Page 51 of Fire Peak

“Actually, I did.” He grinned at her. “Though of course that had nothing to do with my dedication to solving that case. We dated the rest of the summer. When I came back the next summer, word had spread and I had potential clients waiting for me.”

“And Mercy?” She couldn’t help asking.

“Engaged to another firefighter. They have two kids now. I was crushed.”

“Aw. I’m sorry. Heartbreak sucks.” She put her hand on his leg, feeling hard muscle that made a tendril of desire unfurl in her belly.

“It all worked out.” He shot her a glance that she couldn’t read, but that made her heart skip a beat or two. Whatever that look—hot and full of unspoken significance—meant, she wasn’t sure she was ready for it. She broke eye contact, her gaze roaming around the camper’s interior.

On the opposite wall, she spotted a photo taped over the table. It looked old, the tape curling away from the wall. She squinted at it to bring it into focus. In the shot, a group of three young people sat around a campfire in the snow. Two were men, both with bushy beards. One of them had to be Solomon because he wore that same familiar straw hat. The woman…geez, was that April? Her short hair looked very much like that of her boss.

Something was written in the white space at the top of the photo. She couldn’t read it from this distance, but something about the handwriting looked familiar.

She was about to step closer to decipher what it said, when a sound from outside caught their attention. At first she thought it was their ride out of here, but then Nick put a finger to his lips. They both went still.

Voices. A man and a woman. Coming closer. She frowned, trying to make out what they were saying, but couldn’t catch a single word of it.

Nick pulled out his phone and clicked record on his voice app. They came even closer—maybe a few yards away now. She went tense. Were they just going to sit here while strangers barged into their—well, Solomon’s space?

It was a foreign language, she realized. The couple were speaking in another language, and they sounded crisp and businesslike, as if they were on a job, not on a pleasant hike in the woods.

Nick motioned to Charlie to stay low, then grabbed a cast iron frying pan and stationed himself by the door. She braced herself for a potential confrontation, but the voices stopped suddenly. Another sound took over—a mechanical drone coming in from overhead.

Nick lifted the faded blue curtain that covered the plastic window in the trailer’s door. “They’re heading for the woods.” A moment later, “They’re gone.”

“Who were they?”

“I don’t know, but I did just solve one of my cases. I’m pretty sure that was the couple Solomon was worried about. He wanted to make sure they were still alive.”

The droning sound grew louder, shaking the little camper. Rescue. Thank God. She could feel exhaustion dragging at her. Bravado only went so far; now the reality of a bloody flesh wound was catching up to her.

“Come on,” Nick said, as he gently helped her to her feet. “Your Uber is here.”

She was too tired to joke around. “Will you stay with me?”

“You better believe it. I’m not letting you out of my sight. Took me long enough to catch up to you.”

“Ha ha.”

She recognized the helicopter as the one April used to bring supplies and guests to the lodge. The pilot was a woman known as Bad Sally for reasons Charlie wasn’t clear on. Possibly it was thanks to her constant state of grouchiness, or possibly the fact that she was rumored to have broken up three marriages.

Bad Sally and Nick helped her onto the chopper, where Sally had set up a gurney in the cargo area. “I’ll stay back here with her,” Nick shouted over the sound of the idling engine.

“Good. I hate people in the cockpit with me. Just strap in and don’t bonk your head on anything.” She shut the door with a bang and strode back to the pilot’s seat.

“Solid safety instructions,” Nick murmured. “I think I heard something like that on my last Southwest flight.”

Charlie giggled like a loopy kid. Nick made her laugh. He was funny, or at least she found him so. And comforting, the way he made sure she was securely fastened onto that gurney and that she had a tight hold on his hand as they lifted off.

“I wish I could see,” she said wistfully, craning her neck. “All I see is sky. It looks about the same as it does from the ground.

Nick whipped out his phone and clicked record on a video. “Next best thing,” he told her.

“You’re so sweet. Are all private investigators so sweet?” she teased him. “I had no idea.”

“I’m only sweet on vacation.”

Did she need to point out, once again, that he clearly wasn’t on vacation, if you asked the residents of Firelight Ridge? Nah.

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