This damn man.
“Brynn.” A hand lands on my shoulder, and I about leap out of my skin.
I spin around, my heart pounding in my chest—this time in perfect time with the creep Krampus drum. “Holy shit, Victoria,” I say breathlessly, finding the older woman right in my space. “This is probably not the best night to be sneaking up on people.”
She glances around like she’d forgotten what was happening tonight, which is crazy given I know she organises every event.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to,” she apologizes, sounding almost genuine. “I’ve just been looking for you, that’s all.”
“Oh?”
She takes my hand, pulling me a little further from the crowd and dipping her head toward me. “I really need your help with something,” she says, seeming like she’s a little out of breath. “It’s very urgent, and if it doesn’t get done now, everything might fall apart.”
Of course, it’s not that she forgot about the parade, but she probably is planning a million other things for this Christmas festival.
“Sarah can’t help?” I ask with a raised brow, and her face instantly falls into an angry frown.
“Sarah is the one who has caused this problem,” she says sharply. “And now I have to try and fix another of her mistakes.”
Oh shit.
Poor Sarah.
“Okay, no problem,” I say, patting her arm gently. “Let’s go see if we can fix things.”
And hopefully check on Sarah and make sure she’s okay.
“Thank goodness,” Victoria says with a sigh. “Let’s go to The Gallows, we can go over it there.”
I glance back at Grizz, who’s watching the two of us intensely with Jovie now resting in his arms.
I smile and mouth the word Gallows before rolling my eyes dramatically.
His heavy expression doesn’t change, not even a little.
He’s annoyed, his jaw ticking when Victoria tugs on my arm and clears her throat.
“Brynn…”
I try one more time, holding up ten fingers.
Grizz’s eyes narrow, but finally he gives me a nod and shuffles Jovie in his arms so he can hold up nine fingers—letting me know the clock’s already ticking before he comes to check on me.
I give him a reassuring smile and blow a quick kiss before turning and stepping back into the crowd, Victoria tugging at my wrist to make me move faster. When we finally break through the people and make it to the side street that runs parallel, she lets me go, but she doesn’t stop moving. Her heels click sharp and steady against the sidewalk and I have to almost jog to keep up—her legs a lot longer than mine.
“You want to tell me?—”
“When we get inside,” she snaps, just as we reach The Gallows, making our way through the back door and loading bay.
Since everything is open and Sarah is the other person with a key, I expect to find her inside, but she’s not.
The bar is empty.
The lights are off.
And it’s cold.
Not winter cold, another kind of cold.
