Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
LUNA
When I’d first set foot in Starlight Cove a month ago, I hadn’t come here intending to chain myself to a tree.
Obviously. But like my parents always taught me, I needed to take the opportunities life presented.
So who was I to ignore it when information landed in my lap—like the times the soulless assholes arrived at this site in the morning, or just exactly when they planned to start tearing up this beautiful, untouched land?
And if the hardware store in town just so happened to carry my preferred lock and chains, and I just so happened to be released from yesterday’s…
incident…with plenty of time to get over here?
Well, I wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth.
Sitting cross-legged at the base of the mammoth tree that would be my companion for the second day in a row, I rested my palms on my knees and closed my eyes, centering myself.
If I listened carefully, I could almost hear the crashing waves of the ocean like I’d grown accustomed to greeting me each morning from my converted van parked along the shore in the forest preserve.
In the time I’d been in this sleepy little town, I’d taken to completing my morning Vinyasa just across the boundary of the preserve, a short walk from where I was parked.
I loved nature and I loved the trees, but I didn’t want them blocking the view of my soul sister, the ocean.
And yeah, technically, the boundary I crossed was the private property of Starlight Cove Resort, and technically, one of the owners of that resort was an ass with a penchant for arresting me, but the land was open and airy, much more so than the site I’d parked my van.
Who was I hurting anyway? I was just one petite woman. If people felt compelled to join me during my routine and then pay me for guiding them, well. What was I going to tell them? No?
Despite my less than pleasant reception from Starlight Cove’s sheriff, I’d fallen in love with this place.
It was a postage-stamp-sized pocket of paradise, right along the rocky Maine coast, a lush crown of forest to one side and a charming downtown only seen in movies to the other.
I’d stumbled across it on my way home to Maryland for a quick visit, but I’d been so enamored of it and the people, I just…
hadn’t yet left. There was something so peaceful about it here.
As soon as I’d arrived, it’d felt like my soul had settled.
And, because I wasn’t one to question the proclivities of my soul, I’d decided to stay put until the urge to leave cropped up again.
And it would. It always did.
Knowing I wouldn’t have long until the cavalry arrived, I sank into a quick meditation.
I breathed in deeply to a count of four, held for four, then released it in a slow, controlled exhale of eight.
I liked to start my mornings as relaxed as possible, believing my beginning emotions held all the power to control my day.
And I refused to let the intentions of the money-hungry corporation dead set on razing this land derail me.
I was calm. I was peaceful. I was—
“You again,” a male voice boomed from somewhere off to my left. “Just what in the hell do you think you’re doing?”
The sound of quick footfalls echoed around me, warning me of his imminent arrival, but I didn’t open my eyes. At least not until his shadow fell over me and I felt him looming above me.
I cracked open one eye and glanced up at the foreman I’d had the displeasure of meeting yesterday.
He was in his late forties or early fifties, bald, with a beak nose and a protruding belly.
He looked like my high school geometry teacher, Mr. Carson.
I hadn’t liked him much, either, though the worst he’d ever done was force me to find the volume of a trapezoid and not the deforestation of twenty acres of lush land inhabited by dozens of species of plants and animals.
“Morning.” I smiled up at him, squinting into the sun peeking over his shoulder.
“‘Morning’?” he repeated, his tone incredulous. Sweat dotted his forehead, though it was still cool outside, and he swiped his sleeve across it. Someone was getting a little stressed. Good, it served him right. “Like I told you yesterday, you can’t be here.”
I snorted, gesturing to the chains that bound me to the probably hundred-and-fifty-year-old tree at my back. “I assure you, I can, and I am. Obviously.”
His face reddened even further—which, to be honest, I hadn’t thought possible. “You need to unlock this right now,” he spat, his voice rising with each word, spittle forming at the corners of his mouth. Ew. “We’re on a tight schedule, and you’re halting the progress!”
I shot him a wide smile. “Oh darn. I had no idea that would happen.”
He ground his teeth so hard, I heard it from my perch on the ground. “Don’t fool yourself, sweetheart. You’re not doing anything noble here. People need this shopping center.”
“Animals need their homes more, sweetheart.”
Was there anything worse than a pompous man who talked down to you because you were a woman? Yes, apparently. A pompous man who talked down to you because you were a woman and who also happened to be in charge of demolishing twenty acres of wildlife.
“Animals don’t pay the bills, lady. They’re going to have to mooch elsewhere. And you need to leave. Now.”
“No can do. I seemed to have misplaced the key. Whoops.” I shrugged, giving him my best contrite smile, despite the fact that said key was safely nestled between my breasts, tucked into my bralette right next to the amethyst I’d placed there this morning.
“Fine,” he said, pulling out his phone. “You’ve given me no choice but to call the sheriff again.”
“Oh, good. Let me know when he gets here,” I said, placing my palms back on my knees and closing my eyes. “We’re on a first-name basis, you know.”
The foreman didn’t need to know the reason for that was because Sheriff McKenzie had arrested me more than once.
He’d done it so many times, in fact, my rap sheet had nearly doubled since I’d been in this sleepy little town.
I’d never met a man more controlled by the law—more controlled, period—than Brady. Never met one more gorgeous, either.
At the first arrest, I’d been annoyed. Then irritated.
But after my fifth time in his cuffs, I’d started to find it downright amusing.
If he wanted to waste his time running the paperwork on little old me, then who was I to deny him something that obviously brought him delight?
Besides, it wasn’t exactly a hardship to look at him.
Looming nearly a foot taller than me, he was gorgeous, with his dark, tousled hair and pale-green eyes, close-cropped beard that couldn’t hide his chiseled jawline, and a body that just wouldn’t quit.
He was stacked, with tree-trunk legs, biceps the size of my head, and an ass I wanted to sink my teeth into.
So yeah…as long as he kept his mouth shut, I had no problem getting up to some good trouble and enjoying the view when he showed up to ruin all my fun.
Brady
The last thing I should’ve been doing was bringing food to the enemy, but Beck wouldn’t drop it, insisting the Luna Special would work wonders in smoothing her ruffled feathers and cinch what we needed to happen—namely, keeping her away from trouble.
Still. I was the goddamn sheriff of Starlight Cove. I wasn’t about to show up to a call with refreshments for the lawbreaker. At least, not unless she gave me no other choice.
I stepped out of my car, taking stock of the witnesses. Hopefully, this hadn’t gotten out of hand already and word hadn’t yet spread like it was wont to do in our little town.
“…coming to you live from the Williamsons’ old place where, for the second day in a row, newcomer to Starlight Cove, Luna Lancaster, is taking a stand against corporate greed.
” A small, older woman sporting a hot-pink sweatshirt and matching sweatpants, her gray hair still in curlers, stood off to the side, phone held out in front of her as she spoke.
I groaned, scrubbing a hand over my face as I changed directions and headed toward her. “Mabel. Can you not do this right now?”
She pinned me with a scowl, turning her phone on me. “Sheriff McKenzie. Are you saying the good people of Starlight Cove don’t deserve to know what’s going on in their fine town? I have an obligation to report the news, you know.”
I snorted, using all my restraint not to shove the phone away from me. “I think you can relax. It’s Facebook, not the Associated Press.”
“True, but we’ve got one of those here, too.” Mabel grinned, as if she was delighting in that fact and the shocked look on my face. “Showed up about five minutes before you.”
I shot my gaze around until it landed on the only person out of place.
Tall, blond, and statuesque, with an air that said she didn’t belong here but was gracing you with her presence anyway.
Harper Davidson. She’d spent summers at the resort in her teen years.
She’d been inseparable from Levi and his best friend back then, but I hadn’t seen her here in years.
“Harper? Since when do you work for the AP? I thought you wrote for some lifestyle magazine.”
“I don’t work for the AP,” she said, coming to a stop next to us.
Mabel blew out a raspberry and swatted the air between them. “Oh, you’re no fun.”
Harper rolled her eyes. “But I do freelance for several lifestyle magazines who’d probably be really interested in the protestation of a new shopping development in Starlight Cove.” She pursed her lips. “Too bad that angle won’t be a good look for the feature about the resort…”
I froze, my eyes widening a fraction at that bomb she’d just dropped. Fuck. Of course, this couldn’t have been easy. “You’re writing the piece on the resort?”
“Sure am—if it gets approved.” She pressed her lips together in some semblance of a smile, though it didn’t quite reach her eyes.