Skye Read online

  Rainbow Falls

  Skye

  Sunny (coming winter 2018)

  Rose (coming summer 2019)

  ©2018 by Heather Gray

  All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright ©2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

  Cover design by Paper & Sage.

  Published in the United States of America by Heather Gray.

  www.heathergraywriting.com

  print ISBN: 978-0-9981423-4-0

  Publisher’s Note: This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. All characters are fictional, and any similarity to people living or dead is purely coincidental.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Rainbow Falls Books

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Bible Verse

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Author’s Note

  About the Author

  Other Books by Heather Gray

  PREVIEW: An Informal Date

  in celebration of my Savior

  I know redemption only because He lives.

  in memory of my daughter

  She made my world brighter and painted it with broad strokes of vibrant color.

  with pride in my son

  He stretches my understanding of life, people, and God while filling our home with music.

  with gratitude for my husband

  I’m glad we’ve been able to walk this path together.

  He has made everything beautiful in its time.

  Ecclesiastes 3:11a

  CHAPTER 1

  March

  Skye Blue was flying home.

  Home.

  What a strange word.

  Too many years had passed since she’d last set foot in the vibrant but close-knit community of Rainbow Falls, Montana.

  They hadn’t been horrible years. Mostly. She’d had a roof over her head and food to eat. She’d gotten an education, been given a job. Life had been stable in Idaho, and that counted for something.

  Then why, oh why, did leaving it all behind and running away from Boise to Rainbow Falls lift such a suffocating burden from her shoulders?

  Or even better, why couldn’t she breathe to begin with?

  The only wrinkle in her escape plan was the man sitting next to her.

  Her hometown was nestled in the Bitterroot Mountains of Montana, and those mountains — beautiful though they were — created some geographical limitations. As a result, Rainbow Falls boasted only a small airport. And small airports only took small planes. Small, as in seven rows of four seats divided by a center aisle – two seats on each side.

  And because fate wanted to punish her for some unknown slight, Skye was trapped in a seat between the window and one of the most formidable people she’d ever encountered.

  With one glance in his direction, her protective cloak of confidence fell away. She was once again the small girl watching in terror as police invaded her mother’s home for the first time.

  Prickles raced across her skin, heating it from the inside out.

  Skye clenched her eyes closed. She could do it. She could block the image running rampant in her mind’s eye. Her hands fisted around her seatbelt. It was the only thing she could hold onto, the only thing to anchor her to this moment instead of the past.

  Eventually, her breathing returned to normal and she opened her eyes. The view outside the window drew her attention. The mountains. They had mountains in Idaho, but nothing compared to these. Mountains were vast and immovable. Which only served to remind her of the man sitting next to her.

  “What brings you to Rainbow Falls?” His voice held the scratch of a smoker, but the telltale odor was absent.

  “Um…” So much for avoiding conversation.

  “I’ve never seen such a packed plane heading into our little corner of the world before. Rainbow Falls is growing and all, but still… Makes me wonder what’s going on that I missed.” His voice rumbled a bit too close to her ear for comfort.

  Skye cast a glance at the man beside her. Ice blue eyes met her gaze. Wow.

  Men were not supposed to be attractive and menacing at the same time.

  Oh, who was she kidding?

  Scary. He was scary.

  Scary like he might, at any moment, whip out a butterfly knife and use it with lightning speed and deadly accuracy. Everything about his appearance screamed danger.

  In fact, he probably wore an entire collection of knives hidden away on his person. How had he managed to sneak through airport security? What if he’d tucked a gun into the waistband of his faded jeans?

  Of course, the weight of a gun would pull his pants down. Unless they were properly fitted. He wouldn’t be able to wear saggy pants.

  Skye stared at the floor in order to avoid examining the placement of his jeans. Talk about giving the wrong impression.

  Was she honestly considering the possibility that the man sitting beside her had an arsenal of weapons stored on his person?

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean to intrude.”

  “I… You’re not. I… I’m running away.” She lifted her eyes to meet his again.

  His eyes… What was it about them? Her earlier panic somehow became silly when she looked into his eyes.

  A masculine eyebrow went up. Funny how she hadn’t seen those brows before when she’d tried to determine his hair color.

  He angled toward her and held out his right hand. “My name’s Sam Madison, and I work with runaways for a living. In a way.”

  Sam. Hm. It suited him. But she would have named him ‘Braxton the Butcher,’ but then, what did she know?

  She really should stop naming people before she’d spoken to them. Especially if her imagination had the man in question concealing guns in baggy pants and hiding knives in all his pockets. What was next? Toting a grenade launcher onto the plane?

  She shook his hand. “Skye Blue. Nice to meet you.”

  His other eyebrow lifted. “So, you’re from Rainbow Falls then.”

  Heat climbed her
neck. “Guilty as charged.”

  “A Rainbow Girl. You can’t hide it with that name.”

  Rainbow Girl. She hadn’t heard that term in more years than she could say. “It’s been a long time since I last visited the Falls. Do they still call us that?”

  “A friend told me about the Rainbow Girls, but you’re the first one I’ve actually met. Where did the nickname come from?”

  Emmaline White… “Um, I’d rather not talk about it, if you don’t mind.” Not right now, anyway. “Why don’t you tell me about your trip to Rainbow Falls. What landed you here on this plane with me?”

  Huh. She was talking to the scary man. In a real conversation. With words and everything.

  Going home might be good for her after all.

  “Well, Skye Blue, like I said. I work with runaways. They wouldn’t like being called that, but sometimes it’s true. I manage a shelter for homeless military vets in Rainbow Falls.”

  “You don’t look like…” Her words faded away as laughter flashed in his eyes. “I’m not sure what I intended to say, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t politically correct.”

  The corner of his mouth tilted up. “I won’t take it personally. I’d always rather someone be honest with me than proper. So, I don’t strike you as someone who helps the homeless? Or who can start and run a non-profit?”

  A chuckle escaped before she could stop it. “Neither, I suppose. Does Rainbow Falls have a large indigent population? I don’t remember it being an issue when I lived there, but… It’s been a few years.”

  Sam’s hands were clasped loosely in his lap. The way he’d angled himself in his seat gave her more room.

  Skye breathed easier when she had more space in which to breathe.

  And that made his answer a whole lot more interesting.

  “The City Council has a whole slew of anti-vagrancy laws to discourage homeless people from staying too long in the area. Some outdoor magazine did a feature on us. Called Rainbow Falls ‘The Hidden Gem of the West.’ Talked about our hiking trails, waterfalls, horseback riding, fishing. And that was just the first paragraph. Next thing you know, we’re packed to the gills with tourists who want to experience the Hidden Gem, and expedition companies who want to capitalize on them. The media attention has turned your hometown into a bit of a mountainside metropolis. And unfortunately, panhandlers would be a blight on the tourist-friendly atmosphere the Council wants to foster, so the homeless aren’t exactly welcomed. I try to help make sure that they aren’t just rounded up and shipped off to the next county. Or worse.”

  “Why only vets? They can’t be the only homeless who show up in town.”

  Sam gave her a half-shrug. “There’s another shelter on the other end of Rainbow Falls. They take men, women, and families. They were struggling to meet the need when I came along.”

  “That many homeless?”

  “Now, yes. But when I started the shelter it was more about the other folks not being able to cope with some of the men who crossed their threshold. My desire to serve vets, and the other shelter’s inability to provide the specialized services vets need and deserve, made the Falls a perfect fit for me.”

  Rainbow Falls had changed more than she’d imagined. “What drew you to vets?”

  “My skill set makes me suited to helping vets, and that’s where my heart is, too, so it works out.”

  The image of him holding a butterfly knife passed through her mind’s eye again. She scooted closer to the window. “What skills would those be?”

  Compassion rolled off him in waves, which didn’t make sense. Barely one thought ago, she’d been imagining him flipping a knife around.

  She was losing her mind.

  “For starters, I served with the Marines, so I can relate to vets on a level not everyone else can. I understand combat and the scars it leaves.” He touched a raised line of flesh near his left ear. “The physical ones, and the emotional ones.”

  “Shared history is important in business, but I’m not sure it counts as a skill.”

  His chin dipped the barest bit. “I don’t think of what I do as a business, but you make a fair point. I’m a certified drug counselor, too, though the City Council passed a mandate prohibiting any addicts from taking up residence on the property.”

  “Can they do that?”

  “It’s their town. They call the shots. If I have a verifiable reason to believe someone’s using, I’m allowed twenty-four hours to transport the individual to the nearest VA hospital.”

  “Yeah, but that’s… I mean… It’s been a while, but that’s over three hours away, isn’t it?”

  Sam nodded. “I had to agree to their terms, or Samaritan’s Reach never would have seen the light of day. And it’s not as bad as it sounds. The hospital’s decent and it’s better than jail.”

  He was so unlike her. “You’re not the type to worry, are you?”

  “‘And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?’”

  Skye blinked. The words rang a distant bell somewhere in her past.

  Sam Madison didn’t look like a man who worked with homeless people, sure. But he looked even less like a man who quoted the Bible.

  CHAPTER 2

  Sam studied the woman sitting next to him. Straight dark hair, a shy smile, and a blue dress guaranteed to draw notice.

  She obviously wasn’t used to running away, or she’d have worn something a little more subtle.

  “How long will you be in town, Skye? Maybe you’d like to come tour our facility. Not that it’s huge. The tour might take ten minutes, if I talk slow.”

  Her honey-colored eyes filled with light. “I’m not sure how long I’ll be around. I’m tangled up with responsibilities that might cut my visit short.”

  “You look a bit like you carry the weight of the world on your shoulders.” Way to go. Tell a woman she looks tired and worn out. It worked every time.

  “Not the world, no. A couple thousand employees, yes. So where is this facility of yours?”

  Skye Blue acted like of some of the men he served at the shelter. She was neither inclined to smile nor to answer questions. He’d bet his left shoe she had scars of her own… and that she was hiding from them. “Do you know where the old Silver Heart Motel is?”

  She nodded.

  “It’s now Samaritan’s Reach, a shelter for vets in need.”

  “The Silver Heart was ancient when I lived in Rainbow Falls. I’m surprised it didn’t get bulldozed a decade ago.”

  “Yeah, well, it’s not the prettiest piece of real estate in town, but that’s what made it affordable.”

  “How does running a place like that work?”

  “It’s a work in progress. For the most part, though, I provide residents with a safe place to stay and, in return, they help with the cooking, cleaning, and repairs.”

  “Do you have many… residents?”

  This was a sore spot but she couldn’t have known that. “Ten at the moment. Besides the City Council, the police don’t seem to want us in town, either, so they’re not particularly inclined to bring us the vagrants they come across. Whenever I ask about it, they claim there haven’t been any, but that’s not the story I’m getting from my guys. We go out from time to time and put up flyers where the homeless congregate. It can get discouraging when we arrive to find all our flyers from the last time gone.”

  Her brow furrowed. “What happens to them?”

  Heat started to simmer in his gut. It wouldn’t do to let her see his anger, though. She already had ‘flight risk’ written all over her. “The city takes them down. It’s easier to run the homeless off if they don’t know where to go for help.”

  “Is there anything you can do about that?”

  “The Council is supposed to review the terms of my business license at the end of this year. I’m hoping they’ll recognize the difficult position they’ve put me in and rescind some of the ridiculous ideas they’ve passed into law.”

  Her eyes
widened. “Are you sure a review’s a good idea?”

  “Why wouldn’t it be?”

  She bit her bottom lip. “It’s not nice to step into somebody else’s sandbox and tell them how to play.”

  He chuckled. “I haven’t heard that one before.”

  “It’s your business, not mine. I haven’t read any of the paperwork on it. I don’t have a right to tell you how to do business.”

  “Sure you do. I’m giving you the right. Go ahead. Hop on into the sandbox. Maybe I’ll learn something.”

  Skye nibbled on her bottom lip for a couple more seconds before nodding. “Review terms usually include a caveat allowing the granting party to terminate the business relationship if those terms aren’t met.”

  His head tilted to the side. “This isn’t a business contract.”

  “Of course it is. And as a businessperson, if someone I did business with wanted permission to do something I didn’t like but couldn’t legally block, I would give in with conditions attached.”

  “What kind of conditions?”

  Skye frowned. “The kind that guaranteed failure. I might require a small business to show forty percent revenue growth in an industry growing by ten percent. Or I’d demand they meet a manufacturing quota of ten thousand units when they’re currently producing only two thousand.”

  Sam frowned back at her.

  “I’d lead them to believe I was doing them a favor, but instead I’d set them up for disaster. Then I’d tell them how sorry I was but that I was obligated to shut them down since they hadn’t met the terms of the agreement.”

  His frown deepened. “My lawyer would have checked for something like that. He would have warned me if that’s what the paperwork said.”

  “If he’s a corporate lawyer and good at his job, probably.”

  Sam heart dropped to his stomach. “He’s a divorce lawyer. We used to serve together. He did the work pro bono for me.”

  Her lips drew into a grim line. “Tell him to reread the contract.”

  “You’re an attorney, then?”

  “Heavens, no. I do enough business with them, though, to know a few things.”