Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 124836 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 624(@200wpm)___ 499(@250wpm)___ 416(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 124836 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 624(@200wpm)___ 499(@250wpm)___ 416(@300wpm)
He lowered his voice like he was telling a secret. “I’ve spent a lot of time in the West at night, near Dream Lake.”
Jo, who had been listening quietly, suddenly perked up. “Why?”
A knot formed in my stomach.
I didn’t want the topic of Chanel—Lei’s past—to be brought up, not here, not now, and definitely not around my sisters.
But before I could intervene, Dima went right to the trunk, touched it, and then pulled out his notebook and pen.
Lei ignored Jo’s question and focused on TT. “I’ve spoken to the Crownsville Bandit on many occasions. Do you believe me?”
TT nodded slowly. “Yes, I believe you because. . .there are signs when people lie. And you’re not showing any of them.”
Dima, who had been quietly assessing the trunk, suddenly perked up, and looked at her. “What signs? How can you tell?”
TT glanced at him and then back at Lei. “When people lie, they do certain things without realizing it. Their eyes shift, like they’re trying to remember details they’re making up on the spot. Or their voice changes—gets higher or lower depending on the lie. Sometimes, they’ll fidget, like their body knows they’re saying something wrong, even if their brain doesn’t.”
Dima curled his lips into this big smile. “And he didn’t do that?”
She began to fidget with her fingers, twisting them together in a nervous dance. “He didn’t.”
The fidgeting told me she was nervous. I got closer to her and placed my arms on her shoulder, letting her know I was near.
She stopped fidgeting.
Dima jotted down notes in his notebook. “You’re very observant. Most adults don’t even pick up on those things.”
TT's cheeks flushed and she remained silent.
Chloe got bored with the conversation, slipped a few feet away and began typing into her phone, probably texting some boy.
Lei nodded. “Well, I’m glad you believe me, TT. Because what I’m about to show you is very real.”
The men who had brought out the trunk stood nearby, waiting for Lei’s command.
He gestured to them and they stepped forward.
Dima went to the side to get out of their way.
Then, they opened the old, weathered lid with a creak and all of us peeked in.
Inside, the trunk was lined with dark velvet and nestled within were tons of wooden objects—daggers, to be precise. They looked ancient, worn with time, each one carved and shaped oddly. Some had smudges of dirt or clumps of grassy mud all over them.
What the hell?
“These,” Lei went over and carefully lifted one of the daggers out of the trunk, “are the daggers the Crownsville Bandit would ask me to dig up every time she came to me. And you can see she came up to me a lot.”
TT’s breath caught in her throat and she reached out a trembling hand to touch the dagger. “She?”
“Oh yeah.” Lei handed the dagger to her. “The Crownsville Bandit is a woman.”
A strained sound left Rose.
I checked her and she tried to get Dima’s notebook, but he was already writing stuff down.
TT didn’t take the dagger.
Instead, she just stared at it, almost. . .frozen in pure, unadulterated shock.
Lei held onto the dagger. “I never understood why the ghost wanted me to get them. Long ago I did wonder and obsess about it. . .but. . .my theories never went anywhere and so I would just grab them so she would leave me alone, which she would once I dug one out. As soon as she saw it in my hand, she just. . .”
I leaned forward.
“Her and her men would just disappear.”
I looked back at TT.
She was still frozen with her mouth open and her gaze stuck to the dagger.
I swallowed. “TT, are you okay?”
TT’s bottom lip quivered and she lifted her view to Lei. “She?”
I tried not to laugh.
Lei bobbed his head. “Yes. The Bandit is a woman.”
TT’s breaths picked up at an uneasy pace. “B-black?”
“Yes. Tall and black. Not much muscle, but she had these ghostly guns in her side holsters that told me she knew how to handle guns.”
TT’s eyes widened even further and I saw her chest start to rise and fall rapidly, her excitement teetering on the edge of something more intense.
Oh wait. . .is she going to be, okay?
TT began muttering to herself and staring at the daggers. “In the Bandit’s Gospel, it starts off, ‘To my children.’ I thought that was a weird way for a male rebel leader to look at his men, but. . .”
TT’s breath quickened and I saw the familiar signs—her hands starting to shake, her brown face going to a paler color.
Shit.
I gestured to Jo.
“She saw herself as a mother to them. P-protecting them.” TT began to hyperventilate.
“Damn it.” Jo dug into her pants pocket and fished out TT’s inhaler.
The veins in TT’s small neck pulsed with her panicked breaths.
I grabbed it and rushed to TT’s side, trying to get her to focus on me and on her breathing. “Calm down.”