Trouble and Treasure (#1, Trouble and Treasure Series)

by Odette C. Bell

  Chapter Nineteen

  Amanda Stanton

  It was horrible. I was huddled here waiting as footsteps neared us.

  I began to shake, violent body-tingling convulsions that ripped from my head to my feet.

  That would be when Sebastian reached out and softly touched my arm.

  The soft, gentle move had a miraculous effect on me. It kindled my courage and reminded me this wasn’t done yet.

  I could sense Sebastian tensing beside me, likely getting ready to jump from our hidey hole and shoot at Maratova and his men. Though Sebastian was capable of these things, I didn’t doubt it would end with him being shot.

  I had to do something.

  There was another clap of thunder and another enormous flash of light. The light lit up the room, but all I could see was the back of the chest of drawers and the curious perfect 12 that was painted on the back. After the illumination of the lightning had subsided, I saw yet another slice of light cross through the room, belonging to a helicopter braving the storm.

  That was my opportunity. I snapped up, planting both hands on the chest of drawers and shoving hard. It teetered and slammed into the floorboards with a reverberating thump.

  Instantly they started shooting at us. Several bullets zipping past me, but I paid no attention as I picked up one of the large, sturdy legs that had come loose from the chest and I leaped forward.

  Sebastian began to shoot, and at the same time tried to pull me back.

  As the bullets slammed right past me, clipping the flesh at the side of my arm, I made it to the window behind the chest of drawers. Before Sebastian could jump toward me and tackle me to the ground, I swung the wooden leg at the window.

  The old glass smashed, scattering toward me as the wind caught it.

  I ducked, crumpling into a ball as several bullets slammed into what remained of the window.

  That would be when one of the roaming lights from outside belonging to that awfully timely helicopter zeroed in on the room. It shone right through the smashed window, illuminating the attic and lighting up the four men standing at the other end. The four men who happened to be armed and naughty, naughty criminals.

  My stupid plan had worked.

  Before Maratova and his men could do anything, a blast of machine-gun sliced into the attic.

  I huddled against the wall, hands over my head.

  “Stay where you are, hands up,” a loud voice echoed over the powerful megaphone from the helicopter outside.

  From the other side of the attic another light sliced through the far window, yet another helicopter flying into place. The same threat was repeated, with another spattering of machine-gun fire to hammer the point home.

  They were surrounded.

  It was over.

  Not too long after that, I witnessed the compelling and welcome sight of several soldiers rappelling into my attic from a helicopter, several more climbing up the ladder from downstairs. They surrounded and disarmed Maratova and his men. Although they went to disarm Sebastian too, one of them recognized him and waved the other soldiers off.

  For my part, I sat there, back pressed against the wall, legs splayed, a confused look on my face. Several soldiers asked me if I was okay, and I nodded. Sebastian, on the other hand, kept looking at me and shaking his head. It wasn’t until Mark himself appeared to take Maratova and his men away that Sebastian walked over and sat next to me, his back against the same wall as mine, and his legs splayed in the same fashion.

  It was over. It was bloody well over.

  “You,” Sebastian spoke to me, “Are nuts.”

  “You,” I said with a light swallow, “Are a jerk.”

  He took a deep breath. “I am sorry.”

  It wasn’t what I was expecting. Sebastian Shaw didn’t seem to be the kind of guy who ever apologized, let alone accepted responsibility for a mistake. Yet here he was, doing both.

  “This is mostly my fault,” he added in a low but still clear tone, “And I’m sorry.”

  I turned to him. I considered him for some time, lips pressed together. “You should be,” I said after a while. “But thank you for saving me.”

  He nodded with a jerky movement. “Thank you for saving me too.”

  Silence spread between us again, punctuated by the dying rain outside.

  “Are we going to sit here all night?” Sebastian asked.

  “Well, that all depends on if this is all over or not,” I said through a sigh, bringing my legs up and hugging them. “You said before that every man, his dog, and his team of mercenaries are after my globes – does that mean there’s more to come?”

  He didn’t answer right away, but then he shook his head. “I doubt it, what happened here tonight will soon spread.”

  “That doesn’t mean they won’t stop trying, right? As long as those criminals and whatnot think I still have those globes, they’re still going to come after me, aren’t they?” My head was still turned his way. I was keen to pick up his expression not just his words.

  He shrugged. “You don’t have the other globes, Amanda. And that news will spread.”

  “Are you sure they’ll give up? You said they would do anything to get their hands on them. Look what it did to Maratova,” I said, voice scratchy.

  “And look what it did to me,” Sebastian added in a dull voice.

  “What?” I craned my neck as I stared at him in interest.

  “I… I’m a fucking bastard. I got you into this mess. The army was never after you, Amanda. They only ever wanted to find the globes and protect you. I lied to you… I kept you away from them because I wanted those globes to myself.” He stared at his hands, never glancing at me once. “I’ve been looking for them my whole life. They’re everything to me. And I thought if I handed you over to the army, I’d never get a chance to find them. So, Amanda,” he finally turned to me, gaze blazing with honesty, “I’m a lying bastard, and I am so goddamn sorry for putting you through this.”

  I didn’t react.

  I might have been justified in slapping him or grabbing a weapon and clocking him over the head. But I couldn’t. Because despite his lies, he’d still saved me from Maratova. He’d still manned up and called the army.

  Sebastian Shaw was no hero. Maybe he wasn’t a total jerk either. He was somewhere in the middle, which made him just an ordinary man.

  “Sorry, Amanda,” he offered in a quiet tone.

  I let out an enormous sigh, chest punching out.

  Yes, he was sorry – anyone would be able to tell that.

  As I let go of any residual hatred toward him, I remembered something. “Hey, the pendant from the lighthouse, do you still have it?”

  He leaned forward and grabbed his jacket, pulling it open and patting the internal pocket. He drew it out. Rather than hold it up to the light and look at the inscription on the back, he handed it over to me. “This belongs to you, Amanda,” he said through a thin smile.

  I accepted it with a soft “thank you,” and with a small kick of excitement rippling through my stomach.

  I read the inscription on the back. “The beginning brings 12, the end brings 12.” That was it. I read it out to Sebastian in a shaky voice.

  Sebastian pushed up and stood beside me. He repeated the passage and shrugged. “You’re Arthur Stanton’s great-niece, the only reason I brought you along in the first place—”

  “Is that you’re a jerk,” I replied quickly.

  “Is that I’m a jerk,” he agreed, “But it’s also that you think like him. You think crazy.”

  I put my hands on my hips and shook my head at him. “And you think mean; I will stick with my way.”

  Sebastian chuckled.

  Then I got drawn into the clue. The beginning brings 12, the end brings 12. What could it mean?

  Both of us turned to each other, both saying the same word at once “12!”

  The 12, the perfect 12 painted on the back of the chest of drawers. The chest of drawers I had destroyed earlier in
my attempt to defeat Maratova and his men.

  It hit me. The two windows in the attic: one of them would let in the morning sun, and one of them would let in the setting sun. This chest of drawers, if I wasn’t much mistaken, would have sat roughly in the middle of the attic before all the furniture had been moved around to collect all that lovely treasure. If that chest of drawers had sat in the middle of the room, then in the morning the 12 on the back would have been illuminated by the sunshine, and in the evening the 12 at the front would have been illuminated by the setting sun. In other words, the beginning of the day would bring 12 and the end of the day would bring 12.

  Both of us turned to stare at the shambles of the broken chest of drawers to our side. Soon I realized that engraved on the front of one of the drawers, probably the one that had sat in the center, was a beautiful gold-leaf 12.

  Sebastian dropped to his knees and began searching through the broken wood and drawers at our feet. I joined him, though I didn’t know what I was looking for. I assumed we would find another clue, and I thought it would be cleverly written on the back of one of the drawers.

  I heard Sebastian’s breath stick in his throat, and I saw him lift up the back of the chest of drawers. On the inside of the wood, directly opposite the perfectly painted 12, was a small box. It wasn’t that much bigger than two fists put together, and considering its size could have remained within the body of the chest of drawers forever without somebody noticing.

  Though I still thought we were going to find another clue inside, I realized Sebastian was starting to shake. His shoulders were shivering, and I reasoned he might be cold from the drafty attic considering it had two gaping windows.

  I moved over to his side.

  Whatever it was, Sebastian didn’t thankfully smash it on the ground and start stamping on it to open it. Nor did he dash down to the garden shed and find a spade to whack it with. No, he opened it, finding a latch somewhere and lifting the small lid.

  I leaned over his shoulder in time to see him pull out a small object. It took me a while to realize it was a small spotting globe.

  “Jesus Christ, we found it,” Sebastian said, voice shaking.

  “What—” I began.

  “It’s one of the Stargazers,” Sebastian said, voice reverent.

  “But it’s so small.” I protested.

  “They don’t all look the same,” Sebastian said, voice shaking into a laugh.

  “But…” I trailed off. Had we honestly found another Stargazer? Sebastian wasn’t lying to me, was he? He wasn’t joking, was he? Considering my day and night, I wasn’t in a joking mood. Yet as I watched Sebastian cradle the small spotting globe, saw the slack-jawed look of wonder on his face, I realized he was serious.

  He began to laugh harder, a gargantuan grin spreading across his face. “I thought it would take my whole life to find one of these,” he said, “And all it took was a day with you.”

  I blushed, thankful the light was too dim to make out the exact hue of my cheeks. “What does this mean? It doesn’t belong to me, or us even. The only reason I sold the other one was Imelda wasn’t interested in it and told me to put it up for auction. But all that money goes back into the residuary of the estate. And Imelda’s the principal beneficiary.”

  Well, that put a dampener on Sebastian’s mood. Though he still held the globe reverently, he let it drop to his side.

  He took a moment, and I was aware of his breathing. “It’s okay, Amanda.”

  “It is?” I questioned automatically. Though I hadn’t known him long, I’d known him long enough to know these Stargazer things were important to him. And I was starting to appreciate that if something was important to Sebastian, he didn’t let it slip.

  “It’s okay,” he said again, “It’s a treasure map. Plus,” I could see him smile in the dark, “I know about Imelda Stanton – and the old girl wouldn’t sell something like this. Plus, you know where she lives.”

  I gave a stuttering cough. “Are you suggesting trying to steal it from my great-aunt?”

  He put his hands up. “I’m a lawyer,” he said in a quick, sarcastic voice. “I’m suggesting that, if ever we feel the need, we can always borrow it from her. Plus,” his voice grew more serious, “The Stargazers only work once you’ve got the whole set. So we can let Imelda hold onto it for now.”

  I gave a soft laugh, which ended in a sigh and somehow transformed into an enormous yawn.

  “I think you’ve had enough for today. Time to go to bed, Amanda Stanton.” He reached a hand over and patted my head distractedly.

  I flushed, heart giving a pleasant shudder. “But there are still criminals in my library.”

  “They are all being taken away by the army,” he assured me.

  “There are soldiers on my lawn,” I pointed out through another yawn.

  “I’m sure they are packing up as we speak.”

  I closed my eyes. I couldn’t believe it was all over. Despite Sebastian’s assurances that every crooked crook in the neighborhood would soon get the picture I didn’t have the Stargazer Globes and leave me alone, I still couldn’t shake the feeling that all of this wasn’t over.

  But Sebastian was right, it was over for tonight.

  Epilogue

  Amanda Stanton

  One week later, after the police and army had moved on, my safety apparently assured, I had a visit from my lawyer, which was a funny thing considering I’d never had a lawyer. But that’s what Sebastian was calling himself, and who was I to disagree.

  With the morning sunshine filtering in through the shambles of my kitchen door, Sebastian and I sat on the stoop and watched the sunshine warm up the countryside. He’d brought a box full of pastries and cakes from the village, and I was enjoying a chocolate one as I stared at a bird washing itself in the birdbath.

  Sebastian, as he was my self-appointed lawyer, had demanded I show him all legal documents regarding my great-uncle’s last will and testament, and he was pouring over them, a pastry in one hand that he kept going to bite, but pulling away from every time he flicked to a new page. Sebastian, the lawyer, was a different creature to Sebastian the treasure hunter, though they both wore the same suit and were both equally handsome.

  Sebastian kept shaking his head, and I reached for another pastry.

  “That’s four of those you have had,” Sebastian noted as he licked his finger and turned another page, never looking up at me, apparently absorbed by the boring documents instead.

  “I think you will find I have earned these,” I said after I took another enormous bite at a pastry, “I did a lot of running last week.”

  “Good point, finish them all off,” he said with a nod of agreement, still staring at the documents on his lap.

  He honestly did look absorbed by them. I couldn’t guess at why he found them so damn interesting, but soon a wry smile curled his lips.

  “Did your great-uncle leave you anything in the will?” He looked up at me, taking a small bite of his pastry.

  “He left me some money. I haven’t received it yet; he didn’t have any cash flow when he died, but I think it’s meant to be taken out of the estate once this place is sold,” I said, and I couldn’t stop my voice from dropping, as I was fond of this place. Yes, it held some pretty uncomfortable memories for me, but even the knowledge that every criminal in Christendom had traipsed through it still didn’t ruin the appeal. It was the kind of place that, if looked after properly, would be a beautiful home for the rest of your life.

  “Nothing else?” Sebastian asked, voice professional.

  I couldn’t help but smile at the change in him. I still remembered the man who’d teased me and strung me along. “There was a gift, but it didn’t go to probate, because no one could find it. It doesn’t exist anymore.” I shrugged.

  “Do you know what the gift was called?” Sebastian still had that professional look to him.

  “I can’t remember, I think it was in Ancient Greek or something.”

  Se
bastian nodded. He looked like he had a secret, a secret that was tugging at the corner of his lips and making him smile in the most charming of ways. “Ancient Greek for stargazer perhaps?”

  I frowned at him. “No, I think it was light map or something. Anyhow, there was obviously nothing like that in his estate, so the gift failed…”

  “Amanda,” he winked at me, “I’m fairly proficient at Ancient Greek—”

  “As well as arrogance,” I interrupted automatically.

  He smiled easily at my jibe but continued. “Amanda, trust me, because I have a feeling my Ancient Greek is better than yours.” He pulled up one of the pieces of paper he’d been pouring over and handed it to me. “Is this a copy of your Great-Uncle Arthur Stanton’s last will and testament?”

  I laughed at the excessively professional move and managed to nod.

  “I am happy to inform you, Amanda Stanton, my client,” there was a distinct kink to his lips, “There has been a mistake, and the gift referred to here,” he pointed to a section of the will, “Has been mistranslated. It should not read light map, but stargazers, and I think you will find there are items within your great-uncle’s estate that match the terms of that gift.”

  My lip wobbled down. “The will has already been finalized,” my voice was quiet.

  “I think you’ll find I am a good lawyer.”

  “Sebastian… I’m not sure I want the Stargazers. Look at all the trouble they’ve already caused me.” I gestured to the door we were sitting next to, the one that had been broken by world-class criminals.

  “Look,” he smiled again, “As your lawyer, I can suggest selling the globe, using the funds to, I don’t know, maybe buy a nice house in the country.” He pointed to the kitchen, clearly indicating the house we were already in.

  I stared across at him, lips parted. “I do not want to go through another one of those auctions,” I answered honestly.

  He burst into a low laugh. “Neither do I. This time I suggest I find you a client, and we sell it off quietly.”

  I looked at him. “Why don’t I give it to you?” I said quietly, saying the thought as soon as it leaped into my mind, even if it was the stupidest thing to do.

  He looked at me steadily and smiled. Though I’d seen Sebastian smile before, I hadn’t seen a smile like this. It was personal. It left a large question mark in my mind about my new lawyer Sebastian Shaw – a question mark that invited me to scratch the surface and find out who he truly was.

  He shook his head. “Though as a treasure hunter I would be willing to take you up on your ridiculously generous offer, Amanda, as your lawyer, I advise against it. I can help you find a client to sell it to,” he put up a hand before I could look at him worriedly, “A perfectly legal and dignified client. Possibly the army.”

  I shrugged. “Seems fair. What about you? Aren’t you still a treasure hunter?”

  “Don’t worry about me, Amanda, Mark wouldn’t keep it all from me anyway. He’s an alright soldier, but he is a terrible treasure hunter. The army will call on me, and thankfully this time they won’t send Maratova along for fun.”

  I grimaced as he mentioned that horrible man’s name. “But you won’t get to keep the treasure yourself.”

  “It’s never about keeping the treasure for yourself, it’s about finding it,” he said, a curious tone in his voice. “Plus.” He drew something out from the deep pocket inside his jacket.

  It was my great-uncle’s journal. I’d forgotten about it. What with one thing and another, I hadn’t bothered to remember that within those yellowed and dried pages were the potential locations of the remaining three globes.

  He leaned back on the stoop, handed me the journal, and stared out at the beautiful morning beyond. “You know, Amanda, you are pretty good at treasure hunting. You’re better at running away from trouble, but sometimes those two things go hand-in-hand.” He turned to me, a particularly inviting smile on his lips, “If you are ever interested in finding more treasure…” he shrugged and trailed off.

  My instant reaction was to laugh at him. Considering the amount of ‘trouble’ I’d run away from last week, there was no way I was ever going to put myself in a situation like that again. Then I let my eyes drift down to the journal in my hands, and a small but familiar kick of exhilaration crept through my gut. Though it had been horrible, at times, it had been exciting.

  As a girl, I had sat on my great-uncle’s lap and listened with perfect attention as he’d told me stories of adventure, danger, and treasure. I had imagined, way back then, that I would grow up to have similar adventures of my own.

  Sebastian kept looking at me, and the offer was clear, and with the distinct curl to his lips it almost seemed as if there was something else on offer too.

  Could I, mild-mannered Amanda Stanton, become a treasure hunter?

  “It would be dangerous,” Sebastian added with a shrug, “Very dangerous.”

  “I’ve dealt with dangerous,” I said softly.

  “There would be a lot of trouble; there’s always trouble,” he added with a sniff.

  “I have dealt with trouble too.” I didn’t take my eyes off him. “I am sure I would still need a good lawyer to help me through it, though.”

  Sebastian cracked into a grin, and I mirrored it all the way.

  “I’m a great lawyer,” he said, “Among other things,” he added with a pretend formal nod.

  “Apparently I’m a pretty good treasure hunter.” I sucked in my lips and gave a cheeky grin.

  “I think we might make a damn good team, then, Amanda Stanton,” Sebastian said.

  It was crazy, it was insane, it was, mad – but I agreed with him.

  I picked up my great-uncle’s journal and opened it on my lap.

  Two Stargazers down, three to go.

  Thank you for reading Trouble and Treasure. The next book in this series – The Cross of Constantine – is currently available.

  Do you want to read the entire six-book Trouble and Treasure series at once? Do you want to save over 50% on buying each book separately? Then check out Trouble and Treasure: The Complete Series.

  Odette C. Bell has written over 100 titles. You can read excerpts, catch up with weekly free fiction, and sign up for her newsletter here.

  Read on for an excerpt from A Deadly Reunion

  Patti doesn’t want to be here. Would you?

  She’s made something of herself. Rich and well-respected, she’s got everything going for her.

  Except for her past.

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  Now Patti’s back at her reunion. Why? God, she doesn’t know. To prove something?

  Well, proving she’s changed is going to be easy. Proving who murdered the guy in the rose bushes – that’s going to be hard. Half way through the reunion, someone winds up dead in the garden, and Patti’s pulled into the case.

  Someone’s killing people from her senior class, and she’s got to find out who before she’s the next victim.

  She can’t solve this on her own. She needs help. Help that comes in the chiseled jaw and perfect abs of Denver bloody Scott. Back in the day, he was way out of her league. Now he’s an FBI agent with a personality like a baseball bat. Together, they have to find the murder before it’s too late….