Page 23 of Yule Tied Up

I exchange a glance with the others. What the fuck is he talking about?

“Are you all fucking her? What a dirty little whore she is. God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Adam and Adam and Eve.”

He sneers at us in disgust, but when his gaze turns on our Duchess, it turns to real hatred. “Christmas is a time of year where we’re supposed to be celebrating Christ, not behave like you four. You people disgust me.Sinners.”

We need to get Mackenzie to a safe place, and then the three of us can take this fucker down. I wish Tino had never opened the door to him, but we didn’t know the danger, and even if we had, what other option was there? Just hide away in the cabin like cowards?

“You.” He uses the end of the shotgun to gesture at Mackenzie. “Over here.”

“No!” Dom growls, placing himself directly in front of her.

Santa’s eyes narrow. “If I have to shoot you to get to her, I will.”

Mackenzie takes hold of Dom’s arm. “It’s okay, Dom. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“You guys wanted me to be outside in the cold, so how about you get to know what that feels like?”

Is he going to throw us all out of the cabin so he can take over the space? A part of me hopes that’s all he wants.

We could try to tackle him, or find heavy logs to use as weapons, but it is too risky. I don’t want anyone hurt, especially not out here, so far from any help, but it looks like we might not have any choice.

He waves the gun again. “Come on. Outside. All of you.”

I exchange a glance with Dom and Tino. They both give me the slightest nod with a jerk of their chins. They’re thinking exactly what I am.

“Look,” Tino says, “we were willing to give you blankets and a warm drink. Can we at least put our boots and coats on?”

Fake Santa grunts. “Not sure you deserve it, but okay.”

It might take us time to get into the car. We could end up with some serious frostbite if we don’t wear something on our feet.

He keeps his gun trained on us, mainly on Mackenzie. He can tell she’s our weak spot. Any potential threat to her life means we won’t take any risks. The three of us could jump him, but, right now, he’d still manage to get a shot off. If it hits Mackenzie, she could easily die. We can’t get to the hospital easily all the way out here. Even what should be a non-life-threatening gunshot wound could end up being fatal. And a shotgun? At close range? That’s far too deadly to chance.

None of us will risk her life, no matter what. Our daughter needs her mother, and we couldn’t function without Mackenziein our lives. Before Lucy was born, I’d have easily said none of us would have felt our lives would be worth living without her, but now we’d have to force ourselves to keep going for our daughter’s sake. That would be a special kind of torture in itself.

We all struggle into our outdoor clothes. The mood is tense, but this guy has no idea who he’s dealing with. He probably thinks we’re just four college students out here for a good time. He’s not completely wrong on that front, but what he doesn’t know is we’re easily capable of killing. And someone threatening our girl is definitely a reason to shed blood.

“Go on.” He waves the gun again. “Get out.”

We exchange glances again and all tramp out into the snow. We make sure Mackenzie is in the middle of us, so our bodies protect her. As soon as this fucker shuts the cabin door on us, I’m finding a heavy branch and I’ll kill him myself.

CHAPTER 11

Mackenzie

I’m doingmy best not to cry.

There must be something wrong with us to constantly attract these kinds of psychopaths. I can’t even blame the guys, ’cause I had my fair share of them before I’d even met Dom, Tino, and Kirill.

I wrap my arms around my body to shield it from the cold. Snow continues to fall around us, catching in my hair and sticking to the ends of my eyelashes.

I’m hoping Fake Santa is just going to give us a taste of our own medicine and leave us out here. I want to protest that I was the one who said to bring him in, but now I realize that would have been a dumb thing to do, too. This man clearly has it in for us. Has his car really broken down somewhere, or did he come here with violence in mind? He came with a shotgun, but that doesn’t mean anything. Walking out in these mountains without a gun probably wouldn’t be wise. There’s wildlife out here that can kill.

But, instead of shutting us out in the cold, he steps out with us. His gaze flicks over to our snowman, and he gives a salacious grin that’s barely visible through the fake beard.

“Your little slut here likes fucking vegetables, huh? How does she feel about carrots?”

Two things dawn on me at once. The first is that I hadn’t imagined the face at the window. This prick must have been watching.

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