Page 8 of In the Pursuit of Haven
“Offer those wolves a cut of the treasure and they will see her out of here even if she do cast spells on their own mothers.”
The men’s faces froze at the idea of sharing the loot, but I knew they’d find a way to keep their treasure intact. One way or another, I’d be freed. The door slammed and I turned to Crabb. “What of you? I’m ffrighted that after ye tell them the whereabouts of this treasure that they will hang ye at the end of this all. I do not trust them.”
“As I don’t. It is why I entrust ye with my secrets. If ye possess them, they cannot touch ye.”
I lifted my head from Jessie’s chest. “He told her the meaning behind the locket?”
Jessie nodded. “And more! Unfortunately for my ancestors… unfortunately for my uncles, my father, me… yeah, he trusted the witch over us.”
“But how did he outsmart the sheriff?”
“It’s great. I hate to admit it, but that horrible Sheriff Corwin, the same one who’d pressed to death Corey Giles, the same one who’d robbed all the wrongly accused witches of their worldly possessions… well, he took Crabb to the hanging spot, and there his nephew waited… to supposedly rescue him once he gave away the location of the treasure, but Crabb knew better. He wasn’t a wily old pirate for nothing.”
Crabb balanced on the ladder where he faced the unfeeling crowd. Lightning flashed behind him. The sheriff placed the noose over his sinewy neck. He didn’t spare the executioner a glance, only stared down his nephew. “Only the pure o’ heart shall possess the treasure, and you’re none of that! Let the fire of your betrayal consume you and yours.”
“And then,” Jessie said, “he kicked his own ladder out from under himself and was hung. And that’s where he died with his secrets.”
Water crashed through the branches, splashing us like a cold slap. I screamed as I was drenched by the frigid temperatures. Was that from uncontrollable waves? Floods from the rain? I melted against Jessie, terrified and miserable. “Are we still alive?” I asked.
“I’m not sure actually.” He found my hair again and pressed me closer. “Yeah, there’s your heart. I feel it. I think that means we’re still alive.”
I wasn’t so sure, but I was smiling nervously anyway. “Prove it.”
A soft laugh rumbled through his chest. “You sure you want me to do that?”
I lifted my head so that I could try to distinguish his face from the shadows. The way he watched me? Well, I’d never kissed anyone before, but instinctively, I knew that look—he had every intention of doing it. He leaned closer.
He was going to… and I wanted him to, and in a way, I felt like we owed it to the star-crossed lovers in history who were forever divided by everyone else when all they wanted was to be together.
His mouth found mine in the darkness. The intensity I felt behind his kiss heated me back up so that I no longer feared dying in this secluded wilderness.
Jessie was with me. I wasn’t alone.
And yeah, Aunt Haven was going to kill me. So why? “Why?” I asked Jessie, pulling back from him. “Why does she hate your family?”
I didn’t have to say who. He knew. Jessie caught his breath enough to answer. “My family kept going for that treasure, even without knowing what the ruby locket stood for… and they didn’t care who stood in their way to finding clues. They always needed to fund the next expeditions; they ruined everyone who had the misfortune to get close to them…”
Including Aunt Haven’s family.I didn’t know all the details of that either, but apparently Haven hadn’t been driven completely into the ground since she still owned the properties around the lighthouse on Baker’s Island.
And I wasn’t about to let a terrible family feud get in the way of… well, whatever this was.
Yeah, I was so grounded when I got home! I should know better after what my mom faced with the man I used to call Father, but I didn’t want to know better anymore.
“Old Pirate Crabb was right about one thing,” he said. “We always get burnt by the fire of our betrayal…”He touched my lips with the tips of his fingers. “One way or another.”
“Where’s the locket?” I asked.
“I don’t know. Our family lost it sometime in the ’70s. My old man won’t stop whining about who might’ve stolen it—your aunt’s name comes up a lot.”
“What? Haven? Why would she have anything to do with it?”
Jessie shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. Getting rid of that thing is probably the only thing keeping my old man alive—not that he doesn’t try to drink himself to death every night, which is why our hunt for the treasure has ground to a halt. Good riddance. Right?” His lips found my cheek. “There are better things than money.”
“Yeah, definitely,” I agreed.
But that was before we found what we did in the blackened rock the next morning. After we emerged from our shelter onto an island ravaged by the storm, we spotted it. The lightning had split the crag in half and inside was something I’d never seen before.
I didn’t believe in things like Dimond’s mystical powers or witches or…Yuck! What was this disgusting thing in the cracks of this rock? It was a strange, clawed weapon that rattled and had a hilt made of leather. Jessie leaned down and pulled it out. “What’s this?”
