by Zoe Chant
Meaghan froze. “What?” She searched Olly’s face for any clue that this was a joke. “Are you sure?”
“I think I remember what the three guys who broke in here in front of me looked like,” Olly retorted. She leaned around Meaghan and peered into the truck, her eyes narrowing as though she were inspecting Caine carefully. “And they were definitely not like him.”
Jackson let out a huff of relief. “Thank God for that.” He turned away, kicking at the snow, and Meaghan thought she heard him say something like, Not like I could have done much if he was.
She frowned. What was he talking about? He was the deputy sheriff. He was the only one in town with the authority to do anything!
If Caine had been one of the criminals.
Which…
Meaghan spun around and stared directly into Caine’s eyes for the first time since she’d shoved him in the back of her truck.
Oh my God. Have I just made the biggest mistake in my entire life?
Was Caine a smoking hot, helpful and caring… not-dog-napper?
“No, he definitely is,” she said out loud, her head swimming. “Because… he was… I mean, he was right there… you tell them!”
She turned back to Caine, who held his hands palm-up. Loony licked one of them, as though she thought he was holding up an invisible treat.
“I’m afraid she’s right,” he said. “I’ve never met any of these people before. I’m afraid I still don’t know exactly what’s going on, but whatever happened here, I—” A relieved smile spread across his face. “I had nothing to do with it.”
“What? But...”
Meaghan’s voice sputtered out, like her truck when it was low on gas.
Caine was still sitting meekly in the middle of the pile of dogs. In the back of her truck. Where she’d pushed him in.
Where she’d... kidnapped... him?
The burning center of Meaghan’s wildfire anger fell in on itself. Except for the bit of it that migrated to her cheeks.
“Are you sure?” Meaghan took a leap of what she hoped was faith but was probably actually total stupidity.
“Positive. I only arrived in town this morning.”
“But... Why were you out in the woods then?”
“Ah,” said Caine. “I’m staying at a ski cottage. I woke up, heard you shouting, and wanted to see if I could...”
“...help,” Meaghan completed for him wanly.
Behind her there was the distinct sound of someone not laughing. Possibly several someones.
“I—then why did—why didn’t you say anything?”
“I—”
“Why did you let me throw you in the truck?” Her voice was getting higher.
“Maybe if you let him get a word in, he’d tell you,” Jackson drawled.
Meaghan’s throat went tight. Jackson was just being an ass, but—she'd spent the last six months building a life in Pine Valley, and the last two months had shaken the foundations of everything she thought she’d achieved here. She knew she could go too far sometimes, and maybe this was it. Already.
She’d never managed to burn all her bridges in half a year before.
Her throat was so tight her breath made a rasping noise. She looked away from Caine but as she did his eyes flashed. For a moment they didn’t look blue—they looked dark, with a shimmer of something like smoke in their depths.
Meaghan stared, but his eyes were blue again. She shook herself. Of course they were blue. They'd always been blue.
Except for that one moment back in the clearing, when she’d lost her mind.
Meaghan swayed and beside her, Olly tensed. And burst out laughing.
She got hold of herself a second later, and clapped one hand over her mouth, her shoulders shaking.
Meaghan stared at her. “What now?”
“Nothing!” Olly squeaked from behind her hand.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Meaghan frowned. “Do you need to go sit down?”
She’s more freaked out than I thought.
Meaghan had arrived at work only a few minutes after the dog-nappers had left. Olly had been cowering behind the customer service desk in the gift shop, looking as though she’d seen a ghost. The assholes hadn’t hurt her, or taken anything except the dogs and sleigh, but they’d rattled Olly more than Meaghan had thought possible.
Meaghan had wavered between staying with her and chasing after the dogs, but when Olly had reassured her that Bob was only a few minutes away, Meaghan had…
Left her alone to start my career as a kidnapper. I’m the worst friend ever.
Jackson strode over and reached out one hand to almost touch Olly’s shoulder.
“Megs is right,” he murmured. Meaghan resisted the urge to stare. Those were three words she’d never expected out of his mouth. He hovered protectively at Olly’s shoulder. “I know, I know, you said you’re fine, but…”
Please let this be one good thing to come out of me screwing all this up, Meaghan begged silently. Please let Jackson finally admit to Olly that he’s been crushing on her all the time I’ve known them, and her on him, too…
Olly waved them both away. “This is so good,” she squeaked through her giggles. Meaghan and Jackson exchanged a look.
Well. That was both super un-reassuring and super confusing.
She’s totally lost it.
“Okay, Olly, let’s go inside…”
“Hold up a moment, Meaghan.” Bob cleared his throat and Meaghan waited for him to continue, but he just stared into the middle distance and hrmm’d. Stared a bit longer. Chuckled.
Meaghan sighed. Bob was always going off into a daydream like this. Olly, too. Sometimes she felt like she was the only person at the Puppy Express who lived full-time in the real world.
She tried to catch Jackson’s eye again, but he was glaring at the ground.
Caine groaned and clutched his head, and she jumped to high alert.
“Oh shit. Are you all right?” Did he hit his head when I shoved him in there? Did I give him a concussion on top of everything else?
“It’s nothing. A headache. I—” Caine paused, but this time it wasn’t Meaghan interrupting him, it was Parkour licking his chin.
Meaghan's stomach twisted. No wonder the dogs liked him. He wasn’t some criminal vandal, he was just... just a regular guy. Who she’d kidnapped.
“I’m so sorry about all of this,” she muttered. “I wish you’d said something.”
Caine fended Parkour off with a pet. “Well, you did seem to know what you were doing.” One corner of his mouth hooked up in a half-smile that caught Meaghan’s heart, and then he winced again. “So, what’s the plan now?”
The wince made guilt twist inside her, but that flash of smile somehow gave her the confidence to rally. She could wallow in embarrassment and guilt, or she could pick herself up and find some way to make this right.
Meaghan straightened her shoulders. No wallowing. Go for it. All-or-nothing. What’s the worst that can happen?
Except for you getting fired five days before Christmas.
Okay. All-or-nothing. But no crazy.
“What’s the plan? This is. Someone’s got to get you home.” His eyes lit up and Meaghan sucked in her bottom lip in embarrassment. Yeah, I bet you can’t wait to get home after I pulled you into all this. “And—and—” Don’t say save Christmas. “—and feed the dogs and get them settled in—” Don’t mention your conspiracy theory. “—and go and get the sleigh… I can do that, I know where it is and if we hitch the trailer to my truck—”
“No!” Bob half-shouted, then smoothed down his beard and cleared his throat. He nodded at Olly, who dragged Jackson’s shoulder down to whisper something in his ear. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Meaghan. You shouldn’t have gone out there on your own in the first place. What if you did bump into the thieves?”
Meaghan snorted. “I’m not scared of a couple of drunk assholes.”
Bob groaned and rubbed his face. “Sometimes
, what you don’t know can hurt you. All right, all right, Olly, I’m getting there,” he added, even though Olly hadn’t said anything.
He directed an interrogating look at Caine. “So what’s your story, er…”
“Caine Guinness.” Caine reached out of the dog box to shake Bob’s hand.
“Huh. Good, good. What brings you to town, Caine?”
“Business.”
“And you just drove in today, you said? That’s a long drive. You must be starving.” Bob clapped his hands together. “Right! Jackson, you take Olly home, and then we’ll both go and fetch the sleigh. If the thieves are still out there, we’ll deal with them. Meaghan, you can tell us where it is.”
“I can show you where it is—”
“No, you can’t. Someone needs to show Caine here that Pine Valley hospitality isn’t just being stuffed in the back of a truck with a pile of dogs. Get him some proper clothes from the gift shop, and—”
He grinned. Olly grinned. Even Jackson grinned. Meaghan felt a sensation of oncoming doom.
“—take him to dinner.”
5
Caine
I'm free. Free, and about to spend the evening with a gorgeous woman. I'd almost given up hoping life could be this good again.
Caine felt like he was floating as he pulled on a borrowed Puppy Express-branded hat and stepped outside. The snow, the starry night sky, the way his breath puffed out in front of him in huge clouds—it was all perfect. Everything was perfect. It was five days before Christmas and he’d just received the best gift he could have asked for.
His demon was gone. Sure, there were some lingering aftereffects. Ever since he’d been infected with the creature, he got a pounding headache whenever he was around other shifters. The headache had struck again when he met Meaghan’s boss and the others—they must have been shifters—but that was all. No bared teeth gnawing at his soul. No darkness inside him, clawing to get out.
He was human again. And going to dinner with the most fascinating woman he’d met before or after the demon.
Merry Christmas indeed.
Snow crunched under his boots as he hurried to catch up with Meaghan, who was trudging head-down towards her truck.
“What do you think?” He waited until he had her attention, then did a slow turn. Bob had given him free rein in the clothing section of the Puppy Express gift shop, and it was possible he’d let his newfound freedom go to his head.
Meaghan’s mouth dropped open. She snapped it shut. “Aren’t you cold?”
Caine looked down. He had exchanged his thin sweatpants for a pair of insulated snow pants with a holly pattern on the cuffs. They were a few inches short—nothing in the store had really fit—but his ankles were snug under thick woolen socks with candy canes on them. The snowflake-print t-shirt stretched tight across his chest completed the look.
He’d forgotten to zip up his jacket again, but…
He glanced up. Meaghan was still glaring at him. More specifically, at his chest.
“I’m fine,” he said. Sure, the evening was chilly, but the sight of Meaghan’s eyes sizzling warmed him up better than any jacket.
“Well, if you fall over with frostbite I’m going to feel even worse than I already do. Take these. More handwarmers. Olly’s giving them out like candy. Probably because we don’t have enough visitors to use them all up and they’re taking up space.”
She handed him another couple of handwarmers like the ones he’d forgotten to use earlier. “Crunch them up a bit and put them in your—you’re not wearing gloves. Your hands are going to freeze off and it’s going to be all my fault.”
“No, here, see?” Caine pulled a pair of gloves out of his pocket and Meaghan’s shoulders visibly relaxed. She rubbed the base of her neck.
“Okay, well, good. So. Dinner. What do you feel like? There should be one or two places open.”
“Whatever you recommend.”
Caine hurried ahead of Meaghan to open the driver’s side door for her and found himself facing down a glare almost as ferocious as when she thought he’d stolen her dogs.
“You are not driving,” she said. “Look, I know this whole dinner thing is to get me back for acting like a crazy person, but believe me, you driving my truck would be more of a punishment for you than for me.”
Caine blinked. “I don’t want to drive. I was holding the door for you.”
“Oh.” Meaghan’s glare lost some of its ferocity. “...Thanks?”
She folded herself into the seat, avoiding Caine’s eyes. Caine frowned. He might feel as though he was flying six inches above the ground, but he’d have his head in the clouds not to see that Meaghan was upset about something.
And he wanted desperately for that not to be the case.
He wedged himself into the passenger seat and caught Meaghan glancing at him.
“It’s a tight fit,” he said, angling his knees under the dash.
“You get used to it.” Meaghan winced. “I mean, I’ve gotten used to it. I spend most of my time with the dogs, anyway, so that gives me plenty of time to stretch my legs.”
“You don’t think I’ll have time to get used to it, too?” he teased.
“It’s not that far into town,” Meaghan replied, not getting his meaning. She made a frustrated “mmf” noise as the truck wobbled over a bump in the road, and Caine’s blood ran hot.
He hadn’t so much as flirted with a woman since last Christmas. And now he wanted to do a hell of a lot more than flirt.
But whatever Caine’s hopes, Meaghan clearly had her mind somewhere else. Caine racked his brains for a topic of conversation that might lift the glare from her face.
“The dogs like you a lot,” he settled on. “And you must like them too, going to all that effort to find them.”
“Of course I like them. They're good dogs, they get on well with everyone, even... even crazy women who go around kidnapping people.” She sighed. “I am so sorry about that. God, I must really be losing it.”
Her scowl wasn’t going anywhere. Caine was about to try again when she shook her head and tapped her palms on the steering wheel.
“I just—these last few months—no. No excuses. I’m crazy, and I jumped to conclusions, and I'm sorry for... everything.”
“Don’t be.”
Meaghan snorted. “Trust me, you do not want to encourage me about this. I am one hundred percent capable of throwing myself into bad ideas without any help.”
“What bad ideas, exactly?”
“Where should I start? How about moving to a new town where I don’t know anyone. Getting a job at a tourist shop right before their worst year for tourist numbers in decades…” She tapped the steering wheel again. “Nope. Don’t say it, girl. Keep the lid on the crazy.”
Caine’s instincts were pricking. Not his demon’s instincts, but the ones that he’d honed in his old life as a private investigator.
Something was making Meaghan upset. Something that had driven her to save the dogs from whoever had stolen them, and to shove him in the back of her truck.
And he had a suspicion she was getting close to revealing what it was. Or letting it boil out of her, at least.
“Don’t say what?” he prompted. She groaned.
“I warned you, don’t encourage me…” Meaghan narrowed her eyes at him and turned her attention back to the road. “Fine. You asked for it. I think there’s more to the low tourist numbers this year than just bad luck. Because numbers aren’t just low, they’re in the negatives. Even some locals are staying away from Pine Valley this Christmas.”
“Why?”
Meaghan was bubbling over with frustration, but something was still stopping her. “Keep in mind this is crazy conspiracy level stuff we’re talking here.”
“Is that what you really think?” How many people have told her that?
“No. It’s not.” Meaghan made a face. “Fine. There’s been… stuff happening. Weird stuff. Ever since Halloween.”
The skin on
the back of Caine’s neck prickled. “You mentioned something about a toy store burning down.”
“Everyone says it was an accident.”
“And you don’t believe them.”
Caine watched Meaghan’s face as she decided how to answer. She gnawed on her bottom lip, squeezed her eyes shut for a second, and groaned.
“No, I don’t believe them. And I think it’s going to get worse. I don’t know how much you know about Pine Valley, but—”
“Assume I know nothing.”
Meaghan took a deep breath, and then shrugged. “Okay. The hell with it. So, Pine Valley is a tourist town. Lives and dies—pay attention to that last part—on people visiting on their vacation and spending money locally. The biggest draws are Halloween, when all the trees turn fall colors, and Christmas, because, well, it’s a cute little town in the mountains that gets a lot of snow.”
She rolled her shoulders back. They clicked so loudly that Caine winced in sympathy… and wished he could reach out and massage them.
“Stuff started to get weird around Halloween. I mean, there’s a limit to the number of trees that can fall down right in front of a tour bus, or how often all the streetlights can short out at the same time, right? Or people saying they were almost run off the road by some sort of freaky wild animals with scary glowing eyes? It can’t all be random. They have to be connected.”
Caine tensed. “Glowing eyes?”
Meaghan gestured angrily. “Jackson just says that all animals have glowing eyes when they get caught in headlights, but some of the people I talked to said their eyes weren’t just glowing, they were on fire. It’s got to be someone dressed up or some sort of trick, right? But no one remembers anything about what they looked like except for the eyes, and that seeing them really freaked them out.”
“And they’ve been running people off the road? Chasing them?”
“No one’s been hurt, thank God. But some tourists skidded into a snow drift after the driver thought he saw one of these ghost-things. And some people say they saw them on some of the Puppy Express routes, which took a chunk out of bookings. No one wants to go out on a magical sleighride and get eaten by wild animals.”