Close Range Christmas by Nicole Helm (ebook reader for laptop TXT) 📗

Sarah hadn’t thought the crawl space was dangerous and connected to the last letter. Still, who knew what kind of damage it could do? If they were in the stables, they’d all be together and the walls should protect them.

God, he hoped.

Dev’s gaze swept the area around them. No sign of anyone. No shots rang out. The move to the stables made him nervous, but there was no other choice with a bomb in the house.

Which could have been Anth’s purpose.

Dev pulled open the stable door and ushered everyone inside. He double checked to make sure they had everyone, then closed the door.

The horses neighed and nickered. They weren’t getting the kind of exercise they were used to, even with the cold winter months. They were restless, and it didn’t settle Dev’s nerves any.

“I called in North Star,” Cody said once they were all in the barn. “Shay has a bomb expert on her team. He’s in Washington right now, so I’ll have to go back in there and—”

Pretty much everyone shouted “no” at him before he could finish that idiotic statement.

“He can video chat and instruct on—”

“No.”

“You want one of the County guys going in there and getting blown up? You want to wait around for some state official?” Cody demanded, impatience bubbling.

“I want that more than I want you blown to bits,” Grandma Pauline said, Nina and Brianna nodding emphatically behind her.

“We need to search the entire building. Make sure there isn’t anything here that might be a threat,” Dev said in a low voice that only Jamison could hear. Obviously the children knew something was wrong, but he wanted to keep them as in the dark about the danger as he possibly could.

Jamison nodded.

“Is a bad man going to come again?” Brianna asked. “Should we hide?”

Poor Brianna had already lived through danger. Months of terror, really. One of those moments right here in this barn when she and Gigi had hidden from men after Cody.

“No, sweetheart,” Nina said, kneeling so she could pull Brianna into a hug. “We’re all sticking together this time.”

“This could be a way to move us,” Sarah whispered to Dev and Jamison, clearly also trying to keep her suspicions from the children. “To get us less protected. It could all be a farce.”

Dev nodded. “Could. We’re going to check to make sure nothing has been moved. We’ll keep the doors closed and the girls occupied until we can get help with the bomb. Just stay put for a few.”

She scowled at him, but she did in fact stay put as he moved around the stables. There was nowhere he could go where she couldn’t see him, unless he went into the far reaches of one of the stalls, which he only did twice. Jamison and Brady handled the other stalls. They even went into the hayloft and rooted around up there.

But there was no sign of anything amiss. No bombs, no evidence anyone besides him and Duke had been in here.

It didn’t sit right. None of this did. He was beginning to understand Sarah’s line of thinking. The notes clearly meant something. The threats that—thankfully—didn’t end in any harm were meant more to terrorize than to hurt.

But why?

He’d hoped action would mean something, but they could only react. The only way to act was to figure out what Anth was trying to accomplish, if it wasn’t actually sentencing anyone to death.

And why hadn’t he gotten a letter? Logically, Dev had kicked this all off by trying to take Ace down all those years ago when Anth had basically saved his life. Saved his life only to take it? That didn’t make sense either.

Dev shrugged off his coat and put it on Sarah. How had she ended up one of the people without one?

“I’m not that cold.”

“You’re not that warm.” He turned to the group all crowded in the center of the stables. “I can’t find anything out of the ordinary or any evidence someone besides us has been in here.”

“What I can’t figure is how did he get inside the house? We’ve had lookouts. We’ve got everything locked up tight and I didn’t notice anything amiss. How could he have been inside to plant the bomb?” Gage asked, cradling Claire to his chest. “How could he have known I’d be one of the ones to go get the Christmas decorations?”

“Maybe it was just...coincidence.” Felicity looked at the girls and then leaned forward to whisper, “He was going to blow up the house with all of us in it.”

“Felicity’s right. It didn’t have to be you,” Dev said, scratching a hand through his hair as he tried to make sense of it. “Isn’t that the point? This is all just...theatrics. We’re all still alive and well. No one’s been hurt—and if he can plant a bomb in the basement, surely he could catch us off guard and hurt us. Sarah was right with the last one. This is some kind of warped game.”

“How much longer do we live like this?” Liza demanded.

“We know Brady’s note will come next. Soon, if pattern follows. Maybe we can set some kind of trap,” Sarah offered hopefully.

“Unless he sends a messenger,” Cody pointed out.

“But we’d still have someone, if we could catch the messenger. Someone who would have some clue as to what’s going on,” Dev replied.

“But the notes have come in a variety of ways. How could we possibly predict when and how the next one is going to come?” Brady asked.

“It’s not a bad angle. But we know one thing for sure. He’s close. Really close. He got in the house. We need to know how,” Gage insisted.

“Whatever this is, it’s planned. Really planned.” Dev realized maybe even more than they’d thought. “Ace has been dead for over a year. If that was the tipping point? He’s had all that time to plan. And who knows—maybe it wasn’t the tipping point. Maybe he’s been planning this for a lot longer. I haven’t had any interaction with