They’re not just trashing it for trashing sake, they’re searching for something too. I laugh, the sound ruthless and harsh to my own ears. “What you’re looking for isn’t here.”
There was a period when my grandfather was alive that everyone tried to “steal” what we knew. He had a number of break-ins and scary run-ins with people who meant him harm. I guess we’re in that part of the treasure hunting process again. When no one found what they were looking for, that’s when the town turned against us, calling us all kooks. Suddenly, we weren’t these adventurers who were going to find a piece of missing American history, we were just crazies. Because they couldn’t find it, they thought the whole treasure had been made up and followed by a bunch of ignorant nobody’s.
“Your father had all the maps. The lore. He had everything he needed to find what’s hidden. Now that he’s dead, you have it.”
I swallow, my throat about as prickly as a hundred cacti. “That’s right, I do. And you’re never going to get your hands on it.”
“Give it to me!” Lance yells, his face akin to a devil mask on Halloween. He’s furious, yes, but there’s something else there, too. He’s desperate. If he wasn’t, he would’ve already pulled this shit on us
My fingers clench. “Fuck. Off.”
Lance raises his hand, bringing it back to his ear like he’s going to whip it forward to bitch slap me. My stomach bottoms out, but Stone swings me to the side, taking me just out of his father’s reach. “Dad,” he warns.
My heart catapults around in my chest. Dread slithers in with an icy fear. He was going to hit me. This isn’t just some fear tactic, he was going to take this to a whole different level until Stone called him to his senses.
Alright, that’s enough.
I assess the situation, then shoot my arm forward to the weakest point of Stone’s hold, the space between his fingers and thumb while they’re wrapped around my arm. It doesn’t hurt that he’s still preoccupied with his father when I slam my elbow into his chest. He stumbles, falling onto my rustic coffee table and sliding off onto his back. He gets up with a growl, his shoulders heaving. His father laughs. “I guess she out schooled you.”
The fire in Stone’s eyes burns brighter at his father’s comment. The destruction that’s happening in my bedroom stops and out walks Wyatt and Lucas, the former fixing his cowboy hat to sit properly on his head once more. The slight shake of Lucas’s head makes me certain they were looking for something, and no, they’re not going to find it. I was telling them the truth before. The most important details I know about the Superstition Mountains are in my head. The rest of it is somewhere no one will ever find.
I reach out for my laptop, but Lance pulls it just out of reach. “Let’s play a game. The game is called ruining the stupid girl who thinks she has options.” The amusement in his words sends a shudder through me. It’s one thing to fight about the treasure, to have a competition about who’s going to find it first, but this is a whole different matter altogether. I don’t know why I’m surprised. The Jacobs have always been the shadows lurking. “Saint Clary’s is everything to you right now. Am I right? It’s the only thing you had besides the hunt and your dad, and you don’t have those things anymore. I’m guessing it’s even how you’re eating.” Lance drifts his gaze to the fridge where Lucas yanks it open, revealing its bare interior.
I swallow. The lack of food is something I’ve tried not to think about. There’s just no money. I used what I had over the summer when I was still up in the mountains searching desperately for Dad when everyone else went home. I was relieved to go to school today because I knew I could eat. A banana sits in my bag right now that I took for dinner but didn’t need to eat because Dickie fed me. “I’d have food if your whore of an ex hadn’t taken off with our money.”
Stone’s gaze turns even more furious. He’s molten heat, ready to burn everything in his path like lava.
I don’t care.
Lance tsks and holds up his other hand. Lucas drops a manila folder into it that I hadn’t even noticed he’d been holding. Lance feathers through