They reached camp in a lazy, dragging single-file line, the horses faking being tired so they could get their treats, the men genuinely sore and overheated. All except Leo, whose posture remained straight and balanced atop Ace. Damn if he didn’t look like he was made to ride that horse.
While Lily dismounted and headed to retrieve lunch items from the cooler dropped ahead for them, Nicole guided them over to the short fence where the horses would be tied for the night and have easy access to shade and grass and water. The men climbed down with varying degrees of grace; Leo slid easily from Ace and tied him loosely to the post. Lily ripped her eyes away just in time to catch Terry falling in a tumble and landing on his ass with a satisfyingly rough impact. He pretended to have done it intentionally as he plucked out a long piece of grass and stuck it between his teeth.
“The horses pee over there,” Lily told him. “Just so you know.”
Terry dropped the grass.
Her attention was drawn like a magnet to the left, to where Leo stretched out sore muscles and his shirt rode up. She wanted to look away, she really tried to, but it was like that small, exposed swath of honeyed skin had her eyes under some Vulcan death grip. When he turned to begin taking the saddle off Ace, the fabric of his shirt stretched taut across his back muscles.
That body used to belong to me, Lily marveled. That man was mine.
“Okay!” she shouted, oddly loud. Everyone startled, turning to look over their shoulders at her. With a flapping hand, she pointed to the sandwich spread she had begun unloading, the lunch they needed to devour before the games could begin. “Eat.”
Ignoring her abrupt tone, they descended on the table like they hadn’t seen food in a week. She absolutely did not stare at Leo’s forearms as he reached for a piece of lettuce to drop on his sandwich, or at the tight clench of his jaw as he took a huge, ravenous bite.
“Who can tell me about Butch Cassidy?” she asked, redirecting her brain away from sexy things and toward work, and professionalism, and the fact that Leo had abandoned her, for crying out loud. Lily held up a preemptive hand. “Someone other than Terry.”
He laughed at this, grabbing a pile of ham by the fistful. “Why? You afraid I might know more than you?”
Lily blinked, biting back a sharp reply.
“He was a bank robber,” Walter called, clearly the peacemaker. “He also robbed trains. And he had a gang. The Wild Bunch.”
“He did,” Lily said, folding a couple of pieces of sliced turkey on her bread.
Bradley wiped at his mouth with a paper napkin. “So, if this is the actual trail, were they using it to run from the law? Right here?”
“That’s right,” Lily said. “And we’re headed to one of the places Cassidy supposedly hid money to come back to later. A lot of people say it’s still out here.”
“That’s because it is, sweetie.”
“Thank you for proving my point, Terry,” she said evenly. “Walter, do you remember what I said about the Outlaw Trail?”
“That it stretched across the West. Hole-in-the-Wall, Brown’s Park, and Robbers Roost?”
“Exactly.” Lily nodded. “That’s where we are, near Robbers Roost. A spot used by many bandits to lay low between heists or hole up during winter. The goal for this trip is to have a good time with each other, to enjoy one of the most beautiful spots in this country, and to follow clues to find the hidden treasure at the end.” She cringed inwardly, hating how cheesy and manufactured this all sounded. It hadn’t ever sounded that way to her before, but before there was no Leo, who knew better than anyone how Lily thought Butch Cassidy’s still-hidden money was one of the stupidest legends to live out here. Walter raised his hand.
“Yes, Walter?”
“If a lot of bandits knew to come here, how did nobody else ever find this place?”
“The Outlaw Code,” she told him.
Bradley spoke around a bite of sandwich. “Honor among thieves.”
Lily nodded. “If word got out, it’d be ruined for everyone.”
“I guess that makes sense,” Walter said. “Hey, if we find treasure, do we split it?”
“Nope, anything you find is yours to keep,” Lily said.
He frowned. “I say we split it. That seems more in keeping with the code.”
“I like that,” Bradley said.
“Great. But in order to do that,” she continued, “you’ll need to solve codes and puzzles, pick some locks, and maybe even see if you can hit a few bull’s-eyes. We’re going to practice all of that today.”
“Archery?” Terry’s chest puffed. “I once took down a ten-point buck with a single arrow.”
Ignoring this, Walter shot a hand into the air again. “She said puzzles. I call Leo.”