“Treasure hunt?” Nora’s excited voice comes from the doorway where she stands with Scout, both of them covered in snow. “Can I help?”
Jake laughs despite himself. “Maybe, kiddo. But first, go shake off that snow before you drip all over the floor.”
As Nora disappears to comply, Jake turns back to me. “Show me the journal and the map. I want to see everything you’ve found.”
I retrieve the ammunition box from its hiding place and lay out its contents on the coffee table for everyone to examine. The room falls silent as Jake carefully turns the pages of the journal, reading Thomas Wolf’s words from over a century ago.
“This is incredible,” he murmurs. “A piece of history right here in our hands.”
“And potentially a lot more buried out there,” Lana adds, gesturing toward the window.
Jake looks up at me, then at her, his expression unreadable. “You two have certainly been busy while we were gone.”
“Just trying to keep things interesting,” I reply with a half-smile.
“Well, you succeeded.” He closes the journal carefully. “So, what’s the plan for today?”
“I thought we could check another set of coordinates,” I suggest. “Weather’s good, ground’s thawing enough to dig.”
“Count me in,” Kane says immediately, his eyes lighting with interest.
“Me too,” Kori adds, nudging her sister. “Lana’s been having all the fun without us.”
Lana rolls her eyes but smiles. “It wasn’t exactly ‘fun’ being strangled, but the rest had its moments.”
My gaze lingers on her longer than it should, remembering her in my arms after the nightmare, the way she felt pressed against me in the early morning light. When I look away, I catch Jake watching me with knowing eyes.
“Right,” he says, clapping his hands together. “Treasure hunting it is. But first, breakfast. I’m starving.”
As everyone moves toward the kitchen, Jake holds me back with a hand on my arm. “We’ll talk later,” he says quietly. “About all of this. And about Lana.”
I nod, not bothering to deny what he’s clearly figured out. “Later.”
Breakfast is a chaotic affair, with too many people in Jake’s modest kitchen. I find myself constantly aware of Lana’s presence—the flash of pink hair in my peripheral vision, the sound of her laugh, the way she moves with easy grace through the crowded space. Twice our hands brush as we reach for the same thing, and each time, a current runs through me that has nothing to do with static electricity.
After we eat, we divide into teams. Jake, Ella, and Nora will stay at the house to make a call to the historical society of Pinecrest and continue going through the journal for clues. Kane, Kori, Connor, and Mia will take one set of coordinates to explore, while Lana and I take another. I suspect Jake arranged it this way on purpose, but I’m not complaining.
“Ready?” Lana asks as we prepare to head out, loading shovels and the metal detector into the UTV.
“Ready,” I confirm, trying not to stare at the way her pink hair catches the sunlight.
She climbs into the passenger seat, and I settle behind the wheel, painfully aware of her proximity in the small vehicle. Our partner in crime, Scout, jumps in behind us, his tail wagging with excitement.
“So,” she says as we pull away from the house, “about dinner tonight...”
“Still on?” I ask, keeping my eyes on the snowy path ahead.
“Definitely,” she replies. “Though I’m not sure where we can go around here that won’t be full of people who know Jake or Ella.”
“I might have an idea about that,” I say, feeling a smile tug at my lips. “If you’re up for a surprise.”
She turns to look at me, curiosity bright in her green eyes. “I like surprises. Most of them, anyway.”
“This one will be good,” I promise. “At least, I hope so.”
The coordinates take us to the far edge of Jake’s property, near where it borders the provincial park. The area is heavily wooded, with rocky outcroppings breaking through the snow at irregular intervals.
“Wolf mentioned a ‘stone sentinel’ in his journal,” Lana says, consulting the notebook where she’s copied relevant passages. “Something about the ‘watchful eye of the stone guardian.’”
