Last Chance Harbor

by Vickie McKeehan

  “And if it’s a requirement to getting the loan, we’ll seek out an advisor, someone who has experience in the industry. There’s a guy up in the Pacific Northwest who mentors the younger generation,” Ryder added. “We’re more than willing to pay him as a consultant.”

  Satisfied with their answers, Nick said, “I don’t know anything about boatbuilding, but I guarantee I know a few high-rollers who’d love nothing more than to own a watercraft, one custom made, especially for them.”

  “Really?” Troy said.

  “Los Angeles. My old stomping ground where there’s a lot of money, egos and people who’ll pay for the privilege of made-to-order…anything.”

  “Does that mean…we get the loan?” Troy asked.

  “Come back and see me in forty-eight hours. I want you three to do a bit of soul-searching among yourselves during that time. I need to know you’re committed and willing to not kill each other at the first crisis that comes up. And believe me, I guarantee a crisis of some sort. There always is.”

  “You and Jordan deal with a crisis at the inn?” Zach asked in disbelief. “But I’ve been told you make it all look so easy.”

  Nick grinned. “We both try. That’s where a professional approach comes in handy along with a willingness to roll. Almost weekly there’s something that goes south or not as planned or not scheduled. Of course, we have kids, which is another potential for disaster altogether.”

  Nick leaned over the desk, linked his fingers. “The point to the forty-eight hours is a cooling off period. If, after you’ve had time to find out things you don’t like about each other, things you won’t be able to overcome, like personality traits that just piss you off about the other. If, after all that, you decide to back out, then we’ll revisit the plan or chunk it altogether. How does that sound?”

  Ryder looked at Zach, then at Troy. The three men exchanged long stares before Ryder finally said, “If those are the terms, we’ll take it.”

  “See you in two days,” Troy said with confidence.

  As soon as they got outside on the sidewalk, Zach admitted, “That wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Mind telling me what exactly a three-way marriage is though? Come to think of it that might be a good enough reason to tie the knot.”

  Ryder laughed. “I was wondering that myself. Maybe we should consider this partnership more like forming a band of blood brothers. I always wanted one.”

  “Never had a brother before,” Zach said. “Might be interesting.”

  “Me either,” Troy repeated. “If we take Nick’s advice how exactly do we find out if we can’t stand each other until we’re up against the wall?”

  “That’s easy,” said Ryder. “Lock ourselves in a house for two days and see if we kill each other.”

  “But we have to head back to work.”

  “Figuratively, not literally,” Ryder stated. “I propose we go home tonight and make a list. In one column we put every single thing we don’t like about each other. Don’t leave anything out. Write out the stuff that drives us crazy. Be brutally honest. Then, in the other column we jot down what we like. We meet tomorrow at work and go over the list. Bang out any problems.”

  “I can do that,” Troy said.

  “Come clean about it all?” Zach mused. “Sure. I just hope we’re still speaking to each other afterward.”

  That afternoon Julianne couldn’t wait to find out how it had gone at the bank. Under dark overcast skies, she left school and turned the car toward Pelican Pointe. Even though she could’ve just called him for the update, she wanted an excuse to see him, to catch a little alone time with him. She told herself if it hadn’t gone well with Nick, then he’d need cheering up.

  Traffic was heavy even for Monday drive time. Halfway there, she started to fret that there had to be a reason she hadn’t heard from him. He hadn’t called. But then she’d been in class all day. He hadn’t bothered leaving her a text though. How long did it take a person to key in a text?

  Indecisive about making the trip, she talked herself into using the book about boats as an excuse, which was just plain obvious. Any reasonable sort could figure out you didn’t drive all the way from Santa Cruz to give someone a book.

  It didn’t matter. The whole thing was rather tricky because if Nick said no to the venture, Ryder couldn’t put the know-how in the manual to good use anyway.

  By the time she pulled into the farm it was five-thirty and she’d worked herself into a serious doubt-fest. She didn’t see Ryder’s truck anywhere so she got out of the minibus to wait on the porch. She grabbed the book Hayden had wrapped in pretty blue foil and headed to the house.

  Thunder rumbled overhead so close it shook the ground. Glancing up at the clouds it looked as though the dark billowing masses were moving way too fast for them to hang around for long.

  She didn’t feel like waiting on the porch so she decided to wander around the property. Leaving the book on the welcome mat in front of the door, she wasn’t sure which way to go. She’d seen the barn but she’d never checked out the rows of vegetables and the grove of fruit trees. If she intended to bring her students out here on a field trip, she needed to familiarize herself with the layout.

  Before the rain hit, she crossed to the growing area, marveled at the height of the plants and waved to a couple workers who were diligently tending the crops. She’d have to remember to ask Ryder how they were able to grow such hardy kale.

  She’d reached the orchard when she spotted Ryder’s truck hauling down the lane at a fast clip headed toward the house. She tried to wave him down but he blew by leaving a trail of dust.

  Ryder saw the minibus before he came to a stop near the porch. He got out, caught sight of the pretty package by the door, wondered about it and then looked around for Julianne. She was nowhere in sight.

  About that time the sky burst open and the rain poured down. Instead of darting into the house or the barn, which would have made more sense, he took off in search of Julianne.

  He found her standing under a tall cherry tree for shelter, shivering. Blossoms had dropped off the branches and littered the ground around her feet.

  “What are you doing here?” he shouted over a crack of thunder.

  “I didn’t hear from you all day. I wanted to find out how it went at the bank.”

  “I’d planned to call.”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  “I got busy. The meeting with Nick put me two hours behind schedule.” He narrowed his eyes at the fact she was soaking wet but seemed angry about something. “Why are you pissed at me?”

  He stood there, waited for her to answer as they glared at each other from five feet away.

  A voice rang out that belonged to neither one of them. “Run. Get out of the orchard. Move. Now!”

  They took off, darting and weaving about the time lightning slashed out of the sky and connected with the top of the tree where she’d been standing only seconds before. The bolt of white light split the timber in half. Sparks flew causing branches to crack and crash to the ground.

  Ryder snatched her hand, led her away from the copse of trees. They tromped through mud to make a mad dash to the house.

  By the time they reached the porch, their clothes were drenched. Her long hair dripped water. Raindrops beaded her brow and ran down her cheeks.

  Even in the damp cold, he found those brown eyes, exotic and sexy, warming his blood, drawing him in, bit by bit. In her trembling, he loved the fact that she clung to him with fists gripping his shirt.

  “I… I heard a voice. It was…it belonged…to Scott. I’m sure of it. He warned us right before the lightning hit, right before…”

  “I know. I heard it, too.” He planted a kiss on her forehead, tightened his hold. “You’re still shaking.”

  “So are you.”

  “I guess I am.”

  They stood on the stoop, him grooming the wet mass of hair off her face, unwilling to let her go. He thumbed the raindrops that had pearled on her
skin. Their lips met. She tasted as sweet as the cherry blossoms smelled.

  “Why were you mad at me out there?”

  “I wasn’t, not really. I wasn’t sure how you’d take me showing up here, unannounced.”

  “Don’t ever worry about that. I can’t think of a better way to end my workday. But right this minute I have cows to milk. Go inside and get out of those wet clothes. Put on one of my shirts and a pair of my sweatpants. I’ll be back in half an hour.”

  With that, he kissed her forehead and she watched him race back out into the storm.

  After changing out of her wet things and into a pair of baggy sweats and T-shirt, Julianne wrung out her clothes and draped them on the rod in the bathroom to dry. She heard the phone ring somewhere in the house and listened to an answering machine click on to record a message. A female voice she didn’t recognize got her moving down the hallway and into the living room.

  “Ryder, this is your mother. I’m giving you a heads up. That woman you used to live with, that Bethany Davis called my house today looking for you. I didn’t know if you wanted me to tell her anything, so I didn’t. Call me back though and I’ll give you the play by play.”

  The front door opened and Ryder walked in soaked to the skin. “It’s still coming down. This is some March weather we’re having.”

  “Let’s get you into some dry clothes and then you have to listen to your messages.”

  Over thick slabs of fried ham and potatoes, Ryder mulled over his mother’s call. “It couldn’t be that easy, could it? Bethany contacts me? How is that even possible? I mean, I’m sure it’s money she’s after.”

  “Maybe she misses you.”

  “Yeah. Right. She misses the take from selling off everything I owned. But it might be my only chance at getting my grandfather’s sketches back.”

  “Your mother still doesn’t know they’re gone?”

  “No. Look, every time I work up the courage to tell her, I can’t bring myself to follow through. I’m humiliated enough without letting my mom know how I got played.”

  “Then what will you do?”

  “I don’t know. Right now I need to get to work on my Troy and Zach list so I’ll have it ready for tomorrow.”

  “What list?”

  He took her through how the meeting with Nick had gone and then explained about their self-imposed homework assignment.

  “You’re planning to put in writing what you don’t like about the other?”

  “Bad idea?”

  “It’s one way to clear the air or create more friction between all of you.” She got up, went into the other room to retrieve the book. “I brought you something.”

  He looked her up and down. “I’ll say. Oh, you mean my present. It’s not even my birthday.”

  “Open it.”

  Ripping off the paper, he blinked at the book, flipped through the pages. “Julianne, this is a classic, an out of print hardcover written by an actual boatbuilder. It takes you through a step by step process. I tried to locate a copy of this several years back. Good thing I didn’t find it otherwise it would’ve ended up in the stuff Bethany cleaned out. Thank you. Will you stay while I work on my list? Maybe spend the night?”

  She draped her arms around his neck, ran her fingers through his still-wet hair, and then scraped her teeth along the lobe of his ear. “And miss out on a sweaty bout of sex on a rainy night? No way am I passing that up.”

  The next morning before daylight, Julianne woke to a dark room. When she realized she was alone, she crawled out of the covers, made her way into the bathroom. She gathered up her still-slightly damp clothes from the day before and got dressed. Following the smell of coffee she found Ryder at the stove scrambling eggs.

  He looked over at her mussed-up appearance and said, “You look beautiful.”

  “Sure I do. I’m wearing the same clothes I had on from yesterday and my hair looks…”

  “Like you were thoroughly made love to last night,” Ryder finished.

  “While that’s probably true I have to get moving to make it to class.”

  “Sit. Eat.” He waved the steaming pan in front of her before divvying the bounty between two plates.

  She sat, dug into the eggs. “What do you intend to do about Bethany?”

  “First, I go to Brent. Hopefully talk him into letting me run a sting, lure her out here. Maybe once she’s arrested she’ll tell me what she did with my stuff.”

  Julianne frowned. “I honestly don’t like the idea of that. Is there any way I could talk you out of it?”

  “Why would you want to?”

  “Hello? Because in order for your idea to work, this woman has to come here. Personally, I don’t think she’ll do it. She’ll more than likely try to persuade you into coming to… Wherever she is. And I like that idea even less.”

  “How do you get this kind of insight into a woman you don’t even know and have never met? That’s exactly what she’ll do.” He thought about it for a few minutes then it dawned on him. “You don’t trust me?”

  “I don’t trust her. Big, big difference.”

  “I’d very much prefer you not do that. Baiting this woman is not the answer,” Brent explained to Ryder, or tried to.

  One thing the new police chief did not like about his current position was that the job meant people had started showing up at his door at all hours of the day and night. In his mind that would have to change. He needed an office somewhere other than the same house he shared with his wife and child. He’d prefer it be located on Main rather than across the street along Ocean. After all, having it on Main put some distance, albeit not much, between him and his job. Several streets over might not seem too far away to most but to Brent it was miles.

  Add to his dilemma, a man like Ryder, who wanted to see an ex arrested, and Brent had a situation to resolve.

  “Let me handle this, Ryder. I know you want her to pay for what she did. And she will. But you need to let me do it my way.”

  “That isn’t fair.

  “Life usually isn’t. Finding someone, solving a crime, isn’t like you see on television. That isn’t real life. Sometimes it takes patience and trusting people like me to do my job.”

  “Just tell me what you found out.”

  Brent watched as Ryder paced back and forth in the living room. “Okay, but you will not go after her. Do you understand?” When he got him to nod, he went on, “The woman you knew as Bethany Davis was a scam artist who ran cons on at least twenty servicemen that we know of. She wasn’t particular about which branch of the service she aimed for either. Throughout the years, her husbands were equally represented by stints in the Air Force, Navy, Army, even the Coast Guard. She turned thirty last year and has eight marriages under her belt.”

  Ryder scrubbed both hands over his face. He’d known it, but hearing it confirmed was, once again, a blow to his ego. “So I wasn’t the only one?”

  “Not by a longshot. The name she’s using now is Melinda Sykes but her birth name is Crystal Dawn Lazarrio.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “I got a hit on her. After she left Philly, she applied for, and received, a West Virginia driver’s license using the name Marisa Simms. But the address she used ended up a vacant house. My guess is she didn’t stay in the area long enough to set up housekeeping before she moved on. Since fleecing you, Crystal’s been a busy girl. She’s run three other cons.”

  “Jesus.”

  “Do yourself a favor. I want you to forget about luring her here. Women like this smell a setup from ten miles away. She won’t fall for it.”

  “That’s the same thing Julianne said to me.”

  “Smart woman. Listen to her. Forget the bitch who stole your stuff and move on.”

  “But I need my grandfather’s drawings back. Bethany, or rather Crystal, or whatever the hell she’s calling herself these days, is the key.”

  “Do you honestly believe she still has those or anything of yours still in her posses
sion?”

  “Probably not.”

  “Then let the authorities, myself included, be the ones who draw her in. Now get out of here and go to work. My advice, do not spend another minute thinking about getting your ego busted up. We’ve all been there.”

  Once Ryder stormed out, River came into the living room, rubbed her hand over Brent’s back. “You’re all knotted up. With this, and the thing with Layne and Brooke, all the fights you had to break up during the street fair, this job is getting to you.”

  “I don’t mind people knocking on my door to borrow my lawn mower, but if I don’t put a stop to the idea they can just show up anytime they want at all hours without notice or calling, I may give this up.”

  “No one’s using that old Springer place. The realtor’s former office would be perfect for a police station. With a little remodeling in the back you could add a holding cell.”

  He picked her up, planted a kiss on her lips. “And that, Mrs. Cody, is why I love you. I’m so desperate I’ll go see Murphy about it now.”

  On the short drive to work, Ryder considered Brent’s words. Could he give up the pursuit of Bethany/Crystal so easily and let it go? He wasn’t sure he could do it. Spotting Troy unloading his tools from his truck, Ryder waved him over.

  “Where should we do this list thing?”

  “We still have thirty minutes before work. I say we go around back to the loading dock as soon as Zach gets here.”

  A few minutes later the three men gathered on the back dock.

  “Who goes first?” Troy asked, nervous.

  Ryder rubbed his palms on his jeans and said, “I’ll go. My lists are fairly short.”

  He turned to Troy. “I’ll start with you. It upsets me how you don’t value your own worth. You don’t think you’re good enough for Bree. You are.”

  He immediately pivoted to look at Zach. “And don’t look at me like that. If he makes Bree happy what more could you want for your sister? There are worse guys out there she could date. Troy here is a good guy. You know it’s true. You’ve seen how hard he works just like you do.”