Laguna Beach: A Treasure in Laguna (Kindle Worlds Novella) Read online

  Text copyright ©2016 by the Author.

  This work was made possible by a special license through the Kindle Worlds publishing program and has not necessarily been reviewed by Real You, LLC. All characters, scenes, events, plots and related elements appearing in the original Laguna Beach remain the exclusive copyrighted and/or trademarked property of Real You, LLC, or their affiliates or licensors.

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  A TREASURE IN LAGUNA

  A Kindle Worlds Novella

  Based on Kaira Rouda’s Laguna Beach Series

  Written by

  Heather Hiestand

  www.heatherhiestand.com

  Amazon Author Page | Newsletter

  Table of Contents

  Dear Reader

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Laguna Beach

  Acknowledgments

  More From Heather Hiestand

  Dear Readers,

  Welcome to the Laguna Beach Kindle World!

  I’m so glad you are here and diving into this wonderful story. All of the Laguna Beach Kindle World stories are set in the same town of Laguna Beach, where my original series takes place. And if you’re familiar with the series, you’ll no doubt run across some of your favorite characters. The difference is, this book is entirely the work of the author. I didn’t help with plotting, writing or editing, but I was thrilled that when I asked her, she agreed to bring her imagination and storytelling skills to Laguna Beach!

  Happy reading. For more about Laguna Beach, stop by my website: www.KairaRouda.com

  Enjoy your time at the beach!

  Kaira Rouda

  Chapter One

  Crowe Erickson had never tried to lock down an investor in a pizzeria before. He zeroed in on Josh Welsh’s table immediately despite the waitresses who blocked his sightline, since Josh was the only one sitting alone. The noise level swelled as someone began to sing “Happy Birthday” in a warbling voice and a table full of thirtysomethings joined in.

  When Crowe reached the empty chair on the other side of the small table, his prey pulled off his sunglasses and ball cap, then half-rose.

  Warmth filled Josh’s gaze. Casual in a pressed white short-sleeve shirt and jeans, he held out his hand in welcome. For a split second Crowe gazed at Josh, noting the friendly vibe. This was his moment. He had this.

  But underneath the confidence other thoughts lurked. Instinctively, he touched the cord of his second-hand lavalier microphone and hoped his recorder was working. Yes, he needed Josh’s help. Ignoring his doubts, Crowe pasted his most professional smile across his face and shook hands.

  Staying behind Crowe, his older brother and cameraman, Thor, took in the scene, attempting to remain unnoticed despite his unusual height. Crowe hoped that Josh would sign a release if they needed the footage for his planned treasure hunting show.

  As if he were reading Crowe’s mind, Josh shaded his face, half-covering it with his palm. His dimple disappeared into his carefully groomed five-o’clock shadow. “Hey, get that camera off me. I’m a private citizen now.”

  Fear vibrated in Crowe’s chest. Horrified at a bad start, Crowe lifted a closed fist, the sign for Thor to stop.

  But Josh rose fully to his feet and snickered. “Kidding. Great to see you, man. Still on the game, I see.”

  Josh had been one of the original stars of MTV-style reality television. He’d put in four years on two programs before a decade spent eking out an existence around the edges of Hollywood. That first show, Laguna Nights, was still actively shooting with an ever-refreshed group of local high school students here in Laguna Beach, California. Crowe had come up through the reality television wars in a different way. Most of his family, including his father, late mother, and two older brothers, had been cast in a Discovery Channel treasure hunting show thirteen years ago, focused on gold prospecting in Northern California, with an occasional foray into lost mines.

  Crowe still wanted to find gold, but this time, he was looking for treasure he believed could be found in the O.C.—Orange County, California. He forced a smile and gestured to Thor to start recording again. “You bet. I just finished my master’s degree in California history and my thesis was researching local bandit caches. It’s too good an opportunity to pass up.”

  Josh put his finger to his lips as he sat down. “Let’s not share your idea with the locals. I love it. What’s your plan?”

  Crowe had a feeling all of his teeth were exposed, his smile was so wide. He seated himself across from Josh. “We’re talking to Roger Dalton and a couple of other producers. I’d love to take the project to the History Channel.”

  Josh’s amusement showed in his lopsided grin, but it didn’t reach his eyes. Crowe could tell his old friend thought he was overreaching, but he knew he had a great plan. “I’ve seen a few of their shows. But tell me, has Dalton come to you?”

  Thor came in closer with the camera. Crowe hoped he was keeping both of them in frame. He knew that Josh’s “Let’s not share that with the locals” comment was usable material, and he hoped for more. His promo reel could use that sound bite. The man was good on camera. “No, but he’s got a good reputation for making projects happen.”

  “That’s a relief. Given how your show ended ten years ago, I’d have been worried.” Josh leaned back and relaxed.

  Under the red-checkered tablecloth, Crowe laid a protective hand over his stomach. He tried not to think about that final episode of his family’s abruptly cancelled show. It had caused a ton of bad press at the time, but his family had always known the truth. They’d been there. He forced confidence into his voice. “What do you mean?”

  Josh lifted his fist to the camera. Thor nodded and turned it off. “You remember my ex, Laura? She’s filming a reality show about ex-reality stars and it isn’t pretty. Avoid it.”

  Crowe hadn’t heard. Had his father, Beau, been invited and never shared the news, or was his family long forgotten? Either way, he knew to take Josh’s advice. “Got it. No, this is my show idea.”

  Josh picked up his soda. “So you want me for a guest shot?”

  Crowe cleared his throat. This was the awkward part. “No, I know you retired from acting and went to work with your family a few months ago.”

  The other man chuckled. “So you’re looking for money?”

  “Investors.” Crowe shrugged. “Treasure Hunters paid for my bachelor’s degree, but I’ve taken on student loans for my master’s. I’m tapped out.”

  Josh curled his fingers at Thor, who turned his Sony camcorder back on. The $32,000 piece of equipment had been Thor’s contribution to the partnership. It was worth more than their trucks combined. “Your father going to kick anything in?”

  Beau Erickson had hit the mother lode a few times, as had been documented on their reality show, but Crowe and Thor’s mother’s cancer had been a long, expensive, and eventually fatal journey. He had offered to cover start-up costs so that Crowe could get Thor on board, but that was all his father could afford. “He’s helping.”

  Josh rubbed his chin. “What are your chances of a deal?”

  Crowe mirrored his gesture. “I’m optimistic. Build a team that interests people, throw in good lore, add beautiful scenery. It is a recipe for a killer show.”

  “Right.” Josh tilted his head. “I’d rather be the one helping you to get a deal, but that’s more Laura’s forte than mine.”
r />   Crowe wracked his brain for a way to get Josh back on target. He tapped his finger on the table. “It’s cash I need. I’ve already made contact with Roger Dalton and I have a few other names up my sleeve as backup.”

  Josh glanced up at Thor, but he was a veteran, he didn’t make the mistake of looking right into the camera. “I’ll take a look at your promo reel and talk to my family if I like it.”

  Crowe lowered his voice. “This afternoon we’re shooting an interview with the owner of Laguna Coin. I’d love for you to come along, see what we’re doing.”

  Josh nodded distractedly and smiled at someone behind him. Crowe tilted his head back to see a slim woman approaching them. The pizza tray she held blocked her face, but her figure was red-hot, curvy yet athletic.

  She slid their lunch onto the table, giving Crowe a glimpse of the shadow between her perfect breasts and a thin gold chain with a medallion that had slid too far down the treasure trail for him to see what it was.

  Realizing he was staring inappropriately, he forced his eyes to move up. His neck seized, freezing his gaze on the face that had fueled his teenage fantasies for years.

  Jenny Craft, the wisecracking, flame-haired waitress from Laguna Nights, had delivered his pizza. His hand rose in salute, the only part of his body that was working. Above his waist, at least.

  “Hi,” Crowe forced out, his usual baritone vanishing into a whisper. He cleared his throat. “What an honor. I hadn’t realized you were still a waitress.”

  Her gaze narrowed, those clear gray-green eyes going flinty. “I own this place now. Josh gets special service since he’s an old friend.”

  “That’s wonderful,” Crowe exclaimed. He half-rose and held out his hand, conscious that his shorts were fitting awkwardly around his physical reaction to her. Jenny’s expression seemed to reach beneath his skin, almost as if she knew what he was hiding beneath the tablecloth. She held out her hand.

  When he clasped it, he felt the strength there and noticed old burn scars, probably from handling pizzas. “Crowe Erickson. Fellow reality TV survivor and long-time fan.”

  “Ha,” she said. “I was just a bit player.”

  “You were a star to me,” he protested. “I watched Laguna Nights all through high school in hopes they would shoot a scene here and you’d be on camera, chomping your gum and making those great wisecracks. You were the funniest teen on television.”

  Her tongue peeked out and her jaw moved as if she was remembering her old gum-chewing habit. “What show were you on?”

  Thor had moved against the wall to frame their conversation. Crowe made sure not to face completely away while still talking to Jenny. “Treasure Hunters.”

  Her expressive eyes tilted, while she twisted the opposite side of her mouth. “Oh, that sucks.”

  “Why?”

  “Isn’t that the show where one kid broke both of his brother’s legs?”

  Crowe wanted to wince, but here it was, an on-camera opportunity to explain that series finale. “You are remembering the right show, but unfortunately the first episode of season three, which never aired, would have shown the accident. I wasn’t to blame. That’s my brother right there with the camera.”

  “Huh, with two working legs and everything.” Jenny shrugged. “Reality TV. What can you say?” She turned away at a signal from one of the waitresses and strode off.

  “Friend of yours?” Crowe asked Josh, staring at Jenny’s long, toned legs as she went to the front of the dining room. “Busy girl.”

  “Sure. You want a release from her?” Josh loosened a cheesy triangle of pizza from the tray.

  “Yes. I can do a voice-over with a full explanation of what happened that day, show footage from the old show.”

  “You want this to be your redemption, rather than bury it?” Josh set his pizza on a white ceramic plate.

  “It’s best. My father is still a celebrity. People wouldn’t necessarily remember me, but unless I change my name the old story will come out. Might as well address it head-on.”

  “Maybe you should go on Laura’s show. Reality TV Triple Play. Your redemption is right up her alley.”

  “I’d rather do my own thing.”

  “You want a show, not an episode. I get it.” Josh gestured to the pizza. “Let’s eat up and then I’ll watch your coin shop interview.”

  “Thanks, man.”

  Josh turned his head to Thor. “Turn off the camera, buddy, and eat with us. Save the batteries.”

  “Taylor, I’m going to lunch,” Jenny called to her lead waitress as the reality TV people left. When her friend Josh had called her to see if he could film in her pizza place, he hadn’t told her this was for a new show that a friend of his was trying to get off the ground. She’d thought it was just an interview.

  Watching them and overhearing bits of the conversation had left her very curious. Meeting tall, dark, and handsome Crowe Erickson, with that bright baritone that slid over her skin, had left her in shock, her female parts quivering in delight. How long had it been since she met someone she found so attractive? Years.

  Her brain, though? The part not paralyzed by mega-attraction? Mortified. Any time someone talked about the crush they had on her from Laguna Nights, she had a full-on case of impostor attack. Especially now that she was over thirty, and the show was forever young. For the most part, cast was dropped the second they graduated high school. She’d only lasted as long as she had because she was a minor character, but the money had been good enough to buy out the retiring owner of this restaurant and make it her own.

  “You never take lunch,” Taylor said after she shut the cash register drawer and handed change to a customer.

  “I’m going next door to my sister’s shop. She’s about to do an on-camera interview and I want to hear it.” She wanted to listen to Crowe Erickson more, see if he was really as attractive as she’d initially found him to be.

  In the kitchen, she grabbed a calzone that had been too badly baked to send out to a customer, wrapped it in foil, and went out the back door into the alley. Two minutes later, she was popping into the safe-filled back room of Delilah’s Laguna Coin. She unfurled one end of the foil, exposing her calzone, and went to the doorway between the back and the sales floor.

  Josh lifted a hand to her from his spot along the wall. She nodded at him, then watched as the cameraman checked lav mics and connections, then his own battery, before lifting his camcorder back to his shoulder. She watched as he filmed the open rectangle of glass cases that took up most of the shop, then the bookshelf holding reference materials for sale, and finally, the shelving that held other coin collecting apparatus. Delilah had a great shop and the exposure of being on a television show would be fantastic advertising.

  “Let’s talk gold,” Crowe said, smiling at Delilah. He had a great made-for-the-camera smile, full of gleaming, even white teeth.

  Jenny’s lady parts melted again at the sound of his voice. She took a savage bite of calzone to quell the feeling. He was younger than she was, only passing through. Instead of laser-focusing on him, she tried to enjoy her lunch, still warm and full of creamy mozzarella and spinach, with chunky marinara.

  Her sister had hair almost as dark as Crowe’s, but hers was dyed. Delilah didn’t like her light strawberry blond natural color. She smiled back and echoed his words. “Yes, let’s talk gold. California gold coins, to be exact.”

  Crowe tilted his head as Thor tried to get a better angle. “What’s the history on those kinds of coins?”

  “I’m sure you know some of it, Crowe, because your family has been hunting for the lost Forty-Niner mines for what, three generations now?” Delilah flipped her long locks over her shoulder.

  “Four,” Crowe said. “You’ve got it. When gold was discovered along the American River in 1849, floods of people came into California. My great-grandfather began looking for the fabled lost mines as a weekend hobby, a break from his government job in Sacramento.”

  “But that’s not your
interest.” Jenny couldn’t see Delilah’s face, but she recognized the flirtatious tone. She’d probably just blinked her mascara-coated lashes a couple of times and done her one-side-of-the-mouth smile. Her flirt mode was a wonder of appeal and polish.

  Crowe’s rich voice lowered, getting even sexier and more intimate. He could sell anything with that voice. “No, I’m fascinated by the con men, the criminals, the outlaws who stole up and down the state back then.”

  Delilah giggled. “Which brings us back to the California gold coins.”

  Crowe glanced at the camcorder. “And by that we don’t mean gold nuggets.”

  “No, actual coins.” Delilah pulled a plastic coin envelope resting on top of the glass case toward herself. Thor changed his camera angle for a moment, then straightened. “They were privately minted. We’re talking the time period about one hundred sixty, seventy years ago. Great collectibles.”

  Crowe glanced down, wide-eyed and energized, acting like a customer. “Are they really gold?”

  Delilah tapped the envelope. “None of them are one hundred percent gold, but the older they are, the more likely they have a high gold content.”

  “Were they likely to be stolen?” Jenny saw his tongue flash as he spoke. She wondered what it would feel like, trailing over her overheated flesh. Another bite of calzone went into her mouth. She’d numb her lascivious thoughts with food.

  Delilah nodded and reached behind the case, bringing up another coin envelope. “Pickpocketed in Sacramento and San Francisco for sure, yeah. They were working coins in small denominations. Quarter dollar, half dollar, and a dollar.”

  Crowe winked at the camera. “I happen to know that certain companies did payroll with these coins. And there is one payroll in particular, back in 1858, that was made with a particular jeweler’s minted coin. They had the mintmark ‘F.D.,’ for Frontier, Deviercy & Co.”