Chapter 22
“What does that mean?Were they aiming at me? The smoke bomb, now the arrow? Am I the target? Now I’m just supposed to wait for strike three? Then what happens? I’m out?”
Charlie couldn’t stop the flow of nervous questions that poured from her lips as Nick loosely bandaged her thigh. It was throbbing now that the adrenaline had worn off. All she wanted was some painkillers and some answers.
“I don’t think they were aiming at you.” She twisted her head around to see Nick shaking his head. “They kept shooting more arrows even after you were down.”
“So maybe you were the strike two?”
“It doesn’t make sense. I’m just a summer visitor. I’m not a threat to anyone.”
“You’re taking on all these jobs,” she pointed out. “You’ve told half the town you’ll help them with one thing or another.”
“So someone wants me to go away before I solve one of the petty crimes on my plate? Which one, the missing chickens or the weird smell in Martha’s woodshed?”
“What are you, a crime snob? Maybe something isn’t as petty as it seems.”
That got a laugh from him. He helped settle her back into place on the bench. The trailer smelled like cast iron pans and musty fabric, but it felt cozy to be here with Nick, safe from the rain and the arrows. Any time the trailer smell got to her, she could always bury her face in his jacket, which smelled like roasted coffee and buttery leather.
Nick…she still didn’t know much about him, and the more time she spent with him, the more she wanted to. “How did you become an investigator?”
He lifted his eyebrows. “Need a distraction?”
“Yes please.”
He tilted his head, obliging her. “I was home from college, helping out at my dad’s firehouse for the summer.”
“That’s right, you said he was a fireman. Sisters? Brothers?”
“Four sisters, two brothers. The smell of flatirons and hairspray takes me right back to childhood. The only time it was ever quiet in our house was…actually, it was never quiet. Even at night, someone would be getting a snack or sneaking in a late night phone call. My brothers and one of my sisters are firefighters too. We didn’t have much money, so I saved up my lawn-mowing funds for a set of headphones. My family thought I was weird because I actually liked homework. That was my escape from the chaos.”
Charlie found these details fascinating. “You were a good student?”
“I loved school. Don’t get me wrong, I love my family too. They’re just…a lot. I was right in the middle of the pack. Someone had to be the quiet one.”
“You might be quiet but you’re…what’s the word…powerful. When you talk, people listen.” She touched his cheek. “Wait, is that a blush I see? Are you embarrassed by compliments?”
“What if I am?”
“Then that’s adorable. Look at you, being adorable. And getting pinker by the minute.” He really was adorable, she wasn’t just teasing about that. Her heart gave a little jump as he turned his face into the palm of her hand and dropped a kiss there. It was such a tender gesture, the kind of thing a real couple might share.
Right. As if she could ever be part of a “real couple,” with her shady history. She settled her hand back in her lap. “Okay, so you were home for the summer…”
“Yes. Someone had a vendetta against the crew because they’d recently hired their first female firefighter, Mercy Shaw, this gorgeous girl I knew from high school, a few years ahead of me. She kept getting fake calls and death threats. It pissed me off, so I made it my mission to figure out who was doing it. I discovered it was a local group of incel assholes. I brought all the evidence to the police. When they went to interrogate them, they found a stash of weapons. The officers told me I probably prevented something even worse. I decided right then that I wanted to do investigative work.”
“Wow, that’s quite a story. Did you get a date with Mercy out of it?”
“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.
At the lodge, the helicopter was swarmed with helping hands. Elias and Hailey, an extremely worried-looking April, Sam and Molly, and one of the guests who Charlie knew to be an orthodontist. Charlie knew that several staffers had rudimentary medical training, including April herself. So the fact that April had requested the help of a guest—even if he specialized in teeth—touched her heart. April must be really concerned for her.
Some antiseptic, a hefty dose of painkillers, a professionally applied bandage, and she was declared “treated.” No surgery required. No need for an airlift to Anchorage. By some miracle, she’d been shot in the thigh with an arrow with no serious damage done.
“I had a similar injury once. The muscles will take some time to knit back together, so you’ll be limping for a while,” the orthodontist told her. “Take it easy. No trail running or hiking for a while.”
“Gotcha. I’ll stick to the community volleyball game and an occasional climb up Ice Falls.”
“Sense of humor intact. That’s a good sign.”
Finally everyone cleared out of her room and she was alone with Nick again. He hesitated, lingering next to her bed. “You can stay with me,” she offered.
“I was hoping you’d say that. April offered me and Hailey a room for the next couple of nights. I’m pretty sure Hailey would be happy to have it to herself.”
“Did you give her the boy lecture?”
“No need. She’s heard it all from her mother, and she knows if she breaks any of Jill’s rules, it’s back to Tucson for her. Anyway, Elias went home already. I watched him go.” He winked at her as he stretched out on the bed beside her. The warmth of his body next to hers was so relaxing, she nearly purred.
“Lectures only go so far when you’re talking about temptation.” She turned her head to gaze at him, and felt her head swim. Those painkillers really packed a punch. Or maybe it was his dark eyes with those long lashes. Could eyes pack a punch? His sure did. Right in her solar plexus. “Holy shit. I got shot with an arrow.”
“You sure did. I’m sorry.” He smoothed her hair away from her face.
“I guess it’s the price I have to pay for being a curious bitch.”
He smiled slightly. “God, you’re something. You have more bravado than anyone I’ve ever known.”
“Bravado…” She sounded the word out. It felt funny on her tongue. She was starting to drift. “Is that a good thing? Is that like an Italian kind of brave, like espresso instead of coffee?”
He was still stroking her hair. The tender caress made her melt inside. But she couldn’t show it. She was Charlie Santa Lucia, not some sentimental softie to be lulled by a man’s touch. Even if it was so very soft and gentle and hypnotic…
“It means you face every situation with your head held high. It means you have nerves of titanium. It means I…” He broke off, looking embarrassed. “It means I admire you.”
“You shouldn’t admire me. I’m kind of an outlaw. Maybe that’s why I caught an arrow. Karma.”
Oh my God. What was she saying? What kind of painkiller had they given her? Truth serum?
“Then it’s a good thing I’m not the sheriff,” he said.
“I didn’t hurt anyone. The opposite, I was trying to help people. And get a little revenge at the same time.” Her eyelids started to droop shut, but she forced them to stay open to see his reaction. He was listening closely, his dark eyes on hers, but he wasn’t pulling away.
“Your secret is safe with me.”
“All my secrets?”
“All of them.” He said it so firmly that she believed him.
On the edge of sleep, she scooted toward him, close enough to whisper in his ear. “Don’t tell anyone, but I’m really into you. Very, very into. Very. I’m very attracted to you.”
The word “very” suddenly sounded strange, and her mouth was filled with cotton, and she could no longer fend off the drug of sleep. All she saw, before she dropped into the sweet darkness, was Nick’s intimate smile.