Page 32 of Whispers of Fortune (Golden State Treasure Book #1)

T HIRTY -T WO

Ellie surged to her feet, and a hand slapped over her mouth.

She swung a fist as a voice hissed in her ear, “Shut up.”

Josh. She sagged against him. The terror that somehow Loyal had circled around and found her and grabbed her rushed away, but not her terror for Brody.

Another hiss. “I’m going in there and dragging Brody into the trees.” He thrust cold iron into her hands, and she recognized it was a gun.

Where had he gotten a gun? Surely they’d disarmed him.

“Cover me.”

He let her go and silently slipped past her. She followed but stayed in the darkness. She heard rustling behind her and spun around to have the gun jerked out of her hand.

“It’s us, Miss Ellie. But we couldn’t let you shoot us.” Lock gave her the gun back, and the boys went after Josh. Ellie went back to standing guard, pretty sure if someone wanted her gun, they’d be able to get it. She was proving to be worthless at defending the men.

Josh came back. He had Brody in his arms. Lock and Thayne were across from Josh, helping to carry their brother.

They laid Brody down. Josh snatched the gun away from her. “You’re a better doctor than I am. He’s alive still. It looked like a hard hit with that bullet.”

Ellie dropped to her knees beside Brody and fumbled to find the wound. “It’s too dark. I can’t see anything.”

“He got hit in the chest. We’ll get into the firelight if we have to, but that one, Sonny, he’s slick. I never heard him coming. I hate making it easy for them to see us in the light.

And then Ellie found it. “There’s a tear in his shirt, a bullet-sized tear, but no blood.” Feeling for what had to be a terrible wound, she found only... “A coin.” She didn’t use the word gold . She pulled it out of Brody’s pocket. There were three coins. He’d dropped them all in there. One of them had a deep dent in it.

“He had coins in his shirt pocket. The bullet didn’t go in—”

“Ellie! Get into the woods! Get away, Ellie, my Ellie...” Brody was waking up.

Ellie threw her arms around him. “Brody...” Her voice broke, and she burst into tears.

“Wait, you boys—” Josh called out softly before running away, leaving Ellie there, only distantly aware that she’d just been abandoned. No, not abandoned, but left alone in Brody’s arms.

Brody blinked quickly several times. “What’s going on? Ellie, are you safe? Are they gone? Did they—?” Suddenly he was kissing her. Or maybe she was kissing him; she thought maybe she’d started it.

“You got shot, Brody. But the bullet hit the gold coins you were carrying.”

“I had three of them. I put them in my shirt pocket, along with some papers I wanted to read.”

“The bullet hit you and knocked you down, knocked you out. But it didn’t penetrate. Your grandpa’s treasure saved your life.”

A gun clicked in the darkness. “Let’s see that treasure.”

Ellie gasped and twisted around, still clinging to Brody, to see Loyal barely visible in the shadows.

“I’ve never shot anyone, Ellie. So perfect that I’d start with you, the woman who brought me low. And with the man you chose over me.” Loyal raised his gun.

Sonny was a pace behind him. “Just get it over with, Kelton. There’s no time for gloating.”

Why had Josh and the boys run off? They were probably searching for these two and accidentally left Ellie defenseless.

The gun rose, a barely visible glint of black iron in the night.

A bloodcurdling scream made Loyal jump. The gun went off into the night sky just as something slammed into him and then into Sonny. The grunting and the thrashing around were all a muddle Ellie couldn’t quite make out. But she heard no more gunfire.

Then a blow to Ellie’s leg had her crying out. She shoved at whatever had hit her and found a gun. She pointed it away from her and Brody and the fighting because she didn’t know who was out there in the dark.

A dull thud put an end to half the noise, then came another thud. This one harder, louder. A cry of pain, another thud.

“I’ve got rope,” Josh called out. “Let’s tie them up, boys, and haul them back to the ranch and into town. These two are going to spend long years in jail.”

Ellie felt Brody’s arms wrap around her. She collapsed on top of him. Brody cried out in pain. A bullet hitting at close range probably left a terrible injury just from the impact, even if it didn’t break the skin. With a gasp of regret, she wrenched herself out of his arms.

“We got them both, Thayne.” A shriek of victory. Lock and Thayne had come to save the day, or rather, save the night.

Josh said, “Thayne, you grab Kelton, I’ll get Sonny. Lock, help Ellie get your brother back to the campfire.”

Ellie was glad to have someone else take charge. She was so badly shaken now that it seemed to be over, it took everything in her to help a wobbly Brody to his feet. She slid an arm around him from his left while Lock did the same from his right.

She heard dragging and stumbling ahead of her, and when they reached the clearing where they’d camped, she saw Josh drop Loyal hard to the ground. Thayne dragged Sonny along on his back.

“I found where they left their horses, Josh.” Lock eased Brody to the ground. “We should saddle up and head back. It’ll be light in a couple of hours, but I don’t want to wait.”

“Good plan. We’ll leave camp while these two are out cold. Bring the horses and let’s start packing up. I remember our back trail well enough we can reach the cave by sunlight.”

Brody said, “I’m sorry we can’t go on treasure hunting now, but we have no choice.”

“There’ll be plenty of time later for hunting treasure,” Lock said before rushing after the horses.

In the flickering firelight, Thayne dropped by Brody’s side. “We were trying to get behind them. We’d hoped to gain the element of surprise.”

“It was smart of you to slip away from camp. Josh slipped away too, and those two”—he gave their prisoners a look of disgust—“were so stupid they didn’t even notice.”

Brody launched himself at Thayne and hugged him. “You gave me the chance to fight for Ellie’s life. If they’d had all of us, they could have started shooting and I’d’ve had no choice but to hand over the map.” He coughed and let go of Thayne, then rubbed his chest. “I might have a cracked rib.” Then he rubbed the back of his head. “And another concussion.”

Thayne beamed at Brody. “This treasure hunt has taken a toll on all of us.”

Brody turned to Ellie. “When we get back to the ranch, we need to concentrate on finding Mayhew Westbrook. If he’s still alive, we can talk with him. If not, we’ll talk with his heirs. We’ll read Grandpa’s notes more carefully first, but if we understand it correctly, our map isn’t going to lead us all the way to the treasure anyway.” He glanced at Thayne and Josh. “Can I talk to Ellie in private for a minute?”

Thayne grinned, and he and Josh went to check the tightly bound, unconscious prisoners. “Let’s go saddle our horses now, Thayne,” said Josh. “We want to be ready to ride when Lock returns with their horses.”

As soon as they were gone, Brody said to Ellie, “Finding this Westbrook fellow, well, it might be the kind of thing we could do together. We might need to travel a bit. Look at old newspapers and maybe census records...” He hesitated, taking her hand in his. “Well, it might be the kind of thing a married couple could do together.”

Ellie’s grip tightened.

Brody went on, “When I thought Loyal was going to kill you, Ellie, I realized how much I love you.” He leaned forward to where she knelt at his side. “I’ve loved you almost from the first, or at least it was the beginning of love. As I’ve spent time with you and gotten to know you better, my love for you has only grown. And the thought I could lose you...” His voice broke.

She kissed him to stop him from having to say more. Easing back just enough to see his eyes in the firelight, she said, “It was the same for me, Brody. When that bullet hit you, all I could think was that I’ve lost the love of my life. Josh jumped on me to stop me from charging right back into that circle of light.”

“Um ... is that a yes? Will you marry me, Ellie? The search for treasure, well, there can be no greater treasure than to find a woman as special as you. I know the boys want more, but I’ve found the finest possible MacKenzie’s Treasure right here in my arms.”

It was his turn to kiss her.

Ellie said against his lips, “That’s a yes. I can’t wait to start a life with you. If you have to go to Boston, then I’ll go with you. I’ll go anywhere, as long as it’s with you.”

The warmth of the fire and the cool night breeze surrounded them in something so perfect, Brody was glad his mouth was busy or he might’ve broken into song or started spouting love sonnets.

They spent a few moments together talking, and a few moments not talking, until Josh and Thayne led the horses into the clearing. Then Lock returned with the outlaws’ horses.

As they mounted up, Brody groaned, his chest hurting more with each passing moment. His head throbbed every time he moved. Barely able to sit on his horse, with Ellie riding at his side, they headed for home.

They rode into the Two Harts Ranch in time for an early supper.

“Lock the prisoners in the icehouse and post a guard.” Josh planned to ride to town first thing in the morning—for the arrest and then a wedding.

Brody and his brothers were invited to eat at the ranch house. Every one of them was exhausted after not sleeping last night, though Thayne and Lock had managed an hour.

When Ellie told Annie she was getting married, the squealing was enough to keep Brody awake long enough to eat.

They planned to ride into Dorada Rio tomorrow for the wedding. With Thayne and Lock to lean on, Brody got home before he passed out.