Christmas Blackout

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.