Now it was his turn to be embarrassed. “I sound like a self-centered jerk, don’t I? Worrying about how much it costs, if it’s worth it … Will it be any better than the regular treatment our insurance does pay for.”
“No, I didn’t mean that at all.” Her voice cracked. “At least your reason for needing the recovery fee is noble: to help your sick sister. Mine is to save my dad’s business that I mismanaged. How selfish is that?” She let out a sigh.
He chuckled, which brought her head up. “What’s funny?”
“Us. Feeling sorry for ourselves, but beating ourselves up for it. Almost like playing the game of who is the worst person.”
She smiled. “I see your point.”
The waitress delivered their order. It smelled amazing. He’d ordered the Mucho Grande Burrito, served with refried beans and rice. The burrito itself was a huge tortilla stuffed with rice, whole pinto beans, guacamole, grilled veggies, cheese, and pico de gallo. He took a bite and savored the goodness.
Landry had ordered the Diablo Enchilada lunch special, red chili pork wrapped in a corn tortilla and topped with red sauce and bubbling cheese. She cut into the enchilada, blew on it, and then did that thing she did when she enjoyed the food—closed her eyes and chewed extremely slow. His gut tightened. Now was the time.
“Landry?”
She opened her eyes and swallowed.
“I think we need to talk.” Why weren’t the words coming?
She took a sip of her drink. “Okay.”
“About us. You and me. Aside from the case.”
“Oh.” She folded her hands on the table in front of her. Defensive gesture.
Maybe she didn’t feel the same way. Nickolai licked his lips and swallowed. It’d never been so hard to talk to a woman before. Not like this, but he needed to know where he stood, and he’d learned the best way to do that was just to come at the problem face front. “I like you.”
It took maybe one twenty-fifth of a second for the microexpression to cross her face: wrinkled crow’s-feet, pushed-up cheeks, and movement from the muscle orbiting the eye.
Happiness.
His heart threatened to explode.
“I like you, too.” Her voice sounded more husky than usual. Throaty. Almost raspy. “Very, very much.”
“I want to see you. Date you. Be with you.”
Her smile brightened the dim room. “I’d like that as well.”
“I mean, not just the dating game. I haven’t felt this way about anyone in a very long time.” He grinned. “Not sure I really like it.”
“I feel the same way. Confused. Happy. Elated. Bewildered.”
He reached over and took her hand. “I almost can’t explain how I feel when I’m with you. And I want to be with you all the time.” He rubbed his thumb over her knuckles. “I want to hug you, hold you, kiss you … talk to you for hours on end and just stare at you.”
Her face reddened. “It’s the same for me.”
The waitress came to refill their drinks. He released her hand but knew, in that moment, she’d stolen his heart.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Landry held the map they’d drawn all over the night before in her lap as Nickolai drove the Jeep toward Weaver’s Needle. She’d overlaid the information from the copy of Julia Thomas’s map with the markings of Tarak’s main map. Last night, she and Nickolai had marked five different spots that were the best chances of where the man could camp on his way to where the mine was marked. There wasn’t a key to the map, so figuring distance wasn’t an option. They’d have to follow the markers depicted on the map and do their best.
They agreed on the plan: find the man, find the map, recover it, and get out. If it got to be three or four, a couple of hours before sunset, they’d start heading back whether they had found the map or not.
Yet, Landry knew that if the map had really led to the mine, she wouldn’t be able to resist checking it out. Even if she only looked. National parks were closed to prospecting, but everyone close to the Superstition Mountains looked for the mine. Or a cache of gold left there.
Tuesday morning had turned out beautiful, with temperatures in the seventies. Landry had been able to find the laundromat at the hotel and wash and dry her clothes. Redressed in her denim shirt and comfortable jeans, with her hiking boots, she was ready.
Nickolai had packed the backpacks he’d bought with bottled waters, almonds and granola bars, flashlights, first aid kits, ropes, and a couple of other things Landry had no clue what they were used for. It didn’t matter—they were almost to the mountains.
Almost to the map. And the mine.
Nickolai chuckled as he reached for her hand. “You can barely sit still.”
“I’m so excited. I just know we’re going to find it today.”
“The map or the mine?”
“Either. Both.” She laughed. “Stan called. Winifred said she’d give us until the end of today to find the map. After that, we are to return back to New Orleans or any further charges here are at our cost.”
“Good thing my truck’s ready, then. They called this morning.”
“I have a feeling Stan checked on that before he spoke with Winifred.” She pulled her sunglasses from her bag and slipped them on. “I asked Stan if he’d seen or heard from Phillip and he hadn’t.”
Nickolai shook his head. “Can’t imagine what’s going on with him. I called Chris and told him what we’d found out. He’s going to look for a reason Phillip wants that map so badly. He said he’d call as soon as he knew anything.”
“Even if he’s not supposed to?” She could never be a cop. All the keeping secrets would drive her insane. Luckily, she hadn’t had to do that as an MP. Military was much more transparent in their investigations.
“Yes. He knows we’ve given him a lot of information, so he’ll share with us. And with all the attempts to scare us off, he’s more than a little cautious.”
“Marcie is thrilled I’ll be home soon. She all but begged me to come back immediately. Told me she’d give me the fifty thousand recovery fee if I’d forget about this. The fire really freaked her out.”
“Freaked me out, too.” He lifted her hand and kissed it.
Oh, she was so going to get used to this. “I’m fine.”
“Just out of curiosity, why don’t you take a loan from Marcie?”
Pride? No. She’d come to terms with that. “I just think it’s a bad decision to have a loan between friends. It can ruin a friendship.”
“If you say so.” He sounded skeptical.
“Would you take a loan of that amount from Chris?”
“Hmm.”
The breeze from the cracked window lifted his hair, making her want to run her fingers through it.
“Maybe. I don’t know. For my sister? Yes. Not that Chris has that much money, and certainly not to loan.”
“If he had it, and it wouldn’t put him in a bind, would you take the loan to save We Find It?” She caught her bottom lip between her teeth.
“I don’t know.”
“See.” Although Marcie had argued this over and over because she came from money. Not that she flaunted it—no way, Marcie had earned scholarships for college and worked hard to get the job she had. That didn’t diminish the value of her trust fund, though.
“It’s a tough one, that’s for sure.” He pulled into a dirt area where several other cars were parked. A couple had horse trailers attached. “Looks like we need to park here and hike in the rest of the way.”
Seeing the other signs of people … “I guess I forgot how populated the area can be.” She let him take her hand and help her out of the Jeep.
“Especially on pretty days. And that reporter that got in our face the other day didn’t help.” He eased her backpack over her shoulders. “Tell me if this is too heavy for you.”
“No, it’s fine.” It was actually a lot lighter than she expected. Landry noticed the bulk of Nickolai’s pack. Such a gentleman, taking more of the weight
so she wouldn’t have to carry a full load.
She started to unroll the paper map they’d created, but Nickolai put his hand over hers to stop her. He nodded toward a group of people coming back up the trail on horses.
Right. No sense feeding anyone’s curiosity. She kept it rolled in one hand and held tight to Nickolai’s with the other. They made their way down the trail, past the plateau where Nickolai had been stung by the scorpion.
“I have another EpiPen with me, just in case.” She smiled as she teased.
“I’m hoping we don’t need one.”
They walked hand in hand down the trail. Landry enjoyed the comfortable silence between them and the majestic beauty around them. Tumbleweeds rolled by, just like in the movies. The pungent scent from the creosote bushes wafted on the breeze. Their yellow-green waxy leaves were popular with the natives as antiseptics and emetics. The ones they passed on the trail had already bloomed—their inch-wide, twisted yellow petals opened to the sun.
“Have you talked to your sister since Sunday?”
Nickolai shook his head. “I plan on calling her this evening. I hope to have good news to tell her.”
That moment Landry knew. She cleared her throat. “I’ve been thinking.”
“Does this mean I’m in trouble?” Nickolai teased as he reached for the map and unrolled it slowly.
“I’m serious.”
He looked up from the map. “Okay.”
“If we recover the map, I want you to have the recovery fee. For Lisbeth’s treatment.”
His face went blank.
She closed the space between them and reached her hands up to rest on his shoulders. “I’m dead serious. That’s what I want.”
He pulled her into a tight hug. So tight she could feel the pounding of his heart against hers. He nuzzled her neck then kissed just below her ear before releasing her. “That’s very sweet, but I can’t let you do that. If we recover the map, we’ll split the recovery fee.”
“But I want to do this. For you, yes, but mainly for her.”
He put a hand on his belt loop. “Why? You don’t even know her. You only know what I’ve told you. What if I’m lying? What if I made it all up just to get you to feel sorry for me? What if I don’t even have a sister?”
Could he … No, there’d been too much pain in his face, his voice, his very being. She chuckled. “You aren’t that good an actor. Sorry.”
“I still can’t let you do that.”
“But I want to.” She held up her hand. “She’s my sister, too.”
Nickolai shook his head and lifted one corner of his mouth. “What?”
“She’s my sister in Christ.” There. She’d said it. He could argue it all he wanted, but there it was.
He stared at her. A moment passed. Then another.
Landry shifted her weight from one foot to the other, not breaking eye contact with him. She could win a staring contest hands down.
“I don’t even know how to respond to that,” he finally said.
She grinned. “Good, then, it’s settled. If we recover the map, the fee goes to Lisbeth’s halfway house treatment.”
“I didn’t say I agreed to any of that.”
She pushed up on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek, just above the clean line of his beard. “I’m glad we agree.”
Was she serious?
Nickolai held one side of the map while Landry held the other. He was supposed to be studying it to lead them to one of the five places they’d marked where they might find the man with the map, but he couldn’t concentrate. Not when Landry had offered what no one else ever had: hope that his sister could and would get better.
Who did that for people they didn’t even know? Sisters in Christ?
He wanted to shake Landry and tell her not to be so naive with people, not to be so trusting, but he’d been around her enough to know that while Landry Parker might have a soft heart, she wasn’t foolish.
So what could he do?
“This one is the closest.” Landry tapped one of the places they’d marked.
“Yeah.” He studied the map before shifting his focus to the terrain. Following the map, they’d be off the trail and into the uncharted area. “You ready?”
“Lead on, McDuff.” She grinned, took a swig of her water, and then shoved the bottle down the side pocket of her backpack and hoisted it back over her shoulders.
He pulled on his own backpack and led the way. The hike wasn’t too much, thankfully, but they had to move single file. That was okay, because it gave him time to think.
Nickolai knew he wanted to be with Landry. He was pretty sure his feelings were the forever kind, but would wait and see how their relationship played out. They had a lot stacked against them. They were, after all, competitors, so to speak. If they got serious, how would that work?
That was getting the cart before the horse, as his mother used to say.
What about her Christianity? Remembering that his mother had been a Christian brought up all sorts of memories and emotions. He’d blocked so much out because he hadn’t wanted to remember. Remembering meant allowing the pain access. Now Lisbeth claimed the faith. Landry had given good reasons why he should believe his sister. Could he?
And Landry. She was strong in her faith. Praying over meals. He’d seen the Bible in her belongings when he’d gotten her duffel. He’d seen the scripture app on her phone when she’d shown him the settings. If there was a forever for them, what about her faith and his lack of it? How would that work? Christians weren’t supposed to be with non-Christians, right?
“Nickolai, look,” Landry whispered and jerked on his arm.
He followed where she pointed to a little makeshift lean-to. Remnants of a campfire, embers barely smoldering, just in front of it.
“Looks like a possible campsite,” she whispered.
“Let’s check it out.” He pulled his gun from his backpack and slipped it into the waistband of his jeans.
“I wish I had my gun.”
He did, too. Seeing Landry with a handgun would be a rush, he just knew it. “Shh.” He led the way to the lean-to. Drawing his gun, he nodded at Landry to open the flap. She did, and he widened his stance.
Nothing.
“I have to admit, I’m disappointed. I thought we’d found him.” Landry moved around the small space that housed an imprint of a sleeping bag or bedroll, a circle where a can or bottle had been, and footprints of a man’s boot—Nickolai put his size-twelve foot against it. “About a size eleven.”
“But there’s still some heat from the fire here,” she said as she moved to the rough fire pit. “So whoever was here hasn’t been gone long.”
Nickolai studied the dusty desert ground. He pointed at the footprints alongside hoofprints, leading down an incline. “Looks like that’s the way he went. And he has a horse.”
“Probably a mule, so I’ve read is more popular here to haul things.” Landry popped her hands on her hips. “Do we follow his footprints, or do we move on to the next place we marked on the map?”
He pulled out the map again, studying it. “The next place on the map is down there anyway, just over several hundred yards, thereabouts. What do you say we follow the footprints until we get down to this mark right here?” He tapped the part where it looked like the terrain evened out a little. “If the footprints don’t veer left toward the mark, we can decide then which to follow. Sound good?”
“Yep.” She smiled and nodded. “Lead the way.”
If he had it his way, she’d follow him everywhere.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
The sun moved higher in the Arizona sky, pulling the temperatures up with it.
Why hadn’t she thought to ask Nickolai to buy her a hat when he went to the military surplus store? Even with her sunglasses, the brightness of the sun’s rays over the grains of sand was nearly blinding. Just when Landry was sure she should tell Nickolai she needed to take a break, get a drink of water, he stopped. Stopped so suddenly she
almost ran into his back.
His gun was in his palm before she could see what caused him to halt.
“Whoa, there, friend.” An older man stood beside a mule loaded down with bags and rolls. “You don’t need no firepower here.”
Landry took quick stock of the old man. “I’ve seen you. You were talking to the Indian at our motel. And again, at the hospital talking to Ela.”
He remained silent, neither confirming nor denying, but he looked like he could clam up from now until the end of days.
She laid a hand on Nickolai’s shoulder. “Forgive us. You can never be too careful, can you?”
“Guess not, little lady.”
Nickolai slowly lowered his gun but kept his eyes narrowed and locked on the man.
“I’m Landry Parker and my friend is Nickolai Baptiste.”
He stared at Nickolai warily. “Jediah Kyle.”
“Nice to meet you, Jediah. Perhaps you could help us with something.”
The old man squinted and held a hand over his eyes to block the sun. “If I can.”
“We’re looking for a map of the area. A very specific map.” Landry watched Jediah’s expressions. She might not be as trained as Nickolai, but she was pretty good at detection, and she detected a mix of fear and surprise with his tensed lower eyelids and thinned lips stretched over his teeth.
He knew about the map. This was the man who had it, Landry could just feel it.
“Little lady, there are many maps of this area. You can stop at any of the souvenir shops lined up in town and buy several.” But he didn’t smile.
“Sir, no disrespect, but I think you know exactly what map I’m referring to. I think you have it.”
Landry carefully stepped around Nickolai but still left his line of fire to Jediah clear. “I know you were hired to find the mine. I know you’ve been talking to people about me and Nickolai. I’m positive Phillip Fontenot gave you the map and told you to find the mine for him. He probably warned you about us.” She glanced at the pack mule. “I’m sure he told you to sneak out some of the gold you found and he’d reward you handsomely.”
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