He frowned. “I want my grandson to have his money, but between you and me, he didn’t have the guts to follow through on any of this. So I took over, and he didn’t have a clue.”
“How did you find me, anyway?” she asked. “I was so careful, and no one else has located me.”
He lifted his chin, that haughty expression back. “I stopped in to search your place one day, and the deed for your little cabin here came in your mail.”
What? I was so careful.“But my mail was supposed to be held by the post office.”
“Guess they screwed up because there it was sitting in your mailbox like it had come just for me.” He lifted his shoulders. “Guess when you live right things go your way.”
“Not going your way right now, are they?” Ava said, her mind trying to grasp that a simple postal error had caused her so much pain. Could have cost her life. Micha’s and Colin’s too.
The siren wound down and stopped. Micha went to the door and opened it. Strobing blue lights filtered into the little room, and he soon greeted Russ.
Russ stepped into the shack and took hold of Micha’s arm to draw him closer and stare at it. “Bloody. You’re wounded. Need me to call an ambulance?”
“Wounded?” Ava raced across the room. “Let me see.”
“It’s really nothing,” Micha said. “You can look at it later.”
“Then let me get this guy out of here, and you can give me a statement, so she can look at it.” Russ pushed deeper into the room.
She tried to take a look now, but he turned away. Not before she caught sight of the blood she’d missed seeing in the low light. Had he been shot? Nothing she could do now, so she turned her attention to Russ, the third Maddox brother. He seemed to be a force to be reckoned with.
He was a larger-than-life guy who had a scowl on his face. He looked more like Ryan than Reid and was more muscular than either of his brothers.
Micha introduced them.
“Sorry for what you’ve gone through, but you can tell me all about it after I get this guy in my deputy’s custody.” He freed Wiggins’s ankles and glanced up at Micha. “Interesting restraint.”
“You gotta use what you have.” Micha laughed.
Russ replaced the wrist restraints with handcuffs, then lifted Wiggins to his feet and marched him toward the door. Russ looked back. “Hang tight.”
He shoved Wiggins out the door.
Micha closed it behind him. “Too bad the shack owner doesn’t have a woodstove in here to warm it up.”
She gave him a bold look. “I can think of one way for us to warm up.”
He shuffled back a step. “Why, Ms. Weston, are you flirting with me?”
“I believe I am. Is it working?”
“Oh, yeah.” He hurried across the room to her, swatting a spider web out of his way before sweeping her into his arms and kissing her.
His lips were cool, but the warmth of his body stemmed the cold air seeping through the building cracks. She reveled in his touch. The heat of his body. The strength in his arms telling her that everything was all right. Would be all right with him at her side.
She drew him closer. Clutching the back of his head. Snaking fingers into his soft hair. Clinging and letting the kiss go on and on. The back of her mind trying to break through and get her to admit she really should end the kiss and look at his injured arm.
Just one more second. Or two. Maybe three.
She finally pulled back and looked up at him and took a vigorous breath or two. “Now I need to make sure your arm is okay enough to wait for care until we get back to civilization. If you’re a good boy and let me take a thorough look at it, then we can resume where we just left off.”
He started to take off his jacket. “You’ll be hard-pressed to find a better-behaved boy in all the land.”
She laughed and loved that the terrible stress of the past week was over. She could resume her life. But where? Micha lived in Shadow Lake. She lived in Portland.
A no-brainer. She could move to the cabin, turn on the utilities and get a job in the nearby city. Then she would be close enough to properly get to know this man.
