4 Buried Secrets (13 page)

Jerking back from the arms that tried to grab her, she clenched her hands into fists and brought them up to fight whoever it was. Strong hands clamped on her wrists holding her still.
 

“Hey now, hold on there.”

Jolene gasped as she recognized the voice.

“Kyle? What are
you
doing in here?” Jolene narrowed her eyes at the handsome bartender while relief at seeing a friendly face flooded through her.
 

Was the whole town in the mine today?

Kyle let go of her wrists and Jolene sucked in a deep breath. She took a step backward, although she had to admit standing that close to Kyle wasn’t all that unpleasant. But still, why
was
he here?

“Why were you running? Are you lost?” He answered her question with a question. “And what are
you
doing in here?”

“I saw Emma’s dogs outside and thought she might be in here hurt or something,” Jolene said. “Have you seen her?”

Kyle’s face turned hard at the mention of Emma. “No, but you’re right about getting hurt in here. Especially
running
in here. Let me show you the way out.”

Kyle grabbed her elbow a little more forcefully than was necessary and Jolene felt a prickle of warning in her gut. She wasn’t sure if she should trust him, but he was already pushing her down a small tunnel that led off to the side.

Boots scuffed on the ground behind them and she felt Kyle’s hand tense on her elbow.

“You brought the bitch to us … good work!”

Jolene’s blood froze. She spun around to see a dark haired man, his thick mustache hovering over his menacing smile. The large gun in his hand was pointed right at her.

“Bring her this way.” The man gestured with his gun to a tunnel on the right. “We’ll keep her with the old lady.”

Old lady? Did he mean Emma?

Kyle’s grip on her elbow grew tighter and she looked up at him with questioning eyes. His face turned hard and he jerked her toward the tunnel.
 

“Sure, Buck,’ Kyle addressed the other man. “I was just trying to get her down there.”

What was going on here?
 

Jolene felt her anger surge. Emma had been right—something
was
going on in the mine and she’d stumbled right into it. God only knew what they’d done to Emma … and what they had in store for
her
.
 

With a start, Jolene realized she might have been playing right into Kyle’s hands all along. Clearly, these men were here after the treasure. No wonder he had seemed so interested in her—had she given anything away during any of their conversations?
 

She felt a surge of energy as Kyle shoved her further into the tunnel. Her gift with energy encompassed much more than simply reading people’s auras, she could harness energy under certain situations. Like when she was mad or scared. Like now. The problem was, she hadn’t learned how to fully control it and she was never sure what would happen once she got into that “state.”
 

Jolene tried to keep her anger in check. She realized that not only were they leading her to Emma, but they might be also taking her straight to the treasure. Better to wait and unleash her angry energy on them when she could keep Emma safe—and after she figured out what they knew about the treasure.

Celeste’s stomach churned with anxiety as Cal drove the Jeep toward Dead Water.

“How are we going to convince Lily to give us the key?” Celeste glanced at Cal, and then turned to look at her sisters in the back seat. “Vindication for Shorty isn’t something we can do right away.”

“That’s a good question,” Fiona said. “Did she say what, exactly, she wanted?”

Celeste’s brow creased. “No.”

“Maybe you need to read between the lines … like with the letters,” Cal offered. “Did she do anything to
show
you what she wanted?”

Celeste pushed back into her seat as she searched her mind for all the interactions she’d had with Lily’s ghost. She’d never said anything … or shown her anything. Wait! Maybe she had …

“In the cemetery, she was weeping over one of the unmarked graves in the back,” Celeste said. “Maybe that was Shorty’s grave.”

“Probably unmarked because he died a criminal,” Morgan added.

“So we could get him a nice headstone,” Fiona offered.

“But that’s not something we can do this afternoon.” Celeste sighed.

“We could correct that book on Dead Water too,” Morgan suggested. “You know … add a new edition or something.”

“Maybe, but again, not something we can show Lily right away.” Celeste glanced out the window. They were passing Emma’s property and she could just see her trailer off in the distance. The sight of it sparked something in her mind. “Well I guess now we know why Shorty left his land to Lily.”

Fiona’s brows creased together then her face lit. “Of course! He must have had a will made in case something happened … he knew the sheriff was after him and he wanted to take care of Lily and the baby.”

“And that also means that Emma is descended from Shorty … not the sheriff.” Morgan stared out the window as Cal turned onto the road that led to Dead Water.

“She’ll probably be happy to hear that,” Celeste said. “And to know that her great-grandmother was right to stick by Shorty since he didn’t rob the coaches.”

“And that she was right all along that the treasure wasn’t on her land,” Fiona added. “But I wonder how that ring got out there?”

“Good question,” Celeste said. As they pulled into Dead Water and parked in the middle of the street, a tingle of nervousness flirted with her stomach.

Would Lily even be here?

She’d never conjured up a ghost before—they usually came to her. Everyone was expecting her to talk to Lily and get the key. She just hoped she wouldn’t let them down.

“I’d love to explore all these buildings, but we have more important things to do,” Cal said. “How do we get this ghost to come out and show us where the key is?”

Celeste shrugged. “That’s a good question. We can start in the saloon. I’ve seen her there a few times.”

They walked over to the old building that was once a thriving saloon. Celeste had been inside so many times she was starting to feel like it was a home away from home. She led the way through the open door and they all stood inside watching the dust motes float in the strips of sunlight.
 

“Lily?” Celeste ventured. “Are you here?”

Silence.

“We know that Shorty didn’t rob the stagecoaches. We can change the book and get him a headstone.”
 

Silence.

“We did our part, now you need to show us the key.”

Celeste heard a slight rustling sound, then a thud over by the door. She turned just in time to see a white blur streak past.

“Meow!”

Her breath caught in her throat. “Belladonna!”

She rushed over to the door with her sisters and Cal behind her. They burst out onto the street and looked north. Sure enough, there was Belladonna trotting down the road away from them.

“What is
she
doing here?” Morgan stared at the cat.

“I’m not sure, but I think she might be trying to tell us something.” Celeste threw one quick glance over her shoulder into the empty saloon before taking off down the road after the cat.

***

Jolene stumbled into the cavern. Large hands gave a rough push on her back that sent her sprawling to the floor. She glared over her shoulder at Kyle before getting up. Brushing the dirt off her pants, she looked around the room.

This must have been one of the sections of the mine that held larger deposits of gold. It had been chiseled into, drilled out and carved on every section and was large—about twenty feet by twenty feet. Tunnels led off the room in different directions. The cavern itself was lit up with battery-powered lanterns that hung from on the walls. Jolene could see a set of metal tracks that ran into the middle from one of the tunnels. She presumed it was an old system for the carts that would be loaded up with gold and wheeled out.
 

A cart stood in the middle of the tracks. Loaded. But not with gold.
 

“Guns? This is about guns?” Jolene looked at the scruffy men who were bent over the cart loading it with various types of weapons. She recognized some as machine guns … others she had no idea what they were.

Buck laughed, an evil sound that echoed around the cavern. “Yeah. What’d you think it was?”

Jolene noticed everyone staring at her so she just shrugged.
 

So, keeping them out of the mine wasn’t about the treasure after all. The Sheriff didn’t want them to discover this gun business … whatever it was. Surely illegal.

A moan jerked Jolene’s attention to the corner and she saw Emma lying in a heap. She rushed over, squatting by the older woman.

“Emma, are you okay?” Jolene pulled her to a sitting position, noticing they’d tied her hands behind her back.

“Yes.” Emma nodded. “What are you doing here?”

“I saw Clive and Lucy outside the mine and thought you might be hurt inside,” Jolene said.

“Are they okay?” Emma’s look of concern for her dogs melted Jolene’s heart.

“They’re fine,” Jolene said. “They wouldn’t step a foot inside the mine.”

“I guess they’re smarter than us, then,” Emma said ruefully.

“What is going on in here?” Jolene looked back over her shoulder just in time to see Buck leering at her with a piece of rope in his hand.

“Tie
her
up too.” He threw the rope to Kyle. “I’ll deal with her after we have these guns loaded up.”

Kyle stepped up close to her and spun her around. He grabbed her wrists in a death lock and jerked them back so hard that she cried out, which elicited a laugh from Buck.

“You’ll be crying harder than that soon,” he said causing the four other men in the room to laugh. Jolene’s stomach curdled. She tried to struggle, but Kyle held her too firmly.

He looped the rope around her wrists, but where she expected to feel the hard bite of them tearing into her flesh, she felt only a light pressure. She looked at Kyle and he shook his head.

He finished with the ropes and pushed her down next to Emma.
 

“Don’t do anything stupid,” he whispered than walked away.

Jolene wriggled her wrists—the rope was so loose she could get out of it easily.
Had Kyle tied it loosely on purpose?

Emma leaned over toward her. “I knew something strange was going on. I saw activity and came up to investigate. Too bad Sheriff Kane found me before I could get a shot off at these guys.”

“Kane?” Jolene looked at Emma. “He’s behind this?”

“Yep. I guess that’s why he didn’t want anyone in here and why he wanted to buy up my land and put the hotel out of business,” Emma said. “Looks like he’s got some black market gun selling business going on out of here and didn’t want anyone stumbling on it. I guess my property and the hotel were just too close for comfort.”

“Shut up over there!” Buck shouted. He dumped a load of guns onto the cart then thumped his fist on the side and one of the men took off, pushing it out of the cavern.

He sauntered over to Jolene and leaned down in front of her. She gasped as he jerked her up by the arm. Pushing her against the wall he leaned in, his face a fraction of an inch away. His dark, beady eyes drilled into hers and she could smell the stale stench of old food and coffee on his breath.

“I think it might be time to have some fun and show everyone what happens to people who don’t mind their own business.” His glance moved down to her chest. Jolene’s mind whirled a mile a minute despite the churning in her stomach caused by Buck’s lustful leer.
 

She was just about to bring her knee up hard, right where it counts when a large hand slapped itself on Buck’s arm, pulling him away.

“Don’t lose your head there, buddy.” Kyle stared at Buck with hard, cold eyes. “You can have all the fun you want later. Right now we have this shipment to get out.”

Celeste sprinted behind Belladonna. She had a good idea of where the cat was heading but she still didn’t want to lose sight of her. At the end of Main Street, the cat turned to the right, headed straight for the graveyard and trotted to the back. She stopped at the grave where they’d seen Lily’s ghost days before.

“This is where we came before,” Morgan said.

Belladonna blinked at them, waiting for Cal and Fiona, who had fallen behind.

“What’s this?” Cal asked as he made his way past the old gravestones.

“We think it’s Shorty’s grave,” Celeste answered. “Lily brought us here the other day.”

“Is she here now?” Morgan asked.

Celeste looked around, her mood deflating when she saw no sign of Lily’s ghost. “No.”

“Lily? Are you here? We figured out how to get vindication for Shorty and now we want you to show us the key.” Celeste sighed, crossing her arms across her chest. “We kept our part of the bargain,” she added hopefully.

Just then, a wind kicked up a swirl of sand. Belladonna let out a loud “Meow!” and started digging furiously in the sand.

“What the heck?” Celeste squinted at Belladonna. About to pull her away, Celeste saw a wisp of vapor swirling around in front of the cat.
Lily?

The four of them watched as Belladonna dug about five inches down into the sand, and then hit a granite slab.

“Hey wait a minute,” Cal said excitedly. “I think that’s the corner of an old grave marker.”

He squatted down next to the cat using his hands to scoop away the sand. The girls gathered around, their heads bent as they watched him reveal a fifteen-inch long by six-inch wide slab. Belladonna padded off to the side and started cleaning herself.

 
“I thought these graves were unmarked back here, but I guess the sand just covered them over after all these years,” Morgan said.

“There’s no name on it.” Celeste frowned down at the granite slab. “It looks like one of those plaques that lay flat on the ground.”

Cal started pushing sand away from the front of the marker. The marker was actually two pieces—the top, which was an inch thick slab and then another piece under it that was a little smaller than the top. Cal had revealed two inches of the smaller piece. “No name, but the initials SH are right here on the front.”