“Don’t ever trust her.”
“I don’t think you need to give me that advice,” Jake answered.
“I suppose not. So what happens if you find something and she’s there?”
“The treasure is hers as we planned. We get the remains. If any remains are Milans, she can have them.”
“What about the deed? If it’s there, she’ll see it.”
Jake nodded. “If it’s buried with the treasure, yeah. If we find it, she’s going to want to see it. At that point, I’ll drop the part about the McCracken land because she’ll know that I knew all along if there was a deed to land, it was Milan land.”
Jake sat forward in his chair. “You know, I wonder if it’s a tall tale—that our ancestor won part of the Milan ranch in a poker game and the deed was buried with that treasure.”
“You’ll have to take on about the bones of our ancestors like they mean the world to you.”
“I’ll worry about Madison. If that deed exists, I want it. According to what we were told, the deed would give us Milan land all along our border and that would be fabulous.”
“I think so,” Josh said, his brown eyes twinkling. “You’d get revenge for old man Milan telling you that you couldn’t marry Madison, to never go near her again.”
“I don’t care about revenge. That’s the past. If we have a deed to part of their ranch, I want that Milan land. We’re not the only company going after leases there,” Jake said, knowing that all his siblings owned shares in Calhoun Energy, just as he had an investment in Josh’s company.
Josh ran his fingers through his hair that sprang away and curled in a tangle. “Have you called everyone to tell them?”
“Yeah, I called you, too, and no one answered.”
Josh grinned. “I got your text. When you called, I was with...a friend.”
“The redhead?”
“No, she’s gone. Sandy is a brunette. You’ll meet her, maybe. Or maybe not.”
He paused as they heard voices outside the office and he watched their oldest brother, Mike, and their sister, Lindsay, appear from his private entrance.
“Good morning,” Mike said, standing and gazing at his brothers with wide dark brown eyes. Locks of his curly black hair fell slightly on his forehead. He shed his brown leather jacket, draped it on a coatrack by the door and hung his brown broad-brimmed hat on the rack.
“Come in and sit. Where’s Scotty?” Jake asked about Mike’s two-year-old.
“Home with Mrs. Lewis.”
“Lindsay, I didn’t expect to see you this morning.”
“I had to get some supplies and Mike talked me into coming. This is great news.”
“Madison was suspicious of my motives at first, but then she bought it and said that I can look for the treasure,” Jake explained and all three siblings cheered. “You two have a chair,” Jake said and Mike sat in the other leather chair while Lindsay took a wingback.
“And Madison thinks the deed gives you land from the McCracken place?” Mike asked.
“Right,” Jake replied. “From what I’ve always understood, until now, no one outside our family knows about the deed.”
“Thank heavens,” Josh remarked.
“Madison’s going with me on the dig. That’s the only way she would agree.”
“That’s bad news,” Lindsay remarked, frowning. “You can bet her brothers will be thinking up ways for her to take advantage of this. She’ll try something sneaky.”
Mike shook his head and rolled his eyes. “She wants to get back together with you.”
“No, she doesn’t,” Jake answered. “Madison doesn’t trust me to tell her if I find the treasure. It’s that simple.”
“Watch her. I don’t think it will be that simple,” Mike said. “I agree with Lindsay. Don’t ever trust a Milan,” he said and Jake’s eyebrows arched.
“What happens if you do find the deed?” Lindsay asked.
“I show it to her and claim the land.”
“You can just act surprised there really is a deed,” Mike said. “She can’t blame you for feeling uncertain about it.”
“I won’t need to act,” Jake remarked dryly. “I will be as surprised as hell if we find a deed or anything else. I don’t really think that legend is true.”
“Something got it started and it makes sense. You know our ancestors shot and killed Milans and Milans shot and killed some of our ancestors, which is part of what started the feud,” Josh said.
“A woman got it started. She planned to marry a Calhoun and ran off with a Milan,” Mike reminded them.
“You know Madison doesn’t trust you,” Josh remarked.
“I don’t really care,” Jake replied. “If there is a deed and that deed will stand up in a court of law, then part of the Milan ranch is ours. Maybe the best part of the Milan ranch.” All were silent a moment and Jake figured the others were thinking about the prospect of owning part of the Milan ranch just as he was.
“What a deal,” Josh stated, his brown eyes on Jake. “This may get the old feud fired up again.”
“I hope we’re all more civilized today than to go shooting at each other,” Jake said. “We may start searching tomorrow. I’m going to her house tonight to look at aerial photos of her ranch and hear her theories on where to look. I sent her a copy of the map last night.”
They speculated on where the digging would take place, as they had all studied the map and the aerial photos of the Milan ranch.
“All we can do is wait and see,” Mike said. “Call one of us each night and give us a report and we’ll call the other two.”
Jake agreed.
“That old legend,” Lindsay remarked. “It would be funny if it turned out to be true.”
“It sounds likely to me,” Mike added, glancing at the others.
“I go back and forth about it,” Jake said. “I first heard it from Grandad. He said a Calhoun had a box of gold and he was trying to get away from robbers—”
“It might have been just the reverse,” Mike said. “The Calhoun ancestor may have been the robber trying to escape a posse.
“They’ve also said the shoot-out was over a Calhoun’s fiancée who ran off with a Milan and they had the shoot-out over her,” Mike stated.
“That’s what Grandad always said. He said the Calhoun got her back because he killed the Milan,” Jake said. “The deed was won by a Calhoun from a Milan and was supposed to say clearly that the land belonged to the Calhouns, and the deed was with a box of gold coins.”
“The ranch boundaries we have now weren’t clear back in the time that shoot-out happened, but that started the feud,” Mike said. “Myth or truth? Maybe we’ll finally find out with our generation.
“I’d like to come with you,” Mike added, “but I think it would cause trouble with Madison Milan to have two Calhouns.”
“No,” Jake replied. “She won’t want the Calhoun brothers going along, or our sister.”
“Frankly, I don’t want to go,” Lindsay said.
Josh stood up. “I’ve got to go. I leave for L.A. in a few hours. Good luck, bro,” he said,