didn’t want me to have contact with her, but I tracked her down when I was in high school. I talk to her every once in a while on the phone, but that’s it.”
“Shit.”
She took a deep breath. “It sounds bad, but I kind of understand. I don’t think her addiction was just because she hurt her back. She knew everything my dad was doing—all the criminal stuff. Plus he’s not an easy guy to get along with. I’m sure being married to him basically sucked. I think she used drugs to deal with all the stress. And after she left, she needed to stay away.”
Something about Fiona’s story hit a tender place in my chest. I looked out at my brothers. Levi and Logan had stopped and taken their helmets off. Asher circled around while Gavin hit the jump, soaring over some old tires we’d dragged out here a couple of years ago.
I knew what it was like to have a less than perfect family situation. Our parents had died, leaving five little boys behind.
But we’d never been alone. We’d always had our grandparents, and each other.
Who had Fiona had? A couple of car thieves who she thought were mechanics? I was glad she’d had a few people in her life to be there for her—or at least do cool stuff with her when she was a kid. But who did she have in her life that she could really rely on? That she could trust no matter what?
Regardless of how much my brothers drove me crazy, they were my pack. I trusted them wholeheartedly. It would have sucked to have to grow up without that.
Without them.
I slipped an arm around Fiona and pulled her against me. She had us now.
“Um, Evan?”
“Yeah?”
“Who’s that?” She pointed at something to our right.
A man in a tattered cowboy hat crested the hill. He was dressed in a leather vest over an old flannel shirt, and a pickax hung from a loop on his belt.
“That’s Harvey Johnston,” I said. “You haven’t met Harvey?”
“No. Who is he?”
How could I explain Harvey Johnston? “He lives just outside town—wanders around a lot and doesn’t always make sense. He’s a little weird, but he’s harmless. I wonder what he’s doing out here?”
I stood and helped Fiona to her feet. I held my hand up in greeting as we approached. The noise of my brothers on their dirt bikes hummed in the background.
“Hey, Harvey.”
Harvey took his hat off, scratched his head, then put it back on. “Evan Bailey?”
“Yeah, it’s me. What are you up to out here? Are you lost?”
“No,” he said, his voice full of conviction. “I know right where I am.”
“How’d you get here? Did you walk?”
He looked down at his boots. “It ain’t that far.”
“Fair enough. Do you need a ride back to town?”
“No, no, not going to town. I went to town yesterday.” He pulled his pickax off his belt loop and held it up. “Today is for digging. You want to come help? You can come, too, young lady.”
“I’m Fiona. What are you digging for?”
He smiled a wide, toothy grin and his eyes lit up. “Treasure.”
“Well, that was silly of me,” she said. “What else would you be digging for out here? Do you have a map?”
“That’s the problem. There is no map. He didn’t leave one.”
“Who?”
“Ernest Montgomery,” he said. “He left the treasure for someone to find, but no map. Nope, none at all.”
“That does make it more of a challenge.”
“I won’t give up, though. I know it’s out there somewhere.” He lowered his voice to a gravelly whisper. “People say I’m crazy, but don’t you be listening to them, Miss Fiona. I’m right as rain up here in my noggin.”
“Of course you are,” she said with a smile. “Maybe we’ll join your treasure hunt another time.”
“Good.” Still holding the pickax, he patted his vest with his free hand, as if he were looking for something. “Now where did it go…”
I tapped the top of the pickax with one finger. “Looking for this?”
He held it out, his eyes widening with surprise. “There it is. Good thing. For a second, I thought the squirrels got it.”
Fiona opened her mouth, probably to ask why the squirrels would take his pickax, but I caught her eye and shook my head. No need to get Harvey started on a rant about the Tilikum squirrels.
“Okay, Harvey, be careful out there,” I said. “Stop by my place if you need anything, all right?”
“Don’t worry, if I find the