Lighthouse Beach

by Shelley Noble

  “Thank you, thank you,” Lou said, and hurried after them.

  “Stop by the clinic and have Doc Clancy check him out.”

  She nodded distractedly. Ian followed them and stopped Flynn. “Take him to the clinic. It’s important.”

  “Okay. I will.” Flynn hesitated, nodded brusquely, and got into the car.

  “He sounds pissed at Ian for saving his son,” Diana said.

  Mac rolled her eyes. “It’s hard to give up your place as numero uno with your own blood. It took forever to get Flynn to accept the fact that Bobby has special needs. He hates everybody else knowing it. To his eyes it makes him a failure somehow. He knows Ian helps his sons, he just don’t understand what Ian does and he’s scared of him. Fool.”

  “Well, I thought he was amazing,” Allie said.

  “Amazing,” Diana echoed. She was watching Ian watching the Traders’ car drive away.

  “Jeez, that was incredibly risky—they could have been killed,” Jess said. “And an insurance nightmare, not to mention bad for my nerves. So the first thing on my new agenda is to build a handrail out to the lighthouse.”

  Mac snorted. “You and whose cool million?”

  “It won’t cost a million and it’s my treat.”

  They all did a double take at Jess.

  “What? Can’t I build a handrail if I want to?”

  “Do you have any idea what is involved?” Mac asked. “Drilling through jetty rock. Getting variances. Building to code. It’ll cost a fortune.”

  Jess sighed. “In case you haven’t noticed, I have a fortune. Several of them, actually. I think I can afford to build a damn rail. But if it makes you feel any better, we can do a fundraiser. Put up one of those tacky signs with a thermometer filling up with red. I’ve always thought they were so silly looking. I’m changing my mind.”

  “Apparently I’m not the only one feeling a little traumatized,” Diana said under her breath. “I think our girl Jess just lost it.”

  “Or found it,” said Lillo.

  Ian walked slowly back toward Sonny, who went about extracting the utility belts and carabiners.

  “Mighty fine work, Ian,” Sonny said. The other men nodded; one clapped Ian on the back.

  “Better get into some dry clothes. That water’s pretty damn cold.”

  “Got some in the SUV. Thanks for your help. Couldn’t have done it without you.”

  “Anytime you want to risk your fool neck, just give me a call first.”

  “What?” Diana asked.

  “Manspeak for ‘Thank you, you did great,’” Mac said.

  “A new one on me,” Diana said.

  “’Cause you been hanging around those wussy New York types for too long.”

  Diana gave her a look. “Is that old-broad-speak for ‘I’m an idiot’?”

  “No, it’s me telling you it’s about time you had a taste of a real man.”

  “Yeow,” Allie said.

  “Man, I think Diana might be blushing,” Jess whispered.

  Mac paid no attention. “Sonny, you fellas want to come in for a beer?”

  “Thanks, Mac, but we’re gonna head on down to Mike’s as soon as I get this equipment put away. Worked up an appetite. Ayuh. Have to leave the truck here until low tide so I can get my winch back.”

  Mac just waved good-bye. “Ian, you come on in and get a hot shower and change. I got brisket and scalloped potatoes in the oven.”

  Ian hesitated, then said thanks, grabbed his clothes, and walked past them. The others started to follow him, all talking at once.

  Mac waved them off. “Just leave the man alone until he’s comfortable again.” And she trundled Ian inside.

  “Comfortable?” snapped Diana. “He could be dead.”

  “Definitely blushing,” Jess said.

  “She just wants us to give him some space,” Lillo said, “until he’s cleaned up and relaxed. Let’s go see if Sonny needs some help.” Sonny didn’t need their help, but Lillo didn’t want Diana stumbling on to Ian going into or coming out of the shower. She had no idea what he would be like after the harrowing experience he’d just been through. She just knew he would need time to get back to the rest of them.

  Before she even reached Sonny’s truck, a black limo and two SUVs drove into the parking lot and came to a stop behind the other vehicles blocking their way.

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” snapped Diana. “Hey, Jess. Daddy’s here.”

  Jess, who had been studying the jetty, spun around. And froze. Allie stepped closer to her.

  Lillo grabbed Sonny’s arm. “We may still need you,” she said, and nodded toward the cars; the limo driver was opening the back door. George Parker, dressed in his business-as-usual power suit, stepped out while four men, similarly but not as expensively attired, swarmed out of the SUVs.

  Lillo stepped away from Sonny’s truck. Sonny joined her and Diana was right behind.

  But it was Jess who strode past them and stopped her father in his tracks. “So, what has you hying to the backwoods of Maine this afternoon?”

  Lillo blinked. Jess wasn’t waiting to take the offensive. And Lillo sent her every shred of good energy she had left after Ian’s rescue of Bobby Trader.

  “I’m your father and I’ve had enough of this juvenile behavior. We’ve been lenient so far, but enough is enough. You’ve cost us a fortune on this wedding. Which we had to cancel.”

  Hang tough, Lillo thought. Hang tough.

  “Seems like you already tried to get to my money while I was gone. What? Did you plan to make me pay for your mismanagement of my life? Well, too little too late.

  “Must have been a surprise when you found yourself locked out of my accounts, and don’t bother trying to hack your way in. I’ll save you the trouble: those accounts are empty. You’ve been stealing from me for I don’t even know how long. Your greed is unsurpassable. Well, you’re not getting my money.”

  Jess started to cross her arms, caught herself, and put them down by her sides. From defensive stance to one of strength.

  “So tell your goons to get back in their spy cars and leave.”

  “You ungrateful bitch.” Parker’s hands were fisting and unfisting.

  If he so much as touched Jess, Lillo would go for his throat.

  “That would be me, yes.”

  “You’d better be careful before you think of crossing me.”

  “Why? You’ll destroy me like you do your other enemies? You can try. I wouldn’t expect less.” Jess huffed out a bitter laugh.

  Parker took a step toward her. Lillo saw movement by the gift shop, but she was afraid to turn her head to see who it was and risk destroying the delicate balance of Jess’s power. She just prayed that whoever it was, Mac or Ian, they didn’t interrupt. Jess was on a roll. It had been a long time coming.

  Parker stepped toward his daughter, thrusting his chest forward in an unconscious display of intimidation.

  Jess didn’t flinch. “I’m thirty-two years old, and for most of those years I tried to rationalize what you did, how you treated people, trod on them, cheated them out of their wages and what you owed them. Because you could. You actually prided yourself on your despicable behavior, and I sat by trying to make myself think it wasn’t so bad, because it’s what all businessmen did.

  “Well you know what? Not everyone acts so reprehensibly, there are actually honest businessmen, and you can sneer at them all you want, but they do good in this world and you’re just a canker sore.

  “You’re my father. I wanted so much to love you, but I detest you, and I will not make excuses for you anymore. So go home, and sit in your big white house on the hill and congratulate yourself on being so fucking fantastic, and try to pretend that people actually respect you and look up to you. The only people who do are the ones you’re stepping on.

  “So go back to what you’re doing; there’s no hope for you. But I’m moving on to a better life. Get out of my sight, I never want to see or hear from you again.” />
  “You better stop and think, girl. If I leave now, I won’t be coming back and don’t think I’ll take you back later.”

  “Don’t worry about that. I want nothing from you. You’ve taken everything you possibly could from me. Every shred of my self-esteem and self-worth, and spit on it, trampled it underfoot. I let you do it, I know. It’s my fault, too. I let you demean me until I had nothing, nothing.

  “At least I thought I had nothing, but I was wrong there, too. I have three friends who have loved me and cared about me more than you were ever capable of. And I’ve made more friends this week. I found a family here. Not with my parents and siblings but with total strangers. I don’t expect you to understand. I just expect you to leave.”

  She turned, in the most determined movement Lillo had ever seen her make. The sun was just beginning to set and Lillo watched as it cloaked Jess in an aura of red.

  Next to her, Diana let out a slow breath.

  Lillo saw Parker move after Jess. He was going to grab her, and Lillo moved to warn her at the same time Mac stepped away from the house.

  She lifted her shotgun; a shot rang out, shattering the air around them. But it wasn’t Mac’s—her gun was never loaded.

  Then the world shifted to slow motion. Mac’s arms flew to the side, the shotgun clattered at her feet, and she crumpled to the ground.

  Chapter 25

  Someone screamed. Lillo’s ears were ringing, and she turned, aware of Ian flying past her, diving for the man whose arm was still outstretched. They stumbled back, and a second man pulled his pistol and hit Ian across the head. Ian dropped like a stone.

  She was already running when she heard her name. Allie was kneeling over Mac, her face contorted, fear in her eyes. “Lillo!”

  Lillo pushed her out of the way. “Call the EMTs. The sheriff. Doc Clancy and Ned are at the clinic.”

  She knelt over her old friend. Mac looked stunned, and was mumbling obscenities. Blood was pulsing out of her left sleeve.

  Lillo found the seam and tore the fabric away. She knew immediately what she was looking at.

  It was all happening again.

  She swallowed the bile that rose in her throat. Folded her hands and pressed them into the wound.

  Mac let out a howl.

  “Sorry,” Lillo cried. “I’m sorry.” Mac would never last until Clancy or Ned got there.

  She looked wildly around. “Jess, get my kit from the spare room. Oh shit. I gave it away. Oh my God! I gave it away.”

  Think. She had to think. She was applying pressure to the wound. She’d done it automatically, without thinking, but it wasn’t enough, her hands were already covered in Mac’s blood.

  “No, you didn’t. I hid it in the closet.” Jess took off at a run.

  Mac’s eyes closed. Lillo couldn’t let go in order to feel for a pulse. “Mac, can you hear me? Mac, respond, dammit! Stay with me.”

  She was barely aware of things around her, she was totally focused on Mac, keeping constant pressure on the wound while she waited a lifetime for Jess to return with her kit.

  And Lillo prayed. Prayed that she could stop the bleeding, that Mac would hold on until a doctor arrived, the EMTs or Clancy or Ned—that she wouldn’t have another death on her hands.

  She knew stuff was happening behind her but she was in a bubble that held just her and Mac and a million fears.

  Jess returned with the kit. Lillo gave her directions; she hardly knew what she said. She was on automatic now.

  A crowd was gathering, she could hear the hum of their voices asking what had happened, but she couldn’t turn around to see, not even for a second, a second could mean the difference between living or dying.

  She heard a screech rise over the other voices, then the voices getting angrier.

  And Lillo just kept praying, Please, please, please.

  It took Diana a lifetime to react. It was crazy. The goon shooting Mac. Ian flying past her to attack the man. He was lying still on the ground. He was crazy, risking his life … again; he’d already risked it once that afternoon.

  People were running down the hill from town. All hell was breaking loose. Sonny grabbed the man who’d shot Mac and threw him against the hood of his SUV.

  “Don’t move.” He yanked his head back and slammed him against the car a second time. His colleagues moved as one, but Howie and Nando were there to stop them.

  Mr. Parker stood on the fringe, demanding that someone call the authorities.

  “You’re in luck, mister,” Howie said. “The sheriff just happens to be in town helping us look for a missing boy. Mighty convenient. He’s on his way over.”

  Ian pushed to his hands and knees, propelled himself to his feet, swayed, then staggered in Mac’s direction.

  Diana caught him as he stumbled by. “Lillo’s working on her. Are you hurt?” Stupid question. “Are you okay? Maybe you should sit down.”

  He didn’t seem to hear her.

  “Ian! Look at me!”

  His eyes were unfocused, deep and as unreadable as a black hole.

  They all heard the siren approaching. It split the air as the sheriff’s car entered the parking lot and screeched to a stop. The sheriff jumped out.

  Clancy and Ned jumped out of the back seat and ran to Mac and Lillo.

  “Stop that man!” George Parker screamed, pointing to Ian. “He attacked one of my men.”

  The flaming asshat.

  “Because your thug shot an old lady,” Sonny said.

  “It was self-defense. She was coming after him with a shotgun.”

  “Bullshit. There ain’t no shotgun.”

  Diana pulled her gaze away from Ian long enough to look toward where Doc, Clancy, and Lillo were kneeling over Mac. Craned her neck to get a better view. She didn’t see the shotgun.

  “Did anybody see any shotgun?” Sonny asked.

  “I didn’t see no shotgun,” Howie said.

  “Didn’t see any kind of gun, ’cept what you folks are carryin’ concealed,” Sonny added.

  The sheriff strode up to Parker. He was a good six two and at least two hundred and fifty pounds; he looked from Parker to Mac, lying white as ash on the pavement. And Diana’s stomach rebelled. God, please don’t let her be dead.

  “This is a fishing village. We don’t take to handguns around here. Causes too much domestic vi-o-lence. Ayuh.”

  “That’s right,” Sonny said. “Arrest these jokers, Sheriff. They were here last week causing a disruption, and now they’ve gone and shot Mac. I had my son go to the trouble of confiscating his weapon for you, Sheriff.”

  Parker brushed past him. “She had a shotgun and she was aiming at us.”

  The sheriff grabbed him by the shoulder, stopping him. “You just go stand over there out of the way until my deputy arrives. Then you can tell her why she shouldn’t arrest all of ya.”

  “Let go of my men. We’re leaving. You have no right to keep us.”

  “Name?”

  “What?”

  “What is your name?”

  “George D. Parker. This is my daughter, who has been kidnapped.”

  The sheriff looked over at Jess. “Seems I heard something about that.” He motioned her over. “Have you been kidnapped?”

  “No, sir. It’s just the ravings of a greedy old man.”

  “Old? Who the hell are you calling old, you ungrateful—”

  “Well, if that’s how you’re in the habit of treating your own flesh and blood, no wonder she ran away. Miss Parker, are you over eighteen?”

  “I’m thirty-two.”

  “Then I say she has a right to go where she wants.” He turned back to Parker. “Why don’t you go stand over there until I sort things out here? And Mr. Parker … ? Open your jacket, please.”

  “What?”

  “You aren’t carrying, are you?”

  “I certainly am not.”

  “He has goons to do it for him,” Jess said.

  “Yes, Miss Parker. Why don’t you come st
and over here with the rest of us.”

  “They all have permits,” Parker argued.

  “But not,” the sheriff said, “to shoot unarmed ladies.”

  “She was armed.”

  “That little old woman you just tried to kill? Hogwash. Lillo? How’s she doing?”

  Lillo didn’t answer, but Diana—and she suspected everyone else—turned to see what was happening. Lillo was still kneeling by Mac. Doc and Clancy were standing over them. Why weren’t they doing anything? Cold dread overtook her. Because they couldn’t? Was it too late? Mac couldn’t be dead.

  Diana moved involuntarily toward them. Didn’t stop until she reached the little group. She came to stand next to Ian, but her whole focus was on Mac, willing things to turn out good.

  Lillo was still applying pressure to the wound as she wrapped gauze around Mac’s upper arm.

  It seemed like blood was everywhere. Lillo was so intense that Diana began to be afraid.

  Lillo wrapped and pulled the gauze tighter, all the while keeping Mac’s arm lifted in the air. “Take over,” she pleaded.

  “You’re doing fine,” Doc said.

  “Fine,” Doc Clancy added, but Diana could tell he was dying to attend to Mac himself.

  They must trust Lillo. Or they wouldn’t stand by with Mac close to death. Because it certainly looked like she might be. Diana had never seen anyone so devoid of color. She sure as hell hoped this wasn’t one of those therapy-for-Lillo moments. Not with Mac’s life hanging in the balance. Surely, if Mac was still in danger, or Lillo wasn’t up to the job, they would take over.

  But they just stayed there, huddled over the two women; Doc Clancy’s hands braced on his knees, Doc Hartley crouched just behind Lillo’s shoulder.

  Diana could hear Lillo breathing. Each breath sounded like a sob.

  Jess came up beside her. “Is she going to be okay?”

  “I don’t have the faintest.”

  “I’ll never—”

  “It’s not your fault; don’t even go there. It’s your father’s fault for bringing those assholes. But not yours and not Lillo’s if Mac doesn’t make it. Too much guilt floating around here today. It doesn’t help.”