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I come out from around the coffee table and stand in front of them. I’m not about to let anyone with the last name Jacobs—or their friends—intimidate me. I’ll just look up sexy cowboys for my spank bank later, but Wyatt won’t be it. That’s for sure.
“Aww, look,” Wyatt says. “Little Dakota is pissed we broke into her dorm.”
Stone moves closer, edging me back in my effort not to touch him. I hit the wall and his chest hovers in front of mine, his palms flattening on the wall behind my head.
Fuuuuck. This is new. I’ve never been this close to Stone Jacobs before. I’m used to slinging insults from a distance. Even that one time when we almost got into a fight over the perfect spot to set up camp while we were in the mountains, I didn’t get this close. Dad ended up talking to the guys they hired to help them find the treasure, and we set up camp next to each other, neither one of the parties backing down.
Yeah, that’s right. The Jacobs hire people to help them find the treasure. I don’t even think Lance has ever been in the mountains. That’s what he has Stone for, I guess. Letting him do all the dirty work while he gets to sit up in his tower in the city, demanding regular updates from behind a desk. No, Stone is more like his grandfather. His grandfather got down and dirty with the rest of us. My father didn’t like him, but at least he respected him.
There’s no chance of that with Lance.
“Do you rich fuckers understand the meaning of personal space?” I set my palms on his chest and shove. I briefly, very briefly, enjoy the tight muscles of his pecs before reality sinks in. Not only is Stone a dick of epic proportions, he’s also still considered my stepbrother. By law, I guess, though I’ve never felt that way. He’s no one to me.
“We do,” Wyatt says. “We just don’t give a fuck.”
Lucas stays silent, his hands jammed into his pockets as if all this bores him. He may have a warmer eye color than Stone—a deep brown, the color of mahogany—but they’re as disinterested as can be. His eyes are like a trap, ones you think you can get lost in, but once you’re there, you realize you’ve just ridiculously fucked yourself, and now there’s no getting out of the spider’s web.
I turn back to Stone who’s gazing at me with a smirk, his perfectly chiseled arms crossed over his chest. I look away, mentally admonishing myself for thinking anything about him is perfect. His whole family are snakes, silently slithering in the background. We’ve found them trailing us up the mountain countless times, trying to get on our trail.
That’s where the whole feud started. The Wilders have been searching for our treasure since it went missing. The Jacobs are new, but they burst onto the scene with their money, and even though they don’t know shit, their names started getting plastered all over the paper about the next big treasure hunters who weren’t going to let the gold be lost forever. For some reason, that story is more palatable to the public.A rich family who uses their resources to search for more riches.Kind of cliché if you ask me.
I peek at Lucas who’s standing next to my bike, running his hands across the handlebars. “What do you guys want?”
“You know what we want,” Stone says, an edge returning to his voice. When I quirk my head toward him, he’s staring daggers at Lucas.
I sigh, really not liking all these mind games. “No, I don’t. I guess you’re going to have to enlighten the naive, small-town girl. You can’t possibly be looking for my dad because well...he’s not around. Your mom, too. Haven’t seen her.” I sneer. “Have you? Or did she leave you, too, when she fled?”
This time when Stone gets in my face, it’s not sexy at all. His face is a mask of fury, chilling me to my bones. “Don’t you ever—”
I push right back. “What? Talk about your bitchy mother? Talk about how she stole from me when she left town? How she didn’t even wait to find out whether we found him, she just up and left like a true Jacobs. Cowardly motherfuckers.”
Stone roars in my face. With more bravado than I feel, I cross my arms, hopefully masquerading as someone who doesn’t give a shit.
I used to have all the confidence in the world when our families faced each other. It’s hard now that I don’t have backup. Without my father here, I have to fake all of my bravado. The truth is, I have no idea what I’m doing. My mask begs to slip, but I won’t let it. I’m going to find my dad, and then we’re going to find the treasure. It’s the Wilder destiny. The Jacobs are just flies that just won’t stop circling.
“Come on, man. Let’s just do what we came here to do,” Lucas chastises, gripping Stone’s shoulder. It feels good that I got to Stone. He’s always so perfectly put together, but right now, he looks anything but.
Wyatt ambles forward with a sigh, letting us know what he thinks of all of this. He tears a white envelope out of Stone’s back pocket and shoves it at me. “Lance wants to work out a deal.”
I turn around, dismissing them and heading back to the couch. “Not interested.”
It’s not like this is the first time someone has tried to buy my family out of what we know. Just because my dad’s gone doesn’t mean this story is going to turn out any differently.
“It’s more than generous,” Stone says, finally getting himself under control. I can’t help that a thrill shoots through me to know that I got under his skin.
I shrug. “I’m not for sale,” I say, smiling.
Each of them give me disgusted looks. “We don’t want you.”
I laugh to myself. Typical reaction. I haul my Lit book back into my lap. “But let me guess, you want what the Wilders have? The legend? The stories? Hate to break it to you, but—” I pull up my book, showing it off. “It’s not written down in nice, neat little journals with asterisks around what to look for.” I smile broadly. “It’s in me, so yes, in essence, if you want what we have, you want me, and that’s never going to fucking happen.”
Stone’s gaze narrows, as if he’s trying to figure out if I’m being serious. Oh, yes. I’m being fucking serious. Why would we ever write down something that important? If something happens to me, the clues go with me. That was done with purpose. The clues were for my family and my family only. We were the only ones who were supposed to have found the treasure, and we’re keeping it that way.
“If that’s the way you want it,” Stone says.
Lucas is the first to leave my dorm. He leaves the door open, just begging for Wyatt and Stone to follow suit. Thankfully, Wyatt leaves shortly after, shaking his head. Stone leaves only a few seconds after that, leaving the door wide open so I have to get up and lock it myself.
Assholes.