Second Chance Gold (Buck Reilly Adventure Series Book 4) by John Cunningham (best novels to read for beginners txt) 📕

their backs against the rear wall. Nicole had bound their wrists behind their backs with fabric torn from the curtains. They watched us with hard stares. The odds of our overpowering them had been virtually non-existent, but Nicole had been ready when I gave the signal. If she hadn’t, Black would have had me cold.

“Now you’re going to tell us what the hell this is all about,” I said.

“You won’t shoot us, Reilly—”

“But I will, mon ami.” Nicole lowered her shotgun.

I bit back a smile as Black and Blue glanced at each other. Nicole was one bad-ass woman.

“What did my grandfather say while he was living in the Dominican Republic to make you come to St. Barths and cause so much trouble?”

Blue shrugged. Black still had his hands on his crotch and looked nauseous. If he spoke, his voice would likely be a few decibels higher.

“Tell us!” Nicole said.

“It wasn’t Remy,” Blue said. “It was Cousteau.”

“What the hell?”

“Not Cousteau himself, but one of the crew who was briefly aboard the Calypso in the seventies when Remy helped them search for the Concepcíon. He had spotted gold but did not tell anyone, then dove while everyone slept and recovered a fortune that he hid somewhere on land when they returned de Haenen here.” He paused. We waited. Finally he said, “His grandson approached us for help.”

In all my years pursuing treasure at e-Antiquity, I’d gotten information in many ways but never by holding somebody at gunpoint. I didn’t like it, but I knew I couldn’t lower the weapon.

“What did he say?” Nicole asked.

Blue looked from her to me, then back again.

“The crewman had drowned on the subsequent Cousteau voyage, and his secret was locked away until his grandson dug through his dusty sea chest after his own father died. He found a clue—”

“Why you?” Nicole said.

Blue smiled. “We’re treasure hunters too. In fact, Buck Reilly’s success with e-Antiquity inspired us to begin Gamundi Hermanos Salvamento in the DR. Our islands are littered with sunken ships. You think you’re the only one entitled to profit from that?”

Nicole gave me a long glance. She wasn’t smiling.

“This crewman’s grandson came to you because you were in the DR?” I said.

“We have a reputation for results.” His eyes were cold.

“Where is he now?” Nicole said.

Blue glanced at his brother, whose eyes remained pinched closed.

“He is no longer in the picture.”

Nicole gasped.

“What was the clue?” I said.

Blue grimaced. “We could work together—”

Nicole kicked his leg. “What was the damn clue?”

“A note,” he said. “It said the treasure was buried on ‘la petite enfant’ and another clue was buried at Eden Rock. Together they would lead to treasure.”

Blue studied Nicole, then me. He nodded.

“Maybe you really didn’t know,” he said. “But Lou Atlas sent you down here, so I believe there’s truth to the grandson’s story.”

“Obviously Henri Antoine told you the same thing he told me,” I said. “They found nothing when clearing the mess after the hurricanes.”

Blue smiled. “Jerry said otherwise.”

It took me a moment to find my voice.

“You talked to Jerry?”

Blue sneered. “He tricked us into telling him about la petite enfant. Said he could help us—that he’d found something that might be the clue. Then he vanished. We thought he’d double-crossed us, until they found the Jet Ski.”

“That’s why you beat Gisele?”

“The answer is out there, I know it!” Blue said.

I shook my head. “We need to get out of here.”

“But the treasure—”

“Whatever Jerry knew, if anything, he took to his watery grave,” I said. “You guys stay the hell away from us and Gisele Atlas. Is that clear?”

“So this is the great King Buck? One of the most accomplished treasure hunters ever?” Blue said. “Pathetic.”

His words stung like a slap to the face, but I had words for him, too.

“If anyone else gets hurt, the gendarmes will be up your ass so fast you’ll spend the rest of your lives shitting foie gras from a cell in Guadeloupe.”

“Or I’ll shoot you,” Nicole said.

Blue smiled, but his eyes were slits.

“Don’t leave here for thirty minutes.” I shoved the barrel of the shotgun into Blue’s nose and pressed it flat. “I’m serious, you son of a bitch, I don’t want to see you again.”

Nicole and I backed out of the bedroom. The sun outside was blinding after being in the dim room for so long. For a moment I thought to call the police, but I had a damned good hunch that Jerry hadn’t lied to the Gamundi brothers. He’d found something.

“I am calling the gendarmes.” Nicole made the call, spoke in rapid French, but the gist was clear. She gave the Gamundis’ names and location before we were halfway down the driveway. When she hung up, she turned her gaze toward me. It wasn’t friendly.

“e-Antiquity, huh?”

“That was another life—and it’s nothing to do with why I’m here!”

She sighed. “I already knew. Jack Dodson told me not to trust you. I was waiting to see if you told me.”

Jack?

“Everything Gamundi said was true,” I said, “but that all ended five years ago. It’s not what drives me but it does help me understand what we’re up against.” I paused. “Jack, on the other hand, is pure trouble. You’ll have to choose who you want to believe.”

“So you’re not interested in the Concepcíon?”

“It’s not why I came here, but I can’t ignore the opportunity.”

“What do you think happened to the Calypso crewman’s grandson?” Her voice broke.

I shook my head, but our eyes caught and she saw the answer in mine. A shudder passed over her.

At the bottom of the long driveway, I jammed on the brakes and slid on the steep slope.

“Let’s not get ourselves arrested. Throw those guns into the woods there—”

“No way, I need all the protection I can get on the top of the hill.”

Neither of us spoke as we drove slowly through Flamands, up the hill, and back toward town. A sharp ache pulled at my chest, thanks to Blue’s jamming the gun into my solar plexus—or was it from him calling