Heath shifted from one foot to the other. “We didn’t risk anyone’s life. We’re all still here. We’re all still safe. The governor even sent Amos here to help us get back.”
“You almost died!” Bryony shoved a hand in her brother’s direction. “Crossing a mountain that would have been much safer to traverse without two feet of snow on it.”
“Yes, I quite agree with your sister.” Dr. Wetherby frowned, then turned to Richard, the grooves on his face deepening. “None of us here signed up for this ‘expedition’ of yours. We came for research. It pains me to say so, but I’ll have to report this to the Department of the Interior upon our return.”
Richard straightened to his full height, a sneer tilting the edges of his lips. “Go ahead, Wetherby. File all the reports you want. Do you think the Department of the Interior funded this expedition because they needed a catalog of the flora and fauna, or wanted a months’ worth of research about the lichen that grows near glaciers? The Department of the Interior wants to know where the gold is. Everyone does.”
“Was everything just a ruse? My father, his expedition, this study?” Bryony raised her hands to encompass the campsite. “Was it all a ploy so that no one would know the Department of the Interior was searching for gold?”
Silence fell over the camp, but Bryony’s words still hung in the air, cold and heavy.
Richard didn’t deny her accusations. He stood before them, the light from the fire casting eerie shadows over his face.
Mikhail expected him to mock Bryony next, to find yet another way to brush off her concerns.
But Bryony stormed back over to him, not stopping until their noses were only inches apart. “I’ll never marry you.” She gave his chest a shove, then turned and looked directly at her father. “Did you hear that? I’m not marrying him. I could never commit the rest of my life to such a man.”
She whirled on her heel and stalked off.
Or at least she tried to stalk off, but the moment her back was turned, Richard pulled something from his waistband.
Mikhail barely caught the flash of a short metal barrel in the flicker of firelight before he jumped in front of Bryony.
Only then, when Richard leveled the barrel of the revolver directly at his chest, did Mikhail understand the pistol had never been intended for Bryony. “Where’s the gold, Amos?”
Mikhail’s heart hammered against his chest. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t make a mockery of me. You’ve been all over Alaska. On the sea, up the Yukon River, on the tundra. You know where there’s gold. Now tell me.”
Voices exploded around him.
“Mr. Caldwell, what are you doing?”
“Put the gun down.”
“I won’t stand for you shooting a person on my expedition.”
“I want to find gold just as much as you do, but this is a step too far.” Heath was the last to speak. “I won’t allow you to murder someone over it.”
Mikhail didn’t look at anyone else, not even Bryony, who’d rushed back to the group. The only thing he could stare at was the gun. “I don’t know where any gold is, but even if I did, you’d be the last person I’d tell.”
Richard cocked the pistol, the metallic clang ringing through the night. “I don’t believe you.”
“Fine. Don’t believe me. But it doesn’t change the facts.” Blood rushed through his veins and pounded in his ears. Would Richard do it? Would he pull the trigger? The man didn’t look the least bit uncomfortable with the pistol in his hand. The gun didn’t shake, and no sweat broke out on his forehead. He stood there cool and controlled.
Almost as if it wasn’t the first time he’d pointed a pistol at another person.
A new round of rain started falling, pattering on his head and the leaves and the ground. And the gun.
Just how slick would the rain make that trigger?
“Richard, this is madness.” Heath’s voice shook. “Put the gun away.”
Richard’s grip just tightened around the gun, the barrel unwavering. “I’ll ask you one last time, Amos. Where’s the gold?”
“I don’t know,” Mikhail gritted, fighting to keep his voice even. He might know how to kill a bear or wolf with a gun, but he wasn’t used to staring into the barrel of one, and the longer Richard pointed it at him, the harder it became to stay calm. “I’ve never put any effort into looking for it.”
“Why should I believe you?”
