It Started at Christmas...

by Jo McNally

  “Any news?” Blake asked quietly.

  Jamal shook his head. “Deputy Sheriff Adams is running the official investigation. No one suspicious has been near the house or the resort. Tim and Bobby are both camping out on sofas at Halcyon tonight while Julie and Zach are asleep. Plus we have the usual staff outside. There are a couple construction guys coming in on Monday to wrap things up, and then they’re done, so we won’t have to worry about that traffic in and out.”

  Blake pressed a thoughtful kiss on the top of Amanda’s sleeping head. He needed to put out a statement this week about canceling the casino plans. He’d only held off because he wanted to have an alternative to present to appease both his investors and the people hoping for jobs.

  He glanced down at Amanda again. This wasn’t about business and investors anymore. This was about protecting the people he loved. The situation seemed to be under as much control as possible at this point.

  So why did he still feel so uneasy?

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Amanda welcomed Sunday morning with a cup of coffee on the balcony outside the master suite at Halcyon. Someone was walking through the trees. She held her breath until she recognized Tim from the security team. There were people guarding Halcyon night and day now, keeping any possible troublemakers away. The Gallant Lake Preservation Society was cooperating with the investigation, insisting they had nothing to do with the recent acts of vandalism and arson.

  “Hey, you.” Blake’s deep voice made her skin heat up. She turned to the doorway and grinned.

  “Hey, yourself. Good morning.” He draped his arm over her shoulders and kissed her temple. She tipped her face up and he dropped a chaste kiss on her lips. They were relaxed with each other at last. Comfortable. No longer trying to prove anything. It was a revelation to her that she could be this thoroughly content.

  He nibbled her bottom lip and grumbled. “You’re daydreaming while I’m kissing you. Am I boring you?”

  “I’m daydreaming about how much I love you.” She felt him smile against her mouth.

  “Well, in that case, I’ll allow it.”

  He raised his head and noticed the coffee she was still clutching.

  “And you didn’t spill a drop. I’m impressed with your focus, Miss Lowery.” His sable eyes met hers. “What are you planning to tackle today?”

  “I want to draw up plans for the guest rooms on the second floor. Are you up for some real construction? I’m thinking of knocking down a few walls to make larger rooms. It’s not like we really need twelve bedrooms, and those rooms are so small.”

  He nodded. “Make all the plans you want, but wait until after the holidays to tear things apart, okay?”

  “Which holiday? Thanksgiving is only a couple weeks away.”

  Blake gave her a squeeze. “I don’t think even you could get a renovation done by Thanksgiving. I was referring to Christmas.”

  “Why? Does Santa have big plans?” Christmas had never been a very happy time for her since her dad died. And Zach—his mom died last Christmas. Maybe it was time to make new memories.

  He laughed. “Yeah, something like that.” He looked like he was keeping a secret. What was he up to? And what on earth would she ever give him for Christmas?

  She kissed his cheek playfully. “Don’t forget that Zach has a birthday party to go to this afternoon. He’s really excited about it.”

  “How could I possibly forget? It’s all he’s talked about. A party at the arcade in the next town, complete with laser tag. It’s every ten-year-old’s dream.”

  She saw just a brief shadow cross his face, and she knew he was thinking about all the rowdy birthday parties he never had as a child. She rested her palm against his cheek. “Zach’s birthday is next spring, and we’ll make sure he has the wildest birthday party ever seen in Gallant Lake. And Uncle Blake will be able to ride the ponies and play laser tag and dress up like a pirate and be just like all the other little kids.”

  He laughed out loud and pulled her tightly into his arms. “I’m going to hold you to that, Miss Amanda.”

  * * *

  She knew they were in for a long night as soon as Zach got home from the party. He’d clearly had way too much ice cream, along with who knows what other junk food. He’d been laughing when he’d arrived home, but she could almost see the greenish tinge to his skin. He rubbed his stomach absently while he watched television with her and Blake.

  It was no surprise when she heard her name being called in the middle of the night. Blake barely registered her exit from their bed, rolling over with a grunt. She pulled her bathrobe tight and trotted down the hall, finding Zach on his knees in his bathroom. It wasn’t a pretty sight. Welcome to parenthood, Amanda. She soaked a washcloth in cold water and held it against his forehead as he threw up. She rubbed his back and cooed words of comfort to him for two hours, until he finally seemed to have purged all the garbage from his system. He begged her not to leave, so she curled up with him in his bed where they both drifted into an exhausted sleep.

  That’s where Blake found them Monday morning. She woke when he pressed his lips to her temple. Zach was still sound asleep. She looked from the clock to Zach’s pale face and knew there was no way he was making it to school today. She put her finger to her lips to silence Blake and slid out of bed gently. Once they were out in the hall, he spoke.

  “I woke up and you were gone. What happened?”

  “All that junk food caught up with him in the middle of the night. I didn’t want to wake you. I know you have that conference today.” Blake had scheduled a video conference with the resort managers to discuss how best to restructure the chain of command so that he could operate the company with fewer personal visits to the resorts. He was releasing some of his tight control, and she knew that wasn’t easy for him. He grinned down at her and brushed her hair behind her ear.

  “Thanks, babe. I promise I’ll make it up to you. Are they finishing up in the office today?”

  “Yes. They just need to put up the last of the crown molding. One last chance for me to climb a ladder...”

  He arched a brow at her, and she thought for the thousandth time how lucky she was to fall in love with such a gorgeous man. He was dressed for business today, in a dark suit and gleaming white dress shirt. His black hair curled over the collar, and she couldn’t resist putting her fingers in it.

  She pulled his head lower. “I’m just teasing you. Go have your meeting. I’ll see you later.” The kiss was lingering and sweet.

  “Take good care of our patient.” He winked at her before turning away. Bobby and his crew were hammering away downstairs, so she headed to the suite to shower and dress before she went down to the main floor.

  Zach was awake by the time she’d dressed, and she ordered him to stay in his room, promising to deliver a light breakfast.

  * * *

  “It’s hard to believe it’s the same house, Bobby.” She stood in the main hall a few hours later and looked around. Her sketches had come to life, and so had Halcyon.

  “You were the brains of the operation, Amanda. I just supplied the muscle.” Bobby grinned at her. “I know you want to start the second-floor demolition, but Blake said it will have to wait until after the holidays.” She shook her head. She knew he wanted to give Zach a wonderful Christmas, and figured he was planning something big.

  She and Bobby hugged and she waved goodbye to the workers as they filed out. She fixed a cup of soup for Zach’s lunch and was just heading toward the stairs with it when she heard the front door open. She turned, expecting to see Blake, or maybe Bobby. But it was Russ, the one who’d said Blake needed to be stopped. Her stomach dropped.

  She started to ask what he was doing there, but her words froze in her throat when he turned to lock the front door. He’d probably walked right past security, since he’d been working on the house. He was only a few fee
t away, and when he turned back to face her, the malice and madness were clear in his eyes. In his left hand was a red container of gasoline. In his right hand was a gun, and it was aimed straight at her.

  RUN!

  The warning voice screamed in her head, but she couldn’t move. It wasn’t a panic attack that rendered her motionless. It was the thought of Zach upstairs. She blinked and tried to focus, setting the soup on an end table with trembling hands.

  “I... I don’t understand.” She moved away from the stairs toward the center of the room. She didn’t want him leaving the main floor. “What do you want, Russ? What are you doing?”

  “I want your boyfriend to leave my town alone. To leave my family alone.” He moved closer. She started to step back and he raised the gun. She froze. The scent of stale cigarette smoke assaulted her senses, and she placed a hand over her roiling stomach. His gray eyes were narrow and cold.

  “Y-your family?” Amanda stuttered.

  “Randall bought out my parents’ farm. And my uncle’s place, too. Been in the family for decades. Those places should have come to my cousins and me, not some New York City developer. What the hell does he want with it all? Those are worthless pieces of land to anyone other than us.”

  Blake had been buying land all around Gallant Lake to keep his family from developing it. But he was only buying what was already for sale.

  “Didn’t your family have the farms for sale?”

  The man scoffed. “Sure, there were for-sale signs up, but no one was gonna buy them. No one wanted to buy anything in Gallant Lake until Randall showed up and started all his big casino talk. Eventually my parents would have died and it would come to us. Now we have nothing. And it’s not just us. Other guys have had their inheritances robbed from them, too. We decided to fight back.”

  “But...your families wanted to sell, and got fair market value...”

  “We needed that land! It was ours! And Randall took it from us! Now I’m gonna take something from him.” He looked around the hall.

  Think, Amanda! This is no time for panic...

  “Look, Blake’s not building the casino anymore,” she managed to say as her mind raced. “He changed his mind...”

  “Yeah, I heard that rumor, too, but I don’t believe it. And he still owns the land I need to make a living.”

  “You made your living off the farm? Then why did your parents—”

  “They didn’t know what we were growing back on the hill. They didn’t know what we were cooking in the barn on Harrison’s old place. And now it’s all gone, thanks to your big man from the city. And it’s time for some payback.”

  This wasn’t about the casino. Blake probably had no idea he’d stepped in the middle of some small-town drug ring in his attempt to save Gallant Lake.

  She concentrated on keeping her breathing slow and steady. A sheen of sweat blossomed across her skin. Russ stepped closer, but she forced herself to stand her ground and look him in the eye. She was tired of being afraid. She was done with it. If she was going to die here, she was going to do it without showing fear.

  “You’ll go to prison for this.”

  He looked around the room. “Nah. By the time they see the old place going up in flames, I’ll be long gone.”

  He was going to set fire to Halcyon. With her and Zach inside. She had to think of some way out of this. She had to stop him.

  “That’s a terrible idea. Even if Blake leaves, he still owns your land. You still lose.”

  “I figure he’ll be more than happy to dump that land, just to get out of town and be done with it. And we’ve got partners ready to snap it up.” Russ gestured toward the stairs with the handgun.

  “Come on. We’ll start upstairs, where they’ll find your body. Then I’ll burn my way down and walk away.”

  “Miss Amanda? I’m hungry...”

  Zach stood at the turn of the staircase. He looked from her to Russ in confusion. His eyes went wide when he saw the gun. Russ stared up at Zach. He moved to point the gun toward the boy with a thin, frightening smirk.

  “Amanda?” Zach’s voice was high and thin. A surge of adrenaline coursed through Amanda’s body as she shouted. At the same time, she leaped toward Russ.

  “Zach! Run!”

  Russ’s attention snapped back to her and he struck her on the side of her head with the butt of the gun. Everything went black for a moment. She staggered but stayed on her feet.

  “Run, Zach!”

  His footsteps pounded up the stairs. There was a back staircase he could use to escape, or even the small elevator. He had options from upstairs if she just gave him some time. She clawed at Russ and he hit her again. She fell to her knees, but got back up, fueled by anger and desperation. She put herself between him and the staircase. He gave her a look of contempt and roughly pushed her aside as he headed to the stairs.

  “What a tragedy that a woman and boy died together in the fire.”

  Blake would never survive losing them both.

  She had to fight. She grabbed at Russ and held on to his shirt, slowing his progress as he put his foot on the stairs. They wrestled like that all the way to the third floor. When she and Russ both tumbled into the hallway on the third floor, she started to beg.

  “Please! He’s just a boy!”

  “Yeah. Randall’s boy.” He held the gun up to the side of her head and she held her breath. “I’ll find him easier without you swattin’ at me the whole time.”

  The silence was heavy and tense, broken only by her ragged breathing. The cold barrel of the gun pressed against her temple. This was it. She imagined she could hear the trigger starting to move, and she offered a silent prayer that Zach would get to Blake somehow and be safe.

  A door shut loudly inside Zach’s room, making them both flinch. Russ’s head snapped around, and he shoved her to the floor. “I’m going to finish that brat before he gets out of here.”

  He ran down the hall and kicked open the door to Zach’s room, ignoring Amanda’s screams for him to stop. She was hot on his heels. The bedroom was empty. The bathroom door was open but it was empty, too. She watched, gasping for breath, as Russ stood in the center of the room, spinning wildly to point the barrel of his gun from door to door. He stopped when he faced the closet.

  With a sinking heart, Amanda realized the same thing Russ did. The closet was the only place to hide in this room. Zach had to be in there. She leaped toward the closet door as Russ raised the gun and pulled the trigger. Again. And again.

  The roar was deafening, and the shock of the sound seemed to suspend time somehow. Amanda was vividly aware of her body flying horizontally in front of the closet door. She felt the first bullet slice into her left arm. The pain was sharp and clean, like a razor’s cut. But the pain of the next strike was different. The bullet struck her abdomen, just right of center, and the burning was so intense she knew she had to be dying. She could hear her own screams as if they were coming from somewhere far away. All she could see was red when she hit the floor. She felt the warmth and wetness of her own blood on her fingers. She couldn’t move, paralyzed with shock and pain.

  Russ stepped over her to open the closet door. She turned her head. She wanted Zach to know he wasn’t going to die alone.

  But the closet was empty. Her eyes closed in relief. She was the one who would die alone. That was okay. As long as Zachary lived. Relief washed over her. Another door slammed somewhere inside the house. Was it Zach? Russ was already running into the hall.

  She gritted her teeth and forced herself to her feet, with her right hand clutching her bleeding abdomen. She made it around the corner of the hallway before her legs betrayed her and she collapsed against the wall, sliding to the floor. She screamed Zach’s name one last time, but the sound barely escaped her dry lips. She watched the action as if through the wrong end of a telescope, out of focus and far, far away
. Russ was running for the stairs.

  And then he was just...gone.

  Men were shouting somewhere. Blake called her name, but she couldn’t answer. Her world was growing darker, and so much colder. Jamal was saying they “had him.” More pounding steps, then Blake was holding her.

  “Amanda!” His voice shook, then he shouted loudly. “She’s been shot! Get an ambulance!” His trembling lips settled softly on her forehead and he began to plead as he rocked her in his arms. “Don’t leave me, baby. Help is coming. Please stay with me...”

  “Zach?” It took the last of her strength to whisper the name.

  “He’s safe. He came to get me. Amanda... Amanda? Oh, God...no...” His voice cracked as everything she knew faded to blackness and silence.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Blake had always adored Amanda’s petite build, but not now. Not when it made her look so tiny and fragile in the hospital bed. She was ghostly pale, with tubes and wires everywhere around her. Her long hair was pulled to one side and cascaded over her shoulder in a golden ponytail, having been lovingly brushed and secured by Nora.

  Her cousins had arrived yesterday, and were holding their vigil in the waiting room, taking turns sitting with Blake. But once in a while they gave him time alone with her. Time to grieve and pray and plead with whomever was in charge upstairs to give him more time with the woman he loved. He made promises. Vowed to change. Vowed to make peace with his family if that’s what it took to bring her back. Give up his businesses. Become a missionary in Africa.

  He’d do anything.

  Anything.

  ANYTHING.

  He rested his forehead on the back of her hand, which he was clutching tightly in his own. A large hand settled on his shoulder. He looked up to find Andy standing at his side. Caroline was behind him, tears brimming in her eyes. Could it be that just a few days ago they were all laughing together at the Builders Ball? Andy stared at Amanda, clenching his jaw so tightly that a muscle in his cheek twitched. It was Caroline who spoke first.