Wait Until Dark: Carolina Moon Series, Book 3 Page 20

  Brody followed behind her. “Tell Magnum? You made him the map.”

  She didn’t slow her steps as she rushed down the stairs. “What other choice do I have? It’s the only way I can ensure my aunt’s safety. We don’t need the map anymore.”

  As they reached the hallway, Brody’s hand went to her shoulder, slowing her down. “I’m not sure Magnum is the most trustworthy person, Felicity.”

  She turned toward him, her pulse racing out of control. She didn’t have time to carefully weigh her options. She had to make a decision—now. Her heart told her this was the best way to keep her aunt alive.

  “I’ve done everything he’s asked. He has no reason not to cooperate.” She took out her phone, her mind still racing. “I’m going to call him now.”

  “Felicity . . .” He reached for her, but she stepped out of his grasp.

  “Yes?”

  His face looked pensive. “I have a bad feeling in my gut.”

  She swallowed hard, questioning herself a moment. What if she was wrong? What if this backfired?

  No, she couldn’t think like that. This was still her best option.

  She licked her lips, wishing her nerves would go away. “I’ve got to do this, Brody. And I’ve got to do it Magnum’s way. He said if we involve the police that he’d kill my aunt. I can’t risk that.”

  He nodded stiffly. “Okay then.”

  Felicity’s fingers trembled as she dialed Magnum’s number. He answered on the first ring.

  “I was hoping to hear from you,” he crooned.

  “We found it.” Felicity’s words sounded unbelievable, even to her own ears. They’d really found it. They’d found it!

  Brody stepped closer to hear the conversation, his touch sending another wave of shivers up her spine.

  “You found the other half of the map?” Magnum said.

  “We did better than that. We found the treasure.”

  “I underestimated just how good you were. Too bad circumstances aren’t different. I’d make you a part of my team.”

  “I’ll never be on your side.

  He grunted. “Have it your way. Now, where are you?”

  Felicity would bet anything Magnum knew exactly where they were. “I’m at my house. We found a secret room.”

  “Is that right? You think the treasure is there?”

  She swallowed hard, starting to question herself again. The treasure had to be in that room . . . right? “I’m not sure. But there’s a room. We can’t get in without a key. I think . . . I think this is it.”

  He paused a moment, not saying anything, before growling, “You better be correct. We’ll be right there.”

  “Bring my aunt,” Felicity said, a little bit of gusto coming back into her voice.

  He paused for just long enough to make her uncomfortable. “Of course.”

  Felicity hung up and rubbed her hands against her jeans. This was happening. She’d get her aunt back. Magnum would get his treasure. This would all end.

  “It’s done.” She looked up at Brody, halfway afraid to meet his eyes. She knew she’d see emotions there she’d rather ignore. She pushed aside those feelings. “Within a matter of time, my aunt should be safe.”

  “I . . . I hope so.”

  She couldn’t look at him anymore. She couldn’t stand to see the doubt in his eyes.

  “You know what? I’m going to go get some water. I feel like I can’t breathe.”

  Brody nodded. “You go do that. I’ll be down in a second.”

  Brody paced away from the stairway leading to the first floor.

  An impending feeling of doom pressed on his shoulders.

  This had been Felicity’s call. She was the one with the most at stake. But everything in him screamed that this was a bad idea.

  Magnum wasn’t going to release her aunt. He’d most likely kill both Felicity and Brody and then grab the treasure for himself.

  His throat tightened as he tried to figure out the best plan of action.

  He couldn’t just sit by and watch everything blow up. He couldn’t do it. Nor could he protect Felicity on his own.

  He pulled out his phone and stared at it a moment.

  Emotions clashed in his gut. Felicity might never forgive him if he did what he was about to do. But, if he didn’t, she could end up dead.

  She could end up like Andrea.

  He couldn’t let that happen.

  At the thought of his first love, he dialed Joshua’s number. His friend answered on the first ring. “What’s going on?”

  “Magnum is on his way here.”

  “Magnum Lewis?” Joshua repeated.

  “That’s right. He says he’s bringing Bonny Pasture with him, but I’m not so sure about that.”

  “Why not?”

  “He can’t be trusted. Felicity doesn’t want me to involve you, but . . . I don’t know, Joshua. I’m trying to trust my judgment on this.”

  “What’s your gut telling you?”

  He squeezed his eyes shut, not wanting to voice the thought aloud. “That he’s going to get what he wants and kill everyone here.”

  “I’m on my way. It will take me a few minutes to get there. There was an accident on 17 that has the road nearly closed.”

  “Thanks.”

  Just as he hung up, he heard a footstep behind him.

  Felicity paused in the hallway and sucked in a breath.

  Who was Brody speaking to?

  She froze where she was as part of the conversation caught her ear. “Magnum is on his way . . .”

  Betrayal stabbed through her heart.

  Brody didn’t think she was competent enough to make her own choices either—just like Ricky. He’d gone behind her back and . . . made her look foolish.

  Shame filled her.

  How could she have thought Brody was different? He was just as arrogant as Ricky. He cared nothing about her. Didn’t respect her. Didn’t think she was capable.

  Maybe he even delighted in making her look stupid in front of others.

  At that moment, Brody turned around.

  His eyes flashed with guilt. He knew he’d been caught.

  He started to reach for her. “Felicity, it’s not what you think.”

  She jerked away, nearly spilling her water. “Then what is it?”

  “Felicity, I’m afraid things are going to go south. I fear for your safety. I had to call Joshua—”

  “You called the police?” Her mouth gaped open. “You know what Magnum said he would do. He’s going to kill my aunt. Why couldn’t you have just let me call the shots?”

  He didn’t break his gaze. “I was only trying to look out for you.”

  She threw one of her hands in the air, her voice rising with it. “By making me feel like an idiot?”

  Brody shook his head and again started to reach for her. He seemed to realize the futility of the motion and dropped his hand. “That’s not how I meant it. Felicity, I care about you—”

  She wasn’t falling for this again. “You care enough to stab me in the back.”

  “I care enough to not want a repeat of what happened to Andrea.” His voice sounded still, solemn.

  But she couldn’t be weak again. “So you’re just interested in saving your own reputation. That sounds familiar.”

  “It’s not like that—”

  Before he could finish his statement, a deep, accented voice cut through the air behind her. “Sorry to interrupt this love spat, but I believe you have something I want to see.”

  Felicity turned and spotted Magnum standing at the base of the stairway. He really must have positioned right outside her house to get here this quickly. And he’d come inside without making so much as a sound.

  Her eyes immediately went to the gun he bobbed in his hands as he climbed the steps.

  She looked beyond him but only saw two men following him.

  Felicity forgot about how much she despised Brody for a moment as her spine stiffened. “Where’s Aunt Bonny?�
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  Magnum clucked his tongue and his eyebrow twitched, as if this whole situation amused him. “First things first. Where’s this room?”

  She raised her chin, tired of other people trying to take control of her life. “I won’t tell you until you show me my aunt.”

  He cleared the stairway and stared at her a moment before letting out a low chuckle. “I know it would be nice to call the shots, but that’s my job, not yours.”

  “Then I won’t tell you.” She raised her chin higher.

  “We can do this the hard way.” All of the humor left his voice, and he sounded menacing instead.

  His men rushed up the stairs and surrounded her and Brody. There were five of them including Magnum. No way they’d ever be able to take on that many men.

  Magnum raised his gun. “Now, where is it?”

  She knew she was outnumbered. If she didn’t tell him, these men would just tie her and Brody up and leave them to die. She may as well play along for as long as she could. “It’s upstairs. In the attic.”

  He nodded to his men, and they scrambled up the stairs.

  “Try anything stupid, and there will be consequences,” Magnum warned, aiming his gun at her.

  Panic raced through her. When the police showed up, her aunt was going to die. That was all there was to it.

  “Now move.” Magnum pointed with his gun toward the attic.

  Felicity didn't argue. She started up the steps, Brody behind her, and Magnum bringing up the rear. At the top, Magnum tasked one of his men with watching them while Magnum did the honor of inserting the key into the lock.

  She held her breath as she waited to see what would happen.

  The lock turned. The door opened. Blackness yawned from the other side.

  She’d seen too many movies, and half-expected bats to fly out. Or some kind of curse to begin wreaking havoc on everyone in the room.

  Instead, there was silence.

  Magnum motioned for one of his men to go in first.

  The chosen one raised a lantern and stepped inside.

  Felicity’s eyes went dry. She hardly wanted to blink and miss anything. What was on the other side of that wall?

  Chapter Thirty-One

  A moment later, the man emerged from the room, a scowl on his face. “It’s a chest. But it’s locked.”

  “There’s a chest?” Magnum grabbed the lantern and ducked into the room himself. When he stepped back out, he muttered curses under his breath.

  “I thought you’d be happy,” Felicity muttered.

  “It’s locked.”

  “You’re going to let that stop you?” she asked.

  Magnum narrowed his eyes. “It’s not that easy. It’s too heavy to carry, and those kinds of locks can’t be jimmied like the new ones. We have to find the other half of this.” He held something up.

  Felicity squinted, trying to get a better look at it. It almost looked like a half key. “What exactly is that?”

  Magnum crossed the room in a few strides until he was face-to-face with her. “It’s half of a key. I need the other half in order to open that chest and find my treasure.”

  “Half of a key? Who makes half a key?” she asked.

  He narrowed his eyes again. “Someone with a twisted sense of humor. Someone who wants to protect what he’s plundered. Someone like . . .”

  “Blackbeard,” she finished. “Where’d you find that half?”

  His eyes darkened. “In the cannon exhumed from the Queen Anne’s Revenge. It was hidden away in a compartment near the base. I knew it was there somewhere, but it took me forever to find it.”

  Facts started to click in her mind. “That’s why you were really there working for Project Teach. How you managed to do that amazes me.”

  His eyes brightened this time. The man fed on admiration. “It’s not that hard to fake credentials. I set up a few bogus websites. Made some dummy landing pages for articles written about me. Falsified a résumé. That was the easy part of my job.”

  “I still don’t understand how you tracked all of this down to my house.”

  “Since we’re being chatty now, I guess I can tell you this much. A man contacted Project Teach about a key. I just happened to get the email. He wanted to sell it to us. Said he’d found it washed up on shore in Cape Hatteras. I responded and went to meet him. I knew when I first saw it that it was the real thing.”

  “What happened then?” Felicity asked.

  “I offered to buy it from him, but he didn’t want to accept the amount I offered. I knew I had to have that key.”

  “So he tried to get away, but you stopped him,” Felicity said.

  Magnum shrugged. “Something like that. One of my men roughed him up, but the man was scrawny and managed to get away. He left the island as it was starting to snow, and we went after him. He got to land, but sent his boat out into the water to throw us off. That’s when this guy came in.” He nodded at Brody. “He picked the man up on the side of the road. We couldn’t let him get away. I had to have that key.”

  “How did that man—he had a name, by the way, Ivan—know about Felicity’s connection to this?” Brody asked.

  “He must have overheard my guys talking.” Magnum scowled again. “Turns out he was a smart old man. He scoped us out while we were eating at a restaurant in Hatteras. He must have heard too much.”

  “What made you so certain the key belonged with Blackbeard’s treasure?” Felicity asked.

  Satisfaction flashed in his eyes. “Simple. I acquired some journals at an auction. The entries contained a firsthand account of Blackbeard.”

  Felicity’s heart rate spiked at the news. “Whose journals were they?”

  “A banker named Charles Smith. Apparently, Blackbeard paid him off for his silence, but he had to tell someone. So he kept a journal.”

  “Why would Blackbeard befriend a banker?” Felicity tried to think it through, wondering what kind of connection they could have possibly had.

  “This Charles Smith apparently couldn’t stand the governor of Virginia, who’d offered a reward for Blackbeard’s death,” Magnum said. “The governor had taken some land that Charles thought rightfully belonged to him. As a result, he wanted revenge. What better revenge than to help the very man the governor loathed?”

  “And that somehow led here?”

  That all too familiar satisfaction filled Magnum’s gaze again. “One of the entries mentioned that Edward Teach had taken a wife in Hertford. Someone named Loretta. I did my research, and it led me here. I figured there might be a clue at this house. I just never figured the treasure was here.”

  Felicity shook her head. “It doesn’t make sense. Back then, this house was small, which would indicate Loretta Pasture didn’t have much money. If the treasure was here, why didn’t she use it?”

  “From everything I’ve read, she died before she could ever enjoy it.”

  Brody bristled beside her. “Since you seem to have all the answers, then answer this: If Blackbeard left the treasure here for his bride, then why plant clues for others to find it?”

  “I believe Blackbeard, in the event of his or Loretta’s death, instructed his first mate to leave the clues in hopes that his children or his children’s children would find it. But your guess is as good as mine.” He held the gun up again. “Now, let’s get downstairs and discuss this further.”

  Panic caused her heart to race. “I want to see my aunt. I need to know that she’s okay.”

  A smug, arrogant expression captured Magnum’s face. “You have nothing of value to me anymore, Felicity. I should just kill you now.”

  Brody bristled beside her. “Keep your hands off her.”

  “Lover boy is getting a little protective, isn’t he? That’s . . . sweet. The greatest stories of our time involve those of a man and woman falling in love. I’m only sorry you won’t be able to see this little relationship to completion.”

  His announcement made Felicity’s muscles knot with anxiety. “What
are you going to do with us?”

  “I haven’t decided yet. As an ode to Blackbeard, I thought maybe it should be creative. Now, let’s go.” He shoved the gun toward them, then gestured to the stairway.

  As they pounded down the steps, Felicity glanced around her. There were too many men surrounding her. She’d never be able to make a getaway.

  Her muscles tensed at the thought. Brody had been right. Her decision to call Magnum instead of the police could very well get them killed. She should have listened to him. Maybe all of this could have been avoided if she had.

  As Felicity stepped off the bottom step, a crash sounded behind her.

  She twirled around and saw that Brody had tackled one of the men.

  Brody! Her throat went dry.

  She couldn’t let him get hurt because of her.

  Her gaze darted around the room. She needed something. Anything to help protect her.

  She grabbed a lamp and, before she could second-guess herself, she swung it, hitting another man square over the head. He sank to the floor.

  But Magnum. He had a gun.

  Just as the thought crossed her mind, she saw him raise his weapon toward Brody.

  She let out a scream. “Brody! No!”

  Felicity’s scream distracted Magnum just enough that Brody was able to kick Magnum’s gun out of his hand and onto the floor. This was going to be a fair fight. Man against man. Fist against fist.

  As he swung a fist toward Magnum’s smug, little face, Brody couldn’t get the look Felicity had given him out of his mind. She was terrified. Rightfully so.

  They’d be lucky to get out of this alive.

  They’d managed to take two men down, but there were still two more to go, not including Magnum.

  Another man rushed toward Felicity. Brody’s gaze remained on her, watching as she grabbed the lit candle from the table and flung the hot wax onto the man’s face.

  He howled with pain.

  “I’m so sorry.” Her hand slapped over her mouth, and her eyes were wide with apology.

  As the last man came after her from behind, Brody struck a blow to Magnum’s face. He’d have a black eye from that one. The punch was enough to divert Magnum’s attention for a moment.

  “Felicity, watch out!” Brody’s voice pulled her back to the moment.