The Perfect Burn_A Thrilling Romantic Suspense

by Madyson Grey

  In addition to the memorial to the U.S. Army’s 7th Cavalry, which was erected in 1881, a more recent monument was added in 1997 that honors the Lakota Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapahoe warriors who fought there so valiantly to preserve their lands and their way of life.

  After spending a couple of hours there, walking around, taking many photos, and absorbing the full import of this hallowed ground, they took their leave, turning back south and then east, heading for South Dakota. Their first destination in that state was Deadwood. It was in this interesting old town that Wild Bill Hickok was shot, holding a handful of aces and eights that became known as Dead Man’s Hand.

  Exploring Deadwood took up the rest of that day and most of the next. Early the next morning they set out for Mt. Rushmore, but soon got sidetracked checking out the town of Lead. Another old mining town, it was full of interesting things to see, including a great little art gallery that Victoria was thrilled to browse around in. After careful deliberation, she chose a whimsical painting that depicted a simple cabin in a woodsy setting.

  After a couple of hours there, they journeyed on to Mt. Rushmore, making it all the way with no more stops this time.

  They were both impressed with the grandeur of Mt. Rushmore. They spent most of the day there, leaving only late in the afternoon. Driving east, Victoria was studying the map to see where they might be able to pull over for the night, and to see what lay ahead.

  “Hey, I’ve got an idea,” she said suddenly. “What if we tried to see as many state capitals as possible along the way? I’m thinking that if we get within fifty or seventy-five miles of a state capital, we should detour to see it. Kinda collect them, so to speak.”

  “Not a bad idea,” Rafael said. “We shoulda thought of that before we left home.”

  “Yeah, we shoulda. Oh, well. We can pick up from here. Pierre isn’t too far out of the way, and it will take us off of I-90 and onto some secondary highways, like we had originally talked about.”

  “Just tell me where to turn, and we’ll do that,” Rafael said congenially.

  They ended up spending the night in an RV park just east of Rapid City a little ways. It was only about six o’clock when they pulled in and reserved a spot for the night. After eating a simple supper, they went out for a walk. While walking through the rows of RVs, Rafael told Victoria about his idea to buy some RV parks.

  “I think that’s a great idea,” Victoria told him. “I can see that they are a going concern. We just paid forty-five bucks to park our own motorhome on a gravel pad. Sure, we’ll use their electricity and water, but surely not forty-five dollars’ worth.”

  “Why don’t you get online and see where there might be some for sale that might be along our proposed route,” Rafael said.

  “Good idea. I’ll do that this evening.”

  After a bit of searching, Victoria came up with a site that specialized in RV parks that were for sale. They both looked at several that were on the west coast or in the southwest. They both thought it wise to buy closer to home at first. Then, later when they got the hang of things, they could branch out.

  “If we had one or two in every state, we could travel all over the US and stay in our own parks for free,” Victoria said gleefully.

  “Well, not exactly for free,” Rafael reminded her. “We’ll have a bit of a cash outlay to buy the parks to begin with.”

  “Details, details,” Victoria said offhandedly.

  “Yeah, well, those details come out of our bank accounts,” he said dryly.

  “True.”

  The next couple of days they meandered through South Dakota, stopping here and there to see places and things that piqued their interest. Friday, the fourteenth of July, they landed in Bloomington, Minnesota, in the huge parking lot of the Mall of America. Victoria had been thoroughly enjoying the trip so far, but when they walked through the doors into this mall of malls, she absolutely sparkled.

  “Okay, woman, this better be good,” Rafael growled good-naturedly.

  Victoria just grinned up at him and said, “Oh, it’s already good. Can’t you just feel it?”

  “Not yet.”

  The place really was huge. Seeing that the whole mall would take more than one day, they picked up a map of the mall and picked out the places that they most wanted to go, so they could skip the lesser important places

  “Well, looky here,” Rafael said, lighting up. “You weren’t just spoofing me. There is a Lego store.”

  “Of course I wasn’t, silly boy,” Victoria said laughing. “Wanna go?”

  “Duh.”

  Forty-five minutes passed in a heartbeat as they played around in the Lego Store. From there they moved on, taking in the Sea Life Aquarium, the flight simulator, as well as playing a round at the Moose Mountain Adventure Golf. Lunch was squeezed in between all of the attractions, as well as a trip through a gift shop to buy the requisite postcards and little gifts for the moms and grandparents.

  They both also wanted to get something really nice to take to their three manager couples that were holding down the fort while they were on this vacation, so they had been on the lookout, but hadn’t found just the right thing yet. So many things were nice, but they kept stalling, thinking maybe the next place down the road would have the perfect gift.

  By evening, they were both worn out and ready to go back to the motorhome and find a place to light for the night. Victoria consulted the Internet and found an RV park a few miles away, so with the help of the GPS they made their way over to it. The next morning, before leaving that area, they found and “collected” the Minnesota state capitol in St. Paul.

  The rest of that day they spent driving through the beautiful Wisconsin countryside. By consulting a state map and asking locals for directions, they managed to avoid the interstate most of the time, and in doing so, saw some gorgeous scenery and some ordinary little towns along the way. Even the ordinary towns were fascinating to both of them, because they were seeing new places and new people.

  Sunday they did the Wisconsin Dells. The boat trip up the Dells offered fabulous scenery that took up a lot of room on Victoria’s memory card inside her camera. She wasn’t worried. She had extras, in addition to spending time daily deleting the bad photos.

  They were so smitten with the Wisconsin countryside that they spent another day or two just wandering around, taking this road and that one, getting lost a time or two. But they didn’t mind, because that just allowed them to see even more pretty places and meet nice people that gave them directions when needed. They eventually ended up at the Lake Michigan shoreline and followed it as far north as they could. Then they left it in favor of seeing Lake Superior, followed by Lake Huron, following the eastern edge of Michigan all the way to Detroit.

  Near Detroit was Dearborn, where the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village beckoned. This was another day-long attraction with so much to see and do. That evening in the motorhome, they spent time writing postcards and catching up the photo album. Rafael called Mickey to see how things were going at Thornton Park.

  “Everything is just fine here,” Mickey reported. “People keep coming and we keep letting them in,” he laughed.

  “Great. That’s just great,” Rafael said. “I sure appreciate your good work.”

  “No problem. It doesn’t seem like work most of the time. We’re just having a great time here. That place called Angel’s Retreat has brought two or three more small groups through the park. The girls seem so happy to be here. They really enjoy it.”

  “That’s wonderful,” Rafael said warmly. “I’m so glad. I can’t even imagine what they went through before being rescued, so any happiness we can give them is our pleasure.”

  While Rafael was talking to Mickey, Victoria called Lena.

  “Hi, Mama,” she said when Lena picked up.

  “Hi, honey! How’s it going?” Lena answered.

  “We’re having an absolutely fabulous time. We’ve sent you a bunch of post cards. Have you gotten any of t
hem yet?”

  “I’ve gotten several. Yellowstone, Crater Lake, Little Bighorn, Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, uh … oh yeah, Cody and the Buffalo Bill museum. Maybe that’s all so far.”

  “Well, there are more coming. So how is everything at home? No boogeymen bothering you?”

  “No boogeymen. Everything is fine here. The yard guys come and mow, and the pool man keeps the pool clean, and Mom and I keep it occupied. I’ve invited Manuela over a couple of times. We get along real well.”

  “Good for you. I think we’ve had enough bad experiences to last a lifetime. I hope we’re on an upward swing from now on.”

  “Me, too, honey. Me, too.”

  “I’m loving the photo albums and am filling them up fast. We’re already enjoying looking back at the places we’ve been so far. I can’t wait to be able to show them to you.”

  “That will be fun. Honey, would you mind if I had a little dog to keep me company? I’ve always wanted to have a little dog, but I never dared ask David and Marian. Marian hated animals and made no bones about it. But now, would you and Rafael care?”

  “I certainly don’t, but let me run it by Rafael real quick.”

  Victoria covered the phone with her hand and asked Rafael if he cared if Lena got a little dog. He said of course he didn’t care. Great idea.

  “He’s fine with it, Mama. Go get you any kind of dog you want. Do you have a particular breed in mind?”

  “Well, I’ve always favored poodles, so I thought I would try to find one of those. A black one.”

  “That should be cute. And I’ve heard that poodles don’t shed, so that’s a plus. I hope you find a good one.”

  Mother and daughter chatted for a little while longer before hanging up. Rafael had ended his call to Mickey and was talking to his mom when Victoria was finished with her call. She went into the bathroom and took a shower and got ready for bed. Rafael was off the phone when she came out of the bathroom. Rafael took his turn in the shower, and then joined Victoria in bed. They watched TV for a little while and then turned it off in favor of other entertainment.

  Even though it’s less than four hundred miles from Dearborn, Michigan to Niagara Falls, New York, they took two days making the journey. There were too many interesting things to see and places to stop along the way.

  Tuesday was spent at Niagara Falls and the surrounding area. They added Lake Ontario to the list, completing their goal of seeing all five of the Great Lakes. Driving through upper New York took another couple of days of sightseeing before crossing Vermont, New Hampshire, and into Maine. Those three states took them a week, and they still didn’t see everything that they would like to have seen.

  “You know, we’ve had a whole month of wonderfully peaceful fun and good times,” Victoria said one morning as they set out for another day of sightseeing.

  “I know,” Rafael agreed. “Isn’t it great? Other than that tire blowout, the whole trip has been perfect. Everything is fine on the home front, too. Amazing. This may be the longest stretch of peaceful life that we’ve had.

  “It is, I think. I just wonder how long it will last,” Victoria said.

  “Don’t even go there,” Rafael warned. “No need to borrow trouble that may never come.”

  “I know,” she sighed. “It’s just that the way the past year has gone, I feel like I have to look behind every door, and over my shoulder all the time. Like trouble is lurking just around the corner.

  Chapter 2

  Boston was next on the itinerary. Rafael and Victoria had a great time poking around in that historic city. So far, they had “collected” the state capitals of almost every state they had driven through. They had completely filled up one photo album and had started on the second. The vacation so far had been everything they had hoped for: peaceful, relaxing yet energizing, and lots of fun.

  Rafael in particular was paying close attention to, and taking notes on, each RV park they stayed in. He noted the positive things about each one, and the negative, all the while making determinations on what type of park he would want to own, and what it would take to make a great park.

  Both of them made regular calls home to visit with their moms and let them know that they were still safe. Rafael kept tabs on Thornton Park, and on Thornton-Rivera Enterprises as well, just making sure that money was being properly deposited into all the correct accounts, and that everything was as it should be. So far, so good.

  As they were looking ahead as to where they would go and what they wanted to see and do in the next few days, they discovered that to get a good RV park nearby and a bus tour through New York City, they needed reservations. So they took care of that, fortunately just in time.

  They journeyed through Rhode Island, which wouldn’t have taken long at all, except for all the interesting places to stop and see. They cut kitty-corner up through Connecticut to pick up Albany, the capital of New York, and then down close to New York City.

  They found the RV park outside of the city where they had previously made reservations. They had also made reservations for the bus tour into the city that took them to all the major points of interest. It was probably the best decision they made on the trip, as it would have been a nightmare to try to navigate the motorhome around through the New York City traffic. They had thought LA had traffic until they got into New York City.

  They left New York behind to travel through Pennsylvania and Amish Country. Next was Washington, DC. Again, they found an RV park outside of the metro area and took guided tours into DC. The Smithsonian, the White House, the Capitol building, and all the monuments and other places of interest took them nearly a week to cover.

  They veered west a little ways into West Virginia after leaving the DC area. One afternoon as they were driving through the beautiful countryside, Victoria’s cell phone signaled an incoming text. It was from Sarah, telling her that she had just emailed a list of gift shop stock that they were low on. Victoria texted her back, assuring her that she would place the order that day.

  While Rafael drove, Victoria picked up her laptop and logged onto the Internet, using her phone as a hotspot. She opened the email first to see what she needed to order, and then went to each vendor’s website to place an order of the things needed from each one. Within an hour she was finished with business. As long as she was online, she scouted an RV park ahead where they might spend the night.

  They dropped down through the Virginias, through the Appalachians, to North Carolina. In western North Carolina they took in the Biltmore Estate, Cherokee, and several other attractions. The RV park they pulled into near Asheville just happened to be for sale, and after just a couple of hours there, they were smitten with it.

  “I know that we thought it would be best to buy on the west coast first, but this one is so beautiful, and the price is fair. What do you think?” Rafael asked Victoria as they were walking hand in hand by the small lake that was on the property.

  “I think I love it here,” she said. “If I wasn’t such a Californian, I’d want to move here. If we were to buy this RV park, we’d have an excuse to come back real often, just to check up on it, wouldn’t we?”

  Her eyes sparkled with delight as she looked up into his face. Rafael thought he would never get enough of looking into Victoria’s face when she was alight with the joy of living, just as she was now. When he thought of all that she had been through in the past year and a half, he always marveled at how optimistic and full of the sheer joy of living that she continued to be, no matter what.

  How blessed I am to have the love of this woman, he thought to himself.

  “So are you game?” he asked her.

  “I’m game if you are,” she replied confidently.

  “Let’s go call the owner on it and make an appointment to talk with him about it,” Rafael suggested. “I want to see a profit and loss statement on the place, and find out about any potential issues or problems that exist.”

  “That’s a smart idea,” Victoria told him. “That�
�s why you’re the businessman and I’m the flunky.”

  They both chuckled at her remark.

  “You’re the most beautiful flunky I’ve ever known, and you’re my flunky, so that’s all the matters,” he said, leaning down to give her a quick kiss on the lips.

  “Besides, you’re not a flunky. You’ve just never been taught all the ins and outs of business. Your dad taught them to me, but not to you. Not sure why. It’s just the way it was.”

  “I know why,” Victoria stated. “It’s because Marian wouldn’t allow it. She was grooming me to be a society wife, not a businesswoman. I couldn’t stand that thought, so I ran away to Seattle.”

  “Well, you’re not too old to learn,” he told her. “And you’ve already begun to learn a few things. I think you’ve got a good feel for business. You have great ideas. The rest will come with time and experience. I certainly don’t know all there is to know about business. I learn new things all the time. A lot of things you just have to experiment with and learn by trial and error. A lot of error sometimes.

  “If your dad hadn’t had Thornton Enterprise already set up so well, we’d still be floundering around trying to figure out how to make a living. He did all the hard work when he came up through the ranks.”

  “That’s very true,” she replied. “And his dad before him. I imagine that it was Grandfather Thornton who did much of the work to get the company on solid ground.”

  “Likely so.”

  Rafael called the owner and got an appointment for the following morning to talk about the park. After the call, they walked around the park, making mental notes on everything they wanted to inquire about, and noting everything that was good and/or bad about it. Back in the motorhome, they wrote down everything they had observed and all the questions they wanted to ask the owner the next morning. Then they went out to find something to eat.

  The next morning, a Monday, the owner of the RV park, Bill Vest, came to their motorhome to discuss the park. He brought with him the latest profit and loss statement, as well as some other financial reports that showed the park to be on stable footing. The three of them walked around the park while Mr. Vest told them everything about it.