The Cursed

“What?” Jose asked, clearly confused by the quick change of subject.

 

“In the alley. You were trying to leave a message in your blood,” Dallas said. “C-U-R.”

 

“Oh! I had forgotten. Imagine that,” Jose said. “Curse. I was writing the word curse.”

 

“Curse,” Dallas repeated.

 

“There’s a curse on the chest from the Santa Elinora,” Jose said. “I was planning to write ‘cursed treasure,’ so you’d know what Los Lobos were looking for and maybe you could stop them.”

 

“The real curse is that evil men will always want treasure,” Dallas said.

 

“Too true,” Jose agreed. “And I think that if you find the treasure and set a trap, you can catch the Wolf. The problem is, the Wolf believes what he’s seeking is here, in this house.”

 

“What have I been telling you, Hannah?” Dallas asked gravely.

 

“I can’t just leave. This is my home—my business. I can’t just bail because someone might be looking for some nonexistent treasure here.”

 

“No one is suggesting that,” Kelsey assured her.

 

“We don’t even know for a fact that any of this is true,” Hannah said defensively. She knew that she didn’t want it to be true. It was terrifying. And she couldn’t expect Kelsey and Logan to stay here forever, protecting her. And Dallas Samson had his own place to get back to. Eventually he would leave, too.

 

“No, we don’t know it for a fact,” Jose said. “But that doesn’t mean it isn’t true.” His last words were faint. Hannah turned to look at him just as he faded into nothing.

 

“Jose!” she said.

 

“He’s used up all the strength he has for the moment,” Dallas told her.

 

She was silent for a moment. “There is the possibility that his sister betrayed him. I think he doesn’t want to believe that it could be true—and I don’t want to believe it, either. But it is possible.”

 

“Yes,” Dallas agreed.

 

She realized that he was resting a hand on her shoulder. He had been like a stone pillar today. She suddenly wanted to take his hand and hold it. She tried to draw on her own inner strength. She had to stop. She was finding him more and more attractive. There was something pathological about that, she knew. She was getting fixated on a man who was protecting her purely from a sense of duty. Not good. Not good at all. She needed to back away. It probably didn’t help that she hadn’t dated more than once or twice since she and Lars had split.

 

A little voice in the back of her head was whispering that she didn’t have to have a relationship with someone to enjoy him. Other people did it all the time.

 

She very firmly told the voice to shut up.

 

“So where do we go from here?” she asked.

 

“We keep you safe,” Dallas said.

 

Logan looked at Dallas. “We need to get the autopsy reports on Jose and the diving victim.”

 

Dallas nodded. “The autopsy reports would definitely be helpful.”

 

“I have a tour tonight. People will start showing up around seven-thirty,” Hannah said.

 

“You need to cancel it,” Kelsey said.

 

“No, I don’t think we should cancel the tours,” Dallas said. “I think we need to be on them.”

 

“I think that’s risky,” Kelsey argued. “We don’t know who will be on a tour.”

 

“That’s the point. We’re hoping someone will show up who we can use,” Dallas said.

 

“But how do we protect Hannah?” Kelsey asked.

 

“Hannah is sitting right here,” she reminded her cousin sharply. “I may be afraid, but I refuse to imagine never having a normal life again.”

 

“I intend to be so close no one will be able to get to her,” Dallas said to Kelsey.

 

“Where’s the M.E.’s office?” Logan asked.

 

“Up in Marathon, just over the Seven Mile Bridge,” Kelsey said.

 

“We’ll all go. We won’t need long in there,” Dallas said. “Then we’ll all come back.”

 

“What about the house?” Logan asked.

 

“The house will be watched by the best,” Dallas said. “Melody Chandler and Hagen Dundee.”

 

“The resident spirits—I told you about them on the plane,” Kelsey explained to Logan.

 

“But they can’t stop someone from coming in,” Logan pointed out.

 

“Maybe we want to know who comes in,” Dallas said. “And what they do while they’re here.”

 

Hannah was silent. Yesterday she’d felt as if the house had been invaded—as if someone had been there while she was out. But that might have been paranoia.

 

“I have a better idea,” she said. “You two can go, and Kelsey can stay with me.”

 

“We can go to the dolphin research center,” Kelsey said. “We have friends who work there. I haven’t been in ages, and you can drop us on your way up, then pick us up on your way back.”

 

“It’s not safe for Hannah to wander around,” Dallas insisted.

 

“Who will know we’re there?” Hannah demanded. “I didn’t even know until two seconds ago.”

 

“And I am an FBI agent—not to mention I used to be a U.S. Marshal,” Kelsey reminded Dallas.

 

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