“Yeah, I saw it,” Ross replied, now ready to add strangling Kelsey to his to-do list. “Kelsey, get back in the car. I can call him later.”
“Don’t be silly,” Kelsey said. “He’s not going to hurt anyone.”
“I can come back another time, by myself,” Ross said, not yet ready to walk away from his kids. “Or meet him somewhere. Somewhere he can’t carry a gun.”
“He’s a harmless old man,” Kelsey said. “Just have him keep his hands on the table at all times and you’ll be fine.”
She had a tiny twinkle in her eyes, and Ross was suddenly furious all over again at her nonchalance. “I can’t believe you jumped out of a moving car to face a man with a gun.”
“He was never going to shoot me.”
The logic of her words was utterly uncompelling. “You didn’t know that.”
“I had a pretty good guess.” Her expression softened at the horrified look on his face. “Ross, I travel alone all the time. I’ve dealt with people far crazier than our Mr. Stagefeather.”
He knew that was true, and perhaps that was why he was so furious. The thought of her heading out alone suddenly took on a stark new meaning.
She held up a hand to forestall the lecture he was obviously poised to deliver and angled her head toward the children, calling his attention to their rapt audience. “Don’t. Not now. Just go talk to him. I’ll stay out here with the kids.” She opened the back door and wedged herself into the seat next to Julia. “That guy is more scared of us than we are of him,” she told them.
Julia grabbed her around the neck and squeezed hard, hoisting herself into Kelsey’s lap. “I don’t know about that,” she said. “I’m pretty scared of him.”
Kelsey looked up at Ross and motioned with one hand. “Go talk to him,” she said.
He stared at them for a long moment, unable to convince himself to move.
“Go,” Kelsey repeated. We’ll be fine.”
“Don’t get out of the car. I’ll just be a few minutes.” He turned to walk back toward the house, the tableau of Kelsey and the kids etched into his brain.
A sick feeling lingered in his gut. He wasn’t scared of Stagefeather. Not really. He’d just realized that in two weeks, Kelsey would be leaving on a dangerous journey halfway across the world, and he’d have to watch her go. He’d have to watch her leave knowing that she would throw herself out of a moving car, or across an avalanche, or down a mountainside, to protect someone she loved.
And there was nothing he could do to stop her.
…
Harvey turned out to be a gentle soul who had moved into the cabin about eight years before, when his father died and left him the land. He had worked as a pharmacist in Fort Collins before taking early retirement so he could move to the land his father had loved. Though he had developed his own attachment to the area, he still wasn’t quite sure about being so far away from civilization.
They talked for about twenty minutes. Ross told him about their camping trip, and Harvey described all the different species of birds and animals he’d seen on the land. They never mentioned the resort, but Harvey spoke briefly about his financial troubles—the tax bills he couldn’t pay, and the retirement savings he was already spending down—and when they said good-bye, Harvey shook his hand firmly and suggested they talk business next time they met. He admitted to doing a little research into Ross’s background and said he was impressed—as Herriot had suspected he might be—by the stories he’d read about Hollyhock.
It was all falling into place, and Ross couldn’t have felt worse about it.
They hit cell phone coverage about an hour down the road, and Ross listened to his voice mail through his Bluetooth while he drove. The kids had fallen asleep within a few minutes of turning off the gravel road onto the blacktop. He suspected they’d sleep hard for a few nights to come. Kelsey stared out the window at the pine forests and brown hills that raced beside the road. The two of them had reached an impasse. He didn’t know what to say to her and she didn’t appear to want him to say anything at all.
The first message was from Herriot. The very sound of his voice made Ross shudder.
The second was a shock. It was his brother Brit.
“Hey Ross, calling to see if you’ll be around next week. Tori and I are flying in for a meeting about a potential business opportunity. All very last-minute. Wondered if we could bring Paddy and stay at your place. Would be good to see you and the kids.” A baby began to wail in the background, and then Ross heard Tori yell, “Say hi for me.”