As a flash of dry lightning lit the far hills, Daniel stared at her, seriously entertaining the idea that he was still dreaming—but the woman in front of him was all too real, and a quick spark of anger flared to life in his chest.
“What are you doing here?” His voice was hard, but he no longer cared if he sounded unkind. Jamie Boyd had already caused enough problems for him and Annie.
Jamie’s eyes widened. “I—I couldn’t sleep, and I wanted to see if the lake really glowed in the dark—and look!”
She turned a slow circle in the water, beaming as the blue creatures lit up in a ring that burned brightly around her.
Daniel was wrestling for control of his racing heart. He was still waking up. He was still in total disbelief that this girl had jumped intohis lake in the middle of the night, and he honestly couldn’t tell if she was wearing a swimsuit.
Crouching down on the dock, he looked her dead in the eyes and spoke in slow, deliberate sentences.
“Listen. You can’t be up here in the middle of the night. This is my property, my private land, and I didn’t agree to let you show up here whenever you feel like it.”
In the silence that followed his words, thunder rolled, low and booming, and Jamie blinked her cat eyes in the dark.
“Why not?”
She sounded genuinely surprised, and Daniel sighed, leaning back on his heels.
“It’s not safe, for one thing. That guy who killed the woman on the ridge is still on the run somewhere around here, and for another, people… people are going to get the wrong idea about you and me.”
Jamie rolled her eyes. “Exactly who are you worried about, Daniel? What people? I just broke up with my boyfriend, if that’s what’s bothering you.”
Daniel rose to full height again.
“Go home, Jamie.”
She stared up at him, making no move to swim to the dock.
“Look around.” Her treading limbs stirred up a soft blue glow that lit her body faintly beneath the water. “No one’s here. No one’s watching.”
She tilted her head as she gazed at him with those wide feline eyes, and when she spoke again, there was an invitation in her voice.
“No one’s stopping you from joining me, either.”
Chapter 24ANNIE
Gray, again.
The world around her was gray, and dull, and flat, despite the wispy clouds scattered across a cornflower sky. Despite the lake shimmering with late-morning sunlight, and the forest in all its glorious summer hues of emerald, jade, and moss. It was all clouded over, and Annie sat stiffly in the skiff with her eyes on the mountain, ignoring the man who was rowing her across the lake.
“You sure you’re all right?” Jake asked for the third time in as many minutes, and Annie nodded again without looking at him.
“I’m fine.”
Her eyes were still faintly rimmed in red, but with any luck, he would chalk it up to allergies and eventually let it go.
She’d waited at the window of her room all morning until Daniel’s truck rolled past, headed toward town, then she called Jake to ask for his help retrieving the empty snares they’d left on the south shore. She had no intention of running into Daniel anytime soon and would have preferred to go alone if Justin Grimes weren’t still somewhere in the area, roaming the woods at large.
Jake rowed silently for another minute, then said, “You know, my dad used to take my mom up here when they were courting.”
“Oh yeah?” Annie didn’t take her eyes from the summit.
“Yeah.” He nodded. “Back before the restaurant burned down. He’d take her out rowing on the lake after dinner. Said he spent his way through paycheck after paycheck, but he always saw the romance as a worthy investment in his future.”
Annie met his gaze briefly, giving him a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “That’s sweet.”
Jake nodded and pulled the oars across the surface, water swishing with each stroke.
