The Treasure Read online

  The girl shook her head again. It was time to give a bit more information.

  “I’m looking for a girl, five years old, who arrived yesterday on the train.”

  “What girl?”

  “My daughter,” said Lily, in her heart knowing it was true. “She was taken and I believe is going to be sold or auctioned. The woman who took her I believe was going to this Blue Room.”

  “Then you no find her,” the girl responded.

  “Please, help me. All I need to know is where it is.” Her voice began to crack.

  “I know nothing.”

  Lily decided to try another tactic. “I’ll pay you. My husband has money, enough to pay you for what you make here for a year.”

  “He has one hundred dollar?”

  Lily tried not to gasp at the amount. Using quick calculations, she realized how much a hundred dollars was to a Chinese immigrant. This child was making thirty-five cents a day.

  “Two hundred if you tell me how to find the Blue Room and Mr. Shen. You can walk out of here with the money and not come back.”

  She was thinking about it, Lily could tell.

  “Please, she’s only five,” Lily pleaded.

  “You go get money.”

  Lily nodded and scurried out of the kitchen, back up to the room. Trying not to make a sound, she took Ray’s wallet from his jacket pocket as it dangled from the side of the bed. Extracting two hundred dollars, she returned it to its place and ran back downstairs.

  When she got to the kitchen, the girl was gone. Lily felt a sob jump up her throat and she clenched her hands around the money.

  So close.

  “Psst,” came a voice from behind her. She whirled around and found the girl, dressed in a typical Chinese jacket and hat, ready to leave. “You bring money?”

  “Yes,” Lily said, absurd with relief. She held up the money. “If you give me wrong information, I will find you through this hotel. They will be happy to help me since you’re running out without a word. Understand?”

  She didn’t want to threaten, but the right information was so important. Every second Melody was with those people was an eternity.

  “I no give you wrong information. Xiao-lian is a good girl.”

  “Okay, Xiao-lian, tell me what you know.”

  ———

  Ray tried not to panic. Lily had come in, looking like she’d been rolling in the hay with someone, took his money, then ran back out. Whatever she’d been doing, it wasn’t getting their fucking breakfast.

  Anger was building inside him along with something suspiciously like pain.

  Trust me.

  He dressed quickly and followed his wife downstairs. The urge overwhelmed him and he had to know what she was doing. When he reached the bottom of the stairs, he saw Lily exiting the kitchen and his stomach dropped to his feet. She looked like a slut.

  The desk clerk waited for her with a leer. She tucked a piece of paper into her blouse and smiled at the idiot. He murmured and did his best to see down her cleavage. Ray’s hands fisted and he barely controlled the rage coursing through him. He wanted to kill the son of a bitch. What the hell was Lily doing?

  “Tomorrow then? What time?” the desk clerk said.

  Lily ran her finger down his cheek. “How about two o’clock?”

  When her fingers disappeared into the man’s mouth, Ray growled and stepped toward them. Lily’s eyes widened and she stepped away. The little shit who had been sucking on her fingers had the nerve to look scared.

  “Ray, I thought you were sleeping.”

  “Obviously.”

  “Hey, she tried to get me to go in the back with her, mister, I swear,” the weasel said.

  Lily frowned at him and opened her mouth to speak.

  “I don’t really give a rat’s ass who is doing what. Lily, are you with me or not?” He wanted to find Melody so badly, it burned the back of his throat.

  She hurried toward him and took his arm. He promptly shrugged off her hand and clamped down on the raw pain ripping through his gut. They walked back upstairs single file and Ray focused on her ass swaying in front of him, wondering who’d had their hands on it in the past hour.

  After she stepped into the hotel room, Ray slammed the door and locked it from the outside. Locking another faithless woman away. There was no way he was going to allow her to ruin his chances of finding Melody.

  “Ray, what are you doing? Did you just lock me in?”

  “I’m going to find my daughter, with or without your help. You obviously came here to flirt and play with other men. That ain’t gonna happen, sweetheart. I’ll be back for you later.”

  Ray ignored Lily’s shouts as he stomped off down the hallway. He’d find the goddamn Barbary Coast and his daughter. Seemed that no one else in the damn town was interested in helping, including his wife.

  ———

  Lily sat in the hotel room alone, wondering if Ray was ever coming back. She’d spent the last four hours wondering where the heck he was. Without a chance to explain her actions, she knew Ray thought the worst, especially given his history with faithless women. She held back the tears of frustration through force of will. Her nails were ragged and the floor had new grooves in it from her pacing. Where was Ray?

  When a knock sounded at the door, a screech flew from her mouth. She clamped her lips shut and took a deep breath.

  “Who is it?” she called.

  “The cavalry.”

  Trevor!

  “The door is locked from the outside, Trevor. Can you go back downstairs and get a spare key?”

  “What?” His astonishment was plain.

  “I can explain, just go get the key please.” Lily wrung her hands, waiting the last five minutes for the key to sound in the tumblers. She threw open the door and was astonished to find not only Trevor, but Brett, Jack, Ethan, Noah and Tyler outside the door. She smiled and hugged every one of them while they rolled their eyes and patted her shoulder.

  She ushered them into the little room, then realized they nearly filled it from wall to wall with all their bulk.

  “Where’s Ray?” asked Tyler with a scowl.

  “I don’t know. He left about four hours ago after locking me in. I got information about where Melody might be and we’ve only got a few hours to prepare.”

  Trevor looked at her wringing hands and then at his brothers, nephew and brother-in-law. “Why don’t you all go down to the coast and see if you can find him? I’ll stay here with Lily. Ethan, keep your eye on Noah.”

  Noah scowled, looking like his adopted father. “I’m not a kid, Uncle Ethan.”

  “Yeah, well you’re not a man yet either, squirt. Just stick with Ethan.”

  “As long as I get to help.” Noah’s honest words made Lily’s heart swell. The Malloy family was truly amazing.

  “All right, let’s go.” Ethan herded everyone out with one last nod to Trevor.

  Trevor turned his shrewd eyes on her and raised his brows. “You know I won’t let you leave by yourself.”

  The urgency was nearly overwhelming. “I’ve got to, Trevor. She’s going to be auctioned off tonight.”

  The color drained from his handsome face. “Auctioned?”

  “Yes. There is this man Mr. Shen who deals in slaves, the younger the better. The information I have is that all new girls are auctioned through his business within days of arriving. There is a rumor that he has younger than usual girls this time. I know she’s there, Trevor, and I have to stop them.”

  She didn’t like the desperate tone to her voice, but it couldn’t be helped. God knows why Ray chose to lock her in before she’d had a chance to explain, but Lily wasn’t about to let the opportunity to rescue Melody pass by.

  Lily decided Trevor would have to play his part. “You and I are going.”

  He held up his hands. “Oh no, I’m not going anywhere with you. Ray would kick my ass into next year.”

  “I don’t care about your ass, Trevor Malloy. We’re talking
about Melody’s life. Now we’ve got to get changed so we can get down there.”

  She started pulling off his coat.

  “Changed?” he croaked.

  Ignoring his protests, Lily got to work. Their deception had to be believable. Melody’s life depended on it, and as soon as they walked in the door to Shen’s, their lives did too.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Regina lay on the bed, watching Billy dress. He was such a muscular man, all hard lines and bulging muscles. Some of them bulged more than others. She cackled at her own joke. The shipment had been high quality, she still felt euphoric twelve hours after leaving the Blue Room.

  “I’m taking the girl with me to Shen’s auction,” he said as he began buttoning his shirt.

  “What?”

  “There’s an auction tonight. He promised us twenty-five percent of the take.”

  Regina blinked and tried to focus on what he was saying.

  “I thought he would find a direct buyer.”

  Billy shrugged into his vest and fastened his gold pocket watch to it.

  “This way is easier. She’ll be on the block with a dozen others for slaves. We can get our money right away, then live like kings.”

  Regina didn’t like the malice she glimpsed in his eyes. A shudder raked down her spine.

  “We have enough money to live like kings already.”

  He shook his head. “The way you smoke it, it will be gone in three months. We need more.”

  “You waste money on those Chinese lotteries and those stupid gambling games.”

  He cut his eyes to hers and glared. “At least mine will bring in more money. Yours gets you high and allows strangers to fuck you until you can’t walk.”

  “Nobody fucks me without my permission.”

  He grinned sardonically. “So when you were passed out yesterday and Jimmy Chen paid me ten bucks to fuck you, you gave him permission?”

  Her stomach heaved and bile burned the back of her throat. He sold her to Jimmy Chen? That filthy, fat piece of shit?

  “How dare you.” As she struggled to her feet, the room tilted and she grabbed the wall to keep from falling.

  “Oh, I’ll dare a lot of things,” he said as he straightened his jacket and smoothed the lapels. “I’m taking her with me tonight. You can either let me or you can die.”

  Regina felt a twinge of fear at the look in his eyes. “How much will we get?”

  He chuckled and stroked his chin. “Probably at least a thousand.”

  A thousand was twenty-five percent?

  Thinking about all that money made heat pool low and hot in her belly. She stared down at the prominent bulge in his trousers.

  “Take a bath, Queenie. You stink. I’ll be back later and you can show me all you learned in the Blue Room.”

  Billy scooped up the drugged girl from the cot in the corner and was out the door before Regina could say a word.

  Not that she was going to. She did need a bath and all that money was enough to make her shudder with want. She flopped back down on the bed and her hands drifted to her nipples beneath the flimsy chemise. As they puckered beneath her questing fingers, Regina fantasized about having her own Blue Room in the mansion they would buy on Nob Hill.

  ———

  Trevor was annoyed, but Lily ignored him. She dressed him as her manservant, slicked his hair back with pomade, and darkened his face with make-up so he looked a little less like a Malloy. Lily used some powder to hide the wound on his hairline.

  She slipped on an old dress of her mother’s. It was a bright purple gauzy gown that slid down her body like water. Slippery and sexy, it showed quite a bit of her bosom. It was the most beautiful dress her mother had owned and for some reason, Lily had kept it all these years. Now she knew why—so she could rescue her stepdaughter.

  Fixing a jaunty hat with a dark purple veil over her face, Lily let a few tendrils of hair drift down to hang near her cleavage. After she slipped on her nicest shoes, Lily fisted her hands to stop the trembling.

  She had to be strong. She had to do her best to become Lil again.

  When she came out of the room, she laughed at the expression on Trevor’s face.

  “Lily? Is that you? Holy shit!”

  “Now, Mason,” she corrected in a sultry British accent. “You know enough to call me mistress.”

  Now he nearly swallowed his tongue. “Yes, mistress,” he choked out.

  “Let us proceed. We do not want to be late for the auction.”

  “No, we don’t want to be late,” he repeated.

  With a trembling step forward, Mistress Rose left with her manservant Mason to attend Mr. Shen’s slave auction in Chinatown.

  ———

  After eight hours of a whole lot of nothing, Ray was desperate and frustrated. No one talked in this city, nothing worked, not money or intimidation or even begging. Something Ray had never done. He discovered though that he would do anything to find his daughter.

  The one thing he did find out was that the Barbary Coast was useless during the day. Businesses seemed to be legitimate when daylight burned. He was forced to wait until nightfall to continue his search. What he really wanted to do was tear apart the city brick by brick until he found her.

  God only knew what was happening to Melody or what that bitch did to her. Just the thought of it sent him into a rage so deep, he literally saw red. He needed to calm down, to think, to plan.

  Ray was staring at his fourth glass of whiskey when a large hand clamped down his shoulder.

  “What the hell are you doing?”

  Expecting a fight, Ray turned to find Ethan, Brett, Jack, Noah and Tyler all looming over him.

  “What you doing here?” he growled.

  “Trying to help,” Jack replied. “Lily sent us looking for you.”

  Ray scoffed. “Lily. You mean in between the men she’s servicing at the hotel?”

  Tyler looked about ready to hit him. “Before you locked her in your room, you idiot, she’d found information about Melody but you were too busy being an ass to listen.”

  “What information?” His heart started skipping beats as he waited for Tyler’s response.

  “Why did you lock her in?” asked Brett in his quiet way.

  “I caught her stealing my money and almost fucking some guy at the hotel.”

  He never saw the fist coming, but he felt it—a hard hit with enough force to knock him to the floor. The saloon was suddenly silent as his brothers stared at him. Shit, even Noah had disappointment in his eyes.

  “It’s okay, folks,” said Jack from above him. “This here’s our big brother. We’re just taking him home.”

  “Don’t get any blood on my floor,” chimed a voice from behind the bar.

  Ray glared at his brothers and Tyler. “Who hit me?”

  “I did,” said Brett.

  Ray could not have been more astonished. Brett hit him?

  “You have an incredible, beautiful, intelligent wife, Ray. And as soon as she does something you don’t know about, you paint her with the whore brush and kick her to the curb. She was looking for Melody and has information about where she is. Unfortunately her sorry-ass husband wouldn’t listen and locked her in a room. She sent us to find you, God only knows why. I wish now we hadn’t come.”

  That was probably more words than Ray had ever heard come out of Brett’s mouth. Unfortunately everything he said was true.

  “I’m sorry,” Ray mumbled.

  “Not as sorry as you’ll be if you don’t treat Lily right,” Brett threatened.

  Ray held up a hand and Tyler pulled him to his feet. The world swam out of focus for a moment.

  “Coffee,” he heard Tyler say.

  Within moments, a hot cup of coffee was pushed into his hands and he was sitting on the stool again.

  “Drink it,” Tyler ordered. “Before Brett tries to pound you again. We need to get back to the hotel.”

  Finally Brett’s words sank in. “Lily found inform
ation about Melody?”

  “Yup, and you better pray we’re not too late. You’ve wasted the entire goddamn day already.”

  Jack’s ominous words sent a chill straight to his heart. He hoped his own morose stupidity wasn’t going to cost him his daughter and his wife. He gulped the hot coffee with a wince, then stood.

  “Let’s go.”

  ———

  Lil smiled behind her veil. “Wan shang hao,” she said to the large Chinese man at the door. “I am newly arrived and looking for, shall we say, a companion? Mason is just too…hairy and hard for me sometimes. I need a soft touch. You understand, don’t you? I understand there are companions available here tonight.”

  “Wo bu hui jiang ying yu.”

  Of course he didn’t speak English. Why would he admit to that? The man was built like a house and apparently didn’t know how to smile either.

  “Who is this, Jimmy?”

  The voice came from behind her. It sounded so much like Archie she had to fight the urge to run. Instead she turned her most charming smile on the man behind her.

  Big like a bull, dark hair, bowler hat and fancy duds. He fit the description of Regina’s companion perfectly.

  “I am Mistress Rose,” she said. “I heard there was…business to be conducted at Mr. Shen’s this evening. I am looking to acquire a new companion.”

  The man’s beady eyes raked her up and down and she posed for him, thrusting her ample cleavage out for his perusal. Anything to get inside.

  “And this?” He hooked a thumb at Trevor.

  “My manservant, Mason.”

  “He stays here. You can come in with me, love.” He took her elbow and led her to the door.

  She looked back at Trevor. “I won’t be long, Mason. Wait there.”

  “Yes, mistress,” he said through clenched teeth, his eyes shooting sparks at her.

  “Who are you, kind sir?” she asked.

  “Billy Black,” he said.

  “Sounds a bit like Black Bart. He’s gone now, isn’t he?”

  Her companion grinned and she was reminded of a shark. With very sharp teeth.

  “He is. I’m here now.”

  “I am lucky to have found you then,” she murmured coyly.

  He leered at her bosom while his hand drifted down to her behind. He caressed one hip and she smiled through her humiliation.