Page 11

Eve

Feckless Daydreamers with No Goals or Ambition

What if she’d fallen in love with another woman?

Waylon averted his gaze, re-tidying the papers he’d just fixed a few minutes ago. Meanwhile, I was yanked back to the day Monty had first showed me Priscilla’s locket.

My most prized possession , she’d said, her fingers trembling uncharacteristically as she’d passed it to me. We could have uncovered the rarest jewels from that Spanish warship we found, and none of it would ever matter as much as this does to me.

She’d looked at me then, slightly cocky in her cowboy hat, her gray braid reflecting the orange hue from the fireplace. This is our legacy, Evie. Yours and mine. No family of ours can ever take it from us.

I cleared my throat, raking a hand through my hair when Harper glanced over at me again, curiously.

But then Waylon was rising from his chair and grabbing a hat and flashlight.

“Look, that’s nice of you to think, Miss Hendrix.

But there’s no evidence of any of that. It’s pure conjecture at this point, which, to be honest, is all the Blackburn Diamonds have ever been. ”

Harper jumped to her feet, her smile tight at the edges. “I do have more questions. I’m sure with some time we can unravel this mystery. You’ve already been so helpful.”

Waylon moved past us to open the door, letting in the cool night air. “Probably, but I’m just not interested. And I don’t know anything else.” He clicked on his flashlight, turning his round face ghoulish. “Now if you don’t mind, I’ve got tourists to scare.”

I swallowed a frustrated sigh. “Thanks for giving us your time. It was nice to see you.”

“You’ll give my regards to Monty?” he asked.

If she ever calls me back .

“Sure thing,” I said with a nod.

Behind me, Harper was passing along about fifteen different ways to keep in touch with her. By the time she and I were walking back down the narrow street, bursts of headlights from the parking lot were already appearing.

“I think Waylon’s hiding something,” Harper said softly.

I opened my mouth to agree, then snapped it shut. We weren’t working together.

“I’ll keep on him. He’ll talk eventually.”

I cut my eyes to her profile. “You heard him back there. He already shared all he knows, and it’s not much. I wouldn’t waste your time.”

I freed my keys, lengthening my stride as we neared the Mustang.

“I don’t have time to waste either way,” she murmured. “I fly back to Brooklyn in a week, and if I can’t get him to trust me in person, I doubt he’ll do it over the phone.”

We reached my car, and I leaned back against the driver’s side door.

I’d parked next to a crumbling saloon, the swinging doors still attached, and what sounded like an entire family of bats living inside.

The clouds parted, revealing a three-quarters moon like a blossoming gardenia, floating above our heads.

“And you really think you’re gonna find the diamonds before then?” I asked, though I still didn’t believe she’d come even close.

True to form, Harper raised her chin. “I’ll find the diamonds or Monty, whichever comes first.”

Hesitantly, as if concerned I would bite, she leaned back next to me, though at least a foot separated our bodies.

Her suspicions back at Waylon’s office had me studying her in a new light.

And I noticed, for the first time, the weary lines around her mouth when she wasn’t smiling. The purple circles beneath her eyes.

“Why did you mention you thought Priscilla might have run off with another woman?” I asked.

Harper released a tired-sounding breath. “Do you know who the journalist Bruce Sullivan is?”

“Of course. Why?”

“That’s my dad.”

I sent her a look of pure surprise. “Are you being for real?”

She pressed her lips into a thin line. “We don’t share the same last name. I legally changed it to my mother’s maiden name when I graduated from high school. He’s a very talented writer. He’s not that great of a dad.”

I shifted on my feet. “I’ve got some experience with parents who aren’t that great.”

Her eyes softened. “I’m sorry to hear that, Eve.”

“It’s nothing. Really,” I said. “What does your dad have to do with Priscilla?”

She was quiet for a moment, staring out at the abandoned field that surrounded us.

“My dad always taught me that interviewing people means stripping away our assumptions. We enter every situation with our own internal biases, our own personal histories and experiences. And if we’re not careful, those biases can lead us to ask the wrong questions.

Which, of course, is exactly what I did with Waylon. ”

My entire body tightened with an unexplained anticipation.

“I could have pressed him more, tried another angle to get him to reveal whatever it is he’s lying about.

” She turned her body until she was facing me.

The energy between us shifted with her movement, regaining the same heady buzz from earlier.

“Technically, I’m out here to write a story about Monty, but over the past couple days I’ve grown so captivated by Priscilla’s life.

She risked everything to do what she did.

And all these online amateur sleuths love to paint her as some opportunistic femme fatale . But I think…”

Harper went quiet again. I didn’t interrupt, all too aware that a few missing pieces were about to snap into place. Answers to a burning question I’d had from the first moment I’d seen Harper balanced on top of that rolling ladder, her fingers tracing the spine of each book with devotion.

Her eyes slid to mine. “I think Priscilla Blackburn was queer.”

My stomach flipped over about a dozen times.

“Something about her just calls to me. I can’t even fully explain it. I certainly wouldn’t share this feeling with my editor. Or, worse, my dad.”

“They wouldn’t trust your professional instincts on this?” I asked carefully.

Harper laughed bitterly. “He would call it confirmation bias, not instinct.”

Then she looked up at me, almost wary. A little uncertain. It provoked an immediate impulse to soothe, to make it easier for her to say what I suspected she needed to.

“I get being called to it,” I said slowly. “I’m bi. And there are just some things that feel queer to me. Some stories and people and narratives that resonate with me at this soul-deep level.”

Harper’s eyes lit up, the barest hint of a smile in the curve of her lips. “I’m bi, too.” She reached up, touched her nose self-consciously. “In case you, um…missed my septum ring.”

I held her gaze for a long second. “I noticed it.”

Stopped myself from saying, Because I noticed you.

When she spoke again, her voice shook slightly. “All of that is to say, it’s why I’m worried that none of this is instinct at all. Only seeing myself in the lives of unhappy women throughout history.”

Guilt whispered through me. If there was a perfect time to reveal my secrets, it would be now.

“I do the same thing, though,” I admitted.

“I spent years, essentially living in various campus libraries, searching for myself in every story that wasn’t told.

Searching for…for queerness, for transness, for gender non-conformity.

For all the ways people built community outside of the status quo.

For the people who fought back, who defied every law.

Every time I stumbled upon someone like us, hidden in the back pages, it felt like discovering a tiny revolution. ”

Harper was nodding. “Yes, that’s it. That’s exactly how I feel about Priscilla.

Professionally speaking, this is the worst time for a story to get this personal.

Except here I am, fervently hoping I’ll discover some indisputable clue that tells me who she really was.

That tells me she was, in her own way…a revolution. ”

I was suddenly very aware of how alone we were in this parking lot. Of the long shadows, the slick stillness, the cluster of freckles beneath Harper’s left eye I hadn’t noticed before.

Harper gnawed at her bottom lip, her gaze darting across my face.

“I wasn’t going to say anything earlier.

It didn’t feel right, in between arguments, to offer up an apology you might not even want.

But I…I know what happened to Monty and Ruby after they found La Venganza , what you were referring to on the day that we met. I’m appalled, and I’m truly sorry.”

My face went hot at the quick subject change, followed by a familiar spike of betrayal.

“It felt like everyone in the world was trying to be the photographer that captured the moment Monty Montana struck gold again,” I said bitterly.

“But that media frenzy never captured the true spirit of why Monty and Ruby went after that ship in the first place, which was more about the joy of discovery, of intrigue, the true spirit of adventure. Everything they found, all the jewels and valuables, they returned to the Bahamian people.”

“I didn’t know that,” Harper said softly. “Why?”

“The Spanish crew of La Venganza had stolen it from them in the first place,” I said wryly. “Monty and Ruby returned it to its rightful owners.”

I passed a hand through my hair, tugging at the curls.

“But all the hate mail, all the attention, it wasn’t the same for Monty and Ruby after that.

They went into hiding, and it strained their marriage.

Everything got even worse when Monty became obsessed with the Blackburn Diamonds and sunk thousands of dollars into research, travel, hired local historians.

It was a huge gamble, but Monty swore it was worth the risk. ”

Harper pushed up her glasses with the palm of her hand. “And that’s why they’re separated now?”

My stomach twisted at the memories. “Monty won’t talk about her with me. She’s secretive and a bit paranoid on a good day. Talking about messy relationship feelings has never been on the menu for her.”

A slow understanding dawned on Harper’s face, and she took a step away from me. “You’re never going to let me interview her, are you? Even if…even if I earned your trust? Or hers?”

“You’re a reporter, Hendrix. The media ruined Monty’s life. How could I expose her to something like that ever again?”

She was nodding with a look of complete disappointment on her face. “What the press did to your aunt is unforgivable. It’s the ugliest side of my industry, one I take no pride in. But I’m not like that, Eve. Doesn’t your aunt deserve a chance to tell her own story?”

My eyes narrowed. “You’ve already admitted that you’ll do anything to get this scoop, all just to hit some deadline. How can I trust that once you got back to New York you’d keep your word?”

Her blue eyes flashed. “That’s not fair.”

“We’re total strangers,” I said, eyebrow cocked. “I have no reason to believe you and no reason to fight fair.”

“But I thought…” She stopped, looking hurt, then I watched her plaster what seemed to be a very fake smile on her face. “You know what? It doesn’t matter. You’re right, Eve. We don’t owe each other a damn thing.”

And then she strode away, leaving me alone in the mist and the moonlight with an echo of thwarted longing in my chest. All of it reminding me, yet again, what my parents’ abandonment had taught me, in ways both big and small.

It was always better to leave them before they left you.

A sudden weariness flooded my body, but there was no time to rest. Not if I was going to stay one step ahead—at least—of Jensen’s crew, and whoever else was already out there searching. And definitely not if I was going to keep pace with Harper’s tenacity.

My family believed Monty and me to be feckless daydreamers with no goals or ambition. I’d already quit my doctoral program, the worst possible sin for a pair of reputation-obsessed professors. Monty had already tried to find the diamonds once and failed.

What would it say about us if they were found now, by Jensen or Harper or anyone else?

I couldn’t let that happen.

Which meant the chase was officially back on and I needed to start preparing.

Immediately.