Christmas Blackout

by Maggie K. Black

  Dominic clasped his hands together like a fighter ready to enter the ring. “Now, Pips, tell me what I can do to help you pull off Christmas Eve at The Downs. You want me to start calling around to church and school halls? You want me to round up volunteers and see who’s still able to get here? I can get my whole extended family worth of cousins, plus the youth group of my church here in minutes.”

  “Thank you. Get some coffee into you and then we’ll make a game plan.” Piper’s gaze ran over Benjamin’s tree. “I think we’re going to hold Christmas Eve here, in this room. It will be crowded and mean some last-minute adjustments. Especially if the power doesn’t come back on. But people can bring backup generators and hot plates, and we can light candles. We can make it work.” She felt Dominic nod his assent, but she only had eyes for Benjamin. “It’s been a long time since we’ve held Christmas here. I think it’s time to bring it home.”

  By the time the clock chimed nine thirty, The Downs was standing room only. Good to his word, Dominic had not only rounded up his entire extended family, but teenagers from three different youth groups, many of whom had brought friends and family members of their own. Boxes of donated Christmas decorations filled the garage. Uncle Des had organized a minibus of seniors from Silver Halls, many of whom were now seated around the dining room table teaching the youngsters how to make decorations. Aunt Cass had hit the phones and was getting a faithful crew of volunteer cooks to amend their menus. The driveway was being plowed to make more space for cars. A bonfire was coming together on the wide expanse of snow between the house and hill. Garlands of freshly cut pine branches and bows were being strung from the balcony railing above her. Even Tobias had turned up after hearing the news from someone at the local bookshop. The plump professor was now directing a makeshift Christmas choir on the staircase. And every few moments the front doorbell rang with loans of plates and cutlery, candles, battery lamps and backup generators.

  Piper stood in the living room and watched the hustle of energy and life flow around her.

  Lord, I had no idea this was possible. Just... Thank You.

  “You doing okay?” A comforting hand brushed her shoulder, as Benjamin’s voice rumbled softly in her ear.

  “Yeah. I’m good.” She stepped backward into his chest and pulled his arm around her shoulders. “You’re going now, right?”

  He’d changed back into the clothes he’d been wearing the day before. He’d hand-washed them and gotten out the dirt, but there was no helping the gaping holes and grease stains in his jeans.

  “Yeah, I’m sorry. I have to. My sister’s getting married in a little over eight hours, and I’ve got a seven-hour drive ahead of me. But call me if you need anything. Or if you can’t reach me because I’m out of cell phone range, call my sister and leave a message there. I left her number on the pad beside your phone.”

  “It’s okay.” She turned around inside his arms and his strong hands brushed the small of her back. “You go be where you need to be. I’m going to be just fine. Promise.”

  They were standing in the middle of the living room, while people rushed around and chaos reigned around them. But, in that moment, it was as if nothing else existed but his eyes on her face and his arms hugging her goodbye.

  “I wish you could come with me,” he said softly. “And I wish I could stay to help with Christmas Eve.”

  “Well, I don’t wish you could stay.” Not at The Downs. Not forever. Because it’s not who you are. It’s not where you belong or what would make you happy. “You’ve waited all your life for this trip. So you go. Just say goodbye, hug me tight and then go.”

  “It might take a few days before I leave. I still have to sort my passport and rebook my flight. If I have a bit more time—”

  “Just go. Don’t look back. I don’t want to have to keep saying goodbye to you over and over again.”

  She closed her eyes and felt the scruff of his beard on her cheek. Then his lips hovered over hers.

  “Hey! Isn’t that Benji Duff?” a young voice shouted from somewhere behind her. “Hey, dude, look! I think that’s the snowmobile crash guy! Yo! Benji! What did it feel like to almost die?”

  Benjamin kissed her on the top of her head. Then he stepped back. “Goodbye, Piper.”

  She took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. When she opened her eyes, he was gone. She blinked hard. No, she wasn’t going to cry.

  “Piper, honey? Can you come here a second?” Aunt Cass’s voice cut through the noise inside the house. “I was just telling people about the wonderful paper decorations you made for us years ago. I was wondering if you wanted to show us.”

  Piper nodded. “Sure thing.”

  She suspected her aunt was trying to give her a distraction, something to keep her hands busy while she calmed the raging battle of emotions inside her heart. For that, she was grateful.

  She walked over to the dining-room table and sat down. Her hands reached, unseeing, for a scrap of newspaper and tore it into triangular strips. Tear, fold, weave. Set aside. Grab a new sheet. Tear, fold, weave. If she just keep her hands moving, let the pain move through her like a river, she’d be fine.

  “Hey, who taught you to make paper stars?”

  She looked up. Dominic was standing above her on the stairs. His eyebrow rose. Oddly, he looked more than a little troubled. It was worrying.

  “Nobody taught me to do this. It’s just some craft I invented as a kid.”

  Aunt Cass patted her arm. “She made a huge, beautiful newspaper star for me this way when she was about eight or nine. Used to sit on top of my tree.” Her aunt’s eyes darkened. “It was one of the things that we lost that Christmas Eve six years ago.”

  Dominic’s face paled. As Piper watched, his hand rose to his mouth. Then he turned and darted up the stairs.

  What on earth?

  Piper jumped up and followed after him. She caught up to him part way up the stairs. “What’s up with you?”

  “I’m so sorry, Pips! I think I did a really stupid thing. But believe me, I didn’t know!”

  FOURTEEN

  Dominic clenched his hands. Whatever he’d done had left him so agitated it almost frightened her. She glanced through the large front windows. Benjamin was standing in the driveway, saying goodbye to Uncle Des. By the look of things, two teenaged boys had followed them out. One of them was now trying to get Benjamin to autograph his hat.

  Dominic edged his way up the staircase, weaving his way around the staircase choir. He disappeared into his guest room.

  She rapped on the door. “Look, Dominic. I’m your friend. Whatever you did, whatever you’re upset about, you can tell me.”

  There was a long pause. Then the cop-in-training opened the suite door. His shoulders hunched. “I kissed someone I shouldn’t have kissed.”

  That’s it? Piper’s gaze ran down to the mass of people teeming below. Her friend was having a crisis, on Christmas Eve, over an ill-advised romantic interlude? “Who did you kiss?”

  Dominic’s gaze dropped to his feet. “Charlotte.”

  “You kissed Charlotte?” Piper’s voice rose to a shriek.

  Dominic nodded miserably. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know what kind of person she was.”

  How could he have possibly kept a secret like this from her?

  She ushered him into the room. “When was this? Recently? Is she nearby? When are you seeing her again?”

  “No, of course not! It was six years ago!”

  Piper’s shoulders sank.

  Dominic’s gaze dropped to his feet. “We hit it off the night you brought her here. But she told me we could only be friends in secret and you could never know. We used to meet in the trees. She had this terrible former boyfriend she was really scared of. She was afraid he was going to come to The Downs and cause trouble. One night I was co
mforting her. Then the next thing I knew, she was kissing me.”

  She probably shouldn’t be surprised, after all this lined up with everything she already knew.

  “I didn’t know she was going to rob you,” Dominic said, his voice rising. “She said she was going away for a while and that I shouldn’t try to find her, but that she’d come back as soon as she could. She gave me this beautiful newspaper star on Christmas Eve and told me she’d made it for me because I was such a nice guy. I had no idea she’d stolen it from you. Honest, Piper! If I had, I’d have made sure you got it back. She made me promise I’d keep it forever. But I was so embarrassed after everything that happened I just hid it in a box in the cupboard because I thought it was just some random Christmas thing.”

  Piper ran her hand through her hair. He’d been only about nineteen at the time. She couldn’t begin to imagine the turmoil his emotions must have been in. “Where’s the star now?”

  He looked around the room. “In one of the boxes of stuff in my car. That’s why I ran to my room right now. I thought I might’ve brought it in. But it must still be in the trunk of the car.”

  In Dominic’s car? The car that he’d lent to Benjamin to drive to Manitoulin Island? She ran to the window and looked out just in time to see Benjamin shut the driver’s-side door. She squeezed Dominic’s shoulder. “It’s okay. Please don’t worry about it. Charlotte made a fool out of a lot of us. I’m going to run and try to grab Benjamin before he leaves.”

  A handmade newspaper star from her childhood might be a small thing. But it would still be one special thing she could do for Aunt Cass. She dashed down the stairs, grabbing her coat as she sprinted out the front door.

  “Benjamin!” The car was pulling away. She chased it down the driveway, waving both hands over her head. “Hey, wait!”

  But the small red car pulled onto the road and disappeared.

  She went back to the house and shrugged off her coat, feeling like a balloon whose air was slowly seeping out. One of his sister’s friends would be driving the car back for Dominic a few days after the wedding. She could get the star back then.

  But, watching Benjamin drive away while she’d run after him waving frantically caused a pain that stung her chest.

  True, he hadn’t noticed she was there. Yet, she’d really wanted to remember the other goodbye, the final one of this Christmas. The one where she was strong, composed and encouraged him to go. Not one where she chased after him frantically, even if she was only after a sentimental newspaper Christmas craft.

  “Hey, did anyone bring some string? I’m running low and wanted to weave some bows through the banister.” The request came from the teenaged boy standing above on the balcony.

  “Absolutely,” Piper called up. “Pretty sure I’ve got both fishing wire and a roll of twine downstairs.”

  Her feet echoed down the stairs into the empty basement. A cold breeze brushed her body as the door swung shut behind her. She paused a moment and let her eyes to adjust to the darkness. A few moments alone to compose herself probably wasn’t a bad idea. Besides she’d always liked the cellar. It was crowded, cluttered and comforting, far too small for a house the size of The Downs, and full of hidden nooks and crannies. Mysterious and peaceful all at once.

  She heard something crash in the darkness. She glanced up, just in time to see a flash of blond hair peeking out from under a navy ski mask. Blondie!

  “Hey! Stop!” Piper dashed after her.

  Blondie climbed onto a low shelf and then leaped through the open basement window.

  If the woman thought after all this Piper would let her just run, she had another thought coming. Piper sprinted across the basement floor, dove through the window and crawled out into the snow. Ahead of her she could see a slim figure running for the trees.

  Nice try, Blondie, but nobody outruns an athlete on her home turf.

  Piper dashed after her through the snow. When Blondie hesitated, Piper lunged, catching the slender woman around the knees and throwing her into the snow.

  Blondie struggled wildly, but Piper flipped her over and pinned her down hard.

  She yanked the ski mask off, taking the fake blond wig along with it.

  She stared down at the thin, short-haired brunette lying in the snow.

  Trisha.

  So, the blond hair had been fake. Did that mean... She glanced at the woman’s slender waist. Trisha’s pregnant belly had been fake, too. Piper shook her head. Benjamin had been right when he said the right clothes could do a lot to disguise the shape of someone’s body.

  “Where is Alpha?” Piper said. “What on earth has he gotten you into?”

  * * *

  The windshield wipers cut back and forth past Benjamin’s eyes. Less than an hour after leaving Piper’s he was caught inside an unexpected snow squall. He’d taken Des’s advice and stuck to empty back roads instead of the main highway and, according to the snippets of traffic and weather he was able to catch on the intermittent radio, he’d made the right choice. But still the car was crawling forward and the snow was so thick it was practically a whiteout.

  Dominic’s car was tiny. Way lighter on the road than the comforting bulk of Benjamin’s four-wheel drive truck. Even with the front seat slid all the way back Benjamin could barely make room for his cramped legs. The boxes Dominic had left in the back made visibility even harder. He’d driven his sister’s hatchback from time to time, when circumstances demanded it, but why any grown man would voluntarily drive such a small car was beyond him.

  A sudden pang of sadness nicked his heart.

  He really missed his truck.

  Along with his torn bag, his clothes, his passport—and the sense of certainty he’d had in his heart just two days earlier.

  He glanced in the rearview mirror. Was that another set of headlights behind him? He couldn’t even remember the last time he’d been passed by another vehicle. There was no music on the radio, nothing in the tape deck and nothing to see out the window but an endless stream of white in all directions.

  Nothing to distract him from thoughts of Piper.

  Nothing to keep the smell of her hair, the touch of her hand, or the curve of her smile from taking over the corners of his mind and driving him crazy. How was he ever going to manage missing her this much? How soon would it be until thoughts of her faded away?

  His cell phone started to ring from its mount on the dashboard. He pushed the button. “Hello?”

  “Benji?” Meg’s voice echoed through the tiny car.

  “Hey, sis! All is well. I’m still on my way. At this rate I’ll be there by five thirty.”

  He heard Meg breathe a prayer of relief under her breath.

  His eyes rose to the rearview mirror again. Those headlights were growing closer.

  Was someone actually going to try to pass him in weather like this?

  “You’ve got to speak louder,” he said. “I’m using the phone hands-free. In fact, I should hang up soon. It’s like driving through a milk shake.”

  “Okay. Can you send your GPS location to my phone, so I have a sense where you’re at?”

  “Sorry, I forgot.” Fortunately he had a map function installed on his phone that not only kept track of where in the world he was, but emailed it to others. Meg was already preprogrammed in. All it took was the push of a button. “Done. You should be able to see my whole route. But my exact location may not be that accurate, though, as I keep blipping in and out of cell-tower range.” The headlights behind him now filled his rearview mirror. “I’ve gotta go. See you soon.”

  “Drive safe.”

  “Will do.” He hung up and gripped the steering wheel with both hands.

  The vehicle behind was far too close for his liking now. It was big, too. A large, old pickup truck apparently being driven by the kind of person
who thought they owned the road. The truck inched closer.

  Hey, buddy, back it up, okay. There’s no reason we can’t share. Benjamin slowed even more and nudged the car over to the side of the road, giving as much room as possible for the other vehicle to pass. The truck pulled alongside him. Benjamin glanced toward the other vehicle and gave what he hoped looked like a friendly wave toward the tinted window. Just go ahead and pass. This doesn’t have to be a race. We’ve all got places to be this Christmas.

  The truck didn’t pass. The truck’s passenger window rolled down. Benjamin’s blood froze as he looked over into the cold dead eyes of the man who’d threatened Piper and come hunting for Charlotte.

  Kodiak raised his gun and fired.

  Benjamin’s window exploded inward. The bullet barely missed him before coming to rest in the passenger-side door. Glass filled the front seat.

  Benjamin gripped the wheel tightly. He forced his gaze on the road ahead and his heart to the God above.

  Help me, Lord. Help me. I can’t outrun Kodiak in this car. I can’t escape him. I—

  Another gunshot.

  This one clanged somewhere on the body of the car.

  The prayer choked in Benjamin’s throat. His mind froze. He was trapped.

  Just like that moment, almost sixteen years ago, when he’d seen the headlights of that transport truck barreling through the snow toward him and had been convinced he was going to die.

  Another shot exploded his front tire and the car spun off the road. It crashed through the barrier and careened down the hill.

  He rolled, side over side, through the trees. Then slammed to a stop upside down as an air bag exploded in his face.

  The seat belt snapped him back against the seat holding him upside down in the overturned car.

  The sound of the horn filled his ears.

  He started to pray. Lord, please don’t let me die this way. Not on Meg’s wedding day. Not on Christmas Eve. Piper needs...

  Darkness swam before his eyes. He could feel the deep pull of unconsciousness at the corner of his mind now, like an old enemy waiting to strike. He gritted his teeth and tried to resume his prayer but he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was about to pass out. His eyes wouldn’t open. His limbs wouldn’t move. Time seemed to ebb and flow around him, as he fought to stay in control.