“So,” Cheyenne said, turning to Amy with mischievous eyes, “are you feeling good enough to finish this gold hunt?”
The question seemed to send a jolt of excitement through the room.
Conversations quieted as everyone turned expectant eyes toward Amy, waiting for her answer.
Amy looked around at their excited faces and couldn’t help but laugh. These people had just survived a kidnapping, a shootout, and the most stressful day imaginable, and they were already eager to get back to treasure hunting.
She pushed her plate away and grinned, feeling a surge of the same excitement that seemed to be contagious among the Cross and Stone families. “I was wondering what we were waiting for.”
The room erupted in cheers and laughter.
Porter pointed to the back of the house. “Good. I have two helicopters that can transport us all to the right spot. Marshall, will you help fly the bird out there?”
Marshall chuckled and stood. “I thought you’d never ask.”
Nash grinned beside her. “Let’s go finish this.”
CHAPTER 28
Nash had never seen two helicopters full of Cross and Stone adults look quite so determined. As Marshall expertly piloted the lead aircraft over the familiar landscape of Cross Creek Ranch, Nash squeezed Amy’s hand and watched his childhood home spread out below them.
“There,” Amy called out over the rotor noise, pointing toward the rocky outcropping marked on her map fragment. “That’s where we need to start.”
The helicopters touched down in a cloud of dust and prairie grass, and Nash helped Amy out while Porter immediately took charge of the operation with his typical ranch-boss efficiency.
The entire extended family spilled out of both aircraft—all the Cross and Stone siblings with their wives, creating quite the crowd on the Montana prairie.
“Alright, everyone listen up,” Porter bellowed, his voice carrying easily over the dying whine of the rotors. “We’re going to grid-search this entire area. I want every square inch covered systematically. Trey, take your brothers and start at the north ridge. Brooks, Hunter, Trent—you’re with him. Colt, you and Blaze work the eastern slope with Sierra and Eden. Chance, you’re with me and Sadie on the southern boundary.”
Nash watched with amusement as his sister-in-law Sadie saluted Porter with mock seriousness. “Yes, sir, General Cross.”
Porter shot her a look that was half annoyed, half affectionate. “Don’t start with me, woman.”
Nash grinned. Some things never changed—Porter would organize a family picnic like a military operation if given half the chance.
“What about the rest of us?” Cheyenne asked, gesturing to herself, Kelly, and the Stone women who stood ready for assignments.
“Kelly and Cheryse, you work with Chance and me,” Porter continued without missing a beat. “Kensi and Liberty, you’re with the Stone brothers on the ridge. Ava and Serenity, coordinate communications between the groups. Kat, you’re with Marshall when he finishes his aerial reconnaissance.”
“What about us?” Nash asked, gesturing to himself and Amy.
Porter consulted the map fragment Amy had saved. “You two take the center area, right here where the symbols are most concentrated. And Nash—” His expression grew serious. “Be careful. That’s close to where Dad always told us to stay away from.”
Nash felt a familiar chill run down his spine. Their father had been very specific about certain areas of the ranch being off-limits due to “unstable ground conditions” and “dangerous gas pockets.” As children, they’d obeyed without question. As adults, they’d simply accepted it as fact.
Now, walking hand in hand with Amy across the uneven terrain while the voices of both families spread out across the prairie, Nash couldn’t help but wonder what his father had really been protecting them from.
“Your dad was smart,” Amy said, as if reading his thoughts. “If he knew about the gold, keeping you boys away would have been the safest thing to do.”
Nash nodded, though part of him felt a pang of loss. All those years, the treasure had been right here, practically in their backyard, and they’d never known.
Around them, the organized chaos of the search was already in full swing. Nash could hear Colt’s voice calling out coordinates to Sierra, while Eden told Blaze about spot irregularities in the landscape. Trey’s military commands mixed with Kensi’s enthusiastic observations.
They worked in comfortable silence for the first hour, methodically searching the area marked on Amy’s map fragment.
“Nash, look at this,” Amy called out, crouching beside a cluster of boulders that formed a natural windbreak.
Nash hurried to her side, following her gaze to where she pointed. There, carved into the weathered stone, was the unmistakable broken arrow symbol they’d been finding everywhere.
