The Stone Family Heart - Taylor Hart Page 0,42
Banks crossed his arms. “Not so far, but we’ve just begun. We’re making a deal with the guy who owns Pirate’s Cove so we can carve those petroglyphs off of the cave wall and I can evaluate them.”
“What?” Kensi said, her temper flaring to life. “You can’t do that.”
“No, you can’t,” Lucy agreed. “The whole town goes up there and enjoys those petroglyphs. We all like searching for the treasure sometimes.”
“Yeah,” Kat and Dawn agreed.
He let out a light laugh. “Actually, I can. All I needed was the property owner’s approval, and after a considerable amount of money, he agreed to let my crew carve them out so I can add them to my personal collection.”
“That’s a historical site.” Kensi’s mind was on overdrive. “You can’t deface a historical site.”
Mr. Banks pointed at Kensi. “You see, my dear, it’s only a historical site if the town and city council has approved it as one. And they haven’t.” A sardonic laugh came out of him. “Plus, as I mentioned, Mr. Stout—the man who owns the whole area—has given his approval to take those parts out. But alas, I want it done right, so I’ve hired some professionals out of the Smithsonian to come and do the work tomorrow.” He looked at Lucy. “So I thought I’d come inspect some of the local art you were telling me about the other morning.”
Lucy crossed her arms. “Actually, I’m closed.”
Mr. Banks frowned. “It doesn’t seem like you are.”
“Well, I am.”
Kensi was proud of her friend.
The superior look on Mr. Banks’s face soured. “Well, then, I guess we’ll go. And you will be missing out on the potential business I could bring you.”
“Oh well,” Lucy said, glaring at the man. “I guess I miss out.”
Mr. Banks paused and gave Kensi a look. “Just so you know, everyone coming to South Port would have been staying at your inn and giving your family the business, but you made it clear it wasn’t safe.” He made air quotes around the word “safe.” “So your family will miss out, too.”
Kensi’s blood boiled just thinking about the man carving those petroglyphs out of the cave. Now he acted like everyone owed him something. “We don’t want your business, Mr. Banks.” She moved closer to him, getting in his face. “In fact, no one even wants you in this town, so why don’t you give up and leave?”
The man didn’t miss a beat. “Listen, I won’t take the petroglyphs if I can have your family’s journal collection on the treasure.”
“Absolutely not,” she said, completely flabbergasted. Did the man actually believe there was a way for him to get a hold of that?
“Even if you can get the petroglyphs, you shouldn’t do that. Those have been here since the beginning,” Dawn said, her voice cracking.
Kat snapped her fingers. “It’s all cursed, if you haven’t heard. I can’t imagine what’s going to happen to all of you if you touch those petroglyphs.”
It was a shot in the dark, but Kensi liked where Kat was going with it.
“Yeah,” Dawn said. “There’s legends about the people who try to ruin any part of that hill meeting their destruction.”
“Yup,” Lucy agreed, nodding vigorously. “Annihilation.” She nudged Kensi. “There’s books about it. Kensi wrote one.”
“Really?” Mr. Banks asked.
Was Lucy referring to the romance Kensi had written one summer? “Right.” Kensi didn’t want to discuss her silly romance book. “Listen, I have to go.” She broke away from her friends and moved for the door.
The men let her pass.
“I will find the treasure, Ms. Stone,” Mr. Banks called after her.
She exchanged looks with her friends before closing the door behind her. “We’ll just see about that.”
Chapter 11
It’d been another long day. Tim changed out of his sheriff uniform; Darla had chided him for wearing it today since he was supposed to be on vacation. Even though he was tired—and he had a million things to do around this place—he needed a short run to clear his mind. Darla had harped on him all day that he had plans to fix his place up, but whatever—the town needed him and he was around to help, so of course he would do what was needed.
After slipping on shorts, a T-shirt, and his tennis shoes, he took a long drink of water and then was out the door and on the beach, moving into an easy jog. Fifteen minutes later, he wasn’t surprised to find himself in front of the Stone Family Inn. It also didn’t surprise him to see