“Exactly.”Rory ran his hands through his hair.“The cabin was even farther out so it took work crews longer to reach me.Though everyone was trying to get to me.”
“You have us this time,” Lacy said.
Rory smiled.“Yeah, and I’m glad for that.I just figured if I could get out for a breath of fresh air, I would feel better.”
“You could open one of the upstairs windows and just breathe in the fresh air until you feel less confined,” Florence said.
“I’ll go with you.”Lacy took hold of Rory’s hand.“Ready?”
“Sure.”Even though they had opened doors and breathed in the fresh air, snow still walled them in, lending to that claustrophobic feeling.He didn’t mind snow; he just didn’t like confinement.
They headed up the stairs, and Florence said to Frank, “Are you all right?”
“Yeah.Being from Florida, I’m not used to it, but I’m here with you, and I feel fine.”
“Good.”
“What about you?”
“Oh, I can manage anything for a couple of weeks.”
Lacy walked into the guest room that they weren’t using so they wouldn’t make their bedroom cold.Rory opened the window and breathed in the fresh, cold air, the wind still blowing, whistling through the trees, the snowflakes collecting on their hair, eyelashes, and his beard.
“Do you feel better?”
“Yeah,” he said.“This feels great.”He pulled her under his arm and just enjoyed the “freedom.”Looking at the mountains of snow below them was a lot different than looking at it from the ground floor, seeing a wall of it keeping them from going anywhere.
He thought he heard something in their guest room, but he was surprised Florence or Frank would go in there instead of their own bedroom.He and Lacy hadn’t picked up their clothes from undressing last night and hadn’t made their bed, just being lazy.But he didn’t want them to see that.
Lacy snuggled with him closer.
He knew he had closed the door before he went downstairs, but he didn’t hear anyone open the door to the room to enter it.
He figured he was being paranoid.If the brothers were in their guest room, that meant trouble.Though if they’d broken the window again, surely, they would have heard it even from downstairs.Rory and the others couldn’t call for help.They didn’t have any signal on their phones.No one could help them in these conditions anyway.And his guns were in the living room.
“What’s wrong?”Lacy asked him.
“I thought I heard someone in our guest room.”
Lacy frowned.“I doubt Florence or Frank would have gone in there.”
Rory closed the window as quietly as he could.Then he crossed the floor to the door.“I don’t want to leave you here if the brothers are in our guest room.I want you downstairs with your grandfather and Mrs.Fitz.”
“And you?”
“I’ll be right behind you.”Even though Lacy told Rory that she knew how to shoot a gun, she wasn’t law enforcement.At least he was deputized, and Florence and Frank were retired FBI agents who had done lots of fieldwork.
“When you reach the living room, turn into your cougar.”
Lacy hugged him.They didn’t even know whether the brothers were in the guest room.But they had to prepare for the worst.
“They might not be there,” he whispered to her.
She nodded.Then he opened the guest room door and instantly faced two men with guns—Timothy and Manning.
14
Frank heard the door to the guest room he had stayed in slam shut and lock.He glanced at the low wall and saw Timothy and Manning at the guest room door.Frank grabbed Florence and hurried her to the far end of the living room, where the brothers couldn’t see them.Their hearts were pounding like crazy.
