Mistletoe and Mr. Right

by Sarah Morgenthaler

  By the time they arrived at the tiny Moose Springs police station, the sun had started to rise in the sky. After listing the charges, Jonah led them back to the small holding cell serving as the town’s drunk tank. Sitting alone on the single bench along the back wall, Diego was shaking, he was so upset.

  “You brought her here?”

  The baleful glare Diego was sending Lana’s way was beyond the kid’s normal sourness.

  “We were together when Jonah called.” Rick shifted in front of Lana to force Diego’s attention to him instead. “What happened?”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  Rick rested his arm on the cell bars, leaning in toward his nephew. “You’re being charged with assault and destruction of public property. Something happened.”

  Diego didn’t reply, but Rick wasn’t going anywhere. He opened his mouth but stopped when Lana put her hand on his shoulder.

  “I’ll wait outside. Let me know if you need me.”

  Even now, it was hard not to watch her walk away, the touch of her fingertips lingering like expensive perfume. But family in trouble was the most important thing, even more than a gorgeous woman who seemed to know exactly when to give them space. As she reached the doorway, Lana paused, looking back.

  “I hope hitting that is worth it.”

  The venom in Diego’s voice was only matched by his disgust. Diego had timed his comment well, managing to bring a flash of hurt to Lana’s face. A low growl pulled from Rick’s throat before he clamped down on the instinctive reaction to come to her defense. She disappeared out of the room, the damage already done.

  The fact that Diego had tried to hurt her in the first place said a lot about the emotional state the kid was in. Some people chose flight, but Diego would always stand and fight. He didn’t know any other way.

  “Was that necessary?” Rick asked.

  “She’s going to screw things up for you.”

  Rick could have shut him down. He could have said Lana Montgomery was the best thing that had happened to him in a long time. Waxing poetic about how perfect she was could have occupied every breath Rick took for the next few weeks.

  Instead, Rick nodded. “She could. I suppose that’s the hard part about letting someone in. They can do all sorts of damage.” A flush of color reached Diego’s face, and Rick knew his suspicions were right. “You’re in here because of Quinn.” When Diego didn’t reply, Rick said, “Staring at the floor isn’t going to help you, kid.”

  “This guy’s been giving her a hard time at the resort.”

  “And you stopped him?”

  A muscle in Diego’s jaw rippled from the sheer force of his gritted teeth. Before Rick could pry anything else out of his nephew, a curly-haired whirlwind came through the door. Quinn’s pale cheeks were stained red from the cold, her already large eyes widening even more when she took in Diego sitting behind bars.

  Diego groaned. “Shit, Q, why are you here?”

  “Because you’re an idiot,” she declared hotly, speaking so fast, Rick could barely understand her. “And I spent the last hour arguing with Hannah to let you keep your job, but you have no idea how much of a fuss Mr. Bayard is causing, which is why I said that I’d cause a fuss about him, and there’s absolutely no way I’m letting you sit in here for doing nothing wrong but defending me, which was completely stupid by the way.”

  Quinn paused to inhale, which was good. Rick was starting to worry the young woman would pass out midsentence.

  Diego might not have wanted to care about anyone, but his feelings were clear as day as he stared at the floor between his feet. “He had his hands on you.”

  Quinn bit her lower lip, worrying at it as she put her hand on the door and gave it a little tug. “Jonah locked it.”

  “Were you planning on breaking me out?” Amusement tinged Diego’s tone.

  With a huff, Quinn put her hands on her hips. “Of course, you’re not taking this seriously. Why would you? Well, I’m going to fix this. Stay right there, and don’t hit anyone else while I’m gone.”

  Quinn hustled back out with the same force of energy she’d come in with.

  With a sigh, Diego leaned his head back against the wall. “Where the hell does she think I’m going to go?”

  He wasn’t wrong. When Diego was formally charged, it would take every bit of rent money Rick had to post bail. Rent money he desperately needed to keep his business afloat, but Diego was family, and family came first. No matter what. No matter why.

  “This will be okay, kid,” Rick said in a rough voice, even though they both knew it was a lie.

  “No, it won’t be.” Diego just stared at his feet.

  There was nothing Rick could do but brace his elbows against the cell bars and wait for a judge to decide both their fates.

  * * *

  Silas was at it again. He’d called an emergency meeting with the board of directors and somehow had managed to do so when she was out of contact last night. No one had called her phone, which meant that Killian had probably been left out of the meeting as well. She’d only been notified by email, and Lana hadn’t checked her email while out with Rick.

  Which meant she’d missed a vote to liquidate the Moose Springs properties.

  Thankfully, according to the minutes, her mother had postponed the vote until a full board could be in attendance, but Lana knew that was only a temporary roadblock.

  As she scrolled through her emails, Lana tried to ignore the churning in her stomach, hearing Diego’s words reverberate in her head. Allowing herself to be frustrated with Silas was much easier than processing how much Rick’s closest family didn’t like her being involved with him.

  Lana was used to the glares, but for some reason, having those glares aimed at Rick bothered her so much more.

  Quinn had been in such a rush when she’d pulled up, Lana had only noticed her as the younger woman passed by Rick’s vehicle. This time, when she emerged from the police station, she stopped in the middle of the icy sidewalk and burst into tears.

  Lana only had to approach her for Quinn to turn those tears Lana’s way, throwing her arms around Lana’s neck.

  “Diego is just so stupid,” she sobbed. “That guy was a jerk, but you know what he’ll do. They can’t afford a lawyer, and Diego will go to jail.”

  It didn’t take much coaxing for Lana to get the story out of Quinn. How she was trying to work, but a chatty guest kept bothering her. She’d tried to be nice, but he hadn’t left her alone. And when the guest had put his hand on her backside in front of Diego, Rick’s nephew had taken exception.

  “Sometimes I think being nice is something women need to stop doing.” Lana kept an arm around the crying Quinn. “What’s his name?”

  “Mr. Bayard.”

  “Lee Bayard? The one with the short dark hair? Stands too close to everyone?”

  Quinn nodded, wiping her eyes.

  Yes, Lana knew who Lee Bayard was. And she was well acquainted with Lee’s father, Jefferson Bayard. The apple didn’t fall far from that particularly misogynistic tree.

  “I’ll take care of it,” Lana told Quinn. “And you made sure Hannah knew what happened?”

  “Yes, and Mr. Shaw too.”

  Frankly, Lana couldn’t believe Jax hadn’t handled the situation with his knuckles already. Neither he nor Hannah took well to their employees being mistreated.

  Then again, right now would be a terrible time for a lawsuit. The Shaws were on a tight enough financial rope as it was.

  Lana didn’t know if Quinn was okay to drive, so after helping her get home, she texted Rick that she needed to do something and took a ride share from Quinn’s house to the resort.

  Lana found the new hotel manager in her office. Hannah always looked like she should have been on a runway or at a photoshoot instead of running a hotel, and she was great at her job
. Much better than the previous manager had been. At some point that week, Hannah had traded her usual shoulder length braids for a super short curly pixie cut. One hand pressed to her forehead as she argued on the phone, Hannah looked like she hadn’t slept in a solid week, her eyes reddened from too many shifts for too long a time.

  Yes, Jax definitely needed to hire a full-time night manager. With the resort this busy, she was far too overworked and understaffed. Lana waited until Hannah ended her call, then lightly tapped her knuckles on the open doorjamb of her office.

  “Come in, Lana.” Hannah waved her over. “Quinn texted me that you were headed my way.”

  “I saw her at the police station,” Lana said, setting a hip to the doorframe. “She’s pretty upset.”

  “She’s not the only one,” Hannah replied in a growl. “I want to take a tire iron to Bayard’s crotch for getting handsy with one of my employees. He’d be kicked out of here already if it weren’t for Diego.”

  “Diego reacted, and now you’re playing damage control?”

  “My hands are tied.” Hannah sounded beyond upset. “Bayard already called his lawyers. I told Quinn to press charges, but I don’t know if she will. She’s scared of him.”

  “And Diego?”

  “Diego should have stayed out of it and let me handle Bayard. The Shaws had me terminate him, effective immediately.”

  “And you don’t think that’s a little harsh?” Lana asked.

  “Talk to Jax if you can find him. So far, all my calls to him have gone unanswered. His parents are the ones who decided to terminate Diego and lawyer up.”

  Lana frowned. If Quinn was scared of Bayard, then no, she probably wouldn’t press charges. Like too many women in a long line of employees sexually harassed by that family. It made Lana’s blood boil. It made her want to get in a semitruck and run Lee Bayard over, then back up a few times for good measure.

  “Jax isn’t here to help?” she confirmed.

  Hannah snorted. “He’s currently off the premises cooling down, on his parent’s orders. Jax’s temper only made things worse. Bayard is threatening to call his lawyers on us.”

  That was completely on brand with the resort owner’s son. Of course Hannah was stuck dealing with this alone.

  Lana had seen Bayard in the hotel bar more than once in the last couple of days. So far, Lana had managed to avoid him and all the business talk that would come along with even the briefest of encounters. The Bayards were powerful but smarmy. And—apparently—this one was a complete ass.

  Still…if Hannah couldn’t do anything about it and the Shaws wouldn’t do anything about it, maybe it was time someone else did. The look on Rick’s face when he’d walked in to see his nephew in the holding cell was burned into Lana’s memory. As if the two men had been there before, and Rick was powerless to help the family member he loved.

  Lana couldn’t stop Silas’s power play, but she could step in the ring for Quinn and Rick.

  She took her time changing before coming back downstairs in search of her quarry. Bayard had spent the bulk of his time at Moose Springs in a “retreat” with some other colleagues. Meaning they’d been playing high stakes poker and getting roaring drunk the last several days. Finding him was easy…all Lana had to do was follow the sounds of raucous laughter and the telltale fragrance of male fragility.

  Sometimes the best armor for war was a low-cut dress and Prada stilettos. Crossing her legs and meeting his gaze across the bar was all it took to have him abandon the group he was with, heading her way. Tall with expensively cut dark hair and deep blue eyes, Lee wasn’t bad looking, but the bruise on his jaw was already darkening. Diego must have just clipped him.

  Too bad the kid hadn’t crushed Lee’s aristocratic nose into a pulp.

  “Can I buy you a drink?” Lana asked, letting her eyes linger, knowing he’d take it as interest.

  Sure enough, Lee leaned on the bar next to her, already standing too close. “That’s usually my line. You’re Lana Montgomery, aren’t you?”

  “Depends on who’s asking.”

  Lee placed his hand on the back of her chair, boxing her in. “You know who I am,” he said smugly. “Your mother brokered a deal with my father last August.”

  “We broker a lot of deals,” Lana said. “That’s a nice little bruise. Have you been having too much fun while you’re visiting?”

  He tossed back a swig of his scotch. “Local trash, you know how it is. I’ll own him and the next three generations of his trash family by the time I’m done with him.”

  Little did this idiot know that Lana had just had the best date of her life with Diego’s “trash family.”

  “So when he hit you, was that before or after you sexually assaulted his girlfriend?”

  Lee blinked, startled. “I’m sorry, what?”

  “Oh, it’s not that complicated. A big strong man like you, you probably prefer the smaller women. Ones you can lean over, crowd into small spaces, make them know how you have the control.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Sure you do. It’s why you already have your lawyers on their way here. But you’re not going to sue him.” Lana calmly took a sip of her drink. “And you’re not suing the Shaws either.”

  She paused to let that sink in, then said, “You know that big deal your father brokered with my mother? It was for an overseas shipping company, right? With the majority of the contracts between Europe and the Eastern Seaboard? You’ve spent quite a lot of money in obtaining those ships. One would almost think that you’d stretched a bit too far. Unfortunately, those ships are going to need to use shipyards, which happen to be owned by a subsidiary of the Montgomery Group. It would be awfully inconvenient if you were to suddenly…I don’t know…find yourself without a place to dock and repair your ships.”

  Horror slowly dawned on his face. “You can’t.”

  “Oh, I promise you, I most certainly can. And I absolutely would.” Lana let that register before continuing. “Trust me, there will be no need to own the next three generations of your family when I’m done having your balls removed. Metaphorically speaking, of course. I’m not a complete monster.” One more sip, then she added, “Probably.”

  “What do you want?” Lee asked in a low, controlled voice.

  “Drop the charges against Diego. Plead no contest if Quinn presses charges against you. And do be a dear and drop the lawsuit against the resort as well. We can’t have you ruining a nice place with your disgusting behavior, can we? You should also get your hand off my chair. I’m finding you rather repulsive at the moment.”

  “I’m not pleading no contest because some girl got the—”

  “Got the right idea that you are in no uncertain terms not allowed to put your hands on her? That woman now owns you. She’s too sweet to come talk to you, so I’m her proxy. Tell me, would you like to continue doing business with me, Lee?”

  A snarl was his answer, but she could see in his eyes that Lee knew she had him cornered.

  “Good. I feel the same way,” Lana added sweetly. “Now, are you sure you don’t want that drink?”

  * * *

  Lana should have spent her evening in a more productive way, like going back out on the Santa Moose search, but instead she decided to err on the side of better phone reception. She had texted an offer of a lawyer for Diego, but Rick had only replied that things were “happening” and he’d contact her with an update soon.

  She even took her phone into the dry sauna with her, even though the heat was as bad for the technology as it was good for her sore muscles. Sleeping in a car with Rick might have been a pleasant way to wake up, but it sure wasn’t great for the neck. After melting away some of her tension, Lana went back to her room, idly sketching out a new plan of attack on catching her moose.

  When the knock came on her door, Lana wasn’t s
ure she really wanted to answer. After all, she’d meddled. And meddling—even with the best of intentions—always had consequences.

  Still, Lana had never been afraid to meet the hard conversations head-on, so she opened her door for the man standing on the other side.

  Even though they’d woken up together that morning, it felt like a lifetime had passed.

  “What did you do?” Rick asked quietly. “The charges were dropped but no one is saying why.”

  Lana was tempted not to answer, to breezily pass it off as good luck. Instead, she leaned her shoulder against the doorframe.

  “Are you sure you want to know?” Tilting her head, she looked up at him, biting her lower lip.

  “Would I be here if I didn’t?” The heat from his body warmed the air between them. “Diego was nearly sick from relief when I drove him home. I’d like to know why we’re not both still sitting over there with Jonah or headed to Anchorage.”

  Sighing, Lana said softly, “Because I made it go away. That’s what we do. We make things go away when they don’t suit us.”

  Lana could hear the slightly self-derogatory tone in her voice, matching the way she felt about that aspect of her family…and herself.

  “I threatened Lee, and he backed down. Bullies always back down.” Embarrassed, Lana pushed on. “It’s not something I’m proud of—”

  Midexplanation, Rick closed the distance between them, taking her face in his hands as he kissed her. Like before, the instant his skin touched hers, a fire flared inside her, leaving Lana a mess, plastered to him in the open doorway of her hotel suite.

  “In his whole life, that kid has never caught one single break.” Rick’s voice was husky with emotion. “Never apologize to me for protecting my family. Can I come in?”

  The polite request was overwhelmed by the way his hands wrapped around her waist, drawing her in closer.

  “Rick, you never have to ask,” Lana said.

  Rick took one step inside, and to her surprise, he lifted her up off her feet with the strength of one arm. Turning, he pushed the door closed with his other, pressing Lana’s shoulders into the door. Her knees tightened into his waist, her arm wrapping around his neck for balance as hungry hands slid up her sides.