Forbidden Ground (Cold Creek #2)(78)

He waited for her to demand to know if he had hidden an Adena artifact, but she didn’t. “I was waiting for you in the front yard yesterday evening when you drove by. I followed you, because I wanted to know if you were heading for the mica seam and why. I saw you dig up the empty box above Brad’s dead dog.”

He jumped up, leaned stiff-armed on the table. Brad had said she’d spied on him, and now—if she knew the box was empty, she’d dug it up, too, seen the shape of the big Adena arrowhead.

“Forget the dead dog. You keep beating a dead horse!” he shouted. “Okay, Brad once had an Adena arrowhead he found on our property. But from now on, any old artifacts we find here are off-limits to you, including anything in that mica seam or buried under a pile of stones!”

“You want me out of here, because you’re hiding something!”

“Yeah, I’m hiding that I want you and love you, and that’s just not going to work out, is it?”

She looked too shocked to respond, but what he’d blurted out staggered him, too. Yeah, that was the truth—how he felt about her, and the truth that it would never, ever work.

“Grant, I want you to know—” she said as his cell phone sounded. She stopped in the middle of her thought. The familiar tune confused him for a moment as if it came from another world. He turned to the walnut sideboard and reached for his phone, glancing at the number. “Keith,” he told her. “He’s home, but maybe those wood samples came. Just—just a second. Keith, Grant here. What’s up? Did the bird’s-eye maple pieces arrive from Wisconsin after I left?”

“The timber thieves have been here! They took a couple of prime oaks! Three, way back behind the house. You said, when they hit next, you had a lead to find them and—”

“When? When was this?”

“Velma wasn’t here today, so we’re not sure. At least five, six hours ago.”

“Call 911 to get Jace there. I’ll be over later, but I’m going to check the place they cut up my tree on Shadow Mountain first.”

“What’s wrong?” Kate asked as he ended the call and jammed the phone in his shirt pocket.

“The tree thieves hit Keith’s place for prime oak. I’m going up on Shadow Mountain to see if they try to hide there until they cut it up and get it out of state.”

“But since we found their cut-up place, they wouldn’t return, would they? Besides, we got shot at there.”

He raced into the kitchen and grabbed his car keys. As upset as he was about the trees, he was relieved there was an excuse to stop her from grilling him. She followed him to the front-hall closet, where he fumbled behind hanging winter clothes and produced a rifle and box of bullets.

“We don’t know it was them who shot at us,” he argued. “They may not even know we were there. You ever hear of a citizen’s arrest?”

“Grant, you can’t! I’m going, too.”

“No. Too dangerous.”

“I’m coming, too!” she insisted and grabbed her purse from the hall table. He almost laughed at her. He had a gun and ammo; she had—what?—lipstick and a wallet?

But he was tired of arguing with her, fighting her. And he really didn’t want to leave her here alone. She was right he needed a security alarm and motion light detector out back, especially if word ever got out there was literally treasure on these grounds. Did she believe any of what he’d told her?

“All right,” he said as he headed for the front door with her behind him. “But there are certain conditions. You will stay in the truck if I get out. You will get down on the floor if I say to. Understood?”

“Of course. See how well we could work together on other things? And just in case we end up spinning off that mountain road up there again, I wanted you to know I care for you, too.”

That revved him up even more despite the fact she was getting too close to his secrets again. His defenses were going down. But he knew he could lose her if he refused to answer questions—and lose her if he told the truth.

*

Kate thought Grant drove too fast, obsessed with getting to the spot where the thieves had dissected his maple tree. It was dark by the time they reached Shadow Mountain, so she felt doubly nervous on the narrow, twisting road upward. The old Mason Mill truck rattled, and he said it needed new tires. Maybe she shouldn’t have come along.

He was quiet, but she had to talk. Yet she knew, at least right now, not to start with accusations and arguments again. “I can’t believe someone could haul huge horses, their hitch and one or more tall trees up this road. Have you thought of that? They’d be crazy to come back here. How did they get your tree up this road?”

“There’s better access up the north face of the mountain, but it takes longer to go around. So we might be there in time. Keith said they cut them at least five or six hours ago.”

“We won’t be able to call for help unless Lacey’s parents let you use the phone that someone cut the wires on just three days ago—if they’ve had it repaired by now. How did Keith sound?”

“Mad as hell. All this makes me feel he’s my brother as much as Brad is. I’m going to park in the old driveway, where the former farmhouse once stood, to keep my distance. And you’re staying in the truck.”

“Maybe we’ll see the horses in the field. Then we can drive back to bring Jace up here, because we’ll know the thieves are there again. Please, promise me you’ll be careful.”