Page 61 of Christmas in the Shadows

She grabbed Tex’s sweater. “What about you? You can’t be over there either.”

“I can take care of myself.”

“He knows you were Black Ops. He mentioned it when you walked away from the table. Did you ever tell him that?”

Tex’s jaw tightened. “No, I didn’t. But I did find the phone he’s using to send these texts. He hid it in the bathroom. Inside the toilet tank.”

“What? What are we going to do? Is the fact that the phone was found in his home enough to go to the police with this?”

Before he could answer, a stick cracked in the distance.

Chelsea knew they weren’t alone.

CHAPTER 22

Tex pushed Chelsea behind him as he heard the footstep.

He fully expected to see Gilbert there with desperation in his gaze.

Instead, Anna stepped out. “Is everything okay?”

Tex tried to soften his shoulders as to not alarm her. “It’s fine. Like we said, Chelsea’s just not feeling very well.”

Anna stepped closer. “I was worried.”

“We’ll be fine,” Tex told her. “I’ll be back over in a few minutes.”

She didn’t move away. Instead, she took another step closer.

“I actually wanted to catch you alone a moment,” she started. “I’m worried about Gilbert.”

Tex remained tense. “Why’s that?”

“These boys on the football team who’ve been getting sick . . . the one connection they all have is him.”

“You think Gilbert is the reason they’re getting sick?” Chelsea asked.

“It makes sense to me. Do you think I should be concerned?”

“I don’t know,” Tex said. “I have found that situation strange.”

Tex remained on guard, unsure what was going to play out.

“Where does Gilbert think you are right now?” Tex glanced back at the house, worried that Gilbert might become concerned and come looking for her.

“He ran to the bathroom,” she said.

“If you think he’s doing something illegal, then maybe you should feign an excuse to leave,” Chelsea said. “You seem like a nice woman. And I would hate to see you get hurt by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“But we’ve been so happy together.”

Tex glanced at the house again, feeling uneasy. “There’ll be plenty of other chances for you to be happy.”

Anna withdrew her hand from her pocket. She gripped a gun and pointed it at them.

“You’re right, I will have another chance for happiness. Away from here.”

“Anna . . .” Tex said, making sure Chelsea was behind him again. “What do you want from us?”

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