The air in Maya’s office was thick with the scent of old paper, stale coffee, and the electric hum of a single desk lamp cutting through the late-night gloom. Outside, Whispering Pines was a ghost of itself—dark, silent, and empty.
The forced closure had stripped the lodge of its lifeblood, leaving behind an echoing quiet that felt more like a wound than a comfort.
Inside the small circle of light, however, a current of fierce energy crackled between the three of them. Maya, Cole, and Ben were huddled over the worn oak desk, the surveyor’s tool Cole had found lying between them like a captured weapon.
“So, Jed Stone,” Maya said, her voice a low, hard whisper. She tapped a finger on the invoice Ben had procured, showing Jed’s previous employment with Apex Development—a firm notorious for its predatory tactics.
“He’s been playing the long game. The charming local guide, the helpful friend… all while trying to bleed us dry.”
Ben nodded, his weathered face set in grim lines.
“Apex is like a pack of wolves. They isolate a target, weaken it, then move in for the kill. Jed’s their point man.”
Cole watched Maya, his heart aching at the look of focused fury in her eyes. This wasn’t just business for her; it was a home invasion.
He felt a surge of protectiveness so strong it nearly stole his breath. He had started this as a cold assessment, a simple fact-finding mission.
Now, he was a soldier in her war.
“We can’t go to the sheriff,” Cole said, bringing the conversation back to the immediate problem.
“Not yet. Jed’s been too careful.
All we have is circumstantial evidence and a tool he’ll deny ever seeing. He’d lawyer up, and by the time the dust settled, Apex would already own this land.”
Maya leaned back in her chair, running a hand through her already messy ponytail. “So we’re stuck. We know who it is, but we can’t prove it.”
“Not unless we make him prove it for us,” Cole countered, a familiar spark of corporate strategy igniting in his mind. He’d spent years in boardrooms, dissecting competitors, anticipating their moves.
Jed was no different. He was driven by a clear objective: acquisition at the lowest possible price.
Maya’s eyes met his across the desk. “What do you mean?”
“We need to force his hand,” Cole explained, leaning forward, the intensity of his focus pulling her in.
“Right now, he thinks he’s winning. He’s shut us down, and he’s made a lowball offer. He thinks you’re desperate and that it’s only a matter of time before you break. So, we change the narrative.”
Ben grunted. “How?”
“We give him a deadline he doesn’t know is a deadline,” Cole said, the plan beginning to form in his mind. “We make him think we’re not only going to survive, but we’re about to become bulletproof.
If he believes his window to acquire the lodge cheaply is about to slam shut, he’ll get reckless. He’ll have to escalate.”
Understanding dawned on Maya’s face, chasing away the exhaustion.
“A final, major act of sabotage,” she breathed, her mind already racing alongside his. “Something that would make recovery impossible.”
“Exactly,” Cole confirmed. “Something we can be ready for. Something we can catch him doing.”
Their partnership, once a reluctant truce, now felt like a single mind working in tandem. She picked up where he left off, her knowledge of the lodge and its community filling in the details of his framework.
“We need a story,” she said, her voice gaining strength. “A good one. Something that will get back to him without a doubt.”
She stood and began to pace the small office, the restless energy of a cornered animal preparing to fight back.
“We’re on the verge of bankruptcy… but we secured a last-minute miracle. A loan. A massive one.”
“Big enough to not just fix the well, but to do a complete overhaul,” Cole added, building on the idea.
“New plumbing, new wiring, maybe even an expansion. Something that would significantly increase the property value and make it a much less attractive target for a hostile takeover.”
“He’ll have to act before that money officially comes through,” Maya concluded, stopping her pacing to look at him.
A slow, determined smile touched her lips. “Cal, you’re brilliant.”
The casual compliment landed with the force of a physical blow. He was brilliant, but he was Cole Sterling, the man whose world of hostile takeovers and leveraged buyouts had taught him these very tactics.
He was using the weapons of his world to defend hers, and the irony was a bitter pill. He swallowed his guilt and gave her a small, tight smile.
“We’re brilliant.”
Ben, who had been listening silently, finally spoke.
“It’s a good plan. Risky. But good. How do we plant the seed?”
“Gossip,” Maya said instantly.
“The fastest carrier of news in any small town. I’ll make a phone call tomorrow morning, from the front desk in the main lodge. I’ll leave the office door open. Sarah, from housekeeping, always comes in early to water the lobby plants. She loves to talk, and her cousin works at the diner where Jed has breakfast every single day.”
It was perfect. A natural, untraceable leak.
They spent the next hour hashing out the details.
They settled on a fictional lender, a plausible loan amount, and a timeline. Ben would drive into town first thing in the morning and make a show of picking up paperwork from the one bank in town, adding another layer of authenticity.
Every detail was a carefully placed stone in the foundation of their trap.
Finally, with the plan solidified, a different kind of silence fell over the room. The strategic tension eased, replaced by the heavy weight of what they were about to do.
Ben stood, stretching his stiff back. “Alright. I’ll see you two at dawn.”
He gave them both a long, meaningful look. “You watch each other’s backs.”
He paused at the door, his gaze lingering on Cole for a moment longer. “I was wrong about you, son.”
With that, he was gone, leaving Cole and Maya alone in the intimate pool of light.
The space Ben had occupied now felt charged with a different energy. The adrenaline of planning had faded, leaving them with the quiet reality of their shared risk.
They weren’t just colleagues anymore; they were co-conspirators, their fates and the fate of the lodge bound together.
“He’s right,” Maya said softly, sinking back into her chair. “It’s risky.”
“The riskiest thing is doing nothing,” Cole replied, his voice just as quiet. He didn’t move from his spot, but his entire being felt focused on her.
He could see the faint shadows of exhaustion under her eyes, the tension in her shoulders. He wanted nothing more than to erase them, to take this entire burden from her.
“I’ve never trusted anyone this much with the lodge,” she admitted, looking down at her hands, which were clasped tightly on the desk. “Not since my father.”
She lifted her gaze to meet his, and the raw vulnerability in her eyes made his carefully constructed walls crumble. “I trust you, Cal.”
His name on her lips was both a comfort and a curse. Cal.
The simple, honest handyman she trusted. Not Cole Sterling, the undercover billionaire, the heir to the kind of corporate empire that would hire a man like Jed without a second thought.
The lie felt like a physical weight in his chest, a poison he was willingly letting her drink.
He reached across the desk, his hand covering hers. Her skin was cool, and he could feel a slight tremor in her fingers.
She didn’t pull away. Instead, her hand turned, her fingers lacing with his.
The connection was electric, a silent acknowledgment of everything that had grown between them amidst the chaos.
“It’s going to work,” he promised, his voice thick with an emotion he couldn’t name. It was more than attraction, more than friendship.
It was a profound, terrifying sense of rightness, of being exactly where he was supposed to be, with the person he was supposed to be with.
“We’re going to make it work. Together.”
She gave his hand a gentle squeeze, a silent thank you that spoke volumes. They sat that way for a long moment, the only sound the quiet hum of the lamp, their hands clasped over the plans for a trap that held all their hopes.
He was falling in love with her, here in this quiet office, surrounded by the ghosts of her family and the threat of an enemy he was uniquely equipped to fight. And he knew, with a certainty that chilled him to the bone, that the truth of who he was would be a far greater act of sabotage than anything Jed Stone could ever conceive.
But not yet. He couldn’t tell her yet. Not until she was safe.
Finally, she pulled her hand away, the spell broken. “I should try to get some sleep.”
“Yeah,” he agreed, though he knew sleep was the furthest thing from his mind. “We both should.”
He walked her to the door of her small apartment adjoining the main lodge. At the threshold, she turned back to him, her expression a mixture of gratitude, fear, and something softer, something that made his heart beat faster.
“Thank you, Cal,” she said. “For everything.”
Before he could respond, she leaned in and pressed a soft, brief kiss to his cheek. It was a simple gesture, but it set his entire nervous system on fire.
He stood frozen on her doorstep long after she had closed the door, the ghost of her lips warm against his skin.
He returned to the empty lobby, the bait now ready. Tomorrow, they would cast the line.
And as he stared out the large picture window at the dark, sleeping mountains, Cole Sterling prayed that when the shark finally came to circle, they would be strong enough to pull it from the water without being dragged under themselves.