Second Chances: A Romance Writers of America Collection (Stark World 2.50)

"No way," he said. "You're barking up the wrong tree there. All the evidence we found indicated it's somewhere in Puerto Rico, not in Florida as everyone assumes."

She shrugged and stuck her finger through one of the holes in the mortar, scraping it with her nail to see how soft it was. It wasn't. It had petrified over the years.

"I guess we'll see. The sooner I can get out of here, the sooner I can get back. They grabbed me last night after dinner on the way to my tent. They must've tranqued me because the next thing I knew I was on a private plane with Tweedledee and Tweedledum and a hell of a headache. They shoved me in a car and took every back road they could find for the next three hours. I think they were trying to disorient me. Idiots."

"At least they let you ride in the back seat. I ended up in the trunk."

"For some reason, people always assume the worst of you," she said sarcastically.

"It's a blessing and a curse," he said soberly, and she wondered if there were some hidden meaning in the way he'd said it. "I don't suppose you know what Damian wants with us?"

"We're in a ghost town just outside of New London, Connecticut," she said. "Why do you think he has us here?"

The surprise on his face quickly turned to calculation. One thing Lucas was not was stupid. No one knew legend and lore of lost treasure like he did. It was why he was the best at what he did. He had the skills for the hunt, but he also had the brains for all the tedious research and fact-finding. Not bad for a guy who'd dropped out of college after his first semester. Some people weren't meant for classrooms, and Lucas Fortune was one of those people. Still, she'd learned more from him over the years than she had in most of her postgraduate work.

He closed his eyes and shook his head. "That idiot. Hunter thinks he's found the Thanksgiving Treasure. And he wants us to be the ones to sneak onto reservation land to retrieve it."

"Bingo," Miranda said, standing in front of him, hands on hips. "I overheard them talking in the car when they thought I was asleep. Apparently, Damian did his own half-assed research and came to the conclusion that the gold was buried on Pequot reservation land."

"Well, to give him the credit he deserves," Lucas said. "It was, at one time, buried on the Pequot reservation. But like always, Damian is late to the party unless he has someone else driving him there."

Miranda snorted out a laugh and then pressed her lips together to stifle it. The story of the Thanksgiving Treasure had always been one of her favorites. To think that most people in the United States thought they celebrated Thanksgiving because the settlers and Native Americans were at peace with one another and wanted to celebrate the occasion was laughable, when in reality, Thanksgiving was declared a holiday to celebrate the massacre of the Pequot tribe.

There had been one peaceful meal celebrated between the British settlers and Native Americans, and then the British thanked them by hauling them to England and enslaving them, then wiping out most of the tribe with smallpox. It was the Pequot tribe who'd refused to let the English onto their land once they returned to America for more, taking their resources and spreading their diseases. Then, on the day the Pequot tribe gathered to celebrate their harvest, known as their Thanksgiving day, the Puritans invaded and murdered more than seven hundred men, women, and children, so they could stake their claim to land that was never theirs to begin with.

Any survivors went into hiding or were taken into slavery, and the Puritans used the captives in their search for gold. The gold was eventually found and scheduled to be shipped to England aboard three different ships. But the gold disappeared from the camp before it reached the ships, and no sign of it was ever discovered. The Pequot slaves who had helped discover the gold were killed and Pequot were hunted and interrogated, but the gold was never found.

It had stayed hidden for hundreds of years, until fact became legend and the Pequot numbers dwindled down to nothing. It wasn't until Lucas Fortune had come along that the gold had been found again. She knew about his discovery but never approved of it.

The Pequot gold was only one of the things they'd argued about over the years. "Don't worry," she said. "I kept your secret. Besides, there's nothing left of that gold to find, is there?"

He smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes this time. "I'm amazed you stayed with me as long as you did with as little as you think of me."

"You were never one to correct my way of thinking, were you?"

"I shouldn't have to correct or explain anything. If you don't know the type of man I am after sharing my bed, my life, and my work for that long, then it's probably a good thing you moved on."

She was rendered speechless for a moment and took a second to take a deep breath. There was no use bringing up old news and starting the fight all over again. They needed to work together to get out of here. And they needed to figure out how to keep Damian off reservation land. He wasn't above killing anyone who got in his way if he thought he knew where the treasure was and couldn't get Lucas or her to do his bidding.

"Let's just get out of here," she said, changing the subject. "As long as Damian thinks that treasure is still up for grabs, anyone standing in his way is in danger."

"You really think I took their gold?" he asked, the anger in his voice unchecked. "You think I'm that heartless that I'd take a cut of the money that so many people died for?"

"People of all civilizations have died for gold for centuries. Why would your philosophy change?"

His laugh was filled with bitterness and hurt, and guilt crept along her skin and made her feel ill with the possibility she might have been wrong about him all this time. She'd known him better than anyone--at least she thought she had--but he'd always seemed so intent on the find. Not what happened to it afterward.

"I might not be a bleeding heart like you who'd give away everything we worked and sweated for, and hell, almost died for a couple of times. But I do have a moral compass. If you never recognized that it was your failing, not mine."

"If you hadn't been so intent on playing the tough macho guy and putting on a show, then maybe it would've been easier to see. You were never vulnerable in front of me. You never let me in. So I assumed the fortune hunter was who you really were. And you never let me believe anything else. All I needed to know was that I was more important than that gold doubloon you keep in your pocket."

"I'm not doing this again," he said, getting up off the bed frame and pacing around like a caged tiger. "I need to get out of here."

"Fine," she said. It was easier when emotion wasn't involved. "I'm assuming they confiscated your supplies?"

"That would be a correct assumption. They even took my belt. They're not nearly as dumb as some of Damian's other hired guns."

"Lucky us," she said. "But still dumb enough to think a woman isn't a threat. They didn't search me for weapons, and my cellphone has been in my pocket the whole time."