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Some people said that the reason for his downward spiral was because he couldn’t live with the guilt of knowing that he might have been able to save his wife from a watery grave but had been too involved in saving himself to notice that she had fallen overboard, as well. The only way Eric could find to get even temporary respite from the inner pain was to anesthetize himself with alcohol. As time passed, it took more and more to achieve numbness.
He passed that lesson on to his older son. Ryan had once boasted to her that he’d had his first drink, served to him by his father, when he was nine. At the time, not wanting to be judgmental, she’d told herself that it was just Ryan’s way. That he could walk away from drinking any time he wanted to. The problem was that he didn’t want to.
But she was so blindly in love with him, so certain that he loved her back until that fateful evening. In the months that followed, she’d often wondered if Ryan wanted her to discover him with Trisha. He knew her penchant for turning up early. Did he thrive on the wild rush of getting away with it, or had he wanted to show her that he wanted to move on? He had to have known that finding him like that would devastate her. And he had still done it.
He’d been a piece of work, all right, Irena thought now, trying desperately to shut away the memories. A piece of work and she was an absolute fool for having loved him as much as she had.
And for still having feelings for him.
“Wait until you see Hades.” June suddenly spoke up, trying to fill the silence that seemed louder than the plane’s small engine.
June anticipated Irena’s reaction to the town she hadn’t seen in the last ten years as she began the plane’s slow descent.
The airstrip where their small fleet of passenger planes were housed was just up ahead. June smiled to herself. Hades really was growing, she thought fondly. And more than just a little. She and Kevin had slowly built up their business. They now had their own air taxi service as well as her original auto repair store. Kevin had encouraged her to buy it back shortly after the wedding. It was as if he’d sensed what it really meant to her. Which was why she loved him so much. He understood her.
“You won’t recognize the place.”
Irena laughed shortly. “That’s good, because I didn’t care for the old Hades.”
It was a sentiment shared by a great many of the young people in the area. The moment they turned eighteen, many left to find a life less desolate, or, as in the case of Hades, wasn’t isolated from the rest of the world for six months of the year. They all felt that Alaska was a good place to be from, but definitely not to live.
“Oh, it wasn’t so bad,” June told her. She herself had never experienced that urge to flee the way so many, including her older sister, April, had. “But it’s really been growing these last ten years. Ike’s turned into a real entrepreneur. He and Jean Luc have really helped build up the place.”
“Ike?” Irena echoed in surprise. “The guy who runs the Salty Dog Saloon?”
“The very same one,” June told her. There was no missing the pride in her voice. “He’s gotten things really moving around here. We’ve got a hotel now, and just last year, Ike and Jean Luc brought a movie complex to Hades. And they’ve expanded the general store. You wouldn’t recognize it.”
Irena laughed, shaking her head. June’s verbal list of changes fell woefully short of progress in her book. “Wow, that puts the town into what, the middle of the twentieth century? Only sixty more years to catch up, I guess.”
June spared her one glance before focusing back on the runway up ahead.
“Nothing that a good mall and a good lawyer can’t fix,” she told her friend. “You know, we still don’t have a really good lawyer in Hades. We would if you came back.” Her teasing tone vanished as she suddenly braced herself. “Hang on, Irena. This last patch can be a little rough.”
Irena was about to tell her there wasn’t enough money in the world to tempt her to make her return permanent. That she was more than satisfied practicing law in Seattle. Granted, she was only one of a large group of lawyers, but that was just fine. She didn’t need the pressure of being the only defense lawyer in a hundred-mile radius. The pace in Seattle was hectic, but still far more to her liking than life in Hades had ever been.
For the moment, she was too busy holding her breath and gripping the armrests to say any of that. The somewhat choppy flight ended with an even choppier landing. Irena continued clutching the armrests until the plane stopped moving. When it finally came to a halt, she realized that her legs felt rubbery. Getting out of the plane was going to be tricky.
June unbuckled her seat belt and turned around, smiling broadly and obviously pleased with herself.
“Got your money’s worth that time,” she declared. “The landing turned out better than I thought.”
“Right,” Irena murmured, more to herself than to June. “We could have crashed.”
“You’re a lot less optimistic than I remember you,” June said, only half kidding.
The next moment, a tall, handsome man with just a smattering of gray at his temples had thrown open the small plane’s door. His attention was directed to June and not the plane’s single passenger.
“That’s it, June,” he told her firmly. “No more flying for you until the baby’s here.”
“Honey, you’re not showing your best side,” June chided.
“That’s because my ‘best side’ had a heart attack, watching you land the plane,” he informed her, helping her down.
On the ground, June turned and watched Kevin help her friend down. She smiled beatifically, as if to erase the dialogue that had just transpired.
“Irena, I want you to meet my husband, Kevin. And he doesn’t always frown like this.”
“Only when June’s determined to give me a heart attack,” Kevin explained, setting the plane’s lone passenger down on the ground beside his wife. Kevin extended his hand to her. “I’m Kevin Quintano.”
Irena nodded, thinking that he had kind eyes. She took his hand and shook it. “Irena Yovich.”
“Yovich,” Kevin repeated. Surprised, he glanced at June before asking, “Any relation to Yuri Yovich?”
About to pick up her suitcase, she watched Kevin take it for her. “He’s my grandfather.”
The three of them walked to the small terminal that mostly housed his office and the tools that June used to work on the planes.
“I guess that makes us kind of related,” Kevin speculated, “Since Yuri married June’s grandmother, Ursula.”
Work, as well as a desire not to run into Ryan, had kept her from the wedding; but she’d had her grandfather and his new wife to her home, where she’d held a reception for them that included her mother and her stepfather. “Ursula isn’t still the postmistress, is she?”
“Of course she is,” June assured her. “The only way my grandmother would ever stop being Hades’s postmistress is when they carry her out of the office, feet first.”
Irena nodded. Ursula had been the postmistress in Hades for as long as she could remember. “Things really haven’t changed all that much,” she concluded.
“You’d be surprised,” June contradicted. They stopped before the terminal. “Look, if you haven’t got a place to stay, I’d love to put you up at our place.”
Irena smiled as she shook her head. “Thanks, but my grandfather said he’d never forgive me if I didn’t stay with him and his ‘bride.’”
June nodded. She knew that her step-grandfather meant it. A sense of family was very important for survival out here.
“They’re very cute together,” she confided. “And,” June added happily, “best of all, he’s not showing any sign of wearing out.”
“Wearing out?” Irena echoed, not following June’s meaning.
“My grandmother buried three husbands,” June reminded her. “She’s a very vibrant lady for someone in her late seventies.”
“Vibrant,” Kevin echoed with an amused grin. “I think the word that June is looking for is ‘lusty.’”
Irena thought about the colorful postmistress who was also the keeper of the town’s gossip. Apparently, just as she thought, despite the new coats of paint that had been applied here and there, not all that much had really changed here.
Chapter Two
Because the wind had started to pick up, Irena waited until they reached the shelter of the small terminal before she asked June, “Is there any place that I can rent a car?”
Because the Hades she knew didn’t have the simplest of amenities, she wouldn’t have even asked about a car rental agency. But since June had insisted that the small hamlet was well on its way to being a thriving city, she had nothing to lose by asking. Adequate transportation was supposed to be part of a growing city, wasn’t it?
“To rent? No,” June replied before Irena could even nod her head in response to the question. “But to borrow? Sure.”
June spared her husband a glance and Kevin nodded. They had their own form of communication, Irena thought with just a touch of longing.
“Do you remember how to handle a four-wheel drive vehicle?” her friend asked. Again, before she could answer, June was talking again, “Or has city life made you soft?”
“It’s like riding a bike,” Irena said with a shade more confidence than she actually felt. Challenges always did that to her—made her step up and agree to things she normally would have thought twice about. But in this case, it was all right. Though she’d relied predominantly on public transportation and taxis in the last ten years, she was certain driving anything would come back to her. That was why she’d maintained her driver’s license. “You never quite forget how.”
June nodded, obviously pleased. Digging into the pocket of her jacket, she produced a set of keys and held them out to her. “You can borrow my car while you’re here.”
Irena made no attempt to reach for the keys. “I can’t do that,” she protested.
“Sure you can.” To prove it, June placed the keys into Irena’s hand and then closed her fingers over them with her own. She pushed Irena’s hand back to her. “I insist.”
Irena looked down at the keys, torn. She didn’t want to be dependent on someone else to get around while she was here, but at the same time, she couldn’t just take June’s car from her.
“But don’t you need a car to get around?”
June nodded toward Kevin. “I’ll just steal Kevin’s car. That’s the best part of having your husband work with you.” June slanted a glance at Kevin’s profile and then smiled, her eyes dancing in response to the thought that had just crossed her mind. “Well, maybe not the best part, but it’s up there.”
The June of ten years ago hadn’t wanted all that much to do with the male population. She seemed far more outgoing now, reminding her a bit of Ursula, Irena thought.
“Are you sure you want to part with your car?” Irena asked once again.
June waved away her concern. “Don’t give it another thought.” She cocked her head. “Still remember your way around here?”
The town was spread out, but even so, there wasn’t all that much to Hades. A few streets in the center and most of the homes were along the outskirts of town or a bit further out.
“Some things you never forget. I’m going to surprise my grandfather,” she explained. “I wasn’t sure when I would get here. I think he’s expecting me to arrive late tonight.”
June nodded, then began to go toward where the vehicles were housed. With summer over, it was time to shelter the cars from critically dropping temperatures. “Let me show you your way around Clarisse.”
“Clarisse?” Irena asked, and then she laughed, remembering. “I forgot that you name cars.”
“Makes them easier to handle,” June replied as if it was the most natural thing in the world to address four-wheeled vehicles by regular names.
Irena had every intention of driving June’s Jeep straight to the cabin where her grandfather lived with his wife. She wasn’t completely sure just how she wound up going in the opposite direction. Most likely, nostalgia had directed her, she decided. Before she was fully conscious of her crimes, she headed toward the building where she had spent her early childhood. Before tragedy had found her family.
She remembered the house with warmth. She and her mother had lived there until her father had been killed in the cave-in. Her mother had never sold the house, most likely for the same reason that she found herself driving toward it now. Sentimental attachment.
Part of Irena couldn’t help wondering if the building was still standing.
It was.
The feeling of nostalgia grew more intense the closer she came to the house. Accustomed to the bustle of Seattle, Irena thought the old house looked exceptionally lonely.
Maybe she could even stay here until the funeral. At least here she wouldn’t feel as if she was in anyone’s way or disrupting anyone’s daily routine.
Moreover, she wouldn’t be forced to put on a public face to mask the emotional turmoil going on inside of her. She wanted time to deal with that on her own, without receiving any well meaning advice from anyone.
Her grandfather would most likely give her an argument about staying here alone, but she could be as stubborn as he was. Something, she knew, that secretly delighted him. And, in the end, he’d bluster but he would agree—and even boast about it to his friends, saying how she was “just like” him.
A movement on the side of the house caught her eye. Irena peered closer.
Her hands tightened on the steering wheel the second she saw him. Her fingers turned icy, brittle, threatening to break off one by one.
Was that…?
It couldn’t be.
Oh, God. Ryan?
Her heart pounding, Irena floored the accelerator. The Jeep seemed to jump ahead. In less than a heartbeat, she was all but on top of him.
Standing near the top of a ladder leaning against the house, the man who had caused her heart to stop was patching a hole just underneath the second floor bedroom window.
Her parents’ bedroom, she recalled.
Rather than just use wood to haphazardly board the hole up, he employed some kind of compound and applied it carefully to the gaping hole.
She was hallucinating.
She had to be, Irena silently insisted, unable to breathe. She was here for Ryan’s funeral. How could he be standing on a ladder, working so diligently when he was supposed to be dead?
Was it all a hoax?
Or had she crashed in June’s plane and this was really the afterlife?
If the afterlife was taking place in Hades, it left a good many things to be desired, she thought.
Was she hallucinating?
Getting out of the car, she left the door hanging open and cautiously approached the ladder.
“Ryan?” she whispered uncertainly.
The moment he turned around to look down at her, she saw her mistake. It wasn’t Ryan; it was Brody, Ryan’s younger brother.
The last ten years had made the brothers look almost eerily alike. Or rather, Brody now looked the way Ryan had then. He had the same body type, the same jet-black hair. The same green eyes, she realized, stilling the quiver in her stomach as he glared down at her.
“No,” the deep voice told her, a trace of disappointment in his face. “I’m—”
“Brody,” she supplied. “Yes, I know. I’m sorry, but you just looked so much like him…”
“So people tell me.” She couldn’t tell from his tone if it bothered him or if, being Brody, he just took it in stride.
Brody made his way down the ladder, placing the materials he’d been working with aside when he reached bottom. A lifetime of self-discipline had him banking down the burst of emotion he’d felt upon suddenly seeing her after all this time.
It didn’t seem possible, but Irena was even more beautiful than she had been ten years ago. She took his very breath away. Brody paused a moment to collect himself.
“Hello, Irena. How’ve you been?”
