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Banks shook his head and let out a long laugh. “Gentlemen, gentlemen. This would've been easy if you had stayed where I left all the clues.”
Brooks and Trey lowered their guns and walked toward him. Brooks looked like he wanted to do his FBI thing and snap the man's neck.
Hunter locked eyes with Trent, and unable to stop himself, he ran at him, nearly tackling him. "Bro."
Trent held to him, laughing. "You never thought I'd resurrect, did you?"
Hunter pulled back and couldn't believe he was holding him. "This is nuts!"
Banks cleared his throat. "Yeah, we already did a cheer for Trent before you got here." His tone was flat.
Hunter turned his attention to Banks, pointing his gun at him. "Well, I guess we can all just drop this charade and kill the fatted calf, can't we? My brother's back and we don't need this, Banks." There would be no way Banks would hurt the brother … he just got back.
Banks shook his head, glancing from Trent to Hunter. "Look, I'm happy your brother is back, okay. I gave this family a year off the hunt to mourn him, but … we gotta get to it, don't we?"
Everyone was quiet for a few seconds.
Trent averted his eyes to the ground and Hunter noticed wires leading to the cellar on the east side of the house. Hunter put his gun down and walked toward Trey and Brooks. “There's a bomb. He has a bomb," he whispered.
Brooks and Trey instantly stiffened, their gazes darting to the house.
“You have a freaking bomb?” Marshall moved beside Hunter, not caring if Banks knew they knew. He stared at the wires. “You're going to blow up the inn?”
Trey had broken position and was already moving toward the wires. Hunter followed.
Mr. Banks laughed behind them. “Stop. I'm holding the detonator. If you force me to, I'll blow it.”
Hunter and Trey instantly stopped.
Trent moved to Hunter's side.
“Where is everyone else?” Trey asked.
Trent glanced at where the office would be. "Inside."
Hunter suddenly went calm. His bomb squad training kicked into gear. He knew those wires, knew this type of bomb. It was highly explosive, usually for something rock-solid like a safe or panic room, but the wires were going to the cellar.
“What's in the cellar?” Hunter called to Banks. “Why do you want to blow it up?”
Banks hesitated, then laughed. "Well, I'm hoping gold, of course."
Hunter noted that Tim and Matt had worked their way closer to the women, who had Banks' thugs pointing guns at them.
Tim met his gaze and called out, “Banks, let's negotiate this. We’ll give you whatever you want. We'll give you the gold if it's there. But, our wives and children are in the house. If you blow this place, it won’t end well for you.”
“You got that right,” Matt said.
Hunter shifted. He wanted to get his hands on those wires, to pull out the tools strapped to his vest. He didn't know why he had grabbed his old vest, but he was glad he had. If they could distract Banks, he could cut the wires and disarm this thing.
Banks tsked his tongue. “You Stones think this will all just go away? I've dedicated my life to finding this gold and, as previously mentioned, I even gave you a year off. I assume Hunter has the key—that would make sense.”
Hunter met Banks’s eyes. He reached into his shirt and yanked off the chain, tossing the key. “Have it. If this key will give you what you need, take it. We don't want it.” He meant every word. "Just let us get everyone out."
Trent shook his head. "You shouldn't have just given him the key." He threw up a hand. "But it's done."
There was so much Hunter wanted to say to Trent, but he was already annoyed he had second-guessed him. "Whatever."
Trey glanced at him and then turned back to Banks, raising his gun in the air. “That's right. Nothing is more valuable to us than our family, so you don't need to blow anything up, Banks. You can take whatever you want. We'll give it to you.”
