Search Me

by Katie Ashley

  All I could think about was my dad ending up like Maudie…or far worse. He could be killed all because of me and my ridiculous need to have an adventure. It was too much to think about, let alone to have to bear. And there were also the horrible thoughts of what might happen to Maddox and myself if we didn’t find the gold.

  I finally started coming out of my breakdown. My breath came in ragged gasps while my throat felt like it had been sliced with razor blades.

  Maddox’s breath was warm against my ear. “Listen, Jensen’s ransom—it doesn’t change anything. We’re still going after the gold, and we’re going to find it.”

  I jerked back to stare at him. “Don’t you get it? It’s not just about us losing the treasure to him. What if he doesn’t let my dad go? What if he takes the gold and then kills us all?”

  “Then we come up with a back-up plan that ensures we all get out of this alive—preferably with the gold.”

  “But you heard Jensen. He’ll know if we try to call the police or anyone else.”

  “From our cell-phones. That doesn’t mean we can’t call someone else.”

  I shook my head furiously. “He’s tracking us like animals, Maddox. We go off the grid for one minute, and he’ll shoot my dad, just like he did Maudie.”

  Maddox leapt up off the floor and started pacing back and forth. “Dammit, there’s got to be a way.”

  I ground the tears from my eyes with my fists and then drew in a breath. I had to be strong and think clearly. This wasn’t about finding the treasure anymore. “Look, we don’t have time to argue about this. Jensen is timing us, remember?” I pulled myself painfully up off the floor. Without another word to Maddox, I grabbed my purse. Stomping over to the door, I unbolted the lock. When he still hadn’t moved, I threw a glance at him over my shoulder. “Are you coming or not?”

  He narrowed his eyes. I could tell there were about a million things he wanted to say to me at that moment, but amazingly, he held his tongue. He snatched his bag and slung the strap over his shoulder.

  I blew through the door and then started pounding down the stairs. My chest ached at the difference between the way I was coming down them this morning, all broken and defeated in spirit from Jensen’s call, as opposed to how Maddox had carried my drunken self up them the night before like a knight in shining armor. Everything appeared so different in the harsh light of day.

  Flinging open the truck door, I tossed my purse inside. Then I hooked my hand through the harness and hoisted myself into the cab. Maddox opened his door as I slammed mine. I craned my neck to eye the truck bed, where he had put the tools in earlier. I noticed two shovels and a Coleman lantern almost like the ones we’d used at the house we’d broken into.

  Maddox cranked up the engine and then threw the truck into reverse. As we careened onto the highway, I buckled my seatbelt. I drew my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around them tight. Turning my head away from Maddox, I stared out the window, silently praying over and over: Please don’t let Jensen hurt my dad. Please let us find the gold. Please let us all get out of this nightmare safe and not harmed.

  But even through my prayers, my mind spun with horrible thoughts about Dad. Each and every one of them involved him lying in a pool of blood similar to Maudie. They were so intense a metallic smell invaded my nose. My stomach clenched, and I knew I was going to lose my breakfast. “Pull over,” I commanded.

  “What?” Maddox glanced over to see me with my hand cupped over my mouth. “Shit!” He whipped into the emergency lane. The moment the truck skidded to a stop I hopped out. I barely made it before I vomited into the grass. I threw up over and over until my body shuddered with dry heaves.

  Still bent over double, I heard Maddox’s feet crunching towards me on the gravel. I couldn’t bring myself to raise my head and look at him. I hated he had to see me this way—a weak, vulnerable princess puking her guts out on the side of the road.

  His hand tentatively rubbed my back. “It’s going to be okay, Lane. I promise.”

  I jerked my head up to glare at him. “You can’t promise me that. No one can.”

  He exhaled noisily. “I’m sorry. I don’t know anything else to say or do.”

  I dragged my hand across my mouth. “There’s nothing you can say.” I brushed past him to get into the truck. I don’t know why I was being such a bitch to him. It wasn’t his fault, and he was only trying to help. I just couldn’t process anything more than trying to get to my dad.

  Once we got back on the road, I rested my head against the window. It was thirty minutes before Maddox spoke to me again, causing me to jump. “You know what exit we’re supposed to take?”

  I nodded and then pulled my cell phone out of my purse. I clicked on the email where I’d saved our route. “Exit Nine. Then take a right,” I croaked. My throat still ached from screaming so hard and throwing up.

  I had just popped in a piece of gum from my purse when Maddox murmured, “Lane.”

  His expression was pained, but he took his right hand off the steering wheel and crooked his finger at me. The small, insignificant detail broke me. I didn’t stop to think. Instead, I fumbled with the seatbelt that held me prisoner. It finally released me, and I slid across the seat. I snuggled up to him, wrapped my arms around his waist, and buried my head against his chest. “I’m sorry for being such a bitch.”

  “You weren’t being a bitch.” Tenderly, he kissed the top of my head. “You’re killing me, you know that right? Seeing you suffering like this and not being able to do anything—it hurts like hell. And then the fact you need me so much emotionally, and I don’t know if I can do it…” He grimaced. “It’s fucking agony.”

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered.

  “Don’t be. It’s me that should be sorry. I should have said from day one that this whole map thing was stupid, and we should’ve gone to the police. Maybe then the Feds could have gotten to Jensen, and your dad would be okay.”

  “But we wanted this—I wanted this. A crazy adventure.” I shook my head. “We never imagined it would end like this.”

  A frustrated noise came from the back of Maddox’s throat. “Oh come on! What the hell is wrong with us? We’re acting like we’re dead and buried! Done. Finito.”

  I shot him a scathing look. “Are you trying to say after Jensen’s call we can still have a happily ever after?”

  “Damn straight! I didn’t go through eighteen months in Army training to just lie down and die when the going got rough. You fight back and give it everything you’ve got until you don’t have anything else. Jensen doesn’t know what he’s coming up against.”

  A small glimmer of hope flickered within me at his words, and I almost believed we could beat Jensen. Maddox was being so strong for the both of us that I couldn’t help planting a kiss on the rough stubble of his cheek. “Thank you for being here for me.”

  “Anytime, babe. Do you feel a little better now?”

  I nodded. “I didn’t peg you as one for pep talks.”

  He gave me a sheepish grin. “Yeah, well, I’d hoped to be an officer one day. You kinda need the bravado to lead the troops into danger and all that shit.”

  I smiled. “You would have made a great one…Captain Diaz….no, General Diaz.”

  He tore his eyes off the road to give me an astonished look. “You think so?”

  “Yep, I know so. I’m totally resolved to kick Jensen’s ass now.”

  Maddox chuckled. “Really, Princess?”

  “At least for the moment. I’m sure my resolve will start fading soon.”

  Nudging me, he said, “I like the kickass and take names attitude much better than you all sad and weepy.”

  “I can imagine.” A highway sign then caught my attention. “Hey, we’re almost to our turnoff.”

  “The next exit?”

  I nodded.

  Maddox coasted the truck off the interstate. “Where do we go now?”

  “Okay, take a right.”

  He tapped the brakes an
d started slowing down. He eased us off the exit ramp and onto the two-lane highway. “Now, we’re going to go two miles before taking a left,” I instructed.

  “Is that going to put us into the boonies?”

  “Almost. It’s the turn after it that we go five miles on that road.”

  “Fabulous.”

  We drove through a pretty populated area with strip malls and fast food places before making our next turn. After only a mile, we’d left civilization behind. Green pastureland with horses and cows grazing dotted the horizon. A couple houses lined the road, but they were few and far between. We kept going further and further into the woods until the road ceased being paved and turned into gravel.

  I glanced down at my phone again. “Talking Rock Springs Trail should be coming up on the left.”

  Maddox and I both peered through the windshield, searching for the turn. Once we made it, the road became less gravel and more overgrown grass. Tree branches smacked and slapped against our windows and beat against the doors. Then the unthinkable happened: an iron gate closed us off from the rest of the trail.

  With a groan, I asked, “Great. Now what?”

  “Well, we can hike up the rest of the way carrying all the equipment. Or we can do this.” Maddox stomped on the accelerator, and the truck barreled forward, twisting and bending the iron as it crashed against the gate. I gripped the side of my seat as the impact jostled and shook my body. Finally, we mowed through it, and I heaved a sigh of relief.

  “I told ya this bad boy was an epic beast, didn’t I?” Maddox questioned, with a grin.

  “Oh yeah, it’s epic,” I murmured, my teeth chattering as we rattled over the uneven ground.

  Maddox threw the truck into low gear and gunned the engine, sending us lurching uphill. It had been a long time since any kind of vehicle had been up the path. “I sure as hell hope this isn’t private property. The last thing we need is a gun-fight with a crazy redneck guarding his land,” Maddox mused.

  “Tell me about it.”

  But then all worries about a ‘sawed-off shotgun wielding property owner’ faded as my eyes honed in on something in the distance. I leaned forward in my seat to stare out the windshield. Instead of a better view, I was rewarded with banging my head on the roof after we went over a bump. The pain was momentarily forgotten as the sight of a rocky formation came clearer in my view. “There it is!” I cried pointing.

  “I’ll be damned,” Maddox replied. He gunned the accelerator, sending us careening towards the mouth of the cave. Once we had almost reached it, he let up on the gas and pulled us to a stop in a thicket of trees. After he killed the engine, he turned to me. “You wanna do the honors of calling Jensen?”

  At the thought of speaking to Jensen, my throat closed up like I’d swallowed sawdust. I shook my head and croaked, “You.” Maddox nodded and took my phone. It was beyond bizarre that to speak to Jensen he had to call Dad’s cell-phone.

  Someone answered on the second ring. “Yeah, it’s Maddox. We’re at the cave.”

  I couldn’t hear the reply. I only saw the flash of frustration on Maddox’s face. “That’s a totally bullshit time frame! We have no idea what we’ll find when we get inside.” His expression darkened. “Fine. We’ll call you when we have the gold.” Then he hung up and threw my phone against the dashboard. It made a horrible crashing noise before falling to the floorboard. His eyes widened. “Shit! Sorry about your phone. Jensen just…really pissed me off.”

  “What did he say?”

  Maddox turned to me. “He’s giving us an hour to find the treasure and then call him back. An hour! He’s fucking crazy!”

  My mouth ran dry at the prospect, and I had to fight the rising panic that threatened to overtake me. “That’s it?”

  “Yeah. So we better get moving. Now.” In a flash, he hopped out the truck and slammed the door, causing me to jump. I craned my neck to watch him start snatching and grabbing the tools we would need. He worked like a man possessed. I guess he was battling some of the same feelings I had. As much as I wanted to lose it, I knew I couldn’t. I needed to be strong for Maddox and in the long term for my dad as well.

  After grabbing my purse, I scrambled out the door and went around to the truck’s bed. Maddox mumbled under his breath a few expletives directed at Jensen. I tentatively murmured, “I can carry something.”

  He jerked his head up, and his expression momentarily softened. “Sorry about going apeshit there for a minute.”

  “There’s nothing to apologize for. I think we both feel the same way about Jensen.”

  “For some reason, it’s hard for me to believe you want to put a bullet between his eyes as much as I do.”

  I shuddered at the picture he painted in my mind. “Eesh, well, I don’t know about that.”

  Maddox grinned. “I didn’t think so.”

  “Trust me, I want to hurt him. A lot. But more than anything, I want him punished—like more of a long, lengthy prison sentence where he doesn’t get to call all the shots. That would kill the control freak.”

  Leaning over to hand me the lantern, Maddox asked, “And do you also hope that while he’s in prison, he gets made into some dude’s bitch?”

  I couldn’t keep my cheeks from flushing as I ducked my head. “Maybe,” I finally admitted.

  Laughter rolled through Maddox as he slung the shovel and a pick axe on his shoulder. “Aren’t you full of surprises?” With his free hand, he cuffed the back of my neck. “Let’s go get the treasure, and then figure out how to castrate Jensen later.”

  After I tossed my purse over my neck and shoulder, I gripped the lantern handle tight. We waded through the high grass and weeds that flowed like ocean waves in the breeze. “Watch out for snakes,” Maddox cautioned, and I momentarily froze in fear. But my inner voice screamed, Get it together, Lane. Quit acting like a scared little princess all the time. So I picked one foot up and started again.

  Debris blocked the cave’s entrance, illustrating just how long since anyone had been inside. Maddox and I sat the equipment down and started moving the rocks, branches, and tree limbs. After we had cleared enough to get in, along with having an easy getaway, we gathered up our tools and headed inside.

  The lantern did little to brighten the way as we stepped into inky darkness. Our steps echoed off the walls, repeating eerily over and over as the sound came back to us. I shivered and stayed practically on top of Maddox’s back. The next thing I knew something sticky started clinging to me. I shrieked and dropped the lantern when I realized we were caught in an intricate weaving of spider webs. Sputtering, I clawed them off of my face and arms while Maddox casually swept them away. When I finally recovered, he shot me an amused look over his shoulder. “Guess you’re not a fan of spiders, huh?”

  “You think you’d remember that from when we were younger. I always freaked out and made you kill them.”

  He grinned and turned around. “Ah, that’s right. Jeez, you’re such a girlie girl.”

  “Oh shut up,” I grumbled, snatching the lantern.

  Reaching over, he plucked a blob of something out of my hair. I could only imagine it was more spider webs. “But I like you just the way you are.”

  I smiled. “Aren’t you the charmer?”

  It was then I turned my attention back to the cave. As I gazed around, my eyes finally adjusted to the darkness. Taking in the desolate surroundings, I tried imagining how it must’ve been for Pretty Fawn, sneaking away from her tribe in the middle of the night to this very cave with Avery Jensen. Plotting and planning with him about their future life once they could run away together. And then how horrible that last time must’ve been for her after he had been killed—the time when she came here to end her life. I also had to wonder when the Jensen family gene pool had gone sour enough to produce someone like our ex-con, attempted murderer, and kidnapper Jensen.

  Maddox’s voice caused me to jump. “What are you thinking about?”

  “Pretty Fawn and Avery Jensen being her
e.”

  “Hmm, like if they ever got it on while in here?” he asked, wagging his eyebrows up and down.

  “No, pervert, that’s not what I was thinking.” Although truth be told, the thought had crossed my mind…more than once. To change the subject, I asked, “So what’s the plan to find the sacred fire location, Captain?”

  Maddox rolled his eyes. “Well, smartass, we need to find the center of the cave. According to the Cherokee Lore book, the sacred fire was part of the seven principle directions and always in the center.”

  “Wow, you actually read and paid attention. I’m impressed.”

  Ignoring me, he said, “Once we’ve semi-located the center, we need to start examining the ground. There has to be some kind of markings—a burned indention in the stone or cut rock—something to show there was once a fire.”

  “Okay, sounds good.”

  We forged ahead, trying to keep a measure of how far we were going and how far we’d come. It wasn’t easy with only the lantern and a flashlight to see with. After what seemed like an eternity, but was probably only about twenty minutes, I started to get antsy. The familiar feeling of panic crept into my mind, and I started having a hard time keeping it together. My mind started spinning.

  I tried calming myself by drawing in a few cleansing breaths, but anger, along with frustration, started swelling in my chest. For some reason, I’d thought we would waltz into the cave and find some leftover logs or a pile of soot and ash strewn on the ground. How could I have been so stupid? Two hundred years had wiped away any remnants of Pretty Fawn and Avery’s meeting place. I started to feel the frail thread of my sanity snap. “This is just fucking great!”

  Maddox’s mouth gaped open at my profanity-laced exclamation. I kicked a stray pebble, sending it scattering across the ground, before cocking my head to glare at him. “Yeah, you heard me. Twenty minutes of searching and nothing. Not even a cracked rock to alert us if we’re close. Just how are we ever supposed to find where the sacred fire was? We can barely see in here!”