by Evie Nichole
She hated that damn jacket. It probably cost more than her parents’ car or most of the cars in Nowhere, for that matter. At least that was the case before magazines ‘discovered’ their small little town and turned it into a luxury spot. Still, Derek’s leather jacket had a distinctive smell that was disarmingly pleasant.
“Hey, what the hell was with that biology test?” he suddenly spouted.
“I don’t understand. Mr. Cole told us everything that was going to be on it.”
“What? No, he did the exact opposite.” He kicked out his long legs and crossed his ankles. “Unless Kelly wrote it down wrong.”
“Maybe it’s not the best idea to have your ex-girlfriend take your class notes.” Harbour flipped a page as a display of her complete disinterest.
“You think she’s mad about the breakup?”
His baffled look made it impossible not to respond. “Girls don’t like it when you sleep with their twin sister.”
“I confused them.”
“They’re fraternal twins. Not identical.”
He chuckled and let his head drop back. “Okay, I’m seeing your point now. You’re saying you should take my notes for me.”
“No. I don’t even know how you got that.”
“It makes sense.”
“I’m not comfortable with that.”
He completely ignored her as he nodded. “I like this idea. This is going to happen.”
Before Harbour could gather herself to protest, his cell chimed. He lifted his hips and slipped the phone free of his jeans’ pocket. Before he flipped it open he looked at her, brow knitting with confusion.
“What’s up with your hair?”
Derek’s attention drifted away as he pressed the phone to his ear. It was hard to keep from hearing his side of the conversation. The boy lacked volume control.
“Why? Dad, do you see this rain? It’s freezing. I don’t want to go out in that. Just pull up closer.”
Harbour glanced through the window at the parking lot. It was impossible to overlook Mr. Quintana’s car, a polished gold Hummer with chrome wheels. Right now it was in the furthest position possible, almost hidden in the driving rain, which was just odd. Mr. Quintana always pulled up right next to the office doors, even though it was right in front a fire hydrant and all kinds of illegal.
Derek stood up and looked out the window. “Come on. There’s like a thousand free spaces.”
Harbour watched Derek roll his eyes, grumble that he understood, and hang up the phone. He zipped up his jacket and turned up the collar to protect his neck. It wasn’t going to do any good and Harbour tried not to smile about that. He had been here for four years but still didn’t want to look like the locals. It was his own damn fault for choosing fashion over a rain slicker. He pulled his bag onto one shoulder and winked at her.
“Later, green bean.”
“Right,” Harbour mumbled and brought the book up to cover her scowl.
A gust of wind brushed over her as Derek slipped outside. She released a sigh. It hadn’t been that bad, all things considered. The steady strum of the rain lulled her into the serenity of the sound.
A sudden scream broke across the stillness. Harbour lurched to her feet and ran to the window. She could see Derek through the pouring rain. He was standing at the open passenger door of the hummer, jerking and thrashing, and it took her a heartbeat to realize what she was seeing. The man in the passenger seat was trying to drag Derek into the car.
Harbour slammed her fist into the glass and hollered for the women in the back office to call the police. They rushed into the room. Their eyes followed her frantic pointing, and the room was a sudden storm of activity. One woman rushed to dial the police as another wrenched upon the door and began to scream at the man. It only made him struggle harder to get Derek into the car. They ran outside and the man pulled out a can of bear mace. Derek’s agonized scream flooded the room.
Harbour spun on her heel and bolted to her backpack. She always had the essentials on her: Swiss Army knife, water, and pocket binoculars, the kind that folded down into a palm-sized rectangle. She dumped the contents of the bag onto the floor and searched through the scattered items until she found the binoculars. With them in hand she ran to the principal’s office, switched on the microphone for the school’s speaker system, and flipped open the pocket binoculars. The principal’s office was in a better position. With the binoculars, Harbour could read the Hummer’s licence plate.
She yelled the licence plate number into the microphone. Her voice crackled through the line and boomed out over the yard, loud enough that even the neighbouring houses could hear. She repeated it again and again. Plastered against the glass, there was no way to escape the shadowy man’s gaze when he turned to stare directly at Harbour.
The office women were getting closer, but the man still kept his hold on Derek. The car roared to life. Was he going to go drive off with Derek still in tow?
Harbour dropped the microphone and barrelled out the door. The yard was sodden slush under her feet. The women were only a few car spaces away. She could make out a few people through the icy rain, but she kept her attention on Derek. The Hummer pulled out of the carpark, swerving wildly as the man kept one hand clenched in Derek’s shirt.
Harbour jumped onto the pavement just as the man shoved Derek aside. He hit the ground hard, his body thumping against the concrete more than rolling. The office worker checked on him quickly before she hurried to the corner, intent on making sure the man was gone. Harbour’s legs felt like fire as she dropped down next to Derek’s crumpled form. His face was swollen and raw and he couldn’t stop clawing at his face.
She touched his shoulder and he flinched. “Derek, it’s okay. He’s gone.”
Writhing in pain, he tried to get up. A violent fit of coughs brought him back down to his knees. Harbour tried to steady him and was struck by how heavy he was. This time, he didn’t try and shake her off. Still unable to opened his eyes, he leaned into her, wrapped his arms tightly around her waist, and held on as sirens began to wail in the distance.
Chapter One
Gilded River Lodge was the most luxurious hotel that Nowhere had to offer. Its foyer alone was larger than the bed and breakfast that Harbour’s family ran, and the attached restaurant had made a few nationwide top ten lists. The lodge had been booked solid all season, and with her tour guide duties on top of her family obligations, Harbour had been effectively on shift all day, every day, for seven months.
She loved her job, well, jobs, but there was only so much time someone could spend dealing with the demands of the general public before they started thinking very bad thoughts. She had been counting down the days for weeks and now only had a handful of tours left before she could kick her feet up for the winter.
Piper ran the front desk with skilled precision hidden expertly under a smoke screen of disinterest. At the moment she was somehow managing to entertain guests while not actually answering their questions. It was a unique and rather entertaining talent that Harbour oddly enjoyed watching, but she really needed the final list for her canoe tour. Through the massive glass doors, she could see people starting to gather around the bus.
Really, Harbour didn’t mind waiting at the front desk, especially while Mr. Polack was still checked in. He had a habit of flirting with every woman in sight and Piper was the perfect diversion. She was tall, stunning, and tourists loved her Native American heritage. They kept referring to her as exotic, which just pointed out how little they knew about the general population of Nowhere.
Harbour was putting her long golden hair into a ponytail when Piper finished with the guests and headed in her direction. Since it was her sixth tour of the day, there wasn’t really much chit-chat the two hadn’t covered already.
“Still up for a swim after work? Last chance for the year.”
Piper smiled. “Tradition is tradition.”
“So well put,” Harbour said as Piper found the correct list and held it
out.
Then something over Harbour’s shoulder caught her attention and her hand froze. Harbour tried to lean over the counter and snatch it away but Piper pulled it back.
“Not again,” Harbour moaned as she reached for the sheet again. “Just let me do the tour.”
“Shockingly Hot Guy just entered.”
“You know I don’t like this game.” Harbour signed as she settled back down. “I never guess it. Weird things attract you to a guy.”
“That is not true.”
“The last time you chose a guy for this game, it was because of his eyelashes.”
“They were amazingly long.”
“That doesn’t make him hot.”
“Oh, trust me. The reasons for this guy are pretty obvious.”
Harbour scrunched up her face and flopped her head back. “There’s more than one reason? I’m never getting out of here and I’m going to look like a complete creep.”
Piper rolled her eyes. “I’m not asking you to follow him through bushes. I’m just asking you to discreetly and subtly take a moment to appreciate the obvious effort and care this gentleman has put into his appearance and then tell me the reasons I have deemed him attractive.”
Curiosity got the better of her and Harbour chanced a quick glance over her shoulder. There was no do doubt who Piper was talking about, even as the man stood mostly with his back towards them. Every inch of him was perfect, chiselled muscle. His back was a broad expanse that tapered into narrow, jean-clad hips. He had to be around seven feet tall and practically had to look directly down to meet the gaze of the hotel manager.
His tawny skin didn’t dull the midnight black of his stubble and his thick hair looked ridiculously soft. Every inch of his body screamed sex, but everything about his posture promised rage for anyone that ventured too close. He would provoke an unwinnable battle within any woman, pitting her instinct to mate against her instinct to survive.
Harbour was about to make her guesses when the man turned and removed his Ray-Ban sunglasses. Familiar hazel eyes scanned the room and she snapped her attention back to Piper.
“Oh, shit.” Piper raised a questioning eyebrow. “Do you really not recognize him?”
“Um . . . no. I may need to see him naked.”
“It’s only been 10 years. How do you not remember Derek Quintana?”
“Wait, Derek? The guy that almost got kidnapped?”
“And who mercilessly teased us for years, shaved my head twice, is technically your boss, and is the sole reason I have still have nightmares about Jell-O,” she hissed in a hushed breath. “But yeah, someone also tried to snatch him.”
“I thought you got over the Jell-O thing.”
“Groundhog Day still stirs some things up.” Harbour snatched the list out of Piper’s hand and began to slowly shuffle past the counter. If she could get past the dividing wall, she could slip out the side door unnoticed. “I’m just going to go.”
“You mean flee.”
“I mean extract myself from an uncomfortable situation in the making.”
“Flee.”
“Strategically withdrawal.”
“And,” Piper drew out the word as she looked over Harbour’s shoulder, “I have successfully distracted you long enough. Hi, Derek.”
Harbour instinctively froze as she caught sight of him in the corner of her eyes. After a split second, she realized that this was perfect. Piper was her eand more than willing to serve as a distraction. Derek growled out a greeting like it pained him speak.
He read her name tag and paused. “Didn’t you used to wear a lot of glitter?”
“My skin was a galaxy,” Piper smirked.
“Right.” His forced smile looked more like a snarl and still he couldn’t hold it for long. His attention shifted to Harbour and she cringed.
“Harbour?”
“Crap.”
“What?”
“Never mind. Hi, Derek. You sure are here. And that is something that is a fact. I need to go.”
“Still socially inept, I see.”
“Excuse me?” Smothering the outburst, Harbour continued. “No, no. I’m an adult now and am not getting into this conversation. Because I am mature. I am a guide and people are waiting for me. So, casual pleasantries and excuses.”
“What tour?”
The Quintanas had left Alaska the day after the attempted abduction. Rumors had abounded about where they had gone. Paris, Egypt, Tokyo, New York. Harbour had guessed that was kind of the point, to keep anyone from knowing exactly where they were, and, while they had never sold their properties, not one of the family members had come back to Nowhere. Obviously, the attempt had scared them, and that kind of thing left a scar, but Harbour hadn’t expected Derek to turn out like this. Entitled, yes. Rude, sure. But where was his mocking tone, his self-praising banter, that ever present smirk that made her want to hit him?
“Ice River canoe trip.” Her confusion seeped into her mumbled response.
It only took one raised eyebrow for her to feel like an idiot. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll leave my bags with the porter and meet you outside.”
“What?” she asked as her stomach clenched.
“I’m here to evaluate the business. That includes all tours and tour guides.”
“But.” Two hours, on a slow moving river, with new eerie Derek fricking Quintana judging her? This late in the season, there was no way Harbour could survive that. She remembered the paper in her hand and held it up like a shield.
“I’m sorry. The tour’s full. Safety regulations. One more canoe and I’ll need a second guide, which is impossible since we don’t have another guide free that knows the tour. So,” she offered him an exaggerated grimace. “Sorry.”
“What about on your canoe?” Piper chimed in. “There’s room in yours.”
Harbour glared at the woman, “Thank you, Piper.”
She only smiled, “I like helping.”
“I’ll be at the bus in two minutes, if you’re done arguing your incompetence?” Without another word, Derek turned and stalked back to the bellhop.
Harbour could only stare at his retreating back. What had just happened? How had that happened? She suddenly felt like she was back in high school, sucked into the wake of whatever whim Derek had decided to act on. Only back then, he had at least pretended to be charming.
Was she now supposed to put up with him just being a blatant jerk? All the time? For two uninterrupted hours? And what on earth was he qualified to evaluate her on, exactly? People skills? Or was the guy that had never taken a step off of perfectly manicured grass supposed to tell her how to handle the wilderness?
Harbour only worked here as a favor, anyway. Their parents were friends and her dad used to do a lot of tours for their guests. She had helped him since they had opened the place, had trained most of their guides, was the most qualified guide they had, and now she had to endure Derek?
The sharp click of a pen snapped her out of her mental rantings. Piper smiled and wiggled the pen.
“Do you want me to put his name on your list?”
Harbour squared her shoulders, lifted her chin, and bolted for the side exit.
***
It had taken Derek a lot longer than he cared to admit to fully believe that Harbour had ditched him. It was Harbour, after all. When it had sunk in, he hadn’t been entirely sure what he was supposed to do, and he still wasn’t. But he didn’t really care enough to figure it out and decided to just grab a beer instead.
The bar had a decent turnout but that didn’t offer him any anonymity. Every second person stared at him and few tried to be subtle about it. All of his attempts to show very clearly that he didn’t want the attention hadn’t amounted to much. He could still feel their eyes on his back. Eventually, he had grabbed his beer and, as confidently as he could, escaped out onto the main balcony.
The Gilded River curved around the lodge and gusted past in a series of ra
pids on its way to the harbor. It had to be one of the most spectacular views in Nowhere. The whole riverbed was plated with fool’s gold so, when the light caught it just right, the whole river looked like melted gold. It was one of the few things that Derek had truly missed about Nowhere and he tried to enjoy it.
He leaned against the railing, took a long pull of his beer, and listened to the roar of the water.
“She actually ditched me.”
He couldn’t get over it. He had gotten bested by Harbour Bates. Screw being an adult. Derek was going to have to mess with her. It was compulsory. Contemplating the best way to get even was a welcome distraction from the thoughts that cluttered his head. Had he just made the worst mistake of his life?
It had sounded like a good idea when his parents first proposed it: To come back here and confront his lingering demons. But being back here wasn’t a notion, it was actuality, and things that Derek had thought he had laid to rest were crawling back out.
His grip tightened on the bottle. It had only been a few minutes. A few minutes out of his life and yet it still had such a tight hold on him. It was intolerable, like a knife dug into his side, one that people just expected him to live with. He closed his eyes and sighed. If he wanted to dig it out, it wasn’t going to be painless.
The hair on the back of Derek’s neck prickled and he spun, eyes searching for whoever was watching him. He spotted at least eight people who were suddenly intensely interested in their jobs and released a breath. Could he fire people for neglecting their duties to stare at his butt? It seemed like he should be able to.
The sensation of being watched remained. His skin crawled. Finishing his beer in a few mouthfuls, he left the empty on a table and went in search of some shred of normality.
Chapter Two
“Okay, this is weirding me out. Since when is the pool so popular?”
The Gilded River Lodge had the only Olympic size swimming pool in Nowhere, but it was often overlooked by the guests and staff alike. Which left it pretty much for Harbour’s personal use. Since it was both indoor and heated, it was one of the few places left to swim around this time of year. Normally she couldn’t get Piper down here unless it was the last few days before they locked everything up. But there had never had company.
