NO WAY OUT

The last thing Benjamin Duff needs is to be stranded at his friend Piper Lawrence’s bed-and-breakfast with a dangerous intruder. But when he stops to say goodbye before moving across the world, he finds a masked man attacking Piper. Benjamin rushes to save her, crashing his truck and trapping them during a winter storm in the process. With no power or cell phones and time running out before his trip, he’ll have to work fast to catch the killer. As they fight for their lives and their feelings for each other grow, Benjamin must decide if he’s really willing to leave Piper behind.

“Hey, it’s okay.” Piper stepped backward out of his arms. “It’s probably just the wind coupled with some ice on the power lines.”

“Maybe it’s nothing. But maybe it’s something.” Benjamin’s hand ran down her arm and squeezed hers. “Either way, get behind me and stay close.”

Tempting. But no. She’d spent way too long trying to rid herself of the dizzying butterflies that soared through her veins whenever Benjamin was near. She wasn’t about to lose her head now. Sure, back on the island last summer she’d thought their relationship was heading somewhere romantically. Right up until he’d taken her out to dinner her last night on the island only to blindside her with the news that he was determined to remain a commitment-free bachelor for the rest of his life.

“Power goes out around here all the time in the winter.” She pulled her fingers out of his grip. “It usually comes right back within minutes. But even if it is someone dangerous, I’m going to meet it head-on.”

MAGGIE K. BLACK is an award-winning journalist and romantic suspense author with an insatiable love of traveling the world. She has lived in the American South, Europe and the Middle East. She now makes her home in Canada with her history teacher husband, their two beautiful girls and a small but mighty dog. Maggie enjoys connecting with her readers at maggiekblack.com.

Christmas Blackout

Maggie K. Black

www.millsandboon.co.uk

MILLS & BOON

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I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.

—Isaiah 42:16

For my strong, brave and beautiful girls.

You are what makes Christmas special.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

About the Author

Title Page

Bible Verse

Dedication

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

ELEVEN

TWELVE

THIRTEEN

FOURTEEN

FIFTEEN

SIXTEEN

SEVENTEEN

EIGHTEEN

EPILOGUE

Dear Reader

Extract

Copyright

ONE

Benjamin Duff gripped the steering wheel with both hands and tried to turn into the skid. It was too late. Pelting sleet and freezing rain had turned the southern Ontario back road into a treacherous mess of slush and ice. The storm had picked up quickly. He’d been just a fraction of a second too late in catching the change of traction from paved road to country lane.

Now his pickup truck was spinning.

Benjamin held on tight as the world flew past the windshield in a blur of gray and white.

Trees. Snow. Sky.

Lord, please keep us safe.

The truck gave a final rotation and came to a stop.

He looked out. Branches, heavy with snow, buffeted against the driver’s-side door. The truck was now pointed back the way he’d come, but he’d somehow managed to stay out of the roadside ditch. He rested his forehead on the steering wheel and let out a long breath. “Thank You, God.”

The hospital room where he’d spent so many months in traction as a teenager flashed through his mind. It would be sixteen years this February since a terrible snowmobile accident had taken a friend’s life and left fifteen-year-old Benjamin with a body so broken that doctors didn’t know at first if he’d ever walk again. Since then, he’d built a successful business as an extreme sports instructor and even used the lingering notoriety as a platform to teach thousands of young people about outdoor safety and living life to the fullest.

Now his business was successfully sold. He was just three days away from catching a Christmas night flight to Australia, to pick up the boat he’d saved his entire life for. First he’d embark on a year long sailing voyage for charity. Then he’d use his new boat to start his own Pacific charter service.

Life on the open waters meant that finally he’d be living somewhere he could escape the long shadow the accident had cast over his life.

Yet here, in an instant, he’d been reminded of just how easily everything could be taken away again.

Not that that he’d ever forgotten.

A soft whimper came from the passenger seat.

“I’m sorry, Harry.” Benjamin slid one hand into the dog’s thick fur. He scratched the young black-and-white husky on the back of the neck, just where the seat belt clipped into his safety harness. “Don’t worry. We’re almost there. Piper’s bed-and-breakfast is only a few minutes away.”

I hope.

He eased the truck back onto the road and kept driving. He’d met Piper Lawrence during the summer, when the spunky brunette had walked into his sports shop. Truth be told, they’d barely kept in touch since then and he didn’t know her all that well. But he knew she had a bed-and-breakfast, on a huge property on the edge of Lake Erie. While Harry was a pretty good dog he sure wasn’t suited for life on a sailboat, so he’d asked Piper if she’d be interested in giving him a new permanent home. She’d said yes.

But the weather forecast was pretty much as bad as the holidays could be. His deep blue eyes glanced at the console clock. It was quarter to four. It was a seven-hour drive from here back to his sister’s place on Manitoulin Island, the home he had shared with her. At this rate, he’d be driving well into the night.

“See, dog, Meg and Jack are getting married on Christmas Eve, which is the day after tomorrow.” Maybe talking out loud would calm both the husky and himself. “Sounds like your Christmas will be exciting, too. Our friend Piper is hosting a huge Christmas Eve thing.”

Our friend Piper. He scratched his trim brown beard. Why did it feel weird to call Piper Lawrence a “friend”? But he couldn’t think of a better term to call her. The second to last week of August, he’d just looked up over the counter one day and saw Piper there in the doorway. A mess of tumbling dark hair, plaid shirt worn over jean shorts, sparkling eyes behind huge, round glasses. The dog had charged her instantly, tail wagging. Puppy love at first sight.

She’d had just four days on the island and only been there to escort her aunt. But there’d been this glint in her eyes that told him she could use an adventure. So, he’d done his best to find her one. Together they’d gone hiking, boating, parasailing and waterskiing. Sure seemed like a friendship. Good one, too. But then, when they’d gone out for dinner her last night on the island, somehow everything had gone from comfortable to awkward between them, and he still didn’t know why.

“But when it was time to find you a new home, she was the first one I emailed.” Benjamin ran one hand through Harry’s fur. “Living all by herself, taking care of a bunch of strangers, Piper could use a guard dog, I figured.”

He dialed her on his cell phone, which was mounted on the dashboard. The hands-free earpiece was clipped to the corner of his tuque.

“Hello?” Piper’s voice filled the car.

Something about her voice always reminded him of salted caramel. Sweet and light on the surface, yet down-to-earth and gritty at the same time.

“Hey. It’s me. Benjamin. I’m sorry. I’m running a bit late.”

“A bit? I expected you hours ago.” Her tone was somewhere between frustrated and worried. Whatever the tension was between them, this probably wouldn’t help.

“Yeah, I’m really sorry. Had a lot of goodbyes to get through and you’re my last stop—”

“Hang on. The signal’s patchy. I’m just carrying some Christmas decorations down to the barn. I was going to wait until after you’d left. But I didn’t expect you to be so late and now the storm is getting worse.” There was the crunch of footsteps. He heard the sound of a door creaking and the dull sound of stomping. “Now when—”

A loud bang shook the air.

He heard the clatter of her cell phone hitting the floor.

Then the muffled sound of someone screaming.

“Piper? Piper! Hey? You okay?”

The phone went dead.

A shiver shot down his spine. He hit Redial. The call didn’t go through.

The dog growled.

“Don’t worry. She probably just got startled by something and dropped her phone.”

He hoped. He prayed. Eighteen months ago, a serial killer had targeted his sister, Meg. It’s what had brought her and her fiancé, Jack, together. Ever since, every unexplained footstep had sounded just a little more ominous.

Benjamin’s headlights flickered over a wooden sign for The Downs Bed-and-Breakfast. The house lay straight ahead. A smaller sign advertised Christmas Eve at The Downs and Barn. He followed the arrow and pulled a sharp right and found himself driving down a slope toward the barn where he’d find Piper. “See, we’re here.”

The truck jolted over uneven ground. The twisting lane dipped even steeper. Wet snow pelted vertically across the windshield like Impressionistic paint strokes. When the trees parted, he spotted a large wooden barn at the bottom of the hill. The frozen surface of Lake Erie spread out behind it. He hit the brakes but the truck kept inching forward slowly. The hill was in desperate need of both plowing and sanding. Even with snow tires it might’ve been better to wait for Piper at the house.

He tried the phone one more time. Still, no answer.

Below, the barn door opened and someone walked out. Didn’t look like Piper. No, this was a big, wide, grizzly bear of a man. The man was dragging something behind him. He hoisted it onto his shoulders, took a few shaky steps across the snow and then dropped it.

Not it. Her.

The man was dragging a woman’s body out onto the lake.

Benjamin’s heart stopped cold.

She started thrashing, flailing and kicking out against her attacker.

Piper!

Piper was fighting for her life down on that ice.

And he was too far away to save her.

* * *

Ice smacked hard against Piper Lawrence’s body, jolting her into consciousness. She opened her eyes but couldn’t see anything. She tried to turn her head and felt the rough sting of burlap on her cheek. Her glasses were gone. Someone had pulled a feed sack over her head. She tried to scream but the string around her neck choked the air in her throat. Her hands were tied together in front of her at the wrists by the very same string now looped around her neck. She could barely move her arms without choking.

Lord, please save me.

A hand grabbed her ankle, pulling her backward. She twisted around, flailing from one side to the other as she tried to wrench her leg from his grasp. He laughed. It was an ugly sound that filled her veins with dread. She kicked back hard and made contact. The man swore and let go.

She dragged herself to her feet. She was running blind. Desperately her fingers pulled at the string around her neck as freezing rain smacked her body.

Disjointed memories filtered through her fear like pieces of a nightmare. She’d walked into the barn carrying a box of decorations. She’d been talking to Benjamin on the phone. Someone in a ski mask had rushed her in the darkness and thrown her against the wall. It was all a blank after that, until the moment he’d dropped her in the snow.

Please, Lord. Help Benjamin realize something’s wrong and come looking for me. He’s the only person who even knows I’m here.

She could hear her attacker behind her, muttering curses and gasping for breath. She stumbled up the snowbank and struggled to run, but the two feet of snow was coated in half an inch of ice. She managed to take three steps on the slippery surface before her foot plunged into snow up to her knee. She yanked her leg back and lost her boot in the snow. No! She dropped to her hands and knees, and dug for her boot. Her fingers brushed the cuff. She tugged it out and put it back on.

But she was too late. Her attacker tackled her from behind.

He pressed a knee into her back and spoke in her ear, his voice deep and as rough as sandpaper. “Tell me where Charlotte Finn is and I’ll let you go.”

Charlotte Finn? Her head swam. Charlotte was the history student Piper had briefly shared an apartment with in college six years ago. She hadn’t seen the snobby, slender blonde since Charlotte had asked if she could come visit The Downs for Christmas that year—and then robbed them.

“I don’t know.” She shook her head. “Honestly, I don’t.”

“You’re lying.” He flipped her over and pushed her back into the snow.

She tried to yell, but her voice broke. “I have no idea where Charlotte is!”

Piper kicked him hard with both legs. He grunted and fell off her. She struggled to her feet and kept running. The string around her neck had loosened just enough for her to see a couple of inches under the bag and to gulp in a deep, pain-filled breath. She felt her shins smack against something—the barn steps. She found the railing and then ran her gloved hands along it. The old rotting wood was a mess of splinters and nails. If she could just loop the string around her wrists on something sharp, she might be able to snap herself free.

“I know she’s here.” Footsteps landed hard behind her. “You’re going to tell me where she is.”

He grabbed her jacket and yanked her around. For a split second she could see his wrist—the blurry lines of a bear tattoo and the word Kodiak. He grabbed ahold of the string around her neck and yanked her back hard, cutting off her windpipe. Pain shot through her lungs. Her hands tore free of their bonds and she clutched at her throat.

She couldn’t breathe.

“I’m not playing around.” He choked her harder. “Charlotte’s here. Somewhere. You think you’re helping her out by hiding her and lying to me? I got too much on the line to let this go and if I’ve got to murder all her friends to make her show herself, I will. So, you’re to tell me where she is. Right now. Or I will kill you.”

There was the metallic clink of a butterfly knife. Then she felt the tip of the blade pushing through the bag and into the back of her neck.

Oh God, help me. Please.

A horn split the air. The loud, insistent blare sounded as if someone was leaning on it with their full weight. Her attacker swore and shoved her off the steps. She fell into the snow and gasped as air filled her lungs again. The honking grew louder. Then she heard a man shouting, but she couldn’t make out the words.

There was the long, painful screech of brakes.

Then a deafening, splintering crunch.

TWO

The side of the old wooden barn rushed up toward the windshield. Benjamin yanked the steering wheel hard to the left and prayed for just enough traction to avoid ramming straight through it. He spun and barely cleared the corner. But the brick chimney wasn’t so fortunate. The truck crashed through the chimney sideways. Bricks rained down onto the hood, cracks spreading across the windshield like sudden frost.

The seat belt snapped him back against the seat.

He gasped in a breath. Well, that was either the bravest or the most foolish thing he’d ever done. His attempt at a steady but fast descent down the hill had turned into more of a slide than he’d wanted. But it was more than worth the risk if it meant saving Piper’s life.

Where is she now? Is she all right?

At least he’d thought to let the dog out before attempting the hill.

Benjamin yanked open the driver’s door and leaped out into the snow, throwing the door closed behind him. The windshield exploded, showering the inside of the truck with glass.

He cupped his gloved hands around his mouth. “Piper! Shout if you can hear me!”

He yanked his hat down farther, wrapped his scarf twice around his face and pushed his way through the snow.

A huge man dashed around the corner and froze. A battered black winter coat hid his form and a black ski mask covered his face. But Benjamin could clearly see the knife clenched in his outstretched hand. Benjamin leaped for it, forcing the masked man’s arm into the air as he wrenched the weapon from his grasp. The masked man punched out hard, catching him in the jaw.

Benjamin stumbled back. But he managed to keep hold of the attacker’s knife.

The man gave up and bolted for the tree line. The urge to chase after him surged through Benjamin. But finding Piper was all that mattered now.

“Hey, Piper!” He ran around the side of the barn. “Piper! Where are you?”

No answer but the howl of the wind and the ice pellets smacking the ground.

Then he saw her. Facedown in a heavy snowbank beside the barn stairs. He ran for her, slid one strong arm under her and pulled her to her feet. When he saw the bag tied over her head, his throat tightened so he couldn’t even speak. He unwrapped the string from around her neck as quickly as he dared and pulled the sack off her head.

His gaze fell on Piper’s face. Chestnut hair fell loose around her shoulders. Her huge, dark eyes looked up into his. She gasped in a deep breath.

Then she punched him squarely in the gut. And ran.

Benjamin felt the air rush from his lungs. “Piper... Wait...” His winded chest struggled for breath. “It’s okay! It’s me—”

“Benjamin?” She turned back. Sleet poured down her slender frame. Her eyes scrunched as if trying to focus.

He realized she wasn’t wearing her glasses and could barely see without them.

“Yeah, Piper,” he said softly, yanking off his hat and scarf. “It’s okay. It’s me. Benjamin.”

“Thank God!” A smile crossed her lips as her eyes rose upward in prayer. Then her gaze turned back to his. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

He crossed the snow toward her, feeling that odd lump in his throat grow even bigger.

Piper had been the first person to really call him “Benjamin.” She’d known exactly who he was the moment they met. Most Ontarians between the ages of thirteen and twenty-eight seemed to, thanks to a particularly horrendous documentary about his accident that was regularly shown in high school assemblies. But in that moment, when she’d been play-fighting with the dog in the entrance to his store and he’d rushed over to greet her, she’d stretched out her hand and said, “Do you prefer Benji or Benjamin?” As if the fact that his sister, his friends and every single news outlet still referred to him by his childhood nickname hadn’t settled the matter. It was the most rebelliously thoughtful question he’d ever been asked.

“It’s okay. You’re safe now.” He pulled off his gloves and let his bare fingers brush her hair. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m okay.” She grabbed his left hand and held it tightly. Somehow her voice managed to sound a bit stronger than his. “What happened to the guy who attacked me?”

“Gone.” His eyes glanced toward the empty tree line. “He ran.”

“What did he look like?”

“Tall. Heavyset. Black ski mask. Tattoo on his wrist but I couldn’t make it out.”

“It was a bear,” she said, “and the word Kodiak. But I have no idea who he was. He said he was looking for someone I used to know, a woman named Charlotte. But I haven’t seen her in years.”

She didn’t move. Neither did he. They both just stood there, knee-deep in ice and snow, with sleet smacking against their bodies and their hands holding on to each other. Her face was turned up toward his, her cheeks flushed. She’s beyond beautiful. The thought hit him from out of the blue. There was a quality to her that defied his ability to find adjectives to describe her. He wanted to pull her close, wrap both arms around her and shield her body from the storm.

But he’d never hugged Piper before. Sure, they’d hung out as pals. Great pals. Which was different than a hugging kind of friendship.

Her free hand brushed his beard, as if to double-check he was really there. “But how about you? Are you okay? Where’s the dog? I thought I heard something crash into the barn.”

“Don’t worry. Everything’s fine.” He pulled her hand away from his face, stepped back and held both her hands together in front of him at arm’s length, with what he hoped felt like a reassuring squeeze. “I let the dog out at the top of the hill so he’s probably racing through the trees right now. My truck is mostly okay. I didn’t spin out of control so much as do a fast and calculated skid.” Because, in that second, it was a choice between watching her die from a distance or getting down the hill fast enough to save her. “Now, we need to call the police. My cell phone can’t get a signal.”

“Mine might. I dropped it in the barn. Plus, that’s where I lost my glasses. My vision’s pretty blurry without them.”

He stretched out his arm to guide her up the stairs. Instead, she let go and started walking. He followed her into the barn. The smell of old wood and hay filled his senses. Lights flickered to life above them, revealing rows of stacked chairs, folding tables and boxes of Christmas decorations. A loft lay on one side, with bales of hay tucked underneath. He spotted a fireplace against the far wall, but it was entirely cemented up on the inside and probably hadn’t been used in decades. At least he hadn’t driven into the chimney of a working fireplace. Something crunched under his foot. He bent down and picked up the remains of a blue-and-silver decoration.

“Watch your step. He jumped me the moment I stepped in the door.” She started feeling around on the floor. He unzipped his ski jacket and knelt down beside her. The wind howled, shaking the door in its door frame. “I hit my head and lost consciousness. I never even saw it coming.”

All the more reason to be thankful he was leaving Harry behind as a guard dog. “Isn’t it a bit late to be down here all by yourself?”

“I’ve been walking down the hill to the barn, alone, ever since I was a kid.” She rolled her eyes. “Even before Uncle Des put the path and lights in. Which I think he only did because Aunt Cass was worried I’d break my neck running through the trees in the dark.”

“You used to live with them, right?”

“Yeah. The Downs is theirs and I run it for them. They’ve had to temporarily move in to a retirement building in town because of health problems.” She sighed and sat back on her heels. “Found my phone. Parts of it, anyway.”

He looked down at the pieces in her hand. It looked as if someone had stomped on it. Glancing behind her, he spotted her glasses. He carefully bent them back into shape and cleaned them on the corner of his shirt before handing them to her. “Here you go. Now, what kind of security do you have if he comes back?”

“Just the usual locks on the doors and windows.” She slid her glasses on. Then she grabbed a box of Christmas things from the floor and carried it across the barn, scooping stray decorations off the floor as she went. “I have three guests at The Downs right now, so I won’t be alone. But there’s absolutely no reason for anyone to come back here looking for Charlotte. If she was in trouble I’m the last person she’d go to for help. We weren’t even friends.”

She set the box down beside a pile of other ones. “Charlotte was just my arrogant, former roommate. Six years ago, she talked me into letting her come stay at The Downs by telling me she could prove it had some hidden, rum-running past and had been used as a speakeasy during Prohibition. But she was probably just using me to get a break from her abusive, controlling ex-boyfriend. He was some nasty piece of work.”

“Nasty enough to threaten to kill you in order to find her six years later?” he asked.

“I don’t know.” Piper shrugged. “I never met him. She called him Alpha—like the head of an animal pack. He called her constantly, expected her to drop everything and run to him, and sometimes sent really creepy presents like dead flowers. But he was also really financially generous when he wanted to be. Rich and twisted. Even if this Kodiak guy isn’t Alpha, he could be a sign her taste in men hasn’t changed.” She crossed the barn toward him. “But either way, any sympathy I had for her disappeared the moment she repaid our kindness by robbing The Downs, smashing years’ worth of handmade Christmas decorations into tiny pieces and knocking our tree through the front window—”

The door slammed shut so hard the whole barn shook.

The lights went out.

* * *

Her heart was beating so hard she was almost afraid Benjamin could hear it. He’d thrown his arms around her and now the warmth of his chest was pressed up against hers, the strength of his arms wrapped around her shoulders. Right then she needed it. She could barely keep her knees from buckling.

“Hey, it’s okay.” She forced herself to step back out of his arms. “It’s probably just the wind coupled with some ice on the power lines.”

“Maybe it’s nothing. But maybe it’s something.” Benjamin’s hand slid down her arm and squeezed hers. “Either way, get behind me and stay close.”

Tempting. But no. She’d spent way too long trying to rid herself of the dizzying butterflies that soared through her veins whenever Benjamin was near. She wasn’t about to lose her head now. Sure, back on the island last summer she’d thought their relationship was heading somewhere romantic. Right up until he’d taken her out to dinner her last night on the island only to blindside her with the news that he was determined to remain a commitment-free bachelor for the rest of his life.

“Power goes out around here all the time in the winter.” She pulled her fingers out of his grip. “It usually comes right back within minutes. But even if it is someone dangerous, I’m going to meet it head-on.”

Benjamin didn’t step back. “Look, Piper. I know you’re plenty strong—”

“Yes, I am. Just because one thug managed to get the jump on me doesn’t suddenly mean I’m helpless.” She sounded more defensive than she meant to. But the fact that Benjamin was probably pretty used to taking charge in bad situations didn’t mean she was some damsel in distress, counting on a handsome man to save her. Especially not the kind of a man who was in a hurry to leave. “Don’t forget, I was a pretty fierce hockey player and not half-bad at mixed martial arts, too. Both times I took out guys every bit as big as Kodiak.”

The only reason she didn’t compete nationally was the cost of the training and the time she’d be away from The Downs, where she was needed to help run the place.

“I remember.” His voice dropped. “But I nearly lost my sister, Meg, to the Raincoat Killer last year. I’d never forgive myself if anything happened to you. Not when there was a chance that I could’ve stepped up and done something to protect you.”

The lights flickered on again. There was the furious yip of barking and the scramble of paws. Piper flung the barn door open, then dropped to one knee as Harry bolted through. She buried her face in the husky’s soft fur. “Hey there, guard dog. Welcome to The Downs.”

Benjamin looked out. “Well, if there was anyone there, Harry frightened them off.”

“Thanks for bringing him down. I think he’s exactly what I need around this place.” She gripped the dog’s collar and stood. Time for her to call the police and for Benjamin to get back on the road.

“I’m going to miss him like crazy.” Benjamin followed her out of the barn. “But sadly, once I’m on my boat, I’ve got no room for Harry.”

Or a relationship. Or a family. Or emotional complications of any kind.

He’d told her so that last night on the island. It didn’t matter what kind of fireworks that man set off inside her chest, Benjamin couldn’t even commit to a dog.

They rounded the corner and Piper gasped—his truck was a mess of scrunched metal and broken glass. “I thought you said everything was okay.”

The chimney had a huge chunk missing from one side. Bricks dented the hood of his large black pickup. Yes, she’d heard the sound of a collision. But he’d been so reassuring she’d just trusted him when he told her everything was okay.

“The truck will be fine,” he said. “A new side panel and a fresh windshield and it’ll be good to go. I’m really sorry about the chimney. Hopefully it’s nothing a good masonry job won’t fix. I’d offer to do it myself if it wasn’t knee-deep in snow and I didn’t have places to be. I just hope it won’t be a problem for your Christmas Eve shindig.”

“It’s more than a shindig.” She took a deep breath and reminded herself that none of this was Benjamin’s fault, and that he was even more inconvenienced than she was. “It’s called Christmas Eve at The Downs. The purpose is to provide a really awesome potluck dinner and carol singing for people in the community who have nowhere else to go. Aunt Cass started it twenty-five years ago. This is the first year I’m managing it on my own. The barn’s really old and I really should have gotten a new roof put on it this year. But the priority has been saving up to renovate the bed-and-breakfast.”

The sooner she could get Uncle Des and Aunt Cass out of that awful seniors’ residence the better.

“Torchlight News did a big article on your renovation plans, right?” Benjamin asked. “Because your house was declared a heritage site of historical value, you needed to apply to get special permission?” He brushed the glass off the driver’s seat and climbed in.

“Yup. The Downs is over a hundred years old. We’re pretty isolated, so there are rumors that during American Prohibition, people used to sneak across the lake and fill their boats up with bottles of illegal rum out of this very barn. Some even say there was a full-fledged speakeasy lounge with drinks and music running in The Downs. All these people would supposedly boat across the lake and sneak up through our woods in their finest evening wear. But no one’s ever found any evidence. Not even so much as an empty rum bottle or lost earring in the trees. Trust me, I looked.”

As a little girl she’d combed The Downs for some hidden stash of jewelry or money. As an adult, she’d be happy to just see The Downs increase in value enough they could get a loan to cover renovations.

Benjamin pulled the truck back. The corner of the hood was crumpled and the whole right side was dented. But still the engine ran smoothly and the air bag hadn’t deployed.

“We’ve got a really good mechanic here in town,” she said. “He’ll be able to get you fixed up in no time.”

He ran one hand through his dark mop of hair. “There’s a wedding rehearsal tomorrow afternoon and I’m also supposed to be fitted for a tuxedo. But I can’t exactly drive without a windshield.”

Before she could respond, she saw a shadow move through the distant trees. A shiver ran down her spine. Was someone watching them? But when she looked again, it was gone. Which probably meant her imagination was now playing tricks on her.

“Well, looks like I’m not going anywhere fast.” Benjamin yanked a vintage red hockey bag out of the backseat. “You got room at The Downs for one more?”

THREE

To his surprise, Piper blinked. Her hand rose to her lips as if his question had somehow caught her off guard. “Oh. Sure. Of course. I’ve only got three guests staying right now. I can definitely house one more.”

Okay, and what was he missing now? It had seemed like a pretty straightforward thing to ask. After all, she ran a bed-and-breakfast, and it was unlikely a mechanic would get him back on the road before morning. He turned off the truck and climbed out. “Well, as long as it’s no problem and won’t cause you any extra trouble.”

“No, no trouble at all.” She wasn’t meeting his eye. “It’s the least I can do, considering you probably saved my life.”

Alrighty, then. Benjamin yanked a tarp out of the backseat and began tying it down over the missing windshield to keep the worst of the snow out. Truth be told, he’d feel a whole lot better staying close by in case Kodiak was still lurking around. Something told him that memory of Piper down in the snow with a bag over her head would haunt his nightmares for a long time. There was a tug on the tarp. He looked up. Piper had grabbed the other side and was tying it down on the passenger side.

Her eyes cut to the National Hockey League team logo on his bag. A smile curved on her lips. “You’re just lucky you saved my life before I remembered you supported our hockey rivals in Montreal.”

He chuckled. Yeah, he hadn’t forgotten just how passionate she was about cheering on Toronto. “Well, as long as you don’t high stick me, I promise to leave all conversations about Stanley Cup history at the door.”

She rolled her eyes. They started up the steep, narrow path through the trees. Harry ran beside them for a while then disappeared on ahead. Benjamin tried to hitch his duffel bag higher on his shoulder and just barely managed to keep from knocking into her.

“That’s a pretty big bag for visiting a few friends,” she said. “I thought you believed in traveling light.”

“I do.” He swung it around to the other shoulder. “Actually, this is everything I’m taking with me to Australia. Passport, airline ticket, travel money—if it’s crossing the world with me, it’s in here.”

The sun had set behind the snow. Motion sensor lights wound through the trees ahead of them, flickering on as they neared. He reached the top of the hill and looked out. Snow-covered trees flowed down the slope behind them, spreading all the way out over the lake. It was breathtaking.

“On a clearer day, you can see the American shoreline,” Piper said. “Uncle Des and Aunt Cass married in the south of England. He had what he thought was a temporary job at a company in Niagara and they moved out here. Aunt Cass named The Downs after the South Downs, this range of hills near the village she’s from. They got the property in a foreclosure sale actually. Took them years to sort through all the junk the previous owners left behind.”

“But sadly no illegal rum in the cellar or stacks of secret cash in the wardrobe?”

She shook her head. “Nope.”

He turned toward the house. The Downs was three stories tall, with lead piping on the windows, peaked roofs and shuttered doors opening onto small balconies. Christmas lights wrapped around the windows and balconies, and looped around the fire escape that ran all the way from the ground floor to a round window high in the roof peak. “So this would be your fairy-tale castle?”

She stopped walking. “What did you just say?”

“I seem to remember you telling me that you were born in England, too, but that you and your mom moved here to live when you were really little. So, you used to pretend you were secretly an English princess and The Downs was your castle.”

She paused for a moment then shook her head. “I can’t believe I told you that.”

If anything, she sounded disappointed with herself. But why? They’d talked for hours during those four days last summer. She’d told him all sorts of things about herself. He in turn had confessed stuff about himself that nobody else knew. Like how he’d decided he was never going to have a wife or family.

“I was one when I moved in here actually,” she said. “We were pretty broke. My father left us a couple of weeks before Christmas and my mom had no way to pay the rent without him. The British expression is ‘he did a runner,’ so for the longest time I thought he’d literally leaped out a window and ran. Our flight landed Christmas Eve. We were the first two wanderers to be welcomed at Christmas Eve at The Downs.”

He followed Piper past a towering woodpile, through a small back door and into the garage. His eyes ran over racks of ice-hockey equipment. A kayak, canoe and two surfboards lay on beams above their heads, and there was camping equipment on wall shelves. Steel-toed hiking boots hung on a peg by the door, next to two pairs of boxing gloves, some climbing gear and what looked like a heavy wool cloak. All of the gear looked high quality, well loved and as if it hadn’t been touched in ages.

“So, if you keep the bed-and-breakfast open over Christmas, when do you take your own holidays?”

“I don’t really.” She pulled off her coat, then pushed her foggy glasses up onto the top of her head. “The Downs is open and running 365 days a year.”

Okay, he heard what she was saying, but there was something wrong with this picture. They were standing in a garage surrounded by incredible sports equipment. Sure, living in the Niagara region meant she could probably get in a bit of skating or cross-country skiing. But there were only so many times a person could hit the same patch of earth before wanting to try something new. And she could hardly surf or camp without taking a day off.

“Yes, but the whole reason we met is because you were on holiday on Manitoulin Island this past summer—”

“No, I was on the island for four days while my uncle was here helping movers pack up their things so they could move into the seniors’ home. My aunt’s health is poor, and a friend of hers who lived on the island invited her to stay for a few days. She wasn’t able to make the trip alone so I went with her.” She shrugged. “I’m going to need to run this place nonstop at capacity if I have any hope of starting the renovations by this summer. Even once they’re done, my uncle and aunt are going to need me around on a daily basis. Like I said, they have health problems.”

“Okay, but what kind of health problems?”

“My uncle has arthritis in his hands and arms. Not too bad, but he’s also seventy-two. My aunt’s a lot younger but she has mobility problems. She needs help doing things and getting places.” She wiped her glasses on her shirt and then slid them back on. But she still wasn’t looking at him. “If it’s okay with you, I’d rather not go into it right now.”

He ran his hand through his hair. Why did it feel as if this conversation was one wrong sentence away from turning into an argument? His sister’s anxiety disorder had kept him from pursuing his own dreams for way too long, so he should be the last person to judge anyone else’s commitment to family. It was definitely time for a subject change. He looked around the garage and spotted a small tractor by the wall with a snowplow on the front. “Nice piece of machinery. I’m guessing you clear your own snow?”

“Always. I also rake my own leaves in the fall and mow my own lawn in the summer.”

“Well, how about I plow the driveway and hill, while you call the police?”

She opened the kitchen door, pulled a key chain off the wall and tossed it to him. “Thanks. I’m also going to call my uncle and aunt, and the mechanic about your truck.”

“Great. Tell him I have insurance but I’m happy to pay out of pocket if that speeds things up. Anything I can do to get out of here faster.”

“Will do.” She walked into the kitchen.

Benjamin opened the garage door and stared out at the dark, snowy night. What was it with Piper? There was this weird tension between them that he couldn’t get his head around.

He’d told himself that when the time came to leave Canada, he’d do his best to make peace with everyone he left behind. But how could he make peace with Piper if he didn’t even know what he’d done wrong?

* * *

The steady clacking sound of fingers on a typewriter echoed through The Downs, like some kind of robust combination of music and water torture. Tobias Kasper wrote books on tactical warfare and was the kind of guest who treated the entirety of The Downs as an extension of his suite. Right now, the short, rotund middle-aged man sat in the middle of the living room, sporting a paisley bow tie and the kind of vest that some people called a waistcoat. He was pounding the keys of a machine that had to be at least sixty years old.

Piper nodded to him politely and closed the kitchen door. The Downs’s galley kitchen was much smaller than she would’ve liked, while the living room was huge, with an old brick fireplace and a huge wooden staircase leading to a sweeping second-floor balcony. When it came time to renovate, they’d be knocking down the wall between the two rooms. But right now, she was thankful for something to muffle the noise.

Her nerves were frayed enough as it was. She’d thought her heart was going to leap into her throat when Benjamin asked if he could take a suite for the night, and it finally hit her that he’d be staying around a little while longer. Benjamin had absolutely no idea the effect he had on her. And he was never going to know.

The phone began to ring. Piper was about to let it ring through to the answering machine, when her gaze caught the name on the display: Silver Halls Retirement Home. She grabbed the phone. “Hello?”

“Piper, honey?” It was Aunt Cass.

Piper smiled. “Hi, Aunt Cass. I see you finally managed to get a turn on the landline phone.”

Laughter trickled down the line. “I was about to use my cell phone. But your uncle started going on about saving minutes and I didn’t know if you’d gotten my text.”

Piper’s sparkling, vibrant, sixty-three year old aunt was nine years younger than Piper’s uncle, and so very young at heart. Aunt Cass hadn’t wanted to do anything even close to retire when persistent, unexplained numbness in her legs and then her arms forced her and Uncle Des to move out of The Downs into the only available rental place in town where everything was accessible on the ground floor.

“I’ve got an appointment for more tests at the hospital in Niagara Falls on January 12,” her aunt informed her.

Piper grabbed a pen and wrote it on the calendar. “No problem. I’ll be able to drive you.”

What kind of health problems? Benjamin had asked the question so casually, as if the answer was as simple as a sprained ankle or chicken pox. It had taken everything inside her not to groan, “We don’t know! That’s the problem!” She wasn’t even sure when her aunt’s limbs first stopped cooperating with her brain, like a frustrated marionette with intermittent strings. But after sudden numbness in her legs sent Aunt Cass tumbling down the stairs into the living room last summer, a broken arm and nasty bruises had woken them all up to the reality that their lives were going to change. Since then it had been a string of doctors, tests and possible diagnoses like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease. And prayers. Lots of prayers.

Piper ran her hand along her neck. It was tender. Now she was about to tell them something that would make life even more complicated than it already was. “Now, Aunt Cass, please don’t worry, but I was just...accosted by a trespasser down by the barn.”

“Desmond! Get your coat!”

“No, wait! It’s okay.” Piper waved her aunt down, even though she couldn’t see her through the phone. “He’s gone and I’m fine! I am going to call the police and file a report, but he was just looking for Charlotte Finn.”

“The sad, blonde girl who liked puzzle books?”

Trust her aunt to remember Charlotte as the girl who was sad and liked puzzles, as opposed to the one who’d smashed every single one of Aunt Cass’s cherished handmade nativity figures on the fireplace mantel. “Yes, her. I haven’t seen her or heard from her in years, and I told him so.”

“Was it her young man?” Suddenly Uncle Des was on the line and Piper realized her aunt must be holding the phone up between them.

“I don’t know,” Piper said. “I never met him.”

“Tall. Big shoulders. Young lad.”

“You met Alpha?” Piper blinked. “Six years since she robbed us and you never told me that!”

“Didn’t know who the guy was. Just saw her smooching someone in the woods out my window one night when I was locking up. Told her to knock it off and come inside. He ran off and I never saw his face. I didn’t think it was anybody’s business. But I gave the police a description then and I’m happy to do so again now.”

“You come by tomorrow and fill us in,” Aunt Cass said. “In the meantime, you might want to see if Dominic Bravo wants to rent a suite. You remember him? From youth group?”

“Yeah, of course I do.” Dominic was a great guy. Sure, the former high school athlete was pretty quiet and shy, and floundered in school. But when Charlotte’s robbery rampage had included knocking Piper unconscious, Dominic had been the one who’d realized Piper was in trouble and had come to find her. “Didn’t even realize he was back in town.”

“He’s back in town for a few weeks studying for the police academy. His grandmother says he’s staying with his sister and all her little ones right now, sleeping on their pullout couch.”

“Good for him! My friend Benjamin is taking the final suite for tonight, but I’ll keep Dominic in mind. Speaking of which, I really must call the police now. I’ll come by and see you tomorrow.”

She said her goodbyes and hung up the phone. When she heard a floorboard creak behind her, she turned. Tobias was standing in the doorway, leaning on his cane. As far as she could tell the cane was simply part of his eccentric style and fashion sense, as opposed to something he actually needed to walk.

“I’m sorry,” he said, “I couldn’t help but overhear. You have a problem with intruders?”

Piper stepped back. She hadn’t even thought through how she was going to tell Tobias and her other two guests about what had happened with Kodiak. “Yes, I was just about to call the police. Then I thought I’d call you, Gavin and Trisha together in the living room to update you all.”

He ran one hand through his salt-and-pepper hair. “You know, rumor has it that back in World War II, the enemy used the most inventive booby traps against the Allies, including exploding soap, oil paintings and chocolate. It’s all about thinking like a predator, Piper.”

“How interesting.” She smiled politely. “But I’m sure if we do beef up security we’ll find something a little less dramatic.” A building as old as The Downs tended to attract a lot of quirky folk, but exploding chocolate was definitely a new one. “Speaking of history, have you ever heard the rumor that The Downs used to be used in alcohol smuggling?”

“Oh, my expertise is in warfare, not local history.” Tobias shook his head. “But, I’d have thought most of the action took place closer to either Michigan or New York. This stretch of Lake Erie was supposed to be fairly uninteresting.”

Downright boring is the way she’d have been tempted to describe it, if it wasn’t for Charlotte bringing unwanted chaos to her door.

The next couple of hours passed in a blur. Cops came to take their statements. A tow truck took Benjamin’s vehicle to the garage. She called her other two guests, married lawyers Gavin and Trisha, but only got their voice mail. Tobias typed though it all.

And Benjamin...

She leaned back on the couch and looked down at her tea. Benjamin had been everywhere at once, plowing the drive, sanding the steps as the freezing rain continued to fall, taking coats as people came in and giving them back as they left again. He’d even found his own linens and made his own bed when she pointed him in the direction of his suite.

Before she knew it, the clock struck eleven.

“Why don’t you have a Christmas tree?” Benjamin’s voice cut through her thoughts.

She looked up and only then realized that they were now alone in the living room. “I put so much work into decorating the barn, I didn’t really plan to do anything for inside the house. I’m going to cut down a tree for the barn tomorrow.”

The fire dimmed in the hearth. Benjamin added some kindling, then got down on his stomach and blew on the flame. The dog promptly laid his head on top of him. Don’t let yourself get too comfortable, pup. He’s not staying long.

“How did everything go when you called your sister?” she asked.

“Okay.” He sat up and the dog moved with him. “But she sounded really stressed. I should be there making things easier for her, not adding to her problems. It’s bad enough I’m the guy who triggered her anxiety disorder to begin with by some stupid snowmobile accident. I don’t want to be the guy who makes her relapse right before her wedding.”

There was a bitter edge to his voice that she wasn’t used to hearing, almost as if he was simultaneously talking and smacking himself on the back of the head.

“I get that.” She leaned forward. “But don’t beat yourself up. You saved my life from a violent creep today. And that snowmobile accident happened way back when you were a kid.”

“I was fifteen.” He turned back to the fire. “I was old enough to know better.”

Piper pressed her lips together. Benjamin had been driving underage, on a highway, without a license and without a helmet. Those were a lot of mistakes to go through life hanging over his head. The older friend he’d been snowmobiling with hadn’t even survived the crash and the media coverage had been harsh and relentless. Long before she’d met Benjamin, she’d known exactly who he was—her generation’s poster child for foolishness.

“Well, I’m going to sleep.” Benjamin stood. “I’ve got a long drive tomorrow.”

“Good night.” She started up the stairs shortly after she’d taken care of the fire. The Downs had three unique guest suites on the second floor, but her room was up another flight of stairs in a large loft space with slanted ceilings and round windows.

When she opened the door that led to a flight of stairs to her loft, she felt fur brush past her ankles, then Harry bounded onto her bed under the eaves. She snapped her fingers and pointed to the stairs. “Sorry, dog. I need to sleep. I can’t afford to be woken up in the middle of the night just because you feel like wandering.”

The husky gave her a pointed look with sky-blue eyes that looked like his owner’s. What had she been thinking inviting a constant reminder of Benjamin to move into her home?

“Tell you what. I’ll get a doggie door installed soon. Okay?” She let him down and locked the door behind him. Then she changed into a fresh T-shirt and track pants, set her glasses down on the bedside table and slid under the blankets.

“Thank You, God, for bringing Benjamin here to save me,” she prayed as a sigh slipped through her lips. “Now help me protect my heart until he leaves.”

Exhausted sleep swept over her before she’d barely finished her prayer.

A creak jolted her awake.

Piper opened her eyes and sat up.

Her alarm clock read four in the morning. The room was cold.

But it wasn’t the temperature that sent chills down her spine. It was the figure was standing at the foot of her bed.

FOUR

Fear gripped Piper’s body, pushing her back against the headboard. The intruder was nothing but an indistinct shape in the darkness. But she could see it. Standing there. Inches away from the bed. Not moving. Just breathing.

She reached toward her glasses.

“Don’t move.” A whisper hissed in the darkness.

Piper’s hand froze on the nightstand.

“Don’t scream, either. You just stay quiet, okay?” It wasn’t the same voice as the man in the diamond ski mask. No, this one sounded uncertain. Agitated. Even nervous. Definitely higher-pitched, too. Female. “I don’t want to hurt you. But I’ve got a gun, okay? I’ll shoot you if I have to.”

“Got it.” Piper slid her body even farther back until she could feel her headboard press into her shoulder blades. She didn’t know whether to believe the intruder, but didn’t want to risk it, either. There were heavy wooden doors on the bedrooms below and thick carpets to muffle sound. If she screamed would anyone even hear her?

Help me, Lord. I’m terrified.

The intruder was jumpy, too, and even seemed to be pacing. Knowing she was frightened, panicking and apparently armed didn’t make Piper feel any safer. How had anyone even broken in to her room? Piper’s eyes adjusted to the darkness, just enough to make out shapes on her bedside table. A cold breeze swept up her arms. Wind howled in the darkness. The intruder must have climbed the fire escape and come through her window. Piper’s fingers crept across the nightstand. “This house is full of people. Just leave. Now. Nobody needs to get hurt.”

“I said don’t move.” The shadow moved closer. Her voice shook. “I have a gun, okay? I’m just here looking for something. I’m going to get it and leave.”

Something or someone? Piper took a deep breath and fought the nerves from her voice. “What are you looking for?”

No answer.

“Who told you you’d find it here? Did he have a bear tattoo?”

Again, no answer. Just the wheezy, shallow gasps of someone battling for breath.

Piper gritted her teeth and beat down her fear even as it threatened to swallow the words from her lungs.

“Charlotte, is that you?”

The only response was a hysterical giggle, halfway between a laugh and a sob.

Piper’s hand slid along the nightstand.

I’m sitting; she’s standing. She’s got a weapon. I don’t.

Lord, I need a split-second distraction.

“I said, don’t move!” The voice rose.

“And I said leave. Now. Whatever it is you think you’re after here nobody needs to get hurt.”

The shadow moved closer. She was slender. Long hair curled at her shoulders. The outline of a gun waved in front of Piper’s eyes.

“I said I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t want to hurt anyone. But I will if I have to!” A face swam into view, featureless except for the eyes and mouth visible through the crude holes of a blue ski mask. The gun brushed Piper’s forehead. “He’ll make me kill you.”

Whoever “he” was, he’d apparently sent a terrified coward to break into Piper’s room and threaten her with a weapon she probably didn’t even know how to use. Piper prayed her next question would hit its mark. “Who? Alpha? Did Alpha send you?”

The intruder leaned back with a gasp, as quickly and violently as if Piper had just slapped her. In one fluid motion Piper snatched the lamp off her bedside table and smashed it into the masked woman’s head. The intruder screamed. Piper rolled off the bed and landed on her hands and knees. That’s when she heard the barking below her. Harry was downstairs trying to get through her door.

A gloved hand grabbed a fistful of Piper’s hair and yanked hard. Pain shot through Piper’s skull. The woman bent down and hissed in Piper’s ear. “Don’t you dare say that name again. You don’t understand who Alpha is. You don’t have any clue what kind of man you’re dealing with here!”

Maybe not.

But apparently Alpha didn’t understand what kind of woman he was dealing with in Piper, either.

Piper’s fingers grasped the hockey-goalie stick under her bed. She leaped up and with both hands she crosschecked her attacker hard in the chest. Her attacker stumbled and fell. Piper snatched up her glasses, pushed them onto her nose and then smacked the switch for the overhead light. Light filled the loft. The intruder was female, slightly shorter than Piper and thinner. Long blond curls poured out from under a navy blue ski mask. A small handgun shook in her gloved hands.

Blonde Bambi with bullets.

Just as she suspected, the bedroom window was open, and freezing rain poured through. From downstairs the barking grew louder.

Blondie was standing between her and the stairs. “Look, it’s not too late for everybody to get out of this okay. Just go downstairs and make that dog shut up. Then tell everyone that everything’s okay.”

“Why would I do that?” Piper took a step back, holding the hockey stick firm in her grasp. There were four other people in the bed-and-breakfast below her right now and Benjamin was the only one she was sure could take care of himself.

“Because like I said, I don’t want to hurt anyone! I just need to look around.” She clutched the gun with both hands. “Just...just go shut the dog up. Then come back, lie still and stay quiet. I’ll search your stuff and go.”

I don’t believe you.

Piper could hear the dog’s paws scrambling as if Harry was now trying to dig his way through the door. Then she heard knocking at her door, and the knob rattled. Benjamin called her name.

“Benjamin! Call 911!” She shouted so loudly her throat ached. “There’s an armed intruder in the bed-and-breakfast. Tell everyone to stay in their rooms and lock their doors!”

Green eyes narrowed inside the ski mask. “You should’ve have done that.”

Maybe not, but I have more confidence in my ability to wield this hockey stick than I do in your ability to aim that gun.

Piper tightened her grasp. “Drop the gun, climb back out that window and run while you can.”

“It’s too late for that.” The blonde’s voice rose. “You don’t understand him.”

“You mean Alpha?”

The blonde closed her eyes and raised the gun.

Piper swung the hockey stick as a gunshot split the air.

* * *

Benjamin threw his shoulder into Piper’s bedroom door, just as a bullet splintered the wood above his head. He leaped back against the wall, yanking Harry by the collar.

“Everyone, back!” He glanced behind him. Tobias was leaning out his suite door in a lush velvet bathrobe, like a posh rubbernecker on a highway accident. “Please.”

When Harry had leaped onto his bed and started barking, Benjamin had presumed a raccoon had gotten into the garbage. But the dog hadn’t been willing to shush. When Harry gripped his arm gently but firmly with his teeth Benjamin had realized something was terribly wrong.

Help me get to Piper, God. Help me save her.

Piper screamed. The sound seemed to shatter his heart in his rib cage.

“What in the blazes is going on here?” An irritated voice behind him spoke. “My wife is pregnant. We’re trying to sleep!”

Benjamin wheeled around, coming face-to-face with a tall, angry young man with jet-black hair. He figured it was Gavin, staying here with his wife, Trisha. “Go call the police. Now! Lock your door and don’t come out!”

Then he turned back to Piper’s door without waiting for an answer. As much as he hated the idea of running into gunfire, he could hardly leave Piper alone up there. He lowered his head and charged the door. As his body hit the center of the wood the door cracked and flew open. Piper was crouched halfway up the stairs. Her hands were raised above her head, clutching two ends of a broken hockey stick.

“Benjamin?” She spoke his name without even turning.

“Yeah.” He stretched one hand out into the empty space between them. “I’m here.”

Harry pressed against Benjamin’s leg, a deep growl rumbling in his throat. Benjamin grabbed the dog’s collar and held it firm. His gaze rose to the masked, armed blonde at the top of the stairs. “Drop the gun and let her go. Nobody needs to get hurt.”

“I can’t!” She pointed the barrel of her gun directly at Piper’s chest. The weapon shook, as if it had come to life and her hands were fighting to control it. “I don’t want to shoot her but I will if you make me.”

He heard a bedroom door open behind him. The blonde fired. Piper tumbled backward down the stairs. Benjamin let Harry go and caught her with both arms.

“My cell phone isn’t working.” Gavin’s head peeked out a doorway.

Close your mouth and close the door! Benjamin fought the urge to yell. But the top of the stairs was empty now. The gun-wielding blonde was now nowhere to be seen. Neither was Harry.

“Fortunately, Trisha got the landline to work.” Gavin was clutching a glass bottle of amber liquid. It sloshed. Please, no! Don’t let Gavin be getting drunk right now! “The police said the roads are closed due to the ice storm, so it might take them a while to get here.”

Piper slid out of Benjamin’s arms. “Gavin, you and Trisha stay in your room, lock the door and don’t come out until the police arrive.”

Something inside Benjamin was fighting the urge to tell Piper to go hide, too, and let him handle this, even though he suspected she wasn’t about to listen. Silence fell from above. He slapped his leg and whistled, but the dog didn’t come back.

“Is that Charlotte?” he asked.

“I honestly don’t know. She didn’t give any reaction when I mentioned the guy with the bear tattoo. But I’m pretty sure she knows who Alpha is.” Piper snatched up the pieces of broken hockey stick from the bottom of the stairs. “The Charlotte I knew wasn’t quite that thin and her blond hair was straight, not curly. But those are all cosmetic changes and I don’t know for sure without seeing her face. Whoever she is, she clearly doesn’t know how to aim a weapon. She’s terrified and out of control.” Determination and fire flashed in the dark depths of Piper’s eyes. “We need to find a way to hold her until the cops get here.”

He reached out to hold her back but Piper had already pulled away and looked ready to charge back up the loft.

“My bedroom window was open and I’m guessing she’ll try to run down the fire escape. It’ll be really, really icy. There’s no way she’ll be able to shoot and keep her balance at the same time—”

“It’s too risky.” This time he grabbed her arm. “That woman just shot a hole through your door.”

“And another in my bedroom wall, I know. But if there’s even a chance she really is the woman who robbed my uncle and aunt six years ago, there’s no way I’m going to let her just run away again without a fight. Either way, she’s the only hope we have right now of finding out why Kodiak attacked me at the barn or why Charlotte’s former boyfriend would send anyone here looking for her. Please, Benjamin, we have to stop her.”

She was standing there, barefoot, in a T-shirt and track pants, looking more like a college kid than the twenty-six-year-old woman he knew her to be.

He knew she was right. If he was alone, he’d chase after the intruder in a heartbeat. But he didn’t want Piper to get hurt.

But it looked as if Piper was going after the masked blonde one way or the other. Short of physically picking her up and locking her in a closet he didn’t expect he could stop her.

“How about this?” Piper said. “You head up into the attic and see if you can catch her before she makes it down the fire escape. I’ll run outside through the garage and see if I can catch her coming the other way.”

“Fine.” He looked down at the thin gray T-shirt, track pants and slippers he wore. He wasn’t exactly dressed to be chasing anyone around outside in freezing rain.

From above he heard the dog yip. At least Harry was okay. Then Harry yipped again. More insistent this time.

Piper squeezed his arm. “The dog—”

“What?” He looked up the stairs. “Oh.”

Harry was holding a handgun in his mouth.

FIVE

Benjamin’s jaw dropped. Had the intruder grown so desperate she’d thrown the gun at the dog? Or had the dog somehow disarmed her? Either way, the husky was now holding the weapon, gingerly but firmly upside down by the handle. If the situation wasn’t so dangerous, he’d have laughed.

“I’ve got to go get that. You stay safe, okay? Just because she’s lost her gun doesn’t mean she’s not dangerous.”

“You, too.” Piper squeezed his arm, then she took off running barefoot down the stairs.

Harry was sitting now, gun still in his jaws, and his tail was wagging. Benjamin started up the loft stairs slowly, his hands raised. “Good dog. Give that to me. Careful. Okay?”

The dog set the gun down right between his paws, then he stepped back and waited for Benjamin.

“You are the best dog ever, you know that?” His eyes scanned the room. It was empty. He picked up the gun and slipped it into his pocket.

The sound of footsteps clattering on the fire escape drew his attention to the open window. He glanced out to see the blonde trying to break into a second-story window. “Hey! Stop!”

She glanced up, then pelted down the stairs.

He squeezed through the window and out into the storm. Freezing rain beat against his body. Cold metal stung his bare palms. His slippers pounded hard down the metal steps.

The blonde hit the ground and took off running through the ice-covered snow. Benjamin vaulted over the railing, catching her by the shoulder as they fell to the ground. The blonde kicked back frantically with both legs, and one lucky shot made contact with Benjamin’s jaw, just hard enough to make his numb hands loosen their grasp.

She slipped from his hands and kept running.

His hand reached for the gun. No, surely he could catch her on foot without taking the risk of seriously hurting or even killing her.

Benjamin ran after her into the woods. Hail pelted his bare skin like rocks. His slippers were swallowed up in slush. The motion sensor lights flickered on in the forest ahead. She could run all she wanted, but the trees were lighting up around her like Christmas. Benjamin’s legs ached. Thick branches heavy with snow pushed up against his body. His feet were bare now and numb.

A loud, guttural roar filled the air. He looked up just in time to see a bright light flying toward him. He leaped to the side. A neon yellow snowmobile swerved wildly through the trees, nearly knocking him over. Then it was gone.

He dropped to his knees as a groan filled his chest and left his lungs.

His fists hit the snow.

“Lord, was I wrong to show mercy?”

Yes, the woman had broken into Piper’s room. But it seemed she was just a young, scared thing trapped in something she didn’t understand. Under the circumstances he couldn’t have guaranteed a nonlethal shot and even then he’d seen firsthand the damage bullets could do. He could no more ruthlessly shoot her—without at least trying to stop her in a more merciful way—than he could shoot a frightened animal.

Not that wild animals weren’t lethal when spooked.

“Benjamin!” Piper was running toward him.

She had boots on her feet and a huge black cape enveloping her head. A new hockey stick was clutched in one hand. Harry trailed behind her, protective and alert.

She looked fierce. She looked vulnerable.

She was breathtaking.

There was something clunky slung around her neck. An unexpectedly hard heartbeat knocked his chest. His boots. She’d tied the laces together and tossed them around her before running out. She pulled his boots off over her head and handed them to him. There was a pair of oversize hockey socks stuffed inside one them. Not his, but they’d fit. His fingers brushed the back of her hand. “Thank you.”

“No problem.”

He paused for a moment, once again feeling the urge to hug her and not knowing how she’d take it. It was funny. Surely he was practically an expert on offering comforting hugs by now—between hugging his sister, his friends, people at church and even clients who needed that bit of extra encouragement to try some extreme sport they’d never done before. Yet whenever he was around Piper he was suddenly awkward about it.

He knelt down and put his boots on. “I’m sorry. She got away. I thought I had her for a moment but she had a snowmobile.”

“Yellow with flame stickers? A neighbor reported it stolen this morning.”

“That’s the one.” He tied up the laces. Something warm and heavy fell unexpected around his shoulders. He stood carefully.

Piper had thrown her large wool cape around him so that now it enveloped them both. Then she slipped both hands around his waist and gave him a firm, strong squeeze. “Don’t beat yourself up, Benjamin. She had both a head start and a snowmobile. Now, come on, let’s get somewhere warm.”

She stepped back and slipped beside him again, holding her edge of the cloak with one hand. Conflicting thoughts flooded his mind, blocking his ability to think. She’d have been able to run so much faster if she hadn’t stopped to grab his boots, let alone a pair of socks. And she’d have been so much more nimble if she’d just grabbed her ski jacket, instead of an oversize cloak that was large enough to cover them both. She won’t let me take care of her. Yet here she is taking care of me.

“Just don’t freeze, okay?” Piper added. “You can’t be in a wedding on Christmas Eve or on an airplane Christmas night if you’ve got hypothermia and frostbite.”

“Thank you.” His voice sounded as if it was coming from somewhere deep inside his chest. He turned to look at her. She was standing so close that if he tilted his head down just an inch or two he’d be kissing her on the nose. He had to stop that line of thinking. “Hopefully, the mechanic will have my truck back on the road before lunchtime.”

She nodded slowly. “I just hope that when we get back to the house, the police will be waiting for us.”

But before they could start back, the lights went out, plunging them and the forest into darkness.

* * *

In a heartbeat the forest was so dark she could no longer see Benjamin’s face hovering just beside hers. The world fell silent, except for the beating of ice pellets on the trees.

“Did the motion-sensor lights go off?” he asked.

She could feel the cloak shake as he waved his hand around to reactivate them.

“They shouldn’t, no. They’re on a very long timer.” She pulled away from him and from the protection of the cloak. Then she waved both hands above her head. The world stayed dark. She glanced through the trees but saw only darkness. “We should also be able to see the house lights from here, but I can’t see them, either. The bad weather must’ve caused a short in the electrical circuit somewhere.”

“I’m sure it’ll be okay.” Benjamin’s arm landed on her shoulders, warm, soft and strong. “Do you have a backup generator?”

“Yeah. It’s in a shed by the garage. But it should have kicked in if the main power went out.” She frowned. They started walking as she talked. “Hopefully it’s just another quick power glitch. Fortunately, there’s a fireplace for warmth, the stove is gas and I’ve got plenty of battery-operated flashlights and lanterns.”

Benjamin kept pace beside her. She was in the crook of his shoulder now, with his arm holding the cape around her shoulder. His hand rested lightly on her forearm. A moment ago she’d hugged him without stopping to think. Now, in the darkness, the simple gesture of his hand on her arm somehow felt like more than she was ready for. But a part of her was grateful for the warmth he provided. Even through her gloves and cloak she could feel the cold and damp seeping through. Cold air and freezing rain stung her face. The dog slipped under the cloak between them. On this cold, wet night they all needed to stay warm. Even the dog knew that.

“I wish I knew if Blondie was Charlotte.” Slowly her eyes adjusted to the dark winter night. “But she was wearing a mask and trying to disguise her voice. Not to mention it’s been six years since Charlotte crashed through here like a tornado.”

“I’m not sure I’m clear on what happened between you and her back then,” Benjamin said.

Fair enough. For that matter neither was she.

“I did most of my college by correspondence, so I could be here to help my uncle and aunt. When I was twenty, I did one semester in Ottawa to finish up my degree. Charlotte had a two-bedroom apartment and had listed a room for rent online. I’d hoped we’d become friends, but we really weren’t. She was the kind of person who kept to herself and never made eye contact. Her life revolved around her history degree and her boyfriend, Alpha. Sometimes I’d catch bruises on her arms and I wondered if he was hurting her. But she wouldn’t talk to me. I was always planning on moving out at Christmas and coming home. So, I was really surprised when she asked if she could come here for the holidays.”

She glanced at the dark sky above. A flurry of falling ice filled her eyes. “She was on her phone with Alpha the whole car ride here. Sounded like he was yelling at her. We arrived and went to a church party with my old youth group. I barely saw her over the next couple of days. She kept slipping out and going places. I’d wake up in the night and her bed would be empty. Uncle Des just told me that he caught her kissing someone in the woods and chased the guy off. Described him as young, tall and broad-shouldered. I assume it was Alpha. I guess Alpha’s in his late twenties now. While there are a whole lot of things about this whole Charlotte-Alpha-Kodiak-Blondie situation that I don’t know, I am convinced that Blondie knows Alpha. You should have seen her panicked reaction when I mentioned his name. She’s terrified of him.”

Which could mean Blondie was Charlotte and the man with the bear tattoo was Alpha. Except that Blondie didn’t react at all when Piper had asked her about a man with a bear tattoo. She closed her eyes for a moment and listened to the storm pushing through the trees. Just when she thought the terrifying picture of what had happened these past few hours was swimming into some kind of focus, everything stopped making sense again.

Their footsteps crunched through the snow. Benjamin’s arm tightened around her shoulder. “You said she robbed you?”

“She did, Christmas Eve.” Piper opened her eyes. “While we were all down in the barn, singing carols and eating potluck, she snuck through the woods to The Downs and trashed the place.”

“When you say trashed the place—”

“She went through every room and all the guests’ things looking for stuff to steal. She ripped open presents. She knocked our Christmas tree through the front window and even smashed the nativity my aunt had on the fireplace mantel.”

They stepped out from under the shelter of the tree canopy into the storm, which seemed to have intensified. Benjamin pulled the cloak over their heads as they jogged to a small shed behind the garage. The shed was windowless, smelled like gasoline and was every bit as cold as the outside air. Harry slipped in ahead of them and curled up by the wall. Piper slipped out from under the cloak and let its full weight fall on Benjamin.

“We never had a lot of money.” She set down the hockey stick and reached for a small battery-powered lamp hanging just inside the door. “So almost all the decorations she destroyed were homemade, mostly by me, including the nativity she broke into bits. A lot of the handmade garlands she ripped into pieces I’d made when I was five or six. The star on the top of the tree was something I’d made out of vintage newspaper when I was about eight, and I couldn’t even find it in the wreckage. It was all too mean and petty for words.”

She ran her hand over her face. And I’m not even telling you the part about how she, or an accomplice, hit me over the head, knocked me out and locked me in the kindling box. Because even the memory of that makes me feel too pathetic and vulnerable for words.

Holding out the lantern, she made her way over to the generator that sat in the corner, silent and cold. She bent down beside it, pushed the button and held it. It didn’t start.

“I’m sorry. It must have been pretty hard to forgive her for all that.” Benjamin’s voice floated behind her in the darkness.

Was it even possible to forgive someone who’d never come back to ask for forgiveness?

She looked back up at Benjamin. “The generator’s not working. Any suggestions?”

“If it’s a motor problem I might be able to fix it. I’ve tinkered around with a lot of boat motors and vehicle engines.” He moved passed her and knelt by her feet. He reached up, took her hand and moved the light over the generator. “Just hold that there, please, and don’t move.”

Thick snow dotted his hair and beard. His eyes were gray-blue in the lamplight. Oddly, she hadn’t noticed the gray in them last summer. When he’d been standing outside waiting for her that last night on the dock by the pavilion, his eyes had seemed as dark and fathomless as the water spreading out behind him.

“Don’t ever marry a sweetheart until you’ve both summered and wintered your romance...” Something Aunt Cass had said flickered in the back of her mind. It had been her aunt’s way of trying to explain in the gentlest way possible why Piper’s mother’s whirlwind marriages never seemed to work.

But why was she remembering that now? She had no future with Benjamin. He wasn’t her sweetheart and this wasn’t a romance. He was just a friend and would be leaving as soon as his truck was repaired.

Benjamin muttered something under his breath. He stood.

“I’m sorry, Piper.” His hands brushed her shoulders. “But it looks like someone sabotaged your generator.”

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