A Reason to Kill (Reason #2) (6 page)

Unfortunately, before I could say “I’m so sorry, I tried to tell you.” I heard a deep voice rumble, “Jesus, Mom, are ya tryin’ to get everyone killed?”

I may have only heard that voice once, but the sound of it was burned into my cerebrum. So on the word “Mom,” I spun around and found Max scowling at the both of us as I whispered “Your mother?”

“Yeah, my mother, though her lack of common sense makes me wonder.”

“Funny, Maximilian. Give me that axe and let her try again.”

“Were you not just standin’ here when she threw the last one?”

“And? She just needs to focus. Mia, next time visualize Max as the bull’s eye. Somethin’ tells me you’d hit it then.”

“Really, I don’t need to throw again,” I explained, but neither one of them seemed to hear me.

Beyond humiliated and maybe even a little pissed at Max for assuming I’d kill someone, I started to move away as Max and his mother, continued to argue. When I turned to leave, and looked up the hill I saw (and it could be said I saw red instantly) Donald Zimmer talking with a pudgy man who looked fit-to-be-tied. I couldn’t believe my eyes, he was supposed to be in a meeting, it was the sole reason I’d come all the way out here in first damn place. Without so much as a goodbye to Max or his mother, I headed straight for Donald. My head was still pounding and it seemed to take on a life of its own as my anger increased.

Dressed in Bermuda shorts, long-sleeved T-shirt and boots with his trademark dreadlocks pulled back into a ponytail, he looked arrogant and full of himself as he spoke with the man. As I approached, I heard Donald say, “The bears are my main priority, not this town.”

The pudgy man turned beet red at this news and then shouted in return, “You’ll put the whole town out of work.”

“Donald, what’s going on and why in the hell are you here?” I questioned as I came to a stop next to both men.

Donald turned, smiled at me, and then like he usually did, he reached out and touched me inappropriately. Only this time he put his hand on my waist and drew me closer. With a huge smile in place when he looked at me, Donald leaned in and announced, “I did it, Mia. I got Congressman Sheppard to agree to sponsor a bill to reclassify this area as a national forest. All I need are fifty thousand signatures and he’ll push to get the land around Grizzly Pointe reclassified.”

“Say that again?” the same rumbling voice from before asked from behind me, but this time the anger was lethal in tone.

“Hello, Hunter,” Donald replied with disdain.

Turning fully to Max, his mouth pulled tight over his teeth, and his brows pinched in anger as he responded with nothing short of malice.

“I suppose you should be the first to know. Once I have the signatures needed to sponsor a bill, and I will get them, I promise you that, this whole mountain range will become a national forest. When that happens, eminent domain takes effect and you’ll be forced to sell. Your logging is pushing my bears further north out of their summer feeding range and it’s affecting their reproduction. I’m done standing by as I watch my bears dwindle in numbers so you can kill trees. So, the only recourse I have is to shut you down.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, I closed my eyes.
What was he thinking?
He’d kill this town if that happened and he knew it. Then I heard Maxine, who’d walked up next to me, gasp, then seethe in a tight voice, “My husband’s family has been on this mountain for over a hundred years. Most of the people in this town depend upon the jobs we provide to survive. Are you sayin’ the lives of a handful of bears are more important than the livelihood of twenty-five hundred people?”

“Of course, he isn’t,” I tried to explain to her, but Max took that moment to grab Donald by the shirt and haul him off his feet.

Donald shouted, “You can’t bully me into stopping,” as his feet left the ground, but Max didn’t listen and kept right on threatening him.

“No? But I can kill you before you kill this town,” Max roared in his face.

Donald paled and tried to push him off, but it was pointless. Max outweighed him by fifty pounds and if his size wasn’t factor enough, his anger was so great that Donald never stood a chance.

Onlookers watched as I grabbed Max’s arm and tried to pull him off. Lucy, Frank, and Jake ran up at that moment and the men tried to pull Max off Donald as well.

Maxine and I stepped back from the scuffle as Jake reasoned with Max to let Donald go. Finally, with a shove, he let Donald go with a warning.

“Don’t fuck with me and don’t fuck this town,” Max growled.

When he turned towards his mother, he glared at me with an intensity I’d never felt in my life. It was clear right then he hated me because of who I worked with and I didn’t blame him one bit. Lowering my eyes, ashamed to look at them both as they walked away, my head snapped up when Donald said, “It’s best not to get friendly with the natives, Mia. It’s our responsibility to look after the bears. You’ll only cloud the issues when you interact with them.”

I wasn’t a violent person, but at that moment, I could have killed him myself for treating people so callously. Shoving past him, needing to be anywhere but in his presence, I was stopped short when Donald grabbed my wrist and twisted tightening his grip.

“Did you sleep with him?” he asked unexpectedly.

“What?” I asked confused, wincing in pain.

“I arrived late last night and saw Lucy and some man stumbling drunk into her room. Then I saw Hunter carry you into your room. So, I’ll ask again, did you sleep with him.”

“That’s none of your business, Donald. Let go of my arm you’re hurting me,” I shouted.

“You know SIOZ won’t look favorably on its employees getting drunk and sleeping around like common sluts.”

My head snapped back as if he’d struck me, but his threat was clear. Back him or he’d inform SIOZ of our behavior.

It was instinctual. I didn’t think about it before my hand connected with his face. The slap stung my hand and was so loud that the crowd who’d gathered had gasped in surprise. Donald let go of me the instant my hand connected with his face, but he shoved me back when he did and I stumbled.

Pissed off by the whole scene, I turned too quickly and lost my balance as usual, falling to my knees. Lucy came to my rescue chuckling “Come on slugger,” as she helped me to my feet.

I heard laughter, but didn’t care. I was glad I’d slapped him and now that I thought about it, I bet if I’d pictured Donald while throwing that damn axe, I’d have won the whole bloody competition.

Four

String him up by his entrails

There are times when a man has to walk away from a fight and there are times when he should make a stand. Walking away before he beat the shit out of that sonofabitch Zimmer was one of those times. Max knew he couldn’t stop that bastard from shutting down his town if he were behind bars for assault, so he’d let him go with a warning. Regrettably for Zimmer, that thought process was short-lived when he heard Mia’s sultry voice shout, “Let go of my arm you’re hurting me.”

Max whipped around at the sound of her frightened voice and saw Mia’s wrist held in Zimmer’s firm grip. Again, unfortunately for Zimmer, the anger he’d tried to bury to avoid killing the bastard broke loose like a bull in the ring. He took off like a shot when he saw Mia’s face pinch in pain, ignoring his mother as she called out to stop him. As he charged up the hill Mia slapped Zimmer and then stumbled back, turned, and fell to her knees.

His anger had reached a boiling point when Mia hit the ground, so when he reached Zimmer, he grabbed his shoulder, turned the man punching him with the force of a sledgehammer. Dazed and confused, blood shot from Zimmer’s mouth as he went down, grabbing his head as he fell.

“You keep your fuckin’ hands off of her, do you hear me?” Max growled standing over Zimmer in a rage. Zimmer, not a stupid man, nodded once and made no move to get back up. Max turned to Mia then and lifted her arm, looking at her wrist, and saw bruises had already formed on her wrist.

“He marked you,” Max bit out feeling his control slipping by the second.

His mother called out “Max!” so he turned his head and saw the fear in her eyes. Closing his own, he willed himself to calm down. When he opened them and saw the bruises on Mia’s petite wrist, he knew if he didn’t leave now he’d make an already fucked up situation worse.

Taking a deep breath, he did the only thing he could to defuse his anger. He stepped back from Mia, and without another word turned and stalked away.

“Whoa, Mad Max,” Lucy mumbled as he left.

Then, in her sultry tones, Max heard Mia respond out of breath “Mad Max indeed . . .” And he smiled.

Rocky peaks passed by as we headed towards Grizzly Pointe. The stark difference in the greens of the trees and the lighter browns and grays of the rocky ridges were somehow calming. I could almost smell the green of the trees the colors were so vibrant.

When I considered how I’d been nervous about camping in the mountains, I was surprised how in tune with my surroundings I felt. Growing up I’d been surrounded by mountains in Washington State. I was used to seeing them from a distance but had never spent any real time in them. Now that I was in the heart of the mountains, a pleasant, calm seemed to encircle me. It was peaceful out here, even peaceful in the town of Trails End. It was nothing like the hustle and bustle of the city I loved. I could see the appeal now, minus the bugs, and could well imagine if I felt this way after two days in Trails End, those who called her home would fight Donald tooth and nail to preserve their way of life.

After discussing at length what Donald was up to with Frank and Lucy, we’d all agreed that the board at SIOZ were oblivious to what he was doing. Good relationships with the communities where we conducted our research, in addition to finding ways for nature and man to coexist, were of key importance to SIOZ and the cornerstone of their mission statement.

Now Donald was undermining that fragile balance.

The regret I had for my brief relationship with Donald had now turned into a sour pit in my stomach. God, I was an idiot. I knew he was single-minded, but this was off the charts. You can’t protect a species at the cost of a community. SIOZ’s stance when a species is in danger of extinction is to work with the community, educate them to ensure the species survival, not destroy the lives of its people.

He’d turned into a zealot, the worst kind of activist.

I’m a pacifist myself so I don’t condone violence, but I understood Max’s anger towards Donald and was secretly glad he’d punched the jerk.

When I’d heard Maxine shout Max’s name, then turned just in time to see his fist connect with Donald’s face, I won’t lie, it was hot, beyond hot, seeing all that male testosterone in action. And when he looked at my wrist, his jaw tightening in anger, pissed off on my behalf, let’s just say I’d wanted to climb up his body and have his children. The whole thing was very caveman-esque. In fact, just thinking about it now makes my heart beat a little faster. Never in my life had I met a man who acted, well, like a man
.
Apparently, I’ve been surrounded by she-men all this time and the whole experience was rather eye opening, if not a little life altering if I was honest.

Where do men like that come from and where have they been hiding all my life?

The Jeep came to a stop, breaking me from my thoughts of muscled cavemen. Looking around, I saw a rushing river to the west that butted-up to the mountain range. The waters in the river were churning as white foam floated across its surface, passing over rocks and fallen trees. Farther up the river, I could see where Hunter Logging had gigantic logs stored in a shallow cove to keep them moist to avoid cracking and splitting. The forest was quiet since all the loggers were still in town at the Founder’s Day celebration. Though I doubted there would be much celebrating, now that Donald had revealed his plan.

I could still see in my mind’s eye Max’s face when he’d listened to Donald talk about shutting down his father’s company. The anger and hatred his eyes had held. He’d transformed from the flirting man near the lake to a man who looked like he could kill, and I had no doubt others were feeling the same.

When one of the doors opened and slammed shut, I got out and proceeded to help unload the equipment for the hike up to base camp. Looking up the incline, I said a silent prayer for agility. Either I’d make it to the top or I wouldn’t. Only time would tell. However, I wouldn’t hold my breath. The way my trip had gone thus far, I figured I was toast.