The Heart of a Hero

by Janet Chapman

  Julia lowered the phone to her lap. “She hung up. Or she dropped the receiver and it broke. I heard a loud crash.” She handed him back the phone. “My brother Tom is there. He won’t let anything happen to Trisha. Jerilynn said she called the sheriff.”

  They passed the Lexus parked in a scenic turnoff just as the road grew less steep, and Nicholas pushed down on the accelerator. “Can your brother handle himself in a fight?” he asked. “Your father’s not exactly a small man, and last night he appeared to have the strength of an ox—even inebriated.”

  “Tom’s at a disadvantage size-wise, but he’s strong. Um . . . about last night,” she whispered. “I want to apol—”

  “Let’s agree that you won’t apologize for something you had no control over,” he said before she could finish, “and I won’t apologize for getting involved in your business in the first place.” He grinned in her direction. “And we’ll also agree not to feel awkward when we run into each other at work.”

  He saw her take a deep breath—which ended abruptly when her expanding lungs pressed against her sore ribs, apparently. “Works for me.”

  They both fell silent with their deal struck, Nicholas figuring Julia had quickly agreed because she didn’t think she’d run into him for at least another six months. She was wrong, of course, but he saw no need to enlighten her. They sped past the limo pulled off the road next to a timber bridge, the driver leaning against its front fender and giving Nicholas a wave on their way by. Several minutes later he shot past the lower gatehouse with a nod at the grinning guard, then slowed to a less reckless speed now that he had no control over the traffic for the remaining mile of resort road.

  “I wondered why we only saw two cars,” Julia said, glancing over her shoulder at the three cars waiting at the entrance gate before looking at him, her large hazel eyes widened with surprise. “You called ahead and had the road closed?”

  He nodded as they passed the resort’s entrance to the Nova Mare marina. “I also had the guards at both gates tell me the number of vehicles already on the road so I could watch for them, although the drivers were warned by radio to pull off and wait until after we passed,” he explained, gesturing at the radio permanently mounted on the dash of Olivia’s truck. He stifled a grin when he heard his passenger sigh as she stared out through the windshield again. “I’m impressed, Julia. You didn’t scream once.”

  She snorted. “I’m pretty sure that’s why it’s called frozen in fear.”

  Nicholas checked his watch when he pulled onto the main road, pleased that he’d made it down the mountain in nearly record time. They soon reached the Campbells’ mailbox, and he saw Julia stiffen when they passed Trisha’s SUV parked on the edge of the long driveway halfway in from the main road.

  “Stay in the truck,” she suddenly said into the silence when they reached the house. “Better yet, just leave.”

  Nicholas jerked the vehicle to a stop and looked at her, incredulous. “You expect me to sit out here while you walk in alone on a drunken man in a rage?”

  The woman unfastened her seat belt and looked at him, her eyes narrowed and direct. “This isn’t your business, so stay in the truck or leave.”

  She was out her door and halfway to the house before he recovered enough to scramble out and chase after her. By the gods, if he wasn’t in a bit of a rage himself, he’d be tempted to laugh. He turned stone-cold sober, however, when he saw Julia grab a stout stick leaning against the house before she yanked open the door and stormed inside. He scaled the steps and slammed inside behind her, only to pull up short when a heavily pregnant woman spun toward him with a startled scream.

  “Oh, thank God you got here fast, deputy,” she cried, rushing over and pulling him toward a staircase at the far end of the kitchen. “My husband’s up there but he’s hurt, and the girl’s father is trying to break down the bedroom door with an ax. Where’s your gun? Aren’t you supposed to have a gun?”

  Nicholas took the woman by the shoulders and sat her on one of the kitchen chairs. “Stay put,” he growled, rushing up the stairs just as something struck wood with enough force to shake the house, followed by a muffled scream—which was followed by an outraged feminine growl. He rounded the corner in time to step over a body and snatch the stick away from Julia as it was descending toward her father, then pluck the startled woman off her feet and set her behind him just as her father wrestled the ax out of the door and swung it toward him.

  Nicholas caught the ax in midswing and yanked it out of the bastard’s hands, effectively pulling him off balance as he drove a shoulder into the man’s stomach hard enough to knock the wind out of him. Nicholas then straightened with him over his shoulder, turned and strode past Julia, stepped over the fallen body, and walked down the stairs past the gaping woman, through the kitchen, and out the front door. He walked down the porch steps and deposited his heavy load on the ground next to the same tree the bastard had been hugging last night, ironically catching the man’s head just before it slammed against the trunk.

  A sheriff’s cruiser sped in the road, its lights flashing but no siren blaring, and Nicholas straightened to see a large gold SUV speeding in behind it. Julia really wasn’t going to be happy, he decided when Olivia opened her door before Mac even brought the vehicle to a complete stop, because “this isn’t your business” was apparently about to become her boss’s.

  “Damn, Nicholas,” the deputy said as he walked up, one hand on his weapon despite his grin. “I love it when I find you at a scene. It always means I’ll be leaving with all my teeth.”

  “Jason,” Nicholas said with a nod as he stepped aside.

  “Christ almighty, Vern,” deputy Jason Biggs muttered as he crouched in front of Julia’s gasping father. “What have you gone and done this time?”

  “He was using an ax on a door trying to get to his youngest daughter,” Nicholas said, seeing how Vern Campbell was too busy trying to breathe to answer.

  “Where’s Julia?” Olivia asked, rushing up to Nicholas. “Is she okay? Is Trisha okay?”

  “I haven’t seen Trisha, as she was behind a locked door, but Julia’s okay. A man and another woman are also in the house.” Nicholas looked at Jason when the deputy stood up from cuffing Vern Campbell’s hands in front of his big belly. “There’s a man lying on the floor in the upstairs hallway, out cold.”

  “That’s probably their brother Tom,” Olivia said, stepping closer to Nicholas when Vern Campbell rolled onto his side and started throwing up.

  “Could I get you gentlemen to keep an eye on this idiot while I go see if we need an ambulance?” Jason asked, already heading to the house.

  Olivia turned to her husband. “Do something,” she softly growled, gesturing at Julia’s father, “before he kills somebody.”

  Mac shook his head. “You know the rules, wife,” he said quietly.

  “Then I’ll do something,” she snapped, pivoting and storming to the house.

  The wizard folded his arms on his chest as he watched her run up the steps, then looked over at Nicholas. “She doesn’t always agree with my protecting free will when it’s someone’s will to harm another.”

  Nicholas snorted. “Can’t say that I disagree with her.” He walked to the stairs and sat down on a middle step, then rubbed his face in his hands. “Zeus’s teeth,” he growled when Mac sat down beside him. “The bastard had a double-edged felling ax, and Julia ran inside armed with only a stick.” Still holding his head in his hands, he looked over at Mac. “She told me to stay in the truck because it wasn’t my business.”

  “You’ve been living here over a year now and that surprises you?” The wizard visibly shuddered. “I break into a cold sweat when Sophie or Ella gets their mother’s stubborn look in their eyes and I picture them out in the world beyond my reach.”

  “I’m never having daughters,” Nicholas muttered.

  “Good luck with that, my friend,” Mac said with a humorless chuckle. “You figure out how to persuade Providence to g
ive you only sons, and I’ll give you a bottomless satchel of money.”

  “Your father already gave me one for putting up with your sister for thirty-one years.” Nicholas straightened, shooting Mac a threatening scowl. “So quit asking me to babysit Ella, because my answer is and always will be no.” He went back to hanging his head in his hands just as Vern Campbell started snoring, apparently all tuckered out from his rage. “The bastard struck Julia in the back yesterday, likely with the very stick she tried using on him today.” He glanced at Mac. “She and Trisha spent the night in the church. And she was at work this morning, even though she was badly bruised.”

  Olivia came outside with her arm around Julia, who had her arm around Trisha—who looked shaken but unscathed. “Drop the pride, Julia, and be practical,” Olivia whispered tightly, guiding her past Nicholas and Mac when they stepped out of the way. “You and Trish are taking one of our rooms until you can find a rental.”

  “They can’t leave, Livy,” Jason said, following them out of the house, “until I get their statements.”

  Olivia kept the two women walking. “You can take their statements up at Nova Mare,” she said without looking back.

  Nicholas grinned when Jason gave a heavy sigh, the deputy obviously having learned that when Olivia Oceanus was on a mission, wise men got out of her way and fools argued at their peril. “I believe it was novelist Robert Heinlein,” Nicholas drawled, “who said that ‘women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.’ Come up the mountain, Jason, and I’ll treat you to dinner at Aeolus’s Whisper.”

  Jason Biggs immediately perked up at the mention of the five-star restaurant with a million-dollar view of the Bottomless Sea. “I suppose it doesn’t matter where I take their statements.” The deputy didn’t even try to hide his grin. “And I can hear your version of what happened while I’m stuffing my face with surf ’n’ turf.”

  Olivia came running to the porch. “You drive Trisha’s truck back,” she said, handing Nicholas a set of keys. “And later today, I’d like you to bring Julia and me back here to pack up their belongings.” She looked at Jason as she gestured toward the tree. “He will be in jail, won’t he?”

  The deputy nodded. “At least for tonight, and maybe longer if I can get Tom to press assault charges.” But then he shook his head. “I’ve never gotten him to in the past, though, and probably won’t this time, either. Not with Jerilynn expecting their first child. Vern is the one holding the purse strings, and if he goes to jail he’ll close the mill just to spite everyone.”

  Olivia glanced toward Vern Campbell and sighed, apparently not surprised by what Jason was saying, then looked at her husband. “Yeah, well, he’s not controlling Julia’s purse strings, and I’m letting her and Trisha stay at the hotel until they can find permanent housing, even if it takes a month.”

  “My apartment is available,” Nicholas said. “Or it can be as of tomorrow. My house is finished enough for me to start staying there.”

  “Oh, that’s perfect.” But then Olivia’s smile vanished. “Assuming Julia’s pride doesn’t get in the way, knowing our staff housing is for international workers. Never mind, I’ll figure it out,” she muttered, turning and running to her truck.

  Nicholas immediately followed, going to the rear passenger door and opening it, then leaning inside. “I would see for myself that you’re okay,” he said as he gave Trisha a visual inspection. Satisfied she was only shaken, Nicholas slid his gaze to Julia. “You might reconsider ordering me to stay in the truck from now on, as it appears that size really does matter,” he said before straightening away to hide his grin—and also to keep from acting on his urge to lift her jaw when it slackened. He shut the door and walked back to Mac, his grin disappearing when he remembered Julia racing into the house alone. Far from fearing men, the woman apparently not only thought nothing of ordering around one twice her size, but wasn’t afraid to go up against one while being armed with nothing more than a stick and one hell of a temper.

  But then his mood lightened again when he pictured her squaring off against a small herd of bossy cats.

  * * *

  “I’m sorry I went back, Jules,” Nicholas heard Trisha say for the third time since they’d all started back down the mountain just before one o’clock. “I really needed my book bag to take with me to the MacKeages’, and I thought I could sneak in without Dad’s knowing. I even parked down the road.”

  “Peg said you don’t have to babysit tonight,” Julia told her for the third time.

  “But they’ve been planning this trip to Bangor for weeks. And I’m okay. Really. That is, if you’re okay staying alone tonight,” Trisha whispered.

  Nicholas glanced at the rearview mirror in time to see Julia hug her sister. “Are you kidding?” she whispered back. “I’ve got cable TV and room service.”

  Not that she’d use the room service, Nicholas guessed as he pulled into the marina to see Peg MacKeage standing at the top of the dock ramp. She immediately ran over and had the back door opened before he’d even shut off the engine.

  “Oh, Trish,” Peg said, pulling the girl out to hug her. “Are you really okay?”

  “I’m fine, Mrs. MacKeage. I locked myself in my bedroom and pulled my bureau in front of the door.”

  Apparently not quite ready to stop hugging her babysitter, Peg looked past Trisha’s shoulder as Julia climbed out of the truck. “You can both stay with us for however long you need.”

  “They’re going to take Nicholas’s apartment for now,” Olivia said. “Just as soon as he moves out his stuff and we burn up two vacuums sucking up all that cat hair,” she added, shooting him a scowl as he stood grinning at them over the top of the truck. She looked back at Peg. “And Julia’s commute to work will only be three minutes long.”

  “Well, the offer stands,” Peg said, releasing Trisha to wrap an arm around the girl and start toward the dock. “I’ll bring her back around six tomorrow night, okay, Jules?” she said past her shoulder. She urged Trisha to keep going as she stopped and turned. “Or she can stay over and get on the bus with the kids Monday morning.”

  Julia shook her head. “Thanks, but I prefer she take her truck to school. Trisha?” she called out when the girl climbed in the speedboat tied to the dock. “You remember our room number, right? You call me tonight after the kids are in bed, just . . . just to talk,” she added when Trisha nodded. Julia then softly groaned, turning to Olivia when Peg climbed in the boat and shoved off. “I thought my worries would be over if I could just get Trisha safely settled in a dorm room in Orono, but now I’m afraid I’ll be even more of a basket case when she’s over a hundred miles away.”

  “Hey,” Olivia said, touching Julia’s shoulder. “Trisha’s a sharp, mature young woman, and she’ll do just fine at UMO. You told me yourself that she’s maintained a three-point-eight grade point average despite losing your mom and putting up with your father. She’s resilient and determined.” Olivia opened Julia’s door with a laugh. “Listen to me; I’ll be worse than you—no, I already am worse—and Sophie’s only in middle school.”

  Instead of getting in the truck, Julia gave Olivia a hug. “Thank you for being such a good boss.”

  “Hey, we’re friends,” Olivia said thickly. “And neighbors. We take care of one another up here. Now come on, let’s go pack your stuff.”

  Nicholas looked around the marina that had once been Peg’s gravel pit before the earthquake had cut a fiord practically up to her front door, his gaze stopping on his fishing boat tied in a slip between a day sailor and small cabin cruiser.

  He wondered if Julia liked to fish.

  With a sense of déjà vu to be acting the errand boy again—although for a much, much younger Mrs. Oceanus—Nicholas slipped on his sunglasses with a sigh, got back in the truck, and once again drove Julia Campbell home. But this time to pack her belongings and move her only half a mile away as the crow flies, he thought cheerfully. It was farther by road, t
hough, as the home Lina had designed for him—that Duncan MacKeage’s construction crew and a bit of Mac’s magic had built—sat a little over a mile down the winding resort road from the summit. He’d chosen the site for its proximity to Nova Mare in case he was needed in an emergency, while still being far enough away to afford him plenty of privacy. He also hoped it was too far for his cats to want to make the trek to the restaurant’s kitchen twice a day for gourmet handouts.

  “Nicholas.”

  “Hmm?” he murmured.

  “I said,” Olivia drawled as he pulled up next to Vern Campbell’s pickup and shut off the engine, “that we’ll let you know if we need you to carry any heavy stuff to the truck. We should only be about an hour.”

  “Take your time,” he said, getting out and looking around, his gaze stopping on Julia as she walked up the porch steps and disappeared inside. She was definitely a lovely-looking lady, he decided as he slid his hands in his pockets and wandered toward what he assumed was the cedar mill set behind the house. She was also quite fearless, although maybe to the point of recklessness. And his size didn’t seem to be an issue for her, although she hadn’t seen him naked . . . yet. She definitely wasn’t chatty, she appeared to have an excess of energy, and she was smart, resourceful, and obviously determined to get herself and her sister settled into new lives.

  She did seem to have a powerful pride, though. But he didn’t consider that a bad thing, as he rather liked a woman who was a bit abrasive, since he admittedly had a few rough edges that could use some polishing. She was also on the thin side, but then, his cats hadn’t exactly been butterballs when they’d each first come to him, so he figured it wouldn’t take him any time to have Julia . . . well, no longer able to sleep on her belly.

  Nicholas stopped and peered inside the building at what he decided was the shingle manufacturing section of the mill, considering the strange-looking saw nearly buried in sawdust and the pallets of shingles stacked against the far wall. He continued on to another door, stepping inside to study the variety of lathes surrounded by curled shavings, and he realized the Campbells also made cedar rail fencing. He skirted the ancient-looking machinery to reach the open back wall of the building and looked around the muddy yard stacked with cedar logs.