Start from the beginning or read previous excerpt
“What did you find out?” Vi stood and beat her hat against her leg a few times to free it of grass.
“There’s a dozen men, maybe more.”
“You could have mentioned this when you enlisted me,” she said, scowling.
“That’s twice as many as when I got jumped. I had no idea there’d be so many! Or that they’d be here.”
“I guess that explains how they found you.” Vi pulled her hat back on and peered at him with laughing eyes. “You camped right next door.”
“I think we’ve established that I was the one who fouled everything up, thank you. May I go on?” Hands on hips, he tapped his foot impatiently. She gave him a by your leave gesture and leaned against the boulder. “As I was saying, there are a dozen men. But, there are also at least a dozen empty bottles around the camp as well. Kindred spirits, eh?”
“It’s not like I was expecting anyone when you showed up,” she said with a grimace. “But, dead to the world. That’s good.”
“Unfortunately—”
“I was afraid there was going to be an ‘unfortunately.’”
“I was afraid there was going to be an ‘unfortunately.’”
“—there’s no way for you to go around. There’s too many bushes and such on the hillsides. You’re going to have to skirt right alongside the camp in order to get to the gold.”
“I don’t think you’re paying me enough for this,” Vi said, pushing off from the rock and marching toward her horse.
“You don’t know how much I’m paying you,” Tobias reminded her. “And the only way to find out is to dig up the gold.”
“You’re getting better at this. But I could still walk away,” she countered, a sly smile on her face. “Just forget this whole thing. Or maybe I come back later after they’ve moved on and keep all the gold for myself.”
The glowing vapor of his form suddenly darkened and his edges became harder, his body something like a liquid rather than a vapor. “If you back out now,” he replied, his voice an uncharacteristic growl, “and anything happens to Bonnie, I swear I will haunt you for the rest of your life.”
The moments stretched as she met him glower for glower. Finally, she snarled, “Ask me again why I have a problem with ghosts.”
Read the Ch 4 teaser of No Rest for the Wicked
Phoebe Darqueling 
2 comments