log on the ground and began splitting it with the pickax.
“There’s nothing there.”
He crouched down with the small detector again, and it signaled on a piece of the log.
“That can’t be right.” But maybe Levi had hidden gold nuggets inside the tree itself, and over the years the oak had died and parts of the trunk had been petrified under the ground.
Gabe used his knife to dig around in the bark. “Well, I’ll be damned.” He plucked something out and Raylene held her breath.
“It’s it, isn’t it?” She looked down into the hole they’d dug. There must’ve been dozens of rotted logs, petrified wood, and roots down there. How long would it take them to extract the gold? “Let me see.”
She held out her hand and he dropped the small orb in her palm. It wasn’t as heavy as she would’ve thought, and it didn’t glitter.
“Pretty cool, huh?”
“It doesn’t look like gold.” She rubbed her fingers over it, trying to clear away the dirt.
“It’s a musket ball, probably leftover from the Gold Rush. I got dibs.”
She dropped her shoulders, let out a frustrated breath, and handed it over. “It’s all yours.”
He examined the ball under the sun with a stupid gooey smile on his face. You’d think Gabe had won the lottery. He hadn’t shaved and his face was covered in scruff. With a boonie hat pulled over his ears, a pair of camo cargo pants riding low on his lean hips, and endless amounts of rippling muscle, he was every inch the former Navy SEAL. A former Navy SEAL who’d just reverted to a twelve-year-old on Christmas morning.
He gazed over at her, that same silly grin playing on his lips. “Never a dull moment, Ray.”
“Glad I could oblige. You ready to get back to work?”
He checked his watch. “I believe it’s steak time.”
Chapter 12
The minute they returned from lunch, Gabe knew something was amiss. First off, their pickax was gone. At least he’d had the forethought to stash the metal detector in the back of his SUV before they’d left. Not that the middle of nowhere was a high crime area, but the piece of equipment was a rental, and he was careful with other people’s tools.
“It was probably Harper, or one of the McCreedy boys,” Raylene said. “They’re the only ones around here, since I doubt Flynn Barlow or Gia would’ve taken it. More than likely the kids were out here playing or riding their horses.”
Gabe sincerely doubted it. The McCreedy kids were old enough to know better than to go onto private property and walk off with someone’s stuff.
“Stay here.”
Of course, Raylene ignored his instructions and tagged along as he walked the perimeter of their dig, looking for anything that would give him a clue as to who’d stolen the pick. But there was nothing.
