Page 59 of Riding Danger

Ryder opened the door for me and Oh. My. God. “What the fu—fiddle sticks happened in here.”

“I know it’s a lot.” Tiffany walked into the foyer, festive oven gloves on both hands. “But we had all these decorations and things took on a life of their own.”

“It looks like you found every Christmas decoration since Lilly lived here.”

It was entirely possible. There were very few women among the Salinger Clan who had not, at one point or another, needed to take refuge at the manor. Skylar, who now rented a room in the house for when she was in town, had originally lived with her mother in my cottage.

And it seemed that Tiffany had found all their decorations.

I turned to Maggie who came into the foyer also wearing matching festive oven gloves. “Why didn’t you put a leash on her?”

“I was in charge of cooking, and she was in charge decorating,”

I point to Tiff’s oven gloves. “Clearly she had no problem invading your territory.”

Before I could get any more Scrooge, Ethan, along with Maggie’s two kids, came barreling down the stairs.

“Mom, look what Dad got all of us.”

Clearly my friends were not the only ones with a tendency to overdo. All three kids were covered head to toe in movie merchandise paraphernalia. The two boys were dressed as some superhero complete with the proper shoes and props. Maggie’s little girl was dressed as the latest doll craze being made into a movie.

I looked up at Ryder and smiled. “You couldn’t resist, could you?”

“Babe, it’s Christmas.” He raised a brow but that smirk was evident. “It's the cliché time for deadbeat dads to pretend they’ve not been absent.”

A chill ran down my spine. The image of the map on the last victim’s back popped into my head. Ryder’s house with the pool in the backyard. I mean, the likelihood of him being on the killer’s radar was almost zero. Still, the thought made me shudder.

Ryder looked down at me. All signs of joking vanished. “Babe, are you okay?”

I plastered on a smile and nodded. “Sure.”

There was no way I would allow that sicko to get to my man. I took a deep breath and looked around the room. At least she wouldn’t be attempting tonight. Not in this house. Now if I could convince him not to go anywhere, that would be perfect.

27

RYDER

Ihad to agree with Shiloh. It looked like Santa’s village had exploded in the house. There was a tree and while most of the ornaments were gold and red, there were too many mismatched ones for anything to look truly put together. There was a stack of presents under the tree, as well.

Maggie reminded me the kids would get presents from all the aunts and uncles, so I could keep Ethan’s in the cottage. She also hadn’t brought down her presents for her kids.

I was about to ask if there was anything I could do to help when the door swung open. Theo walked in with a woman in combat fatigues and her dark hair in a bun.

Tiff let out a squeal I wasn’t sure was entirely human. “Cat.” Her hands circled around her sister. “God, you’re alive and you’re in front of me.”

“My turn.” Maggie pulled off her gloves and pulled Cat into her arms. “How long are you home for?”

“I need to report to base on the twenty seventh. Then I have another six months.”

I looked over at Shiloh who had tears streaming down her eyes. “It’s good to see you, sis.”

As the three women continued to gush over Cat, Theo and I walked through to the kitchen. I handed him a beer and narrowed my eyes. “Are you going to be nice to Maggie this evening?”

“She’s the one who—” Before he could finish his sentence, the back door swung open and two men walked in. “Ryder, let me introduce you to the Waite Brothers. Holden and Owen.”

He pointed first to the one with broad shoulders, hair a little longer and a day-old beard. The other had the same dark hair and eyes but he was leaner and a little taller.

Owen held out his hand. “You’re the baby daddy, I hear.”

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