“You fell for a bastard?”
A twitch of humor played at the corners of her mouth. “I did, yes.”
“And we’re talking about Rose here, too, aren’t we?”
“Could be,” she said diplomatically.
“Wasn’t your fault. Sometimes you can’t see a bastard coming. The really good ones know how to charm you, reel you in. You just have to fight your way out of the net and move on.”
“You’re not terribly controlling, are you?”
“Only person I can or want to control is myself.”
“Rose is strong, but she’s also very proud,” Lauren said, her eyes warm with emotion. “Her missteps seem magnified with three older brothers. I had no idea about her and Derek. A.J. didn’t, either. Nick…are we safe? You’d tell us if you had reason to believe we weren’t, wouldn’t you?”
He wanted to reassure her, but wasn’t sure he could. “Law enforcement knows everything I know.”
She acknowledged his words with a quick intake of breath, then a nod as she continued. “Beth was with Grit this morning.” Lauren seemed to struggle to find the right words. “I saw Scott earlier. He was as stoic as ever, but Beth discovering that poor woman with Grit can’t have gone over well with him.”
A.J. had scooped up both children and perched one on each arm. Lauren mumbled something to Nick and returned to her family. A.J.’s expression softened as she approached him. He looked less flinty, less fearful and angry.
Nick saw Rose noticing, too. Her eyes connected with his, and she quickly grabbed her coat and moved out into the hall.
Her brother’s gaze lifted over the towheaded curls of his daughter, and Nick saw that the eldest Cameron was ready to go after her. Nick left A.J. with his wife and children and followed Rose.
He caught up with her in the parking lot. “I figure you didn’t wait just so you could get me out here in the cold without a coat.”
“Why would I wait for you? I’m going home.” She nodded toward the lodge. “Go back and enjoy the fire. I’m sure I’ll see you tomorrow. You deserve a bed tonight.”
“So I do.”
She obviously realized her mistake and got out her keys. “I’m not a target if Derek and Robert were fighting over drugs. I’ll lock my doors. Ranger will alert me if anyone tries to get in.”
“And what will you do, hide under the bed? You’re alone up there.”
“What difference does that make? Robert’s had his chance if he wanted to hurt me. Maybe he just wanted to hurt Derek and now that he’s succeeded, he’s on the run.”
“Rose.”
She sighed and shook her head at him. “Remind me never to sit across a conference table from you. All right. Thank you for your concern for my safety.” She seemed to make an effort to smile. “Go get your coat. Take your car. That way Ranger and I don’t have to come back here.”
“You’re in denial about what’s going on.”
“I’m not in denial.”
Nick didn’t argue. He returned to his room and grabbed his coat. He could be on a plane in the morning and in his condo by tomorrow night.
He headed back outside to his cold car.
A state cruiser was in Rose’s driveway when Nick pulled in behind her Jeep. She had Ranger at her side and was talking with Scott Thorne at the bottom of the front steps. The trooper glanced at Nick but was grim, distracted. “I tried calling Beth,” Thorne said. “Have you talked to her, Rose? I just want to know she’s all right.”
“I spoke to her, Sean and Hannah earlier this afternoon,” Rose said. “Beth’s okay.”
“Grit Taylor’s still there?”
“Yes, as far as I know.”
Thorne kept his attention on Rose. “I wish Beth had gone shopping with Hannah instead. She went out there to enjoy the so-called good life. Beverly Hills is fine for a visit, but I have no desire to live there. I don’t know much for sure, but I know I’ll never be rich, or live in Southern California.”
Nick wasn’t offended. He’d said the same thing when he’d enlisted in the navy a year out of high school.
“Do you think that’s what Beth wants?” Rose asked.
Thorne shrugged. “Doesn’t matter.” He sighed, clearly uncomfortable with his reasons for being there. “I should go.”
“Beth’s coming back.” Rose gently rubbed Ranger behind an ear. “Black Falls is home for her. Beverly Hills isn’t what’s come between you two, anyway. You think you both work in the same sandbox. Jo being back in town just brought it all home to you, but she’s a federal agent—Beth’s a paramedic. Her work’s not the same as yours.”
“Thanks for the analysis,” Thorne said through gritted teeth.
Rose wasn’t intimidated. “You’d prefer if Beth were a kindergarten teacher, or just worked at the café full-time.”
“Good night, Rose.”
Thorne nodded curtly at Nick, returned to his cruiser and drove off.
Rose sputtered at the retreating cruiser, then spun around and marched up the steps. Ranger waited for Nick and walked up with him. Once inside, the golden retriever yawned and flopped onto his bed by the woodstove.
Rose peeled off her coat, hat and gloves and kicked off her boots. “I should wipe Ranger’s paws and brush him, but I’ll do it in the morning.”
Nick kept his coat on, remained standing as she started a fire in the woodstove, her movements sure, automatic. As she added kindling, got it going, then laid on some small sticks, he could see her alone on her hilltop on quiet winter evenings.
“You’re self-sufficient,” he said. “You don’t need anyone, do you?”
“I manage.” She turned to him, her cheeks flushed from building the fire. “Any plans to quit as a smoke jumper?”
“Not yet. I only work seasonally or when needed. I’ll keep it up as long as it makes sense to.”
“You’ll know when it doesn’t make sense when—what, you fall out of a plane or catch your hair on fire?”
“Already caught myself on fire.”
She blanched. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”
“It’s okay. It was a while ago. I did something stupid and paid for it with a few skin grafts. It could have been worse.” He smiled. “I haven’t fallen out of a plane yet.”
“Do people think you’re reckless?”
Jasper had asked Nick the same question. “My fellow smoke jumpers don’t think so,” he said, repeating the answer he’d given Jasper. “If they did, I wouldn’t last as one.”
“Sean’s not reckless,” Rose said.
The scars on Nick’s right arm and side suddenly felt as if they were still burning. “Sean’s as good as they come. I screwed up as a young smoke jumper and I paid for my mistake with a lot of pain and some permanent scars. Fortunately I was the only one who got hurt or was ever in danger that time.”
She knelt down in front of her dog and stroked his golden fur. “Ranger can’t tell me when it’s time for him to retire. I have to tell him.”
“You two have made a good team.”
“He has a hard job, but he’s done it well.”
“You both have,” Nick said.
Ranger yawned and stretched, and Rose stood, looking down at him. “I’m as careful and as responsible as I can be, but sometimes I wonder if I asked him to do too much.”
“Think he’d be happier if Bowie O’Rourke had adopted him?”
“Maybe.”
“You’ve had a long day. You’re beating yourself up for no good reason.”
She grabbed a log out of the woodbox, added it to the fire. She shut the lid on the woodstove and stared at the flames through the glass. “I have a hundred ‘what-ifs’ floating in my brain, Nick. Derek and I got together and broke up all before my father was killed. What if Derek was involved with this serial arsonist after all? What if everything that’s happened this past year ultimately leads back to him—to me? To something I did or didn’t do? What if I’m responsible for bringing this violence to Black Falls?” She turned to Nick, her eyes a blue-black in the shadows. “What if Lowell Whittaker chose Black Falls for his country home because of me, my work, Derek?”