Page 35 (1/2)
CHAPTER ONE
“WHAT’S IT GOING TO take to get you to cooperate? Money? Threats? Either works for me”
Dakota Hendrix looked up fro over her “Excuse me?”
“You heardto take?”
She’d been warned there would be plenty of crazies hanging around, but she hadn’t actually believed it Apparently she’d been wrong
“You have a lot of attitude for so so she was at least souy If he hadn’t been so obviously annoyed, she would have thought he was pretty decent-looking, with dark hair and piercing blue eyes
He glanced down at himself, then back at her “What does ?”
“It’s plaid”
“So?”
“It’s hard to be inti And flannel is a friendly fabric A little down-home for most people Now if you were in all black, with a leather jacket, I’d be a lot more nervous”
His expression tightened, as did athat if he were just a little less civilized, he would throw so
“Having a bad day?” she asked cheerfully
“So like that” He spoke between clenched teeth
“Want to talk about it?”
“I believe that’s how I started this conversation”
“No You started by threateningyour annoyance level fro nice is more effective At least it is with me” She held out her hand “Hi I’m Dakota Hendrix”
The man looked as if he would rather rip off her head than be polite, but after a couple of deep breaths, he shook hands with her and muttered, “Finn Andersson”
“Nice to meet you, Mr Andersson”
“Finn”
“Finn,” she repeated, beinghim “How can I help you?”
“I want to get my brothers off the show”
“Hence the threats”
He frowned “Hence? Who says that?”
“It’s a perfectly good word”
“Not where I come from”
She glanced down at the ork boots he wore, then back to his shirt “I’m almost afraid to ask where that is”
“South Salmon, Alaska”
“You’re a long way from home”
“Worse, I’m in California”
“Hey, you’re in my hometown I’ll thank you to be polite”
He rubbed the bridge of his nose “Fine Whatever You win Can you help me with my brothers or not?”
“It depends What’s the problem?”
She motioned to the seat across from her s body into a seated position She took her chair and waited
“They’re here,” he said at last, as if that explained everything
“Here instead of back in South Salmon?”
“Here instead of finishing their last seo to UA University of Alaska,” he added
“But if they’re on the show, then they’re over eighteen,” she said gently, feeling his pain, but knowing there was very little she could do about it
“Meaning I don’t have any legal authority?” he asked, sounding both resigned and bitter “Tell aze intense “I need your help Like I said, they’re one se, and they walked away from that to come here”
Dakota had grown up in the town of Fool’s Gold and had chosen to return after she’d finished her schooling, so she didn’t understand why anyone wouldn’t want to live in town But she would guess Finn was a lot more worried about his brothers’ future than their location
He stood “Why a to you? You’re one of those Hollywood types You’re probably happy they’ve given up everything to be on your stupid show”
She rose as well, then shook her head “First of all, it’s not my stupid show I’m with the town, not the production coive ry,that will help If you’re like this with your brothers, I’et a couple thousand miles away from you”
Given the little she knew about Finn from their thirty-second relationship, she half expected him to snarl at her, then disappear Instead he surprised her by grinning
The curve of his lips, the flash of teeth, wasn’t anything unique, but it hit her in the stomach all the sas and she couldn’t breathe Seconds later, she ed to recover and told herself it was a momentary blip on her otherwise e more than an anomaly Like a sunspot
“That’s what they said,” he adh “That they’d hoped being at college would be far enough away, but it wasn’t” The grin faded “Damn, this is hard”
She sat down and rested her hands on the table between them “What do your parents say about all this?”
“I’m their parents”
“Oh” She sed, not sure what tragedy had brought that about She would guess Finn was all of thirty, o…?”
“Eight years”
“You’ve been raising your brothers since they hat? Twelve?”
“They were thirteen, but yes”
“Congratulations You’ve done a good job”
The smile faded as he scowled at her “Hoould you know that?”
“They et to their final seh to stand up to you”
The scowl turned into a sneer “Let uess You’re one of those people who calls rain ‘liquid sunshine’ If I’d done e, instead of here, trying to get on some idiotic reality show”