Broken Wings (17 page)

As he wound the strips around their
wrist, binding them together, he knew that leaping into the ravine
was the right thing to do. Tajan could only hope that they’d
reunite in another, future life.

* * *

The posse, led by Carson City’s
sheriff, closed in on the renegades. They stood together on the
edge of the cliffs and the Indian was wrapping something around his
and the girl’s wrists. It looked like he was binding their arms
together.

Sheriff Simmons tugged on the reins and
slowed down his horse when he was no more than a few feet away from
his targets. “Stop! Hold it right there!”

The Indian looked at the girl and
smiled. “I love you.”

What surprised the Sheriff the most was
that he said it in English. Not perfect English, but English
nonetheless.

Just when the Sheriff thought he
couldn’t get anymore disgusted, she said to the Indian, “I love
you, too.”

He shook his head and pushed down the
bile rising up his throat. Just as he looked back, and laid his
hand on his gun, the ill-fated couple stepped off the
ledge.

The Sheriff swung a leg over his horse
and slid to the ground, landing on his feet. He and his comrades
rushed to the cliff’s edge and peered over the side. At the bottom,
the Indian lay draped across the girl—they were both lifeless—as if
he were still trying to protect her, even in death.

He shifted his attention to his men,
letting his gaze drifted over their faces. Eyes wide and mouths
dropped open, clearly none of them had expected them to
jump.

Just as well, though. The girl was
spoiled for any decent man now. She was better off dead.

Feeling a little cheated that he had
been robbed of the opportunity to avenge the tainting of a white
woman, Sheriff Simmons glanced back out over the canyon.

Two eagles soared up out of the ravine
and danced playfully as they took to the sky.

~~~~

PART SEVEN

THE SET-UP

~~~~

CHAPTER 33

Billy and Rio were still on the
mountaintop where Maggie and Tajan had jumped to their
deaths.

Rio looked at Billy, tears blurring her
vision. “That was it? That was the end?” Her voice shook, nearly as
much as her composure.

“
Yes,” Billy said with a
regretful nod.

“
But what about Maggie and
Tajan?” Anguish suffocated Rio. Her heart cried out. “What happened
to their bodies?”

“
I don’t really know.” He
shook his head. “News of the tragedy got back to the tribe in the
form of traders’ gossip. Tajan’s parents raised their baby. All
their personal tokens were passed down from generation to
generation.”

“
Where are the pouch and the
bracelets?” She prayed they weren’t in the hands of some distant
cousin.

“
My father has
them.”

Relief escaped in her overblown sigh.
Then an inquiry flashed in her thoughts. “How do you know Mary
didn’t come back for the treasure?”

“
Mary was hell-bent on never
stepping foot in northern Nevada again.” He hopped up off the
ground and wiped his hands against his Levi’s. “Besides that...” He
offered his hand. “She married a man in California in 1865.” He
pulled her to her feet. “There were rumors that he had some
political power of some sort. So it was unlikely that she would’ve
jeopardized her new husband’s career by risking discovery as a
notorious bank robber.”

They strolled back toward Billy’s Jeep.
“So you think that Mary more than likely tucked her half of the map
away, and it got passed down from generation to generation...the
same as Maggie’s half?”

“
That’s a fair bet.” After a
brief interval his face twisted with confusion. “I just don’t get
how Audrey got a hold of Mary’s half of the map.”

* * *

Rio still didn’t believe that Turner
was Mary’s descendent. Something about his story hadn’t rang true.
It bothered her so much so, in fact, that she lay awake in bed that
night, trying to figure it out.

Turner had said that his great-great
grandmother had passed her half of the map down to his grandmother,
who in turn had passed it down to him. And that his great-great
grandmother was Molly.

Wait! That couldn’t possibly be true. Molly died. Mary was the
one with the other half of the map.

Rio didn’t have a clue how Turner came
to have the map in his possession. But the one thing she was sure
of was that he hadn’t gotten it from
his
grandmother.

And Rio was willing to place money on
that notion. While she believed Turner’s grandmother used to tell
him stories about buried treasure, Rio doubted the woman was ever
in possession of that map.

If she had to guess, she’d say he
probably acquired Mary’s half of the map from some guy who owed him
money.

* * *

Now that Billy had the one piece of
information he needed to find the treasure, he stood in the middle
of his living room, with Rio at his side, and folded the map just
like Maggie had shown him. Looking down at the final results in his
hand, he was astonished.

“
I know where this is,” he
said. “I know exactly where this is.”

“
Okay...” She sucked in a
deep breath. “We’ve got to be careful. We have to get in and out
without our tailgaters knowing about it.”

He nodded. “I’ve been trying to figure
out how to do just that.”

“
Billy…” Rio’s voice trailed
off.

“
Yeah.”

“
Do you trust
me?”

“
Yes.”

“
Okay.” She dipped her chin.
“I’m going to ask you to do something without explanation. I need
you to trust me and not ask questions.”

“
Go on.”

“
We’re going to need
friends,” she said. “A lot of friends.” Her gazed traveled up and
seized his. “Friends you would trust with your life.”

“
I can get
those.”

Billy didn’t let the desire to know
more about her motives consume his thoughts. Since the vision quest
he trusted her implicitly. He was confident that all would reveal
itself in due course. Rio would divulge her reasoning as soon as
she could.

~~~~

CHAPTER 34

Billy assembled his friends at the
Silver Arrow, a neighborhood hangout, to find out who he could
count on. It was a small bar by many standards. It consisted of a
lounge, a dance floor, a deejay’s booth and a poolroom in back. The
establishment catered mostly to locals rather than
tourists.

Rio and Billy sat together at the bar,
each with a beer in front of them. She nibbled on a bowl of peanuts
sitting on the counter.

The deejay played a song from one of
those boy bands. Rio sipped her beer and rolled her eyes, showing
her displeasure for the deejay’s choice in music.

“
What’s the matter?” Billy
laughed. “Don’t you like the music?”

“
Well, actually...I’m more
of a rock-n-roller.” She placed her beer bottle on the counter.
“Give me the Eagles, Def Leppard, or some Alice Cooper...and I’d be
happier than a pig in shit.”

Billy laughed and motioned for the
waitress making her way across the dance floor. She glided toward
him with a sexy dance.

“
Can you ask Ray—” he said
of the deejay as he handed her a five. “—if he’s got some Alice
Cooper that he’ll play for my cousin?”

“
Sure, Billy.” She smiled
and tucked the money away inside her cleavage.

Not long after, Alice Cooper’s ‘
Be
my Lover
’ blared over the sound system.

Rio listened to the song’s first few
lines and then turned to Billy with a sharp look.

He laughed. “I think this is Ray’s
futile attempt at making a pass at you.”

“
How fortunate for me.” She
turned away and reached for her beer.

“
He’s got some big shoes to
fill...doesn’t he?”

“
You know,” she said without
looking at him, “I’ve always imagined that there’s a guy out there
somewhere.” Finally, she peered at Billy. “And from the first
moment that we’d meet... that’d be it.” She summed it up with a
shrug. “I’d see him. He’d see me. And it’d all be over. We’d both
be off the market.” She turned away and took a long, hard drink
from her beer.

“
Just like that...” A
skeptical laugh thundered up his throat. “Instant love,
huh?”

She snagged a handful of peanuts and
tossed them at him. “Don’t laugh at me, damn it.”

“
Well, come on…” He was
really laughing now. “You’re talking love at first sight or some
such shit.” He grabbed his beer and shook his head. “It’s
ridiculous.” Billy downed nearly half the beer.

Their debate over the possibility of
love at first sight was interrupted by Billy’s friends entering the
bar. They filed in one-by-one and headed toward the
poolroom.

Billy was drawn to the pretty girl
following close behind his best friend, Danny. Her dark hair and
honey-colored skin had his mind wandering.

“
Yeah...” Rio’s voice
drifted into his thoughts. “Ridiculous, huh?”

She was laughing, but he didn’t care.
He got up and headed for the poolroom, leaving Rio sitting at the
bar.

Inside the poolroom, he approached his
friends and the girl stepped behind Danny.

“
Hey, Bill.” Danny gave him
a nod. “What’s up?”

“
Who’s the girl?” Billy got
straight to the point.

“
You remember my cousin,
Janey.” Danny pointed over his shoulder.

Rio stopped at Billy’s side.

Billy paid his cousin no mind. Instead,
he glanced over Danny’s shoulder and studied the girl.
Janey
?
Really
?

He shook his head.
No Way
. Who
would have known that scrawny little girl who used to follow them
around could turn into this beautiful creature standing before him?
“Janey?” He had to ask to make sure.

She emerged from behind her cousin. “Hi
Billy…” Her smile tempted him. “Long time no see.”

Rio shifted behind Billy, handed his
beer around to him and then rested her chin on his
shoulder.

Janey’s gaze met Rio’s and the girl
lost her smile and her eyes flared with a bitterness that said,
who in the hell is this redheaded tramp hanging all over
Billy
? She pointed at Rio. “That your girlfriend?” she asked
with a chill in her voice, all the while eyeing her
competition.

Rio laughed.

“
Rio?” Billy asked
dubiously, pointing over his shoulder. “God, no. She’s my
cousin.”

Janey’s hardened expression relaxed
into a smile.

Billy moved in closer, reducing the gap
between them. “Where’ve you been? Last time I saw you…you were
twelve, maybe thirteen.”

“
Away,” Janey
said.

Rio tapped Billy on the shoulder.
“Pssst…hey, Casanova.” She teased him. “You want to remind me why
we’re here?”

A few pool games later, Billy had
filled his friends in on their plans. He laid the pool stick across
the table. “Well…” He planted his hands on his hips. “That’s
basically what we’re talking about.” He let his gaze travel around
the pool table. “Question is...can I count on any of
you?”

Without hesitation, Danny stepped up to
the plate first. “I’m in.”

One by one, they acknowledged their
support, including Janey.

* * *

Hours later, Rio and Billy headed back
to his house. He drove while she counted her winnings.

“
Two hundred
forty-five…fifty-five…sixty…seventy… eighty…” She fanned the bills
playfully and rubbed it in since she’d gotten a few of them from
him.

It all started out as a friendly game
of pool. But then they started in with that macho shit, and the
little pool shark put all of them in their places. In the process,
she lightened their wallets for them, too. After all, it was the
least she could do.

“
Next time,” he asked, “can
I be on your side?”

Rio looked at him. Even though he was
talking to her, he was a million miles away. He was thinking about
Janey—that much was obvious. Rio had seen it when the girl first
walked into the bar. Billy was smitten with her from the
get-go.

“
You like her, don’t you?”
she asked.

“
Who?”

“
Janey.”

“
No, I don’t.”

“
Yes, you do.”

“
Okay, so maybe she is
pretty.” With a slight nod, he started to come around. “Really
pretty.”

“
Don’t you get it, dummy?”
Rio’s voice crested with excitement.