Page 44 of Fire Peak

“We’ll try it. I don’t want you approaching them alone.”

“You don’t think I can handle myself alone? What do you think I’ve been doing all this time?”

He leaned back in his chair and gazed up at her. Energy vibrated between them, tense and fiery. Why did he always feel so alive when he was around Charlie?

“Maybe you can. I don’t know. Who are you, Charlie Santa Lucia? Do you have weapons training? Operational expertise? Field experience? Someone told me you’re just a girl from Indiana.”

Her lips quirked. “Must have been some kind of idiot who told you that.”

“No. Someone brave. Someone with a lot of secrets.”

After a long pause, she sat down abruptly. “I don’t have any of those things you just mentioned. But I have a few skills you didn’t, and maybe they can help.”

He waited, thinking she might explain more about these hidden skills that were probably at the heart of this whole thing. But she didn’t. Still being cagey. He didn’t blame her for that.

“So how do you want to do this?” she asked impatiently. “If my dad’s in danger, I don’t have time to waste sitting around drinking wine and flirting.”

“Why, Charlie, are you flirting with me?” He flashed her a smile as he pulled out his phone and thumbed through his contacts to place a call to Mark Jones.

“Why yes, Nick, that’s why I ran all the way to Alaska so you could chase me, it’s been nothing but foreplay from the jump.”

Come to think of it, she might have a point.

“Dad!” Hailey shouted from inside the cabin. “Me and Elias are hungry, what is there to eat?”

20

Charlie could have screamed from sheer frustration as Hailey burst onto the back deck, followed more calmly by Elias. Even though Elias had been raised outside Firelight Ridge, he was almost as new to the community as Hailey, since he’d been part of the reclusive Chilkoot clan up until recently. He was a quiet redheaded boy, somewhere on the spectrum, more at home in the woods than anywhere else.

He and Hailey seemed to have one of those relationships in which Hailey did all the chattering, and he hovered nearby, watching adoringly.

Nick gave Charlie an apologetic shrug. “Want to stay for dinner? I’ll make some pasta.”

Hailey rolled her eyes. “You always make pasta. Hi, Charlie. Are we interrupting? Were you about to make out or something?”

Nick frowned at his daughter. “Hailey. Go chop up some sausage and peppers and put some water on to boil. I’ll be right in.”

She made a saucy face and danced back into the cabin. Elias lingered behind, shooting Nick a shy, sidelong glance. “Are you the one who’s a policeman?”

Charlie wanted to laugh at the expression on Nick’s face. Before long, he was going to start believing it himself. “Not technically, no,” he told Elias.

The boy looked confused by that answer. Since he’d been raised without any schooling, some words and phrasings had never made it into his vocabulary.

“But I am helping out a few people around here. Is there something you wanted to talk about?” Nick asked gently.

“But you’re not the police?”

“No.”

“Okay.” With an expression of relief, he finally met Nick’s gaze. For once, someone wanted him to not be an officer, apparently. “I’m afraid of police. But I found something strange behind Fire Peak. I was hunting for spruce grouse because it’s one of the best places.”

Nick glanced at Charlie, as if she might clue him in to what Elias was talking about. But she didn’t have any more idea than he did. “What’s a spruce grouse, Elias?” she asked.

He appeared shocked that anyone would ask such a question. “It’s like a ptarmigan.”

That didn’t help either of them.

“It’s a game bird,” he went on. “They live in the underbrush and they’re pretty easy to catch. They’re good when you roast them over a fire.”

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