LITMIR.BIZ

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voice yet to answer.

      “I had no idea Bagels would respond to rider inexperience like that,” he said. “You did good, I mean for someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing.”

      “The compliments just keep rolling off your tongue,” she muttered. Now that it was over, she’d turned into a jellyfish. Eventually it occurred to her that Adam Westin was not stiff like his father or her stepfather, not at all. He was firm and lean, yes, but he was also incredibly tender and his arms supporting her were strong. Warm. Sexy.

      She pushed herself away, embarrassed to have such thoughts about him.

      He tipped up her chin and smiled down at her. The leap her heart took into her throat was so disconcerting she twisted her head away.

      He released her at once. “Take the reins. We’ll walk the horses for a while to cool them off.” He smoothed the gelding’s long nose. “You okay now, Bagels? Got it all out of your system?”

      He started leading his horse up the path and she followed with Bagels, relieved her legs were working again. “I wish I’d known what to call him when he was running off with me,” she said.

      “I don’t think it would have helped.”

      “Probably not.”

      They continued on in silence. Bagels pressed his muzzle against her neck every once and a while as though trying to make up and she patted him. The sound of the horses’ hooves against the rocks and the birds overhead began to meld together.

      The adrenaline rush was gone and now she felt woozy, her feet like granite. “Tell me about this cave we’re going to,” she called, hoping for a diversion. “For starters, how much farther?”

      “Well, you and Bagels very cleverly took us by a different route than the one I had planned,” he said, glancing at her over his shoulder, his gray eyes amused. “We’ll be coming in the back way now. I guess we’ll walk a half hour or so and then ride an hour.”

      “It’s a distance, isn’t it?”

      “I tried to warn you.”

      “And when we get there?”

      “We check the lock I put on the entrance.”

      “What exactly was taken?”

      “There’s no way to know for sure because the contents have never been documented. Apparently, the tribe that used the cave summered here in the high valley. When one of them died, their body was wrapped in blankets and laid to rest inside the cave where there are dozens of fissures. Sometimes amulets or relics of one kind or another were buried with them. My great-grandfather came across the cavern a long time ago and since then, we’ve all been caretaking it. About thirty years ago, my father made it clear we were all to stay away from it.”

      “Did you?”

      “Not really. My brothers and I just stopped telling him about our adventures. For the most part, we did respect the burial cavern. It was the prospecting shafts we mainly took an interest in, and they’re in the main cavern. We didn’t advertise our activities to Dad.

      “Then last winter Pierce came back to the ranch when Cody was called away and I was hiking in Hawaii. Princess Analise showed up and for some reason they were both pretty vague about, he took her to the cave.”

      “I read about a cave in the newspaper stories that followed their exploits. The article didn’t say anything about burials or relics.”

      “That’s because we kept those facts to ourselves. But at that time, Pierce noticed activity. Since then, I’ve been keeping a closer eye.”

      “Are these artifacts valuable?”

      He shrugged. “Not overly so, not intrinsically, anyway. Nothing worth a fortune but none of it should have been lost. I’ve been asking my father to allow me to invite the university in to excavate and preserve the site for years, but he likes things the way they are.”

      “So it’s on Open Sky land?”

      “Absolutely. Our family has known about it for generations. I’m surprised Uncle Pete never mentioned it to you.”

      “Is your father the chatty type?”

      Adam laughed. “God, no.”

      “Neither is Pete. I guess it runs in your family except now that I say that, you can talk when you want to.”

      His lips twitched and he shook his head.

      They climbed a series of rocks, their horses picking their way behind them. Adam turned every so often as if to see if she needed help. She made sure she didn’t. Her femme fatale episode was behind her now. Onward and upward.

      He was quite a bit ahead of her when she noticed he’d stopped. Shading his eyes with one hand, he was peering up into the sky. “It’s getting late,” he called. “Let’s get to the top of this bluff and ride again. It’s a little rocky so go slow.”

      “Slow is my new middle name,” she mumbled, and when she finally returned to the saddle, she did so with a smile on her face if not one in her gut. But Bagels seemed as happy as she was that the drama was over and plodded along behind Adam’s mount like a good horse.

      “It’s over the next ridge,” he said at last. They’d actually climbed high enough that snow still existed in shady pockets of land and the temperature dropped. They were soon over the ridge and coming down the far side toward the mountain that was apparently their goal. Echo breathed in big gulps of pine-scented air and marveled that it didn’t seem so remote and lonely here after all.

      It took her a second to notice Adam had stopped his horse dead in his tracks. She stopped as well, and for a second, admired the way Adam looked sitting in his saddle, the man and the horse in total harmony and striking against the green trees and brilliant blue sky. Eventually it occurred to her there was something ominous in the way he stared down the mountain. He was so still and vigilant…?.

      It began to unnerve her. Even the birds seemed to have stopped chattering in the treetops and both horses stood with their ears perked forward.

      Waiting…

      Just when she was about to crack, Adam turned toward her. “Someone is down there.” His voice was very soft.

      The leather saddle creaked as he leaned forward and unsnapped a strap on a long holster that held a rifle, although he didn’t take the weapon out of the scabbard.

      Okay, this was unnerving. And exciting. Really, she’d been positive she’d die of boredom over the next twenty-four hours and already she’d survived a runaway horse, enjoyed some banter with a good-looking relative and now they were going to catch a grave robber.

      “Adam?”

      “Shh,” he said.

      She lowered her voice. “I assume you’re talking about a bad guy?”

      “I think the odds are pretty good. Come on, stay close to me.”

      Try to get rid of me….

      Maybe instead of cooking shows she should divert into true-life action documentaries. The construction of coq au vin, while interesting, didn’t get the pulse pounding like this…?.

      They got off the horses again and walked them partway down the hill. Every twig they trod upon sounded like a thunderclap. Adam finally stopped at a flat spot and tied both horses to a tree. “That looks like an ATV down there. I’m going to check it out. You can stay with the horses.”

      “That’s okay.” She fully intended to stay near the gun.

      He pulled out the rifle and handled it as though he knew what he was doing. She crept along behind him.

      The battered old scooterlike thing sported more rust than paint. It had obviously been parked in an out-of-the-way spot with some attempt at concealment. That

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