Page 7

Eve

Night Hiking

I was so stunned I didn’t even have time to resist. Suddenly Harper and I were huddled together in a cool, dark space, our hips pressed together, the bare skin of her arm warm against mine. The shower of electric sparks this elicited had me dazed and lightheaded.

That and the distinct smell of her this close, rising above the scents of stone and moss surrounding us—something sweet and citrusy, like a summertime memory.

“Dragging me into a cave against my will isn’t a good look coming from the person talking about creepy desert murder spots,” I muttered. “What are we doing here? And why?”

I could just make out the shape of her face in the shadows. She pressed a finger to her lips. “Someone’s coming. So please, kindly, shut the fuck up. You’re making it hard to spy.”

“You mean…eavesdrop?”

“Gathering information in a more convenient and accessible way than using formal channels.”

My eyebrows flew up. “Sorry but don’t journalists have a set of ethics they have to follow?”

Harper was frowning down at the rows of ants crawling by her feet. “Uh…yes?”

“So is this ethical?”

“We’ll never know, will we?” she whispered. “Because you’re talking too much.”

The sound of boots grew louder. Figures appeared by the pit—the man in the tan jacket and cowboy hat was Jensen, but I didn’t recognize anyone else. Jensen held a small leather journal that he kept slapping against his thigh. Two others unpacked metal detectors and a few other tools.

“What do they know that I don’t?” I murmured, without thinking. Harper’s reaction was to press her hand over my mouth with a haughty, “ Shhhh .”

I pushed her hand away. “What’s your problem?”

“You’re my problem, Eve,” she argued, except she said it in a whisper. Directly against my ear, the barest hint of her lips on my skin. My limbs went taut, every nerve ending hovering between frustration and desire.

“Yeah, you’re my problem, too,” I whispered back. “And I’ll remind you that you came into my store, threatened the privacy of my family member, showed up at my trail head without permission—”

“You can’t own a trail head. You can’t own nature ,” she hissed. “How arrogant do you have to be to think—”

“—fucking up plans I already had in place before you even got here —”

“—that you’re the only one that gets to look for buried treasure? When everyone else —”

A craggy-looking face appeared in the mouth of the cave, startling us both. I fell back on my palms, and my thumb slid across the top of her hand. Accidentally. She snatched it away like I’d burned her, then glared at me.

“Hiya, Eve,” Jensen rasped. “We interruptin’ somethin’ or…?”

I sent him a weak smile. “Howdy. Fancy running into you here, Jensen. Are you also out on a…on a night hike?”

He dropped his hands to his knees. “You and I both know why we’re here. And I should mention that we could hear the two of you arguing even back on the trail.”

Told you , Harper mouthed at me.

You’re infuriating , I mouthed back. Then I crawled out of the cave with the remaining dregs of my dignity, pausing only to knock the dust from my clothing.

Jensen tipped his hat in greeting. He was a ruddy-cheeked white man about Monty’s age, never without a cigarette in hand.

He dragged on one now, blowing smoke out the side of his mouth as I waved hello to the other people gathered around.

Harper managed to crawl out from the cave with the grace of a dancer, hair still perfect and a professional smile aimed at Jensen. “Harper Hendrix, I’m the reporter who’s been leaving you voicemails.”

Jensen’s gruff expression didn’t change. “And I’m the guy who’s been deletin’ ’em.”

I tipped my head down at the metal detectors on the ground. “You’re being pretty public about all of this.”

“Maybe we have information that you don’t. And who says this is the only spot where we’ve been digging? You’ve been out of the loop, Eve. Monty, too. Not my fault you’re behind.”

I crossed my arms over my chest and hoped I didn’t look as shocked as I felt. “Monty declared this location a bust. Pretty famously.”

Jensen exhaled another long stream of smoke. “A bust is a bust ’til it ain’t. You know that.”

I did know that. Another shiver of worry rose up my spine.

“Besides, Monty would do the same thing if the timing was right. And she has. Maybe it’s someone else’s turn to strike gold for once. I got a wife and family to support, too.”

The bitterness woven through his tone wasn’t that surprising. He’d held a grudge against my aunt ever since she and her crew uncovered La Venganza before he had.

I raised an eyebrow. “And maybe it’s not all about you, Jensen. This shit isn’t personal.”

His expression hardened even further. “Never said it was.”

I bit back what I really wanted to say. That the Blackburn Diamonds were personal to Monty, to both of us. But that wasn’t my story to tell, especially in front of a reporter.

“Do you happen to know where Monty is?” Harper asked him eagerly.

He dropped his cigarette into the dirt and stubbed it out with his foot. “Haven’t spoken to her in years. Even if I had, she’d never tell me where she was. That’s a lady that doesn’t want to be found.”

Harper’s shoulders fell, her smile fracturing at the edges. Jensen walked away from us without a goodbye, muttering quietly with his crew standing around the pit.

Whatever he was relaying had them eyeing the two of us with obvious suspicion and more than a little hostility.

Taking the hint, I climbed back up the trail and set off toward my car, and Harper was unusually silent as she followed me.

My mind whirled with conflicting information, torn between writing it all off and taking Jensen at his word.

This would be a lot easier if Monty returned any of my calls.

When I reached the empty parking lot, I opened my passenger-side door and cocked my head at Harper. “Get in. I’ll take you to wherever your car’s parked.”

She shot me a cagey look.

“Just because we’re pissed at each other doesn’t mean I’m gonna force you to walk alone in the dark.”

Steeling her spine, she brushed past me and slid inside. We drove in terse silence over the bumpy road until I spotted her car and parked. I glanced over at her, noticed her fidgeting with her seat belt.

“That man, Jensen…” she said slowly. “He’s your competition for the diamonds now, too, isn’t he?”

I swallowed hard. “Looks like he is.”

Harper twisted around in her seat to face me. “Eve, I’m out here for the next nine days regardless. Partner up with me,” she offered again. Persistent. “I’ve got a team of researchers and fact-checkers at my disposal. Let me write this story, and I’ll make it all available to you. It’s a win-win.”

It was tempting. But… The day that Monty showed me Priscilla’s locket was seared into my memory—the sharp, crackling fire, the sound of ice in her glass of whiskey, the rustling tissue paper. How carefully she revealed the locket’s secrets to me.

How protective she was of this unique bit of fortune. How protective I felt about it, almost immediately. Monty valued this piece of our family history more highly than any buried treasure.

“I can’t do that,” I said softly. “And I can’t tell you why.”

Her face darkened. “Don’t say ‘can’t’ when you mean ‘won’t.’”

I turned fully, draping my left arm across the steering wheel.

We were, once again, stuck in a cramped space together while arguing.

And I wondered what she’d do if I leaned across the console, hooked a finger in the top of her shirt, and dragged her mouth to mine?

Pulled her onto my lap, dove my hands into all that hair, let her passionate anger consume me?

Like she’d said, she was only here for nine more days anyway. It was my favorite kind of relationship, really—one with an expiration date.

But Harper was already on the move, rifling through her bag with one hand and pushing open the car door with the other. “Never mind, forget I offered. Good luck on your own, Eve.” She paused in standing up, peering back at me with an imperious air. “You’re definitely going to need it.”

“More likely you will.” My attraction to Harper swung back hard to annoyance. “I’m the expert here, Hendrix. You’re just some stranger who blew into town with a deadline. And the sheer volume of information you don’t know about this situation is laughable.”

Her response was to slam the door shut and stalk off toward her own car, frustration rolling off her body in giant waves. As soon as she was safely inside with the engine running, I peeled out of the lot and back onto the street.

I checked once in my rearview mirror for trailing headlights but found none. The empty road stretched long ahead of me while a narrow band of the Milky Way glimmered above.

I’d always assumed I’d have more time to find the Blackburn Diamonds. Assumed I’d gather together a team with Monty, figure out how she and Ruby had missed it all those years ago.

But everything was different now, with Harper here, and Jensen’s crew was a legitimate threat. If I couldn’t find my aunt—which was looking more and more likely—then I was out here treasure hunting all on my own. I’d scoffed when Harper told me, “Good luck.”

But I needed all the luck I could get.

Anxiety scorched through me like a lightning bolt, the feeling so familiar it threatened to yank me back to some of my worst memories.

Every passive-aggressive comment from my family I’d always tried to ignore.

All the tiny resentments, the little cuts that added up to make me feel less than and lonely.

I was 1,800 miles away from them, driving a vintage Ford Mustang beneath the sparkling, celestial heavens, and they could still manage to hurt me.

To them, I was just a daydreamer with no ambition.

Lazy, unfocused, and unrefined. Aggressively average at best. And in a family of such uptight, image-obsessed overachievers, nothing was worse than being considered average.

If I was going to prove myself to my family, I needed to find those diamonds and reclaim Priscilla Blackburn’s story, once and for all.

All while staying one step ahead of a very pretty, very persistent, thorn in my side.