Page 32 of Cold as Hell

Dalton nods and turns to Gunnar. “Grab a few people for cleanup. Get Kenny in to see if any repairs are needed. Maybe grab Marlon too.”

“He’s already there helping deal with the grumbling.”

“Excellent,” I say. “We’ll swing by Brian and Devon’s place and see if we can get the café open early.”

Once Gunnar’s gone, Dalton turns to me. “You can go on home if you want.”

I shake my head. “Their place is on the way. We’ll stop by and then go home, get a bit of rest. If snow in the kitchen is the biggest emergency we have, we’ll count ourselves lucky.”

We don’t end up going home. There are other minor emergencies to be handled. I do, however, agree to let Dalton and Anders oversee those while I rest in the town hall. Being there also means I can feel moderately useful—any problems can be reported to me, and I’ll assign duties as needed. Nicole is out with the boys, walking Raoul, so they take Storm. We’re not going to be in any shape for long dog walks today.

I’m in the town hall, with my feet up, when Yolanda stops by.

She walks in, shakes off the snow, and drops onto the chair across from me.

“How are things going out there?” I ask.

“Too many cooks, too little broth,” she says. “It’s nice that everyone wants to help, but the damage is minimal. I decided to come keep you company.”

“Keep me company? Or keep yourself from telling people to go the fuck home and stop getting in the way?”

“Will may have suggested you could use some companionship.”

I laugh under my breath. “Don’t worry. Eric is more than capable of delivering the ‘go the fuck home’ message on his own.” I shake out one foot that’s falling asleep. “I know we can’t focus on Kendra’s attack right now, but did you get anything interesting yesterday? I never had time to check in.”

“If I did get anything, I’d have told you. It was just passing along the message without working folks into a panic. We did have some starting to fret, but the storm will distract from that. It should also, I hope, stop Kendra’s attacker from trying again.”

“Yep. That’s one good thing about storms. Even the predators lie low.”

“The other good thing?” Yolanda spreads her arms and slumps back in her seat. “Snow days.”

I yawn and reach for my rapidly cooling tea. “Not to bring up business while you’re enjoying some time off…”

“Then don’t.”

“Eric and I will be heading to Whitehorse once this clears. We’ll probably be staying until the baby comes.”

She sits upright. “What?”

“I know it’s shitty timing. A few days ago, it’d have seemed just fine, but with what happened to Kendra, having both of us leave is a problem.”

“It’s actually not, Casey. Everyone’s been warned, the perp must know by now and will be lying low. Whatever happens, Will can handle it. My surprise was because you wouldn’t leave if it wasn’t urgent.” Her gaze drops to my stomach. “Is everything okay?”

“We had a scare last night. It turned out to be a false alarm, but it did alert us to a potential issue—the baby’s in breech. Again, I’m fine and the baby seems fine, but enough small things have piled up that it would be negligent not to get to a hospital as soon as we can.”

“Once this damn storm passes.” She lifts her eyes to the ceiling. As if on cue, the wind whines. “And here it comes again.”

“Yeah, Eric and Jacob figure it’ll come and go for a day or two. Our biggest issue for flying out isn’t the snow—it’s the visibility. Once that clears—”

Bootfalls tramp on the wooden deck. Then the double bang of someone knocking snow off before the door opens, only to catch the wind. Yolanda rises as the newcomer wrestles the door shut. We still can’t tell who it is. The lighting’s fine in here—it’s the fact that like most people, the newcomer is bundled in standard-issue winter wear, from a parka with a tunnel hood down to heavy boots.

A gloved hand rises and pushes back the hood.

“Kendra,” I say, pushing up.

“Tell me you brought a hot lunch,” Yolanda says. “Deliveredright to my table here, so I don’t need to get up, much less put on my…” She sees Kendra’s expression.

“Something’s happened,” I say.

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