LITMIR.BIZ

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four SEAL friends. Was he imagining things or were the five looking at him strangely? A funny feeling settled in his gut. Stepping into the room, he glanced around. “Okay, guys. What’s going on? Where is he?”

      The group shifted and he saw the man seated in a chair with his hands handcuffed behind his back. Gavin shook his head as if to clear his brain. “Mr. Lott?” he said in shock.

      Sherman Lott couldn’t even look at him. Gavin shook his head again and looked over at his friends. “There must be some mistake. Mr. Lott has been our neighbor for years. He was a friend of Dad’s. He—”

      “I was never a friend of your father’s!” Lott all but screamed. “Gavin Jr. always got anything he wanted. He was the town’s hero in high school. I could never compete. Then he became a SEAL and was a war hero, and I couldn’t compete there, either. He got all the girls. After my leg got banged up that time when a horse threw me, the women around here wouldn’t give me the time of day.”

      Gavin stared at the man who was now glaring back at him with cold and hate-filled eyes. Gavin let go of Layla’s hand. Evidently he had misunderstood this man’s relationship with his father all these years. “Okay, so there was a rivalry between you and Dad, and he wasn’t your friend. What does that have to do with you sabotaging a dig on my property?”

      Instead of answering, Lott shifted his gaze from Gavin to Layla. “I removed that marker so you’d forget where you were supposed to dig, but that didn’t stop you. I burned that damn barn down and that didn’t stop you, either. You were determined to dig anyway.”

      “Why didn’t you want her to dig, Mr. Lott?” Gavin asked.

      The man didn’t answer. He looked away as if ignoring the question.

      Gavin looked over at his friends. “Would any of you care to explain just what the hell is going on? Why didn’t Lott want Layla’s team to dig up buried treasure?”

      Roy cleared his throat and said in a somber voice, “It wasn’t the buried treasure he was concerned with anyone finding, Gavin.”

      Gavin frowned. Now he was even more confused. “Then what was it?”

      The room quieted and he felt Layla pressing her body closer to his. Then she again placed her hand in his. When no one answered, Lott hollered out, “Your mother! I didn’t want you to find your mother’s body.”

      * * *

      Layla felt weak in the knees and wondered how Gavin could still be standing. His friends evidently wondered the same thing as Bane and Coop crossed the room to flank Gavin’s other side. Suddenly, she realized they hadn’t done so to keep Gavin steady on his feet. They’d moved to intercede if Gavin took a mind to kill Sherman Lott.

      “You refused an attorney, Mr. Lott,” Roy said angrily. “Like I told you before, any confession you make will hold up in court.”

      Layla saw Flipper hold up his phone, letting everyone know he was recording everything. Gavin moved forward, and she, Bane and Coop fell in step. It was apparent the shock of what Lott had said had worn off.

      “What do you mean ‘my mother’s body’?” Gavin asked, standing less than five feet from Lott.

      Layla thought she actually saw regret fill Mr. Lott’s eyes when he said, “I didn’t mean to kill her. Honest. It was an accident.”

      Gavin drew in a breath so deep, it seemed the room rattled from the effect. She felt it. She thought everybody in the room felt it. “You killed my mother?” he asked in an incredulous voice. “But how? She left here.”

      The man shook his head. “No, she didn’t. She never left. I came across her one day with a flat tire. Said she’d planned on going away for a while but changed her mind and turned around before even making it to town. She missed you and your dad too much to go anywhere. She was on her way back home. Had made it to the main road to the Silver Spurs when her tire went flat. I offered to help. She was pretty. She smelled good. I thought she was too good for your dad. He didn’t deserve her. What man would leave a young wife who looked like her all alone to go play soldier?”

      The man paused. “I told her as much. I must have made her nervous by what I said. By the way I was looking at her and all. And then I don’t know what happened but I tried to touch her. She slapped me and I got mad. I slapped her back. I admit to hitting her several more times. She managed to get away and she ran from me. That made me angry. I ran after her and she fell and hit her head.”

      “And you didn’t go get help?” Gavin asked in a voice that was as hard as steel.

      “No!” Lott snapped. “Too late. Blood was everywhere. I knew she was dead. Besides, had she lived she would have told everyone what I tried to do. So I dug a hole and buried her.”

      Layla could almost see steam coming out of Gavin’s ears. He was breathing deeply. The hand holding hers tightened in fury.

      “What about the car?” Roy asked. Maybe the sheriff figured the best thing to do was keep the conversation going. Otherwise the deathly silence might put crazy ideas into Gavin’s head. Like crossing the room and breaking Sherman Lott’s neck with his bare hands.

      “I drove the car into my lake,” Lott said.

      “You bastard!” Gavin roared. He would have moved closer but Bane and Coop blocked him. “You buried my mother in a hole not knowing if she was alive or dead? And then you drove her car into the lake?”

      Lott had the nerve to glare at Gavin. “Why do you think I wouldn’t let anyone swim or fish in my lake? Why I kept it off-limits to you or anyone? Especially to you. I knew how well you could swim and figured one day you might dive too far down and see the car.”

      Layla saw fierce rage on Gavin’s face and she felt it in his entire body. The thought of him being that enraged scared her. She glanced over at Bane and Coop. They looked just as enraged as Gavin.

      Coop then said in a menacingly calm voice, speaking directly to Gavin but not taking his eyes off Lott. “Now you know why he tried keeping anyone from digging in the south pasture, Viper. Let Roy take him in.”

      “No!” Gavin roared. “That bastard killed my mother.”

      “We know,” Bane said in a chilling tone, giving Lott one hell of a lethal stare. “We all heard. And although we want to get a damn machete and chop his ass into little pieces, we won’t. Let the law take care of him, Viper. In the end he’s going to get exactly what he deserves.”

      The room got quiet and all eyes shifted to Gavin. Even Lott looked petrified upon seeing the deadly glint in Gavin’s eyes. There was no doubt in Layla’s mind that everyone in that room remembered that, when he needed to be, Gavin Blake could become a killing machine.

      Then suddenly Gavin pulled his hand free of hers, shoved both of his hands into the pockets of his jeans and began slowly backing up, not taking his eyes off Lott. It was as if he was trying to pull himself together. As if he knew that staying in that room with Lott one more second meant he would lose control and do the man bodily harm. Gavin kept backing up until his back touched the door. He turned to open it and then stopped. He paused before turning back around.

      Layla held her breath, not knowing what Gavin intended to do next. From the tension in the room, she knew his SEAL friends were poised, anticipating his next move. Then his gaze shifted from Lott to her. She saw both pain and anger in his features and her heart hurt for him. The man she loved. She wanted to think he needed her, but would he shut her out of the emotions he was feeling?

      The room was deathly still as he continued to stare at her. Then he moved forward...toward her. When he stood right in front of her, he took her hand in his again. Then, without saying a single word, he led her out the door.

       Seventeen

      Gavin wanted to pull his truck to the side of the road and catch his

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