Dragon's Triangle (The Shipwreck Adventures Book 2) Read Online Free Page A

reached the top of the stairs leading into the tunnel, he still had not moved.

The Red Dog Ranch
Virginia City, Nevada
    November 15, 2012
    During the last mile of their walk, Tess had been running off, nose to the ground, hackles raised, and disappearing into the pinyon and juniper woods on either side of the trail. Elijah Hawkes hoped his dog hadn’t found herself a bear or a bobcat. He had his boot knife, as always, but he hadn’t brought his bow, and he’d damn himself for that if the opportunity presented itself. Elijah had always wanted to bag a bear—he’d even reserved a spot for the head on the wall in his game room.
    The shadow of the ridge was already upon them. It was only late afternoon but night came on early here deep in the basin. Elijah whistled for his dog and heard her trotting through the underbrush before he saw her.
    “Heel, Tess.”
    She fell in line, just off his left boot. Tess was a great dog. All German wire-haired pointers were smart, and they were good hunters, too, but few matched this one. At age four, she was seventy-five poundsof pure muscle under her white and liver-spotted coat. Her face was what gave her character, though, with her reddish-blond bushy eyebrows and beard and her golden-yellow eyes.
    Those eyes looked up at him now as she whined softly.
    He was about to ask her what was wrong when he heard the
yip-yip
from the mountain far above them.
    Coyotes.
    Elijah stopped and swung his head around to pinpoint the direction of the pack. He knew it would be that pack. There were four coyotes he recognized who roamed the hills around his ranch, and one of these days he was going to send his hired man Caleb out to shoot them. They were pests who stole his chickens and spooked the horses.
    “Come on, Tess. You pay them no mind. Let’s get home.”
    When Elijah started up the trail this time his pace was quicker. It was no good slowing down and getting lost in thought when this walk was a cornerstone in his daily regimen to keep his body in top shape. That was a requirement of his business—at least of what his business had evolved into. And he was very good at everything he did. Now, it would be best to get Tess inside away from that damn pack. He took his hands from his pockets and swung his arms at his sides as he lengthened his strides. The cold air stung his lungs and the bare flesh of his fingers. It would certainly dip below freezing tonight.
    Soon the trees thinned and he could see the two-story wood-framed ranch house in the clearing halfway up the side of the ridge, smoke puffing from the stone chimney and the yellow lights in the windows welcoming them back. The house,
his
house, nestled into the hillside like it belonged there, like a God-made natural part of the ridge. Caleb would be setting the table for his evening meal. Elijah could see his own breath now as he climbed the hillside. He slowed his pace when he rounded the barn and the empty horse paddock. Tess trotted ahead and sat by the kitchen door. All of this belonged to him. He’d come a long way from that troubled kid getting into fights on thestreets of Reno, running away from his older sister and guardian. He’d done all right for himself.
    Elijah settled into his comfortable leather chair in front of the fire in the game room that doubled as his study. Elijah found that when he needed to write reports or read difficult mining texts, the heads of the deer, wild boar, mountain lion, and all the others calmed him, put him into a sort of transcendental state. There were times when he even talked out loud, though he’d not admit to anyone that he was in fact talking to the animals. He’d done his best work in here.
    He stretched out his legs and admired his new boots. They were handmade black Lucchese American-alligator boots, and they’d cost him over four grand. Right now they looked pretty much like any pair of dusty cowboy boots, and that thought made him smile. Caleb would clean them later. Yes, he