Jericho dropped to his knees in front of the embers of their fire. He swept the ashes aside and ran his fingers along a groove, his hands still bound and making the effort more difficult.

As soon as he opened the hiding place and these men got their hands on the treasure, they’d have no need for Jericho and her. Hance wouldn’t think twice about murdering them, throwing their bodies into the charred woods, and then setting them on fire to make it seem like they’d gotten trapped and burned to death.

That was why she had to act now. “Jericho Bliss, you’ve got about as much spine as a snail.”

He paused and shot her a dark look.

“That’s right, figured you’d try to stand up for us, for me. But you’re just too weak, ain’t you?” She worked her expression into one of disgust. She didn’t mean a word of what she was saying, but if she could cause a commotion, then she might be able to distract the men enough that she could break loose. And once she was well away from any threat, then Jericho could fight, even if only with the knife in his boot that they hadn’t confiscated yet.

Jericho kept digging, not taking the bait. “It would be easier to lift the stone with a knife.”

The knife against her neck wavered, then Hance shoved her toward Otis. “Hold on to her and don’t let her go for anything.”

Otis fumbled but clamped his fingers around her arm, then pressed his gun into her side. From what she could tell, all four of their captors were armed. But Otis wasn’t as strong as Hance. Could she wrestle the gun from him and shoot Hance while he was busy with the gold?

She had to continue making everyone think she was mad at Jericho and cause an upheaval. “You were aimin’ to get the gold and hightail it away from me as fast as you could go.”

“Stop talking, Ivy.” Jericho ground the words out.

“Oh, so now you’re back to acting like my brother?”

He focused on digging his fingers into the crevice while Hance slid his knife down inside and began to try to heft the stone upward.

“I thought we’d moved past that.” She lobbed the accusation with as much derision as she could muster.

“We have.”

Hance released a choice cuss word. “You know what I did to my wife when she sassed off to me? I made sure she knew I was in charge.”

“I ain’t sassing.”

Jericho slanted her a dark glare. “This isn’t the time or place to discuss this.”