Hungry Mountain Man

by Charlize Starr

  “I’m glad,” Martin says, smiling again. “This rough time isn’t anything that’s going to make you quit on me, is it? I’d hate to lose my best employee.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” I say. In spite of everything, I still do love this town and this job. Martin is the best boss I’ve ever had, and I’m in no hurry to leave that.

  “Glad to hear it. I really do want to start leaving you more and more in charge of things around here. It’s time I stepped back a little, and I can’t think of a more fitting heir to my tiny empire than you,” Martin says. I smile. I know Martin never had any children. He’s a widower, and his wife had passed away when they were still very young. I think he’s been lonely all these years, despite how much the people in the town love him and how much of an institution this shop is. I like to think he and I are becoming a little bit like family already.

  “I’d love to,” I say. “This shop already means so much to me.”

  Martin smiles again. “I can tell,” he says. “Let me know if there is anything I can do for you. Any way I can help whatever you’re going through.”

  “Thank you,” I say again, smiling sadly. Martin obviously can’t help with this. He can’t make the past five days go away, can’t rewind to the time when I’d thought Jacob and I could make each other happy. He can’t make Jacob the person I’d thought he was. I need a friend right now, though, and having Martin in my corner does make me feel just a bit better about the whole mess.

  Chapter Twenty - Jacob

  The paramedics want me to go the hospital, but I refuse, especially after they tell me I’ve been out for five days. I can’t imagine what Mia must be thinking. I’m more concerned about that than I am about my health, honestly. I do allow them to hook me to some fluids while I give a statement to the police, and to do the fullest assessment on me they can with the equipment they have with them. They keep saying it’s a wonder that I’m alive – that it’s amazing I survived. Whatever Calvin hit me with was pretty nasty stuff, and on top of that, I went days without food or water, lying on my floor, unaware of the passing time.

  “I guess living up here makes you pretty tough,” one of the paramedics says as she takes my blood pressure. I nod. It’s probably true. I doubt I would have survived it had Calvin tried poison first. I wouldn't have had the survival skills to prepare up that remedy or the strength to keep myself going, crawling across the floor like that, without doing so much work around this place and spending so much time outdoors lately.

  “Yeah,” I agree. I wouldn’t have made it without Mia, either, without thinking of her. I’m itching to call her. I need to hear her voice.

  The police take the footage from my security cameras and my statement, and I tell them about the past attempts on my life and about Calvin’s threats. He’s already got a record with them, mostly drunk driving and disorderly conduct with a few later-dismissed assault charges thrown in. But no one is going to buy Calvin out of this one. Especially because that person is usually me.

  The footage on the tape is clear, and examination of tapes from farther back reveal other men sneaking around my property. Men I recognize as some of Calvin’s sycophants, his hangers-on – the kind he pays in VIP club access, unlimited drinks, and women. They’re almost employees for all the perks being in my brother’s social circle brings them. None of them have ever hesitated to do his dirty work, and it looks like that hasn’t changed a bit. It looks like Calvin had found me out a couple of weeks ago, and has been planning another convenient accident for me to have ever since.

  The police say they have more than enough evidence to go pick him up, and that it’s good I haven’t talked to anyone other than them yet. Anything that could tip Calvin off would likely make him run. With all the money and connections, Calvin is a prime flight risk who could be halfway across the world in no time at all. It feels so strange and cold to think about Calvin is going to jail. My baby brother, Calvin. Calvin tried to kill me. He almost succeeded. These are facts I’m going to have to find a way to live with somehow.

  The police promise to call me with updates, and I promise the paramedics I’ll go to the hospital if I get lightheaded again, and then I’m alone. I watch them drive off my property, and then I head for my phone. I’ve got two messages, and I’m sure they must be from Mia. No one else calls me out here. I almost don’t want to listen to them. I want to just call her, but I think that’s probably cowardly of me.

  I listen to one and wince. The first one is polite but curt. The second message, however, is furious. I don’t blame her. What else she supposed to think? I only hope she’ll let me explain, that Calvin didn’t ruin this relationship after all. I take a deep breath and a long gulp of bottled water the paramedics had left for me, and I dial her number.

  “Jacob?” she says, picking up on the third ring, her tone full of disbelief.

  “Mia, I’m so sorry – ” I start.

  “For being a total ass?” Mia cuts in, tone full of heat.

  “No – ” I start, and Mia cuts me off again, days of pent-up anger probably pouring out at me all at once.

  “It takes a lot of nerve to call me now,” she says. “It’s been days, and you call now and say you’re sorry?”

  “I need to explain,” I say.

  “Explain what?” Her voice is already getting louder, more on edge. “That you used me? That you lied to me? That – ”

  This time, I cut her off.

  “Mia,” I say softly, hoping to make her pause for a second. I want her to know right away that this isn’t what she thinks. “An ambulance just left my cabin.”

  There’s dead silence on the other end of the line for a minute.

  “An ambulance?” she repeats. She sucks in a long breath, and when she talks again, her tone has completely changed. “Oh my god, what happened? Are you okay?”

  “I am now, but I wasn’t,” I say, my hand shaking a bit on the phone as I recall how close everything was. “I was poisoned five days ago. I’ve been on my floor, mostly unconscious, ever since.”

  “Poisoned? On purpose? Did someone do this to you?” she asks like she can’t quite believe it. I want to tell her everything. But I want her to be here with me, when I do.

  “I need to tell you the whole story,” I say, “but first, I need you to know how sorry I am for what you thought.”

  “No,” Mia says instantly, shushing me. “I’m just so glad you’re okay. Oh, Jacob, I’m sorry for thinking the worst of you, but I just didn’t know what else to think.”

  “I never gave you a reason to,” I say. “If I had told you about everything that had been going on in my life sooner, you might have known right away when you didn’t hear from me that something like this had happened, but I didn’t.” I know it’s true. If Mia had known someone was after me, even if I hadn’t told her it was Calvin, she would have been pounding my door down after twenty-four hours of not hearing from me. That’s the kind of person Mia is.

  “I had no idea,” Mia agrees. “I was blindsided when you went silent on me like that.” Her voice gets a little softer, and I didn’t even know five days were passing while I was out, but I’d still missed this during them somehow. “After our night together.”

  “I know,” I say, “but you should know that the very last thing I want to do is disappear from your life. I’m not playing at anything with you.” I clear my throat, diving right in for honesty because I’ve never been good at playing games with people. “I’m more serious about you than I have been about anyone in a long time. I would never do that to you, Mia, I promise.”

  “Oh,” Mia says, hardly a whisper, like she might be crying a little.

  “I want this to work. I really do,” I say, truthfully. I know it’s so early, but after the past few days, after nearly dying, after everything, I keep seeing a future with Mia. I keep thinking about my life with her in it for a very long time. Maybe the rest of my life.

  “Me too,” Mia says. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”


  “Would you like to come up here? I have a long story to tell you, and I’d rather do it in person,” I say. I’m not sure I’m up to driving yet, and I think it’s past time Mia came here.

  “I’d love that,” Mia says.

  I tell her how to follow the winding paths up to the cabin, and she says she’s going to get changed quickly and be right up. I feel better when we hang up, much better than any dose of fluids had made me feel. Mia is coming here. Calvin is going to jail.

  I reach into my pocket and pull out the recipe, remembering. It feels like everything has changed today, and like those changes are just the start. With this recipe and without Calvin, the company will change drastically.

  With Mia, I will, too.

  Chapter Twenty-One - Mia

  I can’t believe it. I can’t believe Jacob almost died.

  Even more so, I can’t believe Jacob almost died and I didn’t know. I might never have known. He could have died, and I would have spent the rest of my life thinking he was a terrible person. It’s a terrifying thought. I’d almost lost him, but not for reasons I could’ve ever dreamed of.

  I’m so relieved he’s not an ass who lied and broke my heart. I’m relieved he is every bit the good man I thought he was, that he’s serious about me, and that he wants this – us – to work, but I’m shaken to my core at the idea he’d almost died. I keep seeing it in my mind: him lying on the floor, barely alive, and all the while I’d been furious with him.

  I’d thought a time or two that he must have had a secret, something he wasn’t telling me that explained everything. I’d dismissed all those thoughts as ridiculous. But I guess they weren’t so ridiculous after all.

  I make my way up the unmarked roads that lead to Jacob’s, finding a tiny and rustic cabin at the end of one of them. The property around it is marked with tall evergreen trees, obscuring the cabin from view until you’re almost on top of it. Jacob is waiting for me on the small front porch when I pull up. I run from my car as fast as I can, desperate to touch him after everything.

  I throw my arms around him when I get there, and he hugs me back just as tight. I never want to let go. I never want to let him go. I’d been so hurt, so mad at him, so brokenhearted at what I thought was his betrayal, that I hadn’t let myself miss him. Now, in his arms, I think I’d missed him more than I knew how to bear. Like he was a vital organ I suddenly had to do without.

  “I can’t believe,” I start into his shoulder. I don’t know how to finish it. I can’t believe any of this.

  “I know,” Jacob says, pulling back just a little. “Come in and let me try to explain some of it.”

  “Okay,” I agree, pulling out of the hug but gripping his hand. I feel like I need to be touching him, need to anchor him to me so he doesn’t slip away again.

  We enter his cabin and he leads me to his couch. The cabin is simple, but lovely all the same. I can see touches of Jacob in it, little things I’m sure he fixed or built himself.

  “What happened?” I say when we sit. Jacob pulls my hands into his lap and holds them as he begins to talk.

  “You asked me once if I moved here to be closer to business. Truthfully? I’ve been hiding from it,” he says. “This is the cabin where my great-great-grandfather once made whiskey, so it is connected to the business, but that’s not why I’m here. Last year, after a huge fight, my brother started making attempts in my life.”

  I gasp. “Your own brother?” I ask. My sister and I have never been close, but I’d never dreamed of letting anything hurt her if I could help it, and I know she’d do the same for me. I can’t imagine what could make a person hate their own sibling enough to want to kill them.

  “Calvin’s always been trouble,” Jacob sighs, and I put a hand over his for support since he’s obviously having trouble getting out the words. “Years back, I figured out a way to speed up the distilling business exponentially. I invented and patented the technology, actually, and it took our business from successful but small to internationally-known. It made us a lot of money, and because of my contributions, I’m the oldest, and our father has been teaching me the finer points of the business end for years,” he says, and I squeeze his hand when his voice shakes a bit, “I stand to inherit the company and all its money once he’s gone.”

  “And Calvin doesn’t like that?” I guess, shocked and fascinated. It’s like something out of a soap opera. There is something about it that seems vaguely familiar, too, that I can’t quite put my finger on.

  “He’s good at going to the parties,” Jacob nods. “He likes to drink whiskey and talk to donors. He’s always wanted to be the face of the company, to take it over in that way. He’s always felt like he deserved it more than me, I guess. We always fought and I always cleaned up his messes, but last year I told him I wasn’t going to do it anymore. That he needed to grow up and stop getting into fistfights at company-sponsored events. He responded by telling me to go to hell and that he wished I was dead.” He pauses and looks down at our hands, now laced together. “And now I guess he was trying to grant his own wish.”

  “That’s horrible,” I say, wincing at just the thought of it.

  “After the first few attempts on my life, I came out here to hide and try to figure out what to do. I didn’t want our dad to know, and I didn’t want to get the police involved in all that family business. My dad and everyone at the company thinks I’m just taking some time off,” Jacob says, laughing, his voice hollow. I shake my head in disbelief. I can’t believe Jacob was going through so much.

  “I’m so sorry,” I say, and then I pause, suddenly remembering why this sounds familiar. “Wait. Jacob, I think I’ve seen your brother in magazines. He’s that Calvin from the whiskey family who gets into public fights?” I ask, gasping again.

  “Probably. He loves to be in the press,” Jacob says.

  “Your family business is High Country Whiskey?” I ask. I can feel my jaw drop. If that’s true, then Jacob was never talking about a local tourist-trap mountain distillery after all. If it’s true, Jacob isn’t just rich. He’s worth billions.

  “It is,” Jacob confirms, looking the slightest bit sheepish.

  Holy shit. Well, of all the secrets I thought Jacob could have been keeping, billionaire whiskey heir and award-winning inventor with a brother out to murder him had not been one I’d thought of.

  “Wow,” I say. It feels like an understatement. “I had no idea.”

  “I thought if I told you, if I got you too involved, you’d be in danger, too,” Jacob says. “I wanted to see you all the time, take you out, tell you everything, but I was afraid it wasn’t safe.”

  I nod. It makes perfect sense. “God, Jacob, this must have all been so terrible for you,” I say, still in disbelief. “Your own brother.”

  “I always thought he’d grow up and get better. I always wanted him to be better. I thought,” Jacob stops and runs a hand through his hair. “I thought I could figure out what to say to him, how to help him.” He stops and shrugs, frowning. I slide closer to him, wanting to hug him and never let go.

  “You can’t blame yourself,” I say. “He caused all this, not you.”

  “I know,” Jacob says, shaking his head. “I just wish it didn’t have to be this way. Right now, as we’re talking, he’s probably getting arrested for attempted murder. It’s going to break Dad’s heart.”

  “Have you called him yet?” I ask.

  “I called you first,” Jacob says. I smile. I’m so glad Jacob is telling me all this now.

  “You did?” I ask.

  “I had to see you. I had to make things right with you,” Jacob says, and then he shifts his head toward me and leans down, kissing me softly. I kiss back, immediately unsure of what I would have done if I could really never do this again, wanting to kiss him forever to make up for even five days of lost time.

  “I’m glad,” I say right into his mouth.

  “I thought about you while I was nearly dead on that floor,” Jacob says, voice
gruff with emotion. “You got me through.” I lean up to kiss him this time, needing to be close to him.

  “Thank god you made it,” I say. Jacob slides his hand up my face, cupping my cheek, and kisses me until I’m breathless. I feel like I want to pour all of myself into the kiss. To let him know all the feelings I don’t even know how to put words to yet.

  “Can I show you something?” Jacob asks when we pull back, tucking a piece of hair behind my ear.

  “Of course,” I say.

  “I want you to be the first to see this,” Jacob says, pulling a folded piece yellowed paper out of his pocket. I open it and feel my eyes grow wide.

  “Is this…?” I ask.

  “My great-great-grandfather’s secret whiskey recipe. I found it under the floorboards while I was inching over them,” Jacob says.

  “I guess it does exist,” I say.

  “Looks like it,” Jacob says, looking a little wide-eyed himself.

  “The company and your family may have lost Calvin for good today, but it’s as if your great-great-grandfather is joining you after all these years,” I say, a little in awe of the paper as I pass it back to Jacob.

  “Like I found him,” Jacob says, nodding. “I want to go home and see my dad, tell him about all of this in person.” He looks down, sheepish, and there’s that awkwardness about him I just love. My heart swells in my chest at it. “I’d love it if you came with me.”

  “I’d love to go,” I say honestly, beaming. “I have the next two days off anyway.”

  “Perfect,” Jacob says, leaning in to kiss me again.

  “Let’s go get your company back,” I tell him into the kiss. I feel Jacob smile against my lips, and I smile back.

  I can’t believe how this day has turned out. I can’t believe I woke up thinking I’d never see Jacob again, and now I’m sitting on his couch, kissing him and making plans. It seems like I was right about him after all like I was right about this town and romance after all.