Page 3 of The Fixer and the Fugitive

“Where are you going to go?” he asked.

She blew out a breath. “I have no idea.” This was the tricky part of the plan. Some people prepped for the end, longed for it, spent all their lives living for that day. She hadn’t. She had been happy to be where she was until all of a sudden she wasn’t, and now what?

“I know a place,” The Colonel said.

Only years of training and acquaintance kept her from the inane response.You do?He hated stuff like that. She sealed her lips together and waited him out.

“How do you feel about small towns and country living?” The Colonel asked. By now she recognized the hints of amusement in his tone.

“About as well as you’d expect,” she said.

He chuckled and somehow the sound was more terrifying than silence. “A person in your unique situation needs somewhere unique to settle, somewhere rural with a lot of space, somewhere not on the map.”

“Does such a place exist?” she asked. She’d been a lot of places, all of them on the map and teeming with people.

“You’ll love it,” he said in a tone that told her she’d likely hate it. His eyes almost crinkled when he spoke again. “It’s Paradise.”

Chapter 2

Tony Dalton had never made it down the street without being stopped. It happened so often he’d long ago started calculating the extra time into his route. Seemingly every time someone saw him, they needed a word about something. And because they couldn’t jump right in with their own selfish requests, they started with him.How is Elena? How is Elliot? How is Missy? How are the girls? How’s the shop? How’s your…mother?Once the niceties were over, they could finally say what they needed to say.Last year the snowplow dumped twelve feet of snow in front of my driveway. Took me three weeks to dig myself out. You ought to talk to them about that.Or,Now, far be it for me to gossip, but my sister in Ontario mailed me some maple cookies and they arrived half-eaten. You know Jody at the post office loves maple, can sniff it like a tracker hound. I’m not making an accusation, I’m saying it’s awfully suspicious. If it happens again, I’m smelling her breath.

He had never been elected mayor of the town. Try telling that to the town. Somehow everyone assumed he ran things. Thetruth? He kind of did. Mostly because he was that sort of person, the nosy sort with his finger in every pie.

So now, after making pointed small talk with every person on Main Street, he finally arrived at his destination. He opened the door to his wife’s shop, smiling when the bell jangled merrily. Her business partner, and one of Tony’s best friends, was also in the shop today, a pleasant two-for-one coincidence when he had juicy gossip to spill.

“Hello,” Tony said, his heart doing the flippy-flop thing at the sight of his wife. No matter that they’d been together forever, first as friends, the sight of her still made him happy, still made his heart flood with love. Her return smile said she felt the same as she leaned over the counter and kissed him. “Mrs. Montgomery,” he added, nodding at Maybe as she regarded him in amusement. Though they’d been married for nearly a decade now, she never got over her joy at seeing him and Elena finally together.

“’Sup,” she said, tossing him a nod.

“Apparently you’re not aware they recently changed the law. It’s now illegal to use rapper language after you become a grandmother,” Tony informed her.

“It’s because I’m a grandma I’m talking like this. Kept the kids last night. So sleepy.” She scrubbed a hand over her face. “I think Baird faked working cattle to go on the range somewhere and sleep. Seriously forgot how exhausting babies are.”

“The memory is fresh for us,” Tony said, shuddering. Their twin girls were three, young enough that they still occasionally had the rough sleepless night.

“So, what brings you?” Elena said, rubbing her hands together expectantly.

“Can’t I come to see my favorite girl? And one of our favorite people?” He encompassed Maybe in his look. Both womenremained staring at him, waiting. He grinned. “Someone new moved to town. You’ll never guess where.”

“Jones Orchard,” Elena guessed.

His face fell. “How did you guess?”

“Because it’s been for sale for the last fifteen years. Statistically someone had to buy it eventually.”

“You’re no fun,” he pouted.

She leaned over the desk and whispered something in his ear, changing his frown to a smile. “Point taken, mind changed.”

Maybe raised her hand. “Hi, outsider here. I have no idea what Jones Orchard is. We have an orchard here? Why is this not common knowledge? Or, wait, are you talking about that abandoned farm on the edge of town, the one with all the gnarled trees? ”

“It hasn’t been an orchard since we were kids. The Jones family settled here eons ago and passed it down and then sort of died out. I’m guessing most of the trees died, too. The property has to be in rough shape, along with the house,” Elena said.

Maybe grimaced. “It’s not another rich person from California, is it?” The wealthy from the coast had become a scourge, buying up cheap land and creating demand that made it ridiculously expensive, far out of reach for most people. Baird had become so tired of strangers showing up and offering to buy the ranch from under him that he’d put up a “Trespassers Will Be Shot” sign. Maybe wasn’t certain it had actually helped deter people, but it at least alleviated a bit of Baird’s annoyance.

“Look at you, talking like a local,” Tony said proudly. He folded into the cushy chair across from Elena’s counter, one she’d kept specifically for him the last fifteen years. He’d sat in it so often the sag in the middle conformed to his backside. “I have no idea who it is. Some woman.”

They blinked at him, processing. “A woman? Alone? All the way out there? Is she some kind of trapper?” Elena asked.There were a few trappers who still lived far afield and kept to themselves, hunting mink and fox pelts to sell to foreign markets where there was still a demand. Some of them were women who were unusual, to say the least. Hale, hardy, and eccentric didn’t even begin to describe. Heaven help the man who ran afoul of one of them in a temper.

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