Have Yourself a Naughty Little Santa

by Karin Tabke

  He needed to tell his mother what was going on. She’d be down at the city office this time of day.

  When he walked through the door, he knew by the tight expression on her face that she knew something was up. “Ez called. Apparently Kim’s fiancé is the CEO of the company trying to buy us out.”

  Ricco scowled. “Apparently.”

  “Where are all of the documents?”

  “Locked up in Ez’s safe.”

  Leti sat back in her chair and let out a long breath. “We meet with Mr. Gold in half an hour. He’s making another offer. I don’t know what we can do.”

  “Kim said something about those in town who had liquid assets pooling them to the tune of three and a half million to cover the balloon payments to buy time.”

  Leti shook her head. “We don’t have that kind of money.”

  “She seemed to think we did.”

  “Then, mijo, she knows something I don’t.”

  • • •

  RICCO STOOD BEHIND HIS MOTHER AT THE COUNCIL meeting. He scowled when his father walked in assisted by Esmeralda, who pushed a stroller with Krista sleeping soundly inside. The room swelled with residents. Every person who had a stake in Evergreen was there. Nick walked in like the conquering hero in a town who wanted to be left alone. The tension in the room was palpable. Nick stood smug and alone before them all.

  His presence stirred their emotion; realizing he might have made a mistake coming in alone, Nick lost some of his bravado. Ricco seriously doubted that if the mob let loose on the prick, he’d lift a finger to stop them. Anger and jealousy swirled inside him. The guy was as tall as Ricco, blond and dressed in what was obviously threads straight from Italy. Not that Ricco didn’t appreciate fine clothes: He did, but this guy’s shoes cost more than what most people made in a month. And he was Cinderella’s fiancé. Ricco shook his head in disgust.

  He had not seen that coming. Not. At. All.

  “My name is Nicholas Gold, and I am CEO of Land’s Edge Development Corp.” Boos and hisses erupted. Nick stood quietly and let it die down. “I’m going to cut straight to the heart of the matter. Evergreen is in trouble. My solution is paying each one of you twenty-five cents on each dollar of your current property value.”

  The assembly erupted into a fearsome rebuttal. Once again Nick waited. Ricco watched the faces of the people who had taken him and his family in so long ago. Never once had they asked anything of him. All they had done over the years was give, and more than anything he wanted to come through for them. He had a decent nest egg put away. Maybe there were others who would make the same sacrifice. He swallowed hard and strode out toward Gold.

  “We have until the end of the year to pay the deferred payment and interest and, by so doing, keep what we have. Until then we will not entertain any offer from you. Leave before your safety cannot be guaranteed.”

  “On the thirty-first my offer will be half of what it is now.” Nick turned to the assembly. “Can this town come up with three point six million in ten days?”

  A collective gasp rose. Nick drove the last nail in deeper. “Then make good on the monthly payments after that? Because if the loan that’s tied to each and every one of you in one way or another goes into default, then you lose everything.” He turned to the council. “Cut your losses now. And when I rebuild here, you will all have jobs. Secure jobs. Jobs with benefits.”

  “You’ll have jobs, all right,” Kim said as she strode into the room. “Nonunion minimum-wage jobs and benefits with enormous deductibles. This place will turn into Potter’s Field.”

  Nick smiled despite her eruption. “For those who don’t know her, my soon-to-be vice president of acquisitions, Kimberly Michaels.”

  She turned on him. “Ex-fiancée and never-to-be vice president.” She turned to Evergreen. “You have time, precious little time, to pool your resources together and pay off the balloon payment.” Smugly she turned to Nick. “I read the fine print. Technically there is a tenday grace period after the payment date.” She turned to the town. “So in effect you have until January ninth.”

  Nick’s deep laughter rang throughout the room. Kim knew that laugh, and it terrified her. It was the laugh of a man who had hedged his bets and had the final ace in the hole. “Did you read the deed, Kimberly? It clearly states the loan can be called at any time with no grace period. I’m calling the loan.”

  “You can’t. Only the consortium can call it.”

  Nick reached into the breast pocket of his jacket. “I just bought out the controlling share of Marcus Rand.”

  Kim had her own ace in the hole. “I’m sure when the cops catch up with your terrorists, they’ll have a lot to say.”

  “Tahoe PD nabbed the guy who got away the other day,” Ricco said, striding toward Nick. “How do you feel about doing time in Quentin for second-degree murder?”

  “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”

  “You hired those thugs to terrorize the town. One was killed in the commission of a felony. That makes you as accountable as if you’d taken part.”

  “Prove it.”

  “I intend to.”

  The energy in the room turned dangerous. The crowd had galvanized, and they drew closer together, moving toward Land’s Edge’s CEO. “Nick, you had better leave here before you get hurt,” Kim said, keeping a wary eye on the progressing mob.

  He shook his head and looked at her with utter contempt. “I can’t believe you fell for the crack. What happened to my shark?”

  “She got a conscience. Now go.”

  He turned to face the assembly. “On the thirty-first my offer will be ten cents on the dollar.” He stalked out of the room and bedlam ensued.

  Once Kim had everyone quieted down, she said, “Two things have to happen for this to work. One, we need almost four million cash in ten days. Secondly, Evergreen cannot continue to live and die by the weather and economy. There has to be something to come before and after Christmas.”

  “We don’t want any big corporation coming into town!” Jerry, the florist, said. “It’ll ruin everything.”

  “And no big box store either!” Maddy said.

  Kim smiled. “Miss Maddy, you don’t have to worry about a box store in Evergreen. There isn’t enough population to support it.”

  “That’s another thing, we don’t want a bunch of strangers coming in and messing up the ecology,” someone else said.

  For almost an hour Kim listened to the town debate and voice what they didn’t want. When they were done, she asked them, “Do you want to stay here?”

  A resounding yes erupted. “Then you will have to make some sacrifices on your end,” she replied.

  A collective groan followed. Ricco stepped up. “Listen to her, all of you! Our lives, our livelihoods are at stake here, and all you can think about is your own selfish needs? Have we all been living a lie all of these years? What happened to the caring people who took my family in? We need to come together as one unit and trust that the man or woman standing next to us has our back. Getting pissed off and laying down or walking away isn’t an option. Fight, damn it! Make some concessions and let’s get this town back on its feet!”

  “Easy for you to say, Ricco, you come and go, your life isn’t tied here. Stay a year, then tell me I have to make concessions,” Peyton challenged.

  Ricco turned on Peyton. “Life, my friend, is about making concessions. The status quo is killing us. I’m willing to do whatever is necessary to make things work here. I have money I’ll gladly give, but I won’t do it if there isn’t a plan, as Kim said, to go forward. It’s the twenty-first century, for Christ’s sake. Let’s move with the times.”

  But try as they might, once the tallies were counted, they were not only two million dollars shy of the goal but they also had no viable means—not even an idea—for a future of financial security. It seemed that the small town of Evergreen would have nothing to celebrate on Christmas Day.

  Nineteen

 
; KIM FOUND HERSELF TAKING THE FULL BRUNT OF EVERGREEN’S demise on her shoulders. While in her head she knew it was poor financial planning and bad loans that had them on the verge of bankruptcy, she still felt responsible. Several times she had attempted to speak with Ricco, but he’d avoided her. There had been no warm reception from his mother or sisters either. Only Enrique hobbled over to her as she was about to exit the town hall.

  He grinned and said, “How guilty are you feeling right about now?”

  She scowled. “Guilty enough. What do you want?”

  “I just went on sale. Fifty thousand and I disappear.”

  Kim laughed, and because she did feel so guilty, she pulled out her checkbook and wrote out a check for fifty thousand dollars. She tore it off and handed it to the crook. “The check is my receipt. Come back here after you leave tonight, I show them the canceled check, and you can kiss their pity party good-bye.”

  He grinned up at her and kissed the check. “Merry Christmas, Miss Michaels, Merry Christmas.” He hobbled off, and as he met up with his daughters, Kim caught Ricco’s dark frown across the way. She started toward him, determined to say what she had to say, then leave.

  He moved toward the front of the building and she followed him.

  “Ricco!” she called to his retreating back. He kept walking. “Fine, walk away like you always do. Be the coward!” He hesitated in his step but kept going. Kim ran after him.

  “Stop for once in your life and let someone who made a mistake apologize!”

  He did stop then. Slowly he turned around. A storm waged on his face. “The next thing you’ll be telling me is I’m a coward for not playing nice with my father.”

  “No, I understand how you feel. I don’t know that I could ever forgive him. And I think you’re right, anyway. He hasn’t changed.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  She shrugged, not wanting to add to this man’s misery. “A hunch.”

  He stood glowering down at her.

  She opened her mouth several times to say what she felt, to lay it all on the line, but the fear of complete rejection paralyzed her. “I-I just wanted to tell you I’m sorry.”

  “Glad you have a conscience.”

  “I have more than that. I have feelings. I hurt too, you know!”

  “Cry me a river, Kimberly. You’ve lied, cheated, and lied some more. You’re as bad as that piece of crap you call your fiancé.”

  “My ex-fiancé. Hell, he never was officially!” Ricco’s anger was so absolute that he could not see through the haze of it. Any attempts to convince him how bad she felt would go unheard. He needed time, she decided. And so did she.

  “Good-bye, Prince Charming,” she softly said, then walked past him to her car and drove out of town.

  • • •

  INSTEAD OF WALLOWING IN HEARTBREAK AND SELF-PITY as the miles mounted between them, Kim’s brain went on high alert. She was not a quitter and never a loser when it came to the art of the deal. She’d be damned if she’d lose this deal and her man in the same day! Her brain churned, it plotted, it connived. There had to be a way to save Evergreen. She pulled up in Auburn and took a room at a local hotel, where she pulled out the laptop and started making phone calls.

  Long after midnight she crashed, still clothed, on the bed. She was up at first light and back on the computer, making calls and calling in favors for phone numbers to CEOs who were getting ready to celebrate Christmas halfway around the world. But it paid off. Two days later she had an investor. And better than that, she had one who was willing to give Evergreen the resources to remain fiscally solvent, even if, like this year, Christmas was canceled. She was as excited as a little kid on Christmas morning!

  Kim jumped into the shower. After she dried off, she pulled out a sweater from her case. As she did so, the small box Ricco had put in her drawer plopped out. For a long moment she didn’t reach for it, but she couldn’t help herself. She wanted to be a part of anything that was a part of him. With a shaky hand she reached for it and slowly lifted the lid. Hot tears erupted and she gently touched the gold heart locket. It wasn’t the one her grandmother had given her, but it was close. He knew how precious the locket had been to her, and he must have moved hell and earth to find one so similar in what must have been only a matter of hours. She opened it up and caught her breath. Engraved inside were the words To new beginnings.

  She clutched the locket to her heart and closed her eyes. For long moments she didn’t move. She barely breathed. He got her. He understood her fears because they were his fears. They were so much alike it was scary. But in that, she knew what she had to do to convince Ricco she was worth taking another chance on. A new determination filled her. No man had ever fought for her, and when she thought about it, she hadn’t fought for any one of them either. But she was going to fight for Ricco. After all, it was Christmas Eve, and everyone knew miracles happened! And she would not stop until she bagged him. She smiled and quickly packed the rest of her things.

  As she drove toward Evergreen a light snow began to fall. When she hit town Kim expected the lights to be dim, the cheer and happiness to be gone. She truly expected to find a wasteland. Instead she found the entire population of Evergreen in the street with candles in hand held before them. She parked the car in front of Esmeralda’s B&B and listened. Like angels from above, she heard the song “Silent Night” being sung. Slowly, mesmerized she followed the procession of carolers toward the gazebo. As the people of Evergreen formed a circle around the stable that had been erected for the reenactment of the birth of Christ, Kim caught her breath as a sudden rush of emotion choked her.

  Sweet little Mari, in a white robe and blue veil, held a baby doll in her little arms and looked lovingly down at it. She kissed it and placed it in the manger. Kim’s eyes filled with tears as she watched and listened. Despite the town being in the throes of complete financial disaster, they’d come together as one to celebrate the true reason for the season. Her gaze caught that of Leticia, who smiled at her, then Elle’s and Jasmine’s who also smiled. Esmeralda stood with a handsome man in uniform, who she looked adoringly at, and Kim almost lost it. But what caused her more emotion was the sight of Ricco standing beside his father. While there was no great affection coming from Ricco, there wasn’t that perpetual scowl that always showed up when Enrique was present.

  Kim flinched at the sight and grappled with the reality that she would have to be the one to tell the man she loved his father was a fraud. How she would tell him she had not the slightest clue. He’d been through enough hurt already, and the last thing she wanted to do was crush his heart more.

  When Ricco looked across the gathered crowd and locked eyes with her, she saw a spark of something. Hope? Happiness? Whatever it was quickly vanished and was replaced with shaded anger.

  She stood back and waited. And watched. His friend Jade and Jase were standing nearby with another striking couple, who seemed to be quite enthralled with each other. Kim felt a stab of jealousy. She watched the easy, loving way they touched each other and smiled. The man pressed his hand to the woman’s belly and leaned into her for a long kiss. Jase and Jade grinned up at Ricco, who, in response, turned to stare at her. His eyes were blank, but she could see the tightness of his jaw and knew he was still angry with her—but more, she could guess, hurt.

  When the vigil was over and the crowd broke up, she moved toward Ricco. He stood and waited for her, and for that small token she was eternally grateful. He couldn’t hate her that much if he was willing to speak to her.

  She smiled, feeling suddenly shy and vulnerable. “Merry Christmas, Ricco,” she said.

  He nodded. “Merry Christmas.”

  “That was beautiful. I can’t believe after everything that’s happened everyone is so…so…”

  He cocked a dark brow. “Into the reason for the season?”

  “Yes.”

  “There’s more to life, Kimberly, than money.”

  “Don’t call me Kimberly.” />
  “Fine, Kim. So what brings you back here?”

  “A couple of things, actually, but you mostly.”

  “Then you’ve wasted time and gas.”

  She stiffened and moved in closer to him. “I don’t think so. I think the proposal I’m about to make is worthy of a listen.”

  He stood as rigid and as cold as an icicle. “Go on.”

  She pulled the locket out of her pocket and opened her palm. “First of all, I wanted to thank you for this. Aside from the locket my grandmother gave me, this is the only gift anyone has ever given me. It means more to me than you know. Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome,” he said through clenched teeth.

  She opened it up and read, “To new beginnings.” Then looked up to him. “It’s what I want. With you. And the only thing I can promise you, Ricco, is I will never lie to you.”

  “It’s too late for that now.”

  “Why?”

  “Because in the time you’ve been gone, I’ve decided I liked the way my life was. Uncluttered, uncomplicated, and”—he looked down at her, an earnest expression lighting his handsome face—“unemotional. I’m man enough to admit I don’t like the hurt that goes with emotions, Kim.”

  It felt as if a ten-ton boulder had just landed in her belly. “I can’t believe I’m hearing this from you. You go out and catch bad guys, get into gunfights, and kill people, but you can’t find the courage to open your heart just a little?”

  He opened his mouth to speak, but she halted him. “I’m in love with you, Ricco. I want to be with you more than I want money or a big house. I want to be where you are. I want a second chance. I want you to be as brave as I’m being right now.”

  He reached up and took the locket from her hand. “When I bought this, I felt brave. Like I was king of the world, but I was scared shitless too. These last few days have been the worst days of my life, and not because this town is going under, but because you left me.”

  “I—,” she started, but he halted her this time.