Free 2 Dead & Buried by Leighann Dobbs

from an old ship here somewhere.”
    “Does this tie into the dead guy on the cliff?” Morgan asked.
    “There are two groups of treasure hunters here in town. Rivals. One of the groups killed a member from the other group as a warning to back off.”
    Celeste’s face brightened. “Well that’s good to know, we can just tell Overton and he’ll stop bothering us.”
    “Bothering you? About the murder?” Luke narrowed his eyes at Celeste.
    “Yes, he seems to want to pin every murder in town on Morgan.”
    “ Every murder?”  
    Morgan waved her hand. “I don’t think Luke needs to know about all that.”
    Luke raised his brows at her.
    “It’s old news,” she said. “But he did threaten us about the guy on the cliff. So tell us how to find these pirate guys and Jake can let him know they did the killing, and then Overton will leave us alone … at least about that, anyway.”
    “It might not be that simple. These guys hide out. It’s not like they have an address or anything. They’re practically invisible.” Luke took a chance and said to Jake, “I’m not so sure Overton can be trusted to do the right thing. What do you think?”
    Jake nodded, his stance relaxing a bit. “I agree. What makes you say that, though?”
    “Just a feeling.” Luke stared at Jake and he felt like he’d moved up a notch on the trust scale.
    “Okay, so now that you have those guys.” Jolene nodded toward the living room, “no one will be bothering us, right?”
    “I wish it was that easy. Unfortunately, there are more where they came from.”
    “Sheesh, how many of these guys are there?” Fiona handed Luke a coffee.
    “Quite a few. But I have quite a few guys too, and we’re going keep a close eye on them … and on you, to make sure nothing more happens.”
    Morgan snorted. “I don’t think you need to keep an eye on us, we’re perfectly capable of taking care of ourselves … unless you’re after the treasure too?”
    Luke’s heart clenched at the look of mistrust she gave him. “These guys are very dangerous and the fact that the two groups are in a fight for this treasure makes them even more so. You do need our help whether you want to admit it or not … and we’re not after the treasure, we get paid very well by the people that hire us.”
    “I still don’t understand what your job is or why we should trust you,” Morgan said. “Where did you take those men, anyway? To Overton?”
    “No, not to Overton. We have ways of dealing with them that you don’t need to know about. Just be glad there’s two less that will be bothering you. And my job is to wipe out these scum—let’s just say the people that pay me have a vested interest in getting rid of their kind and leave it at that.”
    He saw Morgan bite her bottom lip and knew he had his job cut out for him, getting her to trust him again.
    “Now, the more you guys can tell me about this supposed treasure, the better I can help you.”
    Jolene looked up from her coffee mug. “The dead guy had a copy of a ship’s manifest in his pocket from the ancestor that originally built this house. We tried to decipher one of his journals—”
    “We’re not sure the journals have anything to do with it,” Morgan interrupted.
    Luke raised an eyebrow. He knew they weren’t telling him everything, but he hadn’t expected them to right off the bat. “Well the more I know, the easier it will be for me to anticipate what the treasure hunters will do and the faster I’ll be able to get rid of them.”
    He noticed Fiona, Jolene and Celeste flick their eyes over at Morgan and she shook her head.
    “We’ll let you know if we come up with something.” She looked at the clock. “But now it’s late. And I’d appreciate it if you, and your men, get out of my house.”
    Luke put his coffee mug down on the counter and nodded at Morgan.  
    “We’ll get out of your house, but we’ll still be watching. Those guys will make another attempt, probably not tonight