Sophie shook her head.“Yes, I get that but dad will never believe this story.”
“He doesn’t have to believe it,” Miss Amy said, shaking her head.“That’s just the history of how the gold supposedly ended up here in the first place.No one else has ever found any part of that treasure though.”Miss Amy looked over at Cheyenne and shook her head, “Except maybe one woman.Cheyenne’s mom found a piece of it but like Smokey told you, it cost her life.”She sighed hard.“Twenty years ago, when Amos told that dirty MC about the gold, they came here to run these men out of the home they had built here.Asa had a woman back then.Her name was Georgia.She used to walk this mountain with her dog most days after work.She didn’t hurt anything and as long as the dog was with her, Asa knew she was safe.One day, she brought something back with her and she knew she had to keep it hidden.That was the day the other MC came here looking for trouble.”
“They found it, didn't they?”Asa shook his head then turned and told Sophie, “They found trouble but so did we.We fought for our home and we lost four men but the Hell’s Sinners lost nine.They retreated and didn’t come back, well not until recently that is.Amos kept going to bars in nearby towns talking about the treasure again and that brought the Sinners back to cause more trouble.He told them the gold was right here under our feet.They came back and again, tried to take this place from us but we were able to stop them cold this time.Then we caught Amos and he finally ran out of places to hide.We brought in the cops and they were finally able to find records of everything he’d done wrong.That old man will die behind bars for his crimes now and rightly so.Justice will finally hold his dumb ass accountable.”
Sophie sat quietly for a moment then she looked over at Miss Amy.“This is so unreal, isn’t it?The whole family has gone nuts over something they believe belongs to us because some ancestor of ours might have stolen it from someone else.”
Miss Amy nodded.Our grandfather tried to tell Simon that years ago but he didn’t hear it, wouldn’t hear it because he wanted that gold more than he wanted his family.To Simon, the old pirate did the right thing when he stole that other family’s wealth.He figured the old pirate did the right thing back then by bringing the gold here and claiming it for himself.But he didn’t reason the old pirate had to lie and cheat to get that gold and he never realized that even if he got that gold he couldn’t spend it.That gold is a national treasure to the whole of Russia.If it is here, it belongs to them not us and if he started living rich and the gold was traced back to him, he would have to answer for having it.That would bring the world to his front door and Simon never would have answered for what he did.If he tried to cash in on that treasure, he would have found himself sitting in a cell anyway.”
Sophie shook her head.“Dad always chased the get rich schemes rather than put in the work to get an honest job and work for a living.Neither him or Emma worked a job in their lives.He made my mom work while he sat home on his dumb ass and as soon as Emma could, she got married and had Patsy.Her daughter gave her the excuse she needed to stay home while her husband worked his fingers to the bone to afford her kept lifestyle.When he finally had enough, he walked out on her and left Patsy behind.Yes, she made him pay child support alright but he only paid until that girl was eighteen.Then he was finally free to live his own life.Emma wanted him to pay alimony for the rest of her life but the judge saw right through that too.He paid her thousands for the first year, then she had to get a job to pay her own way.”She shook her head.“I had to find work when I was fourteen to help mom pay the bills.Back then, I had to hand him half my check, but when I was seventeen, Mom died and after that, he took every penny.”
“Well, those days are over now.”Miss Amy patted her hand.“Now your dad and your sister are behind bars and I have a feeling they won’t be out anytime soon.”
“Thank God for that,” Jolene commented.
Chapter Six
“So, them being in jailwon’t end this,” Asa reminded them.“We still have to find a way to stop this Patsy before we can go get that damn treasure.”
Cheyenne smiled at him.“I got an idea, Dad.”
“Oh, yeah?”Asa stared at her.“Some of your ideas are doozies.So, I’m almost afraid to ask what that idea might be, girl.”
Miss Amy chuckled.“But they work, Asa.”
“Yes, they do.But I’m not too keen on going to any kind of cave or someplace where there’s snakes, nope.I just won’t do it.”
Cheyenne gave him a wounded look.“Daaddd,” she drew the word out then she gave him a grin.“The only way to pull her in would be to dangle a carrot in front of her face.”
“Like I said, I’m almost afraid to ask, how do we do that?”Asa stared at her.Ever since Cheyenne got here she’d been a wild card he wasn’t sure how to play.
Cheyenne leaned forward and asked him, “What if we dangle the carrot in front of the whole damn family?”
Now, it was Miss Amy’s turn to ask, “And just what do you have in mind to do that?”
Cheyenne got up and disappeared down the hall for a moment, when she came back she had a small velvet bag in her hand.She opened it and the necklace her mother found spilled out on the table.
