Page 20 of Yule Tied Up

Kirill thins his lips. “We will never speak of it again.”

“What happens at the cabin, stays at the cabin,” Tino agrees.

“Fuck,” I mutter.

I’m halfway to the bedroom to get changed when the sound rings out.

Bang.

Bang.

Bang.

Loud. More like someone hit the door with a damn tree than knocked on it with a fist.

Shit. I raise my eyes to stare at Tino, who is frozen like me, and the bangs come again, but this time the door moves with the force of them.

CHAPTER 9

Tino

I crackmy knuckles and flex my neck then announce, “I’ll get it.”

Kenzie’s hand shoots out and grabs my forearm. Her blue eyes are round and wide. “No, you can’t! They could be dangerous.”

“Then why would they bother to knock?”

I’m not hiding in here like a fucking coward, but I’m also not stupid enough to go unarmed. Damn, we should have remembered to bring our weapons but we didn’t, we fucked up. Instead, I pick up the biggest knife from the kitchen and go to the door.

I throw it open, the knife brandished, fully prepared to stab a motherfucker, but I find myself blinking in surprise.

Fucking Santa Claus is standing on the porch. “Ho-ho-ho, Merry Christmas.”

“What the hell is this?”

For a second, I think it’s the old guy from the market, the same one Mackenzie sat on, but at a closer glance I realize it isn’t. It’s impossible to tell much about the man. His face is obscured by the fake white beard, and a Santa hat is pulleddown low over his brow. His eyes look young, though. They’re definitely not the eyes of an old man.

The man frowns, his gaze flicking down to the knife in my hand. “Sorry to bother you, buddy, but my sleigh broke down on the mountain road, and my cell phone is out of juice. Any chance you’ve got a phone?”

“Your sleigh broke down? Aren’t you supposed to have reindeer?”

“It was their day off. Seriously, though, it’s my car. I need to call for roadside assistance, though if they’ll come out to me in this is anyone’s guess.” He glances up at the sky and the heavy snow falling.

I risk taking my eye off Santa for a second to glance back at the others. Mackenzie is behind Kirill and Dom. They look like her bodyguards standing there.

I nod. “Yeah, we’ve got cell phones, but you’re not coming in.”

Santa stamps his feet and rubs his gloved hands together. “Seriously? It’s freezing out here.”

“Yeah. I’m deadly serious.”

“People die in this weather,” Fake Santa insists.

He’s being dramatic, which makes me suspicious. “You look like you’ve got plenty of padding to keep you warm.”

“Well, yeah, but it’s still not enough.”

“You can wait on the porch,” I tell him.

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