CHAPTER FOUR
Honey
Icould have knocked on Bigfoot’s door, but maybe I’m hoping for another sighting of him in the nude.
Or maybe I just need some time with Barley before I face the purple-haired man.
But Barley’s not in his kennel and there’s no blinking light on the camera, which means there’s probably not an alarm going off in Bigfoot’s house.
Disappointment feels like a catastrophe after my run-in with Dell. It’s been two days since I saw him, but I can’t shake the icky feeling he gave me. I need something good to wash away my spinning thoughts of guilt over Dell’s situation and the sick twist in my gut at the thought of him revealing my secrets to my sisters.
I walk back around to the front of the house, my good angel telling me to just ring the doorbell. But I’ve already been so good this morning. I called my cousin Levi, the same cousin who helped me out when things went so, so bad with Dell and Maya.
The only other person in the world who knows just how bad things went.
Instead of calling a friend of my father’s who could make Dell disappear for the right price, I asked Levi to help me figure out what Dell’s really up to.
Levi makes friends wherever he goes and he’s got connections even I don’t fully understand. All I want to know is that he can get me what I need and he’ll keep my secrets. I don’t need to know Levi’s.
And now, I need to stir up the kind of trouble that’ll put a smile on my face.
Luckily, I stuck my lock picking kit in a pocket of my cargo shorts before I left the house this morning. There’s no good reason to go treasure hunting if I haven’t got a way to open a locked chest.
I creep up to Bigfoot’s front door and get to work. It’s been a few years since I’ve picked a lock. Dear old dad taught me how during the year I lived with him, when Mom sent me out to Vegas to get me away from Dell and Maya.
Dad taught me all the tricks of his trade, and my sisters can never know. I’ve heard the way they talk about our father. They hate him for being a con artist and think he’s irredeemable.
I’m sure they’ll find out someday, but before they do, I want to experience what life could be like with all of us as one loving family. I need to find out what it was like to be part of that group I watched from the outside when they were teenagers and I was the baby sister.
The door unlocks with a click and a familiar shot of adrenaline courses through me. I let myself inside, ignoring the pang of guilt that says I shouldn’t snoop. This guy has been running around the forest for months, letting everyone believe he’s Bigfoot. I need to know what I’m getting into by, hopefully, teaming up with him.
“If you wanted to see me naked again, all you had to do was ask.”
I jump about a foot into the air and let out the most embarrassing scream. Idiot.
Why didn’t I think he might actually be home and awake?
Hand to my chest, I take in the small, but tidy living room as I turn slowly to see Bigfoot seated at a small dining table next to a large and modern kitchen. In the bright light of his kitchen, I can make out the dark roots of his purple hair. He needs a touch-up, or he’s letting the color grow out.
A sign he’s hiding from something? Or a vacation style change?
Barley’s hooves click on the linoleum as he hurries over to say hello.
“Shit.” I have definitely lost my touch. “I wanted to surprise you.”
He smirks. “You thought I was still in bed and you wanted to catch me au naturel. I get it. You aren’t the first.”
I roll my eyes. “Please. I can see a man naked whenever I want. I don’t have to break and enter to do it.”
He narrows his eyes. “Then why did you break in? Information? Money?”
Damn it. He’s got me painted into a corner. I doubt he’ll buy I was bored.
The easiest way out of this is to flirt and let him think I’m sneaking in to cook him a surprise dinner for two, but I can’t have him getting any romantic ideas about me.
“You said you needed time to think.” Thank the goddess for my ability to think on my feet. “I wanted to find leverage in case you decided a wife for Barley isn’t enough.”
I kneel and pat Barley’s sweet head.
“Barley and I discussed your offer, and he’s on board. I was too until you broke into my home. If we’re going to do this, you need to stay out of my house and out of my private life.”
I’m too eager for him to do the same to argue. “I don’t need to know why you choose to run around in the woods dressed in a Bigfoot costume. I don’t yuck other people’s yums.”
“It’s not a sex thing. Not that there’s anything wrong with those sorts of sex things. But that’s not what it’s about for me.”
I shrug. “I honestly couldn’t care less. I just want to get started.” That’s a lie. I want to know everything about this man, starting with how those biceps his t-shirt is hugging feel. Fortunately, I’m stronger than my primal urges.
“I haven’t even agreed to help you and you want me to just drop everything and start today?”
I flutter my lashes. “It’s my day off.”
He frowns, his eyes pinching at the corners. “If I’m going to help, you need to knock that off. I hate that manipulative shit.”
I open my mouth to persuade him I’m not trying to be manipulative - it’s a knee jerk reaction.
He holds up a hand. “Don’t tell me that’s not what you’re doing. I’ve dealt with people who want something from me and think they can play me to get it since I was a kid. Be real or the deal is off.”
The relief at not having to pretend is as overwhelming as it is frightening. How the hell can he see through me so easily? My own family can’t do that. “Fine. You in or you out?”
“Tell me the real reason you want my help. I’m not buying that you can’t read a map.”
I close my eyes in a slow blink. Any relief I felt is vanishing fast. I may have quit conning people when I was twenty, but honesty has never been easy for me. No one really wants honesty, no one wants the real me, no matter what they say. “I have no sense of direction, okay? I get lost in the supermarket. You’re the only person I figured could help me and keep my secret.”
He crosses his arms over his chest, the veins on his forearms popping, and I get lost for a moment in the beauty. “You think I care if you tell the world some random guy’s been pretending to be Bigfoot?”
I did think that. “I think you’ll care if I tell the head park ranger where to find the guy playing Bigfoot and stirring up all the trouble.”
His brows rise, and he purses his mouth. “Your poor sense of direction is the only reason you want my help?”
Damn it, is this guy a mind reader? “I’m also terrified of the woods, okay? There are bears and creepy deer and forest monsters—” I slap a hand over my mouth as bile rises.
He nods like he’s got it all figured out. “You want me to go search for your treasure on my own. I knew there was no way a woman like you wanted to do the actual work.”
I lower my hand and gasp. “A woman like me? What the hell does that mean?”
“The kind of woman who breaks into my house looking for extra leverage to convince me to help her. The kind of woman who claims she can’t find a single person in this entire town of outdoorsy people who can help her navigate the woods.”
“I need someone who can keep a secret. I work in the diner and, trust me, no one in this town knows how to keep their mouths shut. What the hell is your name, anyway?”
It’s his turn to slow blink. He looks away, then glances back at me, taking way too long to answer a simple question. “Skill…worth. Mac Skillworth.”
I raise my brows and tilt my head to the side. That totally sounds like a made-up name, especially since he was looking at the skillet on the stovetop before he said it.
“You can call me Mr. Skillworth.”
“I’ll call you Mac, thanks.” He can keep his secrets. As long as he helps me, I can keep a lid on my curiosity. “Are you in or out, Mac?”
He huffs out a heavy sigh. “Fine. But I’m not doing this alone. You’re coming into the woods with me.”
I nod like I’d always planned to do just that, but I was definitely hoping he’d do this on his own. In exchange for a percentage of the treasure, of course. “We should start with the closest spot. I have GPS coordinates.” I have approximate coordinates anyway.
“I want to see the map.”
My first instinct is to figure out what he wants most. I might not con people anymore, but I still, instinctively, try to work a person to get what I want. If it’s important enough, I don’t fight the urge. And I don’t believe for a second he’s so good at reading me, a virtual stranger, that it won’t work.
Problem is, I have no idea what he wants. What the hell does a professor on sabbatical who dresses up in a Bigfoot costume really want?
He doesn’t want me. He’s made that abundantly clear. In fact,… That’s it. He wants to be left alone. “You don’t want to see the map or understand what this is all about. You just want to get this done so you can get back to your life as quickly as possible.” He’s leaning in, looking interested. This is working. “Just take me to the GPS coordinates, let me look around the area for a bit, and bring me back here. There’s no reason for you get involved beyond that.”
He taps his fingers on the table, clearly considering my offer.
“It’ll be easier for you to keep this from Clover and Asher if you don’t know everything.”
He nods as though he’s decided and my heart lifts. I’ve got this. We’ll find the treasure, I’ll take just enough to pay off Dell, and I can orchestrate a true bonding experience for my sisters.
He stands, walks across the room, and opens the door. This should be a good sign, but he’s in sweatpants, clearly not dressed for hiking.
“Get out,” he says calmly, but firmly. There’s something deeper under the words, an anger and a… I can’t tell what else. Hurt? “And don’t come back.”
I stare at him, rocking back on my heels with surprise. “I don’t understand.”
“All I asked is that you not try to manipulate me. You think no one’s ever tried to convince me what they wanted was in my best interests? I swore to myself a long time ago I’d never let anyone like you into my life again, and I’m sure as hell not letting you in when you’re the only one who wants something out of this arrangement.”
Damn it. I have thoroughly underestimated him. “You’re right.” I infuse as much honesty into my voice as I can. “I won’t do it again. I promise.”
“Your promises don’t mean anything anymore.” He opens the door wider and makes a sweeping motion with his hand.
“But you want a wife for Barley, right? I can get that for you.”
He shrugs. “I’m thinking Barley and I might both be better off alone.”
I can’t contain my reaction to that. It’s quite an intense statement for the situation. This guy has deeper issues than I realized. Maybe I can use that… I stop those thoughts dead. That will only drive him farther away. “Okay, whatever you want. I just need—”
“I don’t care what you need,” he says. “Get out or I’m calling your sister and telling her what you’re up to.”
I stomp out of his house, madder at myself than I am at him. Over-confidence killed my game and now I’m screwed.