Page 25 of The Devil's Ice

Vixen darted to the left and started to run in the direction of the parlor, dragging Keira with her, then a glance over her shoulder made her realize that the van was inexplicably changing direction. It was veering around a few parked cars and resuming its path, bearing down on them.

Without a second of thought, she picked up Keira and rolled out of the way, cradling Keira’s head in her hands, feeling the flesh on her knuckles split open against the icy ground. The van narrowly missed them – it smashed into a few cars, hitting Vixen with exploding glass – and then to her shock, it turned sharply and started to come around again.

“Fuck,” Vixen muttered, scrambling to her knees, knowing now for sure that this wasn’t a case of a driver having a heart attack or seizure, or even being drunk. This guy was gunning for them, and she needed to get Keira to safety. A sharp, piercing pain in her ankle made it impossible for her to get fully to her feet, so her running was out. “Fuck.”

She put a screaming Keira down, gave her a hard push towards the parlor. Saint was already coming out the door, and Vixen exchanged panicked looks with him as the van approached, picking up speed.

“Run!” Vixen shouted at Keira. “To Saint! Go!”

“But –”

“Keira!” Vixen heard herself shrieking; she sounded insane. “Do as I sayrightnow!”

Thank Christ the little girl took to her feet, stumbling and crying as she ran. Saint rushed out to meet her, his massive arms open, but he was a good forty feet away from Keira.

Too far. She’s not going to make it to him.

Still on her knees, listening to the roar of the approaching van, Vixen fumbled in her purse. Blood was streaming down into her eyes, but she didn’t have time to even wonder where on her head it was coming from, or how bad it was. Her numb fingers found her gun, and as the van came up behind her – forty feet, thirty feet – Vixen somehow managed to roll again.

This time, she used the momentum of the movement to stagger to her feet and face the oncoming van. Without a second of hesitation, she stood with her feet wide apart, bracing herself on unsteady legs, adrenalin overriding the pain in her ankle. Her arms came up, she gripped the gun in both shaking hands, she took a shuddering breath, blinked through the blood almost blinding her.

And started to shoot.

She aimed at the windshield, dimly thinking that this wassurelythe best way to stop the fucker driving, or at least slow him down to buy Saint some time. The glass cracked, but didn’t break – and she kept shooting steadily even as the vehicle bore down on her, praying hard that Keira was clear by now, but not daring to look over her shoulder to check. She kept her eyes trained on the van, watched it get closer and closer, waiting for the perfect time to throw herself out of the way. From far away, she heard shouting, and for a second she thought it was Ice calling her name.

Suddenly, the van jerked to the right, turning towards the parking lot exit. Vixen exhaled hard and relaxed her arms, thinking that they were escaping and it was over… when the driver steered sharply to the left again, sideswiping Vixen as he accelerated out and away.

It was weird how there was no pain, at least not at first. Instead, all she felt was weightlessness as she was launched sideways, as limp as a rag doll; she was airborne and she was completely out of control. All she could do was fly through the air, a wingless, sightless bird, and listen to the voices all around her screaming and shouting Keira’s name, her name. Somehow, she twisted in mid-air, and when Vixen hit the concrete parking block, she did it face-down. She heard more than felt her bones break.

Then everything was just darkness and silence.

Chapter Nine

Bellefonte, Pennsylvania

Briley sat straight up in bed, wide awake. She was bolt upright, her nerves jangling, listening hard for whatever had woken her. But all was quiet.

She glanced at the clock on the bedside table, saw that it was just before five in the evening, which meant that Dux and Drake would be home from work any minute. She lay down again, hoping that sleep would return, but it had fled. Despite having crashed into bed just two hours earlier, she was as wired as if she had drunk too much caffeine, so she knew that she was up for the foreseeable future.

Briley sighed, and got to her feet. She’d check on the babies and then head down to the kitchen to make a mug of green tea, maybe have dinner with Dux and Drake. She’d feed Hannah and Joe, and crawl back into bed… this time with her desperately sexy men curled up next to her, all around her.

She pulled on her favorite ratty bathrobe, then wandered down the hall in a daze of tiredness. As a first-time Mom she had zero measuring stick or experience in terms of caring for ten-day-old infants, but she guessed that whatever was the norm, twins doubled it. That went for joy, love…andexhaustion.

Dux and Drake were amazing, of course, getting up with her in the night, then going to work in the garage all day. They’d taken off a few days each, but two babies also meant double the costs and the bills – and so their income was mandatory. Thank goodness Briley had decent medical coverage from her job at Rose Terraces Nursing Home, along with another three weeks of paid leave. She and the twins were still deciding if she’d take more time at home after that – she’d be unpaid, of course, which she wasn’t thrilled about – or if the three of them would take it in turns to stay home with Hannah and Joe. Juggle work hours and home hours, make it work the way that millions of other people did.

She knew that the men had money saved up, and so did she, of course… but the whole idea of giving up one-third of the household income and dipping into their savings felt risky to her. Things like health insurance, and a bigger vehicle, and school costs, and maybe college, were all dancing around in her head, making her good and tense about money.

The twins told her that her only focus was on loving the babies, getting enough rest, and physically recovering from the birth just over a week before. It had gone incredibly smoothly and fast – especially since twins often brought complications – and she knew that she was lucky. Tired, still bleeding a bit, with a stomach that hadn’t deflated even ten days after the birth, sure. But mostly recovered, with two beautiful, healthy babies, and two sexy, strong men as partners and fathers.

So life was pretty damn good, actually.

Briley got to the guest bedroom that was now a nursery, and paused in the doorway. She saw that neither baby was in their crib, and she smiled. Obviously Dux and Drake were home a bit early and they’d come and taken Hannah and Joe downstairs while she’d slept. That was probably what had woken her up, now that she thought about it: she’d probably heard them heading downstairs, undoubtedly chatting away to the hungry, cooing babies.

She walked down the stairs, across the living room and glanced at the mountains through the enormous window.Thiswas the view that had decided her on this house, and she hadn’t tired of its breathtaking beauty yet. Briley didn’t think that she ever would.

Down the long hallway to the kitchen, which was weirdly quiet. Puzzled, she went in and looked around, but it was empty. She checked the fridge and saw that there were still seven bottles of her pumped breast milk – the same number as when she’d fed the twins and then staggered off to bed two hours earlier.

Briley stood in the middle of the kitchen, her dishevelled blonde head cocked, listening to the house. But there was utter silence and stillness, and as she stood there in the hush, she knew that she was alone.

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