Head over Heels for the Holidays

Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Rune tried to ignore the gawking onlookers as he followed Maya through the police station. They must not be used to strangers around here. He sure wasn’t doing anything to draw special attention. That was the last thing he wanted, as a matter of fact.

Maybe it was Maya who was sparking all this interest. Maybe she didn’t have people from her past showing up very often.

“You’re in charge, Hollister,” she called to the roly-poly white-haired sergeant. “But don’t put out that flyer until I see it again.”

“Cross my heart.”

Obviously her staff respected her, but that was no surprise. Even in second grade, Maya had commanded respect. She didn’t get into scrapes like he did. In fact, he could always count on her to explain to the adults that they hadn’t intended to get lost in the lava tube, or to forget to pay for the shave ice, or to lose his brand-new deep-water fins.

His mother—a flighty, surf-mad teenage mom raising him on her own—had loved Maya because she was twice as level-headed as either of them. If she knew Maya was going to be with him, Mom didn’t worry. They’d get together after school and hang out at the beach, or play cards, or sometimes do art together. They both liked to read. They laughed a lot. She’d complained about the weird Hawaiian food—poi and loco moco. Maya liked to dance, he remembered that. They used to make campfires on the beach and dance around them to music from her iPod.

Then she’d moved back to Alaska and that had been the end of that.

Now…wow.

He didn’t quite have the words for how she looked now. In his memory, she’d had some baby fat and clear braces. Awkward wasn’t really the right word, but shy might be. She was generally pretty reserved, until she let down her guard while dancing around a bonfire or something.

Twenty years later, that quiet manner of hers had transformed into something much more magnetic. She came across as the kind of person that you automatically looked toward in a crisis—the person you knew would think fast and be able to handle anything.

Also, she was stunningly beautiful, in his biased old-friend opinion. Her rich brown skin glowed with an extra sheen of dark gold. Her eyes were a few shades lighter, warm and sparkling. She moved with confident grace through the station—it was her domain, after all, and it showed.

Outside, she gestured toward a patch of birch woods behind the station. A signpost marked the start of a walking trail. “We can walk for a bit if you need some time to tell this story of yours before we see my dad.”

He checked his watch. Cara was waiting back at the hotel they’d checked into—the Eagle’s Nest Resort. He’d splurged so she could have some fun before school started up in a few days.

“Sounds good,” he agreed. She tucked her hands into the pockets of the jacket she’d pulled on over her police uniform. Even though it was late August, the chill of fall added a bite to the air, especially on an overcast day like today.

“So, your sister…” Maya screwed up her face, obviously searching for a name.

“Cara. She wasn’t born yet when you were in Hawaii.”

“Oh. Good.” She smiled at him. “I can skip feeling guilty for not remembering her name. So she travels with you for your job?”

“Sort of. She’s going to start at Lost Harbor High in a few days.”

“Oh yeah? Junior, senior?”

“Senior.”

Maya’s eyebrows lifted. “Usually kids like to finish high school with their friends.”

The trail wound through a stand of birch forest that stretched between two neighborhoods. On either side, he could see houses through the dappled woodlands. Nice backyard for a police station.

“Yes, but that’s not an option.” He hesitated, then decided there was no need to delay this explanation any longer. “The past five years or so, I’ve been working on the mainland as an EMT and paramedic. Two years ago, Cara came to visit me. I was living in Montana at the time, and she wanted to see the snow. The only time she’d seen snow was when we went to the Big Island one winter and it snowed on Mauna Kea. We drove up and filled the bed of our truck with snow, but it melted by the time we got back.”

“That sounds like something Jay-Jay would do. We have snow here,” she pointed out. “You could have reached out to your old friend.”

“I didn’t know if you’d even remember the rascally boy you had to keep out of trouble.”

“You mean the one who saved my life?” She nudged him with her elbow, making his muscles tighten in reaction. Even though it was a playful gesture, it still had an impact on him.

“So you finally admit it. It only took you twenty years.”

She gave that rich, bubbly chuckle that he’d always loved inspiring. It sounded like sea water rushing over lava rocks.

“Anyway, go on. Cara came to visit you.”

“Yes. She was fifteen. It was the end of summer and I was working. When I was on shift, she was on her own. She used to go to a coffee shop down the street. She’s very social, very friendly, heart of gold, but a little bit naive. When this older man started talking to her, she was kind to him. He would come to the coffee shop and rant about politics and other stuff.”

“I know that kind,” Maya said. “Not entirely all there, is that what I’m getting?”

“Worse than that. He started following her around. He’d lurk outside my apartment all night long. He was obsessed, even though obviously there was never anything more than a conversation between them.”

“You called the police, right?”

“We talked to them. There wasn’t much they could do. They talked to him and warned him off, but he made up some story. He knew how to talk to police. I think he was former military. I sent her back to Hawaii early. She never even got to see the snow.”

This was the part where it got truly scary.

Maya was listening closely. “Don’t tell me he followed her back there.”

“Oh yes. He turned up at my mom’s house when she was at work. Grabbed Cara and put her in a car. She got away from him with the help of a bottle of body spray she had on her.”

“That was quick thinking.”

Rune nodded. He’d heard the story later, and been amazed at how a fifteen-year-old could keep her head like that.

“My mom, on the other hand, lost her s**t. You know how she is; she went straight for the white wine spritzers. Cara’s father left a few years ago, so he wasn’t much help either. We all agreed that she’d better come back to the mainland where I could watch out for her. But since he knew where I lived, I left my job and moved cities. My life changed overnight. I went from a fun-loving EMT to a full-time bodyguard. I finished my LPN certification. The two of us changed our names. Her birth name is Torrey, by the way, but she likes Cara better. She started going to school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Then he showed up again out of the blue.”

“Some stalkers are very persistent and clever.”

“I don’t know his background. I don’t even know his real name. All I know is that he told Cara his name is Chad. That’s it, Chad. I do have a picture of him but it’s blurry.” He dug out his phone and pulled up the photo of the asshole.

Maya stared at it for a long moment, then sent it to her own phone and handed it back. “Chad. Such a white-bread name for a scary stalker.”

“We don’t know his real name. The ID he gave the police in Montana was fake.”

He’s younger than I pictured.”

“I’d guess he’s in his mid-thirties. I believe he has military experience, like I said. He’s able to blend in really well. Maybe he had undercover expertise too, I don’t know. I’ve tried to find out more about him but he’s a wily bastard.”

“So you’re afraid he might follow you here?”

“Yes. There’s a good chance. After he found us in St. Paul, I signed up for the travel nurse agency. That way we have a chance to stay ahead of him. It takes him some time to locate us when we move. This is my fourth assignment since I signed up with the agency.”

Out of habit, he scanned the bit of road he could see through the trees. For the last two years, he’d gotten used to scoping out every place he went as if he were in the secret service.

“How did you get assigned to Lost Harbor?”

“I chose it because of you. I don’t always trust law enforcement to deal with the situation, but I trust you.”

She quirked her eyebrows at him. “Based on second grade?”

“You were a pretty badass second-grader.”

They reached a fork in the trail; one path headed up a hillside, the other paralleled its base.

“How’d you even know I was the police chief here? Are you stalking me?” She made a face at her own joke as soon as it left her mouth.

But he chuckled at it anyway. He’d always liked her dry, understated sense of humor. “I saw Lost Harbor on the list of locations the agency services. I remembered that’s where you lived, and did a little digging. Your photo on the town website doesn’t do you justice.”

In the photo, she was staring directly into the camera without smiling—a stern, no-nonsense keeper of peace and bringer of order. There was no hint of the dance-crazy girl he remembered—the one who had once laughed so hard when he got a blueberry stuck up his nose that she’d peed her pants.

“That’s my don’t-mess-with-my-town Police Chief Badger look,” she told him. “Never fails to get people’s attention.”

“It got mine.”

She shot a curious glance up at him. “In a good way or a bad way?”

“A good way. I want to keep Cara safe. I might be a nurse—and a damn good one, don’t worry—but for now my main job is protecting my sister. That’s why we chose Lost Harbor. Not only is it very far away from…everywhere…but I have a personal connection with the police chief. Cara’s very excited to meet you, by the way. I told her about our bonfire dances.”

She sighed. “Like I said, I don’t have much time for dancing lately. Between my job and my dad—“

He lifted one hand to stop her there. “Rune Larsen to the rescue. I can handle Mr. Badger, so long as he doesn’t still think of me as that skinny little kid.”

“He has eyes,” she said dryly. “His heart surgery hasn’t affected his vision. You are definitely not that kid anymore. So what else can you tell me about this dude? Stalker Chad?”

“I think he’s more comfortable in larger towns. He can hide better there. I think he has skill with vehicles. Cara said he drove like a race car driver. He’s also very good at blending in and disappearing into the background. He’s savvy about avoiding cameras. I don’t think he would hurt Cara, but I’m not sure. I’ve learned not to underestimate him. He’s good at earning people’s trust.”

She frowned. “I don’t like the sound of that. This is a pretty welcoming community. We’re all the way at the end of the Misty Bay Peninsula. The road doesn’t go any further. And for some reason that makes people relax, like nothing bad can happen here.”

“You do have a very low crime rate,” he pointed out. “But maybe that’s because you have such an outstanding police chief.”

“Flattery, Jay? Really?”

“Rune,” he corrected. “It’s my middle name. My mom chose it for good luck, so I’m hoping it helps.”

She shook her head at her mistake. “Sorry. Rune. Now that I know why you changed your name, it’s even more important. I’ll remember, I promise. You’re Rune from now on. Anyway, we do have crime here. I can show you a whole police blotter full of calls. And then there’s the theft of Mrs. Holt’s yak. Crime of the decade right there.”

He laughed. “You’re sure it didn’t just wander off, right?”

“It’s a possibility, especially since Mrs. Holt is convinced that her dead husband has somehow been reincarnated into the yak. They used to fight a lot, so maybe the poor beast just had enough.”

He snorted as they passed a gap in the trees, sunshine filtering through in a golden haze. He took a breath of the air—so pure it felt like liquid crystal—and a tiny bit of his habitual tension released.

“I think I’m going to like my time here.”

“It’ll be interesting, I can pretty much guarantee that.”

Even more interesting now that he’d met the fascinating all-grown-up version of his long-lost friend.