Christmas Stalking

by Margaret Daley

  The CFO flushed, redder than the flames behind him. “You’re right. I was only thinking about you and your situation.”

  “She did try to kill you.” Peter sat forward. “There are people last night who were hurt because of her rage. You could have been hurt in the stampede to leave. Or when you were outside. Surely the stink bombs were a ruse to get you outside.”

  Winnie pushed to her feet. “I don’t care. I can’t celebrate a woman’s death.”

  Colt stood up beside her. “Grandma, I don’t think Harold really meant that. He was just showing how happy he is that it’s all over.”

  Harold crossed to Winnie and took her into his arms. “I’m sorry. I never meant to cause you any pain. Please forgive me.”

  She raised her chin and looked at him. “I know you didn’t. I only wish I’d known what was going on in Mary Ann’s head. I could have helped her.”

  Could she forgive like that? Ellie wondered. She still couldn’t forgive her mother for her neglect as she and Toby grew up. If Toby hadn’t had Ellie, he would have had no one to look out for him. He’d needed extra care, and their mother couldn’t be bothered.

  “I applaud you for wanting to help the woman, but she did try to hurt you.” Peter shook his head slowly. “Aren’t you just a little bit angry at her? That’s a natural human response to someone who does something to you.”

  Winnie withdrew from Harold’s embrace. “Did I ever feel anger toward the person behind the threats? Of course, I did. I’m no saint. But if I let that anger take over, I’m the one who is really hurt by it.”

  Peter snorted. “You’re really hurt if they succeed in their plan. I’m sorry. I think people should be held accountable for what they do.”

  “I have to agree with Peter,” Colt said. “Mary Ann had choices. I can’t make excuses for what she put you through. I certainly won’t celebrate her death, but I’m relieved it’s over with. We can all have a normal Christmas.” He looked from Winnie to Ellie.

  Silence hovered over the group as his gaze drew her to him. Ellie gripped the back of a chair and remained still, finally averting her eyes.

  “We’d better head home. I don’t want to get caught out in a snowstorm.” Peter rose right after Christy and put his arm around his fiancée. “Our time is limited since Christy found out she needed to go back to L.A. for a couple of days.”

  “Since when?” Winnie asked.

  “Since last night.” Harold kneaded her shoulder. “I forgot to tell you. I meant to first thing this afternoon, then we started decorating the tree. She is going to appear on Starr’s Take. The talk show hostess felt bad about what happened last night and wants to highlight Christy for a show at the first of the year. That is, if Christy will fly to L.A. tomorrow and tape the segment first thing the next day.”

  “I’ll be back midafternoon Christmas Eve. I don’t want to miss my first one with Peter.” Christy clasped his hand. “We had plans, but he’s been so good about it.”

  “Harold, I can’t believe you didn’t tell me the second you walked into my house,” Winnie said.

  “If you remember correctly, you dragged me over to the box of lights and told me to untangle them.”

  Winnie’s eyes twinkled. “Oh, that’s right. In that case, I know what it’s like to be distracted. I’ve had my share of distractions these past few weeks. No more. I’m diving into Christmas. I might even persuade my grandson to go up to my cabin like we used to.”

  “Not unless the sheriff approves, Winnie.” Harold gave her a kiss on the cheek and prepared to leave.

  Winnie walked with Harold, Peter and Christy to the foyer while Colt stayed back, snatching Ellie as she started to follow his grandmother. “I can’t believe this may be over.”

  “If it is tomorrow, when are you going back to your research vessel?”

  “I’m definitely staying through Christmas now. I want to make sure Winnie is all right. She can beat herself up when she finds out someone is hurting and she didn’t do anything about it. I don’t want her to start blaming herself for not anticipating Mary Ann’s reaction to not getting the job with Endless Youth.”

  “We can’t control other people’s reactions, only our own.”

  Winnie strode into the room. “You two don’t have to worry about me. I’m going to be fine, especially if I can spend some time at the cabin like we used to every Christmas.”

  “So you really are thinking about going up the mountain?” Colt asked.

  “Yes, I know we spent the day decorating the house, but all of this has made me yearn for those simpler days. Thomas and I loved to escape life by going to the cabin.”

  “My fondest memories are of our Christmases spent there.”

  “So you’ll agree to go?” Winnie picked up the coffee cups and put them on the tray Doug had left earlier.

  “Yes.”

  Winnie looked up from the coffee table. “How about you, Ellie? I’d love for you to join us. You’re part of the reason I’m safe and able to go to the cabin. It would be nice to share it with you.”

  “I hate to intrude—”

  “Nonsense. I remember you saying that you don’t have family to spend the holidays with. Consider us your family this year.” Winnie started to lift the tray.

  Colt hurried forward and took it from her. “I agree with Winnie. After all the time you’ve spent protecting her, let us show our appreciation. Please.”

  The look he gave Ellie warmed her insides. She wasn’t quite ready yet to say goodbye to him or Winnie. Which, if she thought about it, was probably a mistake. Clearly she had feelings for them—and she didn’t do emotions well. Still, maybe it was time just to do something impulsive. “I’ll join you, if you’re sure.”

  “Well, then it’s settled. We’ll go if the sheriff thinks it’s okay.” Winnie walked toward the hallway. “I’m suddenly tired. It’s been quite a day—actually, quite a week.”

  After she left to retire for the night, Colt’s gaze seized Ellie’s, a smoldering glint in his gray-blue eyes. “What about you?”

  “I’m surprised I’m not tired. Maybe I had one too many cups of coffee. Caffeine usually doesn’t affect me, though.”

  “I’ll be right back. I’m known around the Kaleidoscope as the night owl, the last to go to sleep and definitely not the first to wake up in the morning.”

  As Colt left with the tray, the warmth of the fire drew Ellie to the sofa nearest the fireplace. She decided that for a short time she was going to enjoy herself. Real life would return when she flew back to Dallas and took another assignment.

  Settling herself on the couch, she lounged back, resting her head against the cushion. The faint sounds of “Silent Night” played in the background. She remembered a Christmas Eve service she went to years ago where at the end the lights were switched off and only candlelight glowed in the dark church. She reached over and shut off the lamp nearby, throwing the room in shadows with only the tree and fire for illumination.

  With a sigh, she relaxed, though she knew she couldn’t surrender her guard totally. Nothing was official concerning Mary Ann. The sheriff still had a few loose ends he wanted cleared up.

  She heard Colt move across the room toward her. The air vibrated with his presence although he was quiet. The cushion gave in when he sat on the sofa only inches from her. His scent vied with the aromas of the fire and the pine tree.

  “Ellie,” he whispered as though he might wake her up if he spoke any louder.

  “I can’t fall asleep that fast.” She opened her eyes and rolled her head to the side to look at him. “I was enjoying the sound of the music and the crackling of the fire.”

  “I can always leave you—”

  She touched her fingertips to his lips. “Shh. The sound of your voice is even better. Tell me about what it was like growing up with W
innie. What happened to your parents?”

  He leaned back, his arm up against hers. “I never really knew my mother. She died shortly after I was born. A massive infection. I guess my father tried to raise me—or more like a series of nannies did. One day when I was four Winnie showed up at the house and found the nanny drinking my dad’s liquor. Winnie took me home with her, and I never left after that.”

  “What about your father?”

  “I saw him occasionally when he wanted something from his parents. Mostly I just heard about his exploits from the servants or sometimes from the news. He played fast and furious. Never cared about the family business. One day he mixed drugs and alcohol, passed out and never woke up. Winnie told me he was mourning my mother’s death. According to my grandmother, he loved her very much and fell apart when she died.”

  “How do you feel about your dad?”

  Colt tensed, sitting up. “I hardly knew the man, so how can I answer that?”

  “Truthfully. You might not have known him well, but that doesn’t stop you from forming an opinion, having feelings about him.”

  For a long moment he sat quietly, his hands clasped together tightly, staring at the coffee table. “The truth is I don’t have much feeling toward him at all. He was the man who happened to sire me, but he wasn’t my father. My granddad filled that position in my life. The same with Winnie. She was my mother.”

  “Do you blame your mother for dying?”

  He turned toward her, again not saying anything, but a war of emotions flitted across his features, everything from anger to surprise to sadness. “I never really thought about it, but I guess I do carry some anger toward her. But ultimately I’m sad I didn’t get to know her. My grandmother told me wonderful stories about her.”

  “It sounds like Winnie and your granddad were here for you.”

  “Yes. That’s why I feel like I’m letting Winnie down.”

  “How so?”

  “I pursued my own interests and became a marine biologist, but there’s a part of me that enjoys watching my grandmother create a product. I had a double major in chemistry and marine biology, but I went on to get my doctorate in marine biology because that interested me the most. I got the chemistry degree for my grandparents, but I did like the field.”

  “Then why did you become a marine biologist?”

  “To see what I could accomplish alone, without the Winfield name.” His mouth lifted in a lopsided grin. “How about you? What were your parents like?”

  She’d wanted to get to know Colt better and should have realized he would want to do the same. “I don’t talk about my childhood. It’s behind me. Not something I care to revisit.”

  One of his eyebrows rose. “I should share my whole life story with you, but yours is off-limits?”

  “I said I don’t talk about it, but I’ll make an exception with you.”

  “Why?”

  “Because...” She didn’t know how to say what she felt was developing between them because she had never been good at relationships. She was better as a loner, and her job made that easier.

  “Because of what’s happening between us?”

  “What is that?” Help me to understand.

  He shifted toward her, crowding her space. “I wish I knew. I do know I’m attracted to you. That if our circumstances were different, we could be friends—good friends. Maybe...” He swallowed hard.

  “More?”

  He nodded. “You feel it, too?”

  “Yes. But you’re right. Our lives are in different parts of the world and—”

  He bent forward and kissed her hard, cutting off her words, robbing her of a decent breath. But she didn’t care. She returned his kiss with her own fervent feelings. Intense, overwhelming. Threatening her emotionally.

  She pulled back, one part of her not wanting to end the kiss, but the sensible part of her demanding she act now before she surrendered her heart to Colt. “You know, all this talk has worn me out. I’d better do my rounds then go to bed.”

  She got to her feet and put some space between them before he coaxed her to stay. He wouldn’t have to say much. She skirted around the coffee table and started for the hallway.

  “Ellie.”

  She turned toward him.

  “I’m a good listener. When you want to talk about your parents, I’m here.”

  She strode across the foyer, making sure the alarm system was on and working. Then she began with the dining room, examining the windows to verify they were locked. Not many people had ever told her they would listen to her about her past, but then she’d rarely given anyone the chance. Colt was scaling the walls she kept up around herself. Was it time to let him in?

  * * *

  Late the next afternoon, not long before the sun went down, Ellie propped her shoulder against a post on the porch of the mountain cabin. The Winfield place was nothing like the image of a tiny log cabin she had in her mind. Though the bottom portion was made out of logs, the three-bedroom A-frame was huge and imposing. The smoke from the huge stone fireplace, its wisps entwining with the falling snow, scented the crisp air. A large mug with Linda’s delicious hot chocolate, which she’d sent with them before they’d climbed into the four-wheel-drive Jeep and trekked up to the top of the mountain, warmed her bare hands.

  The cabin door opened and closed. Colt came to stand beside her with his own drink. “It’s beautiful up here. The view when it isn’t snowing is breathtaking.”

  “Will this snow be a problem?”

  “The weather report says this system should move out fairly fast. We’ll probably get six or seven inches. Nothing we can’t handle. But we have enough food for four or five days. We always come prepared with almost twice what we need and there are staples left up here. Doug and Linda use the cabin throughout the year.”

  “I was glad to see you had a landline. I knew the cell reception was nonexistent this far up the mountain. I don’t want to be totally cut off from civilization.”

  “Mary Ann can’t hurt Winnie anymore. The ME ruled it a suicide, and the sheriff couldn’t find anything to indicate she wasn’t working alone. Winnie is tickled they have a lead on where the dogs could have been sold.”

  “That’ll be a nice Christmas present for Winnie if they find the dogs and they’re back at the estate when she comes down off the mountain.”

  “If it’s possible, Sheriff Quinn and Doug will make it happen.”

  “Winnie has a lot of people who care about her and watch out for her. That says a lot about her.”

  Colt’s gaze snared hers. “How about you? You told me once your brother died when you were young. Do you have any more siblings?”

  “Nope. It was just him and me. He was my twin.”

  “That had to be extra hard on you.”

  “Yes it was. He had a congenital heart defect that finally got the best of him.”

  “How old were you?”

  “Thirteen.”

  “How were your parents?”

  Suddenly the cold seemed to seep through the layers of clothing Ellie wore. She shivered, taking a large swallow of the now lukewarm chocolate. “I’d better go back inside before I freeze.”

  In the cabin, Winnie sat in a chair before the fire, knitting. Ellie stopped a few feet into the great room.

  Winnie glanced up. “These past few years I haven’t gotten to knit like I used to. I found my needles and some yarn and decided to see if I remembered how.” A smile curved her mouth, her hands moving quickly.

  “It looks like you remember.”

  “Yes. A nice surprise. The second I stepped inside the cabin I felt like a new woman. My product line is finished, at least for the time being, and the person after me has been found. I’d say that was a wonderful Christmas gift.” She lifted the patch of yar
n. “And now this. Have you ever knitted?”

  Laughing, Ellie took the chair across from her. “I wouldn’t be able to sit still long enough to do it. That’s something I’ll leave to others.”

  “I might just make this into a scarf for you. That way you won’t forget me when you get back to Dallas and go onto another assignment.”

  “Forget you?” Ellie shook her head. “That’s not gonna happen. You’re an amazing woman.”

  A hint of red colored her cheeks. “Where’s my grandson?”

  “Communing with nature,” Ellie said with a shrug.

  “I’m glad you didn’t change your mind about coming.” Winnie paused and leaned toward her, lowering her voice. “I was sure you would.”

  “Why?”

  “I saw you yesterday while we were decorating and celebrating. You weren’t totally comfortable with the whole scene. I imagine since you go from one place to another because of your job, you don’t do much for the holidays. Who did you spend Thanksgiving with this year?”

  “No one. I microwaved a turkey dinner and celebrated alone. I have a standing invitation to Kyra’s, but I hate always intruding on her and her husband. They’re practically newlyweds.”

  “Kind of painful sometimes being around a couple deeply in love when you aren’t.”

  “That’s not it. I just...” Just what? she asked herself. In truth, Winnie was probably right. Kyra and Michael were always so good to include her in whatever they were doing, but she saw the looks exchanged between them—full of love that excluded everyone else in the room. She’d never had a man look at her like that—not even Greg, who she had thought she would marry one day. “It’s not that I want a relationship, but there are times I get lonely.”

  “We all do. And why don’t you want a relationship? You have a lot to offer a man.”

  Ellie peered at the front door, relieved it was still closed and Colt was outside. “I don’t think I’d be very good at it. I’ve always depended on myself for everything.”

  “Everything? Not God a little bit?”