with me, I guessed. As long as my brother was happy. And for whatever crazy reason, it seemed like this rundown resort project was making him happy.
“Hey,” Archie called as I passed through what would one day be a high-end lobby on my way back out to the yurts. “Look what I found up in Wiley’s room.”
He held up a piece of crumpled parchment, and I knew immediately what it was.
“Another piece of the map? Where was it?”
“Under a floorboard.”
“You’re pulling up the floorboards now? I thought we were just tidying a bit for this guy.”
“No, it was already halfway up. I was trying to push it back into place, and the edge of this was poking out.”
“Lemme see.” I grabbed for the map, but Archie held it over his head. I was only five two, so this was his favorite way of keeping things from me. I huffed out a breath. “You’re going to regret that.”
“Oh yeah?”
My brother had a really short memory. Every time he did this, I kneed him in the nuts and he immediately crumpled, basically handing me whatever he was keeping from me. You’d think a guy would remember something like that.
“Yeah,” I told him, lifting my knee hard and reminding him why holding stuff out of my reach never ended well for him.
As he lay clutching himself and moaning, I investigated the map. We had two other pieces of it, one of which had been delivered with the news that we’d inherited this old place. The second piece had been waiting for us in a shoebox, along with a letter explaining that Uncle Marvin had hidden some important treasure somewhere in the surrounding mountains, and that we’d need to locate it to understand the true nature of our inheritance.
The map was a mess of dotted lines, sketched-in trees and buildings, roads, and elevation marks. It didn’t make any sense yet, but if we kept finding pieces, it would soon. The newest piece didn’t offer much. “It’s like a corner or something,” I complained. “Almost totally blank.”
“Left side,” Archie moaned, and I looked to see that there was an interesting symbol there on the left side.
“What is that? Like a cross?”
Archie was getting to his knees. “Yeah, I think so.”
“Was Uncle Marv super religious?”
“You spent more time with him than I did,” my brother said, glaring at me. “That hurt. A lot.”
“Don’t hold things over your head and leave your nuts exposed.”
“I didn’t know leaving my nuts exposed was something I needed to worry about when I’m at home with my family.”
“The best offense is a good defense, “ I reminded him.
“You’re insane. Don’t ever do that again. I might like to have children someday.”
“Scary thought,” I said, poking him in the ribs as he stood.
“Put that with the other pieces, okay? I think I hear a car.”
Archie headed out the front door, and I ran the map up the stairs to the suite. Not because he’d told me to, but because from there I could get a better view of the circular drive out front, where a dark green Jeep was pulling in.
I watched as Archie greeted the man who stepped out of it. Wiley Blanchard had definitely grown up, I thought. And out. He was about six feet of broad-shouldered country-boy muscle, from the looks of it. I wondered if he still had that cute southern twang. Marylanders didn’t have a strong accent, but I’d noticed it when I’d lived there. And on a man that looked like Wiley Blanchard did now? I thought it just might be lethal.
Chapter Three
Wiley
The resort, if you could really call it that, was something. Just not something most folks would call a resort. It was huge, for starters, and it looked like it was well past its prime. The thing stood three stories, nestled into a flat spot atop a winding curvy road that had taken me about four hours from Denver. The rustic structure had definitely seen brighter days. The circular drive was in decent shape, but the structure that had clearly stood over it at some point, shielding arrivals from whatever weather the Rockies had in store, had crumpled and sat in a piled heap off to one side, the columns still standing in place to hold up the sky overhead.
“Wiley Coyote!” A familiar voice called, and Archie Jasper appeared, loping from the darkened double doors of the big building.
“Hey man,” I said, slapping him on the back. “You look good. Being out of the