“I told you we’d find it,” she said. “The treasure’s got to be here. It’s just got to be!”
Lauren kept her silence. By now, she was certain the girl would be disappointed. If these rocks had been piled up centuries ago by treasure-hiding Spaniards, the exposed surfaces would be uniformly weathered, dotted with lichens and overgrown by native plants. These rocks were still clean, meaning they probably hadn’t been here more than a few decades. Whatever lay behind them would likely have been hidden, not by Spaniards, but by Lauren’s own grandfather Ferguson Prescott.
* * *
Beau got the phone call as he and Will were riding back to the ranch in Will’s pickup. They’d spent much of the morning checking the pasturelands. The past summer’s fire had burned most of the grass to the ground. By early fall new grass had sprouted, painting the land with promise. But the ice storm had left it brittle, brown, and stunted. There was no way the cattle would survive the winter without extra feed.
After lunch they’d driven up onto the caprock to buy hay from a farmer they knew. The man was fair and honest, but the price of hay had skyrocketed all over Texas. Will’s stomach had clenched as he heard the final amount. But, knowing it had to be done, he’d taken out his pen and scrawled the check. The huge, rolled hay bales would be delivered two days from now.
They were headed back down the winding road to the ranch when Beau’s phone rang. Mired in his own gloom, Will didn’t pay the call much attention at first. Only when he heard Beau ar
guing did he start to listen.
“This can’t be your final decision,” Beau was saying. “Look, we’ve always paid our bills. I can bring in some collateral. Just a few more months, that’s all we’re asking—”
He broke off with a curse as the call ended. “The bank’s declined to extend our loan,” he said. “I tried, but they know you’ll be going to trial, and they don’t want to take a chance. Damn them!”
Will felt surprisingly calm, but maybe he was just numb. “I was expecting something like this,” he said. “Getting arrested doesn’t exactly raise a man’s standing with the bank.”
“So what can we do about it?” Beau demanded.
“For now, not much. We’ve already cut expenses to the bone. When the loan comes due, if we can’t pay, we’ll have no choice except to lose the land. The only alternative would be to sell it first. The syndicate’s got money, and I’m guessing they’d be happy to add some Rimrock land to their spread, especially if they could pin us to the wall and get it for a bargain.”
“The syndicate!” Beau swore. “They’d gobble up the whole damned county if they could. Dad would turn over in his grave.”
“He’d turn a lot faster if we went under and lost the ranch. This is about survival—especially if I end up doing prison time.”
“Don’t even think about that,” Beau said.
“I have to think about it. If it happens, I want to leave the Rimrock in manageable shape.”
“You think I can’t handle the ranch alone?”
“Let’s not even go there.”
They drove in tense silence for a mile before Beau spoke again. “Hey, maybe Erin and Lauren will find the Spanish treasure and share enough money to bail us out. Wouldn’t that be something?”
“Dream on, little brother.” With a bitter chuckle Will rounded the last bend in the road and set a straight course for home.
* * *
Erin and Lauren had cleared about three feet off the top of the rock pile. Lauren was getting tired. Her back and shoulders ached. She was going to be sore for a week.
She’d paused a moment to massage the small of her back, when Erin gave a shout.
“There’s a hole back here! It looks like . . .” She shoved more rocks off the pile, then scrambled up the remaining heap for a closer look. “Lauren! It’s a cave! Bring me the flashlight!”
“Get down!” Lauren caught her waist and dragged her back. “There could be anything in there!”
“Anything?” Erin was grinning. “Like Spanish gold?”
Lauren found the flashlight in the pack and switched it on. “Stay here while I check it out,” she said.
Lauren crept up the pile of rocks. The prickling danger sense she’d felt earlier was screaming now. She’d never thought of herself as brave, but if anything came flying out of that cave, she’d want it to get past her before it got to Erin.
Peering over the top of the pile, she shone the faint light into the cave. The walls were uneven rock, the ceiling about five feet above the stone-littered floor, which appeared to drop off near the back of the cave. There was no sign of life, not even bats or spiderwebs. But something about the place gave Lauren cold chills—maybe it was the distinct, musky odor that lingered in the cave’s stale air.
“What’s in there?” Erin demanded.