Gold Fire

by Starr Ambrose

  “Thanks,” Jase said. He nodded toward Drunk Number Two where he still lay moaning on the floor. “What did you do to him?”

  Cal grinned. “Pepper spray. Maggie carries it in her purse. I grabbed it, then sent her out to the car for the cuffs. She called it in, too. A squad car should be here soon.”

  Jase grunted approval. “You ever want to moonlight as a bouncer, you’re both hired. I seem to have an opening.” He scanned the room for the burly man whose presence alone usually stopped fights. The man was gone. “Let’s take these two outside to wait for their ride.”

  Cal hauled the other guy to his feet and they left. Jase heard a smattering of applause and glanced back to see who’d started it. Zoe and Maggie. It caught on as they went out the door, followed by the rising sound of voices as the saloon returned to normal.

  The two drunks stood quietly beside the building as they waited. Jase looked them over. Drunk Number One was clear-eyed and strangely removed, as if his rage had never happened. Drunk Number Two sent Jase a deadly stare from eyes still streaming with tears.

  A bad feeling took hold in his gut. “They don’t look drunk,” he told Cal.

  Cal gave them a thoughtful look. “No, they don’t.” When Jase didn’t add anything, he asked, “You thinking they just wanted a fight?”

  Jase remembered his bouncer’s unexplained absence and suspected the man had been bribed to disappear. The fake drunks had had a mission, and they hadn’t wanted it interrupted. “I’m thinking they wanted more than that,” he said. The accusations the first man had yelled echoed grimly in his mind. The whole room had heard them. “And I’m afraid they may have accomplished it.”

  • • •

  Zoe toyed with her glass as she sat at the bar, waiting for the inevitable. She was going to have to talk to Jase. He was with Cal, so she couldn’t avoid him. It shouldn’t make her nervous; it wasn’t as if she’d been hiding from him. Not as far as he knew, anyway. She was just having a drink. Alone. For half an hour, while her sister and brother-in-law were in the next room. Yeah, that looked good.

  “That was so cool,” Maggie said for about the fifth time. “I’ve never seen Cal arrest anyone before.”

  “You told me.”

  “I know, I’m sorry, I just can’t get over it. It was so . . . manly. I feel a little giddy.” She paused, looking worried. “God, am I sick? Why do I like to see my husband get aggressive with someone?”

  “You don’t, you like the idea of him protecting you.” She knew because she’d felt the same way watching Jase take charge of the situation that had started uncomfortably close to her. Her heart had thundered in her chest, and not out of fear.

  “Right,” Maggie said with obvious relief. “It’s a genetically ingrained response. Survival of the species, and all that. I’m supposed to be impressed when my man saves me.” She grinned slyly. “Boy, am I ever. I can’t wait to get him home and show him exactly how impressed I am.”

  Zoe flushed with heat, unable to stop herself from imagining doing the same with Jase. Damn it! She had to keep that guy out of her head.

  “Zoe.”

  Jase’s voice, close behind her, sent goose bumps dancing across her shoulders. She composed herself before turning around. “Hi.”

  Beside her, Maggie whipped around, hopped off her chair, and plastered herself to Cal. “You were awesome,” she told him in a low, breathy voice.

  Cal drew his head back to see her better. “Um, thanks, but it was really nothing.”

  “Oh, trust me, it was something.”

  Cal gave his wife a puzzled look, then smiled in sudden understanding. “You’re right, I was incredibly brave.”

  “I’m ready to go home. Are you?”

  “I need to stop at the station . . .” He watched his wife slowly lick her lower lip, then bite it. “But it can wait. Let’s go.”

  They started to walk off, Maggie snuggled inside Cal’s arm. Zoe cleared her throat. “Uh, guys . . .”

  They turned. Maggie looked puzzled, then embarrassed. “I forgot! Come on, Zoe, we’ll drop you off.”

  Zoe could imagine how fast she was going to get kicked out of their car. She stood, but Jase put a hand on her arm.

  “You two go ahead,” he told Maggie and Cal. “I’ll make sure Zoe gets home. I want to talk to her.”

  Zoe opened her mouth to protest, but Maggie and Cal were already heading for the door. No one had even consulted her. Zoe frowned in annoyance, but didn’t call them back. From the look on her sister’s face, they’d be lucky to make it out of the parking lot without pulling off their clothes. Three would obviously be a crowd.

  That didn’t mean Jase could take control of her life. She faced him, hands on hips. “Who said I wanted to stay?”

  “We need to talk, Zoe,” he repeated in a low voice.

  She started to argue, but paused at the serious look on his face. Whatever this was about, it had nothing to do with her avoiding him by hiding out at the bar. It also had nothing to do with the brief surge of lust she’d felt a minute ago. Her annoyance gradually changed to concern. “What’s wrong?”

  “Not here.” His jaw twitched as a muscle tensed. “And I’m warning you, you’re not going to like it.”

  Chapter

  Eleven

  He surprised her by going past the restrooms, out the back door, and straight through the construction at the back of the building. Seconds later, she stood in the dark on the grassy strip next to the Rusty Wire, looking around uneasily. The log wall of the saloon blocked most of the light from the parking area, and the wall of trees fifty feet away absorbed any light from town. It was a sheltered enclave, dark and intimate.

  Or ominous. She wasn’t sure which feeling to go with.

  “Why do we need to be out here?” She tried not to be nervous, but the pitch-black forest was creepy. And Jase was . . . close.

  “I don’t want to take a chance on anyone hearing what I have to say. It’s about those two guys we turned over to the police. I’m pretty sure they weren’t drunk. They wanted to start a fight any way they could, and they nearly succeeded. If your brother-in-law hadn’t been there to help, it could have been ugly.”

  That cleared up any doubt that he might not have known who Cal and Maggie were. He knew, just like he knew Zoe had come with them and tried to avoid him. She’d feel embarrassed about it except for the fact that he obviously had a bigger issue on his mind. “Why would they want to start a fight? Do you know them?”

  “Never saw them before. But that whole thing was staged; I’d bet my life on it.”

  It took only a second for the awful implications to sink in. “Then all those things they said . . .”

  “You got it. They were meant to cause problems for the Rusty Wire.”

  She swallowed hard. “Jase, they really will, fight or not. Those accusations will be in the police report, and lots of people heard them. Dirty glasses, a mouse . . .” Her stomach churned at the thought of having to deal with something like that at the Alpine Sky. “Rumors about unsanitary conditions can kill a business as fast as a fire.”

  “That’s right.”

  He was waiting for her to connect the rest of the dots, and it didn’t take long. A cold, hard knot formed in her chest because she knew the conclusion he’d reached made sense. “You think someone from the Alpine Sky paid them to do it.”

  “Yes.” His gaze, dark and fierce, bored into hers. “Don’t you?”

  She didn’t want to, but she was running out of explanations for the things that kept happening at the Rusty Wire. Vandalism, fire, claims about unsanitary conditions, all coming right when the Alpine Sky was pressuring him to sell. It had to be more than coincidence.

  But she narrowed her gaze, suspecting his thoughts had gone a step further. “You think I had something to do with it, don’t you? That’s why you brought me out here.” Anger burned through her, consuming any fluttery feelings she might have had about Jase. “You know, I’m getting pretty damn tired of
being the focus of your suspicions. You’ve already decided I’m the one responsible, so why don’t you just call the cops and get it over with.”

  “Zoe . . .”

  “No.” She swatted aside the hand he held up. “Don’t try giving me any lame excuses. Just get it over with. They won’t be able to prove anything, but you’ll point enough suspicion my way to make everyone think I’m involved. That’s how it works, isn’t it? Go ahead, what are you waiting for?”

  “I’m not trying to blame it on you.”

  “Sure you are. You’re taking advantage of my reputation in this town to make me a convenient scapegoat. And you know what? That makes you a fucking asshole.” The anger felt cleansing, which was good, because she was just getting started. “You think just because I kissed you that I’ll stand by meekly while you use me for—”

  His scowl deepened. “Damn it, Zoe, just shut up for a minute.” When she glared back, mouth pressed into a tight line, he let out a long sigh. “I don’t think you had anything to do with it.”

  “Right,” she said, full of sarcasm. When he simply stared her down, a hint of doubt crept in. “You don’t?”

  “No.”

  She frowned. Just when she thought she understood him, he turned everything upside down again. “Why not?”

  He gave a bitter laugh and rubbed his forehead. “‘Why’ again. Hell, I don’t know. Maybe I’m crazy. Something about you scrambles my brain. Maybe it is because you kissed me, because for a second there I saw the real you without your guard up.” He cocked his head, looking her up and down as if they’d just met. “You’d make a lousy poker player, Zoe. Or a liar. You’re not good at hiding your feelings once you let them see daylight, are you?”

  Heat rushed to her cheeks and she hoped he couldn’t see it in the dark. The feelings unleashed by that kiss had centered around lust, hot and out of control. She wasn’t about to discuss it. Covering her embarrassment, she tossed her head and stuck her hand on her hip. “Is that supposed to be a compliment, that I’m not a good liar?”

  “It’s supposed to mean I don’t think you’re part of a conspiracy to destroy me. You’re not cold and ruthless enough for it.”

  No, she was hot and dangerously weak, at least where Jase was concerned. Thankfully, he was more interested in talking about the Alpine Sky trying to ruin his business. “If this is the same old accusation that Matt is behind everything that’s happened, you’re wrong.” Matt’s approach had been nothing but ethical. Underhanded and illegal was more David’s style.

  The thought startled her, jolting her off track. How far would David go to prove his worth to Ruth Ann? And how far would Ruth Ann go to get what she wanted? Her mind raced, following new lines of suspicion.

  Jase wasn’t as easily distracted. “I’m not going to argue with you about it, Zoe. You don’t have to agree, you just have to stay away from this fight. Their tactics are dirty, and they’re bound to get worse. I want you out of the line of fire, and away from all of the finger-pointing that’s going to follow.”

  He was trying to protect her? She wasn’t even going to try to wrap her mind around that one, because what he was suggesting wasn’t possible. “Getting you to sell is my project. What do you expect me to do, quit my job?”

  “Quit, go on vacation, take an extended leave of absence—whatever it takes to get away from the Alpine Sky. It would be even better if you could get out of Barringer’s Pass entirely.”

  Did he really have no clue about the realities of running a business that did more than serve up beer and music? “I think you’ve been hiding out in this saloon for too long. I can’t just leave my job at a moment’s notice. And I certainly wouldn’t leave when they need me most. If someone is doing these things to convince you to sell—and I admit that’s what it looks like—then I think I should try to find out who it is.”

  “No,” he said forcefully. “You shouldn’t. You should stay out of it.”

  “You don’t get to tell me what to do, Jase.”

  “I’m trying to help you.”

  “How, by getting me fired for walking away from my job? How would that look?”

  “Jesus, Zoe!” His explosive response startled her, and she stared as he raked a hand through his hair in exasperation. “Forget for one fucking minute about how something will make you look! You’re so concerned with your professional image that you can’t see you’re walking straight into another scandal. Don’t you get it? You need to get far away from this before you get labeled and branded all over again.”

  Branded. She went still, finally registering his distress. It was real to him, as if he’d seen it happen. She stared at him as a familiar fear crept out from the corners of her mind, spreading over it like a black cloud. Swallowing against the sudden tightness in her throat, she said, “It’s started again, hasn’t it?” Her voice was barely above a whisper. “People are talking about me, saying I set the fire, aren’t they?”

  His eyes clouded with anger, answering her question even before he spoke. “I made it clear you weren’t involved, Zoe.” His voice was gravelly, holding back emotion. “I’ll repeat it to the whole town if I have to. But I can’t stop it from happening again. The Alpine Sky is determined to get what they want—they already have plans in place with the zoning board. They don’t care who gets hurt, or who gets blamed, even if it’s one of their own.” His eyes glittered in the faint light, as intense as his voice. “Get out, Zoe. Don’t let them hurt you again.”

  She stared for several seconds, too numb to respond. This couldn’t happen! Not when it wasn’t her fault. She’d followed all the rules, outshone every shining example. Her wild past was just that—the past. Yet when something happened and they needed someone to blame, there she was, one of the Larkin girls conveniently in the middle of things. Suddenly, all those years of being a model citizen counted for nothing.

  Tears burned behind her eyelids, but she blinked them away furiously. She wouldn’t cry. Feeling sorry for herself would just turn her into the victim they wanted her to be. She wasn’t the town’s wild child anymore, and she wasn’t anyone’s victim.

  She was a fighter. She wouldn’t let them do this to her again.

  • • •

  Vulnerability showed in her eyes, raw and painful. Jase had seen it. A second later it was gone, hidden behind that ever-present wall of determination. But it was too late for her to pretend the gossip and rumors hadn’t cut her to the bone.

  “They can’t hurt me,” she muttered aloud as she lifted her chin. “I won’t let them.”

  “It doesn’t matter how tough you are,” he said quietly. Gently, because he’d glimpsed that fragile side underneath. “Gossip and speculation hurt.”

  She studied him for several seconds. “Is that what happened to you when Adam died—people jumped to their own conclusions?”

  A twinge of the old pain stabbed his chest. He hadn’t expected her thoughts to go that way, but he wouldn’t back away from it. “No. There were no rumors about me, Zoe. Just facts. I goaded Adam into a stupid race, dared him to reach beyond his ability. He couldn’t. The accident was my fault.” He reached out, smoothing the hair away from her face, running his thumb along the line of her jaw. “It’s not the same, Zoe. You haven’t done anything wrong, but you’re going to get blamed if you’re connected in any way. You’re too convenient. I don’t want that to happen.”

  “You want me to run away from a fight.”

  He frowned, stopping short of running his thumb across her lower lip, the temptation almost overwhelming. He hadn’t realized how determined she was to salvage her reputation in Barringer’s Pass. “It’s not running away when it’s not your fight to begin with, Zoe.”

  “Whoever set that fire made it my fight.”

  “If you leave and the incidents continue, like we both know they will, people will realize you weren’t involved.”

  Her mouth pursed into a stubborn pucker. “If I leave, I’ll look like I’m guilty, and hiding from the polic
e.” The imaginary criticism stiffened her back. “I don’t run and hide, and I don’t quit just because things get tough.”

  Her accusing look stabbed clean through him and made the unspoken part as obvious as if she’d said it aloud. “Like I did?”

  She didn’t hesitate. “Didn’t you?”

  His concern for her feelings obviously wasn’t reciprocated. That brief flash of vulnerability was buried so deeply now that he wondered if he’d imagined it. Maybe he’d tried to see softness where there was only cold, hard determination.

  “I wasn’t hiding,” he ground out. “I was avoiding causing any more deaths.”

  “If you believe that, you’re the only one who does. Why won’t you give Adam his share of the blame?”

  He nearly rocked from the blow. She wasn’t just cold, she was out of line. “You don’t know anything about it,” he said, the menace in his voice obvious even to him.

  She didn’t appear to be fazed. “I know Adam wasn’t stupid. He knew what he was doing, and he knew the risks. You hid from life, Jase. But life includes mistakes. Everyone makes them. You, Adam, me. I don’t know about you, but I’m going to overcome mine. I’ll convince people that I’ve changed. If I have to be even more straightlaced and proper to do it, then I will.”

  “More straightlaced?” He barked out a laugh in disbelief, using it to cover the irritation he felt when she’d brought up Adam’s death. “Hell, Zoe, you’re already so straight you’re as rigid as a steel rod. I suggest you learn how to bend a little before you break.”

  He’d never torn into a woman like that, and he wasn’t proud that he’d done it now. But holy Christ, Zoe could press his buttons! And she’d needed to hear it. Not that she’d appreciate it—most women would probably slap his face and break into tears. He didn’t think Zoe would.

  He was right, the glint in her eyes was pure hatred. “Thank you so much for pointing out my faults when you can’t even deal with your own. You’re a great example of how to overcome emotional problems.”

  He gave her a level look. If he expected her to believe anything he said, he had to concede the truth. “You’re right. I’ve been avoiding life for too long. And that’s going to change. But you’re hiding behind your proper, professional image as much as I’ve been hiding inside this saloon.”