Read Online The Wedding Ransom by Geralyn Dawson - Free Book Online Page A

drank in the peace of the thicket. With every step, stress seemed to roll off her shoulders in waves. As much as she loved the ocean, the kiss of wind upon her face, and lap of waves against her ankles, she preferred to wrap herself in the sweet, fragrant blanket of the forest. The Lake Bliss forest, in particular. Papa Ben called her a nester, and she guessed he was correct. She figured it was a typical reaction to living so much of her life at the mercy of the tradewinds.
    Twenty minutes of leisurely walking brought Maggie to the rolling bluffs that comprised a little more than half of the Lake Bliss shoreline. The forest and the exercise had worked their magic on her. By the time she reached the sharply sloped trail leading down the tawny, weatherworn crag to water’s edge, she sought companionship more than comfort. And to make her feel even better, her knee didn’t hurt one little bit.
    Reaching the bottom of the path, Maggie spied the flat-surface boulder where Gus sometimes sat to dip his bottles. She didn’t see the rowboat at its normal mooring beside the rock. Looking closer, she spotted signs in the gravel and brush that someone had recently made his way along the narrow ledge that rimmed the water. Had Papa Gus followed the trail around the bend? If so, where was the rowboat? Why wasn’t it tied to the rotting stump as usual? Maggie worried the question as she followed the path toward the point where the shoreline made a bend.
    A voice not her grandfather’s caused her to halt suddenly.
    “Hell, I could have made a mistake like that myself.” Rafe Malone’s matter-of-fact tone echoed off the steep wall of the bluff. “You said you aren’t hurt. No harm done.”
    Maggie’s eyes went wide, and her first instinct was to rush forward. But the rule to look before leaping drummed into her since childhood gave her pause. Suspicion glided like a water moccasin through her mind.
    What was Rafe Malone doing out here away from the hotel? The last she’d heard he was to meet with Papa Ben to study the maps of the Yucatan coast. Why was he out here a few scant hours after he was told about the treasure?
    Had he lied this morning about his trustworthiness? Was he meeting someone? A partner from his old gang, perhaps? Someone he had recruited to steal the treasure from her papas once they’d recovered it? Rafe Malone was a thief and likely a liar. They’d be fools to trust him. Why hadn’t her grandfathers listened to her? Her grandfathers. Oh, Lord. Where was Gus? Had Malone done something to Gus?
    Cursing the fact she didn’t carry a weapon, Maggie cast her gaze around her, searching for something, anything she could use. As she stooped to lift a plate—sized rock off the ground, she heard a most welcome string of curses.
    “No harm to anything but my pride,” Papa Gus griped.
    Relief drenched Maggie. She released a breath she hadn’t been aware of holding and shook her head at her own foolishness. What had gotten into her? It wasn’t like her to jump the gun like that. What had made her so quick to expect the worst of Rafe Malone?
    That wicked grin of his, most likely, she decided. That and perhaps the aftereffects of her encounter with slimy Barlow Hill. Maggie started forward ready to confess her foolishness, but her grandfather’s next words stopped her.
    “I don’t want anyone to know about this. Especially my Maggins. I’ll have your word on it this minute, Malone.”
    “But, Gus, you needn’t—”
    “Your word, Malone. I’ve gone from being the most surefooted sailor on at least five of the seven seas to dunking my ass in Lake Bliss. It’s a long way for a man to fall.”
    “Nah, five foot at the most. Look, Gus, you’re making a big deal out of nothing.”
    “Nothing?” He laughed dejectedly. “It’s not nothing that my eyes are going on me. I’m a piss-poor judge of distance anymore, Malone. And I never used to get dizzy in the head.”
    Maggie’s eyes widened at the defeat in his