Page 23 of Silver Hills' Christmas Miracle

ROOK

My presence ignited everything. What started as just a stream of people running down the hall quickly descended into all-out chaos. Those who weren’t tearing posters and plaques from the walls were prying open paint cans and splashing every color imaginable on every surface they could reach.

I noticed pretty quickly that despite the rainbow of paint splashes, red was becoming a dominant color, and I didn’t need to spend too much time working out why.

And Kitty was right in the middle of it with her hand on the fire door, letting all of these people inside. I closed the gap between me and her within seconds and roughly grasped her arm while she stared at me, dumbfounded.

“Well?” I snapped. “What the hell is going on?”

“W–What are you doing here?” Kitty stammered, her eyes wide like saucers.

“I’m doing my damn job. You think I wouldn’t notice thesecondyou vanished from that room? They told me the bathroom, but I checked there, and you were nowhere to be found. I was about to raise the alarm when I heard the footsteps and came to check. Not that I need to explain myself.”

I glanced pointedly from Kitty to her hand on the door, and she immediately let go as if the red door had turned molten hot and burned her. She curled her hand into a fist and pressed it against her abdomen.

“Hey, man,” drawled the tall, greasy-looking man next to her. “It ain’t what you think.”

All the confusion over Kitty snapped to anger the second I looked that man in his eyes.

“And how the fuck do you know what I was thinking?”

“She was just holding the door for me because I asked—” He didn’t get to finish his sentence because he reached for Kitty as he spoke, so I threw my entire body into him and slammed him up against the wall.

“I don’t know what shit you’re trying to pull here,” I snarled as the man wheezed underneath me, “but if you try and touch her one more time, I’ll break so many bones in your hand that you’ll be begging to be arrested.”

“Rook!” Kitty grabbed my elbow and tried to pull me back. “He’s a friend.”

“A friend?” My head whipped around to look at her, and slowly, I started to piece together what was happening here. Before I could reach a concrete conclusion, though, screams and yells exploded at the end of the hall as the gaggle of people located the meeting room.

“Shit!” I had no choice but to release the greasy bastard who took his moment of freedom and sprinted off down the hall. Snatching the radio from my waist, I tried to contact the head of the security team. “Anders, what the hell is happening down there?”

“We’re evacuating. Get out of here. Have you got eyes on—get the fuck off me, you rat—have you got eyes on Little Bunny?”

“Little Bunny?” Kitty almost looked offended.

“Take it up with your mother,” I snapped, then returned to the radio. “I’ve got her.”

“Good. Go!” As the call died, a sudden influx of gunshots echoed down the hall and Kitty jumped. She clutched tightly at my arm and her face paled.

“Guns?” she gasped.

My anger faded, overridden by the urge to protect Kitty. I wound one arm around her shoulders and started guiding her out the door she had been holding open.

“Warning shots,” I replied. “You can tell by how evenly spaced out they are. With that many people, they’re likely trying to scare most of them away from your parents.”

“My parents,” Kitty whispered, stumbling beside me.

I hurried her toward the car, but after her second stumble, I changed tactics and swept her up into my arms. It was faster to run with her this way, especially when the front door to the building burst open and those people scared by the gunshots came spilling out. They tripped over themselves down the steps in their desperation to get away. While it was visibly clear that many of them were scared, all I saw was a potential threat to Kitty. We were a much easier target compared to the mayor and his entire security team.

“Kitty, I need you to hold on,” I instructed. She was doing a bridal pose in my arms, but in order to run faster, I needed more freedom. As she murmured out her agreement, I slid her over my shoulder to a fireman’s carry and sprinted down the path toward the car.

Once I was close enough, I hit the keys to unlock it and then placed Kitty in the passenger seat.

“I can do it,” she said when I reached for the seatbelt. I left the clasp in her hand and slid over the car’s hood to the driver’s side. I made it into the car and started the engine just as a few stragglers from the crowd noticed we were there. As they cametoward us, I slammed my foot on the accelerator and we tore away from the curb.

“Oh, my God.” Kitty was panting and struggling to get the metal clasp of the seatbelt into the lock.

Keeping one eye on the road, I reached for her hand and gently guided the clasp into place.

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