“It’s Nicole. Just Nicole,” she said.
“Will you just hang on?” I asked as I answered the phone.
“Cameron.”
“Please tell me you’ve got something,” I said.
“I’ve got a plan, but I’m not discussing it over the phone. I don’t know what’s compromised and who I can trust.”
“The hell does that mean?”
“I’m coming into town, and we can talk then. My plane just landed. Stay where you are, and I’ll be in Whitefish within the hour.”
A knock at the door caught my attention, and Heather went to open it.
“Hold on,” I said sternly.
Heather grunted, but she did as I asked.
“Hudson. How bad is this?”
My eyes caught Heather’s as another knock came at the door.
“Life or death, Cameron. Stay put. I’ll call you when I’m headed up the mountain.”
I hung up the phone and slid it into my pocket. I knew Heather would hate me for this. I knew she might not ever forgive me for it, but as I put my hand down and drew in a deep breath, I forced myself to form the words that would blow her through the roof.
“Nicole has to go back,” I said.
“Nope. Not happening.”
“Heather. This is getting very serious. Hudson just landed, and he’s going to be in town soon. We all have to be here when he gets here.”
Her hand came off the door, and she turned toward me as fury bubbled over the surface in her eyes.
“I have a business, Cameron. A life. And if I don’t do anything with that business, it’s going to go under along with my life and along with the risk I took on when I opened that place. I can’t abandon it, Cameron. You can’t keep me cooped up here any longer.”
“I’m sorry Heather but it has to be this way until things are cleared up.”
“I have an appointment, Thursday. With a doctor! What in the world am I supposed to do about that?”
“Heather? What's going on?” Nicole asked from the other side of the door.
“Send her home,” I said.
“No. I’m not. You told me I could talk to her and I could tell her. You were the one who asked her to come here instead of me going into town.”
“That was before Hudson called. Things have changed.”
“Things always change, Cameron, and they always will change. But I have a business and an apartment and doctor’s appointments to keep.”
“You can keep the appointment because I’ll be coming with you,” I said. “You’ll be safe during that.”
“So I can’t go anywhere unless you’re with me? Are you going to come to work with me every day and peek out the back windows of my bakery?”
“If that’s what it takes to keep you safe, yes.”