Chapter 1

Summer in the Colorado Rockies is the perfect time of year. Technically, it’s not summer yet; we are coming out of mud season. Mud season, you ask? Well, Colorado has seven seasons: summer, fall, Indian summer, winter, frigid winter, trying to be spring, first mud, second winter, second mud, and summer! It may have 360 days of sunshine, but a lot of good that does when you can only go outside for 250 days of the year.

That’s what tropical vacations are for, right? I thought that too until my romantic cruise getaway with Alex took a wrong turn. What was supposed to be a warm, relaxing paradise was off the table. We had a run-in with the cartel, and things got deadly.

I’m Taryn O’Kelly, and I am an event coordinator. Don’t get me wrong, I love Colorado. Silver Springs air is so fresh and crisp, and smells of pine trees. When you smell pine trees, you probably think of Christmas. But when I smell them, I think of hiking trails, camping, and wilderness adventures.

Currently, we are in the second mud season, and the raindrops pelting my metal roof had me annoyed. My KOA campground reopening picnic and barbecue was to start in four days. The weather forecast for the weekend predicted nothing but rain. I watched trails of water run down the windowpanes. Peering out past the rain into the gloomy clouds with my hands on my hips, I sighed. I didn’t notice Alex coming into my office. His warm hand touched me, settling on my shoulder, surprising me.

“I didn’t mean to startle you. What’s bothering you?” His face was filled with concern.

“Oh, my event is about to be rained out, and that woodpecker is pissing me off.” I pointed to the crazy woodpecker pecking the crap out of my poor ash tree out front.

“You’re not the only one who wants that woodpecker gone.” Alex pointed to my cat Giselle, the fluffy ball of orange fur who was bobbing her head and flattening her face against the window, hoping a magical portal would open so she could attack through the glass.

“She’s irritated with him, too!” I smiled, patting her on the head. She tried to avoid the pat, as if breaking her eye contact with the annoying bird would lessen her supernatural chances of catching him beyond her glass barrier.

Alex wrapped his arms around me. “You always worry about things you have no control over. If it’s rained out, it’s not your fault.”

“I know, but I love the KOA campground. Plus, this is the town’s official summer is here party. I want summer to be here,” I whined, leaning back into his embrace.

“There’s a backup date; the party will still happen. You need to take a break. Glaring at the clouds and the bird will change nothing for you.” He smiled.

“True, but I like glaring at them. It makes me feel like I have a little control,” I grumbled.

I stayed wrapped in his arms for a bit longer, trying to relax into him and think only about the moment, but the annoying thoughts of rescheduling and that woodpecker refused to leave my brain.

I blew out a sigh, wiggled my way out of his embrace, but not without kissing him first. “I have a few more things to do for work, then I will take that break you suggested.” I smiled. “Plus, I need to head over to the campground and check in with Ryan.”

“Do you want me to tag along?”

“I would love for you to tag along!”

I watched Alex exit the room. He had a very nice butt, and that was distracting enough to forget about the stupid woodpecker. At least until he disappeared from sight. I glared one last time at the woodpecker and the clouds, hoping they both would go away. No such luck. Resuming my seat at my desk, I wrapped up a few things for other events I had coming up that I hoped mud season wouldn’t ruin.

After completing the tasks I needed to, I slipped on my hiking boots. Just a few weeks earlier, I was in flip-flops. It’s hard to go back to boots when you’ve been in flip-flops. I sighed, reached for my coat, and hollered to Alex, letting him know I was ready to go.

We raced down the steps to my truck, trying our best to dodge the raindrops. Our attempts were futile. There were just too many of them.

Alex was driving, so I settled into the passenger seat, finger-combing my wet, wavy, auburn hair, trying to fluff it up so I didn’t look like a drowned rat.

While Alex backed the truck out of the driveway, I noticed the woodpecker taking a break, nestling himself further into the crook of a tree branch. I guess Giselle will get a break from stalking him too.

“Did you read in the paper that the Collins sold their farm to that investment firm? Apparently, they are going to mainstream the farm, letting the Collins keep a commission.” Alex asked as we turned north onto Main street heading towards the edge of town.

“No, but the Smuckers sold theirs to the same company a few months ago. I don’t know what’s going on, but I don’t like these huge companies buying up our tiny patch of paradise.” I furrowed my brows in thought.

“I don’t trust them either. Every time these big companies come to small towns, it ends up hurting the people more than it helps,” Alex replied.

Our conversation was interrupted by the sound of sirens. I looked in the rearview mirror as Alex pulled off to the side to let the fire trucks pass. They were heading in the same direction we were. Saying a silent prayer for whoever was involved, I asked their guardian angels, all the saints, and God to keep them safe.

“Look at this jerk!” Alex gestured to a car ahead of us that wasn’t moving out of the way. The firetruck’s horn blared as it flew past us, approaching the car. The driver finally started to move out of the way, but not before the firetruck started braking so as not to hit him.

“I hate it when people do that! They would be very unhappy if it were their life on the line and someone blocked the road to their rescue.” I glared at the car’s owner.

Alex pulled our truck back onto the road, careful to watch for more rescue vehicles trying to pass. As we followed the firetruck down, we noticed they were taking the same country road we were. My stomach started to turn. Was the KOA campground the scene of the incident?

Trailing behind, I peered out the window, hoping to see something. Then, as the camp came into sight, I could see black, billowing smoke.

“I really hope everyone’s okay.” A small panic was rising in me.

“The smoke looks further from the camp, maybe the property behind it?” Alex suggested, winding us down the country road.

He was right! It wasn’t the camp! The firetrucks blasted past the entrance, continuing down the road towards the bridge. The Winterburn River runs through Silver Springs. At the northern end of town, there is a bridge connecting the west and east river bank with sparse country homes and farms filling the landscape on both sides.

I wanted so badly to follow the Firetrucks, but I knew we shouldn’t. Plus, my brother is a firefighter. I can find out what happened from him. Alex parked the truck in front of the campground office. It was a little rustic building with a covered porch. An iron bench stretched across half of it. The firewood shed next to the building was bigger and already fully stocked for the campers. Large 100-year-old spruce trees shaded the little office; their pine needles had been raked and removed, revealing the path down to the river. Spring cleaning was almost done.

Hauling ourselves out of the truck, we rushed to the porch. Stomping my feet and wiping them on the front mat, I opened the door and entered the building. Alex followed behind me. The office served as a little shop, too. The left side had snacks and toiletries, and the right side had souvenirs and trinkets from local artisans. There was a tiny desk stuffed into the back corner. Rosie was behind the checkout counter refilling the pamphlet wheel with campground maps, trail guides, and excursion packages from around Silver Springs.

“Hi Taryn,” she greeted me, peering behind me towards Alex. She blushed. Alex is tall, dark, and handsome in every sense of the word. He has olive skin, honey-colored eyes, brown, almost black hair, and every bit of him is well-toned muscle. He’s a private detective, a pilot, and a former Air Force pilot. He also happens to be my boyfriend.

“Rosie, this is Alex.” I motioned behind me.

Alex came to my side, placing his hand on the small of my back and shaking Rosie’s with the other.

“Nice to meet you, Rosie.” He smiled.

Rosie giggled before pulling herself together and saying hi. She was younger than me, twenty, I think. She had black curly hair, pulled into a messy bun, and stray, perfect ringlet curls fell out everywhere. She could play Snow White if she straightened her hair.

“I heard sirens a few minutes ago. Was there an accident?” Rosie asked, returning her attention to the pamphlet stand.

“We could see smoke, and the firetrucks were headed towards the bridge, but we don’t know much else,” I replied.

Alex had wandered over to the souvenir section and was handling a railroad spike.

Rosie watched him. I rolled my eyes. Good grief.

“I have come to check in with Ryan,” I said, trying to catch the girl’s attention.

“He’s out on the tractor cleaning out the last of the brush and smoothing out the campsites. We are booked solid for the weekend.” Rosie mumbled, clearly still very distracted by Alex.

“That’s wonderful news!” I clapped my hands together.

“It is. Do you want me to radio him?” Rosie motioned towards the walkie-talkie sitting on the back counter.

“No, I’ll go find him. I need to walk the property one more time anyway. But thank you.”

Rosie frowned, her eyes returning to Alex. “You’ll get wet.”

“We won’t melt,” I replied, moving towards Alex.

Alex replaced the railroad spike, grabbing my hand. “Ready, then?”

“Yep, bye, Rosie.” I waved.

“Bye,” she sighed. “Hey, stop back by if you get a chance!” She bounced on her heels.

We exited the shop. Standing under the porch, I pulled my hood up, tucking as much hair beneath it as possible.

“That girl is crazy! She was so distracted by you that she had trouble filling the pamphlet stand,” I scoffed.

“Jealous?” He smiled, tucking a small strand of my hair I missed into the hood, brushing his warm hand across my cheek.

“Only a little.” I wrinkled my nose.

The rain was slowing down. I couldn’t see the smoke plume as we could from the road. The trees here are too thick. Grabbing Alex’s hand, I stepped off the porch, pulling him behind me. We took the path towards the river and the campground pavilion. I could hear the tractor groaning in the distance.

“This is nice,” Alex said, pulling me to a stop.

“What is?” I looked around, confused.

“This, us strolling through the forest, no investigations, no drama, just quiet.” He leaned in, kissing me.

“It is,” I whispered as his lips pulled away from mine.

We stood still, peering into each other’s eyes for a moment longer before continuing down the path.

Ryan, the owner of the KOA camp, was clearing the oak brush from around the pavilion. Pulling the tractor to a stop, he left it idling, waving to us before dismounting.

“Hi, Ryan.” I greeted him with a hug. “This is Alex. Alex, Ryan.” I motion between them. They greeted each other with a handshake.

We took shelter under the little roof.

“Things are looking nice around here,” I said, “If this rain stops, it’s going to be an excellent weekend.”

“It sure will, as long as the fires stop happening.” He said, casting a nervous glance over his shoulder.

I followed Ryan’s gaze in the direction of the smoke. It was hard to tell what was smoke and what were clouds, but you could smell it in the air.

“This is the second fire out here this week.” He furrowed his brow. “I didn’t believe them when they said insurance rates had risen because of the fire danger. Just last week, I was talking to Lonnie Stevenson, who owns the farm bordering the edge of my property. He said his insurance company dropped him. Told him it was too expensive to insure him in such a high-risk area. Now he can’t find affordable insurance. He’s actually looking into letting that Little Helper Farm Company take over for him.” Ryan furrowed his brow deeper in thought.

“No, he can’t do that. Pretty soon, a huge corporation will own the whole valley. There’s got to be something we can do. Plus, I didn’t think we had lightning, and everything is still plenty wet from winter. The snowpack was good this year, too. The river shouldn’t peak for weeks.” My eyes drifted towards the sparkling river flowing behind me. “The fire danger should be low this year.”

“I thought the same thing. We haven’t had any lightning, but just a few days ago the Martins’ property had a fire. Thankfully, they were home when it happened and started attending to it right away. It was so close to their house that it could have gone very badly.” Ryan’s face was filled with concern.

“The paper mentioned that this morning,” Alex chimed in. “I was reading an article they put out saying this season has the makings to be one of the worst. There were already comments saying to close the forest, shut down the train, and ban wood burning.” Alex rolled his eyes.

“That’s wonderful,” Ryan grumbled. “My business thrives on all those things.”

“How can they predict that? They have no idea what this season will bring. It’s scare tactics. We will do what we need to do, and the campground will do wonderfully this year!” I smiled. “The grand reopening will remind people of why we live here.”

“I sure hope so. With the insurance rates rising and the call for closing the forest, I won’t survive this year. I’d better get back to cleaning out the oak brush. If we do end up with a bad fire season, this stuff will be kindling.”

“See, you are a responsible property owner; they should give you a discount for that.”

“Let’s hope they do. Between the insurance and pressure from Camp World trying to buy this place, my stress load is full.”

“They are still bothering you?” I asked.

“Not recently, but every few weeks they touch base with me to see if I have changed my mind.” He shrugged.

“Hmm, well, let me know if you need anything. Everything is all set on my end, as long as this rain stops.”

“Will do. Alex, it was nice meeting you.” Ryan smiled and waved goodbye.

“Nice meeting you as well.”

We walked down the little path back to the truck.

“Let’s drive by the fire on the way home,” I suggested.

Alex pulled the truck back onto the main road, taking a right out of the driveway. From there, we could see the smoke. We followed the county road over the trestle bridge. Up ahead, the road was blocked by police and emergency vehicles, and smoke filled the air, making it hard to see. Not wanting to be in the way, Alex pulled a U-turn and took us home.