Love at First Light (Lost Harbor, Alaska Book 6)
Page 10
“Jessica.” She laughed at his confused expression. “It’s, uh, short for Japonica. That’s what my mother named me.”
“Japonica…”
“It’s an edible flower. My mother was kind of a hippie flower child.”
“Was? I’m sorry—“
“Oh no, she’s still very much alive. But now she’s more interested in her retirement fund than edible flowers.”
He chuckled as they reached her car. “Should we grab some lunch, Tasty Cakes? The second rule of investigating is to keep your blood sugar up so you don’t fall asleep during a stakeout.”
“Sure, I could eat.” Even though she said it casually, her heart warmed at his friendly tone. Maybe he was finally starting to take her seriously, like a fellow detective, practically.
Her cell phone rang. Nia didn’t even wait for her to answer before she began talking.
“There’s a man here looking for you. He’s large and kind of scary. He says he has the right to shut down the bakery.”
She stopped in her tracks. “What? Is it someone from the DEC?” The state health department came through every year or so for an inspection, but they’d never failed one—so far.
“He says he’s working for Gary Phelps and that you need to come sign something immediately or we’ll have to shut down. What should I do?”
“I’ll be right there. Don’t do anything. Tell him I’m on my way.”
Ethan was watching her with worry in his eyes.
“I have to go. My mom’s husband is up to something.” She turned first one way, then the other, forgetting what she was even doing on Main Street on a sunny afternoon.
“Here.” Ethan placed his hands on her shoulders and guided her toward her car. “I’ll drive.”
“No, it’s fine—“
“I’ll drive,” he repeated firmly. “You’re too upset. It’s not safe.”
“It’s like five blocks. There’s no need to drive.”
He opened the passenger door and pointed. “Sit.”
Too freaked out to argue anymore, she sat, and he whisked her to the Sweet Harbor Bakery as if on a magic carpet.
He did even more than that. As soon as he caught sight of the beefy man in the badly fitting blazer, he told her, “I recognize him. Not specifically him, but his type. He’s here to intimidate you. Don’t sign anything. In fact, I have an idea. Introduce me as your lawyer. I know how to handle him.”
Worked for her. She had no idea if Gary had any right to shut down the bakery. If she was smart, she would have already contacted a lawyer instead of waiting for the peony harvest to end.
Ethan walked briskly up to the stranger, while she held back. Stubble covered the lower part of his face and his bushy eyebrows made for a permanent frown. She didn’t recognize him; he probably came from Rocky Gulch or even Anchorage.
The bakery had already closed for the day, and the stranger had interrupted Nia in mid-cleanup. The floor was half-mopped and the chairs were upside down on the tabletops. The only people in the shop were Nia and the intruder. At least no customers were here to witness this.
Ethan gestured for her to go ahead and address the man.
Calling on all her nerve, she stuck out her hand. “Hi, I’m Jessica Dixon, and this is my lawyer, Ethan James.”
His expression shifted as he took in the sight of Ethan’s set jaw and general air of competence. “I’m Hutch Brinker. I’m working for Gary Phelps on the development of this property. Seems we’ve run into a situation here.”
He handed her a document, which she held so that Ethan could read it too. She couldn’t get her eyes to focus on it; all the words blurred. Luckily, Ethan wasn’t paralyzed with fear the way she was, and he was able to read it.
“This is nothing but an empty threat,” he said with reassuring confidence. “If you really want to take legal action, feel free.”
“Wha—“ she gasped.
He squeezed her hand and she snapped her mouth shut.
“We don’t want to do that,” Brinker said. “Mrs. Phelps wants to avoid it. They just want a decision.”
Well, that was good news. At least her mother didn’t want to sue her.
“Do what you need to do,” Ethan told him. “This piece of paper is meaningless.” He crumpled it up and handed it to Jessica. “I’m recommending strongly that my client toss it in that beautiful stonework oven over there.”
His air of complete authority sent a wave of relief over her. She could handle this. She could even play along with Ethan’s bravado.
“Isn’t that oven gorgeous?” she said. “A stonemason from Italy made it. He was dating my mother at the time. He was one of the good boyfriends.”
“You mean the kind that doesn’t send a goon to your place of business to try to browbeat you?”
She clapped her hands together in applause. “Exactly! I do love the word ‘browbeat,’ by the way. It’s so descriptive, especially when you’re talking about someone with such impressive eyebrows.”
Hutch Brinker glanced between the two of them and shrugged his big shoulders. “No point in dragging this out. I know Gary Phelps and he doesn’t let a deal slip away. He’ll win in the end. Best to sign now before things get ugly.”
“Is that a threat?” Ethan shouldered past Jessica to face off with him. They were almost equal in height, but Brinker had quite a few pounds on him. On the other hand, Ethan looked much more fit. Overall, Jessica gave Ethan the advantage, but she hoped this didn’t get physical. Her glass bakery display cases had cost a pretty penny. “Why don’t you be more specific. What’s gonna happen if she doesn’t sign?”
Brinker held up both hands. “Can’t predict the future. All I know is Gary’s a good businessman. This chick is in over her head.” He didn’t even glance at Jessica as he made his scornful comment.
“I wouldn’t be so sure.”
That sounded almost like a compliment, if you squinted hard and looked at it from different angles.
“Jessica, what do you say? You’re the owner around here. Do you want this man on your property?”
“You know my motto. No shirt, no smile, no service.”
Brinker shifted his shoulders, adjusting his blazer on his beefy frame. She wondered if he’d rented it for the day to look extra-impressive.
“You heard her, my man. Please report back to your boss that we will not be signing anything today.”
He didn’t budge and Jessica got a horrid sinking sensation that even if he left now, this man was still going to be a problem. Was she going to have to deal with incidents like this until she agreed to sell the bakery?
“Should we call your best friend, the police chief?” Ethan cocked his head toward Jessica.
The man smirked. “Good luck with that. Heard she’s in Anchorage at a hospital.”
Ethan continued as if he hadn’t just hit a speed bump. “Luckily there’s a whole police department working under her.”
“Yeah. Too bad they’re all morons except her.”
“Believe me, they’re perfectly capable of executing an arrest for trespassing. The jail is tiny. Extremely uncomfortable, nothing good to eat. One and a half stars at the most.”
As he spoke, Ethan maneuvered the man toward the door. He did it so smoothly that the intruder barely seemed to realize it was happening.
But Brinker did have one more thing to say before he stepped out the door onto the porch. “You better think, Japonica Dixon. Think hard about how you want this to go down.”
As soon as he was gone, the breath rushed out of Jessica’s body. Ethan shut the door and returned to Jessica’s side. Without thinking, she leaned her forehead against his chest. Her heart raced from the aftermath of adrenaline. His arm came around her and settled firmly on her back.
It felt good. Insanely good.
“I can’t believe that just happened,” she choked. “It was like an episode of The Sopranos. Did he really threaten me?”
“Sure sounded like it to me.”
Jessica lifted her head from Ethan’s jacket. Wow, he smelled good. Clean and spicy, like a barbershop and a field of strawberries. “Sure, Nia. Sorry you had to deal with that guy.”
“It was fun watching him get shut down. Nice work, dude.” Nia tossed her apron in the hamper and hurried toward the kitchen’s back door.
In the sudden quiet, Jessica lifted her gaze to Ethan’s, her face flushing. How embarrassing that she’d automatically turned to him for comfort, when he was essentially still a stranger.
He kept his arm around her. “You okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine. Of course. Tougher than I look.” As his arm dropped, she gave a shaky laugh. “I should have arm-wrestled him, that would have taught him a lesson. So what does that piece of paper say?”
“I’m no lawyer, but I’ve seen enough legal docs to play translator. Basically they want you to sign off on selling this location to Prince Cruise Lines. If you don’t, they’re threatening to sue you for breach of contract.”
“Breach of contract? What contract?”
“Your contract with your mother, apparently.”
Oh for heaven’s sake. “The only contract we have is a piece of watercolor paper. She dumped the bakery on me because she got bored and wanted to travel to Big Sur. Every once in a while I send her some money, whatever I can afford. But since she got married she hasn’t asked for any. Gary is loaded.”
“Do you think she knows about Brinker coming here?”
“I don’t know. I don’t even want to ask her. We’ll just get into a fight.”
Ethan frowned as he scanned the document the man had left. “If there isn’t much in the way of a contract, I recommend you hire a lawyer.”
“I—“ She bit her lip. Lost Harbor had a shortage of good lawyers, and Kate was the only one she trusted. She wouldn’t be available until after the peony harvest. “You’re right. I was hoping if I ignored the whole thing my mom would drop it. I guess I called that wrong. Now it’s escalating.”
He scanned her face with those perceptive eyes of his. “Maybe this is a silly question, but do you want to sell it? You could probably make a good profit.”
“I don’t know. I don’t know! I mean, of course I don’t. Or maybe I do?”
He cocked his head at her with a curious frown. “Okay.”
How could she articulate this? “I love this bakery. It’s my home. Literally, because I live in one of the rooms upstairs. It’s my work too, and I love that. I love making people smile when they bite into one of my sticky buns. I love looking out my window and seeing mountains and mudflats and wild roses. All my friends are here. This,” she spread her arms wide, “this is all I’ve ever known. I’ve never been outside of Alaska. I rarely even leave Lost Harbor.”
“So then it’s a flat ‘no’.”
“Maybe? But then I think maybe I’m stuck in a rut. Or not even a rut, because that means you were going somewhere before you got stuck. Me, I’m always here. So it’s more of a…barnacle situation. I’m stuck like a barnacle. My mother thinks it’s bad that I never go anywhere. I can see her point. So…” She threw up her hands. “I can’t decide.”
“Fair enough.”
She folded her arms across her chest, feeling exposed and shaken up. A long bath with some rose petals and yarrow would be helpful right now.
“Do you think that man, Hutch Brinker, is going to come back?”
“Possibly. They might flesh out that legal threat first.”
“You rattled him. Thank you.”
“My pleasure.” He seemed to mean that sincerely. “I’m not a fan of threats and intimidation.”
She stepped behind the counter and opened the refrigerator where the leftover baked goods were stored. “I think that deserves a reward. How about a spinach and feta croissant sandwich? For some reason those never sell out.”
“The word ‘spinach’ might have something to do with that,” he grumbled as he took a seat at a table and stretched out his legs. “But sure, I’d love one.”
As she took out the covered tray, a sense of dread filled her. Big life decisions were the worst. Why was her mother putting her in this situation? What would Kate advise? What would Maya do? She’d never gotten a chance to consult with Maya before Harris got sick. Now Maya had much more important things to worry about.
All her friends were wrapped up right now. She was on her own with this decision. And she had no idea how to make it. All she wanted to do was hide under her covers until it all went away. So ridiculous.
But of course she couldn’t do that. For one thing, S.G. was counting on her.
Another crazy idea formed.
She hit the button on the microwave to heat up the sandwich. “If Gary really wants to sue me, don’t they have to deliver the paperwork to me?”
“Yeah, that’s what he has Hutch Brinker for.”
“What if he can’t find me?”
“What are you going to do, disappear?”
“I’m thinking about it.”
She brought him a plate with the steaming croissant. He sniffed at the spinach croissant like a wolf. She wondered how detailed his enhanced sense of smell was. Could he tell that she’d used whole wheat flour for the croissants? And a boatload of butter?
“Looks great, thanks. I’m missing something, though. How are you going to avoid a process server? They’re experts at locating people and this is a small town. Not many places to hide.”
“This town might be small. But out there—“ She gestured at the window and the bright vista outside. Past the wild roses and the towering delphiniums was the pebble beach, then the wind-ruffled bay, and finally the immoveable backdrop of the mountain range. “There’s plenty of room.”
It took only a second for Ethan to get her drift. “You want to hide out in Lost Souls Wilderness.”
“I wouldn’t call it hiding out. I’d call it investigating. The hiding is a side benefit.”
“You’re talking about S.G.?”
“Exactly. The best way to make progress is to find the trapper’s cabin where she grew up. I’m betting we could find more clues like that pink cloth.”
“There’s a chance.” He nodded in agreement. “But we don’t exactly have GPS coordinates for that cabin. Maya printed out some Google Earth maps with possible locations, but that’s about it. S.G. made a drawing of the cabin, but that’s no use until we find something to compare it to.”
Jessica paced back and forth next to the table. The more she thought about this plan, the more she liked it. She could avoid Hutch Brinker, investigate for Maya, and put off making a decision all in one swoop. It was perfect. “But Maya hadn’t heard about S.G.’s drowning dream. That could be a clue, you said so yourself. And didn’t S.G. tell Maya some details about the route she took to get here? I bet you anything that if we put all that information together we can find that cabin.”
“Very optimistic.”
“You bet I am. We can do this.” Now she was on fire with the possibility. “Are you up for a wilderness experience? I can get us there with my float plane. But I can’t go alone. The buddy system saves lives.”
“So you want me to be your buddy?” He spoke through a mouthful of spinach pastry.
“Yes. I’ll pay you whatever your day rate is.”
“Plus hazard pay?”
She bit her lip, thinking about her dwindling savings and how much it might cost to pay a lawyer. “How much extra is that?”
“Depends. Will you be providing the food? Because I can take a few bucks off if this is how we’ll be eating.”
She thought about it. Planning a trip into the wilderness was a big deal. She usually spent a few days gathering together all the necessary gear. “I suppose if we use the float plane as a kind of base camp, we can stor
e some food there. But we have to be careful because of bears.”
“I don’t know if I should be more worried about the float plane or the bears.”
“You don’t have to worry about any of it. I got this.” She gave him her most confident smile. “You deal with the goons. I’ll deal with the wild beasts. You could think of it as a vacation. People actually pay a lot of money for guided trips to Lost Souls Wilderness. Technically, I could actually charge you for my time instead of the other way around.”
He finished the sandwich and brushed crumbs off his fingers. “Yeah, that’s not happening. My vacations usually involve a lot of sleeping and eating.”
“Okay, then think of it as an adventure. A story to tell.”
“Assuming we live to tell it,” he murmured.
“Of course we will. It’s not that dangerous if you know what you’re doing. Honestly. City boys.”
Her goading had exactly the right effect. He shrugged his wide shoulders and gave in.
“Fine. I’ll be your wilderness buddy. But just so you know, I nearly died recently and I have no intention of doing that again any time soon.”
“Noted.”
Chapter Fourteen
Ethan had come to a conclusion sometime between his showdown with Hutch Brinker and Jessica’s brainwave about Lost Souls Wilderness. He had no intention of charging her for this investigation.
He wouldn’t feel right about it. He was eating well, staying at her B&B for free, getting a break from LA traffic and the usual grind. And now there was a float plane involved.
Ever since he’d first seen the wild peaks of Lost Souls Wilderness, he’d wondered what it was like over there. Every story he heard intrigued him even more. Like the one about the tribe of Native Alaskans that had disappeared into a glacier a hundred years ago. No one knew where they’d gone or why they’d vanished. Some people said that spirits lived in the forests; others just talked about the bears.
Padric had told him about some of his experiences in Lost Souls, hiking there with Zoe when they were teenagers. Now he was going to see it for himself, and the adventure of it thrilled him.
The preparations took a solid day, during which he kept a careful eye out for anyone who might be a process server. At the firehouse, Nate Prudhoe lent him a backpack and an already broken-in pair of hiking boots. His fiancée, Bethany, tucked a first-aid kit into the pack.