Free Miracle Man by Hildy Fox Page A

that's just what it
is. The past. Things change. Life goes on."
    Lahra's fists were clenched
in her pockets. She kept them pushed deep inside for fear of what they might
try to do were they let out. "Marcus, I have to ask you to reconsider your
position on this."
    "Reconsider my..."
And then Marcus laughed. A laugh like the blaring of a hundred BMW horns.
"Lahra, the Miracle Cinema is not negotiable. The contracts were finalised
yesterday. Mr Perkins made it all official. Stone Rowbottom & Partners now
owns the Miracle. And we have major plans costing us quite a lot of money to
implement. Believe me, if you think that any of us are going to suddenly
reconsider our position because of some misplaced sentimentality, you really
are in need of a miracle."

 
    The same smug grin from the
bridge yesterday morning was back on his face. The trembling inside her mounted,
yet all she could think about as she looked at him there in the doorway was the
way he had looked at her in front of the fire the night before. It was like a
different man. The pressure inside her was almost too much to bear, and she
knew that if she didn't leave soon there could be a repeat performance of last
night's embarrassing action.
    "There's no way I'm
going to sit back and watch you demolish that cinema," she said through
her teeth. "I don't care what it takes. I'm going to stop you."
    She didn't give Marcus the
chance to respond. She turned and got into the Jeep, spinning gravel into the
air as she slammed down the accelerator. She reached for the mobile phone and
dialled.
    "Wally? Meet me at
Gen's in twenty minutes. We've got a war on our hands."
    *
    Gen's Cafe was a warm little
establishment specialising in focaccia and exotic coffees, directly across the
road from the Miracle Cinema. Lahra sat pensively at one of the window tables,
looking out at the Miracle, toying with a salt shaker. She could make out her
reflection in the glass, and was surprised at how composed she looked. Her
insides were a knot of determination and fury, and every time Marcus Dean's
face appeared in her mind the knot tightened. And every time she made a
conscious effort not to think of him, it backfired. Like a fish snared on a
line, the more she tried to distance her thoughts from him, the more he reeled
her in.
    The bell above the door
jingled, awakening her from her daydream, and Lahra looked up to see Wally
entering. She smiled, and stood to greet him, then they both quickly sat as the
waitress came over to take orders. Peppermint tea for two.
    "Thanks for getting
here so soon," Lahra said.
    "That's okay, Doc. When
you tell me there's a war going on I move fast. So what is it? What's the
problem?"

 
    Lahra sighed deeply. She'd
been wondering how to relate everything to Wally and she'd been going over it
and over it in her mind, but it didn't make it any easier to say. "Marcus
Dean is the problem."
    "Marcus Dean. The guy
who bought the Miracle," Wally confirmed with an indignant sniff and
twitch of his moustache.
    "And the guy who's now
my neighbour," Lahra added. She saw the curious look on Wally's face and
went on. "I 'ran into' Marcus Dean several times yesterday. To cut a long
story short, he bought the old Taylor place about six months ago as a country
retreat. Seems he saw the Miracle Cinema and decided it was the perfect
location for a high-tech amusement centre. So he came up with some
redevelopment plans, presented them to his superiors at the engineering firm he
works for, and they gave him the green light to make it work. Apparently he's
on some crusade to become a partner and this is his big ticket."
    "How did you find all
this out?"
    "Well, I saw him
swimming in the river when I arrived yesterday." The images of Marcus’s
naked form sliding through the water filled her head, but she did her best to
ignore them. "I went to see who it was and we talked a little. He
suggested we get together as neighbours last night, to get to know one another
a little better. He