Page 16 of In Too Deep
No address.No stamp.
Hand delivered.
She tore open the envelope.The card was a watercolor design of the canyon—sold in their own gift shop.She flipped it open and stilled.
I WON’T FORGET.
The clean block letters in green ink.
Was it a threat?A promise?
She set it aside with unease prickling down her spine as another envelope caught her attention.
Schuster and Schuster?
That was the name of the research team she’d almost joined four years ago.She lifted it from the stack and tore it open, then scanned the letter.
…Program is funded…We want you to join the team…need an answer within the week…Hershey, Pennsylvania…Sincerely, Dr.Donavan Jacobs
She lowered the letter.
Could she really leave?Her agreement with the park service was up within the month.And if the park shut down, they wouldn’t need her anyway.
Leaving meant starting over.It meant leaving Noah and leaving the canyon that had begun to feel like home.
Then again, test tubes didn’t push you away.And they definitely didn’t die right in front of you.
Maybe Noah was right.She did need a new start.
Only, the start she needed wasn’t in the canyon.
Three
Noah gripped the steering wheel of his Jeep as he navigated the winding dirt road toward the North Rim’s campground.The morning sun sliced through the ponderosa pines in sharp golden beams.The scent of pine sap hung thick in the warming air.
He’d barely slept all week.
The chaos of the campground.Lydia’s pointless death.And most of all, how he’d allowed himself to hold Meg in his Jeep seven days ago, even though he’d promised himself it wouldn’t—couldn’t—happen again.
Yet he’d held her tight as she sobbed against his chest.
He couldn’t not do it.It was like some primal instinct, as if he’d been created for that very thing—to shield her from the storms that raged inside her.
But a week later, that moment haunted him.
Haunted?More like consumed him.The memory of her weight in his lap, the dampness of her tears soaking through his shirt, the way she’d fit against him like she belonged there.
It took all his self-control not to drive his Jeep over to her clinic this very minute.But he couldn’t keep sending her mixed signals—couldn’t keep pulling her close only to push her away.As much as he longed for it, longed for her, it also sent a current of fear through his core.
If he let himself love her, he wouldn’t survive losing her.
Not this time.
He shook his head and forced his focus back to the road.To his current problem.The treasure hunters were multiplying like weeds after a rain.Lydia’s death hadn’t even slowed it down—if anything, the news coverage had brought more.
Gold fever had turned the North Rim into a powder keg, with idiots from all over flocking here with stars in their eyes, ignoring signs, trampling trails, and now clashing over campsites.
If the park didn’t shut down soon, someone else was going to die—and it might not be from a rockfall this time.
