Healing in Paradise Read online

  Healing in Paradise

  By

  Tianna Xander

  After an accident that changes her life forever, Anna decides to take a trip to meet an online friend. Who knows, may be just what she needs to bring her life back into perspective.

  In the middle of the search for another of their alpha female"s long-lost sisters, Blake, Ryder and Tucker are called home to attend to a sick aunt.

  When they get there, he finds one very beautiful and familiar redhead. Having searched the country for her, they are surprised to find her healing in Paradise.

  The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

  Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author"s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2011

  ISBN: 978-1-55487-963-2

  Cover art by Martine Jardin

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

  Published by eXtasy Books

  Look for us online at:

  www.eXtasybooks.com

  To the citizens of Paradise. Thank you for inviting me to visit and allowing me to take photos to post on my blog. I hope my stories do your town justice.

  Chapter One

  Anna sat down at her computer desk, exhausted.

  Every day took just a little more out of her. She waited for the day when her body said enough was enough. She knew she couldn’t go on like this indefinitely. Sooner or later, something would have to give. Something told her it would be she who paid the price, not any one of the males she used to work with. It always seemed to come so easy for the men. She, on the other hand, had to claw her way every inch up the ladder of success.

  She would have said it wasn’t fair, but whoever said life was fair?

  After becoming an EMT when she was twenty-one, she found out that she just couldn’t handle watching people die on a daily basis and became a fire-fighter instead. That was where she had found her niche—right up until a floor caved beneath her and threw her into an inferno she likened to the pits of hell.

  Grasping her mouse, she clicked the icon which 1

  opened her email program and eagerly searched for an email that could change her life. After deleting seven spam mails that promised to increase the size of a body part she didn’t possess, she sighed. There was nothing. Hell, she even had trouble running away. What did that say about her luck? She was obviously the most unlucky woman on the planet.

  After only a few moments, Anna released the mouse. Her hand ached. She flexed her fingers and grimaced at the pain as the new skin pulled tight. She tried hard not to stare at her hand, but always seemed to do just that. The new skin looked pink, angry and was shiny like plastic. She hoped she would get used to the way it looked someday, but she doubted it. Who could get used to seeing scars covering nearly a quarter of their body?

  Leaning back, she closed her eyes and concentrated on the pain as she flexed her fingers.

  Now that her career was over, she had little to do with her time other than going to physical therapy. Now, even that was getting on her nerves.

  Her phone beeped, telling her she had a message and she picked it up. Dinner at five. You joining us? She sent her regrets and put the phone down. She didn’t want to go out with her co-workers. She didn’t have anything in common with them anymore. Hell, they wouldn’t even be 2

  her co-workers for very much longer. Her doctor had just informed her that he would not release her back to work any time soon. That was when she had decided she needed a change.

  Her phone chimed again and she almost ignored it, but picked it back up when she realized it was the email notification this time. Apparently, her new phone could receive email notification from her online inbox before her computer. Who knew?

  A thrill of excitement shot down her spine when she noticed it was from Tilly. Maybe this was the invitation she’d been hoping for. A year ago, when she first befriended the woman on an online social networking site, Tilly had invited her to come stay with her awhile to unwind. Anna refused. Now she wished she had taken the woman up on her offer. If she had, she would have been on vacation during the fire that had maimed her to the point where she just might qualify for Social Security Disability.

  Anna,

  I’m sorry to hear that you’re not going to be able to return to work. I am glad, however, that you will no longer be risking your life every day. I worried about you. Call me crazy, but this old woman’s heart just couldn’t take losing such a good online friend.

  I would still love to meet you in person and my offer 3

  for a getaway still stands. If you feel like traveling, please come see me in Paradise. I promise you won’t regret it.

  Tilly

  “Are you kidding? A vacation is just what I need right now.” She may have been suspicious if she hadn’t talked to the old woman on the phone.

  Even so, what could it hurt to go meet her in person? They could meet in a public place and if the woman was everything she said she was, Anna could relax for a while. She could stay with the old woman and help her clean or fix up her house in exchange for a place to stay since Tilly wouldn’t hear of taking any other form of payment.

  After sending an affirmative reply, Anna hopped to her feet and practically ran to her bedroom. After receiving nearly a year of physical therapy and pity from the men she used to work with— and their wives she needed a change of pace. A trip to Montana was just what the doctor ordered.

  * * * *

  “I don’t care how many people are still uncounted for. I have to get home. My aunt is sick and I won’t put a price on her health.” Blake slammed his fist 4

  down on the bureau in the hotel room he shared with his two friends, Andrew Tucker and Ryder South man.

  “I don’t blame you,” Tuck said, his southern accent thick as he dropped the towel from around his waist and stepped into a pair of jeans, commando.

  “Me either.” Ryder pulled his t-shirt off over his head and went into the bathroom for his turn at the shower. “Just say the word and we’ll be on our way home after breakfast.”

  “The word,” Blake snapped as he threw his dirty clothes into the laundry bag provided by the hotel. “She’s always been there for me and I’ll be damned if I’ll be out of town when she needs me the most.”

  Hell, his aunt practically raised him after his parents went rogue with the old council. He may have grown up as twisted as his father if not for Aunt Tally’s influence. Now that she was ill, it was only fitting that he return to care for her and her home.

  She had no business staying in that large, creaky, old house by herself. It was a wonder the thing wasn’t falling down around her ears with no one to help her care for it. Yet, she managed somehow. Blake suspected that their alpha, Adam Greer, and his second had something to do with it.

  It seemed the whole town liked to take care of 5

  their resident kook.

  Blake never was one to hide fr
om the truth and he wasn’t about to start now. His aunt was a kook.

  She’d taken up chainsaw sculpture after his uncle died. In the summer, she carved wooden statues.

  In the winter, she carved ice sculptures that the town loved and tried to protect, but at least one a year went missing. It was usually one of the best of the year. That was a mystery he would like to solve one of these days—preferably before his aunt passed over.

  She may be a kook, but he loved her like a mother and he would do anything to see her happy. And there was no doubt in his mind that finding the culprit or culprits responsible for the disappearance of her precious art would make her happy. If only he could be certain she wouldn’t go after the guilty party with her chainsaw. That’s where the kook part came in. He sighed as he sat on the bed.

  “What’s wrong now?” Tucker tied his shoes and sat down in front of the laptop that he’d set up on the desk the hotel provided.

  “Nothing. I was just thinking about the sculptures and how I’d like to find the people responsible for their disappearance.”

  “Oh.” Tucker was quiet for a minute. “If I didn’t know better, I would think it was someone who owned a restaurant or something.” He 6

  paused while he shut down, then unplugged the computer, wrapped up the cord and shoved it in its bag.

  “Why would you think that?”

  “Because every time they disappear, it’s right before it warms up. I was thinking it was the lamps lighting them up, but it doesn’t happen to all of them, so that can’t be it.”

  “Yeah, I thought that, too. What really stumps me though is there’s never any footprints left behind. It’s almost like whoever is taking them can fly.”

  “What if they can levitate things?” Tuck chuckled. “I know it sounds crazy, but there has to be some reason why there is never any evidence left behind. Besides, after what happened last year with the sisters from Virginia, I wouldn’t discount it. After all, they are witches. I’m sure there are more of their kind somewhere.”

  The sheriff never investigated the thefts of the sculptures seriously. After all, the sculptures would have eventually melted anyway. The sheriff could see no reason to waste the manpower on it when there were so many other things going on over the past few years.

  With murders and missing persons at the top of his list, Blake could see why Sheriff Hunter pushed other, petty crimes like the Gibson brothers" pranks and missing or melted ice 7

  sculptures to the bottom of the list.

  Still, solving the mystery was something Blake wanted to do for his aunt. He would solve it if he had to stand guard over her sculptures all winter.

  “Are we ready to go?” Ryder stepped from the bathroom towelling his hair.

  “Jesus, Ryder. Put some clothes on for Christ’s sake.” Tucker threw a pair of jeans in the other man’s face. “I’m going blind here.”

  “Quit your whining, you prick,” Ryder snarled as he pulled the jeans up over his hips. “How many times have you paraded around with nothing on but a smile? Did I complain?”

  Tucker grinned, his white teeth gleaming in his tanned face. Tuck was always a hit with the women with his blond good looks and Caribbean blue eyes. It made Blake and Ryder sick the way those of the opposite sex flocked to him the way they did. The damned SOB was a chick magnet.

  “Turn down the wattage on that grin, you dick.

  We’re not your damned gaggle of females who fawn over every word that comes out of your fucking perfect mouth.” God, that made him sick.

  “I don’t believe you’re complaining, too, Blake.” Tucker pointed at his mouth. “These perfect looks, as you call them, have gotten you laid on more than one occasion.”

  “That was different, dammit!” Blake shook his head. What was he doing? None of this was 8

  important. What was important was getting back home to his sick aunt before something unthinkable happened.

  Turning, Blake picked up his bag. “I hope you two are ready to go. If not, you’ll be walking. I’m outta here.” He pulled the keys of his crew cab truck from his pocket and jangled them in front of his friends" faces. “Time to go.” With that, he spun around and headed for the door.

  “Come on, Ryder. You can put your shoes on in the truck.” Tucker finished stuffing his laptop into its bag, slung the strap over his shoulder and fell into step beside Blake.

  “I’m coming, I’m coming.”

  “Bullshit,” Blake barked over his shoulder.

  “You’re not even breathing hard.”

  * * * *

  After three days on the road, Anna turned onto what her directions said was the final leg of her trip.

  The narrow dirt tract had her second guessing herself for a moment until she remembered Tally’s email warning her about how it would look like a road to nowhere.

  It was strange how such a thin strip of dirt could lead to a good-sized town. It may be a relatively small town, but Tilly said it wasn’t as 9

  tiny as one would think it was when turning down this rough road that nearly jarred her teeth from her gums.

  Anna continued her drive through the trees, determined to get to Tally’s before nightfall. The old woman told her that once she reached this road, it wouldn’t be long before she got to town.

  Water dripped from the trees, making the leaves glisten in the late afternoon sunlight. After about a mile, Anna felt a strange wrenching in her chest accompanied by a mixed feeling of dread and coming home. Her heart raced as unbidden fears rose to the surface and, for a split second, she had the ridiculous notion that something lay hidden in the approaching mist.

  The fresh skin on her body, usually so tight and painful tingled with a slight warmth that, for once, didn’t remind her of the searing pain of a flesh-melting inferno.

  This feeling was different. The warmth was soothing. Almost like the water therapy after her new skin finally grew over her abused flesh. It was nothing like when they bathed her right after her accident. Washing then had been an ordeal of nightmare proportions.

  She wouldn’t have had such extensive injuries had her gloves not come off when she tried to hold on to the beam to keep herself from falling to the burning floor below. Hindsight being what it was, 10

  perhaps she should have just let herself fall and rolled away from the fire. Her respirator would have held up long enough for her to make her way out. Her gear should have protected her. It would have protected her had her gloves stayed on her hands and her visor hadn’t torn off on the way down. Thank God for the fire retardant head sock.

  Otherwise, her injuries would have been much more severe.

  Shaking off the memories, Anna continued to drive through the encroaching mist. A feeling of malevolence crept over her and she nearly ran off the road because of it.

  Her instincts screamed for her to turn around and go home. Nothing on this mountain was worth her life. Still, Anna continued to drive. The further she went, the more she felt she must until her foot pressed the gas pedal so hard she almost lost control of the car in her hurry to get to Paradise.

  After another half hour of driving, Anna found herself parked in front of an ancient three-story colonial with a wraparound porch and upper balconies. The home was beautiful if not a bit rundown. It was a shame one old woman lived here by herself. This was a house meant for children.

  She shivered and looked around. It was early 11

  fall, but it wasn’t cold by any means. It was almost as though a cold breeze blew down off the mountain. Gooseflesh covered her arms and she rubbed them. What was it about this place that made her feel so strange? She’d had weird feelings since she turned onto the dirt road leading to this place.

  Anna looked around and wondered why she’d had to travel a dirt road to get here when the town’s main roads were newly paved and smooth.

  As she stared down the street, she noticed that all of the houses were
set on two to five acre plots and the yards directly surrounding the homes were as neat as a pin. Not this house. Tally’s house was overrun by vines and weeds. Overgrown roses had gone wild and climbed the trellis to the upper floors, taking over what must have once been beautiful balconies.

  Her eyes filled with tears at the thought that this house had fallen into such disrepair. It stood here amongst its neighbours like a poor relation coming to beg food from a rich and powerful uncle. What must it have looked like when it was new and covered in fresh paint?

  She had no idea what the inside looked like, but she didn’t care. It was a matter of pride. This house would no longer sit here in such disrepair.

  First thing in the morning, she would be out here with Tally’s neglected garden tools in an effort to 12

  tame this garden.

  Roses bloomed everywhere and Anna could imagine how it must have looked when the flowers were young, cared for and well-trimmed.

  When the house was freshly painted, instead of covered in weathered gray wood and peeling paint.

  Opening her door, Anna slid from her car and stood looking up at the majestic home that had seen too many years with little or no care. Oh, she didn’t blame Tilly. Who could blame an old woman for not having the energy or experience to care for her home?

  Anna looked up and noted the new roof. Well, at least someone had seen to it that the old woman’s roof didn’t leak. She imagined the house’s seals were just as new. Winter was coming and there was no reason to believe that whoever repaired her roof wouldn’t also see to her warmth and comfort.