by Dana Mentink
“You should have told me.”
“Probably. Sometimes I don’t make the right choices, especially where women are concerned. Ava, I’m really sorry.”
Me, too.
I thought...
What had she thought? Swirling snow made shadows dance along the cement floor.
It didn’t matter. He was right. Whisper Mountain should be opened up again, and the Gage family had the money and resources to make it happen.
Luca was just another interested investor.
Swallowing hard, she turned away from him.
* * *
Luca ground his teeth. He hadn’t lied. And she’d offered the property for sale. It was all perfectly aboveboard, yet he felt a surge of guilt that he hadn’t told her sooner. In truth, merging Whisper Mountain with Gold Summit would make it an unparalleled resort experience. On the outside, it made perfect sense.
But from where he stood now, he wasn’t sure anymore.
If the Gages didn’t buy it, someone else would, someone who had no fond memories of winters past, perhaps an investment group who would raze the place, obliterate any traces of the Stanton family.
He wanted to take hold of her, to make her look into his eyes and see that he was not there in that dark basement on Whisper Mountain for any reason except one: to help her. He thought about the brief moment when his lips brushed hers, the unfettered laughter that lit up her face only moments before.
He took a step toward her when something caught his eye. He went down on one knee and peered into a corner, wishing he had a working flashlight.
Ava joined him, keeping a good couple of feet between them, he noticed.
“Find something?” her tone was cold.
“Aim the flashlight lower.” The combined light from the electric bulb and Ava’s flashlight revealed a pile of neatly stacked blankets partially covering a wooden trunk. On the outside was scrawled the words snowshoes. He might not have thought anything odd about it except that the print was messy, the letter size uneven, different than Bruce Stanton’s meticulous handwriting.
He tossed the blankets off the top and pulled the trunk out of the corner. It was about four feet square, well-made.
Luca shot her a look. “It’s not locked. Do we open it?”
“Yes,” Ava said. “Maybe this treasure hunt will be over, and we can end this thing.”
Ignoring the tightening in his stomach, he pulled open the trunk.
Ava beamed the flashlight inside.
This time, the box was not empty.
Luca’s heart beat fast as he removed the contents, handing them to Ava.
“An old book, History of the Printing Press.” He plunged a hand into the box. “And a bag of...”
Ava beamed her light into the bag. “Jewelry,” she announced triumphantly.
He tried to see what was in it, but all he could make out was a tangle of chains. The Sunset Star might very well be dangling in front of his face, wrapped up in an ordinary plastic bag.
Ava’s mouth was open, eyes searching the contents for the same reason. “Do you think it’s in there?”
“Let’s take it upstairs and find out.”
She nodded.
“Ava...” He wanted to say something to erase the distance that had grown between them. Instead, he shook his head. “I think it would be a good idea to keep this quiet.”
“You don’t trust Goren?”
“Or Harold and Sue.”
She considered, head cocked. “They’ve been with our family for years.”
“I know, but someone killed your uncle, and it had to be someone who knew him well enough to find out that he’d gotten his hands on a treasure.”
“Okay,” she said, after a pause.
Another shadow darkened the window, only this time, it stayed.
Luca jerked. “Someone’s looking in over the baffle,” he yelled as he sprinted to the window.
As he neared, the glass splintered in all directions. Something metallic sailed through the pane, showering the cement with brittle shards and smashing the hanging lightbulb. The bulb sparked, and the basement went black.
FIFTEEN
Ava felt fragments of glass whiz by her face before she ducked away. Luca crunched frantically across the littered floor, searching for the flashlight she’d dropped. She found it first and clicked it on. His face was intense in the strange light. Angry.
He ran to the steps and took them two at a time.
“What are you going to do?” she called after him.
He didn’t answer, just barreled out the basement door. After a moment, she followed. She topped the stairs in time to see Mack Dog’s tail disappearing out the kitchen door after Luca.
The storm hit her like a backhanded slap as she emerged outside, snow pricking her cheeks. Because her jacket remained on the hook by the fire, she was instantly chilled. The black night swirled around her, and it suddenly came home that somebody had broken the window, hurling a heavy object through that might have crashed into either one of them.
Shadows from her own light picked out sinister shapes, moving trees, windblown pockets of snow. No Luca.
Getting her bearings she headed for the window where Luca would have gone.
He wasn’t there. Neither was Mack Dog.
She looked out into the angry storm. Hurt as she was that Luca hadn’t been forthright with her about buying Whisper, another emotion rose to the top. Where had he gone? Dressed as he was in regular clothing, he would not last long in the storm. Disorientation could render a person lost in moments.
She remembered one winter blizzard that hit Whisper smack in the middle of peak season. A young man, showing off for his buddies, insisted on hiking from the family lodge to the lockers where he had left his phone.
Thirty minutes later Ava’s father and Harold were out combing the area for him. Forty minutes later they found him, unconscious after running into a tree branch. Nearly frozen, he’d barely survived. Forty minutes could be a lifetime in these conditions.
“Luca,” she shouted, but the wind snatched it away.
She checked the snow around the broken window. There might have been some footprints, but her light was not strong enough to help her draw any conclusions from the blurry imprints.
“Luca,” she yelled again.
Mack Dog suddenly appeared, bounding over to Ava and poking at her with his nose.
“Where’s Luca?” she asked, teeth chattering.
Mack Dog wagged his tail. She shone her flashlight around in the darkness wondering again who had been out here in the storm watching them. Mack Dog barked, startling Ava so badly she dropped the flashlight. Floundering around in the snow she screamed as a cold hand brushed her cheek.
She bolted upright, lashing out at her attacker.
A light blinded her.
“It’s just me, honey. What are you doing out here?” Sue asked, eyes wide.
Ava’s heart slowed a fraction. “Looking for Luca,” she said.
Sue puzzled it over. “You’ve got to get inside.”
“I’m not leaving until we find him.”
“I’ll get Harold. Please come inside and put on a jacket,” she said.
Ava shook her head.
“Now you listen to me, Ava Stanton,” Sue snapped. “Your father would not tolerate this foolishness and you know it.”
“He’s not here,” she shot back, knowing she sounded like an angry teen.
“Don’t you say that. He’ll be back soon as he’s able,” she said, lips trembling. “You know he trusted me to be in charge, and I won’t let him down. Inside, right now.”
Ava was so surprised at Sue’s emotion that she followed her back toward the house. Sue was wearing a pair of sw
eats and a long-sleeved shirt with a jacket pulled over it, boots on her feet. Much more sensibly dressed than Ava whose teeth chattered violently. She would grab her jacket and return to the search.
Ava stopped before they reached the kitchen door and turned to peer through the storm.
A light appeared in the darkness, illuminating a slice of falling snow as it bobbed side to side. A flashlight. She tensed.
Mack Dog barked again and took off toward it.
Ignoring Sue’s strong protest, Ava ran back out into the storm. It had to be Luca. It had to be.
“Luca?” she called.
“Nope, Tate.” Stephanie’s husband limped into view. “What’s going on? Couldn’t sleep, and I heard barking.”
Ava’s heart dropped. “Luca’s out here somewhere.”
Tate didn’t ask why. “Let’s split up. I’ll take the woods. You scan the perimeter of the house, stay with Sue.”
“She should come inside, and we’ll wake up Harold,” Sue insisted as she joined them.
Tate was about to respond when a window slid open from the second floor. “What’s happening?” Goren called out. “Is someone hurt?”
“No,” said a deep voice, thick with irritation.
That one syllable flooded Ava’s heart with relief. Luca trudged out from a thicket of pines, shivering and angry. “I’m fine, and whoever broke the window must be, too, because I couldn’t catch him. He got away from me.”
“Happens to the best of us,” Tate said, clapping him on the shoulder and shoving him toward the lodge.
Ava could not restrain a smile at the look of fury on Luca’s face. She knew it came more than anything from the fact that he’d been outrun. She’d seen similar expressions on his face when they were kids and she beat him down the mountain. Every time.
She let him go first so he would not detect her own deep sense of relief. Luca was okay and at the moment, that carried more weight than anything else.
Once inside, Luca could not be persuaded to sit down. He headed immediately to the basement. “We should have secured the stuff. Stupid of me to take off like that.”
“What stuff?” Sue called from the top of the stairs.
Ava was going to call up and explain when Luca let out a grunt of rage.
A heavy metal pipe lay on the floor amid a cascade of glass.
Nearby, the wooden trunk lay empty.
* * *
Ava held the flashlight as Tate made his way painfully down the basement stairs to join them. Their search netted nothing. Luca smacked a fist on the wall in frustration. “Guy came back while I was chasing shadows. It was just a ruse to get us out of here.”
When Ava could stand the cold no longer, she headed up the stairs and straight for the fireplace. Goren and Sue stood wide-eyed.
“The suspense is killing me,” Sue said. “What did you find in that trunk?”
“Was it the Star?” Goren breathed, quivering with excitement. “Did you find the Sunset Star?”
Luca accepted a blanket from Sue and stood near the fire. “Not sure. We found a bag of jewelry and a book, but we didn’t get a chance to look thoroughly.”
“The pearl might have been reset onto a pendant or a brooch. Did you see anything like that?” The firelight made Goren’s face younger, childlike.
“I’m not sure.” Luca sighed gustily. “Now we might never know.”
Sue shook her head. “I can’t believe any of this. I figured this treasure was just another one of Paul’s daydreams.” She laughed. “That was the very best thing about Paul. He could make you believe in the impossible.”
Ava’s heart squeezed. “Yes,” she said softly, “he certainly could.” Luca took a step toward her, as if he meant to give her a comforting embrace, but he stopped abruptly.
She steeled herself against the unwelcome swirl of disappointment. No comfort from Luca Gage, Ava.
“We’re all half-frozen. I’m making some tea,” Sue said as Harold joined them, cheeks flushed. He was fully dressed, Ava noted, though she saw no sign that he had been out in the storm. She felt guilty for her suspicions.
Harold was the man who built ramps after her father was paralyzed, converted the bathroom with wider doors and lower fixtures to accommodate the wheelchair. He’d never complained about the extra work, never asked for more salary although she knew they did not pay him much. The only time she’d seen him emotional at all was the day he married Sue in a civil ceremony with only Ava and her father in attendance. It was a run-down, dingy room in the town hall, but it might have been the Notre Dame Cathedral for all the pride she saw in his face that day.
Sue took Harold into the kitchen with her with promises to fill him in, and Goren returned to his room, muttering softly to himself on the way.
Tate looked up from scratching Mack Dog’s neck. “Any ideas who busted the window?” he said, voice low.
Luca frowned. “Could have been any of them or none of them. Whoever I was chasing was quick, that’s about all I can figure. He doubled back around into the house after I lost him and headed straight for the basement.”
Tate nodded. “Maybe Victor can do some digging about all three of them. Find out how this all fits together.”
Ava flushed. “No.”
Both men looked at her.
“Someone is trying to steal from you and they’re not afraid to hurt you in the process,” Luca said. “We’ve got to figure out which one of these three it is.”
“Sue and Harold were my mother’s friends. They love me and they’d never do anything to hurt me.”
“Maybe you don’t know them as well as you think.”
“I know them better than you,” she fired back.
Tate considered. “If Harold and Sue are out, does that mean you think Goren is our guy?”
Ava shrugged. “I don’t know. The police are already investigating him, but I’m not going to have the Gages prying into the Agnotis’ lives. It’s not right.”
“I know they’re like family,” he said quietly, “and that’s a difficult subject right now.”
A difficult subject? It was the only subject that mattered anymore. Her uncle was gone and her mother, too. All she had left was her father and she was about to lose Whisper, the one place that held all her most precious memories. All the love that had once thrived here mingled with the sorrow that still circled like the winds that cradled the mountain. “They are good people.”
“Are you’re afraid of what you’ll find out?” Luca asked softly.
She felt her self-control splintering. “Well, maybe I am afraid. I guess that makes sense because I’m the daughter of a woman who jumped in a lake rather than face her problems.” Tears crowded her eyes, mortification at her outburst flooded through her.
Luca opened his mouth but nothing came out. He tried again. “Ava, I’m...”
She waved him off. She could not stand to see pity on his face, pity for the little girl whose mother had abandoned her in the worst possible way. She would not be seen as a victim. Not by Luca, especially not by him.
She turned to face him, chin high, when Sue poked her head in. “Tea will be ready in a minute.”
Tate thanked her and begged off. “I’m not a tea guy,” he said. “Besides, Stephanie will have my head if she wakes up and finds out I went wandering. I’ve got some explaining to do about why I didn’t include her in all the fun.”
He left. The silence thickened around them.
Luca shrugged off the blanket Sue had draped him with and offered it to her.
“No, thank you,” she said, stiffly.
“I am sorry things are working out this way.” He paced back and forth. “I don’t want to make you uncomfortable or pry into personal business.”
“Then don’t,” she said, arms wrap
ped around her.
“You can’t just walk away from this,” he said as the kettle whistled in the kitchen.
“Maybe I can.” She looked around the lodge, the warn draperies, the puzzles that had gone untouched for years. “I can contact the agent in the morning. I’ll sell to the highest bidder, maybe even your father, and walk away.”
He sighed. “Is that what you really want? To leave it all behind?”
She felt a myriad of feelings, joy and sorrow, fear and nostalgia tumbling together through her heart. “I don’t know.” The tears came suddenly, and before she knew it she was in Luca’s arms. He didn’t speak, stroking her back, his chin resting on the top of her head.
“If you need to leave, to get out of here for a while, do it.” His murmurs tickled her ear, tracing a path of electricity through her torso.
With great effort she pulled away. “And would you make the same choice? Leave the treasure behind?”
He paused. “No.”
She stiffened. “So that is really why you’re here. It’s all about the treasure.”
“No, Ava. You know it’s not true.”
She struggled to keep from crying. “You’re a treasure hunter and that’s the bottom line.”
His eyes sparked. “Bottom line? Here it is. Someone murdered your uncle. Walk away if you have to, Ava, but you can’t leave that truth behind. If someone finds that treasure before we do, they get away with causing your uncle’s death.” He groaned, closing his eyes for a moment. “Who am I kidding? They might have already because I left that trunk. Easy pickings.”
Ava’s resolve toughened inside her. He was right, although she still suspected the treasure and Whisper were his bigger motivations. Whoever killed Uncle Paul would not go unpunished as long as she was alive. If vengeance was the only reason to stay here at Whisper, then so be it.
“Okay. If the treasure is the key, then I’ve got something for you.”
Luca’s eyebrows arched. “You do?”
She pulled the bag of jewelry from her sweatshirt pocket. “I grabbed it before you took off.”
