The meals arrived, as good as he had promised. From there, Gage drove to his attorney’s office to pick up the contracts for her review; then they headed for the museum to retrieve her car.
“I assume you don’t have a man in your life,” Gage drawled as they crossed the lot to where she was parked. “No way could a regular-sized guy fit in a car that small.”
Abby laughed. “It’s a convertible, which makes it worth the sacrifice. Fits me just right, and I’m too busy to have a man in my life. I want to travel, see the world. Most men just want to stay home and make babies—or practice, at any rate.”
One of his dark eyebrows arched up. “So you don’t like sex?”
Abby’s face went warm. “With the right man, I like it fine. As I said, I’m just too busy to look for one.”
Gage cast her a heavy-lidded glance, but made no comment.
CHAPTER SIX
ABBY FOLLOWEDGAGE’SLANDROVER BACK TO HIS OFFICE, PARKINGthe Fiat in one of the spaces reserved for Treasure Hunters Anonymous. Gage waited for her at the front door, and they went inside.
He handed her the legal papers he had picked up from his lawyer. “I figure you’ll want your attorney to review these before you sign them. Be the smart thing to do.”
She looked him dead in the eye. “If I can’t trust you with a few pieces of paper, I’ll be in big trouble when we’re somewhere deep in the mountains looking for millions of dollars in gold.”
His lips curved. “Good point.”
“Don’t worry. Before I sign, I plan to read every word.” Taking a seat at one of the computer desks, she went over the documents page by page, line by line. Everything was laid out in easy-to-understand language, which surprised and pleased her. Once she was satisfied the contracts were in order, she and Gage walked to a small local bank a block away and had their signatures notarized.
Back in his private office, Gage retrieved his laptop, and they sat down at the round oak table in the corner.
“So where do we go from here?” Abby asked.
Gage opened his laptop and pulled up Google Maps. “Have you ever been to the Superstition Mountains?”
“No. I started studying the area after I inherited the map, so I know they’re in the middle of the Arizona desert east of Phoenix.”
“Your grandfather never mentioned going there?”
“Unfortunately, no. He was always very secretive about his expeditions. He would tell me about his adventures when he got back, but he didn’t talk about them beforehand. When he talked about the Devil’s Gold, he never mentioned the Superstitions. From what I’ve learned, I know it’s a designated wilderness area. That means no motorized vehicles, not even drones.”
“Unfortunate but not unexpected.” Using the keyboard, Gage brought up a string of photos of the mountains and the surrounding arid desert lands.
“If the terrain is as rough as it looks, we may have to go in on foot. We’ll talk to people who live there, see what they suggest, but we’ll definitely need to hire an outfitter to serve as a guide, someone familiar with the landscape. We might be able to go in on horseback, but more likely we’ll have to walk in, use horses or mules to pack in our gear and supplies.”
“We’ll need permits to enter the wilderness,” Abby said.
Gage nodded. “Can you take care of that?”
“Sure. If you can give me an estimate of how many we’ll have in our party.”
“This is only a preliminary trip. You haven’t met Mateo. He’s my right-hand man, someone I can always count on. He’ll be meeting us there.”
“You said ‘preliminary.’ You don’t think we’ll find the spot King marked on the map?”
“It’s possible, but as you said, if finding the gold was easy, King would already have brought it out.”
Disappointment trickled through her, which Gage must have noticed.
“We’ll know a lot more once we’re on the ground in Arizona.”
Abby perked up at that. “That’s true.”
“This is a three-pronged effort, Abby. If we find anything promising on our first trip, we’ll come back with more men, enough to dig, if that’s what we need to do. If we find the gold or any solid evidence it’s there, we’ll have to deal with the authorities, figure out a way to get the gold out legally.”
