The Gamble

Epilogue Final Visits

I walked into the A-frame carrying my bags and shouting, “Max!”

I received no reply.

I dumped the bags on the dining table, considered for a moment how angry Max was going to get when he saw that I’d bought myself a whole new outfit (including shoes and underwear), decided that he’d be pretty angry (until he saw the underwear) then I shouted again, “Max! I’m home! Where are you?”

I was shouting because now, if you couldn’t see the person whose attention you wanted, you needed to shout in the A-frame. This was because Max had built off both sides.

One side, off the kitchen, was a one story, huge family room that was stuffed full of furniture that invited you to lounge and do it a long time (and we did); a big flat screen TV on the wall; and inset shelves all around filled with books, CDs and DVDs. There was another enormous stone fireplace in there that helped to heat the space in the winters and made it even cozier and it was already, no matter how big it was, pretty cozy considering the high lounge factor of the furniture.

The living room also included an enormous wedding portrait taken by none other than Jimmy Cotton. It was a portrait that, personally, I thought was far and away Cotton’s masterpiece.

It was a black and white candid of me in my ivory gown, Max in his dark suit. Max had guided me away from the party for a private moment and he had an arm light around my waist. I had a hand light on his neck. My head was tipped back, Max’s tipped down so our faces were close. We were talking, about what I didn’t recall, but whatever it was, even though we were both in profile, you could see Max had a small smile playing about his mouth and I had a huge one on mine, like I was about ready to burst out laughing. We both looked happy, we looked natural standing close and touching and, best of all, we looked obviously, unashamedly and completely in love.

I adored that picture. It was my favorite thing in the house and I never tired of looking at it even though Max teased me (frequently) when he caught me lost in study of that picture.

At the other side of the house, off the great room, Max built on two stories with two bedrooms and a bath downstairs. Upstairs was Max and my master suite with a big bathroom and a sitting room. I loved that master suite, it was beautiful, but I missed being with Max in our loft which we now used as a guest room whenever Mom and Steve or friends from England came visiting.

Therefore, considering the fact that even with me shouting, Max might not hear me, I went in search of him.

As I moved through our house, I tried not to think of seeing Shauna at the mall with her husband. I hadn’t seen her in ages, it had to have been at least two years, and seeing her brought up thoughts that hadn’t occupied my mind in a long time. Thoughts I didn’t want to have but thoughts, whenever they started to crowd in, I couldn’t keep at bay.

Word was, Shauna lived just outside Carnal now, a town about thirty miles away. Gossip in Gnaw Bone reported she actually loved this guy. Seeing him for the first time, I was surprised. He was shorter than her, older than her and not nearly as physically attractive as her. Gossip also said he wasn’t exactly rolling in the dough but she was content in her average house with her husband’s average salary.

Max said it was bullshit since she still didn’t work and likely she had her eyes peeled for her next target just like always.

My thoughts were that it might not be bullshit. Even an ice queen would rethink her life’s path when, because of her actions, her mantoy gets murdered leaving his kids fatherless; her previous life path set her up to be framed for multiple murders; and when it came out she tried to fleece her lifelong best friend, everyone in town stopped not liking her and started actively hating her and they were not afraid to show it even if she’d survived a significant trauma.

As they would, thoughts of Shauna unfortunately led to thoughts of that night and what came of it.

Mom had seen Damon carrying me to his truck and she’d called Max immediately. Just as immediately, Max sprung into action, calling Mick at the same time he and Steve started their search for me. Max and Steve had found Damon not thirty minutes later since he was not hard to find, seeing as his truck and body were off the main road just a couple miles out town.

With Damon down and me gone, my purse still in Damon’s truck and there being no word or sighting to prove me safe, confusion reigned so Max talked Mick into setting up an all-out manhunt or, in this case, a womanhunt.

It was not lost on Max that as word flew through Gnaw Bone and every man and most of the women in town dropped what they were doing to join the hunt, Harry was the only one unavailable to participate. Things became clearer when Bitsy’s sister reported that Bitsy was missing and they couldn’t get hold of her and they never couldn’t get hold of her. Mick ran a search on properties that Curt, Bitsy and Harry owned and found a hunting cabin Harry had and, upon learning this knowledge, Max and Steve headed to the cabin and Mick, Jeff, Brody and the rest followed.

By the time Max found me, Harry had had me for seven hours. It wouldn’t be until much later, indeed when we were in my bed in Charlie’s house in England, that he would confess that those seven hours “were the worst seven hours of my fuckin’ life, Duchess.”

I hated Harry because he made Max experience that fear. And I hated him even more because he made my Mom and Steve experience it too. The only good thing to come of it was that I didn’t stay in Gnaw Bone an extra week and Max didn’t come to England for a couple of weeks’ visit. Instead, I stayed in Gnaw Bone an extra week and Max came to England and stayed with me for three months as I worked my notice, sold Charlie’s house and prepared to leave my old life behind.

Since that day, outside of working, trips to the mall or grocery store, when Max was in town doing something for his Mom and other normal life things, Max was never far away from me. He was usually right there and if he wasn’t, he could be right there in under thirty minutes.

This wasn’t suffocating. When you’d been kidnapped and narrowly missed being shot to death, having a mountain man at your back was reassuring.

And having an amazing man love you so much that experiencing the threat of losing you meant he didn’t like you far away was beyond reassuring. It was beautiful.

Harry had shot Damon in the heart therefore he was dead before his face hit the dirt. He wasn’t missed much because he was a serious jerk but no one believed that was appropriate comeuppance, even if he was a serious jerk.

Harry had confessed to three counts of murder, conspiracy to commit murder and four counts of kidnapping for, in the end, he’d kidnapped Bitsy too. Even if he confessed to the crimes, he still received a life sentence as, I thought, he definitely should. Max was of another mind, namely the death sentence but since the state of Colorado had only put one man to death since 1976, Max had to make do with Harry not breathing free and having plenty of time to reflect on his actions for the rest of his sad, wasted life.

Bitsy had confessed to conspiracy to commit murder.

The fallout had rocked the town of Gnaw Bone for no one suspected either Harry or Bitsy. Both of them were well-liked and the entire town was stunned that not only did they perpetrate this heinous deed (or, in Harry’s case, deeds, plural), they’d planned it for years.

That said, whether it was right or wrong, no one blamed Bitsy much. Curt had crippled her, killed her best friend, flagrantly cheated on her, gave money to his mistress and forced Bitsy, in a variety of ways, into a life she didn’t want to lead both in a wheelchair and also living in that house that lorded over the whole town. But the bottom line was, she spent years planning her husband’s murder. Nevertheless, her confession and the extenuating circumstances meant her sentence was relatively light but she was still in jail and would be for awhile.

Although I had been caught up in their mess, Max also didn’t blame Bitsy (much). This was because Bitsy, who had been hiding her bitterness against her husband, didn’t hide her repentance for what she, no matter what anyone told her (including me when I visited her), blamed herself that she’d led Harry to do. She took responsibility for all of it, most especially what happened to me. The events leading on from Curtis Dodd’s murder broke her. It wasn’t jail that broke her; she had, in her mind, the end of four lives on her hands and what happened to me.

In an effort to make amends, she sold Curt’s business to Max for a song. He argued with her about the deal but she refused to listen. She wanted to do her bit to keep Max in town with me and to keep Max and I fed and happy and she somehow convinced mountain man Max to take the deal. He did and as he’d said he’d do, he downsized the operation. Even so, with Max’s reputation as a man as well as for his quality craftsmanship, he kept his crew busy, his family fed and more than comfortable at the same time we, since I bought my lawyer’s desk and installed it in George’s offices when he and I formed a partnership, kept our mountain clean.

I completed my search for Max when I retraced my steps back to the kitchen and I mentally, and thankfully, shrugged off my thoughts when I saw Max’s note.

Duchess,

Charlie and me are out.

Max

I held the note and stared at it.

They were out. Out. Now. When we should all be getting ready.

I saw movement to my side and looked down at the big, fluffy gray cat who had her bottom in the air, her chest to the floor and her paws straight out in front of her, stretching and yawning at the same time, as usual oblivious to her mother’s irritation.

The cat was my idea, Max wanted a dog. He only capitulated because when I really pushed him about the cat, it was when I told him he was going to get Charlie.

So I got my cat.

“My husband is annoying,” I told the feline.

She quit stretching and blinked at me communicating complete unconcern.

I smiled at her, dropped the note, moved to my cat and gave her bottom some scratches before I walked out of the A-frame. I rounded it, saw the barn doors opened and rolled my eyes. Then I climbed to the barn, unlocked the safe, grabbed the keys and hopped on an ATV. I turned it in the barn and took off to search for my husband and son on our mountain.

I knew Max and Charlie had several special spots but whenever I needed to drag them back home (which was often) I usually found them at the first spot I checked.

I rounded the trail at the top of the hill that rose up from the back of Max’s bluff and I stopped the ATV when I looked down and my eyes hit the scene in front of me.

Max was down there, in jeans and a t-shirt, his skin tanner than normal because he worked outside a lot and it was summer. He was sitting in the dirt (as he would since he didn’t do the laundry), knees up, Charlie in his lap tucked between his chest and thighs. Max’s head was turned away from me and toward the view. I couldn’t really see my son’s dark-haired head but I could see he probably wasn’t studying the view because he was, at that moment, banging on his father’s knees with his little baby fists.

I sighed my annoyance but even though I was the only one who could hear it, I didn’t mean it.

Leave them be, Charlie said in my head.

“We need to get ready,” I whispered into the wind.

Look at them, Neenee Bean, Charlie urged but he didn’t have to, my eyes hadn’t left Max and our son.

The Charlie in Max’s lap twisted so he was facing his father, his little baby legs pumping and his little baby fists banging now on his Dad’s shoulders. Max didn’t try to control Charlie’s fists; he just wrapped his son in his arms and bent his neck so his face was in Charlie’s. Therefore Charlie took that as his cue to grab Max’s ear and I heard the wind carry my husband’s chuckle mingled with my son’s baby laughter back to me.

I felt my lips smile.

Leave them be, Charlie repeated.

“Okay,” I whispered.

Love you, Neenee Bean, Charlie said to me.

“Love you too, Charlie,” I replied.

Then I turned the ATV around and headed home.

***

“When we get home, babe, we’ll be talkin’ about you goin’ out on the ATV,” Max growled into my ear and I turned my head to him just as Charlie launched himself out of my lap and at his father’s chest.

With practiced ease, Max caught the ever-active Charlie and pulled him close.

“What?” I asked with feigned innocence.

“Went to lock up the barn and saw one of the ATVs wasn’t where I left it. Since Charlie can’t sit astride one yet that leaves you and, like I said, when we get home we’ll be talkin’ about you goin’ out on an ATV.”

My eyes left Max’s to look over his shoulder and they skidded through the church pews that were full to bursting. I could see the entire church since we were beside Barb and Brody in the front pew. As I did this, I was thinking that I should have taken note of where the ATV was when I took it and I should have put it back where I found it.

“Duchess, look at me,” Max called and I knew he wouldn’t let up until I did as I was told so I did as I was told. “No more ATV,” he finished.

“I got home and you guys were gone,” I explained.

“I left a note,” Max told me.

“Yes, but we needed to start getting ready,” I told him.

“We’re here, aren’t we?” he asked.

“Yes,” I replied.

“And we ain’t late.”

“No, but we were close and you may have the memory of an elephant but you lose track of time especially when you’re out on the mountain with Charlie.”

“Babe… we’re… here,” Max repeated. “And we’re not late so I didn’t lose track of time. You know I wouldn’t miss this so you shouldn’t have worried and in your condition you should not, under any circumstances, be on an ATV.”

I waved my hand between us and stated, “I’m good on an ATV and I should be, you taught me how to ride one and, furthermore, I don’t have a condition. I’m only ten weeks and even if I wasn’t, I’m perfectly fine.”

Max’s hand shot out and wrapped around mine tight as he, taking Charlie with him, leaned in and returned, “You’re pregnant with my child. I get that you’re still my Nina and you think you can do as you please even with my baby inside you but what you need to get is that you’re my Nina and you got my baby inside you and I want you and our baby to be perfectly fine for the next six and a half months and then some and I’m gonna make it so and part of me makin’ that so is not lettin’ you put your ass on an ATV.”

“He’s right,” my mother butted in on a whisper, leaning toward us from the pew she was sitting in right behind us.

“Nellie,” Steve, sitting beside her, growled warningly.

Max ignored this and decreed, “No ATV.”

I stopped scowling at my mother, my gaze passed through Steve then Linda then Kami, all of whom were in the pew with Mom and all of whom were looking at Max and me with amusement (except Kami who rolled her eyes and mouthed, “bossy” at me) then I looked at my husband and started, “Max –”

His hand in mine pulled both to his chest so they were tucked between him and Charlie and Charlie took that opportunity to latch onto my hair.

But I only had eyes for Max mainly because he was the only thing I could see.

“Duchess, no…A… T… V.”

I glared at him and he didn’t even blink so I knew Mr. Overprotective was going to get his way. I also knew Mr. Overprotective was partly Mr. Overprotective because his first wife heartbreakingly lost a number of children before they took their first breath in this world and even though Charlie was a breeze, Max had lost enough that my easy pregnancy wasn’t going to change his perspective. He was also Mr. Overprotective because his first wife had been killed in a car accident that was beyond his control. And lastly, he was Mr. Overprotective because his second (soon-to-be) wife had been kidnapped by a mountain man stalker and then drugged and kidnapped by a mountain man gone bad and nearly shot to death in the snow.

So I gave in.

“Oh, all right,” I forced out, grabbed my son and pulled him from Max’s arms into mine.

Max’s answer to this gesture was to slide his arm along the pew, curl it around my shoulders and pull me snug and tight into his side.

The side door to the sanctuary opened and Jeff, looking handsome in his tux, and Pete, his best man, walked out to line up at the front of the church.

I felt my insides melt.

Then I felt Max’s lips at my ear. “That new dress is sweet, baby,” he whispered, my lips started curling up but they froze when he finished, “But we’ll also be talkin’ about that when we get home.”

I turned my head and Max lifted his, our eyes locked whereupon I informed him, “I’ll remind you that you were the one who wanted me to move out here before you really knew me and I shop. It’s what I do. It’s what I’ve always done. I work hard. I shop hard. And furthermore, I’m not coming to this event, of all events, in anything other than a fabulous new dress. So, you win on the ATV but no, we are not talking about this new dress when we get home.”

Though, we might be having a discussion about the new duds I’d bought Charlie. I really didn’t need the dress but Charlie really, really didn’t need any new clothes. I should never veer into the baby store but my feet always took me there. There was no way to fight it so I had long since stopped trying.

The good news was, Max didn’t know about Charlie’s new clothes yet. The bad news was, I didn’t keep anything from him so eventually I’d have to tell him.

I decided as I stared into his beautiful gray eyes that I’d tell him tomorrow.

“All right, I get the win on the ATV, you get the win on the dress,” Max allowed, I grinned then leaned in and touched my mouth to his.

I didn’t move my lips away when I whispered, “Thank you, darling.”

Then I watched as his eyes did what his eyes always did for three years every time I called him darling. They got heated and they got intense. Then his hand curled around the back of my head, he tipped it down and kissed my forehead before he let me go.

I pulled away, Charlie collapsed into my chest and snuggled close in a rare but always treasured moment of cuddly, baby affection. I wrapped my arms around my son and I took that moment as I’d taken many moments to congratulate myself for rolling the dice, taking a gamble on life and heading off for my timeout adventure in the Colorado mountains where my gamble paid off every second of every day and it did this in spades.

I looked back to the front of the church then looked to Brody as his head turned toward me and I caught his amused blue eyes to which I rolled mine to which his amusement became audible.

Then the music struck up and we all straightened and twisted in our seats to watch Becca walk down the aisle.

Then we stood and I held my son tight to me as Max’s arm around me, hand resting protective at my belly, held us both tight to his body and me and my family watched a beautiful, glowing, smiling, happy Mindy walk down the aisle.

***

Holden Maxwell walked out of his sleeping son’s bedroom carrying the spent bottle. He hit the great room where he saw his wife tucked in the big armchair, her damn cat curled in a ball in her lap.

After the wedding and after the after wedding drinks with Steve and Nellie, his mother and Kami, Brody, Cotton and Arlene, he’d driven his family home and Nina had changed out of her pretty dress into a pair of loose fitting but clingy drawstring pants and a tight camisole.

She wasn’t close to showing yet and, with Charlie, hadn’t started really showing until early in her fifth month. Even so, at the end she’d been very heavy with Charlie and Charlie had made it into this world weighing nine pounds and three ounces.

This had alarmed Max, this late development, Nina’s body’s swift change and heavy burden, a fact he didn’t share with anyone but Brody and his mother.

He didn’t know it but he had nothing to worry about. Nina didn’t slow down throughout her entire pregnancy, the labor had lasted three hours and the delivery went so smoothly the doctor said he’d never had one that easy in ten years of practice.

When he’d visited Bitsy at the detention center to tell her about his new son and how he’d come into the world, she’d told him that she reckoned life had given him enough heartache, he should have it easy for awhile.

Bitsy had no idea that life with Nina was far from easy.

But that didn’t mean it wasn’t beautiful.

She kept him on his toes, his Nina did. His wife ate life, devoured it daily with a hunger and passion that had not ceased to amaze him as their days together slid by.

It wasn’t lost on Max that life had handed him great bounty at a young age and then had taken it away only to give it back. He knew the bitter taste of loss and therefore he understood Bitsy not liking the taste of it.

And therefore, he never failed to savor the sweet taste of having Nina fill his life. He remembered the second that bitterness was swept clean from his tongue, when his now wife had informed him her sinuses hurt when she’d bravely and hilariously squared off against him in a snowstorm minutes after they met. He’d been so used to the sour taste, it came as a shock when it disappeared as he fought against laughter at the same time the sweetness invaded, so strong and foreign it made his jaws ache.

He took the bottle to the kitchen and then went to join his wife in their chair.

He’d started a fire because Nina liked fires in the evening no matter if it was summer or winter. But he knew it was a wasted effort. Just as with Charlie, in the early months of her pregnancy she slept a lot. He knew she was probably out the minute she rested her head against the high arm of the chair.

Gently, he moved her, her damn cat darting away as he did. He slid in next to her and then pulled her into him. She helped. In her sleep she curled deeply into his frame, her arm snaking around his gut, her head burrowing into his neck.

Through this, as usual with his Nina, she didn’t wake and she wouldn’t. He’d have to carry her to bed. She’d had an active day, starting it with heading to the mall first thing and ending with dancing like a madwoman at Mindy and Jeff’s reception then laughing until she choked with her family and friends at The Mark.

Max stared into the fire and held his wife close and as he was doing this, a sweet, hushed voice he hadn’t heard in thirteen years spoke in his brain.

I’m happy for you, honey, Anna said and Max closed his eyes.

Then he opened them and pulled Nina closer.

“I’m happy too,” he whispered.

I’m going now. If Nina asks where he’s gone, tell her I’m taking Charlie with me.

Max didn’t answer.

I love you, Max, and I love the way she loves you.

She would love that, Anna would. That was pure Anna.

“Find peace, Swanee,” Max replied.

Already did, ‘bout three years ago, baby.

Max’s jaw clenched to fight against his throat getting tight.

Then there was silence except for the crackling of the fire in the grate of the huge stone hearth he laid with his own hands in the house on the mountain his father gave to him, his son asleep in the other room, his wife carrying his unborn child asleep and tucked to his side.

And Holden Maxwell stayed right where he was, still, quiet, content and staring into the fire until it was time to get up and carry Nina to bed.

####

About the Author

Kristen Ashley lives in the beautiful West Country of England with her husband and her cat. She came to England by way of Denver, where she lived for twelve years, but she grew up in Brownsburg, Indiana. Her family and friends are loopy (to say the least) but loopy is good when you want to write.

Kristen’s Mom moved her and her brother and sister in with their grandparents when she was six. Her grandparents had a daughter much younger than her Mom so they all lived together on a very small farm in a small farm town in the heartland. She grew up with Glenn Miller, The Everly Brothers, REO Speedwagon and Whitesnake (and the wardrobes that matched). Needless to say, growing up in a house full of music, clothes and love was a good way to grow up.

And as she keeps growing up, it keeps getting better.

Discover other Titles by Kristen Ashley at Smashwords.com

The Rock Chick Series:

Rock Chick

Rock Chick Rescue

Rock Chick Redemption

Rock Chick Renegade

The ‘Burg Series:

For You

At Peace

Other Titles by Kristen Ashley:

Penmort Castle

Three Wishes

Connect with Kristen Online:

Official Website: www.kristenashley.net

Kristen’s Blog: www.kristenashley.net/menu/blog.html

Kristen’s Facebook Page