BooksBarbecue
Back The Last Mile Save as PDF
Chapters (49)
  1. Also by
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Epigraph
  5. CHAPTER ONE
  6. CHAPTER TWO
  7. CHAPTER THREE
  8. CHAPTER FOUR
  9. CHAPTER FIVE
  10. CHAPTER SIX
  11. CHAPTER SEVEN
  12. CHAPTER EIGHT
  13. CHAPTER NINE
  14. CHAPTER TEN
  15. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  16. CHAPTER TWELVE
  17. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  18. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  19. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  20. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  21. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  22. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  23. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  44. CHAPTER FORTY
  45. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  46. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  47. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  48. EPILOGUE
  49. Teaser chapter

King’s notes marked the approximate location of the underground rooms, but at the time, he had only discovered the first of what he believed were several different caches of gold.

He’d left Denver for Mexico to recover the first cache and search for the rest, but he’d never made it home. The notes he had left behind were all the information they had.

Mateo grabbed a shovel, buried the blade in the dirt, then leaned on the handle as he spoke. “You must all remember there are poisonous snakes in the area. They are not that common, but some are deadly.”

“Coral snakes,” Gage said. “Rattlesnakes, black cantils, and pit vipers. Abby, you know what to look for, right?”

“Believe me, I know what a rattlesnake looks like. I studied photos of the rest.”

“Good girl.” He thought of her near-deadly snake encounter in the Superstitions, and unease slid down his spine.

“Trace has worked down here, and so have I,” Edge said. “Skye is no stranger to the hostile creatures in this kind of environment.”

Carlos’s skinny legs pounded the earth as he hurried over. “I will keep watch for snakes. I do not like them.”

Abby laughed. “Neither do I, Carlos. You let me know if you see one.”

“Sí, Señora Abby.” Carlos assumed Abby was Gage’s wife, which was the story he had told the innkeeper. Abby Logan. Mrs. Gage Logan. Just thinking about it sent a wave of panic through him.

Gage remembered Cassandra and the tragic end to her life. Maybe there was a time it could have happened for him and Abby. Not anymore.

“Let’s get to work,” he said.

CHAPTER THIRTY

CHAPTER THIRTY

THOUGH THE DAY WAS STILL EARLY, IT WAS ALREADY HOT BY THE TIME they began to search. The weather was changing; a big tropical storm was predicted in the coming days, but it wasn’t here yet.

They started with a drone flyover of the main structure, outbuildings, and surrounding hectares of land. The information the drone gathered was interesting but, aside from the discovery of an ancient cenote, only confirmed what they already knew.

Gage couldn’t resist taking a look at the circular sinkhole in the limestone bedrock. There were thousands of cenotes in Mexico, most filled with groundwater. They were deep, and a beautiful shade of blue, but they could be deadly. Years ago, they had supplied water to the Mayans, who had also used them for sacrificial offerings.

The thought gave Gage a chill.

They returned to the ruins of the hacienda and went to work. Raking up vines and flowering plants, and digging up shrubs and small trees was a start. Piles of rubble covered the ground underneath, places where the walls and roof had collapsed. Timbers remained that had once held up the floors, and scores of broken pasta tiles, famous in the Yucatán, in intricate, colorful patterns.