The Wicked and the Wondrous Read Free Page B

bed picking blackberries with the sun kissing her hair and her large sea-green eyes looking back at him. The second time he’d wrecked a vehicle had been four years ago. Matt had been home on leave, and he’d been so busy looking at Kate walking on the sidewalk with her sisters, he’d failed to realize he was parked in front of a cement hump and had hung up his mother’s car on it when he’d gone to pull out. Now, ignoring his brother’s jibe, he moved around the truck to inspect the damage. “I think I can get the truck out without a tow.”
    “I see you upset old man Mars.” Jonas pointed to the tomato smears on the rear window.
    “You know Matt, he just had to wish the old man a Merry Christmas.” Danny shoved open the door. “He likes to stir the old geezer up right before the pageant. He does it every year. The time Mom made me play the little drummer boy, Mars broke my drumsticks into ten pieces and threw them on the ground and then jumped up and down on them. All my brothers got a kick out of that, but I’ve been traumatized ever since. I have nightmares about being stomped by him.”
    Jonas laughed. “Mars is a strange old man, but he’s harmless enough. And he gives away most of his produce to the people who need it. He takes it to some of the single moms in town and some of the elderly couples. And I know he feeds the Ruttermyer boy, the one with Down’s syndrome who works at odd jobs for everyone. He persuaded Donna to give the boy a room right next to her gift shop. I know he helps that boy with his bills.”
    “Yeah, deep down he’s a good man,” Matt agreed. A slow grin spread over his face. “He just hates Christmas.” He nodded toward the other side of the truck, and the other two men went to the front to scrape away the mud and dirt and push until they separated the bumper from the embankment. “I didn’t appreciate you saying anything to Kate about her and her sisters being different, Jonas.” Matt said it in a low voice, but Jonas and he had been friends since they were boys, and Jonas recognized the warning tone.
    “I’m not going to pretend they’re like everyone else, Matt, not even for you,” Jonas snapped. “The Drakes are special. They have gifts, and they use themselves up for everyone else without a thought for themselves or their own safety. I’m going to watch out for them whether they like or it not. Sarah Drake nearly got herself killed a few weeks ago. Hannah and Kate and Abbey were with her and also might have been killed.”
    Matt felt the words as a blow somewhere in the vicinity of his gut. His heart did a curious somersaulting dive in his chest. “I heard about Sarah, but I hadn’t heard the others were there. What happened?”
    “To make a long story short, Wilder had people trail him here. They wanted information only he could give them. He helped design our national defense system, and the government wanted him protected at all costs. With Sarah being from Sea Haven, it was natural enough for the Feds to send her in to guard him. These people had gotten their hands on him once before, killed his assistant right in front of him, and tortured him. That’s why he uses a cane when he walks. They broke into the Drakes’ house, armed to the teeth when he was there, and were ready to kill Wilder and the Drakes to get what they wanted.” The anger in Jonas’s voice deepened.
    “No one said a word about Kate being in the house at the same time. I knew Sarah was guarding Damon Wilder and that he was a defense expert in some kind of trouble, but…” Matt trailed off as he looked back toward the house on the cliff. It was covered with Christmas lights. Beside it was a tall full Douglas fir tree, completely decorated and flashing lights even before the sun went down. When he looked toward the house he felt a sense of peace. Of rightness. The Drake sisters were the town’s treasures. He looked away from the cliff toward the old mill. It was farther up the road,