Page 75 of Lady and the Camp
This was my fault. “I’m so sorry. I thought…” of myself. I’d been thinking only of myself.
I couldn’t resist defending my brand. Defendingme. And I’d been careless about it.
“How about I alert the local field office as a precaution,” Agent Mulder said. “Sir, go ahead and file your police report. A trespasser at a children’s camp is reason enough to heighten security without the added Hollywood hoopla.” He noisily cleared his throat. “With children involved, do what you need to do.”
I chanced a look at Lucas. Determined, fierce eyes looked past me. Jaw set. He walked to his office and shut the door.
Agent Mulder left me with a few parting words, mainly about staying offline and not doing anything stupid, then defined stupid as anything that might alert anyone on earth to my whereabouts, and clicked off.
Marcy’s arms encircled me. “You’ve been through a lot.”
I didn’t deserve sympathy. “I made this worse. So much worse than it needed to be.”
“If you want to come home with me, you’re welcome to.”
My back met the wall, its cool touch mildly calming. I could leave. Ditch this low-tech existence and at least be somewhere with streaming TV and access to better take-out options.
But I didn’t want to leave. I’d come close to grasping a sense of peace I hadn’t experienced in so long. I needed more time. I needed more walks by the water, more time to think.
“Would leaving be worse? Running off after I put the camp in danger. Plus, the camp games—I committed to the team.” Comparatively unimportant. If the threat came from the other camp, would we even want to play competitive games with them?
“Maybe Lucas can hire my brothers to work security,” Marcy said with a snort. “They seemed real eager to defend you.”
“Like Patrick jumping to defendyou?”
She waved me off. “He’s always tagging along doing whatever my brothers do. They jump at any chance to act macho.”
Knowing they had my back, simply by virtue of knowing Marcy, brought more comfort than I cared to admit. Lucas included. I’d seen the fear in his eyes. Then again, maybe that fear was only for the kids he’d signed on to oversee. Kids I’d put in harm’s way.
I’d been so naïve. So focused on myself.
We sat there like that for a few minutes. Neither of us spoke. My mind settled, though the undercurrent of worry clung to each breath.
Marcy held her hands out to help me to standing. “Whatever’s going on in that head of yours, don’t get too down on yourself. You’ve done everything else your people asked.”
Lucas’ office door swung open. He stomped across the room and stopped in front of us to look out the window. He sighed.
“What’s the scoop, boss?” Marcy asked.
He physically bristled. “Thescoop,” he said and turned toward us. “Is the sheriff’s office took down a description and said they’d run a patrol car by the camp. That’s it.” He sighed again. “Beyond that, we’re on our own.”
Chapter 25
Lucas
Acrossthefirepit,Hudson sat bundled in a sweatshirt and jeans surrounded by her friends. My meet-up buddies and the kitchen staff, with exception of Pete, had taken off, leaving nine of us at camp. The atmosphere was notably less party weekend now that we’d encountered the possible threat. But the group had another night together, so we decided to make the best of it. Fire pit, S’mores, coolers of snacks.
Only I couldn’t get the day’s events out of my head. Hudson had looked terrified during that phone call. Krom shredded her in that video, barely holding back a smirk while he did it. Krom had a legion of dedicated followers who believed he could do no wrong. Who knew what those fans would do if incited.
Stupid me, I hadn’t put together the severity of her situation. The feds? A burner phone? Hiding out at camp wasn’t some one-eighty turn after a bad breakup. This was laying lowunder federal supervision.
And no one told me.
While I’d waited for the sheriff’s office on hold, I’d dug deeper searching Hudson’s name on a social media site. Horrible posts surfaced claiming she conspired against Krom. That she’d been planning with an impressive list of political figures and questionable celebrities to set him up. Krom was framed, they insisted, by a girlboss loser who leached onto Krom’s hard-earned fame. Now she “had to pay.”
That last comment chilled me to the bone. I’d rather the threat have been from the other camp. A Brycen crony looking for intel on our tug-of-war tactics.
I prayed that was the case and not something worse.
