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That night they gathered in the great room of the main ranch house. Light from the crackling fire in the kiva fireplace danced on the adobe walls and tiled floors. Maddock sat on a thick bearskin rug and sipped a Dos Equis. The desert air had cooled considerably after sundown, and a cool breeze blew in through the open windows. Bones had stuffed himself into a hand-crafted rocking chair and sat gazing at the fire, a contented smile on his face. Grizzly and Riv were ensconced on the big leather sofa, the former drinking a cup of coffee, the latter crunching numbers on her laptop. Lilith had departed with Rockwell after the race, and Jashawn had left after dinner. It was too bad. Maddock and Bones had enjoyed the young man’s company.
“I brought you a refill.” Spenser appeared at his side and handed him another beer. In hopes of some positive social media buzz, Grizzly had invited her and her brother to stay at his ranch house for a few days.
“Thanks,” he said as she sat down beside him. Once she’d dropped her on-camera persona, she proved to be clever, with a dry sense of humor. Much different from his first impression. Obviously, he’d been too quick to judge. “What happened to your brother?”
Spenser rolled her eyes. “Rockwell had reservations about his raw water idea, so Dakota chugged a whole bottle to prove it’s safe. The results were predictable.”
“Loco que una cabra,” Riv murmured.
Maddock was familiar with the idiom, which translated to “crazier than a goat.”
“Why hasn’t someone explained the science to him?” Maddock asked.
Spenser feigned offense, but laughter shone in her big blue eyes. “Is that how little you think of me? I’ve been telling him since the first time his dumb ass tried to drink water from what he thought was a puddle but was actually an overflowing septic tank.”
Maddock winced. “You can’t be serious. He couldn’t possibly function if he were that dim.”
Spencer leaned in so close that a strand of her hair brushed across his cheek. “Next time you see him,” she said quietly, “take a look at his hands. On the left, he’s written ‘breathe in,’ on the right, ‘breathe out.’ Just in case he forgets.”
Maddock laughed. “I thought it was bad that Bones has to make an L with his thumb and forefinger so he can remember which hand he...”
“Please don’t finish that sentence,” Riv said without looking up from her laptop.
“Naughty boy got scolded by the teacher,” Spenser said softly.
The back of Maddock’s neck felt suddenly hot. He gave a little jerk and sat up straight, jostling her in the process. “Sorry. Back cramp,” he invented.
That was a mistake.
“In that case, you should let me work on you.” She didn’t wait for him to agree. Moving as if made of liquid, Spenser slipped her body between Maddock and the wall against which he’d been leaning moments before. “I am the back-rub goddess.” She began gently kneading his trapezius muscle, working it with the tips of her fingers and thumbs. “I actually have a degree in kinesiology and I’m a licensed massage therapist. I figure I should have a career to fall back on in case the social media bubble ever bursts.”
“I didn’t know that about you,” Maddock said.
“As much as I hate to admit it, I keep it quiet. Things like getting an education and working for a living wouldn’t play well with a lot of our followers.”
“Why not?”
“We’re selling a fantasy. Most of our subscribers can’t afford most of the places we visit or the products we market. We’re selling the fantasy of a carefree life of leisure. Got to give the consumers the product they’re after.”
As she worked her knuckles down his erector spinae muscles, Maddock closed his eyes and allowed himself to relax and enjoy what was admittedly an excellent back rub. Grizzly and Bones were discussing legends of ghost sightings in the hills around the ranch.
“How is it that you’re so smart but your brother drinks sewage water?” Maddock asked.
“Believe it or not, he’s not dumb.” She lapsed into a few seconds of contemplative silence before elaborating. “Have you ever known someone who is ninety-nine percent amazing, but that other one percent is just mind-numbingly awful?”
Maddock chuckled. “Just broke up with someone like that.”
“Did she drink raw water?”
“No, just screwed me over. Twice.” That was an understatement.
“Twice? I hope there won’t be a third time. Now, stop thinking about your evil ex before you ruin your massage.”
“That actually feels pretty amazing,” he admitted.
“I know.” She paused, waited. “I just quoted Han Solo. Do you not like Star Wars?”
“I do, but I’m more of an Indiana Jones guy,” he said as she resumed her work.
“I love Indy!” She began kneading his shoulders with just the right amount of pressure. “I guess it fits since you’re a treasure hunter.”
“Fortune and glory, kid. Fortune and glory.”
“I could have been your greatest adventure,” she purred.
“Wait, what?”
“I thought we were swapping quotes from the movies.”
“Oh, yeah.”
“Speaking of treasure,” Grizzly interrupted, “did you know there’s a legendary treasure associated with this place?”
“You said you had a long story to tell about the ranch,” Maddock said, trying to keep his mind off the warm feeling that was flowing over him as the knots in his back melted away under her studied attention.
“It starts with a guy named Kirk Striker.”
Maddock frowned. “I know that name. My dad used to read his adventure novels.”
Grizzly nodded. “One and the same. Striker was an author and wannabe Hollywood player back in the 1940s. He made his living off his pulp adventure novels, but every bit of his spare time, and most of his money, was spent trying to cozy up to producers, directors, actors, anyone in the business. I don’t know if he was taken seriously or if they tolerated him because he always picked up the tab, but he kept at it for years until, in 1949, they finally made one of his books into a movie called Treasure Fever.
“I guess Hollywood success wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, because he started making treks out into the desert. I guess he was on some kind of spiritual quest. Finally, he ended up here in these hills.”
“Guided here by aliens who could speak inside his brain,” Riv said mockingly.
Grizzly didn’t bite. “Three UFOs converged over a spot in the hills, and according to Striker, he understood the message they were sending him. That this was the site of the Lost Arch Gold Mine.”
“I’ve never heard of it,” Bones said.
“The legend goes something like this. In 1848 a pair of prospectors named Fish and Crocker were searching for water when they stumbled across a rich vein of gold directly beneath a natural arch formed in the basalt. With only a minimal amount of digging they managed to fill their pockets with heavy grains of gold. They couldn’t stay there, though, because they were dangerously low on water. They ended up traveling two days to the Colorado River. It was a harrowing journey, by all accounts, with different versions giving different details of the dangers they faced, but they all agree that Crocker died a few days after the pair reached the river. Without his partner, Fish never managed to find the arch again.”
“And it’s supposed to be somewhere around here?” Bones asked.
“Legend generally places it in the Turtle Mountains to the northeast, but Striker must have had his reasons for believing it was here.”
“He did, dear,” Riv said. “The aliens told him.”
“I think he only said that so people wouldn’t take him seriously and start poking around out here. As far as anyone knows, he never found the mine, but he lived out the remainder of his life here. The older he got, the more paranoid he became. He claimed to hear the voices of the dead. According to him the men in black were regular visitors to the ranch, too.”
“How did he support himself if he didn’t find gold?” Spenser asked.
“He was a published author. I guess he lived off his royalties.”
“That only happens in movies,” Riv said.
Grizzly turned to her and replied in mock annoyance. “Remind me why I keep you around?”
Riv turned her laptop so he could see the spreadsheet she was working on and held it out to him. “Here. Finish this for me.”
Grizzly shook his head. “I don’t even know what that is.”
“And that is why you keep me around.” Riv returned to her work, but not before blowing him a kiss.
“Dude, you have met your match,” Bones said.
“It happens to all of us sooner or later,” Spenser chimed in, though so softly it could only have been meant for Maddock’s ears. The attention she’d paid him during the day hadn’t really merited any thought when he’d believed her to be a spoiled, vapid rich girl. Now, he was reassessing the entire situation and wasn’t quite sure how he felt about it.
“Striker died in 1971 and that’s when things got spooky.” Grizzly flashed a warning glance at Riv before continuing. “People were naturally curious about the so-called UFO Ranch, so it became a popular spot for camping and exploration. But then others started hearing cries at night. Some of them encounter men in black, who warned them away from certain spots. Some even disappeared.”
“But nobody found the gold mine?” Maddock asked.
Grizzly shook his head. “And then, almost ten years later, Shipman appears out of nowhere and buys all the land that belonged to Striker. A kid, barely out of college.”
“So, an adult,” Spenser said.
Grizzly nodded. “But a few years younger than you. The point is, no one knows where he got the money. And then he’s seen tooling around town in an old Jaguar XK120.”
“Trust fund kid?” Bones asked.
“Not as far as anyone knows. But next thing you know, he’s quizzing all the old folks in the area about Striker. And not just about the mine. He wanted to know every little thing about him. The tiniest little details about his personality, his behavior. Strange stuff.”
“Maybe he believed if he could understand Striker, it could aid him in his search for the mine,” Maddock said.
“Probably. It’s interesting that Shipman not only bought Striker’s land, but he also became an author. He writes murder mysteries about serial killers. I guess his books aren’t selling too well anymore. He ended up selling a decent-sized chunk of his land to me.”
Riv cleared her throat but did not call attention to her earlier comment about royalties.
“Do you think that’s why he’s been poking around?” Spenser asked. “Maybe he’s found a new clue to the gold mine and he thinks it’s located on the land he sold to you.”
Grizzly perked up. “I hadn’t even considered that.”
Riv closed her laptop and let out a tired sigh. “You just had to get him going, didn’t you?”
“A treasure hunting show, right here on our own property!” Grizzly’s eyes were alight. “No travel expenses. No red tape.”
“I’d love to be involved,” Spenser said, Maddock’s back rub forgotten. “I’ve always wanted to produce travel adventure videos. Dakota was the one who steered us toward influencing.”
“Perfect,” Grizzly said. “We could co-host.”
Riv put a hand on his arm. “Don, dear, listen to me. What do we do with new ideas?”
Grizzly rolled his eyes. “Write down every little detail so I don’t forget, then set it aside until I finish what I’m currently working on.”
“I do think it’s a good idea,” Riv said, “and for exactly the reasons you say. But we haven’t even started filming the adventure race series. This is not a great time for you to dive into something new.”
“We’re just brainstorming, Riv.” His grin said he knew he wasn’t fooling anyone.
“Maddock and I could do a little scouting around,” Bones offered. “Look for clues. Let you know if we think it’s worth exploring. Down the road, when you have time,” he added hastily under the heat of Riv’s stare.
“Sure, if you don’t mind us hanging around,” Maddock said. He knew what Bones was thinking. Even if there was no treasure, this area promised to be rife with challenging rock faces even for an experienced climber. Just their sort of vacation.
“That’s a great idea,” Grizzly said. “You three can be my advance scouts!”
“Three?” Maddock asked.
“You and Bones know treasure hunting. Spenser knows production. It’s more efficient if she’s involved from the start.” Grizzly seemed to sense Maddock’s reluctance. “It’ll be fine. And if you guys don’t handle this for me, I’ll let it distract me. And then I’ll have her highness to answer to. Come on. This could be the project that takes me to the next level.”
Maddock chuckled. Although he was a bit too full of himself and not always as fast on the uptake as the average person, the man had an undeniable charm. He was an eternal optimist who wasn’t afraid to dream big, and he delivered results with just enough frequency to make you believe the guy just might make it someday.
“All right,” he said. “You’ve got yourself a scouting crew.”