Murder at Sunrise Lake

It was bad enough that James Marley was still missing. Vienna and her rescue team, including Sam, had gone out two days in a row searching the lake for him. Stella didn’t want any other deaths happening, especially if they were preventable.

The lake temperatures were unexpectedly low, even for the time of year. She warned those going out in boats and those fishing, but the partiers sometimes insisted they were “like polar bears” and could run into the lake naked. The two cabins making so much noise had been giving her headaches for several nights. She was happy to know they would be leaving for their homes in the city in two days. Once they were gone, they were closing down and breathing a sigh of relief that the season was over. They’d have a respite for a while.

“I will be glad to see the last of them,” she murmured, rocking her chair gently.

Sam turned his head slightly to follow her line of sight. “I’ve had Patrick and Sonny keep an eye on them at night and I’ve made sure to do extra rounds myself. We’ll get them out of here in one piece.” The two security guards were still working the night shift together, but as soon as the last of their guests were gone, the temporary guards would head home and Sonny would take the night shift and Patrick the day shift.

Sam wore frayed jeans with a dark, loose cable-knit sweater. She could see the top of his dark tee under the sweater. His jacket was open, showing the thick Sherpa lining. His hair spilled down onto his forehead, just a little unruly, and his eyes gleamed at her in the darkness. He looked the way he always did, and yet different because now she was even more aware of him.

“You don’t ever get much sleep. You aren’t a security guard, Sam.”

“I don’t need much sleep. I never have. It’s just a thing with me since I was a kid. Drove my mother nuts.”

He’d never once mentioned his mother, but then, until the other day, she’d never mentioned hers. She figured now was as good a time as any to bring things out in the open.

“Sam, I don’t like to pry into your past, that belongs to you. It’s just that a couple of people have mentioned something to me that is a little concerning moving forward …” She drifted off.

She detested this kind of conversation. She preferred that he volunteer his past the way she had, not have it forced out of him. Still, she didn’t want to hand over her heart to him and then have her world turned upside down. Maybe it was already too late. She’d opened herself up to him in ways she hadn’t even to her friends, and it terrified her.

His dark eyes moved over her face with that surprising gentleness that he seemed to reserve only for her. “Woman.”

“Man.” It was an automatic reply.

“Woman. Don’t exasperate me.”

She found herself laughing in spite of the seriousness of what she felt. “Someone suggested that you might be something one called a ‘ghost’ and that you were on the run from the government. You did ask me to pay you under the table and you told me you had certain skills. Granted, I didn’t ask you if you were thinking in terms of just having sex together or if we were considering more of an exclusive, permanent relationship, but I guess I was thinking along those lines. I don’t let people into my world and I wouldn’t just for sex. I mean, I might have sex with you, without all the heart-to-heart.”

She wasn’t good at this, not when she didn’t want to question him in the first place. She had no trouble broaching any subject when she felt it was necessary, but this felt wrong— as if she listened to gossip and was demanding answers from him.

“It’s just that, if it was the truth, and these people are hunting you, Sam …”

He shook his head. “I don’t know how these bullshit rumors start, sweetheart. People like to be in the know and they make shit up just to be important.” There was the merest hint of derision in his voice. “If government agencies want to track a person down these days, they can pretty much do it. Even someone with my skills will eventually get caught. Yeah, I worked for the government, but I’m in good graces with them. Not always so much with myself. Sometimes it’s hard to sleep at night. As for the agency I worked for, they know where to find me. Occasionally, they still ask if I’ll help them out. I always say no and they respect that. I’ve done my time. They aren’t going to send some young assassin after me. It makes for a good movie, but it isn’t reality.”