Page 93 of Fire Peak

“Lie down, Elias.” Frozen, she stayed in place, footfalls coming closer, afraid to say a word, even though Elias wasn’t doing as she’d said, he was crouching right next to the door.

Which opened. The man in the fur coat stepped through. And bam. Elias yanked his ankle and toppled him face-forward. He crashed into the cabinet opposite the door, and staggered. Then Elias did some kind of whirlwind move that got him onto the ground, fighting and spluttering.

“Go,” Elias told her.

“Not without you.” She looked around for a cast iron pan to whack the man with. But Elias didn’t need that. He used a chokehold that worked just as well.

“He won’t be out long,” Elias murmured. “Let’s go.”

Hailey scrambled off the bench, and Elias untied her hands from behind her back. Her wrists ached and tingled. The man was blocking the door, so they had to crawl over him to get out of the camper.

Only to come face to face with another man. She knew him right away.

“Solomon!”

He tilted back his straw hat and eyed them with exasperation. “Well, ain’t this a complication. Damn kids, getting into everything.”

“Getting into everything?” Hailey said indignantly. “We were kidnapped!”

“Yeah? Sorry to hear that. Ain’t nothing to do about it now. You want to stay here and babysit this asshole or you want to come with me?”

Kneeling down next to the unconscious body on the camper floor, he turned the man over just enough to see his face.

“Well I’ll be goddamned.” He whistled. “He really is back. Never thought I’d see this crazy bastard again. No wonder April’s gone bonkers.”

Hailey exchanged a glance with Elias, who shrugged. Neither had a clue what Solomon was talking about. Maybe he’d gone bonkers too.

“How about we just find our way back home?” She tried a nice smile on him. Solomon wasn’t a bad guy, at least she didn’t think he was.

“No. No.” He shook his head. “It ain’t safe for you. Better come with me. You’re just in time to give me a hand with something.”

“With what?” Elias asked.

“We don’t want to help you,” said Hailey. “We want to go home. I want to find my dad.”

When neither of them budged, Solomon pulled aside his stained leather jacket so they could see the old weapon in a holster on his belt. Hailey stared at the gun. Its handle looked so pretty and pearly, you could almost pretend it wasn’t something that could kill you.

39

Charlie limped into the kitchen of the Fire Peak Lodge. Her messenger bag was slung across her chest, her laptop and wallet inside. She’d left everything else behind.

Thank God, Big Eddie was there.

“Eddie, I need your help,” she said, trying to keep the panic out of her voice. “We need to evacuate the lodge.”

“Huh?” He looked up from the lamb chops he was dropping into a marinade. His springy black hair was tied back with a bandanna, the closest he came to a hairnet. “Why for?”

“No time for questions. Most of the guests are out and about.” One stroke of luck was that it was midafternoon, prime time for sightseeing. “But there are people hanging out on the terrace and the library, and staffers everywhere. I can’t get to everyone because of my leg. Please.”

“Is this coming from April?”

“No. I can’t find her. Do you know where she is?” She’d texted April over and over, and gotten no response.

“Isn’t this her meditation time?”

“She has a meditation time?”

“It’s the only time she turns her phone off.”

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