Alaskan Christmas Cold Case

by Sarah Varland

  She hadn’t reacted this way to Annaliese’s voice and the paramedic had been at the fire. Why was that?

  Erynn didn’t know. But it didn’t stop the chills from running down her arms, either.

  Noah must have noticed her discomfort. Or something else had caught his attention, because he was studying the man, too. “Are you Devin Wyatt, by chance?”

  “Yes.” He was cutting a piece of gauze.

  Erynn watched the scissors in his hand. Swallowed hard. She needed medical attention, she realized that, and she didn’t have a solid reason for refusing it from this man. Other than that technically everyone at this station who had responded to the fire that night was a suspect and he...

  He was the one she was favoring right now.

  As Erynn waited, he picked up a syringe. “We’re going to numb the area...” He reached for her.

  “No.” She shook her head, shoved her hands down onto the cool floor of the bay to scoot away from him, but he kept moving toward her, his mouth set in a line.

  “Noah!” She yelled because she didn’t know what else to do, and Noah reacted instantly, his hand coming up to stop the syringe. Devin Wyatt fought him, the two men ending up in a tangle on the floor.

  In that moment Erynn wanted to rewind time, to go back to days before today when she’d been truthful with Noah, at least with her actions. When she’d been kissing him rather than pushing him away. When she’d been honest about the way he completely had her heart.

  Because now she might be too late. And she didn’t want to be.

  God, help.

  Erynn had her gun in a concealed holster but it wouldn’t do her any good now; she couldn’t get a shot without risking hitting Noah. Besides, it wasn’t the way she wanted to see this man brought to justice. Instead she tried to stand, look around for another weapon in the room. She settled on a helmet sitting on a chair not far away. She threw it at Wyatt, but it was a feeble attempt, she knew that.

  Erynn looked back at the men, moved into the fight and hit Wyatt in the face. He threw a hand up and managed to smack her in the leg, tripling the pain she was already in. She stumbled backward, hand against her thigh. She pulled it away and looked at it. Red. Deep red. The movement had aggravated the wound even more. She took a gasping breath, fought against the haze threatening to overtake her. Another glance at Noah showed her he was losing, or at least not winning.

  Erynn knew she couldn’t lose him. But she also knew she didn’t have the strength to do much to help.

  She looked up at the truck in front of her. Did they leave those unlocked? If she climbed up, could she hit a button to activate the sirens, get someone to help them? She felt in her back pocket. Or 9-1-1? Would that get people there faster?

  She opened the phone, dialed. “Station 6. I’m having an emergency,” she said as soon as someone picked up, then threw the phone down and hurried to the truck. It didn’t take much work to find the siren and she pressed it.

  Gasping against the pain in her leg, she hurried back to where the men were fighting, the noise overwhelming the garage and people flooding in. “Help,” she managed to say, pointing to Noah. “It’s Wyatt. He’s the guy we’re after.”

  And then she couldn’t keep her eyes open anymore.

  SEVENTEEN

  The hospital was one of the last places Noah would have chosen to spend Christmas Eve, but since he was there with Erynn, waiting for her to be discharged, he wasn’t going to complain.

  Devin Wyatt had confessed to everything more than once. First, when the other firemen had swarmed the garage, thanks to Erynn’s quick thinking, and helped Noah subdue him, and second, when the Anchorage police had arrived.

  He’d done it for their own good, he’d said. He’d been a foster kid, too—something Erynn’s dad had discovered when looking into the backgrounds of those connected to the kids from Holloway House. He’d felt alone, felt like life was always going to be against him. When he’d responded to a fire at that kids’ home, it had brought back his own childhood trauma and he’d felt like he was saving them from theirs. At first. After that it had become a challenge. A purpose for his life—to kill all the ones he’d been part of helping that night. To stop them from suffering further, going through life in as much pain as he’d experienced.

  It was sick. And Noah had almost been glad Erynn had been unconscious for it. She could read the official report, of course, but it was still different than hearing a man scream his confession as he was hauled away.

  Either way, it was over.

  Mostly. He was still waiting to hear from the team sent out to search for Danny Howard. He wasn’t giving up until they found a body. Please, God. The words came easily. Believing God cared about details like that, and was actively involved, was easier now that he’d seen God bring Erynn through what he had.

  Unlike Wyatt, whose traumas had broken him, whose hurts had festered into something evil, Erynn’s had made her determined. A better woman.

  One he didn’t deserve but was going to ask again, just one more time, for a chance at winning her heart.

  “How are you feeling?” he questioned for about the fifth time since she’d been admitted yesterday. Though it had only been a graze, they’d wanted to observe her overnight due to everything she’d been through, and were being extra cautious.

  Erynn glared at him, looking completely unthreatening from where she lay on the hospital bed, underneath several blankets. “Like I’m tired of being here. It’s not enough I get taken off the case, I pass out before we finish it, have to hear the story from you and then end up in the hospital?”

  “But you’re alive.”

  “It was a graze, Chief Dawson.” She rolled her eyes. “My living was never a question. In fact, they mostly brought me here as a precaution. They’re discharging me soon and sending me home.”

  Maybe her living hadn’t been in question because of the gunshot. But for the last few weeks in general? Yes, it had been a very real question. Noah was looking forward to shrugging off the weight of it, but didn’t quite know how yet.

  “You’re okay.”

  Erynn nodded, looked away from him.

  Noah’s heart sank, feeling her rejection before he’d officially offered anything...well, again at least. He guessed he didn’t have to know why. If she didn’t want him...

  “Noah?”

  He met her eyes. They were brimming with tears.

  “What’s wrong? Do you need me to call the nurse? Are you in pain? Do you—?”

  “You’ve been my best friend since I moved to Moose Haven. I haven’t had a best friend since fifth grade when I was put in foster care and moved around so often. I joined the troopers to find out who killed my dad. I’m...”

  “What are you doing?”

  “I haven’t been honest with you. It’s time.”

  Noah shook his head. “You’re not dying, I thought we established that.”

  “But you wanted to get to know me...”

  “And I do. I will.” He moved to her, picked up one of her hands and held it in his for a minute before smiling then bending to kiss it.

  As he did, he looked up at her. She grinned slowly and so did he.

  “So you don’t have to know it all right now?”

  “No, I’m perfectly happy to get to know you over time. Better and better.”

  She frowned. “Sounds awfully patient for a man who once told me he loved me in the middle of a murder investigation, on a hike while we were walking to go find a body.”

  “Maybe I’ve learned something about patience since then.”

  “Maybe I didn’t want you to.” She widened her eyes pointedly, raised an eyebrow. Waited.

  Surely she wasn’t giving him permission to finish that conversation, to talk about their very real feelings. But the longer he looked at her face, the more he thought maybe she w
as.

  “Erynn...”

  “Noah...”

  They spoke at the same time and she laughed. He loved that sound, could listen to it every day for the rest of his life. “You first,” he offered, stepping back from her bedside.

  “Noah,” she started again, “there is one thing about me that I haven’t wanted you to know that I do want to tell you now. If it’s okay.” She looked shy. He didn’t remember her ever looking so hesitant before. Man, he could study her expressions, the lines of her face, her eyes, for a hundred years and never get tired.

  “Oh, yeah?” he asked slowly. “What’s that?”

  “I love you.” Her voice was steady, sure and beautiful, and words had never sounded so good.

  “Erynn?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I love you, too. Always have. Always will.”

  “Noah?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Then why aren’t you kissing me?”

  He stepped up to the bed, bent and brushed a kiss across her lips.

  “You call that a kiss?” she asked when he was done. But she was every bit as breathless as he was, and he’d bet her heart was also beating too fast.

  “I’ll call it a down payment on a kiss. How about I give you a real one when you’re standing?”

  “You really love me?”

  “I do.”

  She smiled at him, a flicker of mischief in her eyes. “I like the sound of that.”

  “Of me loving you?” he teased, pretending not to catch any hint.

  “That, too.”

  He couldn’t help it; he bent and kissed her again. “Erynn?”

  “Yes?”

  “What do you think about marrying me?” The question slipped from his lips before he could analyze it. Maybe it was bad timing, but then again, he’d not had good timing their entire relationship. Why start now? He held his breath, waited for her answer.

  “I think it sounds like a very good idea.”

  “So that’s a yes?”

  “Oh, it’s more than a yes. It’s a definitely.”

  And he bent to kiss her again.

  * * *

  The next day—Christmas Day—fire burned bright in the fireplace at Moose Haven Lodge when Mr. and Mrs. Noah Dawson returned from the short ceremony at the Moose Haven Bible Church to be met by his family. Noah’s siblings would have liked to have been at the actual wedding, Erynn knew, but he’d understood her desire for something with no fuss, only the pastor present, and no hurt over not having relatives there for her.

  Or maybe he’d just wanted to get married sooner than the typical time frame of most engagements and, when in the car on the way home from Anchorage yesterday, she’d suggested eloping, he’d taken her up on it.

  Erynn didn’t know. All she knew now was that she was married, there was a simple gold band on the fourth finger of her left hand and she had a promise from her husband to buy something sparkly as an engagement ring when they went to Anchorage next. Personally, she could not care less if she never saw the city again, with all the hurt it had caused her, but she knew facing her fears, the ghosts from her past, was the best way to move past them.

  “Erynn, you’re back!” Summer was all smiles, her gift of hospitality fully exercised at the inn on this Christmas morning.

  “Wouldn’t have missed the Dawson family Christmas.” Their large family gathering at the holidays was practically a subject of Moose Haven lore, and while they’d invited Erynn before, she’d never felt like she fit. Now they were her family.

  She’d thank God for them every day, as long as she lived.

  Speaking of family... Erynn’s grin spread wider. Her last-minute text to Anne last night had gone unanswered, and she’d assumed she and Danny already had plans for Christmas, or wanted to stick close to his doctors. But there they were, in two of the lodge’s large brown chairs. “You came!” She hurried over to them, letting go of Noah’s hand.

  “Of course we did, sweetheart.” Anne stood. “You’re our daughter. You’ve always been mine, always will be.” Her arms were around Erynn then, and she didn’t fight the embrace. If this woman wanted to choose her again and again, Erynn was done fighting it. She could trust her mother’s love, just like Noah’s, like God’s.

  She’d never get tired of that realization.

  “Thanks...Mom.” The word she’d hardly spoken in a decade tumbled from her lips and Erynn felt a tear slide down her cheek. It was a happy tear. A cleansing tear.

  She turned to the man who had almost given up his life for hers. She still couldn’t believe Danny Howard had been found alive near where his car had been, but here he was in the flesh, though looking older than when she’d seen him last.

  He opened his arms and she stepped into them, also accepting his hug. She hadn’t expected more tears, but there they were, as the man who’d been a brother in blue to her father made it clear with his actions that while Mack could never be replaced, Danny would be there for her, like her dad would have been.

  She stepped back, releasing her hold on him and smiling. “Thank you.”

  Erynn felt a hand on her arm and turned, found herself looking into Noah’s eyes. Her husband. That one was going to take some getting used to, but she was going to enjoy every minute of it.

  “I missed you,” he said.

  She laughed. “It’s been five minutes.”

  “Emma made this for us.” He held out his hand, showed her a Christmas ornament made out of a tiny slice of wood. On the circle was Noah + Erynn in a gorgeous, cursive script.

  “Emma made this?”

  “Yes.” Noah’s mouth twisted up at the corners. “Last Christmas, apparently. She and everyone else have just been waiting for us to realize it.”

  Oh, she’d realized it, all right. She’d have had to have been devoid of every single one of the five senses to not have felt the chemistry between her and Noah. Erynn had known it was there almost from the moment she’d stepped into town and had him walk into her office for the first time. She’d just run from it.

  It turned out, you couldn’t run from love.

  Noah had proved that to her. His family had, too. Anne had. Even Danny.

  And God, most of all, had reminded her that His love was powerful, inescapable.

  Erynn was thankful.

  “Should we go put this on the tree?” She smiled up at Noah and let him guide her to the tall Kenai Peninsula spruce tree that one of the family had cut down for the celebration. It reached to the top of the living room’s vaulted ceiling, the perfect level of grandness to celebrate a holiday that, this year, meant more to Erynn than any other she could remember.

  “You can do the honors,” Noah said to her as they approached.

  Erynn found a relatively bare spot and hung it up.

  “Hey, you bumped my four-wheeler.” Nine-year-old Luke, Noah’s nephew—their nephew, Erynn had to remind herself—laughed and rehung his ornament, then ran back to his parents. Emma and Tyler smiled at her. Erynn watched them take each other’s hands and meet each other’s eyes. That was probably going to end with a kiss, mistletoe or not.

  Erynn stared up at the tree, at the twinkling lights, reminding her of hope, then looked around at the room. Summer and Clay were laughing at something one or the other had said. Across the room the door creaked open. “We made it!” Erynn heard Kate call.

  Erynn was at peace, having decided to step out of her role with the troopers. It had been her passion, but she’d gone past that, made it an obsession, finding who had killed her dad. Now that she’d done so, she needed a break. Maybe she’d go back to law enforcement in the future, but for now she needed a break. Time to figure out who she was, without this case hanging over her head.

  Noah had supported her decision, though he’d also told her she was an incredible law enforcement officer and h
e would support her if she went back one day.

  Her eyes drifted back to Luke, who stood by his parents, and noticed the little bump under Emma’s sweater. They were expecting their second. It made Erynn wonder if maybe next Christmas it would be her who was pregnant.

  “It seems you aren’t without a family, after all.” Noah pulled her to his side, kissed the top of her head, and she looked up and smiled.

  “It seems, Noah Dawson, that you’re right.”

  “I think that’s the first time you’ve ever said those words to me.” A grin teased the edges of his mouth and he laughed. Erynn made a face then laughed, too.

  “I think you should stop talking and kiss me,” she said to him.

  And he did.

  * * *

  Keep reading for an excerpt from Courage Under Fire by Sharon Dunn.

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