Search Me(57)

He tore his eyes off the road to give me an astonished look. “You think so?”

“Yep, I know so. I’m totally resolved to kick Jensen’s ass now.”

Maddox chuckled. “Really, Princess?”

“At least for the moment. I’m sure my resolve will start fading soon.”

Nudging me, he said, “I like the kickass and take names attitude much better than you all sad and weepy.”

“I can imagine.” A highway sign then caught my attention. “Hey, we’re almost to our turnoff.”

“The next exit?”

I nodded.

Maddox coasted the truck off the interstate. “Where do we go now?”

“Okay, take a right.”

He tapped the brakes and started slowing down. He eased us off the exit ramp and onto the two-lane highway. “Now, we’re going to go two miles before taking a left,” I instructed.

“Is that going to put us into the boonies?”

“Almost. It’s the turn after it that we go five miles on that road.”

“Fabulous.”

We drove through a pretty populated area with strip malls and fast food places before making our next turn. After only a mile, we’d left civilization behind. Green pastureland with horses and cows grazing dotted the horizon. A couple houses lined the road, but they were few and far between. We kept going further and further into the woods until the road ceased being paved and turned into gravel.

I glanced down at my phone again. “Talking Rock Springs Trail should be coming up on the left.”

Maddox and I both peered through the windshield, searching for the turn. Once we made it, the road became less gravel and more overgrown grass. Tree branches smacked and slapped against our windows and beat against the doors. Then the unthinkable happened: an iron gate closed us off from the rest of the trail.

Chapter Seventeen

With a groan, I asked, “Great. Now what?”

“Well, we can hike up the rest of the way carrying all the equipment. Or we can do this.” Maddox stomped on the accelerator, and the truck barreled forward, twisting and bending the iron as it crashed against the gate. I gripped the side of my seat as the impact jostled and shook my body. Finally, we mowed through it, and I heaved a sigh of relief.

“I told ya this bad boy was an epic beast, didn’t I?” Maddox questioned, with a grin.

“Oh yeah, it’s epic,” I murmured, my teeth chattering as we rattled over the uneven ground.

Maddox threw the truck into low gear and gunned the engine, sending us lurching uphill. It had been a long time since any kind of vehicle had been up the path. “I sure as hell hope this isn’t private property. The last thing we need is a gun-fight with a crazy redneck guarding his land,” Maddox mused.

“Tell me about it.”

But then all worries about a ‘sawed-off shotgun wielding property owner’ faded as my eyes honed in on something in the distance. I leaned forward in my seat to stare out the windshield. Instead of a better view, I was rewarded with banging my head on the roof after we went over a bump. The pain was momentarily forgotten as the sight of a rocky formation came clearer in my view. “There it is!” I cried pointing.

“I’ll be damned,” Maddox replied. He gunned the accelerator, sending us careening towards the mouth of the cave. Once we had almost reached it, he let up on the gas and pulled us to a stop in a thicket of trees. After he killed the engine, he turned to me. “You wanna do the honors of calling Jensen?”

At the thought of speaking to Jensen, my throat closed up like I’d swallowed sawdust. I shook my head and croaked, “You.” Maddox nodded and took my phone. It was beyond bizarre that to speak to Jensen he had to call Dad’s cell-phone.

Someone answered on the second ring. “Yeah, it’s Maddox. We’re at the cave.”

I couldn’t hear the reply. I only saw the flash of frustration on Maddox’s face. “That’s a totally bullshit time frame! We have no idea what we’ll find when we get inside.” His expression darkened. “Fine. We’ll call you when we have the gold.” Then he hung up and threw my phone against the dashboard. It made a horrible crashing noise before falling to the floorboard. His eyes widened. “Shit! Sorry about your phone. Jensen just…really pissed me off.”

“What did he say?”

Maddox turned to me. “He’s giving us an hour to find the treasure and then call him back. An hour! He’s f**king crazy!”

My mouth ran dry at the prospect, and I had to fight the rising panic that threatened to overtake me. “That’s it?”

“Yeah. So we better get moving. Now.” In a flash, he hopped out the truck and slammed the door, causing me to jump. I craned my neck to watch him start snatching and grabbing the tools we would need. He worked like a man possessed. I guess he was battling some of the same feelings I had. As much as I wanted to lose it, I knew I couldn’t. I needed to be strong for Maddox and in the long term for my dad as well.

After grabbing my purse, I scrambled out the door and went around to the truck’s bed. Maddox mumbled under his breath a few expletives directed at Jensen. I tentatively murmured, “I can carry something.”

He jerked his head up, and his expression momentarily softened. “Sorry about going apeshit there for a minute.”