Page 41 of Fire Peak

“Sometimes they fight,” Charlie pointed out.

“Then I make them leave.”

It took a special person to maintain control in a wild west outpost like The Fang; obviously Bear could handle it.

Charlie gave up. She had more important things to take care of today anyway. “How’s your Wi-Fi working today?”

“I got two whole bars right outside the back door,” Lila told her. “It was a Wi-Fi miracle.”

Other people had heard about the miracle too, and a small cluster of communication-starved residents were clustered outside the screen door of The Fang. Charlie put her earbuds in so she didn’t have to listen to anyone else’s conversation. As she waited for her father to answer the phone in his hospital room, she tilted her head back and let the sunshine kiss her face. The sweet warmth of it sent honey through her veins. What was this weird feeling? A kind of relaxation, an ease from tension. For the first time in years, she wasn’t calling her father in prison. He was in a safe place, surrounded by people taking care of him.

Her father didn’t answer, but eventually a nurse picked up. “Hi Charlie.”

“Hi, how is he?”

“He’s with his brother. They went down to the cafeteria.”

A chill rippled through Charlie’s veins. Maybe she’d misheard. Maybe she meant “lawyer.” “I’m sorry, did you say he’s with his brother? What…when did he get there?”

“I’m not here to keep track of his social life. You should ask him.”

“Yes. You’re right. I’ll do that. Thank you.” Numbly, Charlie ended the call.

Her father didn’t have a brother.

A brother would have been a wonderful thing for her father to have all these years, but he was an only child, just as “only” as she was.

So who the hell had showed up at her father’s hospital and pretended to be his brother? And why?

Should she get on a plane right now and go find out what was going on?

Her phone buzzed with an incoming call. She’d been so wrapped up in her worry that she nearly jumped out of her skin.

It was her father.

“Listen, bunny.” He was panting, his breathing ragged. “Someone from Hobbs just came to see me. They want to talk to you, but I refused to help them. I’d rather go back to prison than let them have anything to do with you.”

She hadn’t heard him so upset in a long time. This couldn’t be good for his emphysema. “Take a breath, Dad. What exactly did he say?”

“He said Hobbs dropped their objection to my release, and that I should be grateful for that. All they want in exchange is for me to set up a meeting with you. But I won’t. Don’t do it, Charlie. Promise me. Promise you’ll have nothing to do with them.”

19

Nick was getting used to Firelight Ridge residents knocking on his door and requesting his help with problems ranging from “get my missing chickens back” to “want to take a crack at identifying the dead body that washed up during last year’s jokulhlaup?”

That one had taken some explaining before he said “no.” Jokulhlaup was a condition that occurred when glacier-fed lakes flooded from rapid glacial melt in the spring. Smoky Lake underwent a jokulhlaup every couple of years, and it always left a mess.

But he had to admit he was surprised to find Charlie Santa Lucia joining the throng that wanted to ruin his vacation with work offers.

“What is it about the word vacation that isn’t sinking in?” he wondered as he ushered her into his little rental house.

“We’re already working together on the smoke bomb incident. This is even more important. I’ll actually hire you for this one.” With her long-legged stride, she’d already reached the sliding glass doors that led to the back deck. “Care to offer me a drink on that little patio out there?”

“It’s buggy,” he warned her. “The mosquitoes here are large and turbo-charged.”

“I have a spray. April says it’s so toxic it’s banned on her property, but it works. I’ll share it with you if you’ll at least listen to me.”

He sighed and grabbed a bottle of white wine from the fridge. His favorite thing to do here was sit on that deck, with its view of the magnificent mountain peaks, and sip a glass of wine. It would probably be even better with Charlie.

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