Chapter Four
Hank
It’s only a matter of time before someone in these hills catches wind of what Joe is doing, and I imagine that the mountain boys up here don’t fuck around. Hell, if this were Alaska, a man would murder you on the spot for trespassing onto his property. The size of this lot is so massive, though, that I wonder how many people trample all over it without knowing what they’re doing. I haven’t seen any posted signs since we got here, and from what I can tell, whoever owns the land keeps it pretty open to the public. Though, I doubt they’d welcome a group of miners with open arms.
Brianna breathes heavy as she paces a dirt ring around the campsite. I haven’t known her long, but I can tell she’s panicking, which isn’t good. I didn’t know she was pregnant. These women shouldn’t be out here alone.
“Can’t we just go back to the Jeep?” she asks as a light rain starts.
“We could, but I don’t trust that my boss didn’t send someone to follow me. If he did, that person isn’t going to let us drive away unscathed. There’s an access point to the river just ahead according to the map. We can follow the water the opposite way into town. My guys won’t be paddling upriver.”
Reese looks toward Brianna, then toward me. “I think we need to go back to the Jeep. She’s pregnant. She can’t be dragging herself all over the woods. This is my mistake, and I’ll fix it.”
“This isn’t your mistake,” I say, as the rain picks up. “It’s mine. You were just going camping. I shouldn’t have brought you two into this.”
“Howdid you bring us intowhat?”
I sigh heavily before taking a spin around the campsite they’ve set up. It’s tucked away in a quiet corner, behind a granite cliff. Right now, their tents are in the open, but if we moved everything ninety degrees to the right, they’d be hidden by the granite overhang. I’d guess no one would come messing around there, especially in the dark.
“We’ll stay here tonight,” I say. “But we need to move first thing in the morning.”
“That’s not what I asked,” Reese says, her hands on her hips. “I said, what did you bring us into?”
I sit on a heavy log next to the crackling fire and lean into my hands. “I didn’t mean to bring you two into this.”
“What’s this?” Brianna asks, her voice tense, her hand over top her stomach.
Fuck! I knew I shouldn’t have taken the ride. It’s my fucking cock that got us into this mess. If I hadn’t been thinking about the way her beautiful face looked at me so innocently as she offered to help, I’d be back down the mountain with a legitimate excuse by now, and these girls would be enjoying their camping trip.
I scrub at my beard. “I have some metal wire and alarms. We’ll set them up around camp and no one will get near us without a warning. I’m going to keep an eye on everything. You don’t need to worry.”
“What exactly are we worrying about? You’re probably going to have to tell us that before we stop worrying.”
She pulls out a box of homemade cookies and hands one to Brianna, then shakes the box toward me. “You get one after you tell me what’s going on.”
Are those dicks?
I glance toward her, a knot in the pit of my stomach. “Everyone in the gold digging community is starting to talk about this mountain. They say that it’s so easy to find that it just washed up during a party.”
“Yeah, at Tara’s. She’s not in trouble is she?”
I shake my head. “No, they don’t wanthergold. They want their own. Joe has studied the map and the topography of the area and he believes there are major pockets of the mineral near the gulch.”
Reese’s teeth grind together.
I stand and move toward her. “I’m a full-time miner in Alaska. It’s how I earn my living. Joe thought that having a bunch of us here would help. I had no idea this was private property until I arrived, and by then it was too late. Joe has a history of trying to be the first one on a new location and he’ll do anything to get his cut before people even know what they have.”
“What?”
“He has a reputation for being kind of ruthless when he’s on a gold rush. That’s why I’m not pressing him on this one, and it’s why we should avoid him at all costs.”
Wheels turn behind her eyes and heavier rain starts to fall, extinguishing the fire.
“Look, let’s get everything set behind the granite and we’ll head out first thing in the morning.”
Reese’s eyes narrow. “Why should we trust you? You wouldn’t have agreed to help this Joe guy unless you were in for a payout too. And you could’ve said no once you got here and realized it was private property. I don’t see him holding a gun to your head.”
“Well, you can’t see the gun, but that man has talons stuck in the backs of everyone he knows… trust me. I’m sorry I wrapped you two into this. I’ll help you upriver in the morning and we’ll get the hell out of here.”