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“Don’t lie to me, Honey. You’ve been in this cave for nearly an hour, it has to be here.” He looks around, then bends at the waist and searches the dirt floor. “Where are you hiding it?”
“Look around, there’s nowhere to hide anything.”
Dell’s on his hands and knees, because there’s no way to stand up straight in this cave, but that doesn’t seem to slow him down as he pulls a gun from the back of his pants and points it at me. “Tell me where it is, Honey.”
The cave shrinks, all my attention laser-focused on the dark barrel of the gun pointed at me.
Dell hates weapons and swore he’d never use them. I can’t fully compute that he’s pointing one at me now.
He waves the gun. “I don’t want to hurt any of you, so you better just tell me where the treasure is.”
His whole arm is shaking, and beads of sweat are sliding from his hairline. “Dell.” I feel way too calm. “This isn’t you. What are you doing?”
His eyes widen and his Adam’s apple bobs. “Nothing else has worked. You aren’t taking me seriously.”
It doesn’t escape my attention that he hasn’t and is not now carrying out his threat to reveal my past to my sisters. A shard of hope that he doesn’t really want to hurt me allows my airway to open. “I’m taking you seriously. I just don’t have the money or the treasure right now. You’re going to have to wait.”
He swings the gun in my direction. “You’re lying. You hate me and you don’t care what happens to me.”
I’m distracted from his words by the black barrel in my face. “Dell. You aren’t going to kill us because that’s not a real gun.”
He shakes it, his face hard. “It’s real enough to hurt you if you don’t tell me where the treasure is right now.”
“There’s no hole in the end for a bullet to come out of. It’s solid plastic.”
Dell’s eyes go wide as he pulls back the gun and stares at the barrel. “Damn it, Wes told me it’d be realistic.”
Relief washes through me, but I don’t let go of the pepper spray. “What’s really going on? This isn’t like you. You’re acting way too desperate for money you claim you’re going to use to start a business.”
Dell tosses the plastic gun on the ground and punches the dirt floor. “Ow,” he hollers. “Fuck that hurt. I’m such a fuckup.”
He’s not wrong, but if I want answers, I’m going to have to stroke his ego. “You’re justifiably mad your plan isn’t going the way you hoped. Why don’t you tell me more about what’s going on so we can help?”
He narrows his eyes. “Stop being fucking nice to me. I know you’re just doing it to get me to talk. It’s not going to work. You’re going to give me that treasure or I’m going to tell your sisters all about the crimes you’ve committed.”
“We already know.” Dani’s on her knees, hands up like she’s ready to fight if she has to. “She told us before you got here. And I’m not as nice as Honey. I don’t care why you want money from her. I just want you to get the hell out of here.”
“I’m not leaving without that treasure.” Dell lunges forward, but he’s on his knees, so he just ends up on all fours and looking far less intimidating than he intended. “Your sister owes me, and I’m not leaving until I get my money.”
Dani crosses her arms over her chest. “Seems to me, if anyone owes anyone, you owe my sister. Didn’t she teach you the very lucrative art of conning people?”
Dell’s glare intensifies. “She didn’t teach me enough, and she left just when we started making real money.”
“She gave you the tools,” Clover says. “And you took them without paying her a cent for the education.”
“And you left her alone in the woods in the dark. Do you know she’s terrified of the woods now?”
Dell’s expression softens slightly, and he eases back onto his heels as he looks at me. “Still?”
I wave a hand. “I’m fine.”
“She’s terrified.” Dani points at Dell, making it clear she blames him. “She won’t even step foot in the woods without someone with her. If we went to a lawyer, I bet we could sue you for emotional and mental terrorism.”
Dell shrinks back even farther. “No one said anything about lawyers. We don’t need to bring the law into this.”
“Good.” Clover smiles cheerfully, like this man wasn’t just holding a fake gun on us. “We’ll settle out of court. You pay her five hundred thousand dollars in damages and we’ll let you walk out of this cave free and clear.”
Dell holds up his hands. “I don’t have five hundred thousand dollars, and I don’t owe any of you anything.”
