Always Friday (15 page)

“I suppose it depends on your point of view. Long may have
been considered an early Texas hero, but Laffite had nothing good to say about
him. According to his journal, Long and some of his men made a mistake when
they stole goods from Laffite. He had his own peculiar code of honor; I think
the rascal took perverse pleasure in knowing that all the time Long and his
emissaries were begging him to loan them money for armies and expeditions, they
were sitting in Nacogdoches only a few feet from a fortune.”

“He was a rascal.”

“I have an idea. Why don’t we go check out the fort before
lunch?” Tess tried to push herself up, but Dan held her.

“I have a better idea. Why don’t we—”  He whispered some
slightly scandalous suggestions in her ear.

Tess giggled and almost blushed as she gave him a playful
swat. “You’re a worse rascal than Laffite. I knew from the first time I met you
there was a tiger beneath that staid exterior.”

Looking pleased, Dan broke into his lopsided, boyish grin. “You
think I’m a tiger, huh?” Suddenly, he snarled and flipped her on to her back,
nipping and nuzzling her neck until she squealed with laughter and begged him
to stop. “You bring out the animal in me,” he growled, holding her down and
continuing his feigned biting over her bare midriff where her sweater had
ridden up.

In the space of two heartbeats, the playfulness changed to
passion, the biting to trailing kisses, wet and warm across her belly as he
unbuttoned the front of her denim skirt.

Tess came alive as he stroked and petted and caressed.
Electricity charged her body as his tongue laved her, as his kisses covered
her, as he whispered love words in her ears. Longing to have him inside her
pushed away all thoughts of treasure and the dreams it fostered. Dan, the smell
of him, the feel of him, the taste of him, filled her mind with a solitary
splendor.

They shed their clothes and came together in a slow melding
of skin on skin, giving and receiving, loving and being loved, until they lay
quiet and replete in each other’s arms.

“Lord, I love you,” Dan said, running his hand over the
curve of her hip. “Tess—” He stopped before he finished the question he was
about to ask. He wanted to ask her to forget the treasure and marry him today,
now, before she suffered a final disappointment. He wanted to wrap her in a
charmed cocoon of protection so that she would know only joy and laughter and
the fulfillment of her slightest wish. But he’d come to know Tess Cameron too
well. She’d never give up without trying to find her treasure. Not when the
spot lay only a few miles away. Not his Tess.

“Yes?”

“I’m hungry,” he said, improvising a quick reply.

“Me, too.”

They showered and dressed, then went in search of a
restaurant. After lunch, they drove to the university campus and parked near
the Old Stone Fort.

Rather small and insignificant among the huge trees and
modern buildings, the two-story fort was constructed of native rust red rock.
Heavy wooden beams supported an open gallery off the second floor and rose to
support the roof overhang as well. Tess and Dan stood in front of it and looked
up at the many flags fluttering from poles mounted on the beams.

The campus was busy with cars and bikes and students going
to and from afternoon classes or simply hanging out with one another on the
sunny spring day.

A young man in cutoffs and a faux hawk had parked his
convertible under a nearby tree and was waxing it. The radio was blaring hard
rock, and he spread the paste to its beat. He missed a couple of licks when two
shapely coeds in snug short-shorts jogged by.

Tess and Dan looked at one another and grinned.

“Ah, spring,” Dan said.

“Ah, hormones.” Tess laughed as they walked to the big
wooden door of the fort.

It was locked. A notice posted the hours it would be open
the following day. Tess shrugged. She didn’t care if the museum was unavailable
for viewing. Only the outside of the fort interested her. Trying to look
nonchalant, she and Dan strolled around to the back. There was a small wedge of
open ground, no more than seventy-five feet at its widest point, between the
rear of the fort and a sprawling modern building with a large greenhouse beside
it. By mutual consent, they walked the length of the rock wall, counting
quietly as they went.

When they reached the corner, Tess did a little mental
arithmetic and whispered, “It’s twelve and a half paces to the middle.”

They stepped off the distance and stood hand in hand with
their backs to the wall. Tess’s heart was beating so loudly that the sound of
it in her ears drowned out the rock music from the radio across the way. The
chicken spaghetti they had eaten for lunch formed a seething blob in her
stomach that seemed to be creeping up her esophagus. She swallowed it back down
and squeezed Dan’s hand.

They took a synchronized giant step forward. Then another.

“It’s here,” she whispered, barely able to keep her voice
down. “It’s here right under our feet. We’re standing on a fortune in gold.”
The words came out in a high little squeak.

Dan cleared his throat and cut his eyes toward a couple a
few feet away. The girl was against a big elm growing beside the greenhouse,
and the boy, a hand on either side of her head, was leaning on the tree. They
were gazing rapturously into one another’s eyes.

“I don’t think they heard me,” Tess whispered. “I don’t think
they would hear an atomic explosion on the next block.”

Amusement lifted the corners of Dan’s lips. “I think you’re
right.” Taking Tess’s hand, they walked to an area out of earshot. “How do you
propose we dig for treasure in an area with people everywhere?”

“Simple,” she answered, since she’d already considered the
same complication. “We dig at night.”

*    *    *

Just after three o’clock in the morning, their borrowed big
SUV rolled to a stop on a side street beside the fort. Everything was still.
The place that had been alive with activity earlier in the afternoon was
deserted. Streetlights lining the boulevard cast eerie shadows through the
trees. Tess was so wired with adrenaline that she felt as if her heart was
about to explode.

“I feel like a commando,” Dan grumbled. “Or a cat burglar.”

Tess stifled a giggle as she looked him over. They were
dressed identically in black jeans and long-sleeved jerseys that she’d insisted
they buy for the occasion. “I think you look cute.” She wiggled her eyebrow, and
dropped her naturally husky voice even lower to add, “Very sexy.”

Smiling, he said, “Flattery will do it every time. Let’s go.”

“Wait! Don’t forget your cap and your gloves.” She thrust
the dark articles at him and pulled a can of black shoe polish out of the sack
she held between her legs.

“I’ll wear the stupid cap,” he said, stretching the knit
over his head, “but I’ll be damned if I’ll paint my face with shoe polish.”

She shrugged and slapped a few streaks on her own. “Suit
yourself.”

As Tess was about to open the door, a sports car roared
around the corner and they slunk down in the seat. Laughter and shouting cut
through the quiet, and an empty beer can clanked and rolled against the curb as
the low-slung car zoomed past.

“Stupid kids,” Dan mumbled. “Why are they out drinking beer
at this ungodly hour? Don’t they have classes in the morning? They should be
home in bed.”

Tess laughed. “Didn’t you sow a few oats in college? Mess
around on school nights just for the heck of it?”

“Not at three-thirty in the morning.”

“Figures.”

“What did you mean by that?”

“Friday, as adorable as you are, sometimes you can be such
an old coot.” Tess sighed and opened the door. “Come on.”

They took shovels and a flashlight from the back. “Shouldn’t
we take the metal detector, too?” Dan asked.

“Why? We know exactly where it is.”

“I think we should check with the metal detector before we
start shoveling around a state historical site.”

“Bring it if you insist,” she said, exasperated by his
overly cautious behavior. “But I’m going to start digging.” She stalked off
through the azalea bushes to the back wall of the rock building.

Dan had seemed so different lately that she had almost
forgotten about his former stuffiness. Although he’d loosened up considerably
and acted more adventurously—especially in bed, she thought with a secret
smile—she should have realized that bone-deep attitudes didn’t disappear
overnight. Oh, well, she’d have to work on him some more.

By the time she’d paced off the distance to the center of
the back wall, he was beside her. Even though the rear of the fort was in
shadow, her eyes had adjusted enough to the dark to dig. While he started to
sweep the ground with the detector, she stuck her shovel in the hard dirt and
shoved her foot against the shoulder of the blade.

“Tess, would you move the spade and wait until I check,
please?” he whispered.

She sighed, stepped back a few feet, leaned against the
rough wall, and waited, biting her tongue to keep from saying something really
tacky.

“Well?” she asked impatiently after he’d made the third pass
over the spot.

“I think there’s something here.” There was an incredulous
tone to his whispered words.

“I told you so!”

“Shhhh.”

Clamping her lips together, Tess grabbed her shovel and
positioned the blade point against the packed ground. Her heart was beating so
hard and fast that she could feel it pounding her ribs. Her hands were sweaty
under the dark work gloves, and a little trickle of perspiration eased from her
hair line and ran down her temple. She wiped it away with the sleeve of her
jersey and stepped on the spade.

She shoveled, tossing the dirt over her shoulder to land in
soft thuds behind her while Dan placed his in a neat, growing mound beside the
hole he dug. After what seemed like two hours, but was no more than a few
minutes, Tess stopped to wipe the sweat from her forehead.

Metal clinked against metal.

“I think I’ve hit something,” Dan said.

“Oh, Dan!” she squealed, dropping her shovel and throwing
her arms around him. “You’ve found it!”

“Shhhh. Let me clear out some more dirt.”

Moving aside, she crossed fingers on both hands and prayed.
It was here. It had to be here. For the first time, Tess allowed herself to
admit that a niggling doubt or two had snuck into her mind since their
disappointment at the site of the old church. But they’d found it! Her heart
went into triple-time; her stomach constricted into knots tighter than tangled
chains in a jewelry box, and her whole body trembled as Dan bent and stuck the
spade into the dirt.

When the shovel scraped down the side of the hole and
clanked again, she crammed her fist against her mouth to quell a whimper. She
was breathing so hard and fast that she was afraid she’d keel over from
hyperventilation.

All those years ago, the Prophets hadn’t been able to recover
the treasure because, according to Casey’s journal, the area had been too
heavily populated for them to sneak in and dig it up. There had been a boarding
house and a livery stable nearby, and the old stone building had been turned
into a rather bawdy saloon with a bunch of rough customers coming and going all
times of the day and night. Rather than chance half-drunk ruffians catching
them with a hoard of gold, Casey and Marsh had passed it by.

But now she and Dan had found it! She could hardly wait to
throw open the boxes and run her fingers through the gold and jewels.

Suddenly, a blinding light flashed in her eyes.

“Police! Freeze!”

The sun was up and the birds were singing when the
university police let them off at the SUV. Dan’s jaw was clamped shut, and he
looked mad enough to spit thunderbolts. He didn’t even glance her way after
they climbed into the cab.

“Dan—”

“Don’t say a word. Not a word. Not now.” He gave the key a
smart turn and revved the engine. Holding the steering wheel in a
white-knuckled grip, he sucked in a big breath before he pulled away from the
curb.

He kept his eyes on the road as they drove up the boulevard,
turned left on North Street, and headed south toward downtown. Once or twice Tess
started to say something, but the formidable man hunched over the wheel didn’t
invite conversation. She was just as tired and just as humiliated as he was,
but until he cooled off a bit, she’d bite her tongue and keep her mouth shut.
She understood about discretion and valor.

When she saw his shoulders relax and the grooves in his face
soften a bit, she decided to venture a comment. “Dan, I’m sorry about getting
us carted off to the pokey for nothing. But how was I to know that the Old
Stone Fort had been moved? I thought it had always been on the campus.”

He didn’t respond.

“I suppose I should have considered that it’s quite a
distance from downtown. Towns usually stay in the same place—even after a
hundred years.” She managed a sickly smile. “At least the police chief had a
good sense of humor.”

“Did you notice that before or after he said I have to pay
damages for criminal mischief?”

“No,” she snapped, growing tired of his hostile attitude, “I
noticed it when he nearly split his sides laughing when you spouted off about Laffite’s
treasure map. What possessed you to tell him about my map?”

“The truth was better than that idiotic tale you invented
about being on a scavenger hunt.”

She stiffened her spine and tilted her nose. “It might have
worked.”

He made a rude sound.

Tess refused to be daunted any longer by his fractious
behavior. “Why don’t we check out the original site the policeman told us
about?” she asked.

He slowly turned his head and looked at her as if she’d
suggested that they defect to China.