She picked up her phone from the center console to check for messages. No bars. Expected, but no less frustrating. This was one of the park’s many dead zones for cellular coverage. She wouldn’t be in call range until she reached the lodge complex, which, in addition to having cellular antennas for two providers, also had the latest, greatest satellite Wi-Fi.

Jae might be angry when he learned she hadn’t waited for him to make this trek, but with a winter storm rolling in tonight, the heavy rain would freeze on the pavement. Tomorrow, this road would be an endless slick of black ice, far worse than it was today. It would be days before she made it back out here, and by the time she did, the storm could have washed away evidence that might identify the looters. If she found anything at the site, she had all the tools she needed to photograph, map, record, and collect it like a forensic investigator. CSI and archaeologists shared a lot of the same methodology.

She put the SUV in Drive again and inched forward, skittish about finding more black ice. The headlights cut through the dark curves, but ice remained impossible to see. She touched her hand to her belly, then returned it to the wheel. She dropped her speed by five miles per hour. Slow and cautious.

Her fingers ached from their tight grip on the steering wheel, but the SUV remained steady on the shadowed, winding road. In the summer, this road would be dappled with sunshine and flowers. She touched her belly again, thinking about what the road would look like in late July. The wind would ease in from the ocean, keeping the air fresh and cool even on the hottest of days.

In July, the days would be long. The sun would shine. And everything about her life would change.

At last, thirty minutes after nearly sliding off the road, she rounded the bend and the magnificent old Lake Olympus Lodge spread out before her. Built in the 1920s, the hotel embraced the lake with wide arms. In the summer, it would be full of guests, all enjoying the most magnificent of US National Parks. Today, however, the entire complex—store, museum, gas station, maintenance shops, annex guest cabins, and of course, the massive main lodge—was cold and silent. Abandoned and forlorn.

Even after the stressful drive, Audrey couldn’t look at the lodge without thinking of Xavier. It was a mixed bag of emotions. Part of her was glad she would never forget the surprising, intense, hot night spent in this very lodge. There’d been a magic she wanted to hold on to. But now that perfect night was tainted with betrayal.

Xavier had been an old friend of Jae’s, which should have made him trustworthy. Attraction had flared, hot and bright, probably blinding her.