“Ahh!” she yelled and fell to her knees.
Everyone spun around to make sure she was all right, but she had already hit the ground with a painful thump, scratching up her knees in the process.
“Hannah, are you okay?” Xavier asked as he rushed over. Crouching down, he put his arm around her, and the feel of his warm touch on her made her head spin.
“Uh, I’m fine,” she managed, glad he couldn’t see the flush to her cheeks or just how much she enjoyed having him so close to her. He helped her up, and she leaned on him a little longer than necessary.
Lawson chose that moment to sweep his flashlight over her, to make sure she was okay, and Hannah had to lower her gaze to the ground to avoid being blinded by the light in her eyes. She hoped he hadn’t noticed the dreamy look on her face while she leaned into Xavier, enjoying his comfort and warmth.
“Someone must have cut the power on purpose,” Xavier growled, his arm still around Hannah holding her to his side. It didn’t strictly need to be there, but there was no way she was going to be the one to pull back.
Bailey shot her a pointed look in the flashlight’s glow, as though she could sense the tension between them too, and Hannah bit into her lip and quickly lowered her gaze again. She hoped the other woman wouldn’t say anything in front ofLawson. As far as her brother knew, there was nothing left between her and Xavier at all. The last thing she needed at a time like this was Lawson getting mad. They had other things to focus on.
“And it’s getting people hurt,” Xavier added, squeezing Hannah’s shoulder slightly.
Hannah’s pulse fluttered, hearing the protectiveness in his voice, as if he wanted to do everything he could to look out for her.
“I just scuffed up my knees, that’s all. I’m okay, really,” Hannah replied. “Let’s go out to the generators and see if there’s anything we can find.”
Xavier finally let go of Hannah, and she immediately missed his warmth.
The group continued along the path to the generators without any further injuries. When they got there, sure enough, lengths of wire had been yanked out of the control panels and snipped. It looked neat and precise, as though someone had come with the tools to make it happen and knew what they were doing.
Lawson grabbed the wires, inspecting them closely. “Who the hell would have done this?” he demanded to nobody in particular, turning back around to face the group.
“The Haynes brothers, I bet,” Bailey cut in.
Hannah turned to Bailey with a groan. “The guys who live at the ranch just over the mountain?”
“Yeah, them,” Bailey replied. “They’d be my first suspects anyway.”
“But why would they have done this?” Hannah asked, confused. She didn’t exactly have many good things to say about the brothers, but she doubted they would have gotten involved in something like this.
“I don’t know,” Bailey replied. “To cause trouble.”
Lawson and Xavier exchanged a look.
All of a sudden, Hannah felt a familiar feeling deep down in her stomach—a feeling she had promised herself she would never ignore again. It was the same feeling she’d had on the night of the fire, just before she had smelled the smoke filling the air and been faced with the cruel reality of what was happening.
She wrapped her arms around herself. “I want to go back inside.”
Bailey nodded. “Come on, let’s go,” she agreed, taking Hannah’s arm and steering her back down the walkway toward the main doors. “I’ll take a look at those knees for you.”
Hannah was more careful about where she stepped this time. Sneaking a look at Bailey out of the corner of her eye, she tried to ask her next question as carefully as she could. Bailey was a police officer down in Blue Ridge and she didn’t want to cause problems or get the other woman in trouble by asking too many questions. “Why do you think the Haynes brothers might have had something to do with this?” she asked. “They’ve pestered us on and off in the past but it’s never been anything that’s caused real damage. Is there something official going on with them in town?”
“Because they live nearby and like to cause trouble, and I’ve seen plenty of reports at the police station coming in about them over the last few months.” Bailey sighed. “Nothing too serious, mostly just intimidation around town, but they’ve clearly gotten it into their heads that they have some kind of ownership of the lodge. They’ve been heard mouthing off to whoever will listen when they’ve been drinking. I don’t know how far that might go.”
Hannah shivered. Her only encounter with the Haynes brothers had been when the younger one, Ron, had catcalled her in town. And then he had followed her almost halfway back up the mountain to Warrior Peak before he gave up. It had spooked her, sure, but she had just chalked it up to a bad experience and figured they would leave it there.
“That definitely is unsettling. But I still don’t understand why they would want to cause trouble here? I mean, are they targeting this place or Lawson and Xavier specifically?” Hannah wondered aloud as they entered the lodge once more. The two women paused in front of the fire, turning their hands back and forth in front of the flames to warm themselves through.
“Honestly, I don’t know,” Bailey admitted. “They were just my first thought with all the other complaints about disturbances by them in the area.
“Do you think they know about Lawson’s and Xavier’s backgrounds?” Hannah asked. “I mean, it seems kind of crazy to start something with both being former military and CIA.”
“Yeah, but the Haynes brothers have never struck me much as guys with any smarts,” Bailey pointed out. “There might be a reason they’re doing all this now. Maybe I’ll go around to their ranch with Sheriff Willis tomorrow, see if I can figure out what they’re doing.”
“You don’t think that might aggravate them?” Hannah asked nervously. She didn’t like the thought of Bailey getting into trouble, though she knew Bailey could handle it a million times better than she would ever have been able to.
