smiled. “Yes, Caldwell. Don’t tell me you haven’t picked up on what’s between them.”
Layla shook her head. “No, I hadn’t. But you have?”
“Yes, for years. He’s a widower and she’s a widow. Never understood why they preferred being so discreet. I guess they like their privacy.
“Since the dig starts early in the morning I guess we need to get to sleep,” Gavin said, but he wasn’t very convincing, even to his own ears.
“Um, I have other ideas,” she said, moving on top of him again. “I like riding you.”
Gavin grinned. He definitely liked Layla riding him. More than ever, he was convinced the woman was trying to kill him. But he would enjoy every minute until the end.
* * *
Hours later, the ringing of his cell phone woke Gavin. He immediately grabbed it when he recognized the ring tone. “Coop?”
“Yeah, Viper, it’s me. We couldn’t sleep so we thought we’d set a trap.”
Gavin sat up in bed as knots tightened in his stomach. Layla had awakened as well and quickly sat up beside him. Drawing in a deep breath, he asked, “And?”
“And I think you need to get here. I’ve already called the sheriff. We’re here at the shack and we got our man.”
Gavin made it to the shack in record time, but he wasn’t surprised to see several vehicles already there, including the sheriff’s. Roy must have been in the area.
With Layla walking quickly by his side, he moved toward the shack but stopped when the door opened and his grandmother stepped out. Her crestfallen features and the tears in her eyes made him pause. What the hell...?
He looked past her to Caldwell, who had his grandmother’s hand tucked securely in his. The older man shook his head sadly. Gavin felt Layla move closer to his side and he placed his hand in hers.
“I’m taking your grandmother to my place,” Caldwell said. “That’s where she’ll be. You need to go on in now. He’s already confessed.”
Gavin frowned. He who? And why was his grandmother crying? Tightening his grip on Layla’s hand, he entered the shack.
Everyone looked up when he and Layla walked in. Roy and Gavin’s four SEAL friends. Was he imagining things or were the five looking at him strangely? A funny feeling settled in his gut. Stepping into the room, he glanced around. “Okay, guys. What’s going on? Where is he?”
The group shifted and he saw the man seated in a chair with his hands handcuffed behind his back. Gavin shook his head as if to clear his brain. “Mr. Lott?” he said in shock.
Sherman Lott couldn’t even look at him. Gavin shook his head again and looked over at his friends. “There must be some mistake. Mr. Lott has been our neighbor for years. He was a friend of Dad’s. He—”
“I was never a friend of your father’s!” Lott all but screamed. “Gavin Jr. always got anything he wanted. He was the town’s hero in high school. I could never compete. Then he became a SEAL and was a war hero, and I couldn’t compete there, either. He got all the girls. After my leg got banged up that time when a horse threw me, the women around here wouldn’t give me the time of day.”
Gavin stared at the man who was now glaring back at him with cold and hate-filled eyes. Gavin let go of Layla’s hand. Evidently he had misunderstood this man’s relationship with his father all these years. “Okay, so there was a rivalry between you and Dad, and he wasn’t your friend. What does that have to do with you sabotaging a dig on my property?”
Instead of answering, Lott shifted his gaze from Gavin to Layla. “I removed that marker so you’d forget where you were supposed to dig, but that didn’t stop you. I burned that damn barn down and that didn’t stop you, either. You were determined to dig anyway.”
“Why didn’t you want her to dig, Mr. Lott?” Gavin asked.
The man didn’t answer. He looked away as if ignoring the question.
Gavin looked over at his friends. “Would any of you care to explain just what the hell is going on? Why didn’t Lott want Layla’s team to dig up buried treasure?”
Roy cleared his throat and said in a somber voice, “It wasn’t the buried treasure he was concerned with anyone finding, Gavin.”
Gavin frowned. Now he was even more confused. “Then what was it?”
The room quieted and he felt Layla pressing her body closer to his. Then she again placed her hand in his. When no one answered, Lott hollered out, “Your mother! I didn’t want you to find your mother’s body.”
* * *
Layla felt weak in the knees and wondered how Gavin could still be standing. His friends evidently wondered the same thing as Bane and Coop crossed the room to flank Gavin’s other side. Suddenly, she realized they hadn’t done so to keep Gavin steady on his feet. They’d moved to intercede if Gavin took a mind to kill Sherman Lott.
“You refused an attorney, Mr. Lott,” Roy said angrily. “Like I told you before, any confession you make will hold up in court.”
Layla saw Flipper hold up his phone, letting everyone know he was recording everything. Gavin moved forward, and she, Bane and Coop fell in step. It was apparent the shock of what Lott had said had worn off.
“What do you mean ‘my mother’s body’?” Gavin asked, standing less than five feet from Lott.
Layla thought she actually saw regret fill Mr. Lott’s eyes when he said, “I didn’t mean to kill her. Honest. It was an accident.”
Gavin drew in a breath so deep, it seemed the room rattled from the effect. She felt it. She thought everybody in the room felt it. “You killed my mother?” he asked in an incredulous voice. “But how? She left here.”
The man shook his head. “No, she didn’t. She never left. I came across her one day with a flat tire. Said she’d planned on going away for a while but changed her mind and turned around before even making it to town. She missed you and your dad too much to go anywhere. She was on her way back home. Had made it to the main road to the Silver Spurs when her tire went flat. I offered to help. She was pretty. She smelled good. I thought she was too good for your dad. He didn’t deserve her. What man would leave a young wife who looked like her all alone to go play soldier?”
The man paused. “I told her as much. I must have made her nervous by what I said. By the way I was looking at her and all. And then I don’t know what happened but I tried to touch her. She slapped me and I got mad. I slapped her back. I admit to hitting her several more times. She managed to get away and she ran from me. That made me angry. I ran after her and she fell and hit her head.”
“And you didn’t go get help?” Gavin asked in a voice that was as hard as steel.
“No!” Lott snapped. “Too late. Blood was
