Page 76 of 5 Golden Flings

“Adventures are good for us. They take us in new directions. Down paths we might never have found.”

Brynn had certainly never imagined this adventure. Not a year ago. Not twenty years ago.

Her Rocky and a few clothes were the only things they’d taken with them. And twenty years later, Rocky was still with her, in her backpack in the back seat.

A couple of hours later, the panic of that night hit her again as she stood in front of her old house. Gray twilight crept in from the woods surrounding the field beyond the peak of the steeple. The house had once been the original church of Thornbury Woods. Rudimentary. Utilitarian with just a hint of the divine.

But when her daddy had bought the land, he’d turned the broken-down building into their home. Then it had been home to Maria and her children after they’d left. He’d let Maria live there rent-free—so it would be taken care of—and she’d managed the renting of the considerable amount of farm-land for him. It had given the single mother a reliable job and the chance to be home with her kids—something Brynn’s widowed father had fully appreciated.

Maria had remarried about a year ago. The house had been vacant since then. Maria had been wonderful to come into town last week to open it for Brynn as part of her monthly check in. After all her father had done for Maria, she hadn’t wanted to repay the favor by abandoning the place when he’d been too sick to make other arrangements.

But now Brynn had another purpose for it.

I left it there. I had no choice. Couldn’t destroy it. But couldn’t risk taking it with me until I knew what to do. Should have known I’d never be able to go back.

The memory of her father’s slurred confession fueled the determination growing inside Brynn. She let her gaze trace the steepled roofline, then the arched window of stained glass below. The vibrant colors were muted beneath the heavy clouds as the storm moved in.

Why did she feel so unsettled looking at it now? She’d loved growing up here, until that final night. Her warm bed in the loft. A windowscape full of ever-changing fields and nature. The little boy who lived a couple of farms down. What was his name again?

Now the place felt abandoned...haunted...and she was way too practical for that kind of thinking.

Just like she had no time for wishes. Though the ornament box in her arms said otherwise. If she could wish for anything, itwould be to not be alone this Christmas. Unfortunately, wishes couldn’t bring back the dead.

The first pellets of ice mixed with thick clumps of snowflakes as they started to fall. The gloom didn’t bother Brynn. Superstitions had no place in her life. She welcomed the darkness as it fell over the vast valley and sharp peaks of the house. It would hide her well. The weather would cooperate, icing her in so no one would know she was here—at least long enough for her to find what she was looking for.

Then she’d make them pay—and pay dearly—for what they’d done to her daddy.

CHAPTER 2

“I thinkwe have her all taken care of.”

Colby Shephard squinted to see his friend Ryan in the heavy snow and ice swirling around them. “Good. You want to get her to the hospital before you can’t see the road anymore. Just take it slow and easy.”

“Will do,” Ryan said as they slapped hands.

Colby hoped they wouldn’t find anything serious when they got the young lady to the hospital. She’d been trying to make it home in the storm and misjudged the edge of the road, causing her car to slide down an embankment. There might possibly be some neck damage, but hopefully not. At least her cell phone had still been working enough for her to call 911.

“I’ll leave y’all to it, then,” he said.

“Glad you could help! Living in this stuff makes a big difference.”

“Yeah,” Colby agreed, smiling behind his gator.

No matter how many times he tried to explain to people that what they faced down here in the South wasn’t the same as living in New England, no one seemed to grasp the difference. He’d certainly never seen a storm like this one up there, where theheavy snow was mixed with tiny pellets of ice. The roads were gonna be closed for a week with this stuff and he’d spend all his time digging people out of ditches. Not that he had anything better to do.

Just as he turned away, Ryan’s partner jogged over. “Colby, just heard on the radio that there’s a tree down over Brimland Road, so you might want to take a different route home.”

Shit.“Good to know! Thanks.”

He turned back toward his truck as the two loaded into the ambulance. In the distance, a slow rumble of thunder gave him pause. Snow thunder wasn’t common in these parts, and gave an almost foreboding element to the already heavy atmosphere. Like the whole world was holding its breath, waiting to see what torture Mother Nature was about to hand out.

He cranked up the defrost to clear the windows off, watching as the ambulance slowly rolled in the opposite direction. He rubbed his hands together, thinking about his own route home. He would have to skirt the edges of town in order to avoid Brimland, which was a main thoroughfare. Not ideal, because those roads cut through farmland and were much less traveled, but what choice did he have?

It made more sense for him to go back to his apartment over the old Post Office than to follow the guys out to the hospital, which was farther out in the county. If anything came up—which it would—he’d be closer to the fire department and the equipment they would need to bail people out of the storm.

Here's hoping wrecked cars were the only worries they had over the next week. Any house fires or medical emergencies could be disastrous with the slower response time they were gonna see. He’d need to keep all his fingers and toes crossed during this storm.

Colby inched down the road, cursing under his breath as he saw firsthand just how bad visibility had gotten. He’d be luckyif he made it home in a couple of hours instead of the twenty minutes it would take under normal circumstances. At least he was familiar with the curves of the old McDermot highway. He hadn’t been out here recently, but had lived out this way growing up.

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