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Their pilot announced they were approaching Dallas and as they lost altitude, the sun was low on the horizon. By the time they were in the limo on the way to the restaurant, darkness had set in.
In a short time they were seated in a darkened corner table in a small private room. Lights were low, music from the piano player in another room was muted.
“So you got a private room for us. I didn’t know there was any such thing for just two people. I’m impressed.”
“That’s one reason I like this place. There are only three of these rooms.” He paused when their waiter arrived to take drink orders.
“Little chance of interruptions here by people who know either of us,” she said as soon as they were alone again.
“That’s right. You can barely see your hand before your face, much less who else is in the restaurant. Do you still like fried chicken better than anything else?” he asked, looking at a menu. He glanced up at her.
“No, like so many other things, my tastes have changed. I see lobster on the menu—that’s what I’ll have.”
“Excellent choice. I’ll have the steak,” he said, watching her while she had her head bent slightly over her menu. The candle flickering in the center of the table highlighted her shiny brown hair and rosy cheeks. Again, he wished she had worn her hair down the way he liked it best. He should forget what he liked best about her and leave anything personal a closed subject.
In minutes the waiter returned. He uncorked a bottle of white wine, gave it to Jake to taste and then poured two glasses after Jake’s approval.
As soon as they were alone, Jake raised his glass. “Here’s to finding the treasure.”
With a faint smile, she touched his glass with hers and heard the faint clink of crystal before she sipped. “That’s a safe, innocuous toast,” she said.
He smiled in turn. “I thought so.”
“I’m still thinking about your request.”
“If I’m successful, you’ll get your treasure, I will find a deed and get the bones of my ancestors for a proper burial. We both win.”
She tilted her head to study him, sipping her wine while she sat staring. “Why do I feel there is more to your request than you’re telling me? I find it a little difficult to trust you. You better not have manufactured this map yourself.”
He held on to his temper. “My dad took the map to someone in Chicago who could tell him the approximate age. It dates back to the mid-nineteenth century. That’s good enough for me. I’ll give you a copy of the letter and you can contact the people in Chicago yourself.”
“I’d like to see the original map. Will it disintegrate if it is handled?”
“Not if it’s handled carefully and you don’t intend to pass it all around. But you don’t get it until we have a deal.”
“You don’t trust me,” she said, bitterness filling her voice and anger flashing in her eyes, for an instant igniting his own fury, which he banked immediately.
“Should I?” he asked, trying to curb his feelings and get back to amicable dealings with her.
“Of course. You did at one time,” she reminded him sharply. Looking away, she took deep breaths. Spots of red were high on her cheeks. She sipped her wine and gradually her breathing went back to normal before she faced him again.
He’d give her time to think it all over; he just hoped the flare of animosity hadn’t killed the deal. Again, he had a flash of guilt for what he had kept from her. But then he thought about her father and stopped worrying about the secret he harbored.
* * *
Madison ate in silence while she mulled over his proposition, studying it from every angle because she didn’t trust him. She suspected he wanted badly to drill on her land and she wondered how much of wanting his ancestors’ remains was because he wanted to lease part of her ranch. Why hadn’t this come up years earlier or with some other Calhoun? And a deed and map? She had never heard of either one. Were they both hoaxes so he could get on her ranch? She wondered what was behind Jake’s request. She couldn’t keep from feeling that it was something to do with wanting to drill on their property.
What did she have to lose? That’s what she couldn’t figure. So he saw her land up close—she was certain he’d seen aerial photos because they were in the county records and on the internet. If he found the treasure, he had said she could have it. He simply wanted his relatives’ remains and the deed if there was one. While part of any ranch around here, including the McCracken place, would be a real asset, he would have to fight McCracken to get it.
She couldn’t believe a deed and his ancestors’ remains could be all there was to his request.
She glanced at him to find him watching her. His thickly lashed midnight eyes were seductive, mesmerizing. And guileless. He looked honest, trustworthy, open—all good qualities, yet she couldn’t believe the proposition was simply what he was telling her and nothing more.
Caught in his steady gaze, she forgot the legend, the treasure and the proposition. Instead she remembered Jake’s eyes filled with passion, a silent emphasis to what he did with his hands and his body. She had loved him deeply.
Instantly she broke off that train of thought and tried to think about her schedule tomorrow, his proposition, anything to escape memories that twisted a knife in her heart.
No matter how she turned his request in her mind, she couldn’t think how there could be an underlying motive and anything else for him to gain without her knowledge if she said okay to him.
“If I say okay to your proposal,” she asked him, “what are you going to do? Go out there with your shovel and start digging around?”
“Of course not,” he replied, smiling, his smile giving her heart a squeeze. He was so incredibly handsome and appealing and a smile made him doubly so. “I’ll get a crew from my ranch hands—not too many—about five. I want you to study the map and see if you can narrow down the location. There is no earthly way I can. You know your land, and if you don’t, one of your brothers should.”
“I’m no geologist. Suppose I can’t tell anything?”
“Then you and I will work on it together, but I’ll bet you’ll look at the map and come up with some possibilities for the area.”
She thought about what he was telling her as she put down her fork, her appetite suddenly gone. She wondered what she could do to make sure she didn’t get cheated.
“You didn’t eat much,” he observed a few moments later.
“It was delicious, but I don’t eat much most of the time and I’ve been busy thinking about your proposition.”
“Take all the time you need. You don’t have to give me an answer tomorrow night for that matter. I can wait. Want to go dance?”
“No, thanks,” she replied, smiling at him. “This is sort of a business dinner and I have no interest in dancing. Too much on my mind. I’d step on you,” she added, broadening her smile.
“I wouldn’t mind, but we can sit out the dancing.” He leaned forward, reaching across the table to take her hand. The instant her fingers touched his warm ones, she couldn’t get her breath. The air around her heated and her body tingled. That slight contact sizzled from her head to her toes and then settled low in the center of her being, a hot torment that made her ache to be in his arms and brought back memories of Jake holding her close, kissing her passionately, making torrid love to her that drove her wild.
“Truce?” he asked and she barely heard what he said as she stared at him. Something flickered in the depths of his eyes and for one brief instant, his fingers tightened around hers and his thumb ran over the back of her hand.
“You always did have the smoothest skin ever,” he whispered, his voice husky, a thick whisper, while his eyes blazed with such hot desire that she felt as if she would melt. At the same time, she wanted him to pull her toward him, to take her on his lap while he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her senseless. Closing her eyes momentarily, she tried to stop thinking about the past with him, the love she had thought they had shared. Love that he had smashed the way someone would break a crystal goblet by throwing it down.
She yanked her hand free and looked away, gasping for breath and hating that she had lost control so obviously that he could not avoid knowing exactly what she was feeling and thinking. He could see how much he could still affect her and she hated it.
“I guess we have a truce,” he said. His voice was raspy and she realized she still had an effect on him, too, giving her both satisfaction and annoyance.
“Truce for now,” she replied without looking at him.
“When you’re finished, we can head home. You can think about what I’ve offered.”
She nodded. “Then I’m ready to go back,” she said, wondering if they would say goodbye at her door and if she turned him down, if they wouldn’t see each other again. She didn’t care and she wasn’t too interested in accepting his proposition, except there were possibilities that would be good for her family.
She continued to think about all he had told her while he paid the bill and they returned to the airport. They barely talked, which seemed so odd in some ways. Long ago, she could talk to him endlessly and never tire of it.
Finally, as they flew back to Verity, she turned to him. “I think I would like to have our ancestors’ remains have a proper burial, also. If you remember, I’ve always been interested in our family tree and our history. The treasure—that seems a tall tale to me, but who really knows? It’s a generous offer to turn the treasure over to me if we find one.”
“Somehow, I think we might be more likely to find bones than treasure. If we do find treasure, that’s a good payment for your agreement to this,” he said. His long legs were stretched out in front of him, his booted feet near her. When they had boarded the plane, he had shed his jacket and tie and unbuttoned his collar. He looked relaxed and he still appeared open and straightforward, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that in some way, he was slipping something past her.
After another lapse of silence between them, she sat up straighter and turned slightly to face him. He sat watching her.
“If we do this and do find bones, how will we know whose bones are Milans and whose are Calhouns?”
“Take them to the county medical examiner. We can get some kind of DNA test and they can sort out the two families.”
She nodded. “That sounds reasonable. And I walk away with the treasure?”
“Absolutely.”
She lapsed into more silence before she broached the topic. “I know you want to lease some of my land for your energy company. Why not go elsewhere? It’s a big world.”
“So it is, but your land looks promising and is an area that we think may be a big play. It’s also cheaper and easier for us because it’s close to our headquarters. Labor is available here. Trained men who do this if we need to hire more. It’s dollars in the bank instead of going off a long distance.”
“That sounds reasonable. Suppose we put a high, high price on this.”
“You can price yourself out of the market, but energy companies, I think, are generous when they want something. Are you going to give us a chance?” he asked, looking at her and smiling, making her heart turn over again. Longing swamped her again. Too easily he could trigger those feelings.
“Don’t push me, Jake,” she said and he became silent again.
She thought about his original offer, still trying to look at it from all possible angles. When they stopped in front of her house, the driver came around to hold the limo door. Jake accompanied her to her door.
“Want to come in a few minutes? Would your driver mind?”
“No, he’ll wait. He’s getting paid for whatever he does.”
She unlocked the house and turned off the alarm. “We’ll go into the study,” she said, glancing at Jake to see him looking around.
“I forgot—you’ve never been inside this house. Seems ridiculous in some ways, but understandable in others. My ancestors would be turning over in their graves if they knew I’d invited a Calhoun inside.”
Jake smiled again. “I still feel the feud is arcane, ridiculous. Come into the present.”
“I agree, but we decided long ago to stop fighting it,” she said. As he walked beside her, he looked around. “Is any of this art hanging on the walls yours?”
“Not in the hallway, but in here it is,” she said, leading him into a study that held a large wet bar. “The painting over the mantel is mine,” she said and he crossed the room to look at the large painting of a field of bluebonnets, a tall oak in one side of the field and a stream running through it. “You’re not a contemporary artist. This is a beautiful painting and you’re very good.”
“Thank you. The painting on that wall by the window is mine, too,” she said and he crossed the room to look at the painting of three horses in a field, a cowboy holding the reins and standing by one. “That’s good, Madison. Very impressive. I can see why you’ve been a success.”
“Thanks. Would you like a drink?”
He shook his head. “No, thank you. Let’s just talk.”
She motioned with her hand. “Have a seat,” she said, sitting and crossing her legs, pulling her skirt to her knees and catching him watching her.
“I’ve been thinking about this all evening, Jake,” she said slowly, watching him intently. “I will in fact give you a final word tomorrow night....” She wouldn’t commit until she talked to her brothers; after all, she had to protect Milan interests. “But I’m thinking about accepting your proposal.” She speared his eyes with her own. “Under one condition.”
Three
Jake tried to avoid showing any emotion, but his heartbeat sped up and he had a flash of satisfaction. She was going to agree to let him on her ranch. He barely paid attention when she said she had a condition. He couldn’t imagine anything she could come up with that would stop him from accepting.
“Sure. Let’s hear it,” he said.
“I want to take a couple of my ranch hands and accompany you.”
As if cold water had been poured over him, his enthusiasm chilled. “You don’t trust me? Madison, if I surveyed your land, it wouldn’t get me any further with you on signing a lease,” he stated, sitting up straight in the chair. “I don’t intend to survey, but why would you want to go with me?”
“First of all how would I know if you found the treasure if I wasn’t along, except pure trust that you would inform me about it? That isn’t going to happen,” she said, her voice sounding cold and harsh, something he had never heard from her before.
“I expected you’d want one person to go with us—I figured one of the men who works for you. There’s no reason for you to go with us and it would be a waste of your time to have to sit and watch us dig.”
“You said nothing about someone who works for me going with you.”
“That’s your decision.”
She faced him, looking calm and composed again, the flash of anger gone. She shook her head. “That’s my condition. Take it or leave it. I go or you don’t.”
He stared at her a moment and then shrugged. “Sure, come along. If you think it over tonight and still want the same agreement, that’s fine. You have yourself a deal,” he said, holding out his hand. “If we find the treasure, you get it. I get my ancestors’ remains. We’ll just have to see if we do find a deed, what it says and who the land goes to. You go with me to search for the treasure.”
She placed her hand in his to shake while she smiled at him. “Deal.”
Her hand was warm, soft, and when they looked into each other’s eyes, he realized it might be torment to work with her beside him every day. He released her hand and the moment was gone, but it had dampened some of his enthusiasm. He didn’t want to get emotionally involved with her again and he didn’t like this constant flashback to that time in his life when she meant everything to him.
“I can go in tomorrow and clear my calendar. I don’t think we’ll search for more than a week, but I’ll clear my schedule for two weeks just in case. I can be ready to go Tuesday. What about you?” he asked.
“My time is my own. I think it would help if you would give me a copy of the map and let me study it. We need to have an idea where to go before we start. If you can send me an electronic copy of the map tonight when you get home, I can start studying it. Then tomorrow night, if you’d like, you can come over and look at maps of the ranch with me. You’re a geologist—I’m sure you can figure out some things from those photos of the ranch.”
“Sure. That’ll be good. I’ve already scanned in the old map, so I can send it easily.”
“Good. We’ll get started tonight.”
“You’re going to lose a lot of time to work on your art.”
She shook her head. “No, I won’t. I’ll take my sketch pad with me—because I don’t intend to dig. You’re the one so eager to do this.”
“You’re the one who will benefit from it if we’re successful,” he reminded her. “But you don’t need to dig so much as one shovelful of dirt.”
He stood. “I’ll go home and send you a copy of the map. Give me about an hour.”
At the door he paused. “Thanks, Madison, for agreeing to let me do this. Hopefully, it will be a productive venture.”
“I hope so. Thanks for dinner,” she said, following him into the hall.
“I’ll call you when I get home,” he said, walking away, aware she stood on her porch and watched him. As the limo pulled away, she still stood on the porch—a small figure in the moonlight.
They were going to search for the treasure together. Not what he had expected, but it was okay. The main thing was she had agreed to let him look. He hoped he succeeded in finding everything he was searching for. Again, guilt assailed him, but all he had to do was think about the day he had planned to elope with her. As he rode, he pulled out his phone to call his brother Josh, but there was no answer. He didn’t want to call Mike this late because Mike had a two-year-old son and he would be in bed.
He called Lindsay next to tell her. His sister was jubilant over his success with Madison.
After finishing his call with Lindsay, he thought about Madison. Was she looking forward to the search? He knew she hadn’t accepted because she wanted to be with him. It had been obvious that tonight had been a strain on her and she disliked being with him.
