Key To Her Heart Ch. 09
Keywords: Her, To, Ch., Heart, Key, 09,
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"*Author's note... Thank you all for the wonderful comments and emails I've been getting on this series. Sometimes you people give me such a swelled head. I'm writing as fast as I can and I hope it runs smooth.
Thanks to SweetWitch for her help with plot and my nasty disposition. She's a sweet lady and a terrific friend.
Okay and on with the show...
Danielle"
* * * *** * * * *** * * * *** * * * *** * * * ***
Hunter sank down next to his beautiful wife, admiring the elegance of her beauty as she held his child to her breast. Her head was bent, smiling down at the tiny baby who nursed with a contented humming noise. Her small fist lay curled on the pale mound of Angel's breast, her eyes closed as she suckled, a drop of milk escaping her rosebud lips to lie against her cheek.
"I'm the luckiest man in the world," Hunt whispered, brushing Angel's hair aside to lay a loving kiss against her neck.
"Yes, you are," Angel murmured, forcing a quiet snort from her handsome husband. "You're home early."
"I missed you," he said simply, breathing in her scent.
"Aww, that's so sweet," she smiled. "What do you want?"
"Something that isn't for little ears to hear," he trailed his fingers down her throat and then back up, cupping her face in his palm and turning her into his kiss. His lips brushed hers, gentle at first, ever mindful of his tiny daughter between them.
Then as she responded, he took the kiss deeper, parting her soft lips with his tongue, sliding inside to rub and tease. He heard her small moan, smiling against her mouth before pulling back, his stormy eyes dark with passion.
"So," she breathed. "You came home early to get laid."
Hunter chuckled. "That's my wife, straight to the heart of the matter. I love that about you."
Hope's lips slid off her nipple as the baby drifted into a contented nap, not even stirring when Angel lifted her to her shoulder to burp. "Let me get her settled, baby, and then I'll show you what I love about you." She stood, her green eyes shining with sensual promise, and headed for the nursery, patting baby Hope's back as she went.
Life couldn't get any better. How had a man like him, a loner whose days used to be spent making deals and working fourteen to sixteen hour days managed to find such happiness with a red headed minx? He was indeed lucky. Sometimes he thought he needed to send Sebastian Antonelli a thank you note.
His cell phone vibrated, and he grabbed it out of his shirt pocket, surprised to see Dillon's number displayed upon the caller id. "Hi big brother," he said. "What's up?"
"We've got a problem, Hunter. A big problem. Shanna and Brandon have been kidnapped."
"Whoa," Hunt said, sitting up and rubbing his face. "Say that again?"
"Brandon hasn't been in touch with you, has he? He hasn't told you about the flash drive or any of the information that was on it?"
"I haven't heard from Brandon in a couple of days. Shanna sent me an email earlier today but it didn't say anything about the drive or any information. Dillon," he got up and started to pace. "What's going on?"
"Brandon brought a bunch of papers to Rylie, information from the drive. I don't want to go into what was on it on the phone but it's big." He paused, watching Rylie as she talked to the kidnappers. "Brandon was involved in a gun battle, when he went home to make sure Shanna was okay, they must have broken in on him there. They are both gone, Aaron."
"Shit," Hunt breathed. "What can I do? Is it money? Are they looking to ransom them?"
"I'm not sure yet. I'll let you know when I do. But you should stay close to home, don't leave Angel and Hope alone if you can help it. Watch who you open the doors too," he sighed. "Damn that Jackson Clinton, I should have killed him when he first started dating Shanna."
"Wait, Dillon, where are you?"
"I'm at Rylie's apartment. Congratulate me, little brother, I'm going to be a father."
Hunter stared at the phone as it went dead, the connection terminated. "What?!"
* * *
"Brandon?!" Rylie said again, hearing Shanna scream.
The phone was picked up. "We want the Treasure of the Ruby Heart. You bring us that and we will give you back these two." It was the same man as before, his voice low and dead sounding. "If you refuse, we will start with the woman. Her death will not be pleasant."
"Wait," Rylie said quickly, before the man could hang up. "How are we supposed to find this treasure?"
"You have the information, the diary, the journals and the heart. Find the map and follow the diary, the heart will show you the way if you are worthy."
"Where's the map?"
"That's your problem," he said. "I will call back in a week. We will expect good news." Then the connection was severed.
Rylie closed her phone slowly, her eyes meeting Dillon's. "You still want to go treasure hunting?"
"Looks like we don't have a choice now," Dillon agreed. "I'll get a hold of Hunt and get dad's journals. We've got the diary here. Where's the heart?"
"Last that I knew, Sebastian Antonelli had it. His estates have been confiscated by the government." Rylie stood, clipping her phone to the waistband of her jeans.
"That could cause some problems," Dillon said, rubbing his hand over his face.
"Let me see what I can do," Frank said. "I've got some friends in high places. Maybe I can pull some strings and cut some tape. I'm just not sure this is the right thing to do though."
"Frank, Brandon is my partner and my best friend, I'm not leaving him high and dry when he needs me." She took her glass to the sink, rinsing it out with hands that shook.
"Shanna is my little sister. I will do anything to get her back." Dillon walked over to Rylie, laying his hand on her shoulder. "We're in this together," he said softly.
"I'm not sure that's a good idea." She saw Dillon's head lift at her words but she refused to change her mind. "We're in this to get my friend and your sister back, and that's all."
"Rylie..." Dillon sighed, shaking his head. "Fuck, whatever. Let's just get them back. We can deal with personal issues after that." He pulled out his cell phone again. "Aaron," he said when the phone was answered. "I need dad's journals."
* * *
They sat around the wide dining room table in Hunt's home, the stack of journals in the center. Rylie held the manila envelope. The papers containing Clinton's books had gone back to the bureau with Frank. Now it only held the copy of the old diary.
She slid the papers out, handing them to Dillon. "Here, you've looked over these more thoroughly than I have. What do they say?"
"Basically, the same thing as what we already know. There's a huge treasure, it's hidden somewhere. The ruby heart points the way to the treasure and unlocks whatever vault it's in. There's supposed to be a map somewhere and it gives a small portion of one edge of the map on the last page here, but that's about it." He flipped through the pages until he found the map, laying it on the table.
Hunt picked it up, his eyes narrowing as he stared at the drawing. "I've seen this before," he said, his voice soft as he tried to remember where. "Dammit, I know I've seen it, I just can't remember where."
Angel came in from taking care of the baby. She stood behind Hunter, her hands on his shoulders, rubbing his taut muscles. "It's okay, love. Just relax, it'll come to you."
"In time to help Shanna and Brandon?" Hunt leaned his head back, resting it against his wife's slender waist. "Dammit, haven't those two been through enough?"
"We'll get them back Aaron, just calm down," Dillon growled, his eyes on the words of the diary. "What do you remember in dad's journals about the stone? Does it give any kind of history or anything that we can use?"
"We only found that one short passage," Hunt replied, grabbing the journal and flipping through the tightly written pages.
"But we weren't looking for anything but the location of the stone, remember Hunter? We didn't go any further in the journals after we found the coordinates." Angel reached out and grabbed the journal from Hunter's hands, opening it almost perfectly on the page she was searching for. "Here, this is the part that gave us the coordinates." She handed the book to Dillon.
Rylie leaned over his shoulder, reading the chicken scratch that Adam Judah Hunter had called penmanship. "That's weird," she said softly. "Did your mother actually believe she saw those things? I mean who sees a tribe of men slaughter an innocent girl."
"I did," Angel said, smiling at Rylie. "I know it's hard to believe, but being in that room so far under ground, those images seemed so real. I'd hate to think what might have happened if I had been alone in those caves. If Hunter hadn't grabbed me and shook me out of it..."
"Yeah, but if you hadn't seen those dreams or images, whatever you want to call them, we'd have never found the stone." He turned the page with the map around, his eyes roaming over the lines and curves of it. "I'd never have thought to press down on the table."
"It sounds like something out of an Indiana Jones movie," Rylie scoffed, though not meanly. "It really is hard to believe. I mean a fist sized ruby shaped like a heart and it's supposed to beat to take the deserving one to the site of a huge treasure? Only in the movies would something like that happen."
"Well, it's happening now, so keep your mind open, Rylie." Dillon traced his finger down his father's writing, deciphering the cramped scrawl. "I don't know how you found anything in this mess. It's really hard to read."
"I'm a doctor," Angel shrugged. "We are supposed to have terrible handwriting so I guess it's just natural to be able to decipher it also." She sank down next to Hunt, reaching out and taking the journal from Dillon.
"The stone was just where we were told it would be. The map though is another story. Jessie won't give up. She says the map and the treasure are out ticket out of the mess we're in. I don't know for sure how much longer we can hide from the men that are after us.
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Keywords: Her, To, Ch., Heart, Key, 09,