Page 14 of Ms. Fortune
“Risky!” I shouted his name, each syllable coated in terror.
I felt my boots dragging on the planks of the decking, and the rushing river down in the valley was suddenly in view. More than half of the older woman’s body was dangling over the edge of the deck, and I was losing my grip on her clothing.
I heard something clatter and more swearing. I closed my eyes and said a silent prayer, not that any heavenly body had acknowledged my existence before. If anyone was listening, they had to be from the special corner of hell reserved for the chronically unfortunate.
I heard a loud grunt. I saw a muscular arm, covered in flannel, reach out and clasp the woman’s shirt near where I was holding her. The fight against gravity ended as both of us were yanked backward in a graceless heap. We tumbled over one another in a mess of arms and legs. I took an elbow to the nose and smacked the back of my head on the decking. I groaned and blinked until the black and white lines in my vision turned back into the blue sky. It felt like everything had happened in slow motion and we’d been near death for hours. In reality, the entire ordeal had happened in seconds. Risky had reacted faster andmoved quicker than I did. Almost as if he had anticipated the woman falling and me sacrificing myself to save her.
I lay on my back, panting from fear and adrenaline when I heard the older man start to shout.
“I’m calling the police. You nearly killed my wife. I’m going to sue you and have you arrested. What kind of two-bit establishment are you running?”
He consoled his crying spouse while Risky pulled himself up and moved so he could crouch in front of me.
“You okay, boss lady?”
I noticed his knuckles were bleeding, and there was obvious concern in his pale gold eyes. “I’ll live.”
I looked at the crying woman and her furious spouse. “I told you that no one was allowed out here. The area is closed off for a reason. I only accepted your reservation after you agreed access to the deck wouldn’t be a deal-breaker for you. I have all our communications about the reservation saved. You put yourself, as well as me and my staff, in danger. This was a completely avoidable accident.”
The old man blustered and postured as he pulled his terrified wife to her feet. “My nephew is a lawyer. We’re taking our family elsewhere. But this isn’t the last you’ve heard from us.” He huffed and puffed until Risky got to his feet.
He was a head taller than all of us, and his easygoing demeanor was long gone. He bent to pick up the phone he’d fumbled and showed the screen to the couple. It was still in recording mode, even though he’d dropped it when he dived to haul me back from the edge.
I shivered when I realized he’d done that physically a couple of times, and metaphorically more than I wanted to think about, throughout the short course of our relationship.
“Be sure you let your legal representative know that the entire incident was recorded by an eyewitness and securitycameras.” He pointed to the outdoor camera I’d insisted he install for me after the night of the storm.
“You’re welcome to check out, but the regular stipulations apply. You won’t be refunded since the accident was your fault.” He put the phone in his pocket and lifted an eyebrow.
“I agree that we need to call the police and have your wife checked out by a medical professional before you leave. I want to make sure you don’t pull anything funny and claim serious injuries after the fact.”
Risky smirked. “Your nephew might be a lawyer, but I spent my previous career figuring out any and all loopholes in our legal system. There isn’t a scheme in the playbook I haven’t seen.”
The couple shared a look.
The husband wrapped his wife up in a protective embrace and helped her hobble to the door. “Acting like we’re trying to pull a fast one. You have some nerve, young man. My wife needs medical attention. Of course, we aren’t going anywhere until she’s attended to.”
Once I was alone on the deck with Risky, I collapsed on my back and let out a deep breath. “That was a close call. Thank goodness you have fast reflexes.” I let out a dry laugh and put a hand over my still-racing heart. “My nasty luck has really upped the stakes recently.”
Risky snorted and crouched down next to me. “It’s not luck. It’s sabotage.”
“What?” I sat up in a rush. Belatedly realizing it put our faces really close to each other.
“We checked all the remaining wood. That railing was fine a couple of days ago.” He pointed a finger at the base of the post that held the railing together. “There’s a faint pile of sawdust at the bottom of the post that wasn’t there when I took measurements. If anyone leaned against the part of the railing, it would break. My guess is that the person responsible wantedyou to be the one falling into the canyon since you’re doing so much of the hands-on work yourself.” His tone dropped, and his pretty eyes stared seriously into mine. “You’ve got a very determined enemy, Lucky.”
For anyone else, the revelation that they had a legitimate enemy knocking on their door might’ve been shocking and alarming. For me, it was just another day. I acquired enemies the way others made business connections or found friendships. It was always me against everybody else—until the incompetent stranger in front of me had come along.
I couldn’t pinpoint why I felt like a man calledRiskywas unquestionably on my side. I knew, without asking, this odd man had my back and fell into the nearly nonexistent friend category, not the always-full-to-capacity foe one.
With all my nerves still buzzing from my almost header off the side of the deck, I grabbed the front of Risky’s shirt and jerked him in my direction. He was a large man. Tall and strong. I knew the only reason I’d moved him so easily was because I caught him off guard. When he braced himself with his palms on the wooden slats of the deck, he was close enough that I managed to give him a rushed and fevered kiss of gratitude.
I thought the gesture would be light and easily brushed off as a forgettable, impulsive, and adrenaline-fueled act. I hoped I hadn’t just handed him a reason to sue me for sexual harassment. I was ill-prepared for the heat that followed the slight touch of our lips, or the way my heart trembled when his Earl Grey-colored gaze locked on mine.
I was a woman who was used to being cold—both in personality and perceived temperature. I joked that my heart had been replaced by a block of ice when I was just a child, and now that I was grown, it’d had the time to develop into a towering iceberg. I had been certain nothing would ever melt it. But those golden eyes, lit with an internal fire and gleaming with startled delight at the barely there kiss, had icy runoff dripping throughout my entire body. I shivered all over, like I was naked in the middle of a blizzard, so I pulled away before I did something really inappropriate.
“Thank you. Your quick reflexes saved me and that guest.” I pushed the hair that had come loose from the tie out of my face.
I was sure I was going to have bruises all over. I’d been limping around and wounded since I’d opened the doors to the lodge. I was smart enough to know it couldn’t all have been a coincidence or my legendary luck. Somebody had it in for me and didn’t want me to bring my grandparents’ property back to what it had once been.
