Page 55 of Fire Peak

“No.”

“What do you mean, no?” Her voice rose, shaking, furious. “I hired you. You’re supposed to do what I say.”

“If you said push you off a cliff, I wouldn’t do that either. This is the same thing.”

“It’s my decision! I can jump off a cliff if I want!” She tried to grab his phone again, but he dodged her grasp.

“Would your father want you to jump off a cliff for him?”

“My father…he doesn’t understand. He just sees the good. Even in me, he sees someone good and wonderful and…” She put a hand to her throat as her words clogged there. Tears sprang to her eyes. She tried to speak again, but couldn’t.

“Listen,” he said gently, placing his phone in his back pocket, out of her reach, then taking her hands into his. “Can you trust me with this? Let me handle it.”

“How?”

“Do you need details? It’s better if you don’t know.”

Slowly the panic left her eyes and her expression calmed. She passed the back of her hand across her forehead. “Twenty-four hours. No more. And you have to promise me that if you need my help, you’ll ask for it. I can do a lot. I have skills.”

He nodded in agreement. “Twenty-four hours.”

“You can do it in one day?”

“I’m the best.” He winked at her, and was happy to see a slight smile flit across her face.

“I never doubted it. Only the best could nearly catch up with me.”

He didn’t bother pointing out that she was nearly naked, barely six inches from him. No need to rub it in.

Now to work some magic with that bastard Mark Jones.

24

Charlie wasn’t used to other people slaying dragons for her. It was impossible for her to sit still and do nothing while Nick Perini did all the work. Besides, there were a million unanswered questions running through her mind.

She limped downstairs to the manager’s office and took a moment to appreciate the view of Fire Peak. The morning sun gave the trees a subtle golden glow. Even the granite crags held a quiet sparkle. Was there any place more beautiful in the entire world? This wilderness brought everything into perspective and made her problems seem so much less dire. It was soothing, in a weird way, even though that very wilderness could easily kill her if she went into it unprepared.

She popped two Tylenol and gingerly sat down at the computer.

Before Nick had left, he’d airdropped her the voice recording of the couple outside Solomon’s camper. She had a translation app on her phone that could tell her what language and what they were saying.

The answer came quickly.

Chechen.

Chechen?

All she knew about Chechnya was that Russia had fought bloody wars with it when it tried to break away. She did a quick search to learn more. The country had its own language, its own culture, but was now firmly under Russian control, and was known as the Chechen Republic of Russia. Why were two people from Chechnya lurking around the woods near Firelight Ridge? Were they working on behalf of Russia, or for some other entity?

Carefully, she read through the translation.

According to the app, the man had said, “Vasily wants to turn up the heat. The woman is dragging her feet.”

“We need to be patient,” said the woman. “Why is he being so crazy?”

“There’s a history. But we need Vasily. Without him, we have nothing. What can we do?”

“We can find out…Shhh. What’s that noise?” The drone of the helicopter grew louder.

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