Page 7 of Her Protector (Ember Heart Ridge Search and Rescue #4)

Chapter Seven

ABBY

Darrell Varjek stands in the doorway of the hunting cabin, his gun trained on Marcus and me. Up close, he's maybe five-eight with thinning hair and cold gray eyes. But the weapon in his hand makes him plenty dangerous.

“Step away from each other,” he orders, his voice calm in a way that's somehow more terrifying than shouting would be.

Marcus moves in front of me, every muscle in his body coiled for action as the helicopter roars overhead.

“Your grandfather was a clever man, Miss Brooks,” Varjek continues, keeping the gun steady. “Forty years of research, forty years of following leads that went nowhere. But he found it, didn't he? The real deposit.”

“I don't know what you're talking about.” I try to stop my voice shaking.

“Don't you?” Varjek's finger tightens on the trigger. “Because I think you do. I think you've been following his trail, just like I have. The difference is, you know where it ends. Which suggests you have a map.”

I shake my head.

“Tell me where the main deposit is, and I'll disappear. No one gets hurt.”

“No!” The word comes out stronger than I feel.

“Drop the weapon!” Marcus’s brother Logan appears in the doorway, his scarred face grim. Varjek spins toward the new threat, and in that split second of distraction, Marcus moves. He tackles Varjek around the waist, sending them both crashing to the floor. The gun skitters across the wooden planks.

“Abby, get out!” Marcus yells as he and Varjek struggle for control.

But I'm not leaving him. Instead, I dive for Varjek's gun, my fingers closing around the grip just as he breaks free from Marcus and lunges for it.

“Nobody move!” Logan's voice booms through the small space, his scarred face grim and his own gun drawn, pointed at Varjek’s head.

Everyone freezes. Varjek is on his knees reaching for the gun in my hands, Marcus sprawled on the floor between us, and me holding the weapon like a hot potato.

“Abby,” Logan says calmly, “could you please hand me that gun?”

I gladly give it to him, my hands shaking now that the adrenaline is wearing off. Logan immediately points it at Varjek.

“Darrell Varjek, you're coming with us. Straight to the sheriff’s office.” Logan's voice is all business.

Varjek's two men are led into the cabin moments later by Troy and Hunter. One of them is groaning and holding his leg. Risky trots in after them, looking pleased with himself.

“Everyone okay?” Troy asks, immediately moving to check Marcus and me for injuries.

“We're fine,” Marcus says, pulling me against his side.

Varjek, still on his knees, looks up at us with pure hatred. “This isn't over. You can run all you want, but I know you have the location. I've been tracking your grandfather's research for fifteen years.”

“Fifteen years?” I stare at him. “You've been after this for fifteen years?”

“Ever since I found his first geological survey from back in the 1980s. The one that showed his suspicion of anomalous mineral readings in the northeast quadrant.” Varjek’s mask slips, showing the obsession underneath.

“I've spent my life savings, my marriage, everything chasing that gold. And then your boyfriend here started interfering, sending me on wild goose chases.”

Marcus steps forward. “Because crooks like you don't deserve what Jasper spent his life looking for.”

“Deserve?” He laughs bitterly. “I earned it. Fifteen years of research, of following every lead, of?—”

“Of threatening people and breaking into homes,” Marcus interrupts. “And those gambling debts? The domestic battery charge against your wife? Trying to steal Jasper’s research? That's earning it?”

As Logan and Troy lead Varjek and his men outside, Marcus pulls out his phone.

“I need to call someone,” he says, his expression thoughtful.

“Who?”

“Dr. Zhang at the Mayberry School of Mines. He worked with your grandfather years ago.” Marcus is already dialing.

“Your grandfather may have registered what he discovered after his survey about the deposit that Varjek mentioned. And if he did, and if anyone knows the exact location of those deposits, it would be him.”

Twenty minutes later, Dr. Zhang calls back with coordinates that match a location about two miles northeast of where we are now.

According to him, Grandpa had found something unspecified in the early 2000s.

He hadn't extracted it because the environmental impact would have been too severe. He’d asked Zhang not to mention it to anyone and logged his findings using the name A.B. Bear.

Tears flood my eyes. “That’s his nickname for me. Abby Bear. It’s his way of telling me where it is. In case the map didn’t work.”

“He was waiting for technology to catch up,” Marcus explains as we hike toward the coordinates. “Sustainable extraction methods, minimal environmental damage.”

“That sounds like Grandpa. He always said the mountain would provide when the time was right.”

The coordinates lead us to what looks like an unremarkable hillside covered in pine trees and granite outcroppings. But when Marcus starts examining the rock formations, his eyes light up.

“Look,” he says, pointing to a section of rock that looks slightly different from the surrounding stone. “This has been carved. See the straight edges?”

He's right. What I thought was natural weathering is actually careful work, designed to look natural unless you know what you're looking for.

We move several large stones, revealing a small entrance to what looks like a natural cave system. But this isn't like the passages we explored yesterday. This is larger, more stable, and when we shine our flashlights inside, we can see that someone has done extensive work here.

"Grandpa," I breathe.

The cave opens into a large chamber, and it's immediately clear that Jasper spent years preparing this site. There are battery-powered LED lights strung along the walls and basic mining equipment stored in waterproof containers.

Marcus is running his hands along one of the walls as I check the other. His eyes are bright.

“This place is a marvel. Your grandfather was an extraordinary man, Abby.”

I crouch down. The final marker is a heart. My gut tells me we’re at the right location, but where is it? I run my hand over the rough wall and my fingers snag against a different texture. I snap on my flashlight and something glitters.

“Marcus!”

He runs over and kneels next to me. There on the wall is a glittering heart, sparkling in the light, directly above a small pile of rocks.

“It looks like diamond dust–”

Marcus leans closer. “You’re right.”

What if the Ember Heart treasure wasn’t gold? I scrabble at the pile of rocks, my heart thumping in my chest. Underneath the rocks is a large metal container. There’s a letter addressed to me.

My dearest Abby Bear,

If you’re reading this, congratulations!

You’ve found the treasure, like I knew you would.

I’ve had to take precautions since there were some very unscrupulous people interested in what I’ve found.

So if your path to the treasure has been arduous, I apologize.

I couldn’t make it easy to find in case someone else stumbled upon it.

Discovering the diamond in this cave was a blessing and a curse. I couldn’t allow the natural beauty of Ember Heart to be destroyed. So I’ve been working on ways to extract what’s here without ruining the landscape.

You’ll find deeds to the land, which I bought years ago, when I thought I was looking for gold, way before I discovered the diamond. I know I can trust you and Josh to do the right thing and follow in my footsteps. Make this discovery count towards the greater good.

I hope to explain this all to you in person, but if I don’t get the chance, know that I love you and have always been proud of you in every way.

All my love,

Grandpa

Along with the letter, we find detailed extraction plans.

There are legal documents showing that in the year before he died he'd been working with environmental lawyers and mining engineers to develop sustainable extraction methods. There’s also a velvet pouch, which I open with trembling hands. Inside is a huge diamond.

By the time we emerge from the cave, the sun is setting over Ember Heart, painting the sky in shades of gold and crimson. I hold the diamond up to the sun and it sparkles in the light.

“This will take care of Mom’s treatment. But what do we do with the rest of it?” I ask Marcus as we sit on a boulder, watching the valley spread out below us.

“Now we do it right,” he says, wrapping his arm around me. “Sustainable extraction, environmental protection, community benefit. All that good stuff. Just like Jasper wanted.”

“And Varjek?”

“Goes to federal prison for a very long time. Armed assault, stalking… he's looking at serious time.”

I lean into Marcus's warmth.

“You know what the best part is?” I say.

“What?”

“We found it together. All of it. The treasure, each other, our future…”

“Together. I like the sound of that,” Marcus smiles, pressing a kiss to my temple.