Christmas Confidential: Holiday Protector

by Marilyn Pappano

  Whew. That was close. He refused to think about how far down that canyon floor might be. But he was pretty sure those were the tops of evergreens he’d been seeing as they’d driven close to the edge. And judging by the trees on the other side of the road, they could reach heights of eighty to a hundred feet.

  Checking his rear mirror, he spotted headlights rounding the curve he’d just made. Before he could say anything about it, those lights disappeared once again and all he could see behind them was a blur of white. He sure hoped that was the state troopers again. Otherwise they were definitely in a world of trouble.

  He should’ve known better than to let Elana talk him into going up the mountain instead of down. The road would be closed at any moment.

  “The turnoff to the cabin should be right up ahead.” Elana leaned forward, straining against the seat belt, in order to see out the windshield.

  He slowed to a crawl, praying whoever followed behind would notice he’d slowed and not run right over the top of the SUV.

  “Oh, there’s a sign.” Elana pointed toward the side of the road.

  “Who can read that in this messy weather?”

  “Well, not me. But I remember seeing a road signpost a few feet from the turnoff. There. Turn here!”

  If the tires would grab traction, he’d be happy to turn. Holding his breath, he eased the vehicle to the right, hoping to hell a cabin in the mountains could be their ticket out of this trouble.

  The road suddenly narrowed down to what he’d call a lane while giant pines growing along both sides made it feel like they were driving through a tunnel. “You know, we don’t get weather like this very often in west Texas.” And he wished to hell he knew how to negotiate it better.

  “We don’t get anything this bad up here very often, either,” she told him with a hollow voice. “Most years the ski slopes have to resort to making snow. I’d guess this must be the storm of the decade.”

  “Figures,” he grumbled.

  Dark as pitch, he couldn’t be sure where the road went. His headlights only illuminated about ten feet ahead. So at a snail’s pace, they crawled along inch by inch.

  “How are we going to know when we get there?” Elana’s tense voice crawled down his spine and gave him the chills.

  “Let’s hope the road ends at the cabin and doesn’t lead on into a lake or over a cliff.” Now why did he have to say that?

  “Yeah,” she agreed in a shaky whisper.

  “Look, it’ll be okay.” He needed to say something to calm her. “I haven’t seen any headlights behind us since we turned off the mountain road. That’s one good thing. And we’ll find the cabin. If it’s on this lane, we’ll find it.”

  “If?” Elana began fidgeting in her seat. “What if I was wrong and this isn’t the right way?”

  “Easy there. We’ll be okay. If nothing else...” The beam of his headlights lit up a mailbox a few feet away. “Is this it?”

  The breath whooshed out of her lungs. “Oh, thank God. Yes. This is it. Pull up the driveway next to that mailbox and park close to the front door.”

  Gage couldn’t imagine who would deliver mail to this godforsaken out-of-the-way place. Civilized Texans placed their mailboxes on the nearest main highway. Or they picked up their mail in town.

  But he was relieved to think that in a few more minutes they would be out of the weather. “Okay, we’re here,” he said as he parked and looked through the windshield at what he could see of the cabin.

  “The key should be under the pot next to the front door.”

  “That’s imaginative. You ready? I’ll leave the headlights on until we’re inside.”

  Without answering, she took a big breath of air, unbuckled and opened the door.

  Gage turned off the engine and just sat there watching her at the front door, wondering how the holy hell he had ever gone so far down this rabbit hole. So far, in fact, that he might never be able to climb back out.

  * * *

  Andrei Krayev stepped up into the driver’s seat of the four-wheel drive rental pickup truck, glad to be out of the storm and worried about facing his father with this news. “The state trooper says the road is closed. We must go back.”

  “Have they seen any sign of the man and that woman?” Dimitri Krayev sat sweating in front of the hot air blasting from the truck’s heater.

  “No. They claim no one has come this way.”

  “And?” He narrowed his eyes and Andrei felt the scorn down to his toes.

  “I asked, Father. The authorities said perhaps the other vehicle turned off before coming this far. Apparently there are several cabins located along this route but they’re situated off the road in deep woods.”

  “Is it possible their vehicle went over the side in the storm?”

  Andrei didn’t like thinking about that. As much as Amara Coppersmith had treated him like a piece of garbage stuck to the bottom of her shoe, he still wouldn’t want to see her die.

  At least not quickly.

  “If their vehicle went over the side, the authorities won’t begin a search until the weather clears.” He thought back to the winters of his youth in the Ukraine. “They might not be found until the spring thaw.” People, dead bodies, were lost in snowdrifts for months, sometimes for years.

  “We will go back and search each cabin until I am satisfied,” Dimitri announced.

  Andrei didn’t mind the extra work. He was every bit as eager to locate the traitorous woman as his father.

  He backed up the pickup and began to turn around just as the state trooper had directed. “We’ll find them, Father. Ivan and his men will be joining us any minute. With so many looking, it shouldn’t take too long to locate one foolish couple.”

  Chapter 9

  Elana banged through the cabin’s door, hardly noticing the cold or her frozen fingers. But after turning on a light and glancing around, the frosty look of everything inside reminded her how numb she felt. Two minutes later she found the propane generator switch out back and flipped on the heat. It would take a few minutes but at least they’d be warm soon.

  “This is cozy.” With his arms full of their bags, Gage plowed into the room as he kicked the front door shut with his foot.

  “It will be. Shouldn’t take long to warm up.” But in the meantime, she wasn’t going to sit anywhere.

  He didn’t seem inclined to rest his bottom on any of the ice-cold looking furniture, either. After he dropped the bags near the door, he paced the front room while clapping his hands together to stay warm.

  She had a better idea of how to keep warm. Body temperature. It was all she could do not to step into his arms and beg him to hold her close. But that was probably a thing of the past. Their time as lovers was over.

  Still, visions of making love to him while she whispered all her secrets and told him again how much she loved him crept into her numb mind and began to warm her thoughts. An intimate and compelling image, it made her pulse pound and her mouth water with wanting.

  She knew better. Knew that Gage was too wounded at this point to give her an inch. In fact, he might never come around. Might always hate her. Hate was the opposite side of love, and right now Gage balanced on the edge.

  All that they’d ever meant to each other had been destroyed or soon would be. And she’d been the one to murder those feelings.

  Since that scary ride up the mountain, she’d come to the conclusion that it was time to give up the whole story. Soon. Tonight. Because she had an overwhelming feeling they might not live to see tomorrow.

  “There must be a better way to warm up.” Gage opened the first door he came to and turned on the light. “The kitchen. Do you think there’s coffee?”

  “I’m sure there is. Shall I make us some?”

  He disappeared into the kitchen but c
alled out an answer. “I’ll do it. Give me a moment.”

  She’d almost forgotten that Gage had been the cook in the family. Her childhood hadn’t exactly consisted of cooking lessons. Everyone in her family worked in the family business.

  When she peeked into the kitchen, he’d already found the coffee and started the coffeemaker. “Smells good. Can we find something to cook so we can turn on the stove or the oven? It’s still freezing in here.”

  “Hot coffee will help.” He reached for a couple of mugs. “But yeah, we can preheat the oven, too. Not sure what we’ll find to eat, though.”

  “Brendan’s brothers always keep the place stocked. They use it themselves as a retreat and sometimes they rent it out.”

  “Are you hungry?” He poured the coffee and handed her a steaming mug.

  “Not at all.” Her stomach rolled when she thought of what lay ahead.

  Once she’d managed to pass a couple of sips of the searing hot, black liquid past her lips and tongue, she felt stronger. “We need to figure out where to go from here.”

  Without removing her coat, she sat at the small kitchen table, waiting while Gage turned on the oven. “I think we’re probably safe here while the storm rages,” she told him. “No one in their right mind would stay out in weather like this for long. Not even a dangerous Russian mob. But it could quit snowing at any moment. We need a plan.”

  “I agree. Hold that thought.” He reached deep into his coat pocket. “Let me try the sat phone, see if I can get a signal.”

  Would it really be as easy as just calling for help?

  Staring at the phone in his hand, Gage shook his head. “Low battery. But all it will take is a few minutes plugged in and we’ll get through.” He found the cord and a wall plug.

  “Who can you call?”

  “The cops in L.A.,” he said while checking the power. “Or maybe I should try contacting my friend at the L.A. FBI office. He’d know best what law enforcement agency to call in. I’m afraid the Piñon Lake community has a small force and they’ll have their hands full with weather-related problems.”

  “You’re right. The town has only one sheriff and two deputies. They’d be no match for the Russian mob. But L.A.’s at least three hours away. Shouldn’t we plan an escape just in case?”

  Gage pulled out the other chair at the table, turned it around and straddled it. “If we had a good way out of here without being seen, we’d be taking it right now. Just stay calm. We’ll let the authorities come to the rescue. We should’ve called them in the first place.”

  “And that’s my fault,” she groaned. “Like everything else. Why’d you have to follow me? I tried to tell you that separately we’d have a better chance.”

  “I disagree. If I hadn’t followed, you might already be in the Russians’ hands. Or dead.”

  Elana lowered her forehead to the table and heaved a heavy sigh. She wasn’t sure she could look at him for the next few minutes.

  “I’m...fairly sure they won’t kill me,” she told him quietly. “If they’re like other gypsies, they just want their property back.”

  “But you don’t know that for a fact.” Gage sounded frustrated. “And they’ve already been shooting at you. I’d say that means they don’t care much what kind of shape you’re in when they bring you home.”

  “You may be right. But what I do know for a fact is now that they’ve taken notice of you, they will want to see you dead. Interference in gypsy business is not taken lightly.”

  Gage remained silent for such a long time that she raised her head to study him.

  “So, we’re back to the excuse that you have done all this...” He waved a hand between them. “Leaving me in Texas, changing your name and looks and then trying to leave me behind here, all in order to keep me safe?” He drew himself up in the chair and stared her down. “I don’t buy it. You know I can take care of myself. And I would’ve taken better care of you, too, if only I’d known what you were up against. But you chose to shut me out.”

  “Gage, please. Can’t you just believe I’m telling the truth this one time? There are too many of them. And I was always sure you’d receive much harsher treatment from the Russians than I would. Really. I didn’t—don’t—want to see you hurt.”

  He scraped his chair around and stood, looming over her. “I—” Cutting off his own words, he seemed to change his mind. “Hold it. It’s been long enough. Let me try the phone again.”

  Picking it up, he dialed. “Got through,” he mumbled almost to himself.

  While Gage talked to his FBI pal, Elana rummaged in the cabinets looking for something to eat that would be quick and easy. She still wasn’t hungry, but she figured they’d need sustenance if they were to fend off an attack by the Russians.

  And she was sure an attack was imminent.

  She found crackers, a can of tuna and a can of peaches. Not exactly breakfast food, but she’d have it on the table in moments.

  By the time Gage clicked off his call and returned to the table, she’d set it with small plates and silverware. He barely seemed to notice.

  “We should have help very soon,” he told her. “The FBI will marshal forces from both the L.A. and state police to come to our aid. My buddy checked with the weatherman and he says this storm is just about to blow over. The cops are readying a couple of their helicopters and they’ve already contacted the state patrol.”

  He put away the phone and came toward the table. “From my description and from what you told me, the FBI is quite anxious to talk to these particular Russians. Seems they’ve been looking for a lead to them for a long time. The minute the weather breaks our rescuers will be on the way.”

  “I hope they’re in time.” She’d said the optimistic words, but deep down she doubted that the two of them would still be here and in one piece by the time their rescuers arrived. “Sit and eat something. I want to finish our conversation before...help arrives.”

  Pulling back the chair, he sat at the table with her. He picked up his fork and dug in to the peaches without a word.

  “I need to...say something,” she began with a slight hesitation in her voice and in her mind. “But first, please believe that I love you, Gage. I have always loved you and I’ll never love anyone the same way. I suspect you no longer love me, and I deserve that. But you must believe me...”

  Her voice failed and she had to sniff back a tear.

  Before she could finish her sentence, he jumped in. “If you’ve always been so much in love with me, how come you found someone else so soon after you left?”

  “What?” She’d absently picked up a cracker, but at that remark, she dropped it back to the plate as the blood rushed from her head. “I don’t understand. What are you saying? There’s never been anyone else.”

  He stood and glared at her. “Bull. You couldn’t have been out of my sight for more than a few days when you fell into bed with someone else. Was it that Russian fiancé of yours? Is that why his father and your father are so determined to find you?”

  Stunned, she felt like someone had pushed her off a cliff. She couldn’t catch her breath.

  “Come on, Alicia or Elana or whoever you are, admit it. That’s the real reason they’re chasing you. You took his daughter, their grandchild, with you when you disappeared.”

  A laugh erupted from her throat before she could call it back. But to her ears, the tone of that laugh sounded a lot more hysterical than amused. He couldn’t possibly believe what he’d just said.

  A second glance at his hard-set mouth and narrowed eyes told her that he had indeed believed every word of the tale he’d just spun. She’d wondered why he hadn’t asked about her child yet. This was the reason. His mind had created a scenario that seemed more plausible than any other.

  She started for him, wanting to soothe, to cradle him in her arms
and make him understand. But he backed away from her touch.

  He must really hate her, but he deserved the truth, no matter what happened after that. “Gage, my darling. Gay, the daughter I named after you, is your child. When I left, I had no idea I was pregnant. She was born almost nine months exactly from our last week together. There wasn’t anyone else. Not ever. You are her father.”

  For a second she thought he hadn’t heard, but then his face turned as pale as hers had felt only moments before. “No. I don’t believe that.”

  “It’s true. If it’s important to you, and if we make it out of here alive, feel free to have DNA tests done.”

  Once again she took a step in his direction. She needed to touch him, to feel his warmth. But the look in his eyes was cold as ice.

  “I want to meet her,” he growled, and the tone of his voice forced her backward.

  “Of course you can. She’s a wonderful little girl. A bit on the independent side, but I suspect she gets that from you.”

  “How could you do this?” He groaned and turned his back to her. “How could you not tell me before? That’s...that’s... I don’t know you at all. I guess I never really knew you.”

  Elana wanted to die. The hatred in his words bit into her heart like a whip.

  Her whole body shook. Her pulse pounded as though she’d run a mile. This was much worse than she’d ever imagined.

  She tried to control her thoughts, her voice. What if one or both of them lived through this day somehow?

  “Gage,” she began tentatively. “You need a way to reach her in case I don’t make it and you do. That phone call I made last night on your phone to Brendan—he and his wife have her. You’ll be able to find her by contacting him. They’re in hiding, but use that number.”

  “Oh, don’t worry. I’ll find her. Whether you make it or not. If she’s my daughter, she’ll be going home with me.”