Chapter 33
Why hadshe ever thought that Nick Perini—aka Dad—was cool? She’d been wrong, so wrong. A cool new dad wouldn’t turn you into a prisoner for no good reason. He hadn’t even explained anything. He’d just marched into the cabin, laid down some random new rules, and bolted off with his new crush.
For the first time—okay, maybe almost the first time—Hailey was second-guessing her summer social media ban. She missed her friends. It was hard not knowing what boba shop they were popping into at any given moment. Or maybe they weren’t into boba this summer. Maybe it was something different this year, and she knew nothing about it, and she’d get back to a million inside jokes about coconut popsicles or whatever.
Ugh. Where was Elias? He was supposed to come pick her up so they could hike out to this lake he knew where there was a tire swing. First he was going to show her how to handle a knife, which was awesome but not something she was ever going to tell her mom. Then they were going to try out the tire swing.
It sounded kind of corny, a tire swing. She’d seen them in the movies, but not in her Tucson suburb. Would her friends laugh at her, if the highlight of the summer was a tire swing?
What would her friends think of Elias? Some of them got the whole neurodivergent thing, but some didn’t. They might think he was too weird, especially if you threw in the fact that he’d never been to a city, never seen a movie in a theater, never been to a mall.
He was so different from her, but she liked hanging out with him. She liked to rant about the world, and most people got fed up with it. But not Elias. Elias just listened to her talk as if her words were rain falling from the sky.
Also, Elias was low-key hot.
But where was he?
She paced from one end of the little cabin to the next. Her puzzle was finished. She’d washed the dishes—the chore she’d claimed because she liked warm soapy water. There was literally nothing left to do except count her footsteps and wish her “father” hadn’t turned into one of those patriarchal authoritarian types with no freaking warning.
At the back of the cabin, she pressed her nose against the sliding glass door that led out to the back deck. It wasn’t much of a deck, and the rental agreement had a clause that said you weren’t supposed to go out there. She could see why—rotting boards, no railing. But if she didn’t go to the edge, just stuck close to the cabin, it would probably be safe. The deck wouldn’t count as “outside,” would it? She needed some freaking oxygen.
A tap on the front door made her jump. Elias! Finally! She hurried to the door, but when she opened it, she didn’t see Elias. She saw a small redheaded child who she figured was one of his brothers, based on the weird clothes he wore. All the Chilkoots wore handmade clothes with fabric they wove themselves. It made them easily identifiable.
Even though Elias didn’t live with the Chilkoots anymore, he still cared about his little brothers and sisters. They’d all been told that outsiders were bad, so they only hung out with the other members of the Chilkoot clan. She was his first real friend outside the family.
Maybe that explained why the little boy looked so frightened right now. He was maybe eight, she figured.
She gave him a big smile. “Hi. Are you Elias’ brother?”
The boy nodded, still tongue-tied as he stared at her. She wondered if she had food in her teeth or a giant zit on her nose.
“Did Elias send you? Do you have a message for me? He was supposed to be here a while ago.”
The boy shook his head. “Is this where the smart man lives? The one who found who kept taking Ruth’s truck?”
The smart man. Hailey experienced a moment of pride, followed by irritation. The “smart man” was her brand-new father, and this was supposed to be their vacation, their time to get to know each other. And he’d waltzed off with his girlfriend leaving her trapped in her tower like Rapunzel.
“Yes, but he’s not here right now. I’m his daughter. Maybe I can help you.”
Like father, like daughter, right? She’d prove that Nick Perini wasn’t so special. By the time he got back, she would have solved a crime.
The redheaded boy lowered his voice to a whisper. “I saw a bad man take Elias.”
A jolt of fear shot through her. “Take him where?”
“I don’t know. He hit Elias on the head and put him into a truck.”
This was way over her head. “We have to tell someone. Like, a policeman or something.” Then she remembered there wasn’t such a thing out here. That was why everyone kept coming to her dad for help. “How about your mom and dad, or uncles or whatever?” The Chilkoot clan confused her, she could never tell what people’s relationships were.
“Everyone’s at home. It’s really far from here.”
Come to think of it, how did he get here? She peered past him and saw there was a four-wheeler parked on the side of the road. The fact that eight-year-olds were allowed to drive four-wheelers out here was both super-cool and slightly terrifying.
She racked her brain about who else to turn to. Charlie would be the next best option, seeing as she was totally badass. But she was with Nick. Dad. Whatever. Maybe Charlie’s friends? Molly or Lila or—yes! Bear!
Bear was the guy Lila worked for at The Fang, and talk about badass. He was intimidatingly huge, but also pretty nice. Sometimes he played volleyball with them, and he’d just stand by the net and wait for a pass so he could spike it.
He could almost always be found at The Fang, which was right down the road.
“I know who can help us,” she told the boy. “Mind if we take your four-wheeler? It’ll be quicker.”
He nodded, and she grabbed her jacket off the peg by the door. Should she leave a note? She was only going to The Fang, it would take just a couple minutes. But technically, she’d be breaking her father’s new, very unreasonable rules.
She pictured Nick’s face if he came back and found her gone, with no note and no way to reach her. Back in Arizona, her mother always knew where she was because of that stupid app on her phone. As pissed as she was at Nick, she couldn’t do that to her newly discovered father.
She scribbled a quick note and left it pinned to the fridge with a magnet shaped like a bear cub.
Went to The Fang to help Elias’ little brother find him.
If Elias was in trouble, she couldn’t just sit here and do nothing. Her father would understand. He would do exactly the same thing.
“We’ve toldyou everything we know.” Charlie let out an exasperated sigh. When Solomon first pulled the gun, she’d been filled with fear. But she’d taken a cue from Nick’s calm, patient manner. Solomon had no reason to shoot them. He was just trying to find out about the perilium. “Like we keep saying, we found it in my wound.”
“You gotta know more than that. Why’d you come here asking questions? It’s a piece of fucking dirt if you don’t know what you’re looking at. Why didn’t you just toss it in the trash?”
“We thought it might help us figure out who shot Charlie, that’s all,” Nick said soothingly. “I’m an investigator, it’s what I do. You hired me yourself.”
Glancing at Nick, Charlie caught a quick jerk of his head, aimed at the woods. He was trying to give her a message, but she had no idea what. If he meant, run for the woods, he could forget it. Running might pull out her stitches.
“I hired you to find out about that couple in the woods. You never told me shit about them.”
“You know something, Solomon? You weren’t completely honest with me, were you?”
“What are you yarning on about?” The old man focused entirely on Nick now. If Charlie wanted to run, she could. She could dash behind the trailer, then into the Jeep. Go for help. That was probably what Nick was planning, what all his little gestures had been about.
“You heard them talking, but you never said they were speaking another language.” Nick leaned forward, waving an accusing hand at the old miner.
“Fuck you,” growled Solomon.
Don’t poke the bear. He might change his mind and blast away at Nick, and no matter how pissed she was at him, she didn’t want him to get shot next to a fire pit swarming with mosquitoes. Or anywhere.
An idea flashed through her mind.
“How about this, Solomon. Why don’t you look for yourself?” As soon as she had Solomon’s attention, she stood up and turned her back to him, hands on the waistband of her shorts. “I’ll show you exactly where the perilium came from. Maybe you’ll see something we missed.”
She could have just lifted the hem of her shorts, as she’d done with Hailey. But that wouldn’t be nearly as effective. She unsnapped her shorts and shimmied them down below the level of her bandage. She had no clue about Solomon’s sexuality, but it didn’t matter. Anyone’s attention would be drawn by someone pulling down their own pants. He might even be curious about her wound and the potential effects of perilium.
It worked. With her back turned, her butt exposed to the mountain air, she missed the key moment, but she heard it. A quick chopping sound, a grunt, then silence.
She turned around to find Solomon slumped in his lawn chair, his gun dangling from his hand. It would have fallen to the ground, but it had gotten caught on one of his gnarled knuckles. That little detail made her heart soften toward him, even though she was still pissed that he’d done something as dumb as pulling a gun on them.
She refastened her shorts. “Is he okay?”
“Of course. He’ll be unconscious for a bit, and he’ll have a headache, but that’s it. Nice distraction.” Nick bent down next to the old man and gently extracted the pistol from his hand, then put on the safety.
“Thanks.” She fought the urge to dive into his arms and cling to him. Her heart was still beating fast, adrenaline jumping through her system. “So when someone pulls a gun on you, isn’t it true that you have the right to search their premises?”
“Absolutely. It’s written into the international rules of investigations,” Nick said dryly. He came to her side and hugged an arm around her. “Are you okay?”
She gave up on her plan to keep a distance between them and relaxed against his solid form. His steady heartbeat calmed her. They were okay. Everything was okay. “I think so. But that was wild.”
“Yup. Can’t say I saw that coming.” He pressed a kiss into her hair. “You handled it like a pro.”
“That’s because I didn’t believe he was actually going to fire that thing at us. But that might have been a coping mechanism. Do you think it’s worth searching his place?”
“Maybe.”
They both looked over at his camper, which was a larger, more deluxe version of the one at his mining claim. Sunseeker, it proclaimed itself. A large bottle of propane was propped against its side, and several solar panels were mounted to the roof. Off-grid living at its finest.
The sound of a groan distracted them—Solomon waking up.
“You are one hard-headed man.” As a visual warning, Nick flashed him the pearl-handled gun. “Thought you’d be out for another hour.”
“I’m a tough nut.” He coughed, let loose a wad of spit, then straightened up. “That gun ain’t even loaded, by the way.”
“I’ll keep hold of it for now anyway. So. Our turn to dig for more information. What else do you know about that couple out by your claim?”
“More than you think.” Solomon rubbed the back of his head and winced. “You motherfucker.”
“Hey, I went easy on you and you know it. A little ice and you’ll be fine. Now come on. You weren’t worried about some random couple you didn’t know. There’s more to the story, isn’t there?”
“Okay, okay. But if I tell you, you gotta do something for me.”
“What?”
“Don’t tell anyone else about that perilium.”
Charlie watched Nick’s eyebrows lift. Whatever he’d expected the old miner to ask, it wasn’t that.
“Are you trying to keep it all to yourself?”
The miner shook his head. “It ain’t like that. It’s not for small-scale miners. If there’s a real perilium deposit around here, a big corporation will come in here, just like they did with the copper. Everything around here would change.”
“That’s why you drew a gun on us?” demanded Charlie. “You could have just said that. We’re just trying to figure out who shot me.”
“You’re both from Outside. I don’t know you like that.”
Fair enough.
Nick set the gun on the empty lawn chair, out of Solomon’s reach but no longer aiming it at him. “I can’t promise not to say anything, because it’s part of an investigation. But I certainly won’t notify any mining corporations.”
“Me neither,” said Charlie, giving the scout’s honor signal. “I wouldn’t want things to change around here either. Although better cell service would be nice.”
“There, you have our word,” said Nick. “Now what about that couple?”
“Here’s what I know. They’re scary. I saw them sparring and it was like out of a movie.”
“That checks out,” said Nick, rotating his shoulder with a wince.
“They have a way to communicate, maybe satellite phones or something even more high-tech. They’re following orders from somewhere, and that’s who they talk to.”
“Is it Vasily?”
“Vasily?” Solomon squinted into the sun. “You mean, Vasily that used to come around here?”
“Yes. Bulldog’s friend. Yours too.” He dug out the photo from Solomon’s camper and showed it to him.
“How’d you get that? That’s my private archives.” Solomon snatched it back.
“Is it possible that Vasily is back and wants to mine the perilium?”
“Vasily wasn’t ever a miner. He didn’t know shit about mining. Want to know something about the old copper mine?”
“What’s that?”
“The local tribe around here, the Ahtna, they were the ones who knew about it, and decided to tell the prospectors sent by the New York folks. But some Russians were here too, also looking for resources. The Ahtna didn’t tell them because the Russians treated the tribes like dirt. Worse. They hated the Russians. ‘Course, then they got cheated by the Americans, so maybe they wound up regretting it. Anyways, I used to think about how the Russians must have been pissed when they saw the mine getting built up. Maybe they’re back now, wantin’ their piece of the pie. When I heard them talking foreign, that was my first thought. They’re lookin’ for something. Now I know they might be after that perilium. I guess maybe Vasily knew about it from before. Maybe he brought ‘em here.”
Charlie caught Nick’s glance. That would fit—sort of. The couple had been speaking Chechen, but they could be working for Russia.
“You said they’re communicating with someone. Do you know what kind of device they’re using?” she asked.
“Girl, I barely even know what a cellular phone looks like. That’s why I left the professor world, I like the simple life better. Besides, they’re speaking a different damn language.”
“Would it shock you if I told you there are apps that can translate any language?”
“What’s an app?”
God love Firelight Ridge.
“One more question,” said Nick as they were getting up to leave. “This perilium, does it release fumes? Enough to kill birds?”
Ooh, good question. Charlie could have kissed him—if she hadn’t still been annoyed with him.
“Not when it’s still in the rock. You need a solution to extract it. The fumes from that process are what’s toxic. Worse than getting a piece of it in your ass.”
“Thigh,” she corrected. “And you will kindly forget that you saw either one.”
Solomon glanced at Nick, who emphasized that point with a hard glare.
As they drove away, leaving Solomon with a bag of frozen blueberries—his own, that he’d picked last summer—clutched to his head, Nick asked, “Did you have the same thought I had?”
“That I might be able to hack into their communications system and get some more information that way?”
“Uh…great idea. Yeah, let’s do that. What do you need to make that happen?” They hit a bump in the gravel road, sending a jolt of pain through Charlie’s thigh.
“That’s not what you were thinking, is it?” she asked, gritting her teeth.
“No, but your thought was better. I was thinking, I really need to vet my clients better. That wily old man sent me up against trained Russian operatives because he wanted to know what they were looking for. And then I brought that information right to him.”
“Well, I guess you did your job. Better send him an invoice.”
Nick made a face. “It was a trade. All he owes me now is a bottle of his home-brew.”
“Well, he is a former chemistry teacher. It’s probably pretty good.”
They reached the main road. Even though no traffic was coming from either direction, Nick brought the car to a stop. “Where next? I’m thinking the lodge.”
“Sounds good, but do you want to check on Hailey first?”
“I don’t know. She was pretty pissed when I left. I don’t want her to feel like I don’t trust her.”
Not for the first time, Charlie felt for the man. He was in a tough situation with Hailey. “Teenagers are never easy, are they? It’s even harder when you’re just getting to know them. I vote for the lodge too,” she added. “I have a long list of questions for April.”
“So do I.” His tone was grim as he took the turn onto the road toward Fire Peak Lodge.
She glanced at him curiously. “You sound like you suspect her of something.”
“I do.” He left it there, shutting his mouth tight. A muscle ticked in his jaw.
“Oh no. We’re not doing this. You can’t keep it to yourself. Haven’t you learned that lesson yet? Or is that just how you are, Nick Perini?”
He snorted, then one corner of his mouth quirked up. “You win, Charlie Santa Lucia. You won’t like it, though. I think April might have murdered Bulldog.”