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When the last group left–the local quilting club–they’d both taken a short break to use the restroom and grab some water. She’d had way too much coffee today and her hands felt jittery. Since the only way to fix that was with chocolate, she’d defrosted brownies Lily had stored in the freezer.
She placed the brownies on top of the pastry cabinet and sat next to Lotto. The boy in front of them, in jeans and a black ski coat, wore an icy look “What’s going on?”
“This is Paul.” Lotto glanced at her, his dark eyes not as bright as they’d been earlier. They were both tired, and she was ready for Christmas Eve to come and go. She hated feeling that way, but it’d been a long day of working organizing parade participants.
They’d had so many people ask to be in the parade, she wondered if there’d be anyone left to actually watch it.
Since Paul just stared at her, she said, “Do you want to be in the parade?”
“Yes,” Paul said with an edge to his voice. “But my friends and I can’t walk in the parade.”
She stole another look at Lotto. “Why is that?”
“Because Paul is the leader of the high school marching band.”
“Oh.” And that was going to be a problem.
“My girlfriend, Rosie, is making the Santa costume.” Paul’s eyes narrowed. “But she’ll only finish the costume if the high school band can lead the parade.”
6
Ben crouched behind an enormous oak tree and motioned to Damian who was kneeling near a boulder. The wind and snow swirled around them, lowering their visibility. And the dropping temps threatened to lower their ability to react quickly. They’d been stalking Pepper for over an hour and now he was inside his black tent, with a huge amount of weapons, not far from the ridge that held up Caleb’s star.
It was great that they’d found Pepper, but the location also meant a few not-so-great things. First, they were so high up on the mountain, they couldn’t call for backup. Second, he had to trust that when he went in for the arrest, Damian would have his back. Third, the snow and wind were hitting critical mass. If they didn’t get Pepper in the next few minutes, they could all end up dead from the blizzard.
Ben held up his three fingers, and Damian nodded. Although he and Damian were on opposite sides of the law, that hadn’t always been the case. For years they’d worked as a team and understood how each other thought and moved. As long as he could trust Damian now, they could make this arrest happen and get home before the storm hit Kingsmill and all the roads shut down.
When Ben dropped the third finger, he moved toward the tent, with Damian as his back–until Pepper came out and headed for the opposite tree line, near Damian. Ben dropped to the ground, praying Pepper hadn’t seen him. He glanced at Damian who made an obscene gesture that meant Pepper was going to the bathroom.
Ben nodded and started moving again. It would be much easier to arrest Pepper with his pants down. Damian now led the way, and Ben followed. Suddenly a gust of wind knocked him onto his back, blinding him. Now disoriented, he maneuvered into a low, stalking position and headed for the tree line. Except now he couldn’t see Pepper or Damian.
Ben moved forward slowly, his face burning from the bitter wind, until he was surrounded by pine trees. Here, within the relative quiet offered by the massive trees, he stopped. Two sets of tracks led west, toward the highest ridge that held Caleb’s star.
He couldn’t believe he’d lost both men so quickly. It took another thirty minutes of following the tracks before he heard voices. It was easier to follow the tracks within the woods because the snow didn’t cover them as quickly, but it was also darker since the tree cover obscured the moon.
He moved toward the voices, keeping his weapon ready. The tracks led out of the forest and up to the ridge holding the star’s hundred-foot pole. That didn’t bode well since the ridge upon which the star stood was nothing more than a four-foot landing on the side of the mountain. And once up there, there was no place else to go but down the same path. Or over the cliff into a four-hundred foot ravine.
The voices grew louder and harsher, and he ran toward them until a gunshot ripped through the night’s silence. Then a scream echoed, followed by… more silence. Ben’s heart beat loudly in his chest, and he clawed his way up the rocky path covered with snow. Once at the apex, he found Damian slumped on the ground, leaning against the enormous pole. Ben saw footsteps near the edge and moved closer until he could look down into the ravine that dropped onto jagged rocks.
“He jumped,” Damian said in a harsh voice. “Pepper said he’d never return to jail. So he shot me, and then he jumped. I swear I didn’t push him.”
Ben ran back to Damian and knelt in the snow. Up here, the snow and wind twisted around each other making it hard to breathe in the cold air and difficult to see anything. “Where are you hit?”
“Thigh. I don’t think he got an artery, though.”
Ben found his SAT phone and crawled toward the ridge’s edge. Then he prayed for a signal. After a few minutes, a call went through to Charlie’s team. There was no way to get a rescue helicopter up here, and the mountain roads were now closed. So it was up to the rest of the men who’d been searching for Pepper to help him get Damian to safety.
Once all coordinates were given, and Ben knew help was coming, he hurried back to Damian and did his best to stop the bleeding. Normally, he could carry Damian down to the forest where they’d have some protection from the elements. But with the poor visibility and the deep snow covering the path, he couldn’t risk falling off the path’s edge.
Instead, with his hands keeping pressure on Damian’s wound, he glanced up at the dark sky, only then remembering the star at the top of the pole wasn’t working.
A beeping sound startled him, and he looked at Damian. “What’s that?”
“My alarm.” Damian touched his watch and the beeping stopped. “It’s to remind me.”
“Remind you of what?”
Damian shifted and groaned. “It’s midnight. It’s now Christmas Eve.”
