Jack gathered up his gear and they climbed the bank to the road where his truck was parked just as it started to rain. They were almost to their turn off the dirt road when Jack switched off his blinker and drove past the dirt road in the direction of Ruby’s cafe. When they walked into the cafe there were only a handful of locals sitting around a couple of tables that had been pulled together it looked like an unofficial committee meeting of the local ranchers association. One of the older gentlemen pulled out a chair and invited Jack to sit down. As he took off his hat and coat one of the other members of the group asked Jack,

  “Get rained off the River Jack?”

  “Ya, fish weren’t biting anyway.”

  The old man raised his eyebrows smiled a doubtful and offered up some advice,

  “It helps if you actually allow the fly to land on the water son.”

  Jack looked at the old man with a questioning glance. The older gentleman saved him the effort of figuring out how he knew about his latest trip to the river,

  “I saw your truck parked alongside the road earlier I slowed down to see how you were doing.”

  “Jack, if you don’t mind me saying, you looked like you were chopping wood not fly fishing.”

  Jack didn’t respond he knew the old man was right. Whatever he had been doing out on the river this afternoon it didn’t have anything to do with the valley, it was as unbalanced as his ascent down the river bank and it damn sure wasn’t the gentle art of fly fishing.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Kristin sat at her desk trying her best to concentrate on her work. It had been almost a week since Jack and Sam had climbed into that old truck and headed back to Montana. She had thrown herself into her work. Kristin had got more work done in the last week than she had done in the last six months. Becca had managed to pull her away from her work one day for lunch but she could tell that her best friend was more anxious and driven as she had ever seen her. It was as if she was trying to solve a problem that had been eating away at her for a long time. A problem that she was very close to solving. A problem that once solved would give her back something she surrendered a long time ago.

  “You know that you have swung from one extreme to the other” Becca suggested thoughtfully.

  “I suppose so.” Kristin said in the tone of a person who was fighting to remain convinced of her own position.

  “I was praying that something like this would happen to you.”

  Kristin looked at her best friend with mild shock.

  “You like seeing me on an emotional roller-coaster?”

  “No, but out of all of this you will find a middle ground at some point.” Becca suggested.

  Kristin didn't tell Becca the thing making her the most anxious at the moment was the troubling thought that she was being watched, maybe even followed. There was nothing concrete just a nagging feeling that someone was keeping an eye on her, and not in a good way. She had noticed a silver BMW on more than one occasion parked just outside her apartment first thing in the morning when she left for work.

  One morning last week she thought that she had seen the BMW tucked into the stream of traffic a couple car lengths behind her. She made an eradicate exit off the highway onto an exit ramp that was not her usual exit just to see if the car would follow her. She had made the turn to fast for the car to follow her, but when she slowed down coming off the highway she looked over at the sliver BMW. The man in the dark sunglasses behind the wheel of the BMW was looking straight at her. When he saw that she was looking at him he turned his head just a little too quickly back to the road and accelerated into the next lane and behind a tractor trailer rig.

  Kristin knew that if she told Becca about her concern that she would take certain precautions. Before Kristin could set her coffee cup down Becca would have Dean and Jake attached to her like a couple of guard dogs. That was not their job; their job was to protect the models from would be stalkers, and crazy ex-boyfriends. Kristin did not want her unfounded fears putting any of the girls that trusted her in jeopardy.

  Becca took another sip of her coffee and shifted the conversation to a lighter note.

  “So, how is Mr. Tall dark and rugged?” She asked with a devious smile.

  This comment brought a smile back to Kristin's face and she blushed just enough to let Becca know that she hadn't been totally thinking about work. She shifted her gaze down to her half eaten lunch and took a healthy bite of her snow crab salad hoping that Becca would change the subject, she knew better.

  “When are we going to see him again?” Becca asked bluntly.

  “I'm not sure.” she said, the heavy look returning to her face.

  Becca leaned back in her chair and said wistfully as if she was changing the subject, “Well, I think that I will take a little vacation. Maybe take a little trip out to Montana and see if I can find me a tall, good lookin' Cowboy that can help relieve a little of my stress.”

  Kristin shifted her eyes up from her plate at Becca and said in a biting tone,

  “He might even turn you into a lady.”

  “Not possible,” Becca shot back, and made another proclamation just loud enough for most of the other lunch patron's to hear,

  “You know what my Grandfather used to say.

  “Treat all Ladies like whores, and all whores like ladies.”

  This brought sounds of indignation and a few looks of disgust form the upstanding patrons seated around them in the trendy little bistro. The comment also inspired a snort of laughter from her best friend. Kristin thought to herself, that was Becca, rude, crude and unsophisticated. But she wouldn't trade her friendship for anything in the world.

  “Which one are you?” Kristin asked with a naughty smile.

  “The jury is still out on that one.” Becca replied innocently.

  They finished their lunch and headed back to the agency, Becca satisfied that her best friend was not going off the deep end again.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Two days later Jake was dropping his girlfriend off at her sister's house on Queen Ann Hill. They had done their usual Wednesday night dinner and a movie and Jake was doing his level best to convince Monica that he should come in and give her a proper kiss good night. Monica used to work for Kristin, Jake and she had begun dating after she left modeling to get her degree in fashion design.

  After the tenth or twelve kiss Jake could tell he was wearing her down, she was starting to melt. He reached his hand up under the almost see thru blouse she was wearing and slipped his hand under the lace black bra. Her skin was warm and soft and her breasts were absolutely perfect. She gave a breathless moan and realized that she was almost completely gone. What brought her back was Jake's laugh; he gave a sinister little laugh like he had won the tug of war. Monica pulled away from Jake and said with her own sinister little laugh,

  “Okay, tough guy I'm not going down without a fight.” She balled up one hand into a fist and playfully punched him in the ribs. It didn't hurt much but Jake doubled over like she had punched him harder that she really had. At that exact moment Jake felt another stabbing pain in his right shoulder. It felt like a really bad bee sting, but Jake knew better.

  Monica felt Jake's body wince and heard tires squeal on the street in front of her sister’s house. She looked over Jake's left shoulder just in time to see the tail lights of a car speeding up the street and disappearing around the corner.

  Later that night in the lobby of the emergency room she would tell the police that she did not see the license plate number of the car, but she thought that it might have been a silver BMW.

  Kristin was sitting next to Monica holding her hand when she heard her tell the police officer what type of car she thought she saw. Kristin's entire body flinched and her grip tightened around Monica's fingers. Kristin let out an audible gasp when she heard the words leave Monica's lips; her gasp drew the attention of the police officer. The officer stopped taking notes and turned to look straight at Kristin, he could tell that something Monica had said had triggered a reaction from the lady holding her hand.

  “Miss Palmer, do you have something to add?” The officer asked in his best cop interrogation voice.

  Kristin composed herself and tried to explain away her sharp reaction to what Monica had said. “No, I just realized that this could have been much worse. What if the bullet had hit Monica, it was Monica's turn to shutter.

  Jake was released later that night from the emergency room to the waiting arms of his girlfriend and a full bottle of Vicodin. The small caliber bullet, probably a 22 had gone in and out of the fleshy part of his shoulder just above his collar bone and about six inches to the right of his spine. After the Vicodin wore off and the pain subsided Jake would realize that Monica's punch in the ribs had probably saved his life or at least kept him out of a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  First thing the next morning Kristin asked Becca and Dean to come to her office. Becca took one look at her best friend and thought that she must have had a very rough night. She was right, Kristin had been up most of the night and she needed to unload what was eating away at her on the two people she trusted most in this world. She began by telling them about the feeling that she was being followed, the man in the Silver BMW, and finally she recounted the conversation between Jake's Girlfriend and the police officer. By the time she was finished she was on the verge of tears, she blurted out through red swollen eyes,

  “I could have got Jake killed.” Becca got up and walked around the desk. She placed her arms around Kristin's head and pulled her close to her body to comfort her.

  The only thing they had to go on last night after the attempt on Jake's life was shock and wild speculation. Everyone in the room was numb with the deadly possibilities. It could have been a jealous ex-boyfriend or girlfriend. It could have been a stalker or some nut-job fixated on Monica from when she was a model. But after what Kristin had just told them they were all thinking the same thing, Clarence Palmer.

  Clarence was the kind of Bastard that didn't just inflict pain on the person that he was trying to get even with he wanted everyone around that person to suffer. Dean was the first one to move he stood up quickly knocking his chair over backwards and placed both his hands palms down hard on Kristin's desk.

  “We all know who was behind what happened last night.” Dean Snarled with a level of hatred that neither Kristin nor Becca had ever seen before.

  “That no good, slimy Son of a Bitch has finally gone too far, and I'm going to put a stop to it.”

  Dean spun around and bolted for the door like the building was on fire, he was beyond angry, he was enraged. He was so blind with rage that he couldn't hear Kristin and Becca screaming at him to Stop, to calm down. When he reached the door of Kristin's office he felt a dull thud hit him firmly right between his shoulder blades. The sensation he felt was not painful but it shocked him back to reality. He stopped and slowly turned around to see Kristin staring blankly up at Becca from behind the desk and Becca standing next to the book shelves with a guilty smile on her face,

  “Sorry, big guy, I had to get your attention before you went off and did something we all would regret.”

  Dean looked down to the floor to see what she had thrown at him. The thing that had got his attention was one of Kristin's prized possessions. The object lying on the floor at Dean’s feet was a baseball that her father had given her. It had been signed by both Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr. when they had both played for the Seattle Mariners at the same time.

  Becca uncrossed her arms and walked toward Dean with her arms outstretched in a gesture of apology. When she got to where he was recovering from his shock Becca reached down and picked up the baseball, them she grabbed his upper arm like he was a prom date. She escorted him back to his chair and placed the baseball back in its honored place on the shelf.

  When everything was back in place Becca said calmly,

  “Now, where were we?” Becca could be almost charming when she wanted to be, and right now she really wanted to be.

  Kristin took a deep breath and continued, “Dean, I don't want you take this the wrong way but this morning I hired a security company to provide twenty four hour a day protection for everyone associated with this firm.”

  She could see the wounded look on Dean's face and before he could protest she held up her hand and continued, “Dean, no matter how good you are, there is no way you can protect all of us by yourself, especially with Jake recuperating. Besides, I have a very special job for you,” Kristin said with a wink. This seemed to brighten Dean's spirits a little.

  “Does it involve tormenting a certain defense attorney,” He asked with a smile.

  Kristin did not answer him she merely gave him a confirming wink and a smile. This brightened up Dean's spirits a lot. After a moment of assuagement she continued,

  “There are a couple of things we need to do, things that you might not like or agree with.” Her two associated bustled at the insinuation. They sat quietly and waited.

  Kristin reached into her top desk drawer and pulled out a stack of papers and slid them across the desk in front of Becca. Her best friend looked down at the thick stack of paperwork in front of her, they were clearly legal documents.

  “What is this?” Becca asked, there was a tinge of apprehension in her voice.

  Kristin responded like she was negotiating a business contract,

  “You are taking over the Palmer Agency.”

  Then in a softer tone she added, “If you want it.”

  Becca asked a one word question, “Why?”

  “There are a couple of really good reasons, if you will hear me out?” she paused to gauge how receptive her two friends were going to be. After a moment she continued, “Absolving myself of any connection to The Palmer Agency is the best way to protect it from Clarence's frivolous law suit.” She took a slow sip of her coffee to let her first reason sink in.

  “Second, and most importantly it will protect everyone affiliated with this agency form becoming a target.”

  “Kris, if you do this aren't you surrendering to that Bastard, Giving him what he wants?”

  “Just the opposite, because his name has always been on this building, Clarence has always looked at this agency as another one of his little pet projects. In fact, I would like to suggest that if you take the deal I offer you, I strongly suggest that you change the name of the agency as soon as you possible.” She could see Becca rolling this around in her mind as a smile slowly spread across her face,

  “Anything I want?' She asked,

  Becca’s last question made Kristin more than a little nervous, she could see the wheels turning behind Becca's dark blue eyes.

  “Yes, anything you want.” Kristin said cautiously.

  “How much?” Were the next two words out of Becca's mouth.

  Kristin grabbed a pen and a piece of stationary off her notepad, wrote a number on it and slid it across the table face down. Becca picked up the paper and turned it over like she was turning over a hole card looking for a royal flush. She gasp when she read the figure scrawled on the paper and gazed at her best friend like she was looking at a total stranger.

  “That's the deal, take it or leave it.” Kristin said with an unyielding clarity.

  Becca had known Kristin long enough to know when she wasn't bluffing. She hadn't ever met anyone that was more thoughtful or open to new possibilities, but when she made up her mind that was the end of the discussion. Becca reached into her purse and pulled a crisp one dollar bill and slid it across the desk, “Deal.' Was all she said.

  They signed the stack of paperwork using Dean as a witness. When everything was done the two women stood and shook hands to seal the deal. There were glistening tears in both of their eyes, and let the truth be known Dean was a bit misty eyed as well.

  Kristin opened up one of the book shelf doors and pulled out an unopened bottle of George Dickle Sippin Whiskey, “I think that this calls for a Toast.” Kristin said as she poured three shot glasses of whiskey almost to the brim. The three of them lifted the glasses clinked them together and downed the whiskey in one gulp. Then they slammed the glasses down on the desk hard enough to make the shot glasses shutter like they were about to break.

  “Alright, what are you going to call it,” Kristin asked, bracing herself.

  Becca puffed her ample chest out and swung one arm wildly up into the air like she was making an official proclamation, “The S.Y.C. Modeling Agency.”

  Kristin and Dean looked at each other with blank expressions on their faces. They were rolling around in their minds what the initials stood for and neither one of them had a clue. Becca let them wrestle with the possibilities for a moment or two trying to figure out what the SYC stood for. Kristin couldn't take the suspense any longer,

  “Okay Becca, Spill it. What does SYC stand for?”

  Becca announced loudly and proudly,

  “S.Y.C. Screw You Clarence, Modeling Agency.” They all burst out laughing until little lines of tears were spilling down their cheeks. When they finally got control of their laughter and their tears Kristin poured three more shots lifted her glass and said in a defiant voice, “S.Y.C. Screw You Clarence.”

  Her comrades chimed in together, “Screw You Clarence.”

  When the levity subsided Kristin said softly almost apologetically, “I don't mean to be the wet blanket in the group, but there is one other thing that needs to happen.

  Becca got the feeling this was the part that they weren't going to like.