Page 4

Three

Stella

As a rule, I generally avoided talking to people outside of Teddy, Zoe, and Gus about treasure hunting.

We had to be extremely careful who we let inside our circle.

In the treasure hunting world, nobody trusted anybody else.

Letting the wrong person in could put an entire search at risk or even be dangerous, especially when you were holding on to valuable knowledge like I was.

Not only did I now have an important clue about the true location of Gunnarsson’s treasure, but beyond that I knew if we found it, we’d likely also discover an important piece of evidence.

One that could provide the connection I’d been seeking between the entire treasure trove of the world’s first pirates in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Africa—the Sea People—and England.

It was the kind of find that my dad would’ve given up everything for, the kind that people killed for.

I needed to be more careful than ever. But even if you didn’t share anything that had the potential to compromise your search, just mentioning it as a profession didn’t usually go well.

The few times I’d brought it up in the past resulted in a mixed bag of responses.

Some people would get super excited because they’d think I’m rich and maybe they could get in on the action.

None of those people had seen my apartment.

Others only wanted to hear about glittering gemstones and as soon as I uttered one word about history their eyes would glaze over.

Then there was always my personal least favorite—the ones who’d dismiss it—and, honestly, they made up the vast majority.

Even if they didn’t say anything, I could still read their expressions.

It’s ludicrous, a waste of time and resources, the stuff of daydreams. It’s never going to happen.

Or it might happen, but not to me. Even my own father, who would have done absolutely anything to locate the Elephant’s Heart, hadn’t believed I could find it.

But not Huck Sullivan.

He was interested, watching me intently with those ice-blue eyes that I had to avoid so I could stay focused on what I was saying.

Even that was proving to be a challenge.

They were very nice eyes. The kind a girl could get lost in.

My mind drifted back to those amorous activities I’d pondered earlier.

I wondered if I should tell him that if we found this treasure, it was just the beginning.

“There’s only one problem,” Huck said. “There’s so many waterfalls in Iceland. It seems like it could take years to search them all. Is it even possible? That’s probably a dumb question. You have a plan already, I’m sure.”

“That’s the thing. The search area would be massive…

there’s not enough time in our lifetimes to cover it all.

But, based on a couple of other lines from the saga, and what we know of Iceland at the time, it could really only be in a couple of zones, which limits our search to a reasonable number of falls. ”

“I don’t believe it!” Teddy dipped his head over my shoulder to kiss my cheek in greeting and then reached one of his long arms over me to grab his beer.

I turned to see what was so unbelievable.

Had he heard that Huck and I had figured out a totally new angle on where the treasure might really be hidden?

“Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world,” Teddy said.

Huck rose from his stool with a grin. “Theodore Preston the Third walks into mine. Holy shit, man. How long has it been? How are you, buddy?” They hugged over me, leaving me practically manwiched between them.

Not that I felt like complaining. Huck even smelled good, fresh and clean—a nice soap, I guessed—with traces of ocean and woodsmoke.

“Hold on—you two know each other?” I asked.

“This guy?” Huck said, stepping back and nodding at Ted. “We’re practically related. Wait, he’s never talked about his old boarding school roommate?”

“He’s literally never mentioned you,” I admitted. Which was wild, considering that if they were rooming together in high school, then Teddy had known Huck longer than he’d known me.

“Theodore, I’m wounded. I covered for you missing curfew so many times, and you pretend I don’t exist? Is this because we can never seem to work out that hiking trip we’ve been talking about since college?”

“I have no desire to hike and you know that. My physique is purely for show. I was, however, pretty chafed when you didn’t take me along on your research trip to Amsterdam.

What was that? I am made to be a traveling companion in Amsterdam and you know it.

But you also know I could never hold anything against you, dude.

I just don’t like to brag about having famous friends,” Teddy said with a laugh.

“Then they get more attention than I do.”

“Yeah right. You always were more popular than I was. Even now.” Huck tipped his head toward me. Teddy winked.

“Stella, I guess I should officially introduce you to the very famous Sully. He’s seen me in my underwear.”

I choked on my beer at the mention of underwear and the accompanying visual that flashed in my mind.

Sully. Suddenly it all made sense. I pursed my lips.

“I guess you can be unwounded. He has talked about you. A lot. I didn’t make the connection between Sullivan and Sully because he never mentioned that you were a writer.

I’ve only heard about your high school shenanigans and the very eventful reunion five years ago. ”

“Not the shenanigans, or god, the reunion—that’s worse,” Huck groaned. “I was hoping to make a good impression here.”

“Of course I couldn’t tell you, Stella. I’d never hear the end of it. Dude, she’s obsessed with your books!”

My face heated, and I whacked Teddy on the stomach.

Huck’s lips curved into a perfect crescent moon, mischief twinkling in his eyes. “I thought you’d only heard of my books.”

This level of embarrassment called for a giant swig of beer. “I might’ve read one or two,” I confessed.

“Or seven!” Teddy exclaimed, taking an inappropriate level of delight at my mortification. Fire flamed in my cheeks.

Despite his graciousness, Huck was not doing a good job hiding his amusement at the loss of my dignity.

My face crept toward full-inferno territory.

Freaking Teddy. I generally loved his troublemaking, but then, usually, it wasn’t making trouble for me.

Now he was just being a punk. I glared at my friend.

“I was just telling Huck about Gunnarsson.”

“Jesus, Stell, I can’t leave you alone for a minute. One bathroom run and you’re spilling our secrets to anyone with ears,” Teddy said, his expression full of mock judgment.

Huck mimed being shot with an arrow. “That hurts, man. Like I’m just some random dude with ears? What about all the deep conversations on the roof while we froze our asses off back at Monadnock? You once used my bike to streak the homecoming football game.”

“Gross,” I said.

“Guilty as charged. But, Stell, you of all people know that loose lips sink ships and big mouths get their treasure sites looted.”

“Whatever, Teddy. You’ll be wanting to celebrate me and my big mouth when I tell you what Huck and I just figured out,” I told him.

He leaned over, resting his forearms on the bar, fully engaged. “Alright, kid, what’ve you got?”

“Remember that line in the poem—the one about the constant storm?”

“Yeah, we thought it referred to a sea battle he had with the English king at the time, where he supposedly lost some of his treasure.”

“What if we were wrong? The timing in the saga didn’t seem to fit any battles that we know of, right? Isn’t that what Zoe and Gus thought? Anyway, it talks about life’s gold and spoils of battles past, sleeping behind a constant storm.”

Teddy nodded. “The ocean.”

I shook my head slowly and cast a glance at Huck, who was smiling as he watched for Teddy’s reaction. “It’s a waterfall.”

“No way!” Teddy shouted. “That was you, Sully? Working your magic with the words, yet again.” He grabbed on to Huck’s shoulder and shook him before he turned to me.

“Turns out you were spot-on about me wanting to celebrate you and your big mouth. I could kiss that giant, blabbing mouth of yours right now.” He pulled me in and squeezed me tight.

“This is freaking amazing. Just like that, we are back in business.”

“We’ve got to tell Zoe and Gus,” I said.

“Not yet. Let them have their alone time…you already gave us the night off, boss lady. If we’re right, the treasure’s been behind a waterfall for hundreds of years…What’s a few hours more so we can have some fun?”

I laughed in spite of myself and the implications of what my friends were using that alone time for in the dimly lit, secluded corner of the bar.

“Besides, we’ll need time to figure out where to look,” Teddy said, “given there’s something like ten thousand waterfalls in Iceland.”

“Yeah, but it’s not likely that they’d be on the northeast coast, right? Isn’t that what you were saying, Stella?” Huck said.

“Exactly. Probably not.”

“Don’t give her any ideas,” Teddy said. “Stella is truly hardcore. Every summer we take a trip and spend the whole time hunting for this truly epic treasure motherlode and a possibly cursed red diamond.”

I arched an eyebrow at him. “The whole time? I seem to remember you having ample opportunity for other activities.”

“Well, maybe not the whole time. I mean we all have basic needs to meet. Anyway, she’d stay here and search every last possible site if she could. She’d probably drag the rest of us along too, if Zoe and Gus didn’t have to go back to work.”

Huck lifted an eyebrow. “Is that what’s behind the waterfall? A cursed red diamond?”

I shook my head. “No, but I think Gunnarsson might be the missing link to finding that diamond. And it’s not cursed. I don’t think.”