LITMIR.BIZ

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to the area got lost on occasion. It wasn’t unusual to have to organize the town into a search party. He supposed that was what he liked best about living in a place like Hades, knowing that he could rely on his neighbor if he had to.

      “Your brother got lost when he first came out here. He went to the Inuit village to inoculate the children against the flu that was going around that year. It was the beginning of June, but a freak snowstorm hit when he was on his way back. My sister was guiding him. If Jimmy and April hadn’t found their way to the cabin, they would have died from exposure.” He didn’t mention that, ironically, it was the cabin where he and his sisters had lived before their mother had retreated from reality. “This can be a very unforgiving land, Lily.”

      There was something almost unsettlingly intimate about having him address her by her first name. Maybe the altitude was making her giddy, she thought, dismissing the odd feeling.

      “If it’s so unforgiving, why do you and my sister stay?”

      She wasn’t even going to mention Jimmy. When she first heard that her playboy brother had decided to take up residence in a place that was less than a fly speck on the map, she was rendered utterly speechless for one of the few times in her life. She knew that Jimmy had a good heart, and that he also liked to have a good time. From what Alison had told her, there was no nightlife in Hades other than the Salty Dog Saloon and a couple of movie theaters.

      “Why does anyone stay?”

      Max smiled to himself. If he had to explain, then she missed the point. But since she was waiting for some kind of answer, and he had a feeling she was the type who wouldn’t just let something go, he said, “Like a beautiful woman, it has its allure.”

      She had another take on why he, at least, remained here. From the way he spoke and conducted himself, she had a feeling that he wasn’t exactly a go-getter. She wouldn’t have given him two minutes in her world.

      “Or maybe it’s easier being a sheriff here than in, say—” she looked at him pointedly “—Seattle.”

      If she was trying to put him on the defensive, he thought, she was going to be disappointed. “Maybe. But I wouldn’t know everyone in Seattle the way I do here.” He made himself comfortable in his seat, knowing they’d be landing soon. “I like knowing who I’m protecting.”

      The plane suddenly dipped and without thinking, Lily grabbed onto Max, jerking him toward her.

      “Sorry about that.” Sydney tossed the words over her shoulder. “We hit an air pocket.”

      Lily’s heart was pounding so hard that she felt as though someone was doing a drumroll in her chest. “Felt more like the pocket hit us.” With effort, Lily pulled herself together. Realizing that she was still clutching Max’s forearm, she flushed and released him. It was then she saw that her nails had dug into his wrist, leaving a long, red mark. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to do that.”

      “Nice to know.” He glanced at the scratch. A small red line of blood was forming along its length, making it look angry. Digging into his pocket, he took out his handkerchief and dabbed at the line. Max raised his eyes to hers. Amusement tugged at the corners of his mouth as he deadpanned, “I guess I can always tell people you drew first blood.”

      Lily shifted uncomfortably in her seat. She hated acting weak. It detracted from the image she had of herself, the one she liked to project.

      “I’m not usually this jumpy.” Lily slid forward, her hand on the back of Sydney’s seat. “How much farther is it?”

      The comparison to her own children’s “are we there yet?” was unavoidable, but Sydney kept that to herself. She had a feeling that Alison’s sister wouldn’t take kindly to being compared to a ten-year-old girl and a fourteen-year-old boy, not to mention her two-year-old toddler. But she said what every good parent who hadn’t yet lost their temper said in similar circumstances.

      “Almost there.”

      Couldn’t be soon enough for her, Lily thought. “Maybe I should have just rented a car at the airport and driven to Hades myself.” The thought, she realized by the look on the sheriff’s face, had been uttered out loud instead of safely left in the regions of her mind where she thought she’d left it. “That way I wouldn’t have inconvenienced anyone,” she tacked on, hoping that would get her out of the awkward situation.

      “More of an inconvenience coming out to look for you,” Max informed her crisply.

      She didn’t like being thought of as a helpless female. She hadn’t felt like a helpless female since fourth grade, back when she would have sold her soul to be part of Jenny Wellington’s club. Only the most popular girls in the class belonged to it and she had pointedly been excluded. She’d realized there and then that wanting something that badly only allowed other people to have power over you. She’d made up her mind that she wasn’t ever going to want anything that badly again. That with the exception of her family, nothing and no one was ever going to mean that much to her again.

      Her mistake with Allen was in thinking that maybe she’d made up her mind too hastily all those years ago, that maybe she did need someone to round out her existence. Someone to start a family with.

      All the more fool she, Lily thought now.

      She had her family. She had Kevin and Alison and Jimmy. If she needed anything beyond that, she had the people who worked for her at the restaurant. They were a family of sorts in themselves, with her as the mother. She couldn’t help wondering how they were getting along right now without her.

      As if on cue, the cell phone tucked away in her suit jacket pocket rang.

      The tinny noise had Max quizzically raising his brow as he looked at Lily. The woman seemed to come to life right before his eyes, the altitude and the small plane that was carrying them completely forgotten.

      “My phone,” she said needlessly. Digging it out, she flipped it open. “Lily.”

      “Lily, thank God.”

      She immediately recognized her assistant manager’s high, whiny voice, the one he used just before he began to crumble in front of her. She’d left for the airport from the restaurant, rather than from her home. Arthur had been in charge all of four hours. What could have gone wrong so quickly?

      “The fool from Bradberry’s didn’t deliver enough lamb chops for tonight and we have that huge private banquet at eight.”

      The man was a gem when he didn’t get in his own way. Unfortunately, that happened all too frequently. “So, call Bradberry’s and have them deliver more.”

      There was a slight indignant huff on the other end. “I’m not an idiot, Lily. I already did that.” And then the whine replaced the indignation. “They don’t have enough.”

      “Then find my phone book in the drawer and call Fenelli’s.” She gave him a second name, knowing the man needed backup at all times. “Or try Wagner’s Market if they don’t have any.”

      Lily tried to keep her temper. It was hard to believe that Arthur Knight had a degree in restaurant management. The man was good at following orders, but still lacked a great deal when it came to thinking on his own. Of course, she allowed, he’d never been given the opportunity before because, other than the two days she’d taken off for Alison’s wedding, she hadn’t been away from the restaurant for more than a few hours. There’d been no occasion for Arthur to have to do anything on his own.

      “Wait,” Arthur begged, afraid she would hang up before he found the address book.

      Lily could hear the sound of a drawer being opened and then the shuffling of papers. The sound got more desperate. He had better pick up whatever he threw down, she thought, envisioning the chaos.

      “It’s not here.”

      Lily closed her eyes, summoning an image, trying to block out the fact that she was being observed. The two-bit sheriff was watching her as if she were a Saturday feature in the tiny

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