2 Dead & Buried (13 page)

“Help me flip him over, then we can tie his arms behind him.”

The girls got on one side and pried him over on to his back. Morgan caught a glimpse of Fiona’s wrist as they pushed him over and her heartbeat quickened. The stones on Fiona’s bracelet were glowing.

“Look at your bracelet!”
 

Fiona looked down. “What the heck? It’s never done that before.”

The girls were staring down at the bracelet when the door to their shop jerked open a second time.

Morgan’ss heart jolted and she ripped her gaze away from the bracelet, bracing herself for another fight.

“Luke!”

“What happened? Are you okay?”
 

Luke was at her side in a second, his green eyes clouded with concern.
 

“I’m fine,” she said, her voice still a little raspy. Then she motioned toward the giant on the floor. ‘This guy must be one of those treasure hunters.”

“Your throat—it’s all red. Did he hurt you?” Luke put his hand tenderly on her neck to inspect it. Morgan’s pulse quickened, a warm glow spreading throughout her body.

Her hand flew up to her throat on instinct. “He tried to strangle me, but I’m okay.”

Luke stared at her for a few seconds more, and then narrowed his eyes at the guy on the floor.

“What did he want?”

Morgan caught Fiona’s glance and knew her sister was right. It was time to tell Luke everything.
 

“Remember the box we dug up yesterday?” Morgan asked as Luke opened the door, making hand motions apparently to someone outside.

“Yes.” He glanced at her while he held the door open for three guys who got busy tying up the giant.

“It only had a piece of paper in it, but that paper was a clue,” Fiona added.

“A clue that led us to the giant tree out back. We dug around and found this.” Morgan opened her fist to show him the key.

“What does it go to?” Luke asked.

“We don’t know.” Morgan flipped the key over. “We’ve been going on some sort of treasure hunt. First we found a passage in this old journal we had in the attic. That led us to an old box that had a map in it. We followed the map and dug the holes yesterday, which had another box where the clue was to dig under the tree here.”

Luke raised his eyebrows at her. “And the dead pirate in your yard. What do you know about him?”

“Nothing,” Morgan said. “Well, except that Overton said he was found with a manifest from a ship called the
Ocean’s Revenge
that was supposedly captained by some relative of ours. That’s why we went to look in the journal in the attic in the first place.”

Luke nodded. “Is there anything else I should know?”

Morgan shook her head.

“Well, there is one thing … maybe two,” Fiona interjected. “Morgan and Celeste were attacked the other day.”

“Yeah, I saw that. Celeste has a mean karate kick.”

“So, you
were
there,” Morgan said.

“Yep, we’ve been here watching things for a while.” Luke stepped aside to let the men drag the giant outside. “What was the other thing?”

“Oh, I think Fiona is talking about the boats, right?” Morgan cocked an eyebrow at her sister.

“Yep. A customer said she saw boats going back and forth in the water around the entrance to the cove at two in the morning,” Fiona explained.

Luke frowned. “Have you seen the boats? How many nights did they do this?”

“We haven’t seen them.” Morgan looked at Fiona. “I think it was only one night, right?”

Fiona nodded. “As far as I know.”

Luke rubbed his chin. “They were probably trolling for sunken treasure.”

“That’s what Jake said!”

Luke nodded. “Sometimes pirates would sink their ships on purpose in an out of the way place so no one else would get the treasure. They would come back and retrieve it later. The treasure hunters were looking for a sunken ship … but if they haven’t come back that probably means they didn’t find any evidence of one.”

“So then why are they still bugging us?” Fiona asked.

“They didn’t find any evidence
in the water
. But they sure do think there is something in this area, so now they are going to focus on the land.”

Morgan shuddered. “So we just have to find it first then, right?”

“It’s not really that simple. And you guys shouldn’t be digging around without talking to me. In addition to sinking their ships, pirates were well known for booby-trapping the places they buried their treasure—to protect it from thieves. Whoever came digging around to steal it would meet with an untimely and unpleasant end. You guys need to be careful that you don’t get caught in a booby trap when you are digging.”

Morgan’s eyes went wide and she ventured a look out to the tree in back.
 

Luke read her mind. “That’s right, you could have been hurt … or killed … today or last night. The treasure hunters aren’t your only worry here.”

Luke paused and his green eyes turned serious as he looked at Fiona, then back at Morgan.

“Now that they know you are getting closer to the treasure, they’ll probably step up their efforts. We’ve reduced their numbers, but I think there are still a few of them out there and they’ll stop at nothing. I know you guys like to take care of yourselves but I’d like to have some of my guys in the house with you,” Luke said.

“We have Cal and Jake staying over.” Morgan stuck out her chin, stubbornly.

Luke nodded. “So far nothing too bad has happened—we diffused the situation with the break in and you and Celeste were able to outwit the attackers the other day. But you might not always be so lucky.” He narrowed his eyes at Morgan. “By the way, how did you know to pull Celeste back from that alley just at the right moment?”

Morgan felt her stomach clench.
Should she tell him the truth about the strange things that were happening?
Her gut instincts told her “yes”.

“I just had a gut feeling, and Celeste said that Nana told her to tell me to trust my gut feelings. It worked out pretty good in that case.”

“Your Nana? Isn’t she dead?” Luke switched his gaze from Morgan to Fiona.

“Yes,” Fiona said. “Apparently Celeste has been talking to dead people. You know how she was always kind of spiritual what with all her meditation and stuff. I guess she connected with ‘
the other side
’.”

Luke looked down at Morgan and shook his head. “Carnelian stones that heal wounds, dead people giving you guys advice, and gut feelings that save you from getting abducted … I guess it’s going to be a challenge for me to get reacquainted with the Blackmoore girls.”

Luke took Morgan’s hand and her heart fluttered as he pulled her to him. “I have some things to take care of, but I’m coming to your house tonight. By the way things are heating up, I think I need to keep you girls under very close surveillance. And I’m not taking no for an answer.”

Then he kissed her cheek, turned on his heel and left.
 

Morgan’s heart took off like a thoroughbred at the starting gate. She felt that familiar pull in her lower belly. She had to admit, the thought of Luke keeping them under close surveillance wasn’t really all that unpleasant.
 

But then she felt a warning tingle in her gut. After all the hurt he had caused her ten years ago, she couldn’t let herself fall for Luke Hunter all over again. Could she?

“We need to get home and into the attic to look for the box that key opens.” Fiona picked up the geode that still lay on the floor and returned it to its place on the shelf.
 

“Right.” Morgan stood staring at the door Luke had just disappeared through, wondering what his kiss on the cheek meant. It was really just a peck. But was it a friendly peck or something more?

“Earth to Morgan.” Fiona was standing at the door, Belladonna under one arm.

“Oh, sorry.” Morgan followed her out the door and the three of them climbed into Fiona’s old truck.

“We should call Celeste and Jolene and tell them what we found … and about the attack,” Fiona said as she pulled out onto the main road.

Morgan pulled out her cell phone and made the calls.
 

“They’re both home and so is Cal. Looks like we’ll have plenty of help.” Belladonna had curled up in Morgan’s lap and she stroked her silky fur with one hand as she looked at the key with the other.

“I have no idea what this would go to. A trunk or another box?”
 

Fiona glanced over as she turned onto the road leading to Perkins cove. “I don’t know. I mean what are the odds that whatever it opens is even in the attic?”

Morgan nodded. “But we really don’t have any place else to try.”

They made the rest of the short drive in silence and Celeste, Jolene and Cal were standing at the door when they pulled into their driveway.
 

Celeste and Jolene ran over and hugged them.
 

“I can’t believe you guys got attacked!” Jolene said. “Are you all right?”

“Yes. Turns out we can take pretty good care of ourselves,” Morgan said.

“But I’m still thankful Luke was there to pick up the pieces.” Fiona winked at Morgan and she felt her cheeks grow warm.

“Let’s see this key.” Cal held out his hand and Morgan put the key in it.

“Oh yeah, this is an oldie.” He held the long skeleton key up to the light, squinted at it then handed it back to Morgan.
 

“Jeez Cal, I hope we aren’t keeping you from going to work. You don’t have to watch over us day and night,” Fiona said as they started up the main stairway.

“It’s okay,” he answered. “I have plenty of people to keep the shop running and I could use a little break. Plus I’ll take any excuse to get back up into your attic and get my hands on all those antiques.”

The girls laughed and Celeste swatted at him as they emerged into the attic.
 

Morgan stood at the top of the stairs and looked around.
 

“I have no idea where to start.” She looked tentatively at Belladonna. She felt a little silly thinking the cat could show her the way, but Belladonna had led them to many important finds in the past.
 

This time, though, the cat simply curled up by the window, gave Morgan a blank stare and started cleaning herself.

“Follow your intuition, Morgan,” Celeste said. “I mean really dig deep and see if you get a feeling for where we should look.”

Morgan took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She tried to focus on her feelings.
Was there a specific part of the attic that stood out?
She felt herself drawn toward an area in the very back and started moving toward it.
 

She stopped in front of a door and looked back at Cal and her sisters. “I think it’s in here.”

Her pulse kicked into high gear as she pushed the door open, the hinges squealing in the silent attic. Inside was a small room, probably ten feet by eight. It looked like it had once been one of the servants’ rooms but now it held boxes stacked almost from floor to ceiling, along with haphazard piles of … stuff.

Cal walked over to one corner and started rummaging in a pile.
 

“These are really old,” he said holding up a silver creamer and sugar.

“And look at this thing.” Jolene pointed to long sword that stood against the wall.

Fiona had started looking through one of the trunks and Celeste rifled a pile of linens.
 

Morgan was busy sorting through a box of what looked like old pewter cups when she heard Fiona gasp.

She jerked her head in Fiona’s direction. Her sister was sitting on the floor staring into a box.

“What is it?” Morgan shuffled over to see what was so interesting.
 

Fiona pulled what looked like a pile of burlap out of the box and laid it on the floor. Morgan’s stomach flittered with butterflies as she watched her sister slowly open the flaps.

An array of gemstones and crystals lay inside. Morgan marveled at how they sparkled in the light and then her stomach squeezed when she realized the ones closest to Fiona were actually glowing.

“They’re beautiful,” Morgan said watching as Fiona reached for a brown stone in the corner. Morgan recognized it as tiger’s eye—the same stone in the pendant Fiona had given her. Her hand flew up to the pendant and closed around it. It felt warm and she drew in a sharp breath when she saw the stone on the burlap glow as Fiona’s hand touched it.

“What’s that?” Celeste joined them.

“Old crystals.” Fiona dropped the tiger’s eye and looked up at them. “Well, all crystals are old, but these look like they have been here for centuries.”

“They probably have, judging by the age of the other stuff in this room,” Cal said.

“Looks like one of our ancestors was into crystals and gemstones, just like you,” Jolene added.

“Yeah, I guess so.” Fiona folded the burlap flaps back over the crystals and Morgan noticed the faint outline of printing on the material.