by Janet Eaves
“Lilly! Watch out!”
The impact of the jolt threw her into the steering column as far as her seat belt allowed. Ignoring the pain that would surely turn to bruises, she clamped her jaws together again, forcing herself to focus as they were speeding at ninety-five. She quickly checked each mirror, before flinging a glance at Suzie. “My gun! In my purse. Can you shoot?”
Suzie’s eyes flashed. “Like a mother friggin trucker!”
Lilly’s eyes widened and she laughed. “I can’t believe you just said that!”
“I can’t believe we’re being car-jacked.”
She threw Suzie a quick glance. “Not car-jacking. They found me.”
Suzie released her seatbelt and pulled the gun from Lilly’s purse. “Just keep driving, Sister. Those sons-of-bitches have messed with the wrong women.” She crawled over the console into the back seat. “Car one is to your left, gaining. I’ll try to get him first. Lower both windows for me and hold steady.”
Lilly nodded. “Okay.” She felt the rush of air as the rear windows opened.
“Yes!”
“What? What’s going on?” she demanded.
“Look in your mirrors. The Calvary’s coming!”
Lilly slid a quick look to her mirror and immediately lifted her foot from the gas pedal. She slowed to a stop and turned the car around to face the most astounding sight. More than a dozen buses and a number of cars and trucks had overtaken the sedans. The entire highway was blocked.
Men and women she’d seen or spoken to, and even some she had never seen were pulling the men from both cars. Police sirens and the sound of helicopter blades thump, thump, thumped overhead. She looked over at Suzie who looked back with that twinkling smile.
Lilly forced herself to move forward towards the men who had come for her. As she got closer she tried to identify them, but not one was familiar. She reached the growing crowd as everyone had left their vehicles. All six of the men who participated in the pursuit were now held down on their stomachs against the asphalt.
Another bus pulled up and Jim jumped out as soon as the doors opened. He ran to her and pulled her into his arm. “I thought I’d lost you. Oh, Lil, I thought I’d lost you.” He pulled her away and looked into her eyes then did a quick pat-down. “Are you hurt anywhere?”
She shook her head. “No,” she said, nearly breathless from the adrenaline still pumping through her heart. She took several deep breaths, trying to get under control. Hoping the shaking that was starting to take over wouldn’t take her to her knees. Jim pulled her back into his arms in a grip that eliminated her need to support herself.
“I’m sorry baby. I told you I would protect you and I didn’t. I’m sorry. We couldn’t get back on the highway quick enough to catch you.” He glanced at the men on the road. “Do you know them?”
Lilly shook her head again, disappointed. “No.”
He loosened his hold then walked to the closest man and jerked him up to his feet. “Who are you?”
The huge bald man just stared back with a smile. Jim kicked in the side of his knee. A surprised groan escaped the man’s mouth as he went down to pant against the road. Jim grabbed the bald head and pulled back, forcing the man to look at him. “I asked you a question. Who are you?”
He still didn’t answer but he wasn’t smiling either. Jim glanced into the crowd and two men came forward. “We’ll handle this.”
Jim nodded and returned to Lilly’s side. He grasped her, hugging her tight again, as if afraid to let her go. Within seconds the entire team encircled them. Lilly looked up at the serious expressions on each face. She took a gentler breath before turning to Jim for a gentle kiss. “You have to go. Get the boys to the game. I’ll deal with this.”
He shook his head. “I can’t leave you. It isn’t over. I’ll find you a safe place and stay there with you until it’s done. Until you are really safe.”
Lilly knew her heart was breaking, but she had to do what was right. “Yes, you can leave. And you will. You and these boys have worked so hard for this. One game, Jimmy.” Tears filled her eyes as she smiled at him. “One game then the one you’ve always wanted. Take State tonight. Then take that national championship. You all deserve it.”
Jim took a minute to really focus on each one of his players before speaking to the entire gathering. “I’m leaving with Lilly. You all head on to the game and support our Dragons.” He sent a smile to each one of his boys. “Play fair, play with honor, and kick some serious butt. And if I can’t be with you, do the same next time. Because I know you guys will get to Nationals. I know.”
Tears were in the eyes of his players, their fans, but were hard to see through her own. “Please, Jim….”
“I liked when you called me Jimmy.”
A sharp huh escaped as she shook her head. “I’ll always call you Jimmy, then. But please go. Don’t miss this. It means everything to you.”
“You mean everything to me. I love you. I’ll spend the rest of my life in hiding with you if you’ll have me.”
“Jim, please.”
“Jimmy.”
Another cry escaped before she shook her head and backed away. “It’s no life. I won’t have you live it and I can’t live yours. You belong in the spotlight. I don’t. Please understand. I won’t do that to you.”
“You won’t have to.”
Lilly and Jim turned at the intrusive comment. Polly Chapman had arrived, as usual dressed in black. The suit that should have been severe hugged her womanly curves and set off her shiny white-blond hair. She smiled at them both then turned her attention to Jim. “Hey, cuz.”
Jim nodded. “Polly.”
“Lilly?”
“Ms. Chapman, I’m ready to go.” Lilly closed her eyes. It was the biggest lie she’d ever told but she wasn’t going to make this harder on either Jim or herself by wishing things were different.
Polly pulled a sheet of paper from the clipboard she carried and handed it to Lilly. “Is that them?”
Lilly took the paper and stared at the images of the man she’d childishly loved once, and the woman she had believed loved her. The photos were obviously taken with both lying down, a bullet hole in each forehead, execution style. She looked up, stunned, confused. “Are they dead?”
Polly nodded. “Yes. Those were taken at the morgue, yesterday.”
Lilly glanced back to where the criminals were being loaded into squad cars. “Then why were they after me?”
Polly glanced at her clipboard. “From what we can gather Danny Diviani and Patricia Seracelli, aka Big Daddy and Madame, hired these men months ago. My guess is they will all be on one of our many lists which means they probably need to plan to have lifelong boyfriends in prison. Regardless, I’ll make sure they never show their faces in Legend, again.” A satisfied gleam entered Polly’s eyes.
Jim grinned and Lilly couldn’t help but grin back, though her head was swimming with the reality, the possibilities. It was no less than those men deserved. And no doubt BD and Madame deserved what they got. She glanced at Polly, wondering who had killed them, and why, but she didn’t want to know. As long as they were out of her life forever, that was all she needed to know.
“An informant slipped us the info that they followed you here,” Polly continued. “We’ve been tracking them but lost them until Marcus called me about Jim’s gate being tampered with, and the mention of dung on the field. That was Fat Eddie’s fingerprint. He has an obsession with animal feces.” She pointed to the ambulance where the bald man was being treated. “Fat Eddie is the one you knee knocked by the way,” she said with pleasure, looking at Jim.
Jim smiled. “Good. Wish I’d known. I’d have given it a little extra kick.”
Polly smiled and glanced at her watch. “Daylight is burning, guys. I wanna see my team win tonight.”
Numbly Lilly stared at them all. “It’s over? They’re dead and it’s really over?”
Polly smiled. “Looks like. We’ll still keep eyes and ears open,
but I’d stake my badge on it.”
Jim pulled her into his arms for a snuggling hug, which was wonderful. She needed the support. She looked up at him, humbled. “You would have given it all up for me.”
Jim kissed her nose. “Easily.” He searched her eyes. “You would have done the same. You were leaving me.” When she started to protest he shook his head and placed a finger over her lips. “I’m not stupid, Lilly, and you are incredibly easy to read at times. You were giving us up because you didn’t want me hurt.”
She couldn’t lie. “My heart would have been with you. Always. I love you so much.”
Jim kissed her again then looked at his team. “In the bus, guys. We have a game to win for my lady.” He lifted her hand and kissed the fourth finger of her left hand. “And after we win this one, I want a National Championship ring for my future wife.”
Lilly jumped into his arms and kissed him soundly. “When I came to Legend all I wanted was a normal life, or as close to a normal life as I knew. But I got so much more.”
She looked around as townsfolk re-boarded the buses, cars and trucks. “An entire community of friends. A kick-ass football team to support. And you. It’s not every day a girl gets to claim a living legend as her own.”
THE END
MIDNIGHT IN LEGEND, TN
A Ladies of Legend Novella
By Magdalena Scott
Exotic Midnight Shelby and “salt of the earth” Martin McClain share center stage in this contemporary romance about learning to trust again.
Midnight Shelby is starting over. She’s leaving her ex-husband and the big city, big corporate life behind her. But she doesn’t know where she’s going until she happens upon an amazing website advertising real estate in Legend, Tennessee, a place she didn’t know existed. The virtual tour of a large two-story big brick building—a former bar—on the main street of the small town makes her fall in love. With the building, and with the potential for a new life.
She has no idea she’ll also fall in love with the realtor who sells her the property.
Martin McClain was born and raised in the Legend area. His family has lived there for generations, and he feels a duty to preserve it. Part of the reason is his thirteen-year-old son Daniel. The web site Daniel created has been good for business, but although Martin is a real estate agent by trade, he’s wary of newcomers’ motivations. With good reasons—one of them being Daniel’s absent mother.
For love of Legend, and with an eye toward Daniel’s future, Midnight and Martin begin to work together, and learn that in spite of their different starting points, their destination is the same: Home.
Chapter One
“Mayberry at last.” Midnight Shelby sighed with relief as she climbed out of the sports car and stretched. It had been a long drive from the city to this little town. Long in the literal sense, but also figuratively. She looked around at the picturesque 100-plus year old buildings. This was her new world, reached by several hours’ drive and the shedding of a painful past. Midnight lightly ran her fingers along the gleaming silver hood of her car as she crossed to the sidewalk. The car also represented a new start for her. No more boring, black, safe sedan. In every possible way, Midnight had left her comfort zone way behind her.
After twenty years of marriage, her life had changed suddenly when she’d returned from a business trip and found a scribbled note from her husband on the kitchen table. The marriage had been in trouble for a while, but she’d still been stunned. “Midnight. Sorry to let you know this way…”
The divorce process had been hellish emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Always a private person comfortable in her own company, Midnight had felt lonely for the first time in her life. Being alone by intention was light years away from being alone due to loss.
When all the divorce paperwork was finalized, her attorney, Rebecca Mayfield, had taken Midnight out for dinner and encouraged her to look at the future with a positive attitude. After all, the property settlement had turned out rather well for Midnight. She had everything she needed to start a new life. She could find another elegant apartment—one without memories of Jeff—and set it up with the lovely furniture and collectible items that were now hers alone. She’d go on with the work she loved, make new friends…
Midnight reached back into her car and picked up the little voodoo doll she’d purchased at a roadside stand. One could find some very interesting things at roadside stands in the mountains of Tennessee, she’d been surprised to learn. She hadn’t been able to pass up the place whose purple sign cried out: MEN ARE SCUM! in hot pink letters. Fifteen dollars for the foot-tall white cloth voodoo doll and complimentary three-inch straight pin with “pearl” tip. The dolls came in red, yellow, black, and white, and one could purchase markers to individualize them. She chose a plain white one and left it faceless.
That’s because it didn’t only symbolize her ex-husband, but also the man who’d gotten her fired from the job she’d had—and loved—ever since college. Her co-worker had tried to “comfort” her, in a very physical way, after her divorce. When she’d refused, he had retaliated by pulling strings with upper management. Suddenly Midnight was drawing unemployment checks. By that time she’d been so tired of fighting, she hadn’t even tried to get the job back.
The unsuspecting voodoo doll symbolized men in general to her right now.
She jabbed the pin into the doll’s crotch a few times. Some of the stuffing dropped out, as she had worked on that particular area repeatedly since making the purchase a few hours ago.
She sighed again, relaxing a bit. That did feel good.
She tossed the doll back onto the smoky gray leather passenger seat and checked her watch. Just five o’clock. She was exactly on time, of course. The person she was meeting, however, was late. Midnight leaned against the passenger side door, taking a deep breath to release the frustration from his lack of punctuality. The air was cool and crisp, and smelled of evergreen. Delightful! She took another deep breath. Relaxing had to be a conscious effort for her; it didn’t come naturally.
Legend had a population of about six thousand, according to her realtor’s office. She noted the few people walking along the sidewalk or from car to store, well-worn vehicles heading north and south on the unimaginatively named Main Street. In her two days of driving, she’d seen a lot of small towns, some county seats complete with courthouse squares, and some with a single main thoroughfare, very like this one. Before that, small towns had existed for her only on television. Mayberry was her favorite, from all those years ago when she’d watched The Andy Griffith Show as a child. It had seemed an idyllic place to live. That’s why when Midnight Shelby’s life had fallen apart, she’d decided to move from big city, big corporate life to the real world—Mayberry—or rather, Legend, Tennessee. She’d found her new town via the internet. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have known it existed. Even with a good magnifying glass, it was barely visible on a paper atlas.
Midnight noticed a tall, dark-haired man and a teenager—from the build and hair color, likely his son—having a discussion in front of a building on the next block. The motion of the red and white barber pole indicated the place was open.
It was obvious that the boy didn’t want anything to do with it. He could have been the poster child for Surly Teenager Syndrome. Finally he relented—she could see it as his shoulders sagged—and entered the shop. His father turned fully in Midnight’s direction and she tried not to pay attention. Even from this distance she could make out strong facial features that would have done a Greek statue proud, broad shoulders… Hmm. In spite of herself, she wondered about the rest of him. How would that stand up to the Greek statue test?
She sighed. It had been a very long time since she’d been with a man. How long? But the first day in her new town wasn’t the right moment to suddenly become needy. She reached back into the car for the doll again. She might make a return trip to the roadside stand. Maybe buy another voodoo doll and pick up a plate for the front
of her car as well. Twenty-five dollars to proclaim MENRSCUM everywhere she drove. Perhaps she needed the reminder herself.
As she felt the doll in her hand, she also noticed the tall, dark man was walking toward her. She quickly stuffed the doll under the seat, jabbing her finger with the pin as she did so. The immediate stab of pain helped focus her attention on reality instead of retribution. Squeezing a dark red drop of blood from the wound and quickly sucking it clean, she straightened and tucked a stray lock of silky black hair behind her ear. In the city, one didn’t meet strangers’ eyes. But this man looked directly at her, or rather, from her to the convertible and back to her, and she could hardly avoid his eyes without being rude. Snooty. Citified. Not a good beginning in her new hometown.
Midnight pasted what she hoped was a friendly smile onto her face, willing him to pass by. A small, bent, gray-haired couple came along from the other direction, also checking out her car and herself. Midnight used the smile on them. They smiled in return and spoke a word of greeting. Okay, now Mr. Greek Statue. She turned the smile his way, watched as his brow furrowed a little. He walked over and stuck out his hand, expecting to shake hers.
“Miz Shelby, right? Martin McClain. I wondered if you might have a change of heart and not come.”
Oh, great. My realtor is Mr. Greek Statue.
With an attitude.
She took a good look. Brown leather jacket covering a blue striped collarless knit shirt, navy Dockers. Very dark brown hair, straight, and a little mullet-ish in the back, dark chocolate eyes, extremely handsome face. A neatly trimmed goatee. Lips…. Oh yeah, definite possibilities there. This man could be trouble.
“Um. Right. Good to meet you, Mr. McClain.” Still making an effort at the smile, but with more difficulty, Midnight shook Martin McClain’s hand firmly, and as briefly as possible.
Immediately, she put both of her hands into the back pockets of her designer low-rise jeans. Her intention was to have her hands out of the way. She didn’t want to touch him again, even by accident. Touching a man—particularly a man she felt such an immediate physical attraction to—was not something she was ready to do, and that included a simple handshake. Martin McClain’s gaze drifted to her snug white t-shirt, which now, with her arms in that awkward pose, felt too snug. Too sexy. Why hadn’t she slid on her jacket? It was certainly cool enough for one. Midnight took her hands out of the pockets and crossed her arms over her chest, and immediately realized a drop of blood from the pin-wound had stained the shirt.