Chapter 7 #2
“I’m good. You?” His gaze raked over her, and she could almost feel a physical stroke following the track of his eyes.
Not seeing any blood, she hopped in place a few times, checking for any pain and also to expend a little of her pent-up energy. “Fine. Finer than usual, even. Let’s go find out what Rory saw.”
They made their way through the woods toward the gun shop.
Charlie prided herself on going with the flow, but getting shot at wasn’t something she experienced on a daily basis—which was probably a positive—so she found herself to be a tad jumpy.
Every crack of a twig or chirp of a bird made her flinch, and her head swiveled back and forth as she tried to take in the entirety of her surroundings in one glance.
A huge hand enveloped hers, closing around her fingers with a gentleness she’d not expected. Surprised, she swiftly turned her head toward Kieran, who was looking as cranky as usual, possibly even more than usual, which was understandable, with the shooting and all.
“We’re okay,” he grumbled, the tone not matching the words at all. It was so unexpected for him to attempt to reassure her that she was struck silent for a solid thirteen seconds, until a shrill whistle came from a tree across the parking lot.
Charlie, to her infinite embarrassment, jumped at the sound, her head snapping around to locate the source. Kieran overreacted even more, yanking her behind him as he fell into a crouch that seemed to scream that he was ready to wrestle any foes into submission.
“Yo! Charlie!” a voice shouted, and she felt even more ridiculous for the way she was acting.
“Not now, Bones,” she called back, turning toward the gun shop door. “There was gunplay this time.”
“We heard it!” Bones yelled back from the tree she and Rhys had chosen for a reconnaissance spot.
“We didn’t see who shot at you, but we just wanted to tell you that it wasn’t us!
Any of us! Dave can’t hit the broad side of a barn with a firearm, and the rest of us like you too much to shoot your head off. ”
“Good to know, Bones.” Charlie gave a wave over her shoulder without looking toward the treasure hunter’s tree. “I appreciate you not wanting to kill me! Except for Dave, but I guess that’s fair, considering the whole Grand Junction incident.”
An offended yelp came from behind a different tree, drawing her attention to the poorly camouflaged man attempting to hide behind it. “You promised you’d never bring that up!”
Kieran’s strangled cough-laugh had a bit of a snarly edge to it this time, which Charlie could appreciate. The treasure hunters were a lot to take sometimes—most of the time—even when they weren’t all acting like fairly benign but also incompetent stalkers.
Charlie paused before turning back to the tree holding Rhys and Bones. “Who’s the sixth?” she called.
“The sixth?”
“There were five treasure hunters—you two, Dave, Tassie, and Lachlan. Now there are six of you. Who’s the late arrival?”
There was quiet, only broken by faint muttering as, Charlie assumed, Bones and Rhys discussed the sixth treasure hunter. “There isn’t a sixth,” Bones finally shouted.
Charlie rolled her eyes. “We can count, you know. The secret’s out. You might as well tell us who it is, since we’ll figure it out soon enough.”
“No one else was supposed to come.” Bones sounded a bit cranky. “Just us five. We drew names and everything. Rhys is going right now to see who it is. Don’t worry. We’ll get them to leave.”
Charlie was happy to let the treasure hunters take over solving that particular mystery.
She had enough on her plate. “Sounds good. They were heading toward the main drive when the bullets started flying. Before you chase them off though, make sure to ask them if they know who was shooting at us. They might be working together, so be careful, Rhys!”
There wasn’t a response—not that she’d expected one—so Charlie headed into the gun store with Kieran on her heels. Rory was still in the same spot behind the counter, her expression set in grim lines as she leaned toward the laptop screen.
“Thanks for the heads-up,” Charlie said, sliding across the counter again. With a pointed look, Kieran used the half door between counters to join her behind Rory’s stool. Charlie shrugged. “My way’s more fun.”
How he managed to roll his eyes while holding his scowl was quite a feat, but Rory’s growl drew her attention.
“Where’d they go?” Rory tapped the touch pad with enough force for it to be considered a slam. “They’re here.” She moved to a point on the video footage and pointed at the screen.
Even with Rory’s helpfully jabbing finger, Charlie had to lean in and squint to make out the figure crouched in the trees. “Dave needs to take lessons on camouflage from this person.”
Rory ignored her comment, paging through the footage screen by screen as small flares lit up in front of the figure.
“Now they’re shooting.” The following screenshots held nothing but trees, no matter how close Charlie got to the screen or how hard she squinted.
“Now they’re gone. Vanished. I haven’t been able to pick up any trace of them on the other views, and I have A.
Lot. Of. Cameras.” Each word was punctuated by a hard finger tap to the touch pad, until the whole laptop quivered beneath the attack.
“Easy there, tiger,” Charlie said soothingly, giving her a pat on the shoulder. “You warned us in time, and that’s the important thing. We’ll find whoever it is—hopefully before they get another crack at us.”
With a final wordless growl at the screen, Rory twisted around on her stool to face them. “I’ll go over all the footage again, make sure I didn’t miss anything. The gun was a pistol. Possibly a nine millimeter or forty caliber, but that’s all I can tell by the sound.”
“Did you see where the sixth treasure hunter went?”
Rory quickly found the right spot in the footage that showed the figure running through the front gate before disappearing out of range of the camera.
Charlie realized she was craning her neck, trying to follow the running form, as if she could magically see past the limits of the screen. “Do you have any cameras farther down the drive?”
“Yes.” Before Charlie could get excited, she noticed that Rory was looking annoyed again as she switched her laptop over to a black screen. “Nonfunctional. Either someone took it out, or it picked the wrong time to stop working.”
“Hmm.” Charlie exchanged a speaking look with Kieran. “Seems pretty coincidental.”
“Yes.” Rory had moved past annoyed and now sounded flat-out pissed.
Charlie’s phone vibrated with a call. “Hopefully this isn’t someone else telling us we’re about to get shot at.
” As she pulled the phone from her pocket, she instinctively ducked, feeling less abashed about it when both Kieran and Rory did the same.
Glancing at Fifi’s name on the screen, Charlie wondered if she’d somehow sent a distress call through their sister bond earlier.
If so, Fifi had taken her time responding.
“You guys hungry?” Fifi asked once Charlie accepted the call.
“Well, I guess that’s a no to the functioning psychic sister bond.”
“Sooo…you’re not hungry?”
“No, we are hungry.” Belatedly, she raised her eyebrows in question at Kieran, who gave her a definite nod. “Just not what I thought you were calling about. Barbecue?”
“Since it’s pretty much our only choice unless we want frozen burritos from the gas station, then yes. Meet you at Levi’s in ten?”
“More like thirty. We need to finish up here, and the gun store is in the boonies.”
“Simpson is the boonies.”
“So, we’re in the boonies of the boonies then. Boonies squared.” Charlie gave Rory an apologetic look, but Rory just stared back at her blankly, apparently unconcerned by the description and not understanding why Charlie was grimacing at her.
“Find anything out?” Fifi asked.
“I guess.” It felt like a week had passed since they’d interviewed Kevin. “Lots more questions than answers though. You?”
“Eh. As much as chewed-on bones can tell a person.”
“Speaking of chewed-on bones, we’ll see you at Levi’s in a half hour then.”
Fifi gave a somewhat guilty–sounding snort of laughter. “Is your angry firefighter coming?”
“Of course.” Charlie didn’t bother asking. “I gave him a nickname. He’s my sidekick now.” She side-eyed Kieran to see his reaction, but his only response was an audible sigh. His cranky expression didn’t change. “See you then.”
“Bye.”
Charlie ended the call. “Want to go to Levi’s with us?” she asked Rory.
“No.”
Charlie laughed. “I like your directness.”
Flushing a little, Rory sent her a sideways look, as if checking her sarcasm levels. “Sorry. I have to work. Store’s open until seven tonight.”
“I was serious—not offended in any way,” Charlie assured her. “And thanks for saving our lives and for setting up the interview with Kevin.”
Rory gave an uncomfortable nod in response, never looking away from the laptop. “Hang on a minute, and I’ll print this out for you.”
“What’s that?” Charlie peered at the screen over Rory’s shoulder.
“Kevin emailed that list of names.”
“That was quick,” Kieran said, leaning over Rory’s other shoulder.
Charlie beamed at him. “Never underestimate the threat of me showing up uninvited.”
He gave the smallest cough-snort, and Charlie grinned.