Page 67 of Another Man’s Treasure

“I’ll show you sometime,” I say with a sexy wink. I shift in the seat and the plug nudges deeper.

My turn for sexy shenanigans in a cutesy little boat like Mister Darcy!

“Not those,” Willa says, grabbing the journal and flipping to a page. When I look down at the scribbled markings, I still can’t read it.

“We didn’t decipher all of it yesterday because we ran out of time, but it sounds like there’s some kind of town meeting place, a fountain, an actual key to the city, and a couple other things we didn’t get to.”

I turn in my seat to stare at her. “And where’s this stuff been all these years? Why doesn’t anyone remember it?”

Willa looks at me, her expression curious. “Don’t they? Or does nobody know to ask? I guarantee if you cornered any of the first-gen monsters and asked them point-blank, they wouldn’t be surprised at all.”

“Or Betty,” I muse as I consider the sassy troll who owns Betty’s Burger Bar. Betty’s a PG original, a Gulcher through and through, and old as the hills, not that it’s slowed her down.

Willa nudges me. “This actually concerns you two.” She waves a hand at Wilder. “Because from what I can tell, the key to unlocking all of this and revealing what’s been hidden is located somewhere on the Sandoval ranch.”

I whip around in my seat at the same time Wild barks out a stream of questions.

Willa laughs and lifts both hands in the air. “Okay, boys, one at a time. I literally didn’t get any of that.”

Wild leans onto his forearms, brows set with tension as he stares at his sister. “Why do you think it’s there? And why would it be?”

She shrugs. “I don’t know why it’d be there, or if the Sandovals are even aware. But I have to assume PG herself knows, and that’s why she tossed us the clue. It would make sense, really, since I’m handling the purchase of the ranch for you. There are coordinates, and assuming the survey results we got are correct, the key is somewhere in the vicinity of the river that runs partially through the ranch, up in the foothills.” She glances at Kohdiy. “He agrees with me because⁠—”

“Enough,” Kohdiy says quietly. “No more, Willa.”

Wild and I look between them, and it shocks the hells out of me when Willa doesn’t finish the sentence.

“Anyway,” she says as she looks at her brother, “it’s my opinion that we got dragged into this because the key lies on the ranch you’re buying, and Pine Gulch is ready for a new era. I mean…that’s what I’m surmising.” She smiles at Wild. “My only real question for you is should we talk to Emmer Sandoval and his father about this or just let it lie?”

“Oh gods, yeah,” I murmur as I consider the ramifications of that. Looking across the table, I find Wild running both hands through his hair, eyes skyward like he’s mulling the whole thing over.

A moment passes, and then he looks at me, popping his lips. “What do you think we should do, Oz?”

My mouth drops open. I look at him in utter shock. Is he really asking what we should do like I’m a part of this deal? Unbidden, tears fill my eyes. Less than a day into a real relationship and he’s asking me about something important.

While I have an ass plug in my butt.

Ginger appears out of nowhere and hops onto the bench seat next to me, licking the side of my neck. Beneath the table, Willa places a hand on my knee, squeezing me slightly.

A moment passes where no one says anything, even though everyone is staring at me. Brushing a tear away, I sniffle and lift my chin. I’m a male of many opinions, and I can have an opinion about this.

“Well,” I start, “if this is true, it could change the deal, right? If they find out they might not want to sell anymore if there’s a hidden component to the property. This might renew Emmer’s interest in his father’s estate, assuming he has interest in it. But then also, if you find out there’s more detail, you’re probably legally obligated to disclose it just like with the survey results.”

We fall silent, all seemingly lost in thought.

Wild looks at me, biting at his lower lip, which draws attention to the deep dimples on either side of that sexy mouth.

“Why does shit keep popping up with this deal?” he murmurs. “One thing after another, it seems.”

I snort. “First me and now all the rest of this nonsense!”

He shakes his head with a big frown. “I don’t mean you, Oz.”

“Things worth having are often hard to get,” Kohdiy says. We all look up at him, and he shrugs. “In my experience, anything I ever really wanted was difficult to obtain. It is the way of our world sometimes.”

The bench seat beneath him creaks and rattles, and he slowly glances down. Moments later, he looks up. “Seems she agrees,” he says drolly.

“I want to find the key,” Willa states, grabbing Sipan’s journal and slipping it in a bag on the bench next to her. “The literal key seems to be imperative in unlocking the first step of whatever Sipan had planned. I met with Shadow this morning, and while what she’s seen so far is cool, it’s barely scratching the surface of Sipan’s real plans.”