She had to ignore the way the light played in his hair, the hint of promise in his eyes and the way he always appeared in her paintings. Sam was a means to an end—to save her parents from Snips' vengeance. She had to remember that, no matter how much she wished it wasn't the truth.
“I need your help finding the treasure.” Not her smoothest request, but she had to get the words out before the guilt twisting her gut overwhelmed her family-preservation instincts.
“Tell me what the hell this is all about. Who is Snips and why is he threatening your parents?”
“I can't tell you that.”
Sam grabbed her arm, sending another spark of awareness skittering up her skin. “I need to know what the hell the urgency is all about on your part. What's the real threat?”
Her spine stiffened. “None of your damn business. Let go of me now.”
His gaze dropped to his fingers wrapped around her upper arm and a flush crept into his cheeks. He let go and stepped back as if burned. “Sorry, I shouldn't have touched you.”
An awkward silence filled the room, pushing the tension higher.
She couldn't tell him the truth. The less he knew, the easier it would be to take what she had to and walk away. A pang of regret clanged in her belly, but she turned a deaf ear to her conscience. If waitressing had taught her anything, it was how to spin a tale that paralleled the truth as closely as possible to get the customer on her side. If it worked for a messed-up drink order, she'd make it work for something much more important—her parents' lives.
Ignoring the unease burbling in her gut, she pressed forward. “Forty thousand.”
“What?” Those hazel eyes of his rounded in surprise.
“My brother, Cy, owes his loan shark, Snips, forty K for a can't-miss business opportunity that did. Snips can't find Cy, but still wants his money.” The words tumbled out, burying her in deceit. “When I read Rebecca's diary, I realized the treasure is real. She buried something—probably jewelry.”
“People have been hunting for Rebecca's Bounty for longer than I've been alive.” His tone turned harsh and dark, pain bleeding through despite his attempt to hide it. “They've found maps in the past, all of which were exposed as fakes. Can't you come up with the money another way?”
Josie snorted. “I've already emptied my lavish savings account and been turned down for a personal loan from every bank in Vegas that doesn't do business with a baseball bat. My dad's been out of work for months, but finally found a job with the friend of a friend in Arizona. My mom needs dialysis several times a week and is on disability. If Snips goes after them, it won't be pretty.”
“Your brother sounds like a real winner.”
Her protective instincts perked up. “Hey, he's a good g
uy. Mostly. He'd been in trouble in the past, but Cy cleaned up his act a few years ago.”
“So where is he now?”
Her brain went into overdrive, searching for a plausible location. “Northern California. He took a job with a traveling construction crew.” That was the cover story he'd been telling their parents.
“So you're stuck holding the bag.”
Now it was her turn to shrug. “Yeah.” Time to bring this back to the treasure because as much as she didn't want his help, she needed it. “I need your help to find the treasure. If we work together, we can split it down the middle. I just need enough to cover Cy's debt.”
He shoved his hands in his pockets. “You're still not telling me everything and until you do, I'm not helping.”
Snips had been clear about the consequences of telling the truth. As much as she was drawn to Sam, she couldn't risk hurting her parents. “I can't.”
“Then it looks like we don't have anything left to talk about.”
Judging by his clenched jaw, the smartest move would be to admit a temporary defeat. No matter what it took, she'd make him change his mind about finding Rebecca's Bounty. She reached past him to retrieve her jacket from where she'd laid it on his desk. The movement brought her lips within kissing distance of his mouth. The attraction buzzing between them grew to a deafening level. She paused, hovering near him, her lips parting of their own volition as she stared at his mouth. Images of all the things he could do—all he had done—with his mouth flashed in her mind. Anticipation stretched between them as tangible as an invisible wire. Her clit twitched with need and she squeezed her thighs together.
The slight movement broke the spell. Sam blinked his golden hazel eyes and pulled back.
Sam turned away from her, walked over to the window and stared out at the snow-covered quad. The afternoon sun caught the reddish highlights in his hair. “I spent a summer looking for it, walking every inch of McPherson's Bluff, combing over survey maps and aerial photographs.”
“And you think you're infallible, is that it?”
In an instant, a visible sign of pain was gone, replaced with a blank mask. “You don't need to know about me.”
“I've read the diary. Rebecca didn't lie. It's out there and I'm going to find it. But I need you to do it.” She grabbed the notepad on his desk and one of his neatly arranged pens, then scrawled the artist colony's main number. The notepad landed with a thwack on his empty desk. “Call me when you change your mind.”