Staring down at the dishes before him, his mind drifted back to his room, ransacked and rummaged through. That was the most important thing to get to the bottom of right now, not his nightmares and why they were so frequent again after the fire. There was someone, maybe even someone staying at the lodge, who was causing trouble, and he wasn’t going to let them get away with it.
This place was his home, and these people were his family. He was going to protect them at all costs.
Chapter Four
Hannah wrapped her hands around her hot chocolate, the last of which was swirling in the bottom of her mug, as she glanced out into the darkness and tried to muster the courage to go outside and head back to her cabin.
“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to this kind of cold,” Bailey complained as the two women sat in the small common room toward the back of the lodge.
Hannah chuckled. “Oh trust me, you’re not going to have much of a choice,” she teased.
Bailey rolled her eyes. “I have no idea how I’m going to survive,” she announced, laying the back of her hand on her forehead in a dramatic swoon.
“At least you have Aaron to keep you warm,” Hannah pointed out without thinking.
Bailey cocked an eyebrow. “You think it’d be easier for you if you had a guy waiting back at your cabin for you?”
Hannah shrugged, feeling her cheeks start to get a little warm. “I don’t know,” she muttered. She didn’t want to admit how lonely she’d been feeling these last few months. More than ever she found herself wishing for companionship like River and Bailey had with their men.
Both women had fought hard for their relationships, and deserve every moment of happiness they had. Bailey against the crooked cops she and Aaron had to expose to find their second chance and River and Cade dealing with River’s past, including an obsessed cult leader. They’d all faced devastating odds andhad come out the other side stronger and more settled as couples in loving relationships. Hannah longed to have what her friends had.
Someone to stay in and cuddle with on the dark, freezing winter nights. Someone to share the day’s troubles and setbacks. Sometimes, she would lie in bed and stare out into the cold night beyond, wondering how she was supposed to get through another year without someone by her side.
It felt like everyone around her was settling down and getting comfortable in a life with someone else, but she was still in her cabin alone. She didn’t want to go back to it, not quite yet, not when this hot chocolate and company was so cozy.
“Well, I guess I should get back to my cabin. Aaron will be wondering what happened to me,” Bailey announced, getting to her feet and stretching. “You ready to brave the cold with me, Hannah?”
“Guess I could give it a shot,” Hannah agreed, standing.
But before they could make it anywhere, the lights cut out.
“Oh no,” Bailey muttered in the sudden darkness. “What’s going on?”
Hannah pulled her phone out and switched on the flashlight so the two of them could avoid bumping into furniture while the back-up generators kicked into action. It wasn’t entirely unusual for things to go wrong around here, especially in the winter. The cold weather sometimes froze the pipes and made it difficult for repairmen to get out as quickly as they might have normally.
But as they stood there, nothing happened. The beam of Hannah’s phone light cut through the darkness, but no other lights were clicking back on.
“Shouldn’t the backup generators have kicked in by now?” Hannah asked, a little nervous. She suddenly felt like the darkness was consuming them. Her mind couldn’t help flashing back to the fire a few months earlier, like it did every time latelywhen something went wrong. Something like this was enough to make her palms sweat and her heart beat out of her chest.
“I think so,” Bailey muttered. “Come on, let’s get out to the front. The fireplace will give us some light, at least.”
Hannah let Bailey lead the way but kept her phone flashlight trained in front of them as the two women made their way to the reception area of the lodge. The fire crackled cozily when they got there, but the usual comforting aura of the flames in the hearth didn’t do much to settle Hannah’s nerves.
“I swear,” a voice cut through the darkness, two sets of footsteps coming toward them, “if the power in this place has gone down after I paid all that money to set up new generators, I’m going to kick some serious a—”
“It’s going to be okay,” Xavier soothed Lawson, and Hannah felt calm wash over her as soon as she heard his voice. Even after everything that had happened between them, she found his presence enormously comforting. As long as he was around, she knew they would figure out what was going on somehow.
“You know what’s happening?” Bailey asked Lawson and Xavier as they reached the women.
Lawson shook his head, lit by the glow of a flashlight in his hand. “No idea. I just got those generators for the winter, so they should have kicked on by now. Xavier and I are going to go out and check what’s going on.”
“I’ll come with you,” Hannah replied at once, without thinking. Her brother pulled a face, clearly trying to think of some way he could talk her out of it, but Xavier nodded in agreement.
“We could use as many eyes on it as possible,” Xavier agreed. “Bailey, you want to come, too?”
“I think I could brave the cold,” Bailey replied. “Plus, I really don’t want to stay in here alone.” She put on the coat she’d beencarrying. Hannah did the same, and they followed the guys out to the generators at the far side of the lodge.
It was bitingly cold outside, and the freezing air nipped at Hannah’s skin. She moved to zip her coat up, but with her phone in one hand she couldn’t get a proper grip on the zipper. She turned off her phone’s flashlight, intent on putting it in her pocket, but with the light off, it was too dark to see the ground in front of her. Suddenly, her shoe snagged in a crack in the sidewalk, and she tripped.
