Maverick Christmas

by Joanna Wayne

  Mandy pressed her little hands against Chrysie’s cheeks. “I wanna ride in the sleigh.”

  “Not now, Mandy.” Chrysie turned away from the door, looking around as her eyes adjusted to the dim light. A vintage Chevrolet on blocks occupied the right half of the structure, and the sleigh took up the left. Behind them were a workbench, the four-wheeler with parts to the engine lying on the floor beside it and a shiny two-seated snowmobile that looked to be brand-new.

  “Where’re the horses?” Mandy asked.

  “In the pasture,” Chrysie whispered. She scanned the garage looking for a place to hide and wondering if she dared stay here. Would the men leave when they didn’t find her and Mandy in the house? Or would they search the garage next?

  Her gut instinct was to just take off running, but how fast could she run carrying Mandy and sloshing through the snow?

  Her gaze fixed on the snowmobile. She’d only ridden a snowmobile once, and that had been on a ski trip back when she was in college. The ride had ended in disaster when she’d buried the vehicle in a snowdrift and it had taken two men to pull it out.

  A blast of gunfire shattered the quiet. Chrysie held her breath, paralyzed by a new wave of terror. Had Cougar fired that shot? Or was he dead, lying in the cabin in a pool of blood the way Jonathan had been? The image spurred her to action.

  She kicked open the door, then ran to the back of the garage, grabbing one of the blankets from the sleigh as she raced by it. Cocooning Mandy in the blanket, she tucked her into the small passenger seat.

  She pushed the machine out the door, then jumped on board and gunned the engine. The machine lurched forward, then took off on a jerky path across the snow.

  Chrysie didn’t dare look back as she gained more control of the snowmobile and sped across the open fields and into the hilly area just behind the house. If she could disappear fast enough, the monsters might not even see her escape.

  That hope died when she heard a round of gunfire and saw a bullet ricochet off a huge boulder just a few feet ahead of her.

  She topped a hill and started down it, hoping that put her out of the men’s sight, though she couldn’t be sure. All she could do was drive as fast as she could and hope she didn’t smash the vehicle into a rock or tree or skid into a snowbank.

  The icy wind cut through her. She didn’t mind it for herself but worried for Mandy. The girl must think her mother had totally lost her mind, but to her credit, she wasn’t screaming or crying.

  Chrysie was going way too fast, but she didn’t dare slow down. The men couldn’t have followed her in their car, but if they’d thought of it, they might have commandeered a couple of Josh’s horses. Of course, they’d have had to find them first.

  She kept driving, over one hill and down another, past pine trees and along the banks of creeks, around boulders and fallen limbs. At one point a deer crossed a few feet in front of them. Mandy squealed her pleasure.

  Finally, cold to the bone, Chrysie slowed and studied her surroundings. There was nothing but acres of snow-covered terrain, and all of it looked pretty much the same for as far as she could see. It was probably near noon, but she couldn’t be sure since she’d taken off her watch when she’d started kneading cookie dough, and the sun had disappeared behind layers of low clouds.

  There was no sign that they were being followed. She sucked in a deep breath, then started shaking as a new terror took hold in her brain. What about Jenny? What if the murderous thugs showed up at her school and kidnapped her? What if they…?

  Mandy’s scream snapped her to attention.

  They were headed right for a cluster of towering pine trees. Chrysie spun the steering wheel, missing the trees but sending the snowmobile into a roll. When it stopped moving, they were buried in a snowdrift.

  Chrysie’s ears were ringing when she reached for Mandy. “Are you okay?”

  “I’ve got snow in my eyes.”

  “Me, too, baby. Me, too.” Chrysie bit back tears as she lifted Mandy out of the snow and carried her back to the shelter of the trees. Not that the pines provided much shelter from the cold or the dampness.

  But at least they were alive. She wondered if that were true of Cougar.

  But her real fears were for Jenny. If only she could talk to Josh. He’d go to school, pick up Jenny and keep her safe. And then he’d find a way to rescue her and Mandy. Or maybe he’d just get shot by the killers, too.

  “Wanna go home,” Mandy said.

  “We will soon, sweetie.” That just might be the cruelest lie she’d ever told.

  JOSH BALANCED the phone between his chin and shoulder and scribbled down the pertinent details he’d just learned about Jonathan Harwell’s past—facts he’d be willing to bet that Chrysie had never heard. “I knew I could count on you, Grecco.”

  “Hey, what are buds for? So why are you so concerned with a dead guy?”

  “Some dead men cast a long shadow.”

  “That might be true, but I know you too well to think you’re wasting time chasing shadows.”

  “I’ll fill you in once I get to Houston.”

  “I’ll hold you to that.”

  Eager to share his new knowledge with Chrysie, Josh broke the connection and punched in his home phone number. He hung up after the tenth ring. They must have gone outside for some fresh air and exercise before the storm came in. He rang Cougar’s cell number. After the third ring, the acid started gnawing away at the lining of Josh’s stomach.

  He was worrying for nothing. Cougar wasn’t as young and strong as he used to be, but he was as dependable as they came. Chrysie and Mandy were in good hands with him. But that reassurance turned sour when a computerized voice cut in asking Josh if he’d like to leave a message. He left one, a string of curses that did nothing toward relieving his anxiety.

  Apprehension was kicking around inside him big-time as he punched in Chrysie’s cell phone number. Still no answer. Damn. He’d thought he and Chrysie were on the same page now, but he might have gotten those signals all wrong. She could have found some way to run again—but not without Jenny.

  He called the elementary school and had them see if Jenny Atwater had been checked out of school. They wouldn’t have given that information out to just anyone. Being sheriff carried its privileges.

  Jenny was still at school, and there was no way Chrysie had taken off without her. She had to be at the ranch with Mandy and Cougar. Maybe the approaching storm had messed up the phone service. Maybe—

  He grabbed his jacket and keys and raced for the door of his office, kicking a chair out of his way rather than going around it.

  In a matter of seconds he was speeding down the highway with his portable lights flashing red and blue and his siren blaring. He tried all the numbers again, struggling to convince himself there was a logical reason for not reaching them, though by now he knew there wasn’t. The only explanation was that the sons of bitches who’d killed Jonathan Harwell had shown up at the ranch.

  Josh’s chest felt as if someone were smashing it with a baseball bat. He’d run along the edge all his life, driven in the fast lane, flirted with danger as if he couldn’t get enough of it. But nothing had ever scared him the way he was scared right now. He’d blow their evil friggin’ heads off if they’d laid a hand on Chrysie or Mandy.

  He made a couple of calls to ensure the safety of Jenny and the boys while he sped to his ranch.

  The snow had started to fall a lot harder by the time Josh slammed on his brakes in front of his cabin. Black clouds of swirling smoke poured though the open front door, and the acrid smell of burned food seemed to peel the skin from his nostrils as he drew his gun and raced up the path and into the house.

  Wary, he kept his back to the wall as he yelled for Chrysie and Cougar and searched the house. He worked his way to the kitchen and turned off the oven. Wherever they’d gone, they’d left in a hurry.

  Coughing, he stepped to the back door to escape the blinding, choking smoke. That’s when he saw the blood
, a stream of it working its way across the porch and down the back steps, deep red as it cut a path through the snow. And just to the right of the door he saw Cougar, lying facedown in a sticky crimson pool, his cell phone at the tips of his outstretched fingers.

  Josh’s hands shook as he knelt beside the man, and even as he checked Cougar’s weak pulse, he called for an ambulance. He tried to get Cougar to tell him what had happened to Chrysie and Mandy, but the deputy was unconscious and probably on the brink of death. He’d lost too much blood.

  There was nothing he could do for Cougar, but he prayed that wouldn’t be true of Chrysie and Mandy. After bringing the injured man inside he raced around the outside of the house. Any tracks the killers had left would be covered soon.

  He found tire tracks of a car and remnants of two sets of large footprints going to and from the house. None of the prints belonged to either Chrysie or Mandy, and there was no sign of anything having been dragged.

  But there were other prints, as well, going to and from the garage, and some of them appeared to belong to Chrysie and Mandy.

  He raced to the garage, afraid of what he might find, barely able to breathe until he saw the snowmobile tracks. His pulse skyrocketed. The tracks had to mean that Chrysie and Mandy had escaped. Unable to follow, the men would have taken the car and driven away.

  But if Chrysie and Mandy were in the snowmobile, they could be anywhere. He had to find them before the snow covered the tracks. If they were stranded a night in the predicted blizzard…

  He spun around and stared at the four-wheeler with parts of the engine still scattered about the floor. He cursed himself for leaving it in that condition, then realized that had he not, the men who’d shot Cougar would have used it to give Chrysie chase.

  Working at lightning speed, he screwed the parts back in place and revved the engine. It sputtered but finally came to life. Josh gunned the accelerator and took off, following the trail left by the snowmobile.

  Dozens of frightening scenarios still lurked at the corners of his mind. He pushed them away. He had to believe Chrysie and Mandy had somehow escaped and that he’d find them before it was too late. The frigid wind hit him in the face as he bounced across the snow, going airborne as he sped across one hill after another.

  He dodged a bull that refused to move and stirred up a moose that disappeared into the heavily wooded area just north of the creek. The snow was falling harder now, making it difficult to see and almost impossible to follow the tracks.

  Finally he lost the tracks completely. Josh stopped and looked around. If he just drove on blindly, he might be going in the opposite direction. He needed help, needed searchers to comb the area. Needed a helicopter search, but even if he could get someone to go up, he doubted how much the rescuers could see in the worsening storm.

  He’d promised he could keep Chrysie and the girls safe, but he’d failed them. Now she and Mandy were lost on his ranch, with a blizzard coming on fast. He buried his head in his hand as the pressure swelled between his temples. He had to do something.

  His hand was on the throttle when he heard the faint sound of “Jingle Bells” floating along on the piercing wind. The song stopped as he slid off the four-wheeler, yelling their names. “Mandy! Maaaandy? Chrysie!”

  “Josh!”

  His heart slammed against his rib cage. He took off running toward the sound. Chrysie was sitting under a pine tree, cuddling Mandy, who was wrapped up like an Indian papoose in the old wool blanket from the sleigh. He fell to his knees beside them.

  “They were here,” Chrysie said shakily through lips that were starting to turn blue.

  “I know.” Josh tried to say more, but words just wouldn’t come. Not yet. He was shaken all the way to his soul. He’d come too close to losing Chrysie, and the intensity of his relief was almost as frightening as the situation.

  “I wanna go home,” Mandy said.

  “And that’s where we’re going,” he said. He took Mandy from Chrysie’s arms and helped Chrysie to her feet.

  “Where’s Jenny?” Chrysie whispered.

  “She’s fine. She and the boys are both fine. I made sure of that.”

  “And Cougar?”

  “He’s alive.” He let it go at that, and Chrysie didn’t ask for more. There would be a lot to talk about later. Plans to make. Killers to catch. Blame to accept.

  But right now just knowing Chrysie and Mandy were safe was enough for him.

  THEY’D LEFT THE windows and doors open all afternoon, let the blustery winds from the storm suck the smoke from the house. The bedrooms had fared well, but the smoke had saturated walls and furniture in the kitchen and den, and even now that it was near midnight, the den still carried a burning stench.

  He’d put the boys’ sleeping bags on the floor beside the bunk beds. He wasn’t sure where he’d sleep—or if he’d sleep.

  Josh held the phone in his right hand and a cup of steaming coffee in his left while he waited for his brother to pick up on the other end. He didn’t know how he’d explain all of this to Logan in a phone conversation, but he’d have to manage, since he was planning to ask a major favor.

  “Hello, Josh.”

  “Hope I didn’t interrupt anything.”

  “At one in the morning?”

  “Sorry. It’s not quite that late here.”

  “So does this late-night call have anything to do with the complications you mentioned the other day?”

  “Yeah, and things are getting more complicated by the minute. Which is why I have a favor to ask.”

  “Anything. You know that.”

  “In that case, look for a noisy menagerie to arrive in New Orleans as soon as the storm’s over and our airport reopens. You’ll have to pick them up, of course.”

  “Whoa. Menagerie?”

  “Four children under the age of seven.”

  “Would that include my adorable nephews?”

  “Yes, and two just as adorable little girls, ages five and three.”

  “Okay, big brother, start talking. Give me the whole scoop.”

  “Well, there’s this woman….”

  “Isn’t there always?”

  NOT ONLY HAD LOGAN agreed to take Chrysie and the children and keep them safe for a few days, but talking to him had helped Josh clarify a few things in his own mind, especially about how the killers had tracked Chrysie to Aohkii.

  He’d have to play this very carefully from here on out, but he knew what he had to do. He’d dig as deeply as he needed into Jonathan Harwell’s past and find out exactly what had led to the man’s murder. And when he discovered the motive behind the killing, he’d know the identity of the killers.

  It was the only way to prove Chrysie’s innocence, the only way to free her from the danger that had entrapped her and the girls for three long years.

  He finished his coffee, checked on the kids, then noticed the light was still shining beneath the door to Chrysie’s bedroom. Obviously she couldn’t sleep either. He tiptoed to the door and knocked softly.

  “Come in,” she whispered, opening the door for him.

  She was a vision in a pale pink nightshirt that fell just above her knees. She looked soft and feminine and incredibly vulnerable, and he hated thinking of all she’d been through that day.

  Her short blond hair was still wet from the shower. She pushed it back from her face and tucked it behind her ears. “Have you heard anything more on Cougar’s condition?”

  “He made it though surgery. He’s still on the critical list. The doctor told Cougar’s wife that if he makes it through the next twenty-four hours, he has a good chance of making a full recovery.”

  “Thank God.”

  She walked to the window and stared out into the storm that was still rattling the windows and blowing snow against the panes. “You should never have brought me here, Josh. If you hadn’t, Cougar wouldn’t be fighting for his life.”

  The pain bled through her voice. Josh could stand it no more. He walked up behind
her and put his arms about her waist. “None of this is your fault, Chrysie.”

  “I should have told the police the truth from the beginning. They might have caught the killers and put them behind bars.”

  “Or they might have killed you just as they threatened.” He tugged her around to face him. Her eyes were moist. “Those guys are thugs, but they’re not invincible. We’ll stop them, and you and the girls will be free to live your lives.”

  “You make it sound easy.”

  “All in a day’s work.” He was striving to lighten the moment but didn’t pull it off. He took her hands in his. “We can do this, Chrysie. I’ll need your help, but we can do it.”

  She shook her head. “It’s too dangerous and you’ve done enough. I can’t let you do more. I can’t keep risking the girls’ lives.”

  “So what are you suggesting? That we just hand the victory to those two-bit hoodlums?”

  “I’ve made up my mind, Josh. It’s over. I’m turning myself in to the Houston police.” She turned away and wiped a tear from her eye. “In fact, I’ve already called them.”

  Chapter Ten

  Josh reeled at Chrysie’s statement. “How could you do something like that without talking to me first?”

  “This isn’t about you, Josh. It’s about me and my children. Mandy could have been killed today. I can’t keep gambling with their lives.”

  “And just how will your being in jail make them safer?”

  “I talked to Detective Hernandez. He promised me that he’d see they were protected while he investigated my story. I have no choice but to believe him.”

  “Detective Juan Hernandez?”

  “Yes. Do you know him?”

  “He’s the same cop I talked to when I called to ask about Dr. Cassandra Harwell.” Josh paced the room. It seemed a lifetime ago that he’d made that call. Cassandra Harwell had been a virtual stranger. It was difficult to justify what he’d heard about that woman with the young, vulnerable mother who’d moved into his home, into his heart. Hell, it was difficult to justify his own actions.