car. They didn’t want her spending the night at the main site until the investigation into the fire was complete. Not even in her own cabin, her own bed. At least the police had no problem with her still taking George’s potential donors on the camping trip tomorrow, given they’d be canoeing to a small island and not staying at the main site. A trip she’d now make with only Trevor for part-time backup, since George would be in hospital.
The lodge’s burned-out shell rose in front of her, wrapped in a maze of yellow police tape. Her chest ached as if someone had reached into her center and hollowed it out. Her mind spun with the list of jobs she needed to get done before she left to spend the night on a friend’s couch. But before she did anything, she should probably take a few minutes to settle her heart. She turned right and wound her way through the thick woods to the south of the camps. Then she started climbing.
Her legs felt like sandbags. The sprinkler system and fire alarm had both failed. A brief conversation with someone from the insurance company told her they’d be investigating two possibilities: major electrical fault and arson. Which was worse? The idea the camp was in such bad repair that it had become a dangerous firetrap? Or that someone had intentionally tried to destroy the camp, her home? Both were unthinkable.
She took a deep breath and pushed her body through the branches. The toes of her boots dug hard into the steep, narrow trail. Her mind pushed prayers to the tip of her tongue. Thanking God that George was alive and resting in hospital. Thanking God that the fire hadn’t spread to the forest. Thanking God that Luke Wolf had been there...
As Luke’s name crossed her lips, suddenly the blue-gray eyes of the teenaged boy who’d once stolen her heart among these trees filled her mind. She grabbed a narrow trunk with one hand to steady herself as she suddenly remembered what she’d done—
Just before she’d passed out, she’d asked the man who’d caught her if he was the same guy she’d known as “Louie.”
What had she been thinking? It had been years since she’d stopped wishing that boy would ever return and apologize. Let alone feeling a flutter of hope every time she knew a man named Louie, Louis or Lou was about to come through the door. The nineteen-year-old rival camp counselor had broken her heart more than ten years ago. Guys like that didn’t just come back after a decade, all grown up in a sharp suit and tie, just to pluck her from danger.
Yet, for a moment, she’d thought she’d seen the same white, telltale scar curving along the lines of his soot-stained chest. Maybe it had just been her mind playing tricks. Everything that had happened between seeing those flames and waking up in the back of an ambulance was still all a blur.
Thick forest gave way to the edge of a sheer rock cliff. It was the highest point of the property. Nothing but sharp rock lay below, on all sides of the lookout. Yet if she raised her chin toward the horizon, sparkling blue waters filled her eyes. Dark clouds gathered in the distance.
Once this had just been the place she’d come as a teenager to meet her secret crush from the camp next door. Now, as a woman, it was the old familiar ground she’d been walking daily, for years, to pray in solitude. Below her to the right lay the glistening buildings and sparkling beach of Ace Sports Resort. To her left, she caught a glimpse of the burned remains of Camp Spirit’s lodge. She dropped to her knees and let her forehead fall into her hands.
Oh, Lord, I don’t even know what to pray right now.
Footsteps crackled in the brush behind her. She jumped up. It was Luke. The sport’s reporter had changed into jeans and a plaid shirt, but somehow still managed to look as though he’d just stepped out of a magazine. Clouds reflected in the sunglasses hiding his eyes. Faint soot still traced the deepest lines of his face, as if someone had just sketched him out of charcoal.
It had to be him! How else would he have known where to find her?
“Hey!” Luke started toward her. “How are you feeling? You okay?”
She nodded. “Yeah. I’m fine.”
He reached out as though unsure whether to shake her hand or to hug her. Then he stopped and shoved his hand into his pocket. “How’s George?”
“He’s okay. The doctors only let me talk to him for a few minutes. But he seems good. They’re just worried about his heart and want him to rest in the hospital for a couple of days. Canoe trip is still going ahead tomorrow, though. His son, Trevor, is going to alternate between camping with us and being back here for his dad.”
“Glad to hear it. I filed a police report. I think I might have seen someone in the woods just before I called 9-1-1.”
She rolled her shoulders back, like a duck shaking off water. “Thanks. But, honestly, I’m not ready to believe anyone would have set this fire intentionally.”
Luke paused, then ran his hand over his jaw. His index finger brushed over his bottom lip as if trying to summon words he wasn’t sure how to say.
“We need to talk.”
She pressed her lips together and took a deep breath.
“Told you we’d find her here!” a voice boomed.
Neil Pryce, the director of Ace Sports Resort, came crashing through the underbrush. The former quarterback jammed a very large smartphone into his jacket pocket. “Sorry to leave you back there, Luke, but I had a quick email to sort and I knew that I’d probably lose our Wi-Fi signal once I left Ace Sports territory.”
So much for their moment alone to talk.
Neil reached for Nicky’s hand and squeezed like clamped-on jumper cables. “I’m so sorry to hear about what happened. A fire. Wow. Well, I guess that’s the danger you run with those rustic older buildings.”
She smiled politely and pulled her hand away. “I didn’t realize you two knew each other. Though unless I have him mistaken for someone else, I think Luke used to be a counselor at Ace Sports? Back when we were both teenagers?”
Neil’s grin grew so wide and toothy it reminded her of a shark. “Really? I didn’t know Ace Sports actually had an alumni working as a Toronto sports reporter.”
Luke pulled off his sunglasses. Gray eyes searched her face. “Sorry, I never actually went to Ace Sports or worked there. I’ve never been a camp counselor kind of guy. In fact, my first legit job was actually stacking newspapers in the warehouse at Torchlight News. George helped me get it.”
Nicky felt her heart drop a couple of inches. Did that mean he wasn’t who she thought he was?
“Well, it’s never too late to get the Ace Sports experience,” Neil said. “Me and Luke met at the hospital. I could hear the sirens all the way from the tennis courts, so figured I’d follow the ambulance to the hospital to see if there was anything I could do to help.”
She nearly snorted. It was more likely Neil had hoped to take advantage of George’s enfeebled state to snag a few of their potential donors for his latest vanity project. Neil might be the boss of the shiny camp next door, but he wasn’t an owner. He simply reported to a whole boardroom full of money-minded shareholders who’d probably love to snatch up Camp Spirit’s land to build another luxury sports complex. If the lodge fire did turn out to be arson, would police be questioning Neil and his staff? Neil might be both competitive and smarmy, but she hated to think he was actually capable of stooping that low.
“When
