The Heart of a Hero (4 page)

“The bigger tips are actually a by-product,” Julia said, carefully relaxing back in her chair. “I was just trying to make everyone’s stay memorable so they’d go home and tell their friends that Nova Mare is worth the exorbitant prices you charge.”

Olivia arched a brow.

Julia arched a brow back at her. “A one-week stay in your
small
cottages would pay in-state tuition at the University of Maine for an entire semester.”

Olivia dropped her gaze and smoothed down the front of her fleece. “Our hotel rooms are more reasonably priced,” she murmured. But there was a gleam in her eyes when she lifted her head and shrugged one shoulder. “It’s apparently true that the more you charge for something, the more people simply
have
to have it.” She gestured at the window facing Bottomless just as Julia had. “If they want
quaint
instead of five-star, they can go stay at Silvia Pinkham’s camps down in Turtleback. Um, you do know that if Nicholas finds out you’ve been handing guests your number,” she said, nodding at the card on the table, “he’s probably going to give you a two-hour lecture on resort security.” She suddenly tapped her forehead with her hand. “What am I saying? He’ll make one of his men give the lecture, because three sentences appear to be that man’s limit.”

Julia felt her face draining of color again, and Olivia leaned back in her own chair with a laugh.

“I’m kidding—at least I hope I am. Let’s just agree not to tell him, okay, and you’ll stop handing out the cards?”

Julia looked down to hide her scowl. Darn it, those cards made her tips.

“How about,” Olivia said, leaning forward and reaching across the table, “if I instruct the front desk to send the specific housekeepers to the cottages and hotel rooms they’re assigned?” She tilted her head. “I guess I should have questioned why you asked Bev to always give you the same cabins each week.” Olivia shrugged. “She and I thought it was because you liked zooming around in our little housekeeping carts instead of doing the hotel rooms. But I think you’re onto something here, Julia. I like the idea of our housekeepers feeling proprietary toward their rooms week after week, and I’m going to tell Bev to make that a new policy.” She leaned back and crossed her arms. “So, what else have you got?”

“Ah . . . got?”

“Your ideas to make our guests deliriously happy to pay the
exorbitant
prices we charge. You said you have a notebook full, so give me a couple of examples.”

Julia went back to scowling at her lap. “Well, I thought we—I mean
you
,” she said, looking up with a grin, “might like to get some pull wagons. You know; the big metal wagons with the all-terrain tires? I found one in a yard sale in Millinocket that I use for collecting my pinecones at home. Anyway,” she rushed on, “I think if you parked one on every cottage porch, the parents would take longer walks on the foot trails since the toddlers could ride when they got tired. And you could get some for each of the hotel segments, too. When I’m looking for cones up here, I never see families more than a mile out, but some of the best views of the fiord are two and three miles away.”

“We’re on a
mountain
,” Olivia said with a laugh. “The wagons wouldn’t be here a week before we started seeing them racing by full of older kids looking for a thrill ride.”

“Oh. I hadn’t thought of that.”

“What else?”

Okay then; instead of Olivia wanting to set up an interview, it appeared they were having it now. Too nervous to sit any longer, Julia stood up and walked to the large front window. “Well, I remember that at Inglenook you used to have—” She stilled when her cell phone started ringing and snapped her gaze to Olivia.

“Gee, I wonder who that could be,” Olivia drawled. “You have guests staying over in Pine Tassel and Elderberry, don’t you?”

Julia nodded as she pulled out her phone. “It’s the front desk,” she said with a frown as she answered it. “Julia Campbell. Wait, slow down. What?” One minute later she snapped the phone closed and headed to the desk on the far wall. “A woman just called the resort and said something about my father and Trisha. They said she was screaming and not making much sense,” Julia added, picking up the cottage phone, but then just looking at it. “What number do I dial to get a direct line out?” she asked, turning to Olivia. “Don’t I need a guest code or something?”

Olivia walked over with her hand outstretched. “My cell phone will be quicker.”

Julia then stood staring down at the cell, which was nothing more than a solid black screen. She thrust it back at her. “I don’t know how to use this. I have to go home, Olivia.” She rubbed her forehead, trying to clear the black fog that had descended when the receptionist had mentioned Trisha. “Okay, look; I didn’t wrench my back last night,” she finally admitted. “Dad’s on one of his binges, and when he came at me last night I didn’t duck in time. That’s why I need to get off this mountain and make sure Trish is okay. I have to go home
now
.”

“We have a plan for that,” Olivia said, working her finger across her cell’s screen. “I’ll have someone drive you. Nicholas,” she said into the phone, smiling when Julia gasped, “I need you to pick up one of our staff at Foxglove Cottage and drive her home. She has a family emergency. No, wait; she hurt her back, so run up and get my truck. It’ll be easier for her to get in and out of. We’ll be waiting out front. Foxglove,” she reminded him, touching the screen again and slipping the phone in her pocket. “Come on, let’s get you in your jacket and wait on the porch. He’ll only be a minute.”

“Is there someone else who could drive me?” Julia whispered as Olivia helped her into her coat. “Please?”

Olivia stopped with the sleeves halfway up Julia’s arms. “You have a problem with Nicholas?” she asked in surprise.

“He gave me a ride home from the parking lot yesterday.” Julia pulled her coat all the way on, then looked down to button it up. “And he . . . um, my father insisted that I kiss Nicholas to thank him for the ride, and he . . . he . . .”

Olivia pressed her hands to Julia’s flaming cheeks and lifted her face. “And he what?” she whispered.

“He kissed me. To shut up my father, Nicholas pulled me into his arms and kissed me, then said ‘you’re welcome’ and drove away.”

Olivia encircled Julia’s shoulders and headed for the door. “Well, the man is rather astute when it comes to reading situations, and no one could ever say he’s not fast on his feet—or with his lips, apparently,” she added with a chuckle. She stopped on the porch. “I bet you nearly fainted.”

“I was humiliated, and he was appalled. The guy had to
kiss
me to escape.”

“Or he could have simply turned and walked away.”

“I don’t need to embarrass myself to him twice. Can’t someone else drive me?”

Olivia gave her a tender smile. “Let it go, Julia. You don’t have a monopoly on embarrassment. And don’t forget, he got a
kiss
. And when have you known any man to have a problem with that?” Olivia slipped her arm through Julia’s when they heard a vehicle coming up the cart path, and led her down the stairs. “Trust me; Nicholas is the man you want backing you up if there’s trouble at home.”

Julia blew out a resigned sigh. “Do you have any idea what it’s like to be thirty years old and still have your father embarrassing you? Most girls outgrow that by their late teens, but I’ll probably still be blushing when they’re throwing dirt on my grave.”

“If any of the female workers hear that Nicholas finally kissed one of you ladies . . . well, let’s just keep this our little secret, okay?” Olivia said, her eyes gleaming. “And I promise not to ask if your insides clenched and your palms started sweating and your heart started racing so fast you thought you might faint, if you promise to let it go. Deal?” she said with a laugh when Julia just gaped at her. Olivia sobered when a pearl-white SUV pulled up beside them and stopped. “Now go see what’s going on at home. I’ll finish your cottage. Nicholas,” Olivia said when he came around the truck as she led Julia to the passenger’s door. “The front desk just got a call that something’s going on at Julia’s house. I believe you know where she lives?”

He stilled after opening the door and snapped his gaze first to Olivia, then to Julia, then back to Olivia. “Ah, yes, I do.”

Feeling as if her cheeks were about to blister, Julia slid in and fastened her seat belt, folded her shaking hands on her lap, and stared out the windshield. Darn it, why was Trisha even home? The girl was supposed to hang out with Kimberly today until one, when Duncan MacKeage was going to pick her up at the Nova Mare marina and take her across the fiord to babysit his and Peg’s little tribe of heathens tonight and all day tomorrow.

So what was she doing home? And who had called the resort in a panic? Their sister-in-law, Jerilynn? Then that meant Trisha had called Tom for help, which meant the girl must be in some pretty bad trouble.

Chapter Four

“What’s going on at home?” Nicholas asked, returning the guard’s nod as he sped past the booth at the beginning of the road that descended the mountain.

“I don’t know. Somebody called the resort and said Trisha’s in trouble with my father. She’s my sister that you . . . met last night.”

Nicholas pulled his phone from inside his jacket and held it out. “Does she have a cell? Call her. Or call your house,” he added when Julia didn’t take it.

“I don’t know how to
use
those phones,” she softly growled.

“Yes, you do,” he growled back, sliding his thumb across the screen to unlock it. He held it out to her again, even as he slowed to make a hairpin turn while watching for oncoming traffic—specifically a silver Lexus he’d been told had been the only vehicle through the lower gate in the last half hour. “Use your finger. Touch the phone icon and dial, then touch send.”

She took the phone just as he exited the turn, and Nicholas sped up again as he also kept an eye out for the stretch limo he’d been told had left the summit about thirty minutes ago but hadn’t arrived at the lower gate yet. Every driver traveling the resort road was given a radio they would then turn in at the opposite gate, so his guards could give updates about road conditions. It was a program he’d implemented within a month of taking over as director of security, and it had already proven invaluable during several winter storms last year, a number of accidents, and two ambulance runs. And just like all of his guards, Nicholas knew the road’s every twist and turn to the point he could make today’s run in about twenty minutes—assuming his passenger had an iron stomach.

Julia apparently figured out the phone and held it up to her ear, only to lower it a minute later. “She’s not answering her cell,” she said, dialing another number, then holding the phone to her ear again. “Jerilynn! What’s going on?”

Nicholas heard a frantic female voice on the other end, although he couldn’t make out what she was saying. “She locked herself in her bedroom?” Julia said, also sounding frantic as she grabbed the handle above her door when he took a corner without slowing down. “Did he hit her?” she whispered tightly. “Look, just make sure Tom keeps him away from her. I’ll be there in—Jerilynn!
Hello?
”

Julia lowered the phone to her lap. “She hung up. Or she dropped the receiver and it broke. I heard a loud crash.” She handed him back the phone. “My brother Tom is there. He won’t let anything happen to Trisha. Jerilynn said she called the sheriff.”

They passed the Lexus parked in a scenic turnoff just as the road grew less steep, and Nicholas pushed down on the accelerator. “Can your brother handle himself in a fight?” he asked. “Your father’s not exactly a small man, and last night he appeared to have the strength of an ox—even inebriated.”

“Tom’s at a disadvantage size-wise, but he’s strong. Um . . . about last night,” she whispered. “I want to apol—”

“Let’s agree that you won’t apologize for something you had no control over,” he said before she could finish, “and I won’t apologize for getting involved in your business in the first place.” He grinned in her direction. “And we’ll also agree not to feel awkward when we run into each other at work.”

He saw her take a deep breath—which ended abruptly when her expanding lungs pressed against her sore ribs, apparently. “Works for me.”

They both fell silent with their deal struck, Nicholas figuring Julia had quickly agreed because she didn’t think she’d run into him for at least another six months. She was wrong, of course, but he saw no need to enlighten her. They sped past the limo pulled off the road next to a timber bridge, the driver leaning against its front fender and giving Nicholas a wave on their way by. Several minutes later he shot past the lower gatehouse with a nod at the grinning guard, then slowed to a less reckless speed now that he had no control over the traffic for the remaining mile of resort road.

“I wondered why we only saw two cars,” Julia said, glancing over her shoulder at the three cars waiting at the entrance gate before looking at him, her large hazel eyes widened with surprise. “You called ahead and had the road closed?”

He nodded as they passed the resort’s entrance to the Nova Mare marina. “I also had the guards at both gates tell me the number of vehicles already on the road so I could watch for them, although the drivers were warned by radio to pull off and wait until after we passed,” he explained, gesturing at the radio permanently mounted on the dash of Olivia’s truck. He stifled a grin when he heard his passenger sigh as she stared out through the windshield again. “I’m impressed, Julia. You didn’t scream once.”

She snorted. “I’m pretty sure that’s why it’s called
frozen in fear
.”

Nicholas checked his watch when he pulled onto the main road, pleased that he’d made it down the mountain in nearly record time. They soon reached the Campbells’ mailbox, and he saw Julia stiffen when they passed Trisha’s SUV parked on the edge of the long driveway halfway in from the main road.

“Stay in the truck,” she suddenly said into the silence when they reached the house. “Better yet, just leave.”

Nicholas jerked the vehicle to a stop and looked at her, incredulous. “You expect me to sit out here while you walk in
alone
on a drunken man in a rage?”

The woman unfastened her seat belt and looked at him, her eyes narrowed and direct. “This isn’t your business, so stay in the truck
or leave
.”

She was out her door and halfway to the house before he recovered enough to scramble out and chase after her. By the gods, if he wasn’t in a bit of a rage himself, he’d be tempted to laugh. He turned stone-cold sober, however, when he saw Julia grab a stout stick leaning against the house before she yanked open the door and stormed inside. He scaled the steps and slammed inside behind her, only to pull up short when a heavily pregnant woman spun toward him with a startled scream.

“Oh, thank God you got here fast, deputy,” she cried, rushing over and pulling him toward a staircase at the far end of the kitchen. “My husband’s up there but he’s hurt, and the girl’s father is trying to break down the bedroom door with an ax. Where’s your gun? Aren’t you supposed to have a gun?”

Nicholas took the woman by the shoulders and sat her on one of the kitchen chairs. “Stay put,” he growled, rushing up the stairs just as something struck wood with enough force to shake the house, followed by a muffled scream—which was followed by an outraged feminine growl. He rounded the corner in time to step over a body and snatch the stick away from Julia as it was descending toward her father, then pluck the startled woman off her feet and set her behind him just as her father wrestled the ax out of the door and swung it toward him.

Nicholas caught the ax in midswing and yanked it out of the bastard’s hands, effectively pulling him off balance as he drove a shoulder into the man’s stomach hard enough to knock the wind out of him. Nicholas then straightened with him over his shoulder, turned and strode past Julia, stepped over the fallen body, and walked down the stairs past the gaping woman, through the kitchen, and out the front door. He walked down the porch steps and deposited his heavy load on the ground next to the same tree the bastard had been hugging last night, ironically catching the man’s head just before it slammed against the trunk.

A sheriff’s cruiser sped in the road, its lights flashing but no siren blaring, and Nicholas straightened to see a large gold SUV speeding in behind it. Julia
really
wasn’t going to be happy, he decided when Olivia opened her door before Mac even brought the vehicle to a complete stop, because “this isn’t your business” was apparently about to become her boss’s.

“Damn, Nicholas,” the deputy said as he walked up, one hand on his weapon despite his grin. “I love it when I find you at a scene. It always means I’ll be leaving with all my teeth.”

“Jason,” Nicholas said with a nod as he stepped aside.

“Christ almighty, Vern,” deputy Jason Biggs muttered as he crouched in front of Julia’s gasping father. “What have you gone and done this time?”

“He was using an ax on a door trying to get to his youngest daughter,” Nicholas said, seeing how Vern Campbell was too busy trying to breathe to answer.

“Where’s Julia?” Olivia asked, rushing up to Nicholas. “Is she okay? Is Trisha okay?”

“I haven’t seen Trisha, as she was behind a locked door, but Julia’s okay. A man and another woman are also in the house.” Nicholas looked at Jason when the deputy stood up from cuffing Vern Campbell’s hands in front of his big belly. “There’s a man lying on the floor in the upstairs hallway, out cold.”

“That’s probably their brother Tom,” Olivia said, stepping closer to Nicholas when Vern Campbell rolled onto his side and started throwing up.

“Could I get you gentlemen to keep an eye on this idiot while I go see if we need an ambulance?” Jason asked, already heading to the house.

Olivia turned to her husband. “Do something,” she softly growled, gesturing at Julia’s father, “before he kills somebody.”

Mac shook his head. “You know the rules, wife,” he said quietly.

“Then
I’ll
do something,” she snapped, pivoting and storming to the house.

The wizard folded his arms on his chest as he watched her run up the steps, then looked over at Nicholas. “She doesn’t always agree with my protecting free will when it’s someone’s will to harm another.”

Nicholas snorted. “Can’t say that I disagree with her.” He walked to the stairs and sat down on a middle step, then rubbed his face in his hands. “Zeus’s teeth,” he growled when Mac sat down beside him. “The bastard had a double-edged felling ax, and Julia ran inside armed with only a stick.” Still holding his head in his hands, he looked over at Mac. “She told me to stay in the truck because it wasn’t my business.”

“You’ve been living here over a year now and that surprises you?” The wizard visibly shuddered. “I break into a cold sweat when Sophie or Ella gets their mother’s stubborn look in their eyes and I picture them out in the world beyond my reach.”

“I’m never having daughters,” Nicholas muttered.

“Good luck with that, my friend,” Mac said with a humorless chuckle. “You figure out how to persuade Providence to give you only sons, and
I’ll
give you a bottomless satchel of money.”

“Your father already gave me one for putting up with your sister for thirty-one years.” Nicholas straightened, shooting Mac a threatening scowl. “So quit asking me to babysit Ella, because my answer is and always will be
no
.” He went back to hanging his head in his hands just as Vern Campbell started snoring, apparently all tuckered out from his rage. “The bastard struck Julia in the back yesterday, likely with the very stick she tried using on him today.” He glanced at Mac. “She and Trisha spent the night in the church. And she was at work this morning, even though she was badly bruised.”

Olivia came outside with her arm around Julia, who had her arm around Trisha—who looked shaken but unscathed. “Drop the pride, Julia, and be practical,” Olivia whispered tightly, guiding her past Nicholas and Mac when they stepped out of the way. “You and Trish are taking one of our rooms until you can find a rental.”

“They can’t leave, Livy,” Jason said, following them out of the house, “until I get their statements.”

Olivia kept the two women walking. “You can take their statements up at Nova Mare,” she said without looking back.

Nicholas grinned when Jason gave a heavy sigh, the deputy obviously having learned that when Olivia Oceanus was on a mission, wise men got out of her way and fools argued at their peril. “I believe it was novelist Robert Heinlein,” Nicholas drawled, “who said that ‘women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.’ Come up the mountain, Jason, and I’ll treat you to dinner at Aeolus’s Whisper.”

Jason Biggs immediately perked up at the mention of the five-star restaurant with a million-dollar view of the Bottomless Sea. “I suppose it doesn’t matter where I take their statements.” The deputy didn’t even try to hide his grin. “And I can hear your version of what happened while I’m stuffing my face with surf ’n’ turf.”

Olivia came running to the porch. “You drive Trisha’s truck back,” she said, handing Nicholas a set of keys. “And later today, I’d like you to bring Julia and me back here to pack up their belongings.” She looked at Jason as she gestured toward the tree. “He will be in jail, won’t he?”

The deputy nodded. “At least for tonight, and maybe longer if I can get Tom to press assault charges.” But then he shook his head. “I’ve never gotten him to in the past, though, and probably won’t this time, either. Not with Jerilynn expecting their first child. Vern is the one holding the purse strings, and if he goes to jail he’ll close the mill just to spite everyone.”

Olivia glanced toward Vern Campbell and sighed, apparently not surprised by what Jason was saying, then looked at her husband. “Yeah, well, he’s not controlling Julia’s purse strings, and I’m letting her and Trisha stay at the hotel until they can find permanent housing, even if it takes a month.”