what a miracle it was for me to find that job with the Whitakers. Not only did it save me from the whorehouse, it gave me a family. People to love who loved me in return. Then Will was born, and Ben and Suzanne fell silly in love with him at first sight. We made a family and—"
"Wait a minute. Ben and Suzanne Whitaker? The Whitakers? Not Gunslinging Suz. Surely you're not talking about the Whitakers who rode with the Sunshine Gang."
"They were retired." For the most part, anyway. She wasn't about to mention Ben's "little slips" as he liked to call them.
Logan braced his hands on his hips. "Are you telling me my son has been raised by outlaws?"
His son. Suddenly, she was real tired of hearing that. She straightened her spine and lifted her chin. "Suzanne was never convicted of anything, and Ben served his time in prison. He paid his debt to society. He's a good man who lived to regret some youthful indiscretions. Surely you can understand that."
"Good Lord. The Whitakers!" Logan closed his eyes and after a moment made a circular motion with his hand, prompting her to continue.
Caroline found her determination strengthened by his reaction to the Whitaker name. She'd been correct in her assessment that he wouldn't be motivated to save Ben. She was doing the right thing, the only thing. "Everything was good, we had a fine life, until we lost Suzanne in January."
"Lost her?"
"She died. Fell down the stairs. Will found her when he came home from school."
Logan stopped pacing in front of the window. He shoved his hands in his pants pockets and once again stared outside. After a long moment, he said, "That had to be a hard knock for the boy."
"He suffered. We all suffered. Ben went a little crazy in his grief."
Logan whipped his head around and stared at her. "Did Whitaker mistreat the boy? Is that why he ran off?"
"Oh, heavens no. Ben adores Will. It's been a battle for me to keep him from spoiling my son silly."
"So why in the world would he want to become an outlaw?"
Caroline opened her mouth to talk about the appeal of rustling cattle, but she couldn't quite force herself to make Will look like a criminal in his father's eyes. "Well, that's not exactly what happened. It's more complicated than that."
"Complicated how?"
Caroline's teeth tugged at her lower lip as she tried to decide what truths to stretch. She hadn't intended to mention the gold until later, but maybe that was a mistake. After all, Logan had helped Dair MacRae and his wife and in-laws find the Bad Luck Treasure. The prospect of another treasure hunt might appeal to him. "Will doesn't want to be an outlaw, but he had to join a gang to be allowed inside Black Shadow Canyon. He wants access to the canyon to hunt for a lost gold mine."
"A what?"
"A gold mine. He has a treasure map."
"Oh, for God's sake. Not another treasure." Logan grimaced and let out a long-suffering sigh.
Oh, dear. That wasn't a particularly encouraging sign, but it was too late to back out now.
He pinned her with a stony stare. "Tell me about it."
Caroline concentrated on choosing her next words carefully, especially since this part of her story was heavy on falsehoods. "A few weeks after Suzanne died, Ben asked me to pack away Suzanne's personal belongings. He couldn't do it himself."
Actually, he had forbidden anyone from touching anything of his late wife's. Caroline only breached that privacy after Ben disappeared.
"I found a stack of letters from an old friend. One of them described his discovery of a gold mine called Sierra de Cenizas."
Logan grimaced and groaned. "Otherwise known as Geronimo's Treasure."
"You're familiar with the story?"
"Every cowboy who's ridden the trail in West Texas has heard that old yarn. An Indian guide showed the mine to Spanish explorers, who loaded down their mules with nuggets and ore to carry back home. They were all massacred in the great Indian uprising of 1680, but not before one of them left a document in the Palace of Sante Fe
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Author's Note
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