Total pages in book: 56
Estimated words: 53081 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 265(@200wpm)___ 212(@250wpm)___ 177(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 53081 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 265(@200wpm)___ 212(@250wpm)___ 177(@300wpm)
One by one, they all broke off. Lyra said she was going to practice her cello on the fifth floor, Celeste and Zara disappeared into the lab, and their Daddies went off to do their various jobs.
That left Magnus, Juniper, and Sadie, with Isla and her Daddy, who was pulling out the map and spreading it on the table.
Isla was excited and wanted to lean over it and start exploring, but her Daddy stopped her. “Breakfast first.”
She groaned. “I’ll be fine without breakfast.” She was eager to have Magnus look at the map.
Magnus had on a ballcap that nearly covered his eyes, and he grunted. “Why do Little girls always think they can skip meals?” He pointed toward a table in one corner of the room. “I thought this might happen. I already ordered a selection from the restaurant. You three go eat before we start playing treasure hunters.”
Isla sighed as she let Juniper and Sadie guide her toward the table. The truth was that as soon as Sadie lifted the lid off the covered dishes, Isla’s stomach growled. She could get used to this. Not having to cook? Ordering food from the restaurant all the time? Yum!
Isla stared at Magnus while he stared at the map. She prayed that, between him and Caesar, they could figure out approximately where the treasure was supposedly buried.
It was just the three of them at the huge table. Sadie had gone to get ready for work, and Juniper sat across the room, manning the computers.
Finally, Magnus adjusted his ballcap and rose from his hunched-over position. He set his hands on his hips and looked at Caesar. “I think your guess is correct.”
“Your guess?” Isla asked, glancing back and forth between the men.
Caesar set a hand on her back and rubbed. “I told Magnus my suspicions while you were having breakfast. There’s a tunnel system that runs under this resort. It’s been there for over a hundred years. The tunnels connect to the caves that are all over these mountains. One of those caves exits out to a small cove inside the bay area where Danger Bluff is located.”
“A cove? Where? Is it close?”
“Very close. See that small indentation there?” he said, pointing at the map. “And there’s been a lot of action in that cave lately. When Juniper came to visit, she had a bank robber on her heels—Edmund Rivers. He’d just been released from a twenty-year prison sentence and believed his money had been hidden here at the resort. It turned out he was right. The money had been in the tunnels near that particular cave. Edmund and his brother, Eric, used the cave to come into the tunnels in search of the money. They were caught and arrested.”
“Did anyone do any exploring in there, do you think?” Isla asked, more excited now.
“I doubt many people have been in there in the past few decades. The cave is only accessible by land when the tide is low. It’s completely underwater when the tide is high. In fact, the men who stashed the money there both drowned because they didn’t get out on time.”
Isla cringed. “That’s so sad.”
Caesar ran a hand over his face. “Yeah, even criminals don’t deserve to die from drowning. There was a small explosion near that area. That may make finding the treasure more difficult or easier.”
“Can we go down there?” she asked Caesar softly, half expecting him to tell her it was too dangerous.
“Yeah, we can.” He sighed.
She sat up straighter. “Really? You’ll take me?”
He grabbed the back of her neck and tipped her head back. “Only because you’re an experienced diver, and I’ve been down there when the tide was high. And, Isla…”
“What?” Her heart started racing with excitement. He was going to take her. He was really going to let her go.
“You will follow my rules at all times, understood?”
She nodded rapidly.
“I mean it, Little girl. I just found you. You’re mine. If you defy me and put yourself in danger over something like a buried treasure that probably isn’t even there, I will spank your bottom so hard you won’t be able to sit for a week.”
She squirmed on her seat. “I promise, Daddy. I will do everything you say.” She stared at him, hating the look in his eyes. She knew he was recalling Mindy, the woman who had turned on him and left him for dead—a woman he’d trusted.
Isla slid off her seat and approached him, wrapping her arms around him. She hugged his neck tight. “I’m not Mindy,” she whispered. “I will obey you. I promise.” She would never defy anyone who was in charge of a dive. Not anyone. Certainly not her own Daddy. She set her lips on his ear to whisper so Magnus couldn’t hear, “I kind of like the idea of you spanking me, though. Could we maybe do that afterward?”