Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 98561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 394(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 394(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
“I’ll go down there with him,” said Kian firmly. And before Jackson could argue, he was walking with me into the saloon.
Inside, I went slowly, letting my eyes adjust to the dark. I’d only been here once before, when I stashed the gold, but I’d been thinking of the place non-stop for three years and every detail was burned into my mind: the creak of the floorboards under my feet, the way you had to jiggle the cellar hatch to get it to open. I shone a flashlight down the wooden stairs. “Stay here until I tell you it’s safe,” I told Kian. Then I took a deep breath and walked down into the cellar.
There were rows of wooden casks that had once held beer. And beyond them, right in the corner, there was a pile of old, dusty lumber. I pushed it out of the way to reveal seven metal boxes.
There was no booby trap, of course. But I’d stuck to the story because it meant I got a few moments alone with the gold.
I wanted to look at it. Just once.
I hinged open each of the metal boxes and then laid the flashlight on the floor. Its beam lit up the contents and I was bathed in a warm, yellow light: literally a golden glow.
Four. Hundred. Million. Dollars. I gazed slowly around the scene. Bar after bar after bar of shining gold, the surfaces mirror-bright. The power to buy whatever you want, do whatever you want, go wherever you want, right there…I reached down and caressed one of the ingots, letting its coldness soak into my skin, stroking its smoothness and then running my fingers over the indented numbers and letters.
I sighed.
Then I turned around and walked up the stairs, leaving the flashlight where it was. “It’s safe,” I told Kian as I walked past him.
A moment later, Kian followed me out of the saloon, and a victorious Agent Jackson led his men in. I couldn’t bear to watch as they loaded the bars into crates and then into an armored car. I walked around the town with Olivia instead, watching tumbleweeds spin and bounce down the streets, imagining the outlaws and gunfights the place had seen. But eventually, I couldn’t stop myself turning and looking at my gold as they prepared to take it away.
Olivia squeezed my hand. “Regrets?”
I looked at her. The wind had teased a lock of that long, black hair out of her bun and it was fluttering across her face in the wind. I brushed it back and tucked it behind her ear. “None,” I said truthfully.
Olivia
Five hours later, I was sitting in the back of another SUV, biting my lip nervously as we sped out of Boulder airport. I’d been traveling pretty much non-stop now for over twenty-four hours and between the jet lag and the culture shock, I was starting to feel a little panicky and unsettled. What happens now? I knew I wanted to be with Gabriel, but I’d spent my entire life in Arizona. What if I didn’t like Colorado? And what would I do for work? I still couldn’t get a job as a doctor.
Then Gabriel slipped his hand around my waist and tugged me tight against him. As I turned to look up at him, he palmed my cheek with his other hand, his fingertips stroking the edge of my hair. Whatever happens, his eyes told me, I’ll be right there with you. And I felt myself relax.
The city dropped away behind us, and as the peaks grew bigger and bigger on the horizon, I started leaning forward in my seat. We passed through the foothills and started up a twisty road that snaked up into the mountain. We came around a corner and—
The sunset was turning the clouds into pink and orange cotton candy and spilling golden light through the lush green pine forests that blanketed the peaks. And as we climbed higher, the view just kept getting better and better. And then there was the sign: Mount Mercy.
Danny expertly fed the car through a series of turns, and then we saw the mountain the town was named after, looming over the little community, menacing but beautiful. We drove down the main street and my jaw fell open: it was a gorgeous, quaint old place with wooden buildings that weren’t so different to the ones in the ghost town in Utah, just lovingly restored.
We drove a little way out of the town and came to a disused factory, the windows dark holes edged with jagged glass teeth. This was the team’s base?
Gabriel rubbed my arm. “I know. It needs work.”
Three women were waiting for us outside the building. The first looked a little like me, pale and curvy with long black hair. But she wore her hair down in long, tumbling tresses, giving her a dreamy, romantic look. It streamed out behind her as she raced over to Cal, covering the distance in just a few seconds. But someone got there faster: there was a blur of tan and black fur and then a huge German Shepherd was leaping and woofing, overjoyed, his paws on Cal’s chest. The woman ruffled the dog’s head as she hugged her man close. Bethany. And Rufus. They were the main thing Cal had talked about, on the rare occasions he did talk.