Page 37 of Silver Brewer

Mati pats my shoulder and walks away. Charlie approaches, weaving here and there to greet people as he makes his way to the round table in the back corner. He’s like a local hero. James is the real hero in our family, but he disowned us. For the past week, I’ve tried to figure out what he was doing up at the ranger station and if he was the one shooting his gun. His bike was gone when Letty and I arrived for my truck, but that doesn’t mean anything. He’s mixed up in some bad stuff, hanging with the Rebel’s Edge MC outside of town, and I’m hoping to ask Charlie if he knows anything while we have lunch.

“Good to see ya,” he says, slipping in next to me. The table seats four, but he pulls up a chair next to mine.

“Hey,” I grumpily reply.

He waves at Mati, who holds up her finger, and Charlie nods. She’ll be bringing over a beer for him as well.

“How are you doing?” Charlie asks, and I hate the suggestion in his voice, questioning me on a deeper level. Everyone worries about me. My mental state after returning home. My mental being after losing Clara. My mentality taking on the family business. Now, I have my mother worrying about my sex life. She tried to set me up with Alyce Wright again.

“I suck,” I say, surprising myself as I don’t give my standard answer of I’m fine. I’m not fine. I miss Letty something fierce, and I don’t know what to do about it.

How could you think such a thing of me?

“Really?” Charlie’s voice hitches. “Does it have anything to do with a request to purchase Pap’s land?”

“What?” My head snaps in Charlie’s direction, and my eyes narrow. How does he know about this?

“A request to purchase uninhabitable”—Charlie air quotes around the word—“land came through the zoning office. Of course, Betty knows the property belonged to Pap, so she brought it to my attention.” Betty Jean Murphy was an old family friend of our parents.

Charlie pulls a copy of a legal document out of a leather portfolio he carried into the pub with him. My eyes leap to Mullen Realty Company of Chicago and the name Frank Mullen.

“Goddammit,” I hiss under my breath.

“Do you happen to know an Olivet Pierson from this real estate agency?”

“What?” I snap, glaring at my youngest brother.

Charlie examines my face for a minute and then nods. “Huh. That’s what I thought.”

“What do you mean?”

He rubs a hand over the leather binder. “Last Thursday, I got the strangest phone call.” He pauses a second. “A woman with a Yankee accent is on the line, and she starts telling me this story. How she might lose her job, but she wanted to tell me how her company wanted to acquire Pap’s land. As I’m listening to her, I look up the company, and they’re no small business in Chicago. They buy and sell real estate for all kinds of companies, and they represent a hotel conglomerate who uses their service to secure property for resorts and such.” Charlie pauses. “You following me so far?” His brow hitches, teasing me.

“Get on with it,” I bark, my eyes aimed at the document, but the words blur.

“So, this chattering woman tells me how she found some loophole. How the property cannot ever be procured for commercial use. Not only as it’s private property, but because it’s private property.”

I could have told her that, I think. But you didn’t, my heart reminds me. You let her believe she was going to get the land after a three-night camping trip.

I have no intention to sell the land. Ever. The look of horror on her face, as if I’d just stabbed her, slayed me. Did she want the land that badly? Did she really think it was that easy? Fool the mountain man, lure him into lust, and take what’s his? I pause at the thought. I don’t actually believe that’s how things happened between us. In fact, everything happened so fast I’m not certain what the intention from either of us was.

My heart skips a beat. You knew what you were doing, it patters. You saw a spark in her, and you wanted the spontaneity of a flame.

“Land held in a land trust means it can only be inherited, not sold. It doesn’t qualify for purchase. Nor can it be divided for commercial use. In the case of Pap’s, if no family was living to claim the land, it reverts back to the state.”

I know all this, and I’m a little surprised Letty didn’t. Did she not do her research first?

“Now, you might wonder how this woman knew all this or why she shared it.”

Is Charlie a mind reader all of a sudden?

“Turns out, her company set forth this petition, trying to acquire the property to the left of Pap’s, but as you might recall, it’s unobtainable due to zoning and dimensions and…” Charlie pauses to wave a hand, knowing I’ll drown out the legal jargon. “Anyway, they hoped to squeeze you out in the deal, but she wanted to assure me she was working on something as she disagreed with their sneaky antics.”

“Cut to the chase, Charlie.” My heart hammers in my chest.

“She says upon her visit to the area…Did you know she visited the area, Giant?” He pauses again for effect with an eyebrow hitched, reminding me of our mother. “She found the property uninhabitable. Something about no running water, no electricity.” Charlie’s voice slows. “Do you know anything about this?”

I don’t answer my brother. Instead, I lift my glass and down the rest of my beer.