1-Chloe-Kate-Bella

by Unknown

  “Where’s your manager?”

  Hands went out to the side. “You’re looking at her. And head chef.” She pulled a key card from her pocket and slid it into the slot outside a room, handing it to him. “Here’s your room. When you’re settled, come to the front desk and have them find me. We’ll get the paper work squared away and I’ll give you a list of things that I need monitored.” She turned to go.

  “Nice rooms for staff.”

  “I’m profitable and my staff is happy. These rooms are actually for temporary staff and friends of friends, like yourself. I haven’t had to use them for overflow guests but once, during really bad weather last year. See you in a bit,” Bella said, striding off, making a mental checklist.

  Bella Jeffries ran a good, solid business, he mused several hours later. Extremely well trained staff and great food. He’d completed her check list, made a few suggestions to the people doing the tasks and wandered into the bustling hive of a kitchen. She wasn’t the only cook, he was glad to see. She had a collection of junior cooks working diligently.

  “Some problem, Sam?” Bella looked up from the cake she was finishing, unaware of the pink frosting on her cheek.

  His hand came out without thinking, two fingers scooping the sugary confection off her face and into his mouth. “Just letting you know all is running smoothly. Wow…very tasty.”

  “I…” Bella reached for the towel she had close by, rubbing the spot he had just cleaned. “Thank you,” she finished the cake quickly and nodded to a young man nearby. “Put it into the fridge with the others.” She looked over the man who had rode in on the shiny black motorcycle. “You changed.”

  “Somehow black slacks and a pale shirt seemed to fit the evening a little more than jeans and a tee shirt,” Sam allowed with a half shrug.

  “You almost look…preppy,” she murmured, gazing around for the next victim of her excess energy.

  “This is because of the bike, isn’t it?”

  “It does tend to have a certain image in mind,” she admitted.

  “No tattoos and nothing pierced,” Sam returned flatly.

  “I think you clean up very nicely, Sam.”

  “How can you have been in business for over a year and not have individual managers in place?”

  “Are you from the hotel inspectors union?” Bella shook her head and gestured to the desk. “I’d like you to man the desk for an hour while June takes her lunch break. We’re not expecting a lot of people tonight, so it’ll be quiet. Tomorrow morning will be another story.” She left him to get information from June, her mind on her menu.

  Bella sat across her desk from Chloe. She was positive the growling in her stomach was the missed dinner, but another part of her knew it was the data tripping her friend was doing that made her nervous.

  “Baron gives him an honest, trustable reference,” Bella said, sighing when one hand lifted off the keyboard and waved in the air.

  “Hey, Sam said you were in here…” Kate stopped, closed the door and frowned. Chloe was behind the desk. “Isn’t she in your chair?”

  “I talked to Baron about Sam, but you know Chloe,” Bella rose and paced the patterned carpeting.

  “I should probably not even ask, considering you might need an attorney in the near future.”

  There was a flurry of finger movements and then the top of the computer was snapped shut. “Well…yes, I’d say Sam does pass the honesty test. He’s also friends with Layne,” Chloe said quietly.

  “Seriously?” Kate’s frown tilted. “Now there’s an interesting curve.”

  “He also has degrees in hotel management and general business management. He’s managed places from Morocco to Hong Kong. Casinos and hotels. Successfully.”

  “Wow…and here I have him on registration and tending bar,” Bella exhaled thickly.

  “I took the liberty of talking to Baron. He shot emails out to his staff. Anyone not working and wanting extra cash, were to come see you before nine AM tomorrow morning,” Kate said. “He thinks you’ll have a collection of bar tenders and wait staff for the weekend. And he also said to make it easier, send him their time sheets, he will pay them and submit an invoice to you.”

  “I don’t know what I’d do without you guys,” Bella sighed gratefully.

  “Back to our mysterious, albeit quite hunky, registration desk guy,” Chloe cleared her throat. “Layne used two words…decompression time. And she thinks he quit,” Chloe chuckled softly. “Brigham loses them fast these days.”

  “Then I guess it’s our job to keep him hidden,” Bella said firmly, accepting the nods from her friends. “Men in black are not going to come storming my lodge, are they?”

  “Please…who are you talking to here…geeze…I am offended,” Chloe lifted her laptop and slid it into her backpack. “I am also off in search of my guy. Later, girls.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  The Lodge was finally settling in for the night.

  Sam Franklin easily turned over the front desk job when June returned, a small frown creasing his lips when she gestured to the dining area and a table set near the main window. Summoned? Was his first thought, approaching the table warily.

  “Sam! Come have dinner!” The exuberant Chloe gestured to an empty seat. “It’s buffet, so you gotta fix your own plate.”

  “Best offer I’ve had in a long time,” he answered quietly, blue eyes watching Bella for a reaction but finding only a benign smile. “Be right back.”

  “You told me why you joined the police…why did you quit?” Dylan asked, reaching for Kate’s hand on the table half way through the meal.

  “I don’t think you ever quit,” she said with a small laugh.

  “For us…I think we joined because you had some silly notion it can help,” Chloe supplied with a tip of her head.

  “It wears on you over time,” Bella agreed. “But even if you helped one person…maybe one child…learn right from wrong…change direction in their life…then it’s worth the time.”

  “But it never goes away,” Kate added with a sigh. “And none of us actually quit…we were recruited in a different direction for a time.”

  “Anyone with half a brain knows there’s a burn out limit,” Chloe drained her glass of water and poured more. “I think in normal people…the adrenaline factor is a big part of it, but you become immune over time. Only truly nutty people stay on for a life time. It carries too high a toll on you personally, if you aren’t careful.” She leaned back in her chair, staring off into nothing. “It would be oh so easy to become an avenging angel…and feel no regrets at all.”

  “You’ve known each other a long time?” Sam asked, listening and digesting the conversation and the good food. “You have good cooks, Bella.”

  “Thank you. We try. And we’ve known each other…” she smiled. “For a very long time. We work well together.”

  “I saw the sticks on your bag,” Sam mentioned. “How long have you practiced?”

  “Since I was ten,” Chloe answered with a charming smile. “Do you use them?”

  “I’ve dabbled,” he admitted. “Maybe we can spar while you’re…”

  “No,” Kate interrupted at the look on Chloe’s face.

  “No,” Bella reinforced firmly.

  “You guys…” Chloe leaned into the firm arm behind her.

  “I can defend myself, ladies. Seriously,” Sam laughed at the expressions on their faces. “If Chloe practices, she knows the rules of sparing and she has discipline.”

  “Not until the stalker thing is over,” Kate said firmly, glaring at the grin on Chloe’s face. “What you don’t un
derstand, Sam…Chloe is angry. People mucking about in her life, makes her angry.”

  “And while she knows the rules and she does have immense discipline,” Bella continued.

  “You seriously do not want to spar while she’s angry.”

  “Never get provoked, girl,” Chloe chimed in her best Irish accent.

  “Never fight fair when you’re fighting for your life,” Kate supplied the second line.

  “And never raise that sword to me unless you’re prepared to die for it,” Bella finished the quote quietly.

  Dylan wrapped both arms around Kate, leaning her into his chest. “I’m afraid to ask.”

  “Our mantra…once upon a time,” Bella supplied with a half-smile. “From an old movie.

  “If you will excuse us…I got a guy who promised to dance my feet off,” Chloe announced and stood up, tugging Simon up beside her.

  “That wasn’t the portion of your anatomy I was interested in, but hey, I’m willing to start at the bottom and work my way up,” he nodded to the table and moved into the lounge area, soft music filtering through the quieting lodge.

  “We’ll see you in the morning, Bella. Good night, Sam.” Kate accepted the palm held out to her, striding easily at Dylan’s side toward the wide, curving staircase.

  “I’d better check on things for tomorrow,” Bella offered a smile and stood up to head to her office when he took her hand.

  “When do you relax?”

  “Bosses don’t relax.”

  “One dance,” Sam decreed, twining their fingers and leading the stunned woman to the lounge. “You set up this really nice, peaceful lounge. Have you ever danced in it?”

  “I…no…”

  “This is nice,” he said simply, her eyes only an inch or so below his. “Rarely do I find a woman to dance with where I’m not hunched over.”

  Losing track of her protest, Bella allowed a small smile to surface. “Or if a woman, dancing with a guys nose in your cleavage.”

  “I’ll refrain from commenting on that scenario,” Sam moved them smoothly to the strains of soft music. “You have some interesting friends.”

  “And somewhere along the course of your life, you’ve crossed paths with a few of them,” Bella replied, feeling some of the tension actually escaping with her sigh.

  “Now that sigh sounded a little more relaxed.”

  “I suspect one of your talents is procrastination.”

  “I suspect…given the talents of your friends…you know a great deal more about me than I put on that little employment form,” Sam returned, not sounding in the least disturbed at the idea.

  “I spoke to Baron,” Bella admitted. “He offered a good, solid reference. He told me you were honest and I could trust you.”

  “I owe him for that. I don’t think you trust many people. At least men. How did you get mixed up with this Turner?”

  He felt her tense up in his arms and tipped his head to meet her eyes. “I’m a good listener, too.”

  She inhaled slowly. “When I first came north, I worked part time for the parole board. Supervising more difficult cases. Turner was one of them. I was one of three officers keeping track of him, making an attempt to keep him in line. He should never have been released,” her head shook slightly. “His sentence should have been a lot longer than five years. But…plea bargaining…giving up other people for other crimes and poof…you have a dangerous man out in public again.”

  “Turner had a notion that I should be more than just his parole officer. You’re polite the first couple times. Believe me, angering someone like Turner isn’t something you want to do without backup. The more I turned him down, the more obsessed he became.”

  She felt his hands tighten a bit, felt herself drawn a little closer to him and it wasn’t a bad feeling. It was nice. Comfortable, she mused. Another something she hadn’t allowed in her life in a while.

  “I had a little office downtown. Chloe and Kate were coming by for lunch one day, but before they got there, Turner showed up. I turned him down, again. He back handed me and that’s all I remember until I woke up in St. Michael’s emergency room with Pembrook waving ammonia beneath my nose. But I got the story from Kate. Evidently he was either going to rape me there or take me off when it got dark. Chloe wandered into the office first looking like a lost college kid, saw my feet on the floor and then Kate came in….they’re good apart, but really good together. Chloe stunned him and Kate handcuffed him to the file cabinet, then called for an emergency vehicle. He would be going back and that made him even angrier.”

  “How about some fresh air? The night isn’t too cold yet,” Sam turned them and walked quietly to the wide planked front porch. Darkness and hundreds of brilliant stars surrounded them. He leaned against the log railing, watching her pace. “I take it he escaped?”

  Bella pulled the band holding her short hair in place free, fingers massaging as she leaned on the rail beside him.

  “Yeah…when they were transferring him. I wasn’t there to warn them how dangerous he was and…and they got careless,” Bella shook her head. “An all points went out for him. But no one saw him until the report of the car over the cliff and a supposed note left in his flat claiming he was not going back inside. The tide was in when the car went over the cliff, that’s the excuse they gave for no body being located.”

  “And now he’s stalking Chloe,” Sam concluded, a long puff of breath easing free.

  “Oh, he’ll be caught. It’s just a matter of time,” Bella shook her head with a rueful laugh. “If I could just teach Chloe to go for the kill shot in situations like this afternoon…he’d be laid out on the floor instead of just sporting a bruised or broken wrist.”

  “Sam? Sam Franklin?” A soft, feminine voice filled with surprise came from inside the lodge, the clicking of heels on the stones as she stepped onto the porch. “I thought I recognized your voice. Although, this is certainly not a place I’d expect to find you.”

  “Hello, Linda,” Sam had remained leaned against the rail and made no effort to move out of the shadowy porch. “Why are you out this way?”

  “A fundraiser tomorrow,” she said, a dismissing wave of her palm. “I wanted to see where it was being held this year so I came out tonight for a preview.”

  “I’m sure it’ll be entertaining,” Sam saw the way the two women looked each other over. Linda was a few inches shorter than Bella, a little thinner and way over dressed for a lodge.

  “You are aware that Brigham is searching for you,” Linda took a step forward, the gaze in her eyes dismissing Bella’s presence once she saw the name tag. “If you don’t mind?”

  “Bella doesn’t mind at all,” Sam answered for her, reaching for her palm and tugging her to stand in front of him. His arms circled her from behind and his mouth came down on her neck while she was in shock. “Do you sweetheart?”

  “Not at all, darling,” Bella could play the game, wriggling her behind back against him and enjoying the warmth of his arms. She felt his chin resting on her shoulder. “Hello, I’m Bella Jeffries.”

  “Linda Prescot. I work with Sam on occasion,” very curious eyes drank in the scenario before her. “You’ve…told her about Brigham?”

  “Bella knows everything…no secrets here,” Sam said with a cheerful tone. “As for Brigham…I quit. He knows that, in triplicate.”

  “He mentioned that,” she admitted quietly. “But that won’t stop him.”

  “Then he’ll be disappointed,” Bella said and felt him shrug. She’d never been used as a shield before. “That work thing is all part of Sam’s past now.”

  “Brigham can be persuasive. Somehow
I can’t picture you in this rustic setting for long,” Linda stated flatly.

  “Bella is prettier to look at, smells good and cooks like a dream. This is the kind of life a guy could easily become part of without looking back,” Sam loosened his arms when Bella made a move forward.

  “If you’ll excuse me, I have work to do. I hope you enjoyed your dinner,” she walked past the woman and into the lodge, long strides taking her to the sanctuary of her kitchen.

  This kind of bustle she could easily handle, throwing herself into the mix to clean things up after dinner. She loved preparing buffets and made a point of avoiding special meals. Blue eyes glanced over the menu for tomorrow, checking cupboards and fridge shelves. Gradually the kitchen was clean and people began disappearing for the night.