Smell their fear.
But what he felt with Rhea was different. He could feel her through his skin. Her emotions filled him, eased through his body. It made him question everything he thought he knew. Everything he was sure he didn’t.
She shoved at him. “You better go or you’re not going to have time to get Jerrik. Chauncey’s chomping at the bit to get back out there and find something.”
Hagen reluctantly released her. She was right. Chauncey was all smiles and laughs at dinner the night before but today he was full of piss and vinegar. “What’s got him so fired up today?”
Rhea glanced back at the swinging door separating the main hall from the kitchen. She leaned in close. “I think he wants to impress his brother.”
Hagen raised an eyebrow at her. “Is his brother going to be as difficult as he is?”
Rhea shrugged. “Haven’t met him yet.”
“Great.” Hagen took a deep breath to ease the frustration at having to waste his time back in the woods when he could be making much better use of the day. He reached out to pull her back against him.
“Go.” Rhea pointed at the door. “This is important.” Her eyes and tone softened. “Imagine what this can do for Greenlea. The people here.”
“Fine.” Hagen turned so he wouldn’t be tempted by the sweet way she looked at him. He forced his feet across the street to Jerrik’s office, not letting them stop moving until he was through the door and standing at his brother’s desk.
Jerrik stared across the computer at him. “Problem?”
“You’re coming out with us tonight.”
Jerrik turned his attention back to the screen. “Can’t.”
Hagen scowled at him. “Why not?”
“Don’t want to.” Jerrik tapped on the keyboard, ignoring the daggers Hagen eyed into his forehead.
Just as he was about to let his brother know how little he cared about what he did and didn’t want to do, the door to Jerrik’s office swung open. A man about their age stepped into the small station, his boots landing heavy on the tile floor. He was nearly as tall as Hagen and his frame was wide and solid.
His blue eyes moved around Jerrik’s office, taking their time to look over the space, including Hagen and Jerrik, giving each man an appraising once over.
Jerrik stood up, his eyes sharp. “Can I help you?”
“I’m looking for Hagen.” His voice was deep and solid.
Hagen turned as Jerrik rounded the desk to stand beside him, a united front against a man who didn’t quite know his place yet. He would soon enough.
“Why’s that?” Hagen kept his tone light, amused.
The man’s lips quirked. “I hear he’s taking my brother’s group to the mountains tonight.”
Jerrik crossed his arms over his chest. “You heard only half-right then.”
****
“I’m not sure who told you I gave a shit about what you want to do.” Jerrik stared down Lance, his blue eyes narrowing as he glared at Chauncey’s older half-brother.
Lance smirked, not appearing the least bit fazed by Jerrik. “I’m pretty sure you’re getting paid really well to give a shit what we want to do.”
Rhea blew out a breath and leaned back against the truck. Hagen’s wide back now completely blocked her view of the pissing match that started before they left town this afternoon. So far they’d wasted a fair amount of the daylight she needed to set up the day’s opening shots standing around trying to figure out who was in charge.
Her money was on the man who stepped in front of her the minute Jerrik and Lance started in.
She heard Jerrik chuckle. “So now it’s we?”
Rhea couldn’t resist another peek around Hagen.
Jerrik turned to Chauncey. “You really want him to show up and take this over?”
Chauncey shrugged. The side of one finger was pinched between his teeth as he gnawed on his cuticle. “Why not?” He slid a quick glance at his much larger brother. “He’s better at everything anyway.”
Lance didn’t even acknowledge Chauncey. His eyes stayed glued to Jerrik. “I’m here because you’ve been taking advantage of my little brother’s...” The hard line of his jaw softened the tiniest bit. “Trusting nature.”
Chauncey’s shoulders slumped a little more and he sank back further from the group without even moving his feet.
Rhea blinked. Her head was starting to feel swimmy as she struggled to deal with the heightened and varying emotions hitting her from all sides. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath hoping to clear a path through all the chaos.
“Stop.” Hagen’s voice was loud and commanding but his hand was soft and gentle as it carefully pushed against her hip to tuck Rhea’s body back behind his. “Jerrik, you take Chauncey, Stewart, and Heath out and head South.” His hand stayed on her, resting warm and solid as he continued to bark out orders at the group. “Everyone else is coming with me.”
She expected Lance to protest, give Hagen the same hell he was so happy to throw at Jerrik, but after a few tense seconds, Rhea heard Lance blow out a long breath, conceding. It seemed to unglue the rest of the group’s feet from the earth. The crew finally started to move, grabbing cameras and bags and splitting into their assigned groups with Jerrik’s group having to chase him into the woods as he pushed his way into the thick growth, breaking branches and stomping down the woody underbrush as he went.
She felt Hagen relax the tiniest bit as his brother disappeared from sight. He tipped his head to one side and tucked his chin, keeping his voice low. “You okay?”
He’d been protecting her. Not from the threat of violence but from the barrage of energies and emotions that went with it. She nodded.
“So you’re the only one who’s seen this thing?” Lance stepped into her line of sight. His voice was cool and calm, without the sharp edge he tried to hide when he pretended Jerrik wasn’t ruffling his feathers. “It must like redheads.”
He gave her a lopsided grin and for the first time she could almost see a resemblance between he and Chauncey. Similar straight nose, comparable full mouth. Just much farther from the ground.
Rhea smiled back at him. “I haven’t really seen anything that can’t be explained by something else.”
Even though she was pretty sure Lance wasn’t nearly as scary as he wanted Jerrik to think he was, Rhea didn’t want to give the man any reason to think there really was something in these woods. While Chauncey was mildly annoying about wanting to see something himself, she got the feeling Lance wasn’t one to sit back and wait for Bigfoot to come to him.
Lance took a step forward, letting one shoulder rest against the side of the truck as he casually leaned against it. “You can talk yourself out of anything if you try hard enough.”
Rhea raised an eyebrow at him, ignoring the murderous intentions radiating off the man at her other side. “Meaning?”
Lance lifted his shoulders in a slight shrug. “I mean, if I saw a giant creature stalking me in the woods, I’d want it to be something else too.” His blue eyes focused on her, intense and unwavering. “I think you saw exactly what we came here to see.”
He pushed off the truck and grabbed his bag from the ground, slipping the straps over his shoulders. “And I bet you’re gonna see it again.” He gave her a wink and turned to the woods, stepping in the opposite direction Jerrik and his group went.
Rhea took a deep breath. She was going to have to keep her eye on that one. Lance might not be the ass he wanted everyone to think he was, but the guy was definitely smarter than he let on.
Lance started that fight with Jerrik on purpose. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to be in Jerrik’s group. It was that he did want to be in hers.
“I don’t like him.” Hagen handed Rhea her camera bag, still glaring after Lance.
She pulled her camera free and carefully secured it in her shoulder harness. “I know.”
Rhea switched on her camera but something caught her attention before she could follow Lance
into the woods.
Stewart.
She turned and followed the path of broken branches Jerrik left in his agitated wake, making it a few yards before she heard Stewart as he rushed in her direction.
“Re-Re!” He waved his arms at her as if she didn’t see him crashing through the trees. “We need you.”
She moved quickly through the brush, reaching his side as he turned back the way he came. “What’s wrong?”
Stewart gulped in air as he struggled to keep up with her. The group was easy to zone in on, especially with Jerrik still aggravated, and now injured. “Oh hell, what did he do?”
“He caught a branch to the leg and it’s bleeding like crazy.” Stewart stopped and rested his hands on his knees. “You go, I’ll catch up.”
Jerrik was still moving. As fast as she was rushing, Hagen’s brother was staying well ahead of her. Catching up would be almost impossible.
She had to stop him.
Rhea stilled, both her feet and her mind, focusing on Jerrik’s energy. She started from her toes, pulling her own energy up through her body, imagining it growing and strengthening as it went. Then she shot it at him.
Jerrik let out a yelp a few hundred yards in front of her.
Holy shit it worked.
Grinning from ear to ear in both pride and orneriness, she ran through the woods until she found Jerrik, rubbing the back of his neck, looking around. “Something fucking bit me.”
Rhea squatted down and yanked up the bloody hem of his pants leg. “You should be more worried about tetanus.” A thick gash ran across the outside of his ankle.
Jerrik looked down at her, his hand still covering the spot where she hit him. “Are you always going to be like this?”
Rhea fished a sterile wipe from her bag and tore the pouch open. “What do you mean like this? You should be grateful someone brought a first aid kit.” She unfolded the wipe and held it against his torn skin, pressing gently to stop the blood still seeping from the wound.
“It’s a scratch.” He finally stopped rubbing his neck and crossed his arms over his chest. “Hagen’s gonna kick my ass if he finds you like this.”
“He’s back with Stewart.” Rhea pressed harder as the blood started filling her wipe. “Damn it Jerrik. Why were you still walking with this bleeding like this?”
“It would have stopped eventually.” He pulled up his pants leg and held it out of her way.
She snorted. “Like hell it would have. It doesn’t want to stop now.” Rhea pushed her hand against Jerrik’s ankle. A warmth started in the center of her palm. At first she thought it was heat from the injury, but the feeling wasn’t coming from him.
It was coming from her.
The warmth grew as she focused on it, making her skin tingle as the soft swirl of energy moved through her body, down her arm...
And into Jerrik.
Slowly Rhea pulled her hand back. The sterile wipe clung to his skin, stained with his blood.
“Looks like it stopped. “Jerrik reached down and yanked the wipe free.
Rhea gasped.
Jerrik stared at his ankle. He rubbed his hand over the perfectly intact skin, wiping at the streaks of blood that were the only remaining evidence of his meeting with the branch.
His eyes were wide as they moved to her face.
“I wouldn’t tell Hagen about this just yet.”
17
“So you’re wanting a small building here for a...” David squinted one eye as he looked from the small lot at the entrance to Greenlea to Hagen. “A what now?”
“A business center.” Hagen flipped open the folder with all the information he’d collected to show his friend. He pulled out the paper with a rendering of the front elevation of the small, modern building he envisioned to be the first thing every visitor to Greenlea saw as they entered town. “I want a spot where people can do business. Check their email. An office away from the office.”
Hagen wanted Greenlea to appeal to all sorts of visitors and right now the limited access to the rest of the world would make most people pause. “I just want people to be comfortable here instead of feeling like they’re in the middle of nowhere.”
“They are in the middle of nowhere.” Jerrik looked over David’s shoulder at the paper depicting a clean-lined structure with large windows and skylights. He slowly flipped the toothpick in his mouth, end over end, pinching the tip between his teeth. “It’s gonna be hell to keep all that glass clean.
“Not our problem.” Hagen took the paper David offered and slipped it back into its place in the folder. “I figure we’ll have to employ a cleaning crew once this is up and running.”
“It’s still our problem then.” Jerrik looked down the street. “Who in the hell are we gonna get to clean this place? We already employ just about everyone within a twenty mile radius.”
Hagen took a deep breath. It was time to hit them with his ultimate plan, one that could pan out earlier that he expected if Chauncey did what he planned. “I think we need to build some new residential properties. If there’s work then more people will be willing to live around here. Nothing too fancy. Just simple little places for people to rent.”
“Now wait a minute.” Jerrik help up his hand. “Building up the downtown for the tourists is one thing, becoming developers another.” He shook his head, working the thin pick in his mouth as he looked at nothing in particular. “I don’t know that I want to put money into something like that.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “It’s too big of a risk. What happens when people can’t make rent?”
David’s eyes dropped to the ground. “I can start getting my crew together to get this building going while you two figure out what you want to do down the road.” He took a step back, obviously trying to remove himself from the situation. “Give me a call later on.”
Hagen waited until his friend was back in his truck and turning out of town before he turned to his brother.
“You’re an asshole.”
“What?” Jerrik’s eyes widened with genuine confusion. “Are you pissed because I don’t want to be a landlord?”
“No. I’m pissed because you don’t think about shit before you say it.” He pointed in the direction David left. “Did it ever occur to you how many times David was late on rent?”
Jerrik’s face fell. “Fuck.”
“Yeah. Fuck is right.” Hagen shook his head. “Like that guy doesn’t get enough shit thrown at him by the world. Now it comes from one of his friends.”
Jerrik jabbed a hand into his blonde hair. “Fuck.” He blew out a frustrated breath. “I didn’t think of it because I don’t think of him like that.”
Hagen wanted to be mad at his brother for being so thoughtless but the truth was Jerrik wasn’t thoughtless. He knew how hard David worked to try to support his family. It probably would never occur to him to think of David any other way than honest and reliable.
He tapped his brother on the arm. “Don’t worry about it.”
Based on the frown lines creasing around Jerrik’s eyes, he would worry about it. Probably for a while.
Hagen pulled his keys from his pocket. “I’ll talk to him next time I see him. Dave’s a good guy he won’t hold it against you.”
Jerrik’s frown deepened. “He should.”
“Don’t be too hard on yourself. If this all works out it will change everything for him and his family.” Hagen gave his brother a strong pat between his shoulder blades. “And you had a big part in making it happen.”
Jerrik shoved his hands in the pockets of his navy work pants and stared at the gravel under Hagen’s boots. “What if this whole Chauncey thing doesn’t pan out the way you’re hoping it does?”
“If it doesn’t pan out we’ll just keep doing like we do. Build up slowly as word spreads.” It would suck if it didn’t give them the visibility Hagen hoped, but it wouldn’t change the plan, just the timeline. “But I can’t imagine it will hurt unless we’re not prepared.”
Jerrik
squinted up, looking Hagen square in the eye. “I guess I’m not so much asking about that.” He hesitated, his jaw firming into a solid line. “What if things don’t go the way you want with Rhea?”
It was a thought that never moved all the way to the back of his mind, instead staying annoyingly close, coloring each idea, each decision he made. He couldn’t imagine if she didn’t want to stay with him. Wouldn’t imagine it.
“I don’t plan on finding out.”
Jerrik lowered his chin the tiniest bit. Like a man preparing to be on the receiving end of a hook. “She know about your balls?”
His brother was right to brace. Making Jerrik’s teeth rattle was easier than admitting the truth, but it would essentially be one and the same. “No.”
Jerrik shook his head. “You can’t do that man.” He spit the toothpick he’d been gnawing into the empty lot. “That’s not the kind of shit you hold back on.”
“You think I don’t know that?” It was the reason he never put himself in a situation where it was relevant information. Why he kept anyone he spent time with at arm’s length. Why he tried to do the same with Rhea.
Because she deserved the truth as much as she deserved the opportunity he wouldn’t give her.
“You gotta tell her.” Jerrik’s tone softened. “You gotta tell her now before it gets worse.”
His brother’s words hit Hagen like a load of bricks. Jerrik thought Rhea would leave. It made his stomach burn as it dropped, like a fiery ship sinking into a black sea.
Hagen straightened his spine, an act of conviction he hoped would spread. He fell back on the only thing he had to cling to. What was once a thorn in his side was now a lifeline. If Christine’s vision was true then what he did all those years ago wouldn’t change anything.
“If she’s the one it won’t matter.”
Jerrik’s eyes widened. “I thought you didn’t believe in what Christine does?”
“She was right about Magni.”
Jerrik shook his head. “Magni didn’t believe her and I don’t know that you should either. I don’t want you getting your hopes up.”
Hagen Page 19