Treasure Tides (The Coins) Read Online Free PDF

crawl down her
spine and prayed she had not found Pandora’s Box.
* * * *
     
    CHAPTER TWO
Kurt knocked, well actually pounded for the third time, while continuing
to press the button that activated the doorbell.
    “Becki, what is going on?” he yelled, “open the door!”
That girl ran full-steam ahead, and when she crashed, she was hard to
wake up.
He dialed her cell number hoping that if he could make
enough noise, it might just wake sleeping beauty. Actually it would be
more like waking a sleeping beast as she tended to be extremely grouchy if her eyes were forced to open before noon. Kurt didn’t have
a choice today; he had to meet subcontractors at the jobsite this
morning.
    Pressing the doorbell button with his left hand, while beating on
the door with his other fist, did not seem to be electing a response.
He was about two seconds from taking the door off the hinges but
yelled one last warning, “Becki, if you want to keep your front door
intact, I suggest you open it.”
    Big chocolate-brown eyes peeked out through the door still glazed
with sleep. “Did you have to come this early,” she grouched, opening
the door to let Kurt inside, “I just got to bed a few hours ago,” she
complained with a glare.
Becki absolutely hated being woken up
before the sun shined directly overhead.
There was nothing on earth
that had to be taken care of prior to twelve noon, at least nothing she
could think of.
    “You said ‘stop by,’” Kurt defended with a shrug, “I’m stopping
by. Now, what was this about needing my help?”
Becki rolled her eyes and said, “I’m just sure I added ‘nothing is
wrong’? Meaning you did not need to come straight over here first thing
this morning.”
“You think I don’t know by now? You would say that, even if there was something wrong.”
Ok, he had a point there.
Without giving him the satisfaction of
acknowledging the accusation, she explained, “I found a crate yesterday
when Jonah and I were diving; I wanted to see if you could open it for
me.”
“Let me take a look at it. I don’t have a lot of time this morning, but
I can work on it later.”
‘Later’ would have been just fine to begin with. Shooting him one
more narrow-eyed glare, Becki turned and stomped toward the patio
door located in the kitchen, pausing to turn on the coffee maker as she
passed by.
After sliding the patio door open with more force than necessary, she
pointed toward the crate.
Kurt moved forward, frowning as he spotted
symbols etched into the top of the crate, outlining the parameter of the
lid.
A heat advisory had been issued for today; the temperature was
already nearing ninety degrees. Kurt, however, was suddenly chilled to
the bone.
“Where did you say you found this?” he asked, moving closer to the
crate.
“I found it in the cove yesterday when Jonah, Natie, and I were looking
for sharks’ teeth. Well, Natie wasn’t looking for teeth, you know she
won’t step foot in the water. She lounged on deck and caught some rays.”
Kurt tested the weight of the crate. Damn, it was heavy. He wanted
to load it in his truck and remove it from Becki’s house as quickly as
possible.
Truthfully, he wanted to get it far, far away from Becki as
quickly as possible.
“It seemed a lot lighter when I pulled it out of the water yesterday,”
she remarked with a perplexed expression on her face.
She shrugged
and continued, “I don’t know, it must have been that buoyancy thing.
Either that, or you and Landon are getting weak with age,” she added,
still not over the fact that she had been awoken far too early.
“Landon?” Kurt prompted, running his fingers over the symbols
etched into the crate’s lid. The symbols were very intricate, the lines
clean, indications that a powerful force had crafted this container.
“Yes, Landon!” Becki confirmed, rolling her eyes. “He helped me move
it home from the boat last night. It wouldn’t fit in my car,” Becki explained.
As Kurt scanned the