Her spine stiffened. “You’re my partner, Gage. If you’re in trouble, I’m not leaving. You might as well resign yourself.”
He clenched his jaw, fighting not to lose his temper. The simple truth was he hadn’t wanted her to go on this trip in the first place. He liked the idea less every day. As out of vogue as it was, he didn’t take women into dangerous situations.
Not anymore.
He thought of Cassandra and guilt swept over him. Beautiful, intelligent Cassandra. She’d be alive today if it hadn’t been for him. But Cassie had begged him to take her on the expedition, and he had agreed. He’d been younger back then, cocky after his first few successes. He had naïvely believed he could protect her. Because of him, Cassie was dead.
“We need to talk,” he said a little gruffly as they reached the office and went inside, continued through the building to the atrium and upstairs to his apartment.
Abby said nothing until he closed the apartment door and set the alarm.
“So talk,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest. “I have a feeling I already know what you’re going to say, and you can forget it. I’m going after the Devil’s Gold. If you want to back out of our deal, that’s fine. But I’m going. With or without you.”
Gage felt his temper climbing again. Abby was going after the gold. He could see by the determined look in her eyes that nothing he said was going to dissuade her.
Gage was torn. The no-longer naïve side of him wanted her to stay home, where she would be safe. His selfish side wanted her to go with him. Hell, he wanted her in his bed.
“You don’t have any idea what can happen on a trip like this.”
“I’ve read everything I can find on the Superstition Mountains. I know how many people have died, how many die every year. Three men went missing in the summer a few years back. The sheriff finally had to call off the search and didn’t find their bodies until two years later. Most of the fatalities are people who go in without being prepared. That’s not going to happen to us—assuming there still is an us.”
She was right about that. He wouldn’t go in unprepared. He was good at what he did. Damn good. If anyone could keep her safe, he was the one.
His chest clamped down. Exactly what he had believed when he’d agreed to take Cassandra along.
He felt Abby’s hand on his forearm, saw his tendons straining. Her touch gently smoothed over the muscles, easing some of his tension.
“I know you lost someone, Gage, a woman you cared about, a woman named Cassandra Dutton.”
Gage said nothing.
“Did you love her?” She was looking at him with so much pity, he knew he had to tell her the truth.
“No. I wasn’t in love with Cassandra.” But selfish bastard that he was, he hadn’t ended things when he should have.
“But she was in love with you,” Abby guessed.
He glanced away, trying not to remember her sweet, trusting face. “She thought she was.” He scrubbed a hand over his jaw, felt the bruises on his knuckles and the roughness of his evening beard. “I didn’t love her, but that doesn’t make it any easier. Cassie’s dead because of me.”
Abby opened her mouth to ask him what had happened, but Gage just shook his head. “Subject closed. If you’re determined to go, I’ll take you. But you have to trust me to keep you safe. That means you do what I tell you.”
He wasn’t sure what he read in her face, but finally she nodded. “I’ll expect to have some input, but if there’s trouble, I’ll do what you say.”
“I want your word.”
With a resigned sigh, she nodded. “I give you my word.”
CHAPTER NINE
THE NIGHT WAS CLEAR AND DARK. A FAINT WIND RUSTLED THE LEAVES in the street, but the sound was muted by the Friday night revelers in the bars and restaurants of LoDo.
Abby made coffee while Gage phoned the police. Officer Noland, young, with broad features and curly brown hair, and Officer Riggs, older, with a touch of silver at the temples, arrived at the apartment.
Noland took a statement from her and Gage, then asked a few additional questions.
“Aside from the men’s height and build, what else can you tell us about them? Any distinguishing marks? Scars, tattoos, that kind of thing?”
“They were covered head to foot in black,” Abby reminded him. “So there wasn’t much to see.”
“I can tell you they were damned determined,” Gage said. “People were starting to notice, or I don’t think they would have backed off.”
Abby felt a chill. “Gage fought them. If I’d been alone, I would have been in real trouble.”
“You get a plate number?” Officer Riggs asked.
“Couldn’t make it out,” Gage said. “I’m guessing they had it covered.”
“Any idea why they went after Ms. Holland?” Officer Noland asked.
Gage cast Abby a glance, warning her not to mention the map. “What do men usually want from a beautiful woman?” he said.
Noland’s gaze went to Abby, from her long russet braid to the toes of her leather ankle boots. He wrote something in his notepad, but made no reply.
Abby’s mind was stuck on Gage thinks I’m beautiful. She tucked the words away to examine later and focused on the conversation.
“I know it isn’t much,” she said. “We couldn’t see their faces. We know the car was an SUV, but neither of us could tell what model. It was black, dark gray, or blue. It was too dark to tell for sure.”
“At least there’ll be a report on file,” Gage said. “In case something else happens.”
“Nothing else is going to happen,” Abby said firmly, wishing she could convince herself.
Officer Noland closed his notebook and handed her a card. “If you think of anything else, you can call this number.”
She accepted the card. “Thank you.” Gage walked the policemen downstairs to the door that led outside.
“That was kind of a waste of time,” Abby said when he returned.
“It’s on record. If we have to deal with whoever came after you, we’ve laid the groundwork.”
Her head came up. There was something in his voice, the same hint of violence she had heard when he’d told her to run. She wondered how far he would have gone to stop the men from abducting her. They wanted the map. She wondered what they would have done to her in order to get it.
A shudder ran through her as she looked at Gage. “You don’t think they’ll follow us to Arizona, do you?”
“Once we’re gone, unless they’ve seen the map, there’s no reason for them to suspect we’ll be hunting for the gold in the Superstition Mountains.”
Abby mulled that over. “I don’t know how much the lawyer knew. The box was sealed when I got it, but that doesn’t mean no one saw the map before it went into the box.”
“Or King didn’t tell someone where he’d been searching.”
“There were people with him on the trips he made, people he trusted, but still . . .”
“One thing’s certain: whoever wants that map isn’t fooling around. We need to finish our work and get on the road. After we’ve left Denver, it’ll be harder for them to track us.”