Page 9 of Deadly Storms (Sunrise Lake #3)

“This is crazy, Shabina,” Vaughn Miller said. “You’re going to have to hire more help. We can’t keep up. Every table is full both inside and outside and we have a line waiting.” He grinned at her, eyes bright with happiness.

Vaughn had first come to Knightly three years earlier to climb, camping out of a beat-up van, one of the many “dirt baggers” who lived to climb boulders and hike.

Like quite a few others, he’d fallen in love with the small town and wanted to stay but needed to find a way to make enough money to rent one of the few coveted vacant places.

The rentals went fast, and very few gave them up once they’d moved in.

He’d jumped at the chance of working for Shabina and her business had grown fast. She was great about sharing profits.

The more money she made, the more she paid him.

He was completely loyal to her and determined to help her any way he could.

Together, they’d interviewed and hired one dishwasher, Nellie Frost; one waiter, Tyrone Michigan; and two waitresses, Patsy Daily and Chelsey Sarten.

They were still swamped. Tyrone and Patsy were quickly moved up to head waitstaff, and Nellie became a waitress out of necessity. They all pitched in to do dishes.

Shabina sent Vaughn an answering smile. “We can’t fit in more tables and chairs, and even outside we don’t have room to expand. I don’t want to get any bigger. If we did, we’d lose the personal touch. This is as big as we’re going to get.”

“I guess I’ll be okay with that.” Vaughn studied the room. “Who are the five in the corner booth? I don’t recognize them.”

“The new crew to rehabilitate the trails in Yosemite. They’ll leave straight from here and head up. The crew chief said they’ve been hired for the summer.”

“Climbers?”

Shabina laughed. “How ever did you guess?” There were three men and two women on the trail rehabilitation crew. It was a never-ending job to keep the popular trails open and in good condition.

“And the three smart-looking newbies with Sean Watson?” Vaughn didn’t bother to hide his dislike of Sean.

Sean was one of four local men who came into the café, ate the food and then often complained loudly that it was terrible and refused to pay. He harassed Shabina often at the café and at the Grill, a local restaurant where live music was played and Shabina and her friends went to dance.

“Fish and Wildlife interns. He’s mentoring them or something. If I go near their booth, they harass me. The one with the sandy-colored hair is named Deacon, and he can’t resist making childish kissy noises. Naturally, Sean encourages him. He’s asked me out three times already.”

“We should have banned Sean from ever coming back here. I know he was one of those who graffitied the crap out of the café. He did it with his little band of friends, Jason Briggs, Bale Landry and Edward Fenton. We should have banned them all.”

Shabina privately agreed with him. The four men were a menace, and they’d taken a strong dislike to her.

They believed she didn’t belong in the United States, despite the fact that she’d been born there and her father was American.

She did have the Saudi Arabian features of her mother.

She didn’t care what set their prejudices off; they didn’t like her and went out of their way to make her as uncomfortable as possible.

“So far, they haven’t managed to get under my skin,” she said truthfully. When a woman had been tortured and abused, verbal harassment with taunts and insults about her cooking skills wasn’t going to make her fall apart. “My philosophy is to kill them with kindness.”

“The twins?” Vaughn nodded to the two women sitting at one of the prime tables beside the window where one could get a good view of the sun rising.

“They were here last year. That’s Felicity Garner in the red and Eve in the purple. They lost their sister, Freda, who made them triplets. She died of dehydration with her husband, Emilio, and her daughter, Crystal, last year in Yosemite. There was a big investigation.”

“I remember that,” Vaughn said, dropping his voice. “That was so sad, Shabina. You spent a lot of time with them. I see Raine is here with Vienna. How is she doing?”

Shabina sighed. Although Raine didn’t show it, she knew her friend was in pain. “I think she’s going to need quite a lot more rehab.”

“She has her leg thanks to all of you,” Vaughn pointed out. He flicked a towel at her. “You’d better make your rounds before the next wave of customers comes in. I see Jason Briggs is sitting in a corner with Bruce Akins instead of with his friends, Bale and Edward. That’s new.”

“Not so much. Jason agreed to work at the Brewery with Bruce. Bruce wants someone to come in as a partner, and Jason wants to stay in Knightly permanently, so they’re working together.”

“Does Bruce seriously want to be partners with a man who treats women the way Jason does?” Vaughn sounded shocked.

Shabina gave a little shake of her head.

They were in the kitchen looking out through the half wall at their customers, but she was taking no chances of being overheard.

Vaughn was a huge asset to her. She had been around men who were seriously deranged, and she knew Scorpion was a sadistic psychopath who wanted the reputation of someone in history such as Vlad the Impaler, who had murdered over eighty thousand people.

She thought he was well on his way to trying to match the number of tortures and murders of the historical figures he admired so much.

Bale, Edward and Sean could get ugly. They would threaten and even get into fistfights, but they weren’t the type to pull out a gun and shoot someone.

Still, they could make Vaughn’s life a living hell.

They certainly did their best to make hers that way.

She wasn’t the only one either. Zahra was raised in a small village in Azerbaijan.

Any woman who appeared to be or was from a different country was looked down on and treated with disrespect by the men.

That was why it was a little shocking to see Bruce, who had always crushed on Zahra, with Jason, who was good friends with Bale, Edward and Sean.

“I’m going to make my rounds and give the personal touch to the customers. I want to check in with Eve and Felicity to see how they’re doing. Keep everyone moving. We’ve got to clear the tables fast, Vaughn.”

“We’re on it.”

Fortunately, most of the food for the café was prepared in advance.

She served a limited menu each day. The customers were aware of that before they entered.

She posted the menu outside on the wall so it was easily read before they chose to eat or just get coffee and pastries or sandwiches for travel.

As she went down the line of booths and tables, she stopped to greet the customers and see if they had any questions about the town or places to shop or just ask if they were on their way to Sunrise Lake or Yosemite.

She was fortunate in that she easily retained names and faces and spoke several languages so she could make her customers feel welcomed and at ease within a few short minutes.

That was what she loved most about having her café.

“Hey, gorgeous,” Deacon called out as she bypassed their table. He leaned out with a long arm in an effort to grab her wrist.

Shabina glided away from him, but half turned to look at him over his shoulder. “Did you need something, sir?” She glanced around the café. “Your waiter is Tyrone. Let me call him for you.”

“I need something from you,” Deacon countered, winking at the other men at the table.

Sean grinned like an ape. “We all could use a little something from you.”

Shabina lifted an eyebrow, shook her head and signaled to Tyrone, but she kept walking. It was too bad Sean was teaching his ways to impressionable young interns. Deacon made his kissy noises, and his two friends and Sean uttered a couple of catcalls. She didn’t turn around.

“Are they always like that?” Felicity asked. She pulled up a chair from a nearby table and patted the seat. “I know you’re super busy, but sit for a minute.”

Shabina glanced around the room. Her staff had things under control, breaking down tables and seating new customers.

“Unfortunately, there are a couple of locals who have taken a dislike to me, although they come here frequently to eat. That’s their form of harassment.

I don’t like seeing it taught to the students they mentor. ”

“Those kids aren’t younger than you, Shabina,” Eve said staunchly. “They should know better than to act that way.”

Shabina forced an easy smile. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, so I do my best to give people the chance to grow and learn from their mistakes.” She gave a little wave of her hand as if dismissing the conversation. “I want to hear how you’re doing.”

The two women exchanged a look. Again, Felicity answered.

“We’re contemplating making a move here.

It’s so peaceful. And Freda loved this area so much.

She talked about it all the time. Just the time we’ve been here makes us feel different.

When we’re back in Galaxy, Maine, it seems like we don’t have the time to take a breath. ”

“Galaxy? What a nice name for a town,” Shabina said.

“Very small town,” Felicity said. “Here, the views insist you sit back and enjoy them.”

“The sunsets,” Eve added. “And the sunrises. We feel closer to Freda here.”

Felicity nodded. “We’re trying to learn as much as we can about hiking from guides and books, but I still don’t understand fully what happened to that section of trees where Freda and her family were found. Why would they go there? The trees were black and twisted, with no leaves at all.”

“We were told that trail had been closed. It was grown over, but we didn’t see any sign saying the trail was closed,” Eve added. “When we read the final report, it said they had entered a trail that had been marked closed.”