of Duncan’s spine, propel ing him through the darkness like

a man pursued by demons—or rather like a man who

suddenly knew the terror of losing al that he loved in an

instant.

Peg stood beside her truck on the tote road overlooking

her pit, numbed nearly insensate as she watched the

flames shooting into the night sky beyond the knol .

“Please, Mrs. Thompson, won’t you at least sit in the

truck where it’s warm?” Sam Dalton once again petitioned.

“I’m fine, Sam,” she murmured as she glanced behind

her to see her children also watching the fire—the girls with

an arm wrapped around each of the twins and the pup’s

nose pressed up against the glass between them. She

looked back toward the flashing red strobes of the fire

engines, hearing the distant shouts of men rising above the

heavy whine of pumps pul ing water out of the cove.

She’d awakened to pounding on her door a little over an

hour ago and opened it to a man she didn’t know. Her

house in the woods was on fire, he’d told her, and he

wanted her and the children out of her home on the chance

the fire might spread. He’d also told her they’d already

cal ed 911, and that the rest of Duncan’s crew was on their

way from the campsite up the main road.

Peg had immediately gotten the children dressed and

sent them to stand up on the tote road next to the fiord while

she had run to the garage with her arms ful of blankets.

She’d driven the SUV over to the road and parked it out of

the way, leaving it running with the heater on and her

children safely inside. She’d spent the last hour keeping

watch for Duncan, a little bummed that he hadn’t come

looking for her. But then, she hadn’t seen him or Alec or

Robbie since they’d climbed in Duncan’s truck at four this

afternoon—no, yesterday afternoon, as it was already

breaking dawn.

“It could be an electrical fire,” Sam said hesitantly,

obviously at a loss for how to deal with her. “That happens

more often than you know on homes under construction.”

“There wasn’t any power running to the house,” Peg said

as she continued watching the fire ravage three years of

desperately hard work. “I had the temporary service cut off

several years ago and used a generator when I needed

power.”

“Duncan had six men staying on the hil side,” Sam said,

“and not one of them heard anything. The two guys on

watch said they didn’t know anything was wrong until they

saw the flames because the breeze was blowing away from

them.” The older man sidled closer and final y just wrapped

an arm around her. “With the firemen here now, they’l be

able to keep it away from your home,” he assured her, his

hand patting her arm. “And the fire marshal wil find out what

started it.”

Not that it mattered, Peg thought as she stifled a sigh;

because accidental or arson, her nearly finished house

would stil be burned down to its foundation.

Sam’s arm tightened protectively when a boat suddenly

came roaring into the cove from the fiord and slammed

almost ful length up onto the beach before three men

scrambled out and started running toward the knol .

“Duncan!” Peg shouted when she recognized them in the

dawn light. She broke away from Sam and ran down the

knol . “We’re up here!”

The men stopped and turned and started running toward

her, Duncan stopping just in time to catch Peg when she

threw herself into his arms.

“Christ, I’ve never been so scared in my life,” he growled,

hugging her tightly as he threaded his fingers through her

hair to hold her against his chest. He tilted her head back.

“Where are the children?” he asked thickly as he gazed up

past her. She felt his chest expand and deflate on a sigh,

and he squeezed her against him again. “I thought your

goddamned house was on fire.”

“My new house is,” she said into his jacket, his arms

tightening when she shuddered. She wiped her eyes and

leaned back. “I brought the kids up here in case it spread.”

She buried her face in his chest again and wrapped her

arms around him, only at the last minute remembering his

sore ribs. “Can … Wil you just hold me a minute?”

“Forever, lass.” He pressed his face to her hair and

squeezed her again. “Promise me everyone’s okay; that

the children are al okay.”

“They’re fine. Your men alerted us.”

“What in hel happened?” he growled as he lifted his

head, although his hug didn’t lessen—and Peg realized he

wasn’t growling at her. “There were supposed to be two

men on watch at al times.”

“There were, Boss. And the first sign that anything was

wrong was when they saw flames shooting out of the

new house.”

Duncan leaned away to look down at her. “I need to see

the children,” he said, his voice thick again as he started

toward the truck with his arm around her. “They must be

scared out of their minds.”

Suddenly drunk with relief that he was here, Peg gave a

semihysterical laugh. “Peter said he didn’t want to move

into that dumb old house anyway.”

Duncan veered to put a tree between them and the truck

and stopped, turning to palm her face and brush his thumbs

over her damp cheeks. “I’l build ye a new house.” He

lowered his lips just shy of touching hers, the flashing lights

reflecting his intense gaze. “And have ye al moved in within

a month.” He kissed her then, she suspected to keep her

from protesting, and Peg wrapped her arms around his

waist and melted into him to kiss him back—then nearly fel

over when he suddenly straightened.

“Now ye respond?” he growled, grabbing her hand and

heading up to the truck. “Hel , if I’d known that was al it

would take, I’d have torched the goddamned house myself.”

He opened the rear hatch. “Come here, you heathens, and

let me see for myself that you’re okay,” he said, catching

Jacob when the boy threw himself at him. He tucked Peter

up against his other side and pul ed first Isabel then

Charlotte closer and gave the four of them a hug that lasted

a ful minute.

Peg used the sleeve of her sweatshirt to wipe her eyes in

time to see the pup trying to squeeze into the group

embrace just as another pair of strong arms eased her

back against a solid chest. “I’m sorely glad you’re al okay,

lass,” Alec said, giving her a gentle squeeze. “I swear to

God that was the longest boat ride I’ve ever taken.”

Peg craned her head around to look up at him. “Where

did you al go in a boat?” Alec dropped his arms and

stepped away when Duncan turned to lean on the bumper

with Peter and Jacob in his arms, so Peg asked him. “What

were you guys doing out on the fiord?”

“We climbed a mountain on the other side,” Duncan said,

“so we could get a look at where we’re laying out the resort

road from that perspective.”

“At night?”

He shrugged, shrugging both boys. “There’s enough of a

moon to see the contours better than in the daytime,

actual y. We were three-quarters of the way up one of the

mountains when we smel ed smoke and saw the glow of

flames.”

Peg looked toward the fiord, then toward her house that

was nothing but bil owing smoke now, and then she looked

directly at Duncan. “The wind’s blowing in the wrong

direction for you to have smel ed smoke over there.”

“It must be blowing in that direction higher up,” he said,

giving her a wink.

“Your … You look like you haven’t shaved in a couple of