Countdown to First Night: Winter's HeartSnowbound at New YearA Kiss at Midnight

by Jillian Hart

  “So the police never could locate it?”

  “No. They figured it has to be important, since Rainwater killed a man over it. Usually others do his dirty work. The ledger probably details his contacts and operation. Thomas Perkins was in a position to know that.”

  “So how did Esther go missing? Maybe she left the program.” She knew that was wishful thinking. When she’d stressed the importance of staying put, the woman always did. She’d been scared of her husband and now, knowing who the man worked for, Arianna could understand why.

  “No, the Deputy U.S. Marshal running the case said it didn’t look like she had. It was obvious there had been a fight. There was blood found on the carpet. It was her type.”

  Anger tangled with sadness and won. “She didn’t have a security detail on her?”

  “She was relocated thousands of miles away with a new identity.”

  “Then maybe you have a leak.” She pivoted back to the sink, her stomach roiling with rage that a good woman was probably dead. This wouldn’t have happened if they had stayed at Esther’s lawyer’s office for another hour or so. Why, God? It had tested her faith, and now with the situation with Rainwater, her doubts concerning the Lord had multiplied. Maybe it was a good time for her to change jobs.

  The continued silence from Brody made her slant a look over her shoulder. A frown slashed across his face, the first sign of an emotion from him.

  His gaze roped hers. “It’s more likely Esther contacted someone when she shouldn’t. Let it slip where she was. We’ve never lost a witness if they followed the rules.”

  “Take it from me. This isn’t easy to do. Walk away from everyone you know and start a new life. I can’t even call my mother or anyone else in my past.” She’d always called her mom at least once a week to make sure everything was going all right, wishing and hoping that one of those times her father would talk with her. He never had, which broke her heart each time. Not being able to at least talk with her mom added heartache on top of everything else.

  “All I can tell you is that the U.S. Marshal’s Service is doing everything they can to locate Mrs. Perkins.”

  Dead or alive. She closed her eyes, weariness attacking her from all sides. Since coming to the cabin, she hadn’t slept much except for a few hours here and there. The marshals had moved her from Anchorage because they’d worried the safe house had been compromised. If that place had been, why not this one?

  That question plagued her every waking moment. It was hard to rest when she didn’t know the people involved in her protection. When she did lie down, she managed to catch some sleep because she had her gun with her. She’d brought extra money, a switchblade and her gun without the marshals’ knowledge. In case something went down, she wanted to be prepared. That was the only way she would agree to all of this. She would see to her own protection. She didn’t trust anyone but herself to keep her alive.

  She turned toward the marshal, appreciating what her clients must have felt when she’d guarded them and told them what to do. “Promise me you’ll let me know if you all find Esther. She was my client. I feel responsible for her.”

  “You did everything you could. If you hadn’t been there, she would have been dead next to her husband.”

  “And now she may be dead, her body somewhere no one has found yet. May never find.”

  “Yes,” Callahan said over the sound of the helicopter taking off.

  The blunt reality of what might have happened to Esther, and could still happen to her, hung in the air. Arianna went back to drying the lunch dishes; anything to keep her occupied. If this inactivity didn’t end soon, she might go screaming through the woods.

  Mark Baylor, the oldest of the three marshals, strode to the door. “I’m gonna take a stroll around the perimeter.”

  “Do you need any help?” The deep, husky voice of the marshal who seemed to be in charge, Brody Callahan, broke into her thoughts.

  “With cleaning up?” she asked, surprised by the question.

  “Yes.”

  She glanced back at him. He was taller by six inches—and she was five feet eleven. Callahan carried himself with confidence, which did, in its own way, ease her anxiety about her situation. His appearance, his broad, muscular chest, and not an ounce of fat on him, spoke of a man who kept himself in shape. “I’ve got it under control.” About the only thing in my life that is.

  “We share the duties equally while we’re here.”

  “That’s good to know. I don’t cook.”

  “You don’t?”

  She finished drying the last plate. “Never had a reason to learn. I went from living at home with my family to the army. Then, when I started working for Guardians, Inc., I found myself on assignment most of the time with wealthy clients who had cooks.” She shrugged. “The short amount of time I was in Dallas I ate out or ate frozen dinners.”

  “That’s okay. I love to cook.” Kevin Laird, a young deputy probably not long in the U.S. Marshals Service, came into the living room.

  Callahan chuckled. “That’s why I like to team up with Kevin when I can. He can make the most boring food taste decent.”

  “Good.” Arianna moved out of the kitchen area, trying to decide what she should do next. A crossword puzzle or solitaire? She still had at least fifty varieties to work her way through. Just the thought heightened her boredom level to critical.

  She began to pace from one of the few windows to the cold hearth. She counted her steps, mentally mapping out an escape route if she needed it. “This is a park ranger’s cabin. Where’s the guy that usually stays here?”

  “On an extended vacation.” Callahan prowled the living room in a different direction from her.

  “Does he know we’re using it?” She peeked out the window.

  “No, the cabin belongs to the park service. No one knows you’re here or that the U.S. Marshals Service is using it to protect a witness. They think we’re here on vacation.” Brody parted the drapes and looked out the only other window in the room.

  “That would kinda defeat the purpose, if we let the park service know we’re using it. A bogus agency has rented it while the park ranger is gone.” Laird, the youngest deputy, tall and gangly, checked out the kitchen supplies.

  “When’s he due back?” Arianna spied a bull moose in the thick of the trees. Seeing the beautiful animals was the one thrill in being where she was. She loved animals, but because of her job she didn’t have any—not even a goldfish.

  “Not for two more weeks. Do you see it?” Callahan’s gaze captured hers.

  “He’s beautiful. I wish I could go outside and take a picture of the moose. I took the Perkins assignment because it was in Alaska. After I finished guarding Esther, I was going to do some touring of the countryside up here. The most exciting thing that’s happened to me this week was the helicopter ride to this cabin. Breathtaking scenery.”

  “Don’t even think about going outside to snap a picture.”

  She held up her hands, palms outward. “I thought you said I knew the drill and didn’t need to hear your spiel.”

  “I’ve changed my mind. You sound like a bored witness. That kind can do things to get themselves killed.”

  “I am bored. How in the world do you do this, job after job?”

  “I’m on an assignment to keep you safe. I can’t let down my guard ever. You should know what that means.”

  His intense, dark brown eyes drilling into her exemplified a person
she should be able to identify with if she stopped feeling sorry for herself—something she rarely did. But she hated change more than she realized. She now had to get to know her three new guards, and she still couldn’t shake the thought that her safe house in Anchorage might have been compromised. She’d feel better if two of the female bodyguards from Guardians, Inc. were here with her, instead.

  “How about chess?” Kevin asked from the kitchen area.

  “I don’t play it. Where are you going?” she asked Callahan as he opened the door.

  “Outside. I’m relieving Mark.”

  “But he just left.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  “Can I come with you?” she asked.

  He frowned and left, the door slamming shut.

  “Ms. Jackson, I can teach you the game. It’ll take your mind off what’s going on.” Kevin moved into the main part of the room.

  “Nothing is going on. That’s the problem.” She strode toward the table and took a chair. “Sure. I might as well learn how to play chess.” It was going to be another long day.

  * * *

  FINISHING HIS LAST TRIP around the perimeter of the cabin, Brody took a deep breath of the fresh air then mounted the steps to the porch.

  When he reached the door to the ranger’s cabin, he scanned the small clearing. Nearing midnight, it was still light outside. The temperature began to drop as the sun finally started its descent.

  Inside the cabin, he found Arianna sitting on the couch, staring at him. Her gray eyes with a hint of blue reminded him of the lake he’d flown over this morning.

  “Did you see the mama bear that’s been hanging around the cabin lately?” she asked.

  “No. Where’s Kevin?”

  “Right here. Sorry. I figured I needed a jacket since the sun was going down.” Kevin picked up the shotgun and exited the cabin.

  “So it’s just you and me, since Mark is taking his turn sleeping.”

  For a second he thought he saw a teasing gleam in her eyes before she averted her gaze to study the spread of cards on the coffee table in front of her. He sat in a chair across from her. “Have you won any games?”

  “Two, probably, out of fifty.” She raised her head. “Wanna play Scrabble?”

  “I’ve been warned about you and Scrabble.”

  “I took you for a man who likes a good challenge.” A full-fledged smile encompassed her whole face.

  “You’re on. Where’s the game?”

  Arianna gestured toward the bookcase behind him. “I don’t know what I would have done without the games. I brought a deck of cards and some books, but I went through them in the first four days and I’m sick of playing solitaire. Do you have any idea when I’ll get to testify and can move back to civilization?”

  “No. Rainwater’s attorney gets big bucks to delay the trial as along as he can.”

  “Because he’s got people out there looking for me.”

  “Yes, you know the score. If you testify, he’ll most likely go down for murder. Without finding the ledger Rainwater killed Perkins over, you’re the main witness in his trial. Without you, no trial.”

  “Something very incriminating must be in the ledger Rainwater was looking for. He’s gone to great lengths to find it. I’m even more determined to testify.”

  “And he’s as determined to stop you.” Brody retrieved the Scrabble game, then laid it out on the coffee table. Then he pulled his chair closer. “Ready to get trounced?”

  Forty minutes later it was confirmed. She was very good at Scrabble.

  “What do you do? Study the dictionary?”

  “Don’t have to. I have a photographic memory. Once I see it, I remember it.”

  “So that’s why you could give such a detailed description of what went down the day Thomas Perkins was murdered.”

  “The gift has helped me in my job. When I go on a new assignment, I case the house or wherever I’m staying with the client so I can pull up the layout in a hurry in my mind. It has helped me on more than one occasion, especially in the dark.” She began putting the game back into the box.

  “I do something similar although I don’t have a photographic memory.”

  Arianna yawned. “I’d better call it a night and try to sleep.”

  “Are you having problems sleeping?”

  “Yes. Wouldn’t you, with all that’s been going on?”

  “We’re guarding you. You don’t have to be alert and on the job.”

  “Actually it’s too quiet out.”

  “I grew up in New York City. The first few years after I left were hard. Now I love it here. My house is outside Anchorage where it’s—”

  A blast from a shotgun exploded in the air.

  As Arianna dove over the back of the sofa, he moved toward the door. Another gunshot reverberated through the quiet.

  Mark rushed out of the hallway, weapon drawn. “What’s going on?”

  “Stay with Ms. Jackson. I’m checking.”

  Suddenly a rattling at the window screen diverted Brody toward it. A roar split the air as he opened the blinds to find a grizzly bear attacking the window. The screen hung in metal shreds from its frame. The huge animal batted it away, only a pane of glass now between him and the bear.

  “Stay put, Arianna.” Brody signaled for Mark to keep an eye on the window where the bear was.

  Brody charged toward the exit, knowing his Glock might not be enough to stop a bear coming at him or Kevin. In the gray light of an Alaskan night, he saw his partner backing around the corner of the cabin while squeezing off another shot into the air.

  “I’m behind you, Kevin.” Brody approached him.

  The tense set to his partner’s body relaxed. “She’s leaving. Finally. When I was making my rounds, two cubs came out of the woods. Mama Bear followed not five seconds later. I tried not to show any fear and backed away. She came toward me—not charging, but making sure she was between her cubs and me. When I fired my first warning shot in the air, both of the cubs ran into the woods. She didn’t.”

  Kevin kept his gaze fixed on the departing bear while Brody watched the front of the cabin. When the threat disappeared into the woods, they both headed for the porch.

  “I’ll be turning in soon. Mark will be on duty in the cabin. I’ll relieve you in five hours.” When Brody reentered the cabin, Arianna stood behind the couch. “What part of ‘get down’ do you not understand?”

  “The last order you gave me was ‘stay put.’” She pointed to the floor. “I stayed put. Besides, Mark was here.”

  Brody shook his head. “I guess I’ll have to spell it out for you next time.”

  “There’s gonna be a next time?”

  “If she’s hungry enough or we threaten her cubs.”

  Mark interjected, “I’m going back to bed for the time I have left. I’ll leave you two to hash things out.”

  As Mark left, Arianna said, “After this job, I was going to take a vacation and see some of the wildlife. I don’t think that’s going to work out.” Another yawn escaped her. “That’s my cue to say good-night.”

  “Good night. Mark will be back in here—” he checked his watch “—in an hour.”

  “Sleep tight then.”

  “Don’t you mean sleep light? After all, I am guarding you.”

  “Every bodyguard has to grab some good sleep if he or she is going to do a good job. And believe me, I want you to do a good job protecting me.”

  He studi
ed her body language as she said those words. “I think you believe what you said, but you also believe you can take care of yourself.”

  She smirked. “I’m gonna have to work on fooling you better.”

  “No one, not even myself, is invincible and doesn’t need help from time to time.”

  “And who do you turn to?”

  “God and my partner on the job. In that order.”

  Her eyes widened for a second before she rotated toward the hallway and headed for her bedroom.

  Brody watched her leave, flashes of his own questioning of God’s intention going through his mind. It had been an assignment he’d been the lead marshal on when he’d been working in Los Angeles. The witness he had been guarding had been gunned down on the way to the courthouse because the man had a cell phone in his pocket that had been used to track his movements.

  Brody shook the memory from his mind. That was the past. He couldn’t change it, but he could learn from it. He wasn’t going to lose another witness, even if that person did something to put his—or her—life in jeopardy.

  When Mark relieved him later, Brody strode toward his bedroom. His glance strayed to Arianna’s closed door. An interesting woman whose life would never be the same. How would he deal with giving up all he knew and starting over?

  * * *

  HER EARLIER ADRENALINE RUSH finally subsiding, Arianna removed her Glock from under the mattress and put it on the bedside table by her within easy reach. That was the only way she would be able to get any kind of sleep. When she lay down and closed her eyes, the image of Brody Callahan popped onto the screen of her mind.

  Sleep faded the picture of her and Brody facing each other over the Scrabble board and whisked her into a dream world that evolved into a nightmare she hadn’t had in a year—one where she was shoved into a jail cell. As she tried to rush out, the door slammed shut.