“We don’t know how long it will take us to uncover all the bars. Or how much the total amount will weigh.” He scowled at the hole. “I say we call the police, tell them about the discovery, and let them come and handle the rest.”

Instantly, she saw the wisdom of his suggestion. “That’s a better plan. We might have to walk a ways, though, before we can place a call. On the way in, the GPS continued to work, but we lost all the bars about three-fourths of the way here—”

Luke abruptly raised a hand. He’d heard something.

She froze, senses straining.

She heard it, too. A motor of some kind.

Luke moved with incredible speed. He lunged to the first flashlight and extinguished it. Then to the second and extinguished it. She dashed for the headlamps, flicking them off.

Darkness fell over them, thick and sudden.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

When Luke was a teenager, he’d made a hobby of dangerous situations. When he’d worked at the chop shop, they’d come with the job. When he’d been in prison, they were part of the culture. He’d cultivated nerves of steel.

But Finley was with him this time.

And that changed everything.

The motor—which sounded to him like it belonged to an ATV—neared. The vehicle’s headlights were off. Only someone who wanted to keep their presence secret for as long as possible would drive without them at this time of night.

He muscled past the fear threatening to immobilize him and led Finley to the side, cutting a path into the woods. Silently, he cursed the dark. Had they been able to see, they could have run. As it was, they had to balance speed with the need to move carefully over roots, bushes, rocks.

“Our stuff,” she whispered to him, so quietly he could barely make out the words.

“Leave it.”

“The gold.”

“Leave it.”

“I don’t want it to fall into . . . the wrong hands.”

“And I don’t care about anything except you.”

The ATV came to a stop, engine idling.

All at once, illumination brightened the area. Luke darted a look back. The ATV had a mounted light bar.

He tried to draw Finley behind the cover of a huge tree to shield them from view. Before he could, the beam of brightness turned, catching them in its crosshairs. The ATV’s engine revved as it drove toward them.

The driver had seen them.

Horror shot through his limbs.

He and Finley plunged ahead. She tripped, but he was holding her hand and didn’t let her fall.

The vehicle gained. Gained. Easily, it outran them. Dirt spewed as it fishtailed to a stop in front of them. Three men sat inside a four-seater Polaris all-terrain vehicle. They wore night-hunting gear and black ski masks with holes at their eyes and mouths. They carried semi-automatic AR-15s.

No. His breath rasped. No, God.