Page 20 of 15 Summers Later

Nicole quickly made introductions and Madi held her breath, waiting for either of the guys to grimace or otherwise react negatively to her half-frozen smile. Meeting new people always made her anxious until they became used to seeing her features that were a little...off.

Neither Ryan nor Austin seemed to blink as Nicole quickly made introductions. Before Madi knew it, she was chatting with the taller of the guys. Ryan.

He seemed smart and funny, a native Washingtonian and a journalism grad student, with aspirations of being the next Norman Maclean. He was only a few years younger than she was, Madi learned, and was deeply inquisitive about the area.

“There’s so much history here,” he said, after they had spoken at length about the community and some of their suggestions for points of interest to see while he was in town.

“I find it so fascinating, especially since I’m reading a book set in this area. Or at least in the mountains near here.”

Madi instantly tensed. “Are you?”

“Yes. Are you a reader?”

“I listen to audiobooks more than read,” she admitted. She did not tell this perfect physical specimen that reading for too long gave her a headache. “Right now I’m listening to a suspense novel about a bunch of people trapped on a cruise with a killer.”

“Oh, I think I’ve seen that one advertised. It looks great.”

“It is so far,” she said. “I’m about halfway through and it was hard to come out to the Burning Tree tonight instead of staying home to listen to my book.”

She purposely didn’t ask what he was reading, because she didn’t want to know. He answered the unspoken question, anyway. “I just started that book everyone has been talking about.Ghost Lake. That book is intense! Have you heard about it?”

Madi didn’t dare risk a look around the table at Luke and Nicki.

“I’ve heard of it,” she said, desperately searching for a change in topic.

“What do you like about it?” Luke asked, deliberately prolonging the conversation. She wanted to smack him.

Ryan’s features lit up as if he were a teenage boy talking about the latest Marvel movie. “The suspense. I mean, you know the girls must have survived. At least one of them did so she could write the book. But man. What they went through was straight-up brutal. And it all happened not far from here, right? Amazing that there was a whole survivalist cult living in the mountains for months and nobody knew about it.”

“People knew,” she said, before she could stop herself. Even she could hear the bitterness in her voice.

“Then, why didn’t people do anything about it? Why didn’t anybody help them?”

She had no answer to that. After a brief, awkward silence, Luke spoke up. “People in town knew they were up there. It’s hard to miss a pop-up community of that size. They were living on private land but certainly within sight of several groomed snowmobile trails that were used as fire roads in the warmer months.”

Madi shivered, despite the overheated bar. Luke noticed. His eyes sharpened and he placed a hand on hers, beneath the table, for only an instant, providing comfort and support. Warmth seeped back through her and she picked up her drink and took a bigger gulp than she usually might.

“According to the book, they were heavily armed and practicing commando maneuvers,” Ryan said, his features incredulous. “Didn’t that raise red flags?”

“This is Idaho,” Luke said quietly. “Like other states in the West, many people are heavily armed. They were survivalists, but that’s not unusual here, either. The few people from the Ghost Lake Survival Coalition who had contact with the local community seemed harmless, on the rare occasions someone would come to town for supplies. Polite, well-spoken. No one knew exactly what they were doing or that children were in jeopardy, or I can promise they would have been stopped earlier.”

“Can we talk about something else, please?” Madi said abruptly. She was here to let off steam, not to be thrown back into the hellscape of her memories.

Unfortunately, something in her voice drew Ryan’s attention and he gave her a long, intense perusal. “Madi. Nicole said your name is Madi but she didn’t say your last name. That wouldn’t be Howell, would it?”

She said nothing, wanting him and his raccoon friend to simply go away now.

His eyes widened. “You’re the girl from the book. The younger sister. So you survived!”

“Spoiler alert,” Nicki said, her voice dry.

That damn book. She couldn’t get away from it, no matter where she went, not even a night hanging out with friends listening to a live band at the local night spot.

If she were interested in a summer fling, Ryan O’Connor would have had potential. He was cute, smart, fun. What more did she want?

Not now. She could imagine few things worse than a summer filled with curious questions about her experience up in the mountains with the Coalition.

She didn’t even want to endure the rest of the evening with him now.

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