Lance roars, striding across the desert floor to curse in his son’s face. Blood is smeared over his lips like some sort of gothic lipstick. His vitriol is chilling, even more so when you realize it’s being directed at his own flesh and blood. Father and son equal each other in height and stature. They’re an imposing duo standing right next to each other. The same narcissistic blood running through their veins.
What a great show. That’s all I can think. The pair of them are two peas in a pod.
“I can’t tell Jacobs where to dig…” I say coolly. “…because the information is in me.” I shrug, which is hard to do, considering the guy still has a death grip on me. “Do you think I’m dumb enough to actually bring these assholes out here to give them my father’s lifelong work?” I laugh into the air, letting everything I feel about the Jacobs right now come out. They’re twisted and deviant. And I can’t believe I fell for it.
Finally, the leader lets me go. I step away, rearranging my clothes back on myself just as I’ve seen Stone do a hundred times before when he’s trying to pull himself together. “My father wasn’t an imbecile like Lance Jacobs would have you believe. He didn’t write shit down. The important shit is in my head.” Truth, actually. Only the Wilders know the one thing that could break the treasure hunt wide open. Sure, we’ve never been close enough to utilize the piece of information yet, but no one will find it without one of us. No one. “If you want it, you’re just going to have to take me, but I wouldn’t unless you think you can make me talk.”
“People always talk,” the leader says, grinning.
“How about someone with nothing to lose? You say you’ve been watching me? Then you see where I live. You see the fact that I have no fucking friends and that my father is missing, most likely dead. People talk because they’re threatened with losing something. Well, good luck finding something to get me with, asshole.”
The guy straight up laughs, eyes sparking. “I recognize you in me. I admit, you have spirit, Dakota Wilder. But you’ve already shown your hand. Your weaknesses are these three.”
I give him a dead glare, my heart pumping inside me. “You can test that theory if you want but you’ll be sorely disappointed.” I glare at Stone because he’s the only one I can muster up the strength to hate as much as I used to right now. “Let me ask you a question instead. What are you going to do with the information when you get it? Are you going to trek up into the mountains yourself to get the very same treasure that has eluded my family for the past hundred years? Are you going to hand the job over to the Jacobs?” I laugh, mimicking his menacing style, which really doesn’t take all that much acting. It is funny to think that the Jacobs would ever find the treasure before me. “I assure you they’re all talk and no skill. Lance, as you’ve already clearly figured out, is a waste of space. He may as well live out the rest of his days as an ATM.”
“You little bitch.”
Lance takes a menacing step toward me, but the leader lifts his hand, silencing the toxic fuck. “How can I trust that you’ll do what you say you’re going to?”
Hope builds inside me. I may be able to get out of this after all. “I guess the question is how much do you trust yourself to keep watching me?”
A vile smile peels his lips apart. The danger in his eyes bleeds through his very being. “The Jacobs underestimated you.”
“Everyone does.” It’s not smart to make a deal with this guy, but right now, all I want is to bide myself some time and find out how to keep my family’s legacy safe from assholes like these guys. And yeah, not dying would be cool too.
“The thing is, baby girl,” the leader starts. “Where I’m from, when we strike deals, we give something up.” Amusement flickers in his gaze.
Shit. I thought I almost had him. Nervous energy pours through me, but I’ve already come this far. What’s the big deal about striking an even bigger deal with an even badder devil?
I swallow. “Like what?”
“A freedom, usually. An innocence. Or a thing, something that you love. It’ll be tricky