Page 124 of With Spite

They were my second-favorite chapter of the Dixie Wardens.

My Montana chapter would forever hold my heart.

“Your man is on a mission.” Baylee tipped her beer toward Hux.

Hux was on a mission.

He wanted to find a diamond.

We’d found plenty of other fun things—quartz, peridot, and jasper.

But we hadn’t found the diamond yet.

Well, we being Hux.

I was happily digging through my small sections with my mask on half the time and sipping my dirty sodas.

Hux never let my drinks run dry, and he never let a couple of hours pass before I was getting a snack of some sort.

He was super worried about all the weight I’d lost—that I hadn’t really had to lose—after the incident.

“He’s going to find one.” I chuckled. “But his days are almost up.”

“Are you excited to go home?” Baylee asked me.

“No,” I admitted.

I’d hoped that, while Hux and I were gone, they’d find him.

But no such luck.

They’d been searching far and wide for him, and he was like a ghost.

We hadn’t spotted him anywhere.

Sebastian came up before Baylee could give me another pep talk and said, “Baylee.”

Baylee looked up at her husband.

“Can I have a minute?”

Baylee patted my hand and then got up to follow her husband.

They spoke in low tones that I couldn’t make out, then Baylee was back.

But her face was hard.

“What is it?”

She opened her mouth to tell me, but Hux was there, his face excited.

“What is it?” I asked. “Did you find one?”

He shook his head. “Nope.”

“Then why do you look like you did?” I grumbled.

He studied my face for a long second before he said, “They found him.”