Deadly Christmas Secrets

“I do have a tendency to repeat myself when I feel as if I’m not being heard. It comes from working with an entire team of men.”

“You’re the only female HEART member?” she asked as she finally reached the main road, pulled onto asphalt and headed toward the old Dillon place. That was where Logan was. Just waiting for Sheriff Hunter to give him a ride back. He’d called Stella to let her know, and Harper had overheard.

She hadn’t seen any reason to make him wait. She had a vehicle, and she knew where the Dillon place was. She also knew that the guy Logan had been tracking was dead. She’d gotten that information from one of the deputy sheriffs who had been collecting evidence at the cabin.

“For now,” Stella said. “My boss has a sister who wants to join the team. If she can convince her brothers to let her do it, she’ll make a good team member.”

“That’ll be nice for you,” Harper said, her gaze fixed on the snowy road and the flakes that drifted lazily in the headlights. The storm had lost most of its strength. If the meteorologist was correct, there’d be rain by morning and just enough warmth to melt whatever remained of the snow.

“We’ll see.”

“You don’t like her?”

“I like Emma fine. I’m just not sure she’s cut out for the work. It’s a tough job, a dangerous one. She’s still a kid.”

“A teenager?”

“Twenty-four.”

“And you’re what? Twenty-five?”

“I’ll be thirty in the spring, but I’ve had a lot of jobs, done a lot of things. Seen a lot. Emma has been...protected. A lot.”

“So maybe it’s time for her not to be. A person can’t grow up if she’s never given the opportunity.”

“A great philosophy in theory, Harper, but letting her grow up in the kind of work HEART does is a quick way to get her killed. Kind of like you, wandering around when a killer is on the loose.”

“The guy is dead, Stella.”

“And someone killed him.”

“Someone? Logan shot him,” she responded, not quite sure what Stella was getting at.

“Not every gunshot wound is fatal. Logan fired a shot that struck the guy, but it wasn’t the shot that killed him. Logan said there were two bullet wounds. The second one was point-blank to the perpetrator’s head.”

Harper hadn’t known that, hadn’t really taken the time to ask much after she’d heard the guy was dead. She’d assumed that Logan’s shot had killed him, and she’d thought the danger was past, that the threat had ended with the man’s death.

“You’re quiet,” Stella said.

“I didn’t realize the gunman was murdered.”

“He was,” Stella said simply. “If you’d asked, maybe you wouldn’t have decided you needed to drive out into a storm to rescue someone who doesn’t need it.”

“Logan was out in the woods for over an hour. He probably does need rescuing,” she responded.

“You’re ignoring my point.”

“Which is?” Harper asked even though she knew exactly what Stella was implying.

“Next time, ask questions so you can have enough information to make a good decision.”

“Going to get someone who’s nearly frozen is a good decision.”

“Not if you’re going to die while you’re doing it.”

“Whoever killed that man is long gone.”

“Says the woman who knows nothing about any of this,” Stella muttered.

“I know that I’m not going to sit around waiting for other people to fight my battles for me,” she replied.

“Great. Good. Wonderful. I just hope that philosophy doesn’t get you killed.”

“Why would it? No one has any reason to want me dead.”

“And yet, people keep trying to kill you.”

Truer than Harper wanted to admit.

She needed to find out what was going on. The only way to do that was to talk to Gabe. He had to know more than she did. Why else would he send someone to find her?

He still hadn’t called.

She’d have to go see him, visit his house in DC with all its fancy furniture and girlie decorations. Lydia had had a field day buying things for the house. She’d had her hand in every room except for Gabe’s office, and it had showed—gaudy and funky and a little over-the-top.

Just like Lydia.

The thought made her eyes burn and her throat tighten.

She and Lydia had been as different as any two sisters could be, but they’d loved each other.

She sniffed back tears that she wasn’t going to let fall, pinched the bridge of her nose, tried hard to think of something other than her sister.

“Things could be worse,” Stella said, speaking into the sudden silence, her voice softer than it had been.

“What?”

“They could be worse, Harper. Always, so we just have to make the best of whatever situation we find ourselves in. Like this one.” She waved toward the snowy road and the flakes still drifting through the darkness. “We’re on the road, probably making ourselves bait for a murderer—”

“That’s comforting.”

“If you wanted comfort, you should have fired up that wood-burning stove of yours, huddled under one of those nice quilts you have and read a good book,” she responded.

“That probably would have been a better plan,” she admitted.

“Too late now,” Stella responded cheerfully. “You wanted this. You got it, so we’ll just enjoy the snow and hope for the best.”

Right. Sounded perfect to Harper.