Present Danger by Elizabeth Goddard (shoe dog free ebook .txt) 📗

She saw that now.

Would it make up for her mistake of telling him she couldn’t go there with him?

Jack stepped back and moved to Briggs, leaving a cold vacuum in the space where he’d been. She feared that he wouldn’t be willing to risk pursuing a relationship with her, after all. And this time, that was all on her.

Owen took Jack’s place and stood near Terra. “Are you all right?”

Terra hugged her brother, holding back sobs of relief.

“I’m glad you’re okay, Terra,” Owen whispered in her ear. “You should go to Jack. He needs you.”

She eased from Owen, surprised to hear that from him. He released her. Terra had to make the first move. Jack was leaving that to her. She turned and strode to Jack, who knelt next to Briggs.

Rising to his feet, Jack sighed. Terra rushed to him and wrapped her arms around him. Without hesitation, he held her good and tight the way she liked as she pressed her face into his chest and breathed in his masculine scent of mountain and pine and sweat. She shuddered as adrenaline rushed out of her.

Terra started to pull away, but he wouldn’t let go. She could handle that. Finally, he relaxed enough that she eased away, though she could have stayed in his arms forever. She needed to talk.

“I’m sorry for what I said to you in the hospital.”

“I understand being afraid of losing someone. I almost lost you on this mountain, Terra.” He held her at arm’s length. “I lost you before, too, because I was stupid, and I walked away from the best thing in my life.”

I love you enough to let you go. Because he’d loved her enough to sacrifice. But how did he feel about her now?

She pressed her hand against his cheek. “Stop. You were wounded. Trying to prove yourself. Trying to prove something you didn’t need to prove. Besides, I forgive you.”

He smiled for her—that smile boasting warmth and dimples, edged with the pain and exhaustion of the last few days. Longing filled his gaze, emanated from his presence, and maybe he didn’t have the strength to hide from her something she knew had been there just under the surface the whole time since he’d returned to Montana.

Terra stood on her toes and leaned in to kiss Jack. He reeled her in much closer and kissed her. Gently—Owen stood there, after all—but she sensed the love Jack held back, the passion he reined in.

She ended the kiss. “Where do we go from here?”

Flashlights shone in the forest. A helicopter suddenly swooped in close and shined a line directly on them. Terra and Jack stepped apart.

Nathan rushed forward from the forest and shouted over the noisy chopper. “Oh, thank goodness, you guys are safe. I thought we were going to be too late to save the day.” He directed the beam of light to the ground. “I see you got Briggs.”

“I shot him in self-defense,” Jack said. “He shot at Terra. So, yeah, self-defense.”

Nathan holstered his weapon. “Terra, your dad is in the hospital. He’s going to be okay. Except he could be charged because of his involvement in the trafficking. I don’t know what will happen, exactly. The FBI is involved now.”

“As I figured they eventually would be. The artifact. Does anyone know where it is?”

“I think I might,” Owen said.

SIXTY-FOUR

Hours later, Terra stood with Jack and Nathan in the barn.

Owen was holding a pitchfork and moving hay around. “I startled Gramps one day. I guess he thought I was still in town. He was out here shoveling hay. I thought it was strange then. Now I think I might know what he was up to.”

Jack scratched his chin. “Why don’t we just ask him?”

“Not to alarm anyone, but he’s in the hospital too,” Nathan said, “getting checked out. The EMTs thought he looked pale and sweaty. With the trauma he experienced, they feared he might be having a heart attack, but it’s just a precaution.”

“What?” Terra asked. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

“I’m telling you now. There’s been a lot going on, okay?” Nathan lifted his hand, a half apology.

“There. I feel something.” Owen dropped to his knees.

“Wait.” Nathan pulled on gloves. “I’ll take it from here, Owen. This is one convoluted mess, and I wouldn’t want someone to have a reason to point at you.”

Owen nodded. “Right. That makes sense. Already easy to do if this is it and it’s in my barn.”

Nathan slid the box out. Jack and Terra crouched closer and shined their flashlights as Nathan gently opened it.

A thick gold mesh crown filled with colorful jewels reflected the light. Terra gasped. “So, the murders, all of it, was over this.” Terra noticed a stone tablet in the box behind the crown. “Looks like the rest of the corner that I found. An ancient cuneiform-inscribed tablet. It must go with the crown for some reason. Some information about whoever wore it.”

Maybe Jim had taken this to his cabin, but had he dropped it? Broken the piece off? Then he decided he wasn’t the one to keep it? She hoped they could eventually put all the pieces together.

“Gramps did know where it was all this time. He lied to Marcus.” Terra crossed her arms. “Why would he do that? He risked our lives. He could have turned it over to him.”

“Your grandfather probably believed his only bargaining chip was the artifact, and likely feared that Briggs would kill you all once he got his hands on it,” Jack said. “Robert is shrewd, Terra. I have no doubt he made the right call here. He was simply buying time until someone else came to save the day.”

Owen stood and leaned against a post. “That makes sense. I think after Jim was killed, Gramps hired someone to break into the safe so he could say the item was stolen if ever asked about it. He could claim he didn’t know what it was. He’d just taken