Another minute passes. Then another.
Linc checks his watch, subtle but not subtle enough. “How long’s she been gone?”
“Fifteen,” Beau says immediately.
I turn. “You counting now?”
He shrugs. “I worry efficiently.”
Jasper opens his mouth, probably to say something reassuring, but stops when Lucy barks.
It’s sharp. Loud. Urgent.
I cross the room and throw the front door open. Cold air rushes in, snow swirling in every direction. Lucy takes one look at me and bolts.
Straight toward the fields.
“Lucy!” I shout, already throwing on my boots and stepping onto the porch. My eyes follow her red-and-white shape as it races into the night.
And then—
Headlights.
They cut through the trees at the far edge of the property, slicing white and sudden through the snowfall.
My stomach drops, and my feet freeze.
Then my phone rings in my pocket, and I freeze.
Every instinct in me screams not to answer it, to follow Lucy. But something deeper tells me I have to.
I pull it out.
Unknown number.
I hit accept and put it to my ear.
“Lawson,” Miles Keller says. Calm. Almostbored.“Lose anything?”
My heart hammers inside my chest, like it knows what I’m about to ask is going to shatter it. “Where is she?”
“Where’s who?” Lincoln says from behind me, but I can’t look at him. “Lawson, what’s going on?”
There’s a pause, then a soft chuckle on the other end of the line. “Christmas miracles are fragile things, Lawson. You might want to pray yours survives the night.”
The line goes dead.
For half a second, the world holds its breath.
Then a scream rips through the field.
Abigail.
It cuts sharp and desperate through the snow. Through the dark. Throughme.
The headlights jerk, then start to disappear into the trees.
“Abigail!” I roar, finally getting my feet to move.
