“This one’s dated 1795. Too new.” Cal put the book down gently on the pile.
“This one is too,” Jake said.
“This one is 1717.” Jolene held up a book. The binding was cracked and dusty, the pages thick and rough.
Cal took the book. “It’s a poetry book. Perfect for a cipher key.”
“Do you think that’s the key?”
“It could be. We might as well try it, right?”
Morgan felt a tingle run through her veins. Finding a treasure would be cool, but would that help her find the killer?
She glanced out the attic window at the ocean. It had grown dark and the sea was black, the full moon’s light sparkled on the caps of the waves. There were no boats out there. Yet.
“You guys go ahead and work on deciphering the book,” Morgan said. “I’m going to keep a watch and see if those boats show up again. Maybe I can get a name or registration number. We still need to get a handle on the killer, and I have a funny feeling the closer we get to finding a treasure—if there even is one—the more dangerous it could be for us.”
Morgan caught the look from Celeste. She was almost certain the attack the other day wasn’t a random mugging and from the look her sister was giving her, she felt the same way.
“And everyone please be careful.” Morgan looked around.
These were the people she loved most in the world. Her heart ached at the thought of anything happening to one of them. “If the treasure pirates Jolene told us about are the ones who killed the guy on the cliff, and they’re after pirate treasure on our land, then I’m pretty sure they won’t think twice about killing one of us to get it.”
Chapter Eleven
Morgan jerked awake in the dark, her heart pounding against her ribs.
Was that a noise or a bad dream?
She glanced out the window of the turret room toward the Atlantic. No boats were out there. Looking at her watch, she saw it was 1:45.
And then she heard it again.
It came from the ground floor, smashing glass and loud voices. She was up from her seat in an instant and running downstairs.
She skidded into the living room at the same time as Fiona and Jake. It was pitch black and Morgan could only see shadowy figures. There was a fight going on, but she couldn’t make out exactly who was fighting.
Someone grabbed her arm and she reached behind her, grabbing a thick crystal vase she knew was on the sideboard. She swung it toward her assailant and was rewarded when they let go of her uttering a string of curse words.
The moonlight filtered in through the smashed side window and her eyes strained to adjust to the dark.
She could see men in dark clothing, some with ski masks. Surprisingly, it seemed like they were fighting each other.
How many people were in here?
She glanced around in time to see Celeste’s blonde hair—one of the masked men was reaching for her!
“Celeste! Look out!” Morgan bolted across the room and launched herself at Celeste’s assailant.
He went down in a heap on the floor, Morgan on top of him. She kicked at him as he tried to grab her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw someone push over the china cabinet with a resounding crash. Broken glass and china spilled out all over the floor. Belladonna ran hissing from the room.
Someone grabbed her by the waist and pulled her back. She squirmed around, clawing at him, trying to get in a good position to inflict some damage but he was too strong.
Her heart raced as she kicked back, but her efforts only resounded in a muffled grunt and a tighter hold on her.
“Hey, I’m not going to hurt you … I’m here to help you.”
Morgan froze in mid kick. She recognized that voice. Spinning around, she yanked off the mask.
Her heart jerked wildly in her chest when her eyes confirmed what her ears had already told her. The man holding her was her high school sweetheart, the man who had left her a decade ago—Luke Hunter.
She pushed away from him, hauled her arm back and slapped him across the face as hard as she could.
###
Luke’s hand flew up to his cheek. She still had a mean slap. He wasn’t sure what stung more—his cheek or his heart. It wasn’t exactly the greeting he’d been hoping for. He could hardly blame her, though. Showing up like this after all these years. She was sure to be mad at him.
“What are you doing here?” Morgan backed away from him and he stood where he was even though he ached to go after her.
“Like I said … I’m here to help you.”
“What are you talking about, you broke into my house!” Morgan spread her arms to indicate the chaotic room. The lights had come on and Luke could see smashed glass, broken windows and five of his men dressed all in black wrestling two other men into handcuffs.
“We didn’t break in.” Luke nodded toward the two men being forced into the cuffs. “They did. We just followed them in so we could capture them.”
The Blackmoore sisters huddled against the opposite wall staring at him with wide eyes.
“Luke Hunter?” Fiona’s eyes darted from Luke to Morgan.
Luke spread his hands. “In the flesh.”
“But what are you doing here? I thought you were in Afghanistan or something.”
“I was. My tour ended and now I’m back. Well, for a little while.” He glanced over at Morgan who was shooting daggers at him from her eyes.
“Luke is Morgan’s … umm … he grew up here.” Fiona turned to explain to a man who was standing with a protective arm around her. Luke wondered who he was but figured it wasn’t the time for him to ask questions. He couldn’t help but smile when he noticed there was no man with a protective arm around Morgan.
“So, what is he doing in your house in the middle of the night?” The man stepped forward.
“Yeah, what are you doing here?” Morgan stood with her hands on her hips looking ridiculously cute in pink pajamas with French poodles on them.
“And who are these other guys?” The blonde who Luke recognized as Celeste said. She had only been a teenager when he’d left and she’d grown into a beautiful woman. Not as beautiful as Morgan, though.
Luke rubbed his hands through his day old stubble. Morgan used to like that stubble. He found himself wondering if she still felt anything for him—then immediately pushed those thoughts aside. He was only in Noquitt to do a job and then his work would take him somewhere else, possibly to the other side of the world. This job didn’t leave any room for relationships and he wished he hadn’t had to let Morgan know he was here. He wished he’d never gotten this close to her—to touch her. But he had to in order to stop the guys that had broken in. And now that he had …
He let out a long breath, wondering how to explain just why he was there. He decided the simplest way was the best.
He nodded toward the handcuffed men who were being dragged out. “Those men are after something they think you have, and my job is to stop them.”
“What? So you’re like some sort of secret police force?” Morgan’s brow was all scrunched up.
“Sort of. Have you guys noticed anything strange going on?”
“Hell ‘ya,” a voice said from the other side of the room.
Luke’s eyes widened when he realized the petite brunette must be Jolene. She’d only been around nine years old the last time he saw her, but she had those ice-blue eyes … the same as Morgan and all the Blackmoore sisters.
“First a dead guy shows up on the cliff. Then we start hearing stories about pirates and next thing you know we’re getting broken into.” She spread her arms to indicate the mess around them and Luke noticed she was bleeding.
“You’re bleeding!” Fiona rushed over to the girl’s side and took her arm, looking at the wound below the elbow.
Jolene looked down at her arm. “Ahh, that’s not so bad.”
“I’ll get a bandage and some stuff to clean it off.” Fiona rushed out of the room.
“Anyway, what
exactly do you have to do with any of this?” Morgan stared him down.
“My company tracks down people that steal treasure and stops them.”
“You’re company? What kind of company is that? And just how do you find out where to track these people down?” The man that had been with Fiona narrowed his eyes at Luke and Luke figured he’d better make friends fast.
He put his hand out toward the guy. “I’m sorry, we haven’t been introduced. I’m Luke Hunter.”
The man reluctantly took his hand. “Jake Cooper.”
Luke nodded. “Nice to meet you.”
Jake’s handshake was firm and the guy definitely had some muscles. He looked like he could take care of himself which was good. Luke might need his help protecting the Blackmoore girls if the shit hit the fan like he thought it was going to.
Fiona came back with some cotton swabs, alcohol, bandages and a big orange rock. Luke raised an eyebrow at the rock, but kept silent.
“Jake works on the Noquitt police force,” Fiona said over her shoulder as she cleaned Jolene’s arm and applied the bandage.
Luke raised his brows. “Oh? How do you like that?”
“It’s okay.”
Luke could tell by the look on Jake’s face that he didn’t like it much at all. Which was good, because Luke had a feeling Sheriff Overton wasn’t to be trusted. And if Jake didn’t get along with Overton that probably meant Jake could be trusted.
Everyone was silent for a moment, watching Fiona wrap Jolene’s arm. It was a deep, nasty gash.
Fiona put the rock on the wound and wrapped gauze around it.
“Keep the stone wrapped close to it until we can get some herbs and medicines from the pharmacy. It should help you heal,” Fiona said then, noticing everyone was looking at her with raised brows, she shrugged and added, “it’s carnelian which is good for healing wounds. At least it can’t hurt.”
Everyone’s attention was drawn toward the window where the men in black outfits were now nailing a large sheet of plywood in place.
“We’ll get that glass replaced for you tomorrow … and clean up this mess,” Luke said. “You guys might want to think about getting an alarm system.”
“Can we move into the kitchen?” Fiona asked, “I could use some coffee. And, since Luke still hasn’t fully explained himself, I think we’re going to be up for a while.”
The group moved into the kitchen. Luke noticed that Morgan kept her distance from him. He leaned against the counter while the others took positions standing and sitting around the island.
Fiona grabbed some mugs from the cabinet and popped a K-cup in the coffee maker.
“So Luke, you were saying …” Celeste gestured for him to continue the explanation he’d started in the other room.
“Yes, tell us more about your company,” Jake said. By the way Jake was studying him Luke knew it wasn’t going to be easy to earn the other man’s trust.
“The men that broke in here aren’t nice people. They belong to a group of treasure hunters that scour the world for long lost treasure, and take it by any means they can. They’re kind of like modern day pirates,” Luke said. “The people that invest in my company pay me to get rid of them.”
“We read up about them online. But why are they here?”
“They figure out where to go by digging into old documents and archives. As far as we can tell, they got a lead that there is treasure from an old ship here somewhere.”
“Does this tie into the dead guy on the cliff?” Morgan asked.
“There are two groups of treasure hunters here in town. Rivals. One of the groups killed a member from the other group as a warning to back off.”
Celeste’s face brightened. “Well that’s good to know, we can just tell Overton and he’ll stop bothering us.”
“Bothering you? About the murder?” Luke narrowed his eyes at Celeste.
“Yes, he seems to want to pin every murder in town on Morgan.”
“Every murder?”
Morgan waved her hand. “I don’t think Luke needs to know about all that.”
Luke raised his brows at her.
“It’s old news,” she said. “But he did threaten us about the guy on the cliff. So tell us how to find these pirate guys and Jake can let him know they did the killing, and then Overton will leave us alone … at least about that, anyway.”
“It might not be that simple. These guys hide out. It’s not like they have an address or anything. They’re practically invisible.” Luke took a chance and said to Jake, “I’m not so sure Overton can be trusted to do the right thing. What do you think?”
Jake nodded, his stance relaxing a bit. “I agree. What makes you say that, though?”
“Just a feeling.” Luke stared at Jake and he felt like he’d moved up a notch on the trust scale.
“Okay, so now that you have those guys.” Jolene nodded toward the living room, “no one will be bothering us, right?”
“I wish it was that easy. Unfortunately, there are more where they came from.”
“Sheesh, how many of these guys are there?” Fiona handed Luke a coffee.
“Quite a few. But I have quite a few guys too, and we’re going keep a close eye on them … and on you, to make sure nothing more happens.”
Morgan snorted. “I don’t think you need to keep an eye on us, we’re perfectly capable of taking care of ourselves … unless you’re after the treasure too?”
Luke’s heart clenched at the look of mistrust she gave him. “These guys are very dangerous and the fact that the two groups are in a fight for this treasure makes them even more so. You do need our help whether you want to admit it or not … and we’re not after the treasure, we get paid very well by the people that hire us.”
“I still don’t understand what your job is or why we should trust you,” Morgan said. “Where did you take those men, anyway? To Overton?”
“No, not to Overton. We have ways of dealing with them that you don’t need to know about. Just be glad there’s two less that will be bothering you. And my job is to wipe out these scum—let’s just say the people that pay me have a vested interest in getting rid of their kind and leave it at that.”
He saw Morgan bite her bottom lip and knew he had his job cut out for him, getting her to trust him again.
“Now, the more you guys can tell me about this supposed treasure, the better I can help you.”
Jolene looked up from her coffee mug. “The dead guy had a copy of a ship’s manifest in his pocket from the ancestor that originally built this house. We tried to decipher one of his journals—”
“We’re not sure the journals have anything to do with it,” Morgan interrupted.
Luke raised an eyebrow. He knew they weren’t telling him everything, but he hadn’t expected them to right off the bat. “Well the more I know, the easier it will be for me to anticipate what the treasure hunters will do and the faster I’ll be able to get rid of them.”
He noticed Fiona, Jolene and Celeste flick their eyes over at Morgan and she shook her head.
“We’ll let you know if we come up with something.” She looked at the clock. “But now it’s late. And I’d appreciate it if you, and your men, get out of my house.”
Luke put his coffee mug down on the counter and nodded at Morgan.
“We’ll get out of your house, but we’ll still be watching. Those guys will make another attempt, probably not tonight but soon.” He paused, his heart skipping a beat as he looked directly into her ice-blue eyes. “I know you know more than you’re letting on and I understand why you don’t want to open up to me. But I think you’re just going to have to trust me on this one … your lives may depend on it.”
Then he turned and walked off toward the front door.
###
Morgan’s pulse raced as she stared at Luke Hunter’s retreating back. Trust him? She didn’t think so.
He had a hell of a nerve showing up like this … after all these years and not one letter or phon
e call.
“We should listen to what he says,” Celeste said quietly.
Morgan ground her teeth together. “And just why would we do that? He’s a stranger to us now. I see no reason to trust him.”
“But Morgan, Luke grew up here. You knew him better than any of us … don’t you think he’s telling the truth.”
“Knew him … as in used to … I don’t know him anymore. We have no idea where he’s been for the past 10 years or what he’s been up to. I wouldn’t trust him any more than I’d trust a perfect stranger.” Morgan felt her cheeks flush with anger.
“Well, he did bail us out tonight,” Jolene offered. “Who knows what those men would have done if Luke and his guys weren’t here.”
Morgan shifted in her seat and looked across the hall into the living room. A chill crept up her spine thinking about the two men who broke in. What were they going to do? And what would have happened if Luke and his men weren’t here?
“It’s a mess in there,” she said. “The china cabinet and everything in it is ruined. Nana’s probably rolling over in her grave with all her good china smashed on the floor like that.”
“No she’s not,” Celeste offered.
Everyone turned to stare at her.
Celeste shrugged. “Well, she’s not. She doesn’t care about that stuff anymore … and she approves of Luke.”
Morgan narrowed her eyes at Celeste. She wasn’t sure what she thought about Celeste talking to their dead grandmother. She decided to change the subject.
“Did you guys have any luck deciphering the book?”
Celeste’s face brightened. “We didn’t get it all figured out, but we made good progress. The poetry book seems to be the key, but the journal … well, there’s just so much of it and it’s mostly just a recording of the days events—weather, rough seas and so on.”
“Oh, I was hoping there would be some sort of treasure clue.” Jolene’s face fell into a frown.
“I think that’s too much to expect. All this talk of treasure and pirates is kind of silly. Most people don’t have treasure buried in their yard,” Morgan pointed out.
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