Mist on the Meadow (35 page)

“It sounds as if your uncle has left Harper
Electronics in a tough spot,” Blankenship said. “I might be able to
help you out.”

Wolf pursed his lips. “Did you want to return
the stolen merchandise?”

Aunt Corrine gasped and Marissa tightened her
grip.

The senator remained unfazed. “What do you
mean?”

Wolf’s hands curled into fists and he
tightened his biceps to keep from taking a swing. He scanned the
room for Chuck. “Where’s my cousin?” He looked at his aunt. “He’s
the one with the key.”

Aunt Corrine’s chin trembled. Her eyes shot
to the room across the hall, but she didn’t say anything.

Senator Blankenship cleared his throat. “I
didn’t realize someone had stolen your inventory, but I might know
a supplier to replace it rather cheaply.”

“And you’re doing this out of the goodness of
your heart?” Wolf couldn’t hide his sarcasm.

As if he didn’t notice, Blankenship
continued. “My platform is to protect the family-run,
entrepreneurial businesses. I care about companies like yours,
Wolf. With your recent hardships, I might have a solution that
would help put Harper Electronics back on its feet.”

Wolf pulled his hand from Marissa’s and
rubbed his cheek. “Let me get this straight. First you want to
steal the inventory, then you want to sell it back to me?”

“I’m interested to hear why you think I’m
responsible,” Blankenship said. “I understood they were looking for
an employee in connection with your losses.”

It started to make sense. Uncle Pete knew
about the missing inventory, but he didn’t know who had taken it.
And he was too stupid to realize that the senator was selling back
the inventory he’d stolen. “Why are you willing to sell it back to
me?” Wolf asked.

The senator winced. “I’m merely offering you
replacement parts, but if you have other arrangements, that
obviously won’t be necessary.”

You should have shaken his hand
.
Marissa told him silently.
You can still shake his hand.

The senator’s hand hung at his side. Did Wolf
want to know all the dirty details? Wolf needed to keep Marissa
safe. The risk would escalate once they knew the rest of the story.
If Blankenship dealt black market parts, he’d go to great lengths
to keep his secret. What would he use as leverage?

“Where’s Chuck?” Wolf asked again.

The senator narrowed his eyes. “This is quite
uncomfortable, Wolf. I feel at a disadvantage.”

Here it comes
. Wolf didn’t need
Marissa to clue him in.

The senator glanced around the room, at the
ceiling. “This is a beautiful home. A show place. It would be a
shame to lose it all. You’ll probably have to sell it to bail out
the company.”

“Or I could let the company fail.”

“You’d do that?” The senator raised his
eyebrows. “Your legacy? A family-owned business?”

Wolf stared at the senator’s hand again.
Until he could read the senator’s thoughts, he couldn’t assess the
threat. “You had an arrangement with my uncle,” Wolf said. “What
have you lost with him removed from the board?”

The senator drew his lips tightly together.
“What do you know about our arrangement?”

Marissa’s hands settled on Wolf’s waist.
You don’t have to touch him,
she told him silently. The
energy between them surged.

Wolf pulled Marissa beside him, careful not
to break the connection. As long as the senator thought them
ignorant, they had an advantage. Once that was lost, a nervous
criminal could be a dangerous thing.

“As I thought,” the senator continued.
“You’re only interested in trying to tarnish my reputation.”

Wolf glanced at his aunt. “Weren’t you just
kissing my aunt?” His aunt shuddered.

“It didn’t mean anything,” the senator said.
“A gesture of my concern for her.”

Wolf sighed. “I wish that were true.”

“You can’t
believe I invited that?” his aunt shouted. “And why do you keep
asking about Chuck? You don’t care about him at all. Wasn’t it bad
enough you physically dragged my son from his home to the police
station? And what did that prove? He wasn’t the one driving.”

She knew
. Wolf took a step in her
direction. Anger clouded his vision.

“It’s over,” Marissa whispered. “Let it
go.”

But he couldn’t let it go. Everyone knew
about the accident but him. They’d all sheltered him from the
‘scandal’ and let Chuck off the hook. “All your ‘poor Wolf’ and ‘we
need to keep the family together.’ And all the while you knew who
killed my father,” he shouted. Wolf shot a glare at the senator.
“It’s time for you to leave my house.”

His aunt sobbed and Marissa stepped in front
of Wolf. “Not now.”

“I think you know more than I would guess.”
Senator Blankenship finished his sentence with a hiss.

Wolf pointed to the front door. “We have no
business to transact. I would appreciate it if you would leave my
home.”

Senator Blankenship beckoned with one arm. A
second man stepped out of the music room. Chuck stumbled, bound and
gagged, as the man pushed him across the foyer.

Wolf sighed. “Dammit.”

“Fan-flaming-tastic,” Marissa whispered.

Aunt Corrine ran at the senator. “What have
you done to my son?” He struck at her with the back of his hand and
she fell to the floor. “Wolf, you have to do something,” she
cried.

No way out of this
. The senator’s
thoughts made Wolf wince. Blankenship had gone from aggravated to
desperate. The situation needed to be moderated. Wolf held up his
hands. “I’m sure we can work something out.”

The senator shook his head. “I don’t think
so.” He shot a glance at his henchman who forced Chuck to his
knees. “We can make it look like a hit and put the electronic
components in the basement. A few well-placed tips will suggest
that Wolf was the one selling the parts.”

The henchman held a gun to Chuck’s sweaty
forehead. A rush of power flowed through Marissa, through Wolf. He
bowed his head and braced for what, he wasn’t sure. Wolf pulled
Marissa into his arms in an effort to shield her, or draw on her
power.

The front door blew open and a stag charged
through.

* * *

Marissa squeezed her eyes tight against the
pain. She grabbed her abdomen and curled into a ball, rocking back
and forth on the wooden floor. Somewhere behind her, she heard a
squawk, and then she heard Officer Don call for an ambulance.

She tried to call for Wolf, but she couldn’t
find the breath to speak, as if she’d been punched in the
stomach.

Officer Don’s voice came through the fog
along with his hand on her shoulder. “You’re okay.”

“Wolf.” She managed to say his name.

“He’ll live. What the hell happened in
here?”

The cramp eased enough for her to look up.
Aunt Corrine sat wide-eyed in the corner of the room with her hands
over her mouth. Senator Blankenship held his gut. Blood seeped
through his fingers. Marissa turned her head to where Chuck and the
gunman had been. Chuck lay face down on the ground, and the gunman
was on the floor behind him with a pool of blood around his head.
Beside the gunman, a finial had broken off the stair post, covered
in blood.

Marissa struggled to sit upright. Her
midsection ached with the persistent cramp. “Wolf.”

“I’m okay.” His voice was hoarse.

She found Wolf seated on the floor behind her
left shoulder. He held his arm, also bleeding. Marissa opened her
hand to him, but even after they touched, the pain in her abdomen
continued. Tears streamed down her cheeks.

Two more policemen rushed in the front door.
“What happened?” one of them asked Officer Don.

“Beats me,” he answered. “I was driving down
the street when I saw the flashes and heard a gun report. I ran in
here and found things pretty much as you see them.” He crouched
beside Marissa. “Can you tell me what happened?”

The last thing she remembered was the burst
of energy, and then the stag. Marissa scanned the room for any
signs of the animal, but she knew she wouldn’t find any. “I passed
out,” she told him.

Don turned to Wolf. “Wolf?”

Wolf cast a glance at Marissa. “I heard a
bang. I went down. Not sure about anything after that.”

Don looked at Marissa again. “Are you hit?
You’re bleeding too.”

She put a hand to her abdomen to confirm what
she already knew. “Not hit,” she told him. Until that moment, she
hadn’t realized how much she’d wanted the baby. Marissa grabbed her
knees to her chest and curled into a ball, rocking to chase away
the emptiness that remained where the growth had been.

The bell over the door rang and Mrs. Prinzel
walked into the café. Becky rose from the booth to wait on her.

“Oh, I’ve interrupted your morning break.”
Mrs. Prinzel waved her hand. “Sit. Relax. I can wait five minutes.
Marissa, dear, how are you feeling? That was quite an ordeal you
went through, wasn’t it? I haven’t seen you since all that
happened. What has it been? A month now?”

“Yes ma’am,” Marissa answered. “I’m doing
well, thank you.”

“And Wolf Harper? They said the bullet grazed
his arm? He’s okay, isn’t he?”

Marissa nodded. “Yes ma’am.”

“What a thing to go through! It sounds as if
his uncle created quite a mess for him to clean up, but did I hear
Harper Electronics is starting a line of computer games?”

“Yes ma’am.” As long as the gossip didn’t get
ugly, Marissa didn’t mind answering her questions.

“Sounds like just the thing to get them back
on their feet.”

“Wolf’s cousin is the one helping them design
the games,” Marissa’s mother added.

Mrs. Prinzel waved at the air. “Isn’t that
just the ticket? It keeps the company in the family and the family
together.” She clutched her purse to her chest. “And what happened
to Corrine?”

Marissa pushed away from the table. The
conversation could only go downhill from here. “Let me get your
cupcakes, Mrs. Prinzel.”

“Oh thank you, dear! I don’t know what you
put in them, but Mr. Prinzel just loves them. It must be the sugar
that makes him so frisky.” She giggled, and Marissa rolled her
eyes. She didn’t want to envision Mr. Prinzel chasing Mrs. Prinzel
around the bedroom.

“And the wedding? March 21 is the first day
of Spring, isn’t it? Should be a lovely time of year for you. Will
it be a large wedding?”

Will I be invited
, was what Marissa
heard.

“We’re keeping it very small,” Marissa
replied. “Can I get anything else for you today?”

Mrs. Prinzel paid for her cupcakes and
smiled. “No, thank you dear. I’m sure I’ll be calling in another
order next week.” She gave Marissa a wink and walked out of the
café.

Marissa’s mother continued to wipe down
tables, and Marissa leaned over her mother’s back to give her a
hug.

“You don’t have to do that, you know,”
Marissa said.

“I want to help. You can’t do it all by
yourself, you know. And with Max back at school . . .”

“Sit down, Mrs. M,” Angela said. “You’re
making me tired.”

Marissa’s mother pursed her lips and slapped
her rag onto the table. “You girls have your baking to occupy you.
Give a mother a break, why don’t you?”

“That’s what we’re trying to do.” Marissa
gave her mother another hug before she slipped into the booth
beside Angela. “I’m going to have to pay you if you keep working so
hard.”

“You could both use a little more time to
recover,” her mother said. “You don’t have to rush on the wedding
now.”

“It isn’t as if you’re pregnant or anything,”
Angela said.

Marissa caught her breath, but her mother put
her hands over Marissa’s. “Now what would make you think that?” her
mother said with a smile.

Angela raised an eyebrow Marissa’s
direction.

Marissa swallowed down the lump in her
throat. “No,” she said with her busybody voice, “I’m not pregnant.
You sound as bad as Mrs. Prinzel trying to dig up dirt.”

“So what’s the rush, then?” Angela asked.

Marissa shrugged. “When you know, you
know.”

Becky leaned over the table. “I heard Mrs.
Harper filed for divorce, sold the house to Chuck and moved to
Florida.”

“I heard the senator’s wife is suing him for
divorce and asking for a huge settlement. They’re saying he had his
hands into all kinds of dirty deals.” Noah asked. “You were there,
Marissa. The papers say a deer ran through the front door and
knocked that guy into the banister. Did you see a deer? Or is he
trying to make a case for insanity?”

Marissa shrugged. “I honestly don’t remember
much. I heard the shots and I hit the floor.”

Mrs. Maitland put an arm across Marissa’s
shoulders. “Thank heaven one of those shots didn’t hit you.”

Becky nudged Noah and pointed out the window.
Marissa followed her finger to where Wolf walked across the parking
lot with a bouquet of flowers. She rose from the booth and met him
at the door.

Wolf laced his fingers with hers while he
kissed her, sending sparks all through her body.

“Happy Valentine’s Day,” he whispered.

“You too.”

He presented her with the bouquet. “For
you.”

She kissed him again. “Care to step into my
office where I can thank you properly?”

He smiled and gave her another peck. “Don’t
tempt me. I don’t think your mother would approve.” Wolf looked up.
“Good morning, Bonnie, everybody.”

Angela pushed up from her seat. “Break’s
over. It’ll be lunchtime before you know it.” She stopped in front
of Wolf and patted his shoulder. “Good to see ya, Wolf. How’s the
bullet wound?”

“Better.” He cocked an eyebrow as she passed
into the kitchen. “So why doesn’t she like me?”

Angela paused and turned in the doorway. “I
like you fine.” And then she straightened when she looked out the
front windows.