I smiled at her. I could only hope that he loved her back and her heart didn’t get crushed like mine had at her age.
“Like I said, if you ever need to talk, you can call me. I’ve been there and done that. I know you have Mildred, but still. I have sisters, and we’ve been there for each other. Just consider me the same. If you ever need anything.”
“Thanks, Cassie,” she said as a look of relief crossed her face. “When my mom died, I didn’t realize how much I’d miss her. How much I’d need her. Dad tries, and Nathan does too, but there are just some things they don’t understand.” Amanda was a young and beautiful eighteen-year-old. There was a light in her eyes and a fire in her heart at her zest for life.
“Sweetie, sometimes even age doesn’t change that.”
We walked out of the barn and back to the house. I hadn’t had to use my crystal to find the trinket, so I had yet to determine if it would work. I needed practice. I needed to know if this crystal could encase my energy and work to stabilize me, or I’d be in a boatload of uncertainty.
Nathan was waiting for me on the porch while everyone else had disappeared. Amanda jogged passed him and patted his arm. “I like this one. You should keep her.”
His brows rose, and I chuckled. “I offered girl-talk.”
Nathan pulled me into his arms and stared down into my eyes. “You know you’ve opened a can of worms. She’s not a typical girly girl.”
“Maybe not, but she still has crushes and boyfriends.”
Nathan plugged his ears. “I don’t need to hear anymore.”
“Funny,” I said, opening the screen door. “Do you still have the evidence bag that the money was in?”
“Yeah.” Nathan’s uncertainty was clear.
“I need to test out this crystal. I didn’t need it to find the pin. I used my powers of deduction.” I climbed the stairs.
Nathan rested his palm on my arm, stopping me in my tracks. “You want to see if you can track the stolen bill back using the bag.”
“That’s the plan. The money has been sitting in that bag for over a week. That should have been enough contact for me track that single hundred-dollar bill to its current location.” I gave him a quick smile. The bag wouldn’t take us to the heist money, but it should take us directly to the guy who’d robbed us and right now that was all we needed. “I need to test this crystal and find my other one and that money. Only this time, we won’t be caught off guard.” I raised my brows. “So, you, Mr. Murray, need to keep your hands to yourself.”
I spun around and jogged up the stairs.
“Easier said than done,” Nathan said from behind. I glanced over my shoulder to find his gaze glued to my backside.
“You do have an extra gun or two hanging around, right?” I asked.
“You aren’t getting a gun, but you will go armed,” he answered, walking past me.
We headed up to the third floor.
“You should have named the horse Yoda because you’re talking in riddles.”
He knocked on a bedroom door. The sign hung that read, Keep Out. “Amanda’s room?”
“Come in,” she yelled through the closed door.
He twisted the knob and opened the door, taking a step into the room.
Amanda had her cell phone pressed against her ear.
“I need to borrow your stun gun, squirt.”
“I’ll call you back,” she whispered into the phone and hung up. “Why do you need my stun gun? Did you forget where you hid your bullets?”
“It’s not for me; it’s for Cassie. We’re going hunting.”
“And you want to kill Bambi with a stun gun?” she asked. “That’s just wrong on so many levels.”
“We’re hunting robbers,” I corrected as Amanda handed me the pink-stone-embellished stun gun.
“Oh well then, hooyah, go get ’em, and happy hunting,” Amanda said, holding on to the doorknob in a not-so-subtle way of telling us to get lost.
