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She let out a groaning laugh. “Yes, really. James, I guess what I’mtrying to say is I’ve had a crush on you for a very long time, and if you want to ask me out, well...” She reached up, released the clasp on the necklace, and held the chain and key out to him. “I know you. You saved my life. You’ve done everything you could to encourage me and build me up.” He took the necklace and she caught the sheen of tears in his eyes. “I don’t need that anymore. I trust you, James, I always have, even though I tried to tell myself I shouldn’t.”
His head swooped in and captured her lips in a kiss so sweet she’d be on a sugar high for the next month. She leaned in and wrapped her arms around his neck, reveling in the moment, cherishing it and holding nothing back.
After several very long moments, he pulled away and cleared his throat. “Okay then, Lainie Jackson, would you do the honor of going out with me when we get home?”
She giggled. “Absolutely.”’
A gunshot sounded, the bullet landing in the firepit, kicking up ash and wood. Cries came from the cabins.
Before it could even register, James had her on the ground behind the bench.
“James!”
“Someone’s down by the lake shooting at us!” James’ shout echoed and she could only pray someone heard it.
“You killed him!” came a shout, followed by another crack, and the bullet pinged off the bench.
Lainie shook. “What’s happening? Why is this happening?”
“Stay put!” he said.
“You killed him!” The crazed voice carried across the campground. “It’s all because of you! You were supposed to die and we were supposed to get the money and get away from this evil place, but no, you had to”—more shots that zipped over their heads—“get my baby killed!”
“That’s Victoria Irwin,” James said.
“You were driving the van!” Lainie’s cry echoed through the trees.
“And you were supposed to die—”
Another crack from a different weapon sounded. The woman dropped. Kenzie stepped from the cabin and raced past them, down the path to the edge of the lake. “Subject contained! She’s still alive! Call an ambulance!”
Cole got on his phone, muttering under his breath about something Lainie couldn’t hear, but James had such a tight grip on her that she also couldn’t breathe. She shook her arm. “James. I’m fine. You can let go.”
He pulled her into a hug and dropped a relieved kiss on the top of her head. “I’m never letting you go.”
“I’m okay with that. And now it’s over.”
“Yeah. Now it’s over.” He glanced at his phone. “Guess I shouldn’t have ignored that text after all.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because I couldn’t get your words out of my head. So, I finally decided to do something about it. Before we left, I called Carina Black and asked her to look around the area where Victoria Irwin had been sitting. She found a small listening device under the chair.”
“And that’s how Michael knew where to ambush us. Not only was he working with Bridgette, his mother was helping him with everything else. They were working together the whole time.”
“Speaking of Bridgette, how did she get rid of all of the medical records without getting caught? The hospital monitors every keystroke. I was being so careful even when I was doing the M&M reviews. I went through all the proper channels. If I hadn’t, I’m sure it would have been noted.”
“Oh, I asked about that. Once the hospital knew what to look for, they were able to follow the keystrokes. She logged in under about five different people’s names and went to work.”
“How did she get access to their passwords?”
“She was very clever. Waited for people to walk away from their computers, then sat down. She’s tech savvy—it didn’t take her long.”
“Wow. I can see how they almost got away with it.”
“But they didn’t.”
“Thank God.”
