One Night in Christmas

by Debbie Mason

  “Because you’re taking Zeus from me!”

  “Adam!” his brother yelled from the lodge.

  “Soph, come on. Just give me two minutes.” She ignored him and walked toward the parking lot.

  “Adam, get in here now!”

  He looked from Sophia to his brother, who appeared to be having a breakdown. “Come on, Zeus.” He gave the whining dog’s collar a light tug. “It’s okay. We won’t be long. She won’t get far.”

  By the time he made it inside the lodge, his brother was nowhere to be found, so Adam headed for Logan’s office on the third floor. He opened the door to see his brother standing at the window that overlooked Silver Lake and the mountains. Logan turned, holding up his phone, his face pale, his eyes stricken.

  “What’s going on?”

  “Someone texted me this.” He walked over to hand Adam the phone. “I don’t know who, but it can’t be true. It can’t be. Bryce would never do this.”

  Adam knew before he even looked at the screen what the message would read. It didn’t make sense though, not after all this time. Two people knew about his brother’s suicide, though the coroner might have guessed.

  Adam looked at the screen. He was wrong; he hadn’t expected this. “This is bullshit. Sophia is not to blame for Bryce committing suicide. She did nothing wrong.”

  His brother stared at him. “But Bryce…Are you saying it’s true? It wasn’t an accident? Bryce took his own life?”

  Adam nodded and then proceeded to tell his brother everything he knew about their baby brother’s state of mind leading up to the suicide.

  Logan sank into a chair. With his elbows on his knees, he lowered his face into his hands. “I knew he shouldn’t have married her. I knew she’d bring him down. Things were great when he was riding high, when the royalties were coming in from the endorsements, but after the accident, when the money dried up—”

  “Stop. Just stop. Bryce was self-medicating for the pain. He got hooked on opioids.”

  “Whose fault is that? She wanted him back in the game, and she didn’t care how hard she pushed him. She—”

  “Isn’t to blame. Sophia—” He broke off as the office door opened.

  “Sorry. Am I interrupting something?” Autumn’s smile faded when she got a better look at his brother. “Logan, what—”

  His brother lifted his head to look at her, his eyes accusing. “Did you know?”

  “Know what? What’s going on?”

  “My brother’s death wasn’t an accident. Bryce killed himself. He killed himself because your best friend didn’t get him the help he needed.”

  “Don’t start with that again, Logan. I—” Adam began, but Logan was beside himself with grief and anger and kept going.

  “Because she couldn’t stand that he was no longer earning the big bucks, she pushed him, and when they wouldn’t let him back on the circuit, he killed himself. He killed himself because of her!”

  Autumn stared at her fiancé as if she couldn’t believe he was the same man she loved. “How dare you! How dare you speak about Sophia that way. You have no idea what you’re talking about. She did everything she could to help Bryce. She loved him, and he loved her.”

  “If he loved her so much, then why did he kill himself?”

  Her color high, Autumn got in his brother’s space. “If you loved me so much, why did you leave me? Sophia never did. She’s always been there for me, Logan Dane. She’s the best friend I could have asked for. She’s losing everything, everything because of you and me. And do you know what she did? She told me to go and be happy. That’s the kind of woman she is.”

  The door opened, and Nell walked in. “What the Sam Hill is going on here?”

  “I’ll tell you what’s going on, Nell. The wedding is off!” Autumn pulled off her engagement ring and threw it at Logan.

  “Autumn, wait!” Logan called after her, bending to retrieve the ring from the floor.

  Nell shut the door. “The two of you sit down.” When Logan protested, she added, “Now.”

  As though sensing he’d have to bodily move Nell out of the way, Logan returned to the chair, his shoulders slumped. “You have no idea what’s going on here, Nell.”

  “Oh, I think I do. Probably better than the two of you.”

  “No, you don’t.” Logan glanced to where Adam stood by the window. “Give her the phone.”

  “No, I won’t. Because it’s a lie. Whoever—”

  Nell walked over, took the phone, and read the text. “That’s a lie. Sophia did everything in her power to help Bryce. Who sent this?”

  Adam frowned, confused by her reaction. “Wait. You knew Bryce committed suicide?”

  “Just like your grandfather, I suspected it. Most of the folks in town did. We were here. We saw what was going on. Tried to help where we could, but your brother…” She lifted a shoulder. “You can’t force someone to get help or to accept it.”

  Crossing her arms, she looked from him to Logan. “Now I’ve got some advice for the pair of you, and I suggest you take it. Until you boys got involved with Sophia and Autumn again, they were happy. They’d made wonderful lives for themselves. They might not have had a man in their lives for a good long while, but as someone who spent decades on her own, I can tell you, you can be perfectly happy without one. In fact, with men like the pair of you, they’d be better off single.”

  Adam opened his mouth to defend himself and then, remembering Sophia’s face earlier, closed it.

  “What are you talking about? Autumn—” Logan began, but Nell cut him off.

  “I’ll tell you exactly what I’m talking about. You expected Autumn to give up everything because of you and your dreams. Bryce did the same to Sophia. And you”— she pointed at Adam—“aren’t willing to give up anything for her.” She held up her hand. “Don’t give me the we just started dating; it’s new bull crap. You love her, and she loves you, and you’re not getting any younger. Either one of you. But you can’t build a life or a relationship living nineteen hours apart. You have to take a risk, do the work, make the sacrifices.”

  She pointed at Logan. “So do you. Stop thinking about yourselves and start thinking about them. If you can’t, leave them alone and move on because they don’t need the two of you to be happy. There. I’ve said my piece. And just so you know, Calder doesn’t need either one of you to manage the lodge. Sophia’s going to take it over, and she’ll do a damn fine job.”

  Someone knocked on the door. Adam was all for not answering. Logan appeared to feel the same. But Ty opened the door, sticking his head inside. “Happy Easter…” He looked at each of them in turn. “Okay, so not so happy. Sorry to disturb you, but I’m looking for Sophia. Everyone said she left, but I can’t get her on her phone.”

  At the mere mention of her name, Zeus’s ears perked, and he sat up. Nell’s attention perked too, and the last thing Adam wanted to do after her lecture was admit that the last time he’d seen Sophia, she was heading for the parking lot, no doubt looking for a ride home. “I’ll, uh, see if I can find her,” he said.

  Adam barely held back a groan when someone else knocked and stuck their head in the office. It was Jill. “Sorry to interrupt, but I think we might have a problem. Have any of you seen Autumn?”

  Logan avoided looking at Nell. “She left here a few minutes ago. Why?”

  “Okay, I don’t want anyone to panic. It might be nothing. But her car door was open and…there are signs of a struggle. Her purse is on the ground, wallet’s gone, but her phone is there. No one I’ve spoken to has seen her. Gage has organized a search of the grounds.”

  “I can’t get Sophia on her phone,” Ty said.

  Adam, who’d been trying to call her, said, “She’s not picking up for me either. She left about fifteen minutes ago. I asked her to wait, but she was upset. Last time I saw her, she was heading across the parking lot.”

  “I’ve got people searching the lot and the surrounding area.” Jill’s cell phone rang.
<
br />   “Zeus, heir. I’m going to look for Sophia. Let me know—”

  “Adam, wait.” Jill held up a finger. “Okay, yeah, we need to interview anyone who might have seen either Sophia or Autumn. Put it out on all social media channels with the timeline. Our best information will come from people leaving the parking lot in the last thirty minutes.”

  “What did they find?” Adam asked the second Jill disconnected. He had to work to keep his panic under control, trying not to go to worst-case scenarios. Trying not to see the hurt on Sophia’s face before she walked away from him.

  “A secondary location was found in the parking lot. There are signs of a struggle. Sophia’s hat was found at the site but nothing else. There’s a faint tire imprint. We’re having it analyzed now.”

  Adam was racking his brain, trying to figure out who would take Sophia and Autumn and why. “Logan, give Jill your phone.”

  “Why…? What—” Logan began.

  “Because I don’t believe in coincidences,” he told his brother, then returned his attention to Jill. “Logan was sent a text within ten minutes of Sophia leaving. It implicated her in my brother’s suicide. It’s connected. I’m sure of it. I just don’t know how. We need to find out who sent the text.”

  “But why would they take Autumn if they blame Sophia for Bryce’s—”

  “They don’t blame Sophia,” Adam told his brother. “They want you to. Which begs the question—why? What did they have to gain from you blaming her? I’d say them knowing Bryce killed himself might be a clue, but from what Nell implied, a lot of people in Christmas had come to the same conclusion. But you’re right. Autumn is somehow connected.”

  His frustration grew as he tried to connect the dots, to see a pattern. He took Autumn out of the equation and focused on Sophia and the text. What did the person stand to gain with Sophia out of the way? What had happened within the last hour to trigger…? “Nell, did you tell anyone else that Sophia was going to take over management of the lodge?”

  “Just you boys, and Calder knew, of course. Why? What are you—”

  He held up his finger and called security. “Is Rick on the grounds? When was the last time you saw him? Okay, and…”

  Nell tugged on his arm. “He was there. Rick. I shooed him away, but he might have heard me talking to Sophia about the lodge.”

  “Jill, put out an APB on a 2010 Buick, black. Best they can remember, Rick asked one of the staff to borrow it twenty-five minutes ago.” He moved to the door. “Zeus, heir.” As though he sensed that Sophia was in trouble, Zeus responded immediately.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Sophia woke up in the dark. As she waited for her eyes to adjust to the lack of light, she tried to remember what had happened. The last thing she recalled was hearing heavy footfalls behind her and then a soaked rag was pressed over her mouth and nose. It smelled sickly sweet. Chloroform. She’d struggled and tried to call out, but the person was strong. She remembered thinking it was a man because of his height, his size. Within moments, she’d lost feeling in her legs and arms. Then her vision and hearing dimmed. She couldn’t remember anything else after that.

  She went to move, only to discover her hands were taped behind her back. There was also duct tape on her mouth. She wasn’t alone. Someone else was with her in the small, confined space. She smelled gasoline and heard the rumble of an engine. A trunk. They were trapped in the trunk of a car. Her heart began to race, and she began to shake. Your mind can’t work if you panic, she told herself. Listen. Think.

  The road was bumpy. Too bumpy for a paved road. Either backwoods or off-road. She heard tinny music, a man singing along. Middle-age, something familiar about his voice. The car hit a rut, and she bounced, rolling into the other person. Her back was to their front. She smelled perfume, and panic once again set in when she recognized the familiar feminine, powdery scent. Autumn!

  Sophia wiggled deeper into the trunk until she had room to lie flat on her back and then turned to face Autumn. Her eyes were shut. There was blood near her temple.

  Hands. She had to get her hands free. On Saturday Mystery Movie Night a month before, a woman had freed herself from duct tape. Her mind reminded her it was a movie. Anything could be done in a movie.

  She shut out the negative thoughts. There was no room for pessimism. Besides, once her hands were free, she could easily open the trunk. She’d tried it after reading one too many books where the kidnap victim had been trapped inside. There should be a release by the latch. But the car was moving too fast. She’d have to wait until he reached his destination.

  Wiggling to put as much distance as possible between herself and Autumn, Sophia then pulled her knees to her chest. She should have taken yoga, she thought, as she arched her back and then moved her shoulders down in an effort to get her bound wrists under and then over her feet.

  After several tries, she knew it was futile. But if she could just…She stabbed the tape between her wrists with the heel of her boot. On the third try, it went through. As the tape began to give, Autumn awoke. Her eyes went wide as she took in their surroundings.

  Seeing the fear and tears in her best friend’s eyes, Sophia stabbed through the tape with renewed strength caused by fury at the man who had done this to them.

  She wrenched her wrists apart and then tore the duct tape from her mouth, stifling a pained yelp. It felt like the tape had ripped the skin off her lips. “It’ll only hurt for a second,” she whispered to Autumn, biting the inside of her cheek as she went to rip the tape off her best friend’s mouth. “Are you okay?”

  Autumn nodded, her gaze darting around the space. “Why would Rick do this to us?”

  “Rick? Rick Dane?”

  “Yes. I…Logan and I had a fight. I ran to my car. Rick was just closing the trunk of a black car. He was angry. He asked what I was looking at. I said nothing. And then he asked why I was crying. I told him the wedding was off. Then he bent down and held up your hat. I went over to get it, and he…” She touched her temple. “He slammed my head against the car.”

  “I’m sorry he hurt you, and he will pay for that. But right now we don’t have time to worry about his motivation. Our only job is to get free and be ready when he opens the trunk. Unless he stops and leaves us alone and we can get away without him seeing us. But I don’t think that will happen. Turn so I can get the tape off your hands.”

  While Autumn rolled to her stomach, Sophia looked around. She smiled and reached for her purse. “It’s a good thing Rick isn’t very bright.” Though she didn’t share with Autumn that even stupid kidnappers could be dangerous. If they had a gun.

  The car slowed, and the road grew bumpier. “We’re getting closer,” she whispered in Autumn’s ear as she took a small pair of scissors from her purse and cut through the tape.

  Once Autumn was free, Sophia began pulling anything that could be used as a weapon from her purse. The benefits of being a mystery-loving, true-crime junkie and a fan of oversize purses were that she was well equipped to deal with situations such as this. She had Mace (thank you, Madison), a Taser (thank you, Jill), a pink switchblade (thank you, Chloe), and a deep faith that the man and the dog she loved were out there searching for them right now. The thought of Adam and Zeus on the job buoyed her spirits. The situation also helped put everything in perspective. As long as he loved her, they could figure it out.

  The car stopped. Be ready, Sophia mouthed as she handed Autumn the Mace, pointing at her eyes. Then, with hand signals, she laid out the plan. Autumn would strike first with the Mace, and then Sophia would use the Taser on his chest. She would be in the ideal range of seven feet. She just had to ensure the prongs made contact with his chest.

  A car door closed. There was no sound of traffic. They were somewhere isolated. No one to help them. Yet.

  “Now!” Sophia yelled as soon as the trunk opened.

  Rick’s eyes went wide, his hand reaching up to slam the trunk just as Autumn sprayed the Mace in his face. He screamed, brought his
hands to his eyes, and stumbled backward. Sophia lunged, half in, half out of the trunk to press the prongs to his chest. She activated the Taser, maintaining contact while she climbed out of the trunk. She wouldn’t stop until he was unconscious. His body contorted, his screams becoming guttural and weak. Finally, he dropped to the ground.

  Her hand fell weakly to her side as she walked back to the trunk. She returned the Taser to her purse before helping Autumn out of the trunk, her eyes narrowing on her best friend. “You’re dizzy. Here, lean against the trunk. I’ll take care of everything.”

  Once she’d zip-tied Rick’s hands and feet (thank you, survivalist. com) it took twenty minutes for her to access his phone (no password protection made it easy) and look through his latest communications to ensure he’d acted alone, as well as establish that the small, well-provisioned hunting cabin was safe. She got Autumn settled with a cup of tea on the bed, and then went back to the car, grabbing some rope from the trunk before dragging Rick inside the cabin. He began to stir as she tied him to a chair.

  She dragged her purse and her tired self to the bed, crawling in beside Autumn.

  Her best friend smiled, looking better than she had an hour earlier. “I’m so glad you’re addicted to mysteries and murder.” She glanced at Rick in the other room, still half out of it, or at least pretending to be. “Why do you think he kidnapped us?”

  “The lodge. It’s always been about the lodge for Rick.” She told her about Nell’s idea and surmised Rick had overheard and wanted to get rid of her. “He must have worried that you had seen something you shouldn’t or he thought if the wedding was off, Logan wouldn’t leave Christmas. Why did you call off the wedding?”

  Autumn reluctantly told her about the text, which Sophia had seen when she checked Rick’s phone looking for a partner in crime, and Logan’s reaction to it. She was surprised to learn Autumn had guessed the truth all those years before. She hadn’t had to carry it around on her own after all.

  “Don’t call off the wedding because of how he reacted to the text, Autumn. He was shocked, angry, hurt at discovering Bryce had died by suicide. I felt the same. It’s natural to want to blame something or someone. And Rick made sure Logan blamed me.”