Christmas Witness Pursuit

“Tory.”

She spun around. “Griffin?”

A sigh of relief escaped her lips. She’d let her imagination take over but she’d been right. There was nothing to be afraid of.

“There are two men in the house,” he whispered.

“What?”

The night-light in the living room went out, leaving them in darkness.

“They’ve cut the electricity.”

Fear pressed against her chest. This couldn’t be happening. She was supposed to be safe here. But now...

Griffin motioned for her to stay quiet as he grabbed her hand and pulled her across the kitchen toward the laundry room. “They’re here in the house. Upstairs. I don’t know how you managed to miss them, but I need you to come with me.”

She went willingly, an indication in her mind of how much she trusted him. But trust didn’t take away the panic engulfing her. Jinx had no intention of simply disappearing. He wanted her dead and was willing to battle a storm to take her out.

She caught the glint of the handgun Griffin held as the moonlight streamed through the window and wondered how it had come to this. She was supposed to be safe here. A shelter in the storm until the FBI could retrieve her. She had to have known she was putting her life at risk when she’d decided to testify against a man like Jinx, but now she was risking Griffin’s family’s lives, too. She didn’t want that. And she had no desire for him to put his life on the line to fight for her. But what other options did they have at this point?

He pulled her into the laundry room and shut the door behind them. She had a dozen questions to ask Griffin. Like, how were they going to escape? But all she really needed to know was that Jinx’s men—and maybe Jinx himself—were here in the house and, with the storm in full force outside, escaping was going to be next to impossible.

How were they supposed to hide when there was nowhere to go?

Griffin released her hand and pulled out a handheld two-way radio. “Caden...we’ve got two intruders in the house.”

“Where are you?”

“Downstairs in the laundry room.”

“You need to get her to the safe room.”

“That was my plan, but they’re blocking it.”

“Can you take them out?” Caden asked.

“Yes, but I could use some backup. I’d rather avoid someone getting hurt in a confrontation.”

“What about Mom and Dad?”

“I haven’t been able to get through to them.”

“I’m on my way to the house now.”

“Copy that.”

She heard movement behind them. The door swung open, followed by a bright light and then everything went dark.

Tory grabbed Griffin’s arm, though she couldn’t see or hear anything. Someone pulled her up but she couldn’t make out who it was. Was it Griffin or one of Jinx’s men? She couldn’t tell. Her ears were ringing and her heart pounded as her vision came back into focus. Someone grabbed her from behind but Griffin pounced on the man, forcing him to lose his grip. Free, she snatched an iron off the dryer and swung at a second man with everything she had. A moment later the man dropped to the ground.

Griffin grabbed her hand. “We need to get out of here. Can you run?”

“Yeah.” She still wasn’t sure where he planned to go, but she wasn’t going to wait to find out.

He swung open the outside door and helped her down the porch stairs. The cold hit her like a freight train. She was wearing sweats, a long T-shirt and slippers with soles, but that wasn’t enough to protect her from the freezing temperatures or the snow that was still falling. It wouldn’t take long, exposed in this weather, to bring on the first stages of hypothermia.

She didn’t question his decision as they headed for the barn, but there was no way they could take a horse out into this weather. That left them with no real escape as far as she could tell. But Griffin had a plan. He had to.

Her lungs hurt as she took in a breath. “Where are we going?”

“To the barn. We’ve got a couple snowmobiles there.”

They crossed the gravel driveway that was now covered with several inches of white, the only light a sliver of moon reflecting off the falling snow. She had no idea what had happened to his parents, but she had a feeling that Jacob and Marci O’Callaghan could take care of themselves.