Risky Christmas Read online

  “There’s only two roads between here and the ranch,” Teddy said, keeping track with Mason’s thoughts. “The first one leads to a cabin,” he added.

  “No one goes there anymore. Mom said it’s falling apart,” Mason said.

  They both knew this area well. Axel wouldn’t want to go very far. If he spent any time scoping the area, it wouldn’t have taken long to discover the cabin, a gem to a criminal mind like his. Did he intend to use the women as bait to lure Mason with the threat of their lives?

  “Let’s get going,” Teddy jarred him from thought.

  More than ready, Mason turned and would have started for the Yukon along with him.

  “You two should really let me handle this.”

  He faced the sheriff with Teddy.

  “Now, I know you’re an agent, Mason, and you, Teddy, a detective, but this here is my jurisdiction.”

  “You’re not really going to play that card with us, are you?” Teddy asked in exasperation.

  “What about Hank?” Mason used a more diplomatic approach. “He needs help getting to the clinic.” The only one in town, a one-doctor outfit with a couple of paramedics and a nurse practitioner.

  “I told you I’m fine!” Hank struggled to rise to his feet but slumped back down, his back bumping against the door frame.

  Sheriff Murphy knelt beside him. “Don’t move, Hank. We need to get you checked out.”

  “You stay with Hank,” Teddy said.

  “We’ll brief you when it’s over.” Mason turned once again and this time didn’t stop until he reached the Yukon.

  When Teddy shut the passenger door after him, Mason drove fast out of the cramped parking area, fish-tailing on snow and ice as he turned onto Main Street. Less than two minutes later, he reached the first turn. Slowing, he could see tracks but stopped so he and Teddy could check them.

  “Fresh,” Teddy said.

  “Yeah.” Good sign.

  Mason pulled out his gun the same time Teddy did. Both men scanned the trees and listened. Nothing. And then…gunfire.

  With fear climbing up into his throat, he got back into the Yukon with Teddy and drove up the road. And then stopped.

  “We better go on foot,” Mason said.

  “Yeah.”

  The sound of snapping branches brought them both to a standstill. Mason heard breathing.

  “I see something!” a woman shouted.

  “CC!” Teddy yelled.

  “Teddy? It’s Teddy.”

  Emerging from the thick forest of trees, CC ran to them. Mason searched for Chloe but didn’t see her. “Where’s Chloe?”

  CC threw herself into Teddy’s arms, breathing crazily. “Oh, my God. He’s after us. We have to get out of here!”

  “CC. Where’s Chloe?”

  Stepping away from her brother, she turned and looked behind her into the trees. “She was right behind me.”

  A tremble shook his hands. He felt faint with dread. Not Chloe. The gunshot…

  “Stay here with her,” Mason demanded.

  Running through the trees, he found CC’s footprints and followed them. The deep snow made his progress slow. Movement ahead caught his eye. Not Chloe. He stopped and hid behind a tree, peering out. He searched the shadowy trees. Chloe’s. She was on the ground.

  “No.” He couldn’t lose her like this.

  He started running again, keeping his gun lifted. When he reached her, he saw that she’d hit her head on a rock. But what had made her fall?

  A gunshot rang out. Mason moved between Chloe and the gunman and scanned the trees for Axel. His head popped out from behind a tree, gun raised. Mason fired. Bark from the tree hit Axel’s face. He could tell by the way his head flinched. Mason fired again, and again.

  Axel turned and ran. Mason fired three more times, until he could no longer see his targets retreating back. Another movement swung his aim. He didn’t see anything. Had he imagined the movement? Searching further, he saw nothing. Only falling snow and the sound of wide open space. The urgency of Chloe made him abandon the instinct to chase.

  Tucking his gun into the back of his pants, he bent over her. “Chloe.” He felt her warm breath and breathed a sigh of heavy relief. Probing her head, he found her injury. No major laceration, but she could have fractured her skull.

  “Chloe.” He held her face in his hands, looking at her closed eyes, willing her to wake up. “Chloe.”

  He began checking for other injuries. He found a gun tucked in the waist of her pants. Taking it out, he looked at her face in wonderment and then set it aside to finish checking her. He made his way down her body and found bloody snow under one of her legs. The cause of her fall. Gunshot wound in her leg. Ripping her jeans where the bullet had torn through the material, he wiped away the blood so he could see the wound. The bullet hadn’t penetrated. Only grazed her.

  He bent his head, shaking off his fear. She wasn’t critical. He didn’t want to move her, but waiting for emergency services out here would be dangerous with Axel still on the loose. And it was too cold. He had to get her to the clinic in town. Lifting her, he turned and saw Teddy running toward them with his weapon raised.

  “It’s clear,” he told him.

  Teddy lowered his gun. “Is she okay?”

  “She needs a doctor.” He told him what he’d found on her.

  Being knocked out like this scared him. He tried not to jostle her and held her head as steady as he could as he made his way back to the Yukon.

  The big SUV came into view. CC jumped out and raced toward them. “Oh, my God. Chloe! Is she okay?” She panted a few scared breaths. “This is all my fault.”

  Teddy grabbed her by her arm and led her back toward the SUV. “Get in, CC. We have to hurry.”

  He opened the front passenger side and she got in. Mason carefully took Chloe to the backseat and climbed in with her. Teddy turned the SUV around and headed back into town. Mason searched for Axel. Nothing.

  He looked down at Chloe’s beautiful face and last night’s feverish loss of control gripped him. If he never got a chance to tell her what it meant to him, he’d live with a weighty regret, and yet the thought of facing that gave him a cold chill of dread.

  “She was trying to protect me,” CC said, beginning to cry.

  “She’ll be all right,” Mason said, but he had no way of knowing that for sure until she had medical help. He’d take care of her. He’d make sure she was okay. And then what? He didn’t want to think about anything beyond getting her better.

  “She told me to run and she stayed behind to shoot at Axel.”

  Mason looked up at CC and down again at Chloe. Had she? She’d had a gun tucked in her pants. He supposed he shouldn’t be surprised she knew how to shoot guns. He’d just never met anyone like her before.

  Teddy was on his cell talking to the local doctor, arranging to meet at the clinic. It was too far to Great Falls. If necessary, Chloe could be transported from the clinic.

  “Where did she get the gun?” Mason asked CC.

  “She kicked Axel and took his. You should have seen her. The way she moved! It was like watching a movie.”

  So she’d learned how to fight, too. That shouldn’t have surprised him, either, given where she came from. He felt a surge of pride and gladness. She’d kept a clear enough head to save herself and CC.

  “She held the gun to Axel’s head and made the other man let me go. And then she made him give her his gun. She took both of their guns! It was amazing. We’d have been dead if it hadn’t been for her.” CC faced forward in the passenger seat. “Or I would have been.”

  That bit of news alerted Mason. “What other man?” Chloe had forced guns from two men?

  CC looked over her shoulder. “There was another man waiting at the cabin.”

  “Who was he?”

  “I don’t know. He never said his name and neither did Axel.”

  “What did he look like?”

  He watched his sister try to remember and realized she
’d been too frightened to register much. “Tall…I think. Brown hair…everything happened so fast, I…”

  Chloe began to stir. He looked down and saw her eyes flutter open. The stunning blue of them pierced his armor. The intimacy they’d shared was a living thing between them, arresting his heart.

  “Chloe?”

  She met his gaze with eyes still out of focus. “Mason?”

  She knew his name. Another good sign. “Yes.” She tried to sit up but he stopped her. “Stay still.”

  “What happened?”

  “Do you remember falling?”

  “No.” She seemed to struggle remembering. “The last thing I remember is running from Axel.”

  Teddy pulled the car to a stop in front of the clinic. The doctor and the nurse practitioner emerged with a stretcher. Mason helped get her onto it, following them inside and watching them take her into a room. Inside the small waiting area, he took out his cell and called his SAC.

  “Mason.” Reid answered. “Is everything all right? We still haven’t found Axel. With Christmas and all…”

  “Axel is here.”

  “In Montana?”

  “Yeah. And he’s got company.”

  The long silence spoke for his boss. “Who?”

  “That’s what I’d like to know.”

  “How did he find you?”

  He explained what he and Chloe had already talked about when they’d seen Axel during the sleigh ride. Tanner had talked.

  “Then we have to assume Donovan knew who you were,” Reid said.

  “Yeah, and if he did, why question me when I arrived at the party? Why wait for Axel?”

  “Who never showed.”

  “Exactly.”

  “You think he never told Donovan who you were?”

  “It’s crossed my mind.”

  “Why would he do that?”

  “To take over his operation. Start fresh in Chicago with no competition.”

  “With the FBI on to him? Doubtful.”

  “Unless he had help. Partnered up with someone not associated with Donovan. There was a man with him at the cabin.”

  “I see where you’re going with this. I’m going to send some people your way. They’ll be watching but out of sight. Don’t say anything to your family. Let’s keep it quiet and get this wrapped up in time for the New Year.”

  “I’d like that.” Mason spotted the nurse heading toward them. He’d also like good news about Chloe.

  Mason disconnected just as the nurse stopped before CC and Teddy. He walked over to them.

  “It looks like she dodged the bullet, as it were,” the nurse began. “No sign of a skull fracture, but you might want to take her to Great Falls for tests. We don’t have those services here. Otherwise, I’d suggest making sure she rests over the next couple of days as long as you don’t notice any worsening in her condition. Things like nausea, signs of lethargy or confusion, that sort of thing. No lifting or strenuous exertion. She needs rest.”

  “That won’t be a problem.” His mother would insist on pampering her.

  “I bandaged up the cut on her thigh,” the nurse said. “That will heal fine. Sheriff will want to question her. I had to report the gunshot wound.”

  Mason nodded. “When can she go home?”

  “We’re bringing her out now.”

  Mason was so caught up in how it felt to say home that he barely registered what the nurse said. He’d rather just let her go back to the apartment she’d rented from Hank, but that was out of the question until Axel was caught. The idea of taking her home felt too right for his already spinning confusion. Home was exactly where he wanted her. But he was afraid once she was there, he’d never want her to leave. And then he’d really be in trouble. Again.

  Chapter 7

  Chloe hadn’t been happy to discover Mason brought her back to his parents’ house. More than the pain in her head and leg had kept her up all night. Sometime during the early morning hours, she’d finally fallen asleep, and now it was after seven at night. Showered and dressed, she reluctantly limped her way down the stairs. She wasn’t looking forward to facing him. CC, too, who for some absurd reason felt responsible for her injuries.

  The house was quiet, and Chloe relaxed when she discovered no one was in the kitchen. While her stomach growled, she sneaked leftover tater tots and hot dogs from the kids from the refrigerator.

  “You’re up!”

  She jumped and turned to see Bevy rush into the kitchen, her dark hair bobbing and her borderline plump form in jeans and a blue, green and red knit sweater.

  “Go sit down. I’ll get this for you.” She took the containers Chloe held and reached for a plate. “Hot dogs?”

  “I’m fine, really. I can do it.” She’d already doted on her enough. “I love hot dogs.”

  “Sit.” Bevy pointed to the kitchen island. “Hot dogs it is, then.” She shook her head in marvel.

  Knowing it was useless to argue, Chloe went to a stool and sat. “Where is everyone?” Mason, especially, so she could avoid him.

  Bevy heated the tater tots and hot dogs in the microwave. “Mason and Teddy are out doing another patrol around the house. Karl’s upstairs checking the windows. Deirdra is down in the rec room with the kids. CC was—”

  “I’m right here.” She appeared in the kitchen, sitting next to Chloe. “How are you? Are you all right?” She surveyed Chloe.

  “I’m fine,” she repeated, feeling the two women’s overdone concern. There was a good measure of guilt in there, too.

  “How does your head feel? Does it still hurt? Maybe you shouldn’t be up yet.”

  “I’m fine,” she said with more force.

  “But you—”

  “Really, I’m fine.”

  Bevy set the plate of food in front of her. The hot dog was just as juicy with ketchup and relish as she loved. She looked from one anguished face to the other. “You both did nothing wrong, all right? If anything, Mason is to blame since he’s the one who brought all this here. Me included.”

  That only marginally pacified both women.

  “I panicked,” CC said. “If I’d have kept my head you wouldn’t have been shot.”

  “And I should have never let you out of this house,” Bevy chimed in.

  Moved by how much they cared, Chloe had to fight a wave of affection. “I would have fought those men regardless of what you did, CC, and Bevy, there’s nothing you could have done to keep me here.”

  After a few seconds, Bevy’s face eased with understanding. “You’re a strong woman. The strongest of any Mason’s brought home. I knew that about you from the start. I just didn’t see it until now.”

  “Mason didn’t, either,” CC added. “You should have seen him when I told him what you did.”

  Mason was only glad she’d kept his sister from being hurt. Other than protecting her from Axel, he didn’t care about her.

  “Where did you learn to fight like that?” Bevy asked.

  Chloe didn’t want to talk about it. Learning self-defense had been a necessity. “I took some classes.” From a thirty-year-old gang member who lived next door to her until he was arrested for murder. She picked up a tater tot, dipped it in ketchup and ate.

  “It was amazing,” CC said.

  To Chloe, fighting wasn’t a source of pride. Someone entering the kitchen saved her from further hero worship. But that someone was Mason. Seeing him made her heart flutter with excitement that she didn’t want. He stopped short when he saw her.

  “You two could use some privacy.” Bevy moved around the island counter.

  “No, it’s okay,” Mason said. “I’ll just…go back outside.”

  “Oh, stop it, Mason, you’re acting like a sixteen-year-old.”

  He appeared stunned as his mother ushered CC out of the kitchen. And then he stood there staring at her as if he didn’t know what to do.

  Deciding to save him—and her—any more discomfort, Chloe abandoned her hot dog and stood from the stool. Inten
ding to march past him, she was taken aback when he stopped her with his hand on her arm.

  Reluctantly, she looked up at him. He still seemed rigid, but in his eyes she saw confusion, which only made it worse.

  “Let go.”

  “Chloe…”

  “I get it, okay? You made a mistake. But let me reassure you, it wasn’t as big as the one I made letting it happen.”

  That made him pull his head back in bemusement. Hadn’t he considered how she’d feel? She fumed.

  “It’s not…”

  “Let go of me, Mason.”

  Heeding her stern tone, he let her go. Uncertainty all but radiated from him. Chloe didn’t like how that made her speculate if he felt more than she thought. She had to get some fresh air. Clear her head.

  Mason stood in the kitchen for several minutes, wracked with the same terrible sense of disorder that had afflicted him after he made love with Chloe. Only now it was worse. She sounded like him. She sounded like she was the one being left in the cold. And wasn’t that exactly what he’d done? Funny, how he’d endeavored to avoid getting hurt again and he was the one doing the hurting now.

  His mother was right. He was acting like a sixteen-year-old.

  Christmas night had thrown him so off-kilter that he hadn’t been able to face Chloe. He’d discovered that nothing made him feel like running more than a woman he wanted to go the distance with.

  Walking to the front door, he debated whether he should go after her. What would he say to her? What did he want to say? That they were finished? No. Can they just be friends?

  No.

  This Christmas was the best he’d ever had. Christmas night was one he’d never forget. He wanted to be with the woman who made it that way. He didn’t want to stop seeing her.

  Slipping on his jacket, he saw her heading along the path that led around the house to the stable. He’d just finished a patrol of the property with Teddy, but it was dark and anything could happen. She stopped in front of the stable door just as he’d anticipated. Unlatching the double doors, she opened one just enough to enter, pausing to look behind her.

  Mason ducked behind a pine tree, happy she was at least practicing a little precaution. She’d already proven she could defend herself. When she disappeared inside the stable, he jogged to the door and pushed it open enough to see inside.