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

Abby started crying, and Gage pressed her face into his shoulder. “We’ll take care of him. We’ll take him home.”

Her tears turned to sobs, and Gage just held her. He ached for her, ached for her terrible loss. He wanted to absorb her pain, protect her from the heartache, make everything right for her again.

Was that love?

Gage prayed it wasn’t.

But as he led her away, his chest tight and his heart beating dully, he was very much afraid it was.

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

IT TOOK TWO TRIPS TO MÉRIDA TO TRANSPORT PEOPLE, EQUIPMENT, and 6,052 solid gold bars, each weighing approximately 32 troy ounces. Two pounds. Market value $59,649 dollars per bar.

A little over $363,000,000 in total, according to Abby’s calculations.

“How can there be so many?” Abby asked. “It would have taken hundreds of trips from the mine.”

“Unless there was more than one mine,” Gage said.

“That’s right! There were rumors about a Peralta mine in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California.”

“Could be, I guess. We’ll probably never know.”

Not that it really mattered. Wherever the gold had come from, they were rich. Sixty percent would go to the Mexican government, of course, but forty percent would be theirs.

They were depositing the government’s portion into a private vault in Mérida, 3,632 bars worth $217,860,000. Two thousand, four hundred and twenty bars were going home with them, $145,000,000 in gold.

Less the mordida they would be sending Victor Alamán, $4,356,000 in cash, the bribe they’d promised to pay.

Abby thought of her grandfather with a bittersweet pang. King had been right about the gold from the start.

But then she had never really doubted him.

She couldn’t wait to get back to the States with the news—King Farrell had found the Devil’s Gold!

King’s good name would be restored, and all of them would be rich. It was a huge achievement, a once-in-a-lifetime thrill.

Her buoyant mood slowly faded. Once she was back in Denver, her time with Gage would be over.

Her throat ached. She could no longer stay in Gage’s apartment. By his silence, he had made his feelings clear. Abby loved Gage, the forever kind of love that only came once in a lifetime. She would never truly get over him, but she didn’t want a man who didn’t—couldn’t—love her in return.

“You ready?” Gage asked, clean-shaven again, so handsome in his yellow knit pullover and tan slacks her heart hurt just to look at him. His beautiful blue eyes touched her face, and she thought he seemed oddly troubled.

He still had a lot to worry about. They were shipping millions of dollars in gold. Until it was safely stored in Denver, neither of them could relax.