He laughed again, somewhat insanely. “I searched every museum in this state for eight years. But those bumbling Dolans managed to find it first. They came into the store last winter bragging their fool heads off that they had the next best thing to a map. And that’s when I started making plans to get you back here.”

“Why didn’t you just work out a deal with Dwayne and Harry?”

He scoffed, waving the gun in the air. “With those two? Between them they don’t even have a full brain.”

“They found the diary.”

“And I found a way to get it from them. Now, where’s the gold, Quill?”

“It doesn’t exist,” she said. “I’ve already searched this entire side of the mountain. I found the cliff mentioned in the diary, but there was nothing there.”

“You’re lying.” He took a threatening step toward her, his face twisted in anger in the beam of his flashlight.

“But I did find placer gold in a stream near here,” she quickly amended, taking a step back.

He stopped and was silent for several seconds, apparently trying to decide if he believed her or not. Sadie held the cane up in supplication and reached into her pocket with her other hand. She slowly drew out one gold nugget and held it up for Eric to see.

“This is what I found,” she said in a voice that belied the anger she felt, handing him the nugget. “It’s large, Eric. It must have been close to the source. You could probably be rich just panning that stream. I don’t think there’s an actual mine, Eric. I think Jedediah found only this heavy placer gold.”

He put the nugget into his shirt pocket, then took his flashlight and waved it at the trail.

“Then let’s go, Quill. Show me.”

Sadie turned and started them back in the direction of the stream, frantically thinking of what she should do next. Where the hell was her husband?

And where should she lead Eric? To Prospect River? Or to the stream? She could buy a couple of hours waiting for Morgan to show up by taking Eric to the stream well below the pool and then pretend to search for the exact spot where she’d found the nugget.

Sadie clasped Daar’s cane protectively to her chest, then remembered it was supposed to be her crutch. She started using it like a cane and tried to think of a way to make the magic work for her without blowing them all to kingdom come.

What had the old priest mumbled to the cane when he started the fire? She needed to be able to speak to the cane. And the only word she knew in Gaelic washedgehog.

Morgan snapped his head up at the soundof gunfire echoing down the mountain. It was coming not from where Mercedes should have been waiting safely for him but from the old logging camp, where she’d probably gone.

He knew she wouldn’t stay put.

Morgan turned his gaze down the mountain to where Grey and Callum were trying to drive anyone lurking in the woods toward him. But they probably still were a couple of miles away. Ian had been posted at the river, protecting everyone’s back.

Sweat now covering his forehead, Morgan abandoned his post and started running upstream at an angle that sent him toward the logging camp, hoping to intercept whoever had fired those shots.

As they finally neared the stream,Sadie began speaking to Eric again, her voice loud enough that she hoped it would warn Morgan of her presence and that she was not alone.

She hoped Morgan had heard Eric’s gunshots. An hour was enough time for Morgan to run to her rescue, wasn’t it?

And Sadie worried about Faol. Was the wolf fatally wounded? Dead? Or was he quietly following them?

“How did you find the logging camp?” Sadie asked, still walking with a pretend limp, still trying to stall for time.

“That pack you picked up last Sunday,” Eric said. “I sewed a transmitter into the bottom of it.”

Sadie stopped and looked back. “A transmitter?”

“I sell them for hunting dogs,” he told her, nudging her shoulder to keep her moving.

“They’re good for more than two miles.”

“But why, Eric? Why leave me alone for ten weeks and then suddenly start interfering?”

“Because the Dolans arrived. And I heard about your date with MacKeage, and I didn’t like the distraction he was making for you. So I decided it was time I intervened.”

“Why ransack my cabin? It was you, wasn’t it?”

“Because you always keep a journal, and I hoped you had made notes from Lavoie’s diary. That day I brought you the photos, I was going to look for it.”

They finally reached the stream, and the anger of knowing she’d been forced to walk and talk calmly with the man who had murdered her sister threatened to boil over. Sadie stopped beside the water and turned, forcing herself to be calm.

“This is it,” she said in an even tone, using Daar’s cane to point at the stream. “This is where I found the nugget.”

“Where?” he asked, scanning the rippling water with the beam of his flashlight.

“Just up there.” Sadie pointed at where she could hear the water churning over a sharp drop of ledge. “There’s a tiny bowl that forms an eddy just below that ledge. And the bottom of the pool is littered with nuggets.”

She led him to the small eddy. Sadie turned so that Eric wouldn’t see her reach into her pocket and palmed a handful of the nuggets, hiding them in her fist as she made her way to the edge of the small pool over the falls.

“There!” she yelled over the noise of the rippling cascade, throwing the nuggets into the churning water. “Shine your light there, at the eddy.”

As she had hoped, Eric took one last cautious look around and tucked his gun into his belt. He scrambled over the strewn boulders to the edge of the eddy and shone his flashlight into the pool of water.

Faint bits of gold sparkled back at him.

Sadie took a small step away from him, into the blackness of the forest, but stopped when Eric turned his flashlight on her.

“Get down here,” he said. “Hold the light for me.”

Taking a look around, Sadie sighed and climbed down to Eric. Where in hell was Morgan? She may have foolishly gotten herself into this mess, but he was supposed to get her out of it.

She crouched beside Eric. The moment he tried to hand her the flashlight, Sadie took Daar’s cane and smacked him over the back, putting all the force of her anger behind the blow. She heard Eric splashing in the pool as he tried to get back to his feet in the water.

He shouted for her to stop, but she continued to run until gunfire erupted and tree bark exploded beside her. Sadie stopped and slowly turned around. Eric was standing in the pool, water dripping from his hair and clothes, the beam of his flashlight glinting off the barrel of his gun. He cocked the hammer to fire again, and aimed the weapon at her chest.

“Wait,” she said, “I lied. This is nothing,” she added, waving at the nuggets in the water.

“There’s more gold upstream than you could carry in a lifetime. But it’s hidden. I can show you were it is.”

Eric was silent for several seconds, then suddenly he waved the gun. “Then let’s go. But if you run again, Quill,” he added in a snarl as he stepped out of the pool, “I won’t miss next time.”

Chapter Twenty-two

Sadie led the way toward the magical pool,where she hoped Father Daar and his Gaelic words would make the cane do something magical to save them.

Where was Morgan? And Callum and the others? Why wasn’t this mountain teeming with warriors, dammit?

Sadie saw the glow of the grotto ahead and breathed a sigh of relief.

“What’s that light?” Eric asked from behind her.

“It must be coming daybreak.”

“We’re on the west side of the mountain,” he countered, moving up beside her and peering through the tall trees. “The sun won’t reach here for hours.”

“It’s a very high waterfall. Hear it, Eric? It sends up a mist that the sun’s rays must be touching. It’s filtering the light down.”