The other two men with Jeffords began talking, explaining how they’d caught Victor destroying one of the traps and had taken him prisoner. Max completely disregarded them. He wasn’t interested in what they had to say. His main concern was Victor and resolving the situation as painlessly, as quickly, as humanly possible.
For a long moment he and Victor looked at one another, the other man meeting his gaze unwaveringly. Victor was a proud, proud man, despite the setbacks life had given him.
They’d talked about this before, when Max had gone to the man’s quarters in the hills to question him about the traps. “Victor, I warned you about this. What do you have to say for yourself?”
Victor shifted his gaze and looked out at the wilderness beyond Hades’s parameters. Saying nothing.
“I want him charged. I want him charged and tried,” Jeffords demanded. “In the old days, he’d be hung by the neck until he was dead.”
This had all the signs of getting out of hand if Max let it. “These aren’t the old days, Jeffords.” Max paused, thinking. “How many traps has Victor destroyed?”
“That’s not the point—” Jeffords protested.
“That is the point,” Max told him evenly.
He was like the calm center of a storm, Lily thought, wondering where Max was going with this and if these men would overwhelm him the way they clearly wanted to. The man he was defending looked as if he was completely removed from what was going on around him. It was difficult to say how old he was. His carriage was proud, his manner quietly defiant. The old man was serenely regal, she thought. As regal as the hills he inhabited.
Jeffords threw up his hands. “I don’t know, ten, twenty. Hard to say.”
“Say fifteen.” Max looked into Jeffords’s eyes. “How much did that set you back?”
With a huff, Jeffords paused to tally the amount in his head. The cost came to several hundred dollars.
Max nodded, taking the information in, his expression never changing. “Now if I was to give you that money, would you drop the charges against Victor? Call it square?”
Taken aback, Jeffords stared at him. “Why would you do that?”
“That’s not the question,” Max pointed out mildly. “The question is, would you call it square?”
Jeffords glared at the man he’d brought in. “He’ll do it again.”
“No.” Max looked at Victor until the man turned and his dark eyes met his own. Max saw what he needed to. “He won’t. I give you my word. Now how about it, will you drop the charges?”
To Jeffords the bottom line had always been money. “I suppose.”
It was the answer Max wanted to hear. “All right. I’ll come by your place later with the money.”
“See that you do,” Jeffords warned. Sending a few choice warning words the old man’s way, Jeffords and his men grudgingly got back into the car and drove away.
Max waited until they had gone before turning toward Victor.
“Now I gave him my word, Victor. You’re not the kind to make a man break his word. I know why you’re doing what you are, but you can’t stand in the way of progress. Not every time, anyway. There’s still plenty of ermine and beaver left. If some of them weren’t caught, they’d overbreed and then starve to death because there wouldn’t be enough food for all of them. You know that. It’s nature’s way of making sure that things continue.” Max glanced toward the departing vehicle. “Sometimes, nature’s just got an ugly face, that’s all.”
There was just the faintest hint of a smile on Victor’s lips. Then he inclined his head slightly, indicating his agreement to the bargain.
It was all Max needed. “Okay, you’re free to go.”
But as Victor began to walk away, Lily put her hand on his sleeve. When he looked at her, she felt as if she was in the presence of something timeless and as old as the lake she’d been swimming in just yesterday.
Max looked at her in surprise, but she had to know. “Did you scare that grizzly away yesterday?”
Victor said nothing, gave no indication that he even understood her question. But in that moment when he looked at her, she knew. Somehow, she knew that the old man had been the one to eliminate the danger that had threatened her.
She let her hand fall to her side. Her smile was polite, sincere. “Thank you.”
Without a word, with the bearing of a king, Victor turned from them and walked away. Toward the woods that were his home.
Lily roused herself and looked at Max. He couldn’t be earning all that much money as a sheriff and he had given away several hundred dollars just like that. “Why did you do that?”
Max was trying to remember the last time he saw his bankbook and where he’d put it. “Do what?”
He knew perfectly well what she was talking about. “Offer to pay that man.”
“Victor saved April’s life when she was a young girl. She was drowning in the lake. If he hadn’t jumped in and saved her, she would have died. He never even waited around to be thanked. But that didn’t change what he did. Money talks to Jeffords. I knew that if he didn’t get restitution, he was going to want to have Victor sent to jail.” He watched the man’s back as he walked into the woods. “Victor can’t be imprisoned.”
That sounded almost ominous. “Why, is he some kind of spirit?”
“No, but his spirit would die. A man like Victor can’t be contained in four walls. It’s not natural for him. He’s had enough grief in his life.” He saw the way she was looking at him. As if she hadn’t seen him before. “What?”
“I’m impressed.”
He shrugged. Funny how he hadn’t flinched when Jeffords had tried to stare him down, but Lily’s gaze had him squirming inside.
“Didn’t do it to impress you.”
“I know.” She was beginning to doubt that the man cared what anyone thought. Which made him very unique in her book. “And that impresses me more.” He’d just done something selfless and nice. For the moment, she felt herself softening toward him. “Tell me, Lawman, when was your last good home-cooked meal?” She knew he lived on his own and took his meals at the Salty. “Never mind. I’ll cook you one. I owe you.” She saw the question in his eyes. “For rescuing me and for not telling everyone what I was wearing at the time or—” There was no point in elaborating. “Anything else.”
“None of their business,” he told her.
“My sentiments exactly.”
“All right,” he heard himself agreeing before he entered the jail. It was asking for trouble, but he’d just managed to avert a major catastrophe and felt he owed it to himself to kick back just a little. For now. “I’ll pick you up at six.”
“But I thought you wanted a home-cooked meal.”
“I do. And since you made the suggestion, I get to pick the home.” He looked at her. “Mine. Unless you’d rather not.”
No, she’d rather. That was just the problem.
You know your problem, Lily? You’re a stickin-the-mud.
She felt her mouth grow a little dry as Allen’s words echoed in her head. It grew drier still as she said, “All right.”
Chapter Ten
For once, the afternoon was slow at the clinic. Dr. James Quintano, or, as the people in and around Hades referred to him, Dr. Jimmy, took the opportunity to drop in on his sister.
He felt a little guilty that as yet, he hadn’t had Lily over to the house for a meal. But that was because it had taken April all this time to get over being intimidated by cooking for a professional chef despite his assurances that Lily wouldn’t criticize her.
He drove over to Alison and Luc’s house, which was not far out of town, and used the spare key Alison had given him to let himself in. Ordinarily, the door would have remained unlocked. No one locked their doors in Hades, but they did in Seattle and since Lily was there alone, he’d thought to bring his key.
“Hi, Lil,” he called out as he walked through the house toward the back.
Jimmy stuck his head in the kitchen. Lily w
as at the stove, surrounded by boiling pots, more ingredients than he’d thought Alison owned and moving like a whirling dervish.
This was the way he thought of her whenever his thoughts turned to Lily. Perpetual motion surrounded by steam.
“Hi.” He grinned, entering. “Thought I’d find you here.”
The sound of the door opening had made her jump, but once she heard Jimmy’s voice, she’d calmed down. She paused to taste the broth she was making. Salt. Just a pinch, she decided.
Preoccupied, she murmured, “Oh?”
“Yup. Even on vacation.” This was the way he remembered home, he thought as he crossed to her. Warm, delicious scents wafting throughout, surrounding him the moment he entered the house. “In your case, Lily, you can’t even take the girl out of the kitchen, much less the kitchen out of the girl.”
She didn’t know if that was a criticism or not; she didn’t care. Adding the pinch of salt, she stirred it into the dark liquid, watching it disappear.
“Cooking relaxes me.”
It was the only time she felt as if she was completely in control. What she put into something, she got back out of it. Sometimes even more than she’d expected. That didn’t work with a relationship. She knew that now. Too many variables, too many unknowns. She’d stick to what she knew and let everyone else venture into romance.
She glanced over toward Jimmy. “Did you come by to harass me?”
“No, I came by, oddly enough, to get you out of the kitchen and into my house.” He had to admit that it was like watching an artist work. Mixing, tasting, and mixing again. “April and I thought you might like to come over for dinner.”
What did he think she was doing, making mudpies? “I’ve already got plans.”
“Oh?” Sitting on the edge of the counter, he crossed his arms in front of him as if settling in for a long time. At least long enough to get details. “And what plans are those?”
She knew he was prodding her beneath the teasing tone. “Jimmy, I’m the older one here, not you. I don’t have to tell you anything.”
“True.” He inclined his head in agreement. “Grapevine’ll take care of that for you.” She looked at him sharply. He had her attention, he thought. “You have no idea how quick news travels here. Got the Internet beat by a country mile. ’Course they’ve had a lot more practice at it, seeing as how civilization comes here at a snail’s pace.”
She could only shake her head as she measured out the amount of garlic she judged the broth could use. “How do you stand it?”
It had been a long time since he had even thought about that. Now, he considered himself a native. At least by marriage.
“Very well, thanks. It actually suits me, now that I’ve decided to settle down with a good woman.” Jimmy knew exactly what she was doing. He looked at her intently. “But we weren’t talking about me.”
She arched a brow and gave him a withering look before returning to her work. “We weren’t talking about me, either.”
“No,” he allowed good-naturedly, “but I thought you might take pity on your poor brother, seeing as how if I come home without you, April will grill me within an inch of my life, wanting to know what you’re up to. Give me a bone to throw her so she doesn’t fillet me.”
She wasn’t about to tell him that easily. “Tell her I’m cooking.”
“I can see that.” He paused abruptly, realizing that he’d just been given a clue. “Not for Alison and Luc, I take it.”
Rather than answer in the affirmative, Lily merely shrugged a careless response and went about her business.
He pressed his lips together, concentrating. “Well, it has to be for somebody I know because I know everybody here.” And then his eyes lit up like sparklers on the Fourth of July. “Max.”
Her back to him, Lily almost dropped the ladle into the pot she was stirring. She turned around. Was she that transparent? Or had Max said something after all?
“How did you…I mean—”
He wasn’t about to let her launch into a denial. He’d seen it in her eyes. He’d hit the nail right on the head. Now didn’t that just beat all?
“Too late for retractions, Lil.” His grin went from ear to ear. He’d always liked the other man. “Max, huh? Damn, this is going to tickle April silly. She never thought Max would give anyone a tumble.” He watched his sister, who was stirring madly now, deliberately avoiding looking in his direction. “Hell, for that matter, I was beginning to think I’d have to put aside a room for you in my house—”
That got to her. Jimmy was being insufferable. Is that what he thought? That she was on the midnight express to becoming a spinster? How archaic was that?
“Civilization must have progressed beyond the seventeenth century even up here in Hell on Ice.” Her eyes narrowed into dark, angry slits. “There’s no need to set aside anything for me, thank you very much.” She crossed to the cupboard and took down the flour. “You want to set anything aside, you can have Kevin come live with you. I’m doing just fine on my own.” Her anger growing, she set the bag of flour down beside Jimmy’s thigh with a thud. A small white cloud rose out of the burlap. “Maybe you’ve forgotten but until a few weeks ago, I was engaged to be married. That’s not exactly spinster material.”
“No,” he agreed, his eyes meeting hers, “that’s window dressing.”
He’d lost her. But if he was spoiling for an argument, he’d come to the right place. “Come again?”
He heard the edge in her voice and ignored it. No matter what words went between them, he loved his sister and wanted only the best for her. Wanted her to have the kind of happiness that had found him, even if it had been quite by accident.
“Let’s face it, Lil, Allen was just an excuse, a ruse. You didn’t love him.” He’d worked with the surgeon, knew the man’s reputation as a pompous womanizer. “You couldn’t have,” he insisted. “You hardly ever spent any time with him. If you had, you would have realized that he wasn’t your type or any good for you.”
She could feel her temper threatening to erupt and knew that it wasn’t entirely Jimmy’s fault. Her emotions were just too close to the surface these days. Close to the surface and yet so tightly bundled up she didn’t think she would ever be able to unwrap them.
“This is very interesting information to get after the fact, brother dear.” She pushed her hair out of her face and began chopping the nuts she’d previously shelled into tiny pieces. “Just where were you when I got engaged to Allen?” Why hadn’t he warned her then?
“In church.” Eyeing the way she was handling the knife, he moved a little farther down the counter. “Praying you’d come to your senses.”
“You never said anything,” she accused.
“Could anyone say anything to you?” He asked the question without becoming defensive. It was a given. Lily had always gone her own way. She issued instructions, she didn’t follow them. “Could anyone ever tell you anything? Even Kevin.”
He hesitated for a second, then decided, because he loved her, that this had to be said. “You were Daddy’s little girl, Lily. After Dad died, you blocked out everyone, the three of us included.” He saw the protest coming and headed it off. “You didn’t do it on purpose, you just did it to keep from getting hurt. We all did that in our own way. Kev threw himself into raising the three of us. I did it by doing stuff that if I caught my own kid doing, I’d tan his hide, and I did it by going out with as many women as I could so that I’d never stop long enough to find the right one.”
He smiled, thinking of April. “Lucky thing I came up here to see Alison or I’d probably be working my way across the country by now. And you—” he pinned her with a look “—you handled the hurt by working nonstop at anything you could find. You still do.” It wasn’t an accusation, just a concern. He hopped off the counter. “Slow down, Lil. Smell the roses. Walk in the moonlight. Let yourself love someone. Really love someone.”
He could see that he was talking to a stone wall, but he went on anywa
y. “There are no guarantees in life, Lily, but if you can find that one special person, even five minutes with them is worth the pain that might come later.” He knew that he would always be grateful for opening up his heart to April. “And if you get more, so much the better.”
He couldn’t understand, couldn’t possibly understand how devastated she’d been when their father had died so shortly after their mother. She’d felt as if she could never love anyone or anything again, for fear of being abandoned again. She missed her mother, but her father had been her white knight, her world. When he had allowed his broken heart to destroy his spirit despite the fact that she, that they all needed him, she felt as if something within her had died.
Steam was rising from the pot on the rear burner. “Very nice lecture, little brother. But my water’s boiling and you’re distracting me.”
He’d said all he could. The rest would have to take care of itself. “As long as Max distracts you, that’s all that counts.”
“I didn’t actually say it was him,” she protested.
“Your pale expression and stuttering said it for you.” Jimmy raised his hands and began backing up as she came at him with the ladle. “I’m going, I’m going. Maybe we can make it tomorrow night,” he said at the door.
She started to say yes, then remembered her promise to Ike. “Can’t.”
Jimmy grinned. “Anticipating?” With a hoot of laughter, he ducked as she threw a box of baking soda at his head.
“For your information, I promised Ike I’d make more barbecue sauce for him.” There, that should put him in his place, she thought.
“You’re settling in nicely.”
“I am not settling in,” she called after her brother, but he was already gone. With a sigh, she returned to the stove before the broth boiled over.
Walking in ahead of Max later that evening, Lily looked around the small area he’d told her was the kitchen. There wasn’t enough room to turn around twice. Lucky thing she’d prepared everything ahead of time and had brought it with her. She sincerely doubted the man had two pots to bang together.
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