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“You got me there.” He gave her a rueful smile. “You hit my soft spot. Mothers in need.”
She sighed and picked up the ski poles she’d stuck in the snow.
“I’d better get back. I told everyone I found the first stinging nettles in the woods, so I best collect some.” She paused as she settled her hands around the ski poles. “You had a passenger from Outside, this time of year?”
“I did. A redhead who doesn’t like airplanes.”
He caught some kind of reaction deep in her gray eyes, but couldn’t discern what it was.
After a moment, she said, “You should accept that invitation.”
Huh. Okay. That was interesting. “Don’t you Chilkoots believe that outsiders are best avoided?”
“Because they are.” She’d explained this to him before, speaking like a true believer. Only Chilkoots could be trusted. Everyone else was a potential enemy. Quite the paranoid world view, in his opinion. “But Luke must have had a good reason to invite you, and your passenger.”
He had to ask, “Will she be safe in Chilkoot territory?”
“Of course! We’re not the dangerous ones. The people out there are.” She waved in the general direction of the rest of the world. “Except…well…if you see me out there, don’t let on that you know me.”
“Of course not. I know better than that.”
“I’m very serious. Luke…I told you, he’s getting suspicious. It’s…it’s getting scary.”
A chance to cement their bond… “If you need anything, you let me know.”
“I’m fine.” She squared her shoulders, and somehow that made his heart go out to her even more. Bringing her prescription seemed like the least he could do for her.
“How’s the new barn coming along?” he asked casually as she dug her ski poles into the snow. It was a placeholder for all the other things he wanted to ask—what was the barn really for, why were they building it with reinforced concrete, as she’d mentioned at one point, where did they get the money for the materials?
“Oh, I don’t know why they’re building that thing before the ground’s even thawed. It’s twice as much work as it ought to be. It’s done, thank goodness, because I’m tired of hearing about it. Take care, Sam.”
She waved a quick goodbye and skied off into the woods before he could ask any more questions. She always managed to slip away before giving him more than a few crumbs of information.
He sighed and strode back to his truck. His gut told him that something extremely sketchy was going on at the Chilkoot property. He trusted his gut, and he trusted the informant who had triggered this investigation. But so far, he hadn’t found any confirmation of anything. The Chilkoots didn’t talk to strangers, period. Even though Soraya barely shared anything, it was more than any previous investigator had managed.
An invite to the property…that was a potential gold mine. But could he ask Molly to walk into the lion’s den that was the entire Chilkoot clan?
Then again, if anyone could handle it, it would probably be that gutsy redhead from New York.
7
You’ll never guess what got me a room at the only freaking motel in town
Molly typed out her text to Charlie and Ani in between hamstring stretches on the floor of her hard-fought motel room. She hadn’t brought a yoga mat, so she spread a towel onto the carpet and hoped for the best. Fleas couldn’t survive these cold temperatures, could they? Or bed bugs? She should really do some research on that.
Other than looking vaguely grubby and threadbare, the Lamplight Motel was clean enough. The place only had five rooms for rent, and three of them were empty. Her room had no TV. The grumpy woman at the desk, who’d been watching the only TV in the place, told her there were no local television signals that made it across the mountain range. Locals relied on Wi-Fi or satellite for their entertainment, and the owner had nixed the idea of TVs in the rooms because he was a power-miser sonofabitch…her words, not Molly’s.
Your winning smile? Your charm and sense of humor? Ani texted back.
Your right hook? Charlie threw in.
The fact that I once shared a cab with Dorinda Medley from the Real Housewives of NY. When I told her we were taking the cab to the same dance studio, the reception clerk nearly lost her mind.
Charlie: Wow. Celebrity sightings FTW. Have you seen Lila yet?
Molly: I’m about to hit the streets. Still recovering from flying here in a soup can with wings.
Charlie: So there’s more than one street in Firelight Ridge? From the map, I wasn’t sure.
