Page 11 of Frostbite & Mistletoe
UNSAFE TO OCCUPY—DO NOT ENTER
By authority of the Lemhi County Fire Marshal
“You need to post these immediately.” He pulled a roll of blue painter’s tape from his pants pocket.“One at each entrance.”
She couldn’t make herself reach out to take the offered tape roll.
“Look, I know this is difficult,” he said, his voice lower now.“There are resources available—small business emergency loans, permits that can be expedited. I can help point you in the right direction.”
The unexpected offer caught her off guard. She glimpsed something beyond the rigid enforcer—a man who might actually care about the impact of his actions.
But her pride and anger quickly smothered any gratitude she might have felt.
“I don’t need your help,” she snapped.“I just need you to leave so I can start making calls and figure out how to save what’s left of my business.”
Gabriel nodded once. He tapped the folder of citations.“I’ll need you to sign these before I go.”
She scrawled her signature across the forms without reading them, desperate to end this humiliation.
“I’ll be back later to check that you posted the notices in the right places,” he said as he headed for the door.“And Kymberlie…” he paused, looking back at her.“I really am sorry about your club.”
He left her gripping the edge of her bar in a white-knuckled grip.
“Holy shit.”
The voice from the doorway made Kymberlie jump. Micah Jacobsen, her bartender and fellow pack member, stood there surveying the damage with wide eyes. She’d been so focused on Gabriel and his bad news that she hadn’t heard Micah drive up. How long had he been lurking outside? How much had he overheard?
“Is Fire Marshal Hardass really shutting us down? Right before Christmas?” Micah demanded, confirming he’d heard enough.
Kymberlie’s throat tightened. She didn’t trust herself to speak. Instead, she silently held up the orange notice.
Micah blew out a disgusted breath and walked in.“Everyone’s been talking about how he closed down the VFW hall over in Salmon last month for some bullshit violation.” He lowered his voice.“Word is, he got run out of his last job in Granite Gap. Some kind of scandal.”
Kymberlie’s ears perked up.“Oh?”
“Not sure exactly. But Tyler Swanson just hired Gabriel as his safety compliance inspector.” Micah snorted.“Working for a construction company’s gotta be convenient when you’re in charge of telling people they gotta fix things if they want to stay in business.”
The information settled uneasily in Kymberlie’s stomach. Could Gabriel be getting some kind of kickback for being overly strict?
“He seemed pretty convinced he was doing the right thing,” she said, surprising herself by defending him.“And he wasn’t wrong about all the stuff he found. It just sucks, that’s all.”
“Yeah, well, his type always finds something,” Micah replied.“Why don’t you call Bill and Mandy? I’m sure they know someone who can fix things for you without all the red tape.”
Kymberlie considered contacting her pack alphas, like Micah was suggesting. It was so tempting…
But cutting corners by using her pack connections had gotten her into this mess in the first place, hadn’t it?
And despite her anger, something about Gabriel’s intensity when he talked about safety had struck a chord.
“No.” She sighed.“I need to do things the right way this time. Great-Uncle Jack didn’t do me any favors when he inspected this place and let a bunch of important stuff slide.” She looked up to meet Micah’s skeptical expression, and added,“Last night… people could’vediedin here. I couldn’t live with myself if anything like that ever happened again and I could’ve prevented it.”
Micah’s expression softened.“I know, cuz. It scared the shit out of me, too.”
She glanced down at the stack of citations and the ugly orange notices. Against her will, she remembered Gabriel standing close to her, the heat of his body, the intensity in his amber eyes.
Why did her wolf have to respond tohim, of all people? The man who’d just shut down her business, who might be hiding a troubled past, who represented everything rigid and inflexible that she’d spent her life pushing against.
My life really sucks right now.
