Behind The Curve-The Farm | Book 3 | The Farm Craven Boyd (the reading list book .txt) 📖

That’s where they’d also came up with the map. Almost at once, Steff had known the map was probably related to their mother’s stories, and Jennifer had agreed. Don was skeptical, but it seemed like whenever he turned around his wife was trying to sneak under the fence to search the caves.

He wished he’d kept his mouth shut though, because he may have given them the key to finding what was on the original map. The girls had assumed the x’s on the map related to the caves on the property that held treasure. He’d just asked if maybe those x’s weren’t related to the caves, and could they find anything else on the map as a point of reference? That’s why he found himself at 2am on somebody else’s property. He didn’t even want to imagine what would happen if they had tripped something and Rob showed up, shooting at them.

Their farm had a lot of hairy issues, and Don wasn’t comfortable putting his small family at odds with them after they had literally taken a beating, then had been offered a hand in friendship. His arm was healing well, and he’d gone in to his general practitioner a couple of days after the fall. They’d looked at the before and after x-rays that Dante had sent him with, and his normal doctor agreed the set looked good and that he’d heal up fine. He had, however, given Don some pain pills.

Don fished the bottle of Vicodin out of his pocket and took the cap off, shaking one out into his awaiting palm.

“This one looks like it’s been dug up too,” Jennifer hissed.

“It has to be the group here, the dirt is too fresh,” Steff whispered.

“I mean, it’s their land and all,” Don said softly, so his voice wouldn’t carry.

A low rumbling like a piece of heavy machinery startled all three of them and the volume suddenly went up a level as Roscoe stepped out of an inky pool of darkness.

When the girls had both stood up, Luis was on the radio in a heartbeat. He didn’t want to see anyone hurt. “It’s the neighbor’s daughters and the guy who got a cast.”

“Copy,” Dante said. “We got our hands full, will talk in a sec.”

“Steff, Jennifer?” Anna called out when Roscoe had thoroughly startled them.

“Anna?” Jennifer asked, her voice sounded like she was near panic.

“Yeah, it’s all of us,” she said, leaving out that they were actually four short. “What are you doing?”

They started to answer, but Dante and Leah came in from the other direction. They both had their NVGs on, giving them a spooky, bug-like appearance. As everyone stepped in closer, Roscoe continued to growl, but that tapered off as the three interlopers caught the breath that had been scared out of them. Dante flipped up his NVGs, then put the safety back on his AR before turning on his flashlight. The others followed the motion.

“Nobody? Anybody?” Leah asked them. “This is like, the second or third time we’ve caught you out here, now in the middle of the night.”

“Fourth?” Dante asked.

“I’m fast losing count, and I’m not believing any more bullshit answers,” Steven said. “You might have fooled Rob, but this is ridiculous.”

“You have no idea what we’re looking for,” Steff said finally.

“Judging on where you keep poking around, you’re looking for ammo cans of pre-World War II gold and silver coins.”

Jennifer winced and Don just looked at them, raising one hand slowly so they could see his palm. “They have this cockamamie idea that there’s gold their mom and aunt buried here on the property.”

“More like an urban legend; we wanted to see if it was true,” Jennifer said, looking down.

“We already had the same idea,” Dante told them. “And we’ve been trying to figure out what to do ourselves. What did your mom tell you, exactly?”

“That the caves over here held a ton of mystery and riches. Gold, silver, jewels. Treasure that could literally change our lives.”

“So, you’re sneaking over here to find buried treasure?” Steven asked, chuckling.

“Yeah, and obviously you guys have found it already, so I think we’ll just be going,” Steff said abruptly, feeling confident.

“Just hold it,” Dante said, putting his arm out.

“Don’t,” Don said, though nobody knew if he was talking about his wife or the group stopping them.

“You getting all this, Luis?” Leah asked suddenly.

“Yeah, I can hear it. I sent Goldie and Harry to the place that we found, Rob and Angel are in sniper positions crisscrossing to make sure nothing else is going on.”

Leah’s eyes went wide a moment, then she realized he probably knew their radios could be heard by the Owens’ and was adding some psychological pressure to them.

“Oh, dear sweet baby—”

“Don’t,” Dante said again. “The cops are on the way, if you try to leave, we’ll stop you and then you’ll be hurt or sore and still talking to the cops.”

“Whatever,” Steff said. “You know, this is basically illegal detainment if not kidnapping, on top of all kinds of gun related charges.”

“Hun,” Anna said, handing her gun over to Steven. “I don’t need a gun to hold you here. We don’t like people just breaking into our property. That’s why we keep installing more cameras, sensors, microphones, and other fun stuff.” She finished that by taking her earwig out of her ear and then taking her vest off.

“But… you said—” Don started to say to Steff when Jennifer interrupted.

“I’m not waiting here, they can come talk to us. I mean, the map was left to us in the will, and Dewayne’s wife was our aunt. It’s not really trespassing if it’s family.”

“You don’t seem to understand some simple fucking facts,” Anna said, taking off her gun belt and the strap on her leg that held her race gun, and handing them over to Steven, who was looking on, amused. “Dewayne sold us the farm, so everything in our property is our property. Whether it’s in a cave or buried. And