Page 21 of Yule Tied Up

I’m not going to let a complete stranger into the cabin. I don’t give a shit that he’s dressed like Santa.

But a feminine voice comes from behind me. “We can’t just leave him out there to die, Tino.”

I glance over my shoulder at Kenzie. “Yeah, we can. If this is the same asshole who was peeping in at us a minute ago, we can definitely leave him to die.” Not that he’s going to die; he can sit in his damn car if needed.

The fake Santa stamps his feet again. “I wasn’t peeping in at anyone. I just walked up to the door. Look, you can see my footsteps in the snow. I came straight from the road.” He holds up both gloved hands in defense. “No silly business, I swear.”

I glance past him, and, sure enough, there’s a clear trail of his footsteps leading from the mountain road to the front door of the cabin. If he’d walked around the place to see inside, we’d be able to tell. Mackenzie has been kind of spooked about being at this place, but I can hardly blame her. She’s been through a lot, and there’s still some trauma she’s working through.

“How did you even know this cabin was here?” I ask, still suspicious.

He points up. “Saw the smoke from the fireplace. Look, I don’t want to cause any trouble. I just want to make a call and have somewhere warm to wait for help, so I don’t freeze to death. I don’t really think that’s unreasonable. You seem like—” his gaze flicks over my size and tattoos, and then over to Kirill with his piercings and Dom looking like he’s about to murder someone "—nicepeople.”

“Let him make a call,” Mackenzie says.

I fish my cell from my pocket and check the screen. There’s no service, but we have Wi-Fi in the cabin, so we can use that to make a call. “Anyone know what the cabin’s Wi-Fi code is?”

I use the search option on my phone to try to find it, but nothing shows up.

I frown. “This place has Wi-Fi, right? We double checked when it was booked.”

“Yeah, definitely,” Dom says. “I wouldn’t have come here if we didn’t have a way of Nataniele getting in touch with us.”

“Then why the fuck is nothing coming up?” I say, unease shifting inside me.

“Where’s the box?” Dom asks. “It must be somewhere. Perhaps it’s just been unplugged or switched off?”

He leaves Kenzie’s side to look for it.

I grasp that hope. The cabin isn’t that big. It will be easy enough for us to find.

“Umm, guys.” Dom stands straight, holding the end of a lead. It looks like it’s been chewed though. “I’d say this place had a visitor when it was standing empty. Raccoon, maybe, or a rat.”

“A rat?” Mackenzie exclaims. “There are rats?”

Dom shrugs. “We are out in the middle of nowhere. There’s bound to be wildlife.”

“Okay, look, I’ll drive you down to the town,” I offer Fake Santa. “You can find someone to help you there.”

Dom takes a few steps toward us. “You’re not going out on your own. If you get in trouble on these roads, you won’t have anyone to help you.”

“Okay, we both go, and leave Mackenzie and Kirill here at the cabin.”

“No way,” she says. “We all go together.”

It’s going to be a tight squeeze in the car, but she’s right. Splitting up is never a good thing to do. We’ve all seen that movie.

“Thanks, guys. I really appreciate it.” Santa says.

I glance around. “Fuck, where are the car keys?”

Kirill strides over to look. “They should be on the side where I put them.”

I glance over at him. “Well, they’re not. Where the hell are they?”

He shuffles some items around. “I’m sure they were right here.”

“Did you drop them when you turned off the car alarm, Kirill?”

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