Tajan seized the reigns and looked at Maggie. “Six or seven horses are right behind us.” He eyed the landscape, worry wrinkling his brow. He didn’t look nearly as confident as he had just moments ago. “This is not best place to be trapped.”
They rode hard until they cleared the woods and came upon a clearing at the top of the mountain. Slowing down, Tajan realized where they were.
He gave Maggie his best stone-faced look to hide the reality that there was no place to go with the posse behind them. Normally, he wouldn’t have gotten himself backed into this corner. But he had to admit, if only to himself, that his thinking had gotten a little muddled after she begged him not to go toward the lands the whites called California—the one place he’d thought was safest.
Tajan slid off Pico and Maggie dismounted Lightning. The sound of rushing water grew louder as they moved closer to the edge of the precipice. Over the side, a drop of about two hundred feet loomed below them and led down to jagged cliffs. Beneath them, the mountain extended outward, sideways from the overhang—as if in a last ditch effort—before giving way to a waterfall inside a ravine.
Tajan locked his hand around Maggie’s wrist.
“What a drop!” She gasped, looking down into the gorge.
Tajan looked at the ravine, then glanced over his shoulder at the wooded area. Nothing. No sign of their pursuers. But it was only a matter of time before they emerged from the tree line. Finally, he turned to Maggie and let his hand slide down to hers. “I am sorry,” he apologized. “I have…” He paused, as if searching for the right words. “I have left us nowhere to go.”
“Tajan,” Maggie said with a quick sigh, “I love you with all my heart. And I don’t regret a single moment that we’ve spent together.” She shook her head. “But when they catch us... they’re gonna kill us.” Hope had left her eyes. Her gaze left him, peered into the ravine where it stayed briefly and came back to meet his, once more. “So let’s not give them the satisfaction.”
“You know what you say?” he asked, studying her face.
“Let’s go by our hand,” she said. “Not theirs!” She tightened her fingers around his as the posse cleared the tree line behind them. “I couldn’t bear to be separated from you again. Let’s do it together. Now.” She gave his hand a little tug. “Before they come.”
Tajan gave her a slight nod and withdrew his hand. The posse was making their way across the clearing and Tajan hurriedly began tearing strips from the edge of his shirt to bind them together.
They would jump, and they’d be bound when they did it. Most people wouldn’t understand why Tajan had so readily agreed to jump to his death with Maggie, when he could’ve easily talked her out of it. But he knew their pursuers would kill them once they caught up to them. He couldn’t bear the thought of her last hours of life being filled with anxiety and fear over what the white men would do to her before they finally got around to killing him. He was not so much concerned with himself. He was prepared to die. He had proved that. But he didn’t like the image forming in his mind of Maggie being forced to witness his torturous death.
As he wound the strips around their wrist, binding them together, he knew that leaping into the ravine was the right thing to do. Tajan could only hope that they’d reunite in another, future life.
* * *
The posse, led by Carson City’s sheriff, closed in on the renegades. They stood together on the edge of the cliffs and the Indian was wrapping something around his and the girl’s wrists. It looked like he was binding their arms together.
Sheriff Simmons tugged on the reins and slowed down his horse when he was no more than a few feet away from his targets. “Stop! Hold it right there!”
The Indian looked at the girl and smiled. “I love you.”
What surprised the Sheriff the most was that he said it in English. Not perfect English, but English nonetheless.
Just when the Sheriff thought he couldn’t get anymore disgusted, she said to the Indian, “I love you, too.”
He shook his head and pushed down the bile rising up his throat. Just as he looked back, and laid his hand on his gun, the ill-fated couple stepped off the ledge.
The Sheriff swung a leg over his horse and slid to the ground, landing on his feet. He and his comrades rushed to the cliff’s edge and peered over the side. At the bottom, the Indian lay draped across the girl—they were both lifeless—as if he were still trying to protect her, even in death.
He shifted his attention to his men, letting his gaze drifted over their faces. Eyes wide and mouths dropped open, clearly none of them had expected them to jump.
Just as well, though. The girl was spoiled for any decent man now. She was better off dead.
Feeling a little cheated that he had been robbed of the opportunity to avenge the tainting of a white woman, Sheriff Simmons glanced back out over the canyon.
Two eagles soared up out of the ravine and danced playfully as they took to the sky.
~~~~
PART SEVEN
THE SET-UP
~~~~
CHAPTER 33
Billy and Rio were still on the mountaintop where Maggie and Tajan had jumped to their deaths.
Rio looked at Billy, tears blurring her vision. “That was it? That was the end?” Her voice shook, nearly as much as her composure.
“Yes,” Billy said with a regretful nod.
“But what about Maggie and Tajan?” Anguish suffocated Rio. Her heart cried out. “What happened to their bodies?”
“I don’t really know.” He shook his head. “News of the tragedy got back to the tribe in the form of traders’ gossip. Tajan’s parents raised their baby. All their personal tokens were passed down from generation to generation.”
“Where are the pouch and the bracelets?” She prayed they weren’t in the hands of some distant cousin.
“My father has them.”
Relief escaped in her overblown sigh. Then an inquiry flashed in her thoughts. “How do you know Mary didn’t come back for the treasure?”
“Mary was hell-bent on never stepping foot in northern Nevada again.” He hopped up off the ground and wiped his hands against his Levi’s. “Besides that...” He offered his hand. “She married a man in California in 1865.” He pulled her to her feet. “There were rumors that he had some political power of some sort. So it was unlikely that she would’ve jeopardized her new husband’s career by risking discovery as a notorious bank robber.”
They strolled back toward Billy’s Jeep. “So you think that Mary more than likely tucked her half of the map away, and it got passed down from generation to generation...the same as Maggie’s half?”
“That’s a fair bet.” After a brief interval his face twisted with confusion. “I just don’t get how Audrey got a hold of Mary’s half of the map.”
* * *
Rio still didn’t believe that Turner was Mary’s descendent. Something about his story hadn’t rang true. It bothered her so much so, in fact, that she lay awake in bed that night, trying to figure it out.
Turner had said that his great-great grandmother had passed her half of the map down to his grandmother, who in turn had passed it down to him. And that his great-great grandmother was Molly.
Wait! That couldn’t possibly be true. Molly died. Mary was the one with the other half of the map.
Rio didn’t have a clue how Turner came to have the map in his possession. But the one thing she was sure of was that he hadn’t gotten it from his grandmother.
And Rio was willing to place money on that notion. While she believed Turner’s grandmother used to tell him stories about buried treasure, Rio doubted the woman was ever in possession of that map.
If she had to guess, she’d say he probably acquired Mary’s half of the map from some guy who owed him money.
* * *
Now that Billy had the one piece of information he needed to find the treasure, he stood in the middle of his living room, with Rio at his side, and folded the map just
like Maggie had shown him. Looking down at the final results in his hand, he was astonished.
“I know where this is,” he said. “I know exactly where this is.”
“Okay...” She sucked in a deep breath. “We’ve got to be careful. We have to get in and out without our tailgaters knowing about it.”
He nodded. “I’ve been trying to figure out how to do just that.”
“Billy…” Rio’s voice trailed off.
“Yeah.”
“Do you trust me?”
“Yes.”
“Okay.” She dipped her chin. “I’m going to ask you to do something without explanation. I need you to trust me and not ask questions.”
“Go on.”
“We’re going to need friends,” she said. “A lot of friends.” Her gazed traveled up and seized his. “Friends you would trust with your life.”
“I can get those.”
Billy didn’t let the desire to know more about her motives consume his thoughts. Since the vision quest he trusted her implicitly. He was confident that all would reveal itself in due course. Rio would divulge her reasoning as soon as she could.
~~~~
CHAPTER 34
Billy assembled his friends at the Silver Arrow, a neighborhood hangout, to find out who he could count on. It was a small bar by many standards. It consisted of a lounge, a dance floor, a deejay’s booth and a poolroom in back. The establishment catered mostly to locals rather than tourists.
Rio and Billy sat together at the bar, each with a beer in front of them. She nibbled on a bowl of peanuts sitting on the counter.
The deejay played a song from one of those boy bands. Rio sipped her beer and rolled her eyes, showing her displeasure for the deejay’s choice in music.
“What’s the matter?” Billy laughed. “Don’t you like the music?”
“Well, actually...I’m more of a rock-n-roller.” She placed her beer bottle on the counter. “Give me the Eagles, Def Leppard, or some Alice Cooper...and I’d be happier than a pig in shit.”
Billy laughed and motioned for the waitress making her way across the dance floor. She glided toward him with a sexy dance.
“Can you ask Ray—” he said of the deejay as he handed her a five. “—if he’s got some Alice Cooper that he’ll play for my cousin?”
“Sure, Billy.” She smiled and tucked the money away inside her cleavage.
Not long after, Alice Cooper’s ‘Be my Lover’ blared over the sound system.
Rio listened to the song’s first few lines and then turned to Billy with a sharp look.
He laughed. “I think this is Ray’s futile attempt at making a pass at you.”
“How fortunate for me.” She turned away and reached for her beer.
“He’s got some big shoes to fill...doesn’t he?”
“You know,” she said without looking at him, “I’ve always imagined that there’s a guy out there somewhere.” Finally, she peered at Billy. “And from the first moment that we’d meet... that’d be it.” She summed it up with a shrug. “I’d see him. He’d see me. And it’d all be over. We’d both be off the market.” She turned away and took a long, hard drink from her beer.
“Just like that...” A skeptical laugh thundered up his throat. “Instant love, huh?”
She snagged a handful of peanuts and tossed them at him. “Don’t laugh at me, damn it.”
“Well, come on…” He was really laughing now. “You’re talking love at first sight or some such shit.” He grabbed his beer and shook his head. “It’s ridiculous.” Billy downed nearly half the beer.
Their debate over the possibility of love at first sight was interrupted by Billy’s friends entering the bar. They filed in one-by-one and headed toward the poolroom.
Billy was drawn to the pretty girl following close behind his best friend, Danny. Her dark hair and honey-colored skin had his mind wandering.
“Yeah...” Rio’s voice drifted into his thoughts. “Ridiculous, huh?”
She was laughing, but he didn’t care. He got up and headed for the poolroom, leaving Rio sitting at the bar.
Inside the poolroom, he approached his friends and the girl stepped behind Danny.
“Hey, Bill.” Danny gave him a nod. “What’s up?”
“Who’s the girl?” Billy got straight to the point.
“You remember my cousin, Janey.” Danny pointed over his shoulder.
Rio stopped at Billy’s side.
Billy paid his cousin no mind. Instead, he glanced over Danny’s shoulder and studied the girl. Janey? Really?
He shook his head. No Way. Who would have known that scrawny little girl who used to follow them around could turn into this beautiful creature standing before him? “Janey?” He had to ask to make sure.
She emerged from behind her cousin. “Hi Billy…” Her smile tempted him. “Long time no see.”
Rio shifted behind Billy, handed his beer around to him and then rested her chin on his shoulder.
Janey’s gaze met Rio’s and the girl lost her smile and her eyes flared with a bitterness that said, who in the hell is this redheaded tramp hanging all over Billy? She pointed at Rio. “That your girlfriend?” she asked with a chill in her voice, all the while eyeing her competition.
Rio laughed.
“Rio?” Billy asked dubiously, pointing over his shoulder. “God, no. She’s my cousin.”
Janey’s hardened expression relaxed into a smile.
Billy moved in closer, reducing the gap between them. “Where’ve you been? Last time I saw you…you were twelve, maybe thirteen.”
“Away,” Janey said.
Rio tapped Billy on the shoulder. “Pssst…hey, Casanova.” She teased him. “You want to remind me why we’re here?”
A few pool games later, Billy had filled his friends in on their plans. He laid the pool stick across the table. “Well…” He planted his hands on his hips. “That’s basically what we’re talking about.” He let his gaze travel around the pool table. “Question is...can I count on any of you?”
Without hesitation, Danny stepped up to the plate first. “I’m in.”
One by one, they acknowledged their support, including Janey.
* * *
Hours later, Rio and Billy headed back to his house. He drove while she counted her winnings.
“Two hundred forty-five…fifty-five…sixty…seventy… eighty…” She fanned the bills playfully and rubbed it in since she’d gotten a few of them from him.
It all started out as a friendly game of pool. But then they started in with that macho shit, and the little pool shark put all of them in their places. In the process, she lightened their wallets for them, too. After all, it was the least she could do.
“Next time,” he asked, “can I be on your side?”
Rio looked at him. Even though he was talking to her, he was a million miles away. He was thinking about Janey—that much was obvious. Rio had seen it when the girl first walked into the bar. Billy was smitten with her from the get-go.
“You like her, don’t you?” she asked.
“Who?”
“Janey.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Yes, you do.”
“Okay, so maybe she is pretty.” With a slight nod, he started to come around. “Really pretty.”
“Don’t you get it, dummy?” Rio’s voice crested with excitement.
“Get what?”
“It’s her.” She smacked his arm. “The girl Maggie told you about. She said she was coming soon.”
He was quiet for a moment, and then he shook his head. “No way. Besides...I don’t even think she likes me.”
“You’re kidding, right?” Rio countered with a skeptical laugh. “She was ready to claw my eyes out...till you told her I was your cousin.”
“There’s no way.”
“Okay.” She decided to take matters into her own hands. “Next time you see her—and trust me, you will see her again...I want you to ask her out. And I mean on
a real date, too. Take her out to dinner or something.”
~~~~
CHAPTER 35
Billy and Rio still had the little matter of a couple of unwelcome guests they had to throw off their trail. Hoping to do just that, they took a party of ten—which included Billy’s parents and Janey—and headed up to Bennett Canyon. The next stop on Billy’s snipe hunt.
Rio was alone, sitting on a big rock and gazing out over the canyon. All she wanted, at this point, was someone to tell her how she was supposed to carry on. How was she supposed to live her life without Tajan? He’d told her she was going to live a long life this time. If that were the case, it was destined to be a lonely life, too.
Janey climbed up on the rock and sat down beside Rio. She drew her knees up and draped her arms around her legs. “So...” she said in a soft voice, “where is he?”
Rio leaned her head to the side and let her gaze journey toward the girl. “Who?” she asked.
“The guy that’s on your mind.”
Rio looked back out at the canyon. “I really don’t know where he is.” She shrugged, staring straight ahead. “I don’t know if I’ll ever see him again.”
“Well...I hope for your sake that you do.”
Fat chance! Kind of hard to see a dead guy—without the help of some seriously illegal drugs.
Janey shifted and faced Rio, saying, “I want to apologize to you.”
“Apologize to me?” Rio rolled her eyes at Janey. “For what?”
“Well, I wasn’t real nice to you the other night.” Janey looked away, as if embarrassed. “And I’m sorry about that.”
“Don’t give it a second thought.” Rio didn’t want the girl feeling guilty. She didn’t see the sense in that. “So…” Her voice lightened with a friendlier tone. “When’s the last time you saw my cousin Billy?”
“Geez…” Janey paused, thinking about it. “It’s been about eight or nine years now. My parents moved away and I’m just now, finally, getting back home.” She cleared her throat. “Does he have a girlfriend?”
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