Shadow in the Pines (23 page)

As soon as he came around the front corner, he saw another soft glow from her bedroom window upstairs. He tried to peer in one of the front windows but it was too dark to see anything. Something didn’t feel right. Maybe he was overly protective, but he didn’t want to take the chance.

He wandered slowly out into the center of the yard to get a better view. It didn’t look like there was any movement in the bedroom, either. He knew where the lamp was. If she passed between it and the window, it would cast a shadow. He knew she liked to read in bed, too, but she wouldn’t fix a snack then leave it downstairs. She’d either take it with her or put it up.

In spite of his unease, he really didn’t want to wake her and endure her wrath. She’d made it pretty plain she’d be happy if she never saw him again. He was prepared to work through that, but the thought still hurt. Bad. Quietly, trying to avoid the creaking boards, he approached the front door and tried the knob. Locked. Nothing to do but knock. He did. Once. Again, louder this time. There was no sound, no answering bark from Bandit, although that didn’t mean much.

Troubled, but not ready to call for reinforcements, he made his way around to the back of the house. This time, when he tried the door, it opened easily in his hand, setting off an alarm system deep inside.

“Dani?” he called out, entering slowly and closing the door behind him. His fears deepened as he moved through the dining room. She wouldn’t go to bed and leave the door unlocked. The coffee mug was full but untouched and cold. “Dani?” Silence.

He proceeded rapidly through the living room then pulled his gun as he started up the stairs. Ears tuned to any noise, there was nothing but the sound of his boots on the stairs. The bedroom door was wide open and she’d obviously been in bed at one time, but her book was propped open on the comforter and Charlie was curled in a ball where Dani’s feet should have been. A quick glance in the bathroom revealed nothing. His heart rate seemed to increase with each step he took as he moved rapidly down the hall, throwing open the bedroom and bathroom doors. All empty.

He descended the stairs two and three at a time then stopped cold when his eyes fell on the coat rack. It was empty. Surely she wouldn’t have been foolish enough to go outside in the middle of the night. In his heart, he suspected she would. Since the back door was open, he headed that way, still wondering what could have possessed her to do such a thing. He stopped in the kitchen to pick up the flashlight but it was nowhere to be found. God, please don’t let her be out wandering through the woods at this hour!

Dani was shivering uncontrollably now and had been for longer than she could think. She’d tried warming her hands over the flame from a cigarette lighter she saw on a nearby shelf, but only succeeded in burning her finger. She’d dozed off for a little while, amazingly enough. Probably a delayed NyQuil reaction. But the cold woke her up again and this time she was grateful. A quick scan of her surroundings showed that two of the larger snakes had decided to perch on the lower two steps but they were well below her feet. She didn’t know what she’d have done had she woken with one crawling on her. Her head told her she should be safe as long as she didn’t panic, but her heart told her that panic was inevitable if one should actually dare to climb on her.

At one point, she’d stirred and thought she heard Noah’s voice calling her name, but she never heard it again and figured it was just a dream. Or maybe wishful thinking. He’d rescued her from the cellar once before. Twice wasn’t likely. Or was it? If she strained her ears, she could make out the sound of grass crunching, just like when she’d walked out here. She opened her mouth to call out, then stopped suddenly. What if it was her captor, returning to see if she was dead yet?

Heat flashed through her body as her adrenaline went into high gear. The footsteps were coming closer. She was definitely in danger. Carefully, she wrestled the gun out of her pocket and clicked the safety off. There was no way in hell she’d scoot down the stairs to mingle with the reptiles. She’d have to take her chances with the human kind of threat. He’d get a good surprise when he opened those doors this time. She’d have a gun pointed right at his face.

As she sat poised, waiting, she tried frantically to recall all Noah had taught her about facing a potential threat. He’d said never pull a weapon unless she fully intended to use it and don’t wait and give them a chance to get it away from you.

Best she could tell, she had two things going for her. One, he wouldn’t be expecting it, and two, he’d have at least one hand busy trying to open the door. She’d have to move fast. Her heart hammered as she heard the padlock clank against the door. She had to fight to keep from closing her eyes in fright, but she was ready. It clanked again. Any moment now.

Her life wasn’t passing before her eyes, maybe that was a good sign. But what was taking him so long? Confusion crept in and her arm was getting tired but she didn’t dare lower the weapon. She heard a man’s voice. Was it Noah? Or was it the one who put her in here? All of a sudden she didn’t know what to do. If it was the man who put her in here, she’d want to be quiet, let him think she was dead so she could surprise him. But if it was Noah, looking for her, he might see the lock and think there was no use looking in here. Suddenly, it came to her. What had drawn her here in the first place?

“Bandit!” she hissed, hoping she couldn’t be heard from the outside. “Bark Bandit!”

Bandit heard her. He pressed his nose against the cage and whimpered.

“Louder, boy!” she encouraged with another whisper. “Bark! Roof!”

He wiggled and whined, but no barking.

“Roof, roo roo!” she tried to imitate his sound the best she could, but her whispers just weren’t exciting enough. She heard footsteps again, but this time they seemed to be moving away. It was now or never.

“Roof! Roof!” she barked louder, hoping like hell it sounded like a dog from outside. “Roof, roo roo, roof!”

Catching the idea, Bandit joined in at full voice, bringing tears to her eyes. She tried to focus on outside sounds between barks. Was it soon enough, or had he already gone too far away to hear it? No. There it was again, another step.

“Roof!” she encouraged Bandit again and was rewarded by a voice outside calling “Bandit!”

It was Noah! Thank God! Summoning her voice, she was unable to speak around the sob that choked her. “No…Noah!”

“Dani?” Sharp and clear, it was like an angelic message. Noah came for her!

“Noah! Noah!”

“Hold on, I’ll be right there!”

As long as she lived, Dani knew she’d never hear anything sweeter. A moment later, there was pounding then the doors flung open wide and Noah’s strong arms reached out to pull her to him.

“Whoa!” he said, spying the gun still clinched tightly in her hand. She sobbed as he pried it from her fingers, put the safety back on and shoved it in his pocket. “Where’s Bandit?”

“Oh, God, Noah,” she clung to his jacket and peered fearfully back down in the hole.

“Holy shit,” Noah said, looking over her shoulder.

“It’s crawling with snakes,” she offered in a trembling voice. “Bandit is in a dog carrier up on the top shelf.” Her apparently inexhaustible supply of tears flowed freely down cheeks that were rapidly numbing again from the cold wind.

“Is he alright?” he asked softly.

“So far, but Noah…”

“Baby,” he took her chin in his hand, “we’ll work it out and we’ll get him down. Right now, you need to go inside where it’s warm.”

“Noah, please……… don’t leave me,” she wailed. All the reserves of strength she’d depended on the last few hours vanished like a whiff of smoke in a high wind when she was in his arms again.

“Inside,” he said, firmly pointing her toward the back door.

She sank gratefully into a dining room chair, never letting her eyes off his magnificent form as he strode to the phone and punched in the numbers. Once he’d summoned the troops, he put on a pot of coffee, then pulled up a chair beside her and rubbed her cold hands between his own.

“Whatever were you thinking?”

Dani examined his face, meeting his eyes without reservation. “I couldn’t sleep then I thought I heard Bandit barking. I was afraid he’d freeze to death.”

“He ran off again?”

“Two days ago.”

“How’d you get in to the cellar? I tried the key. It didn’t work, or did you change that too?”

“No,” she said miserably. “There was no lock on it when I heard him. And my flashlight wasn’t working very well so I had to go all the way to the bottom to turn on the light in the cellar. When I did and saw the snakes, I tried to get back up the stairs but someone was up there and they closed the door. I guess they locked it.”

“You didn’t see them?”

She shook her head. The lights of a squad car caught her attention through the dining room window. Noah got up to meet them and left through the back door. Dani followed him and stood watching inside the screen, not wanting him out of her sight. If nothing else, the experience she’d just endured showed her how wrong she’d been. What if Noah hadn’t come looking? Sooner or later she’d have fallen asleep. Just one copperhead visitor and a twitch in her sleep, she’d have been dead.

Noah heeded her request and came back in the house once he’d explained the situation to the officers. Dani was vaguely aware of halogen lights being set up behind the house and a flurry of officers and technicians busy about their tasks.

“Don’t worry, animal control is here. They’ll bring Bandit in once they get to him,” he assured her, pulling her to her feet and leading her to the couch. As gently as if she were a child, he unbuttoned her coat and slid it from her arms, then knelt and removed her shoes, rubbing her cold, stocking - covered feet between his hands. “Snuggle up,” he ordered, pulling the afghan off the back of the couch and covering her with it. “I’ll get a fire started.”

Fearing she might be hallucinating, she followed him with her eyes, not daring to utter a word lest she break the spell. Exhausted, she let her head fall back on the cushion and closed her eyes, comfortable as long as she could hear him moving around. The sound of muted voices got her attention and she struggled to raise her head and open her eyes but it took too much effort.

“Hey, I’m off duty and she’s in shock. I’ve told you all you need to know. You can question her in the morning. She’s not going anywhere,” Noah’s voice carried from somewhere behind her.

With a soft sigh, she shifted positions so her head rested easily against the arm of the couch and a small smile flitted across her lips as Noah lifted her feet and sat down on the other end with her feet tucked inside the afghan and resting on his lap.

Chapter Twenty One

When she woke, sunlight streamed through the windows and the fire was nothing but glowing embers. Noah was fast asleep on the other end of the couch and Bandit was curled in a furry ball on the rug in front of the fire. Dani shifted, trying to stretch stiff muscles without waking anyone else. If not for Noah’s comforting presence, she’d be tempted to believe last night was just a bad dream.

Easing her feet gently off his lap, she struggled to sit up, then scooted off the couch and walked stiffly into the kitchen to start some coffee. Her mind was in a fog, not fully awake, but she knew she needed coffee. When she emerged from the kitchen, mug in hand, Noah was still sleeping, or so she thought until she tried to sneak past him to the stairs.

His long, lean arm shot out and his hand clamped a vise-grip on her forearm.

“Hey!” she yelled. “You nearly made me spill my coffee!”

He loosened his grip. “Where you going?”

“Upstairs to get out of these filthy clothes,” she told him, reaching out to touch his tousled hair.

“Put that down,” he ordered, nodding at her coffee mug. She set it on the table beside the couch. That done, he took her hand again and pulled her down into his lap, wrapping strong arms around her and holding her close. “I am so grateful that you’re safe,” he whispered, nuzzling her hair.

Dani wrapped her arms around his neck and inhaled the scent of him. “I’m so grateful you came looking. I was afraid you wouldn’t.”

Noah pulled back enough to look deep into her eyes. “I’ll always come looking,” he assured her seriously.

“Noah…” she touched his face, eyes filling with tears. There were no words for the regret she felt. “I’m sooooo sorry. I should have trusted you…”

He stopped her by placing a finger to her lips. “We’re still new at this. We’ll learn how to work it out.”

“I was so stupid,” she said, stroking his hair. “I was afraid you’d never want to speak to me again.”

He smiled softly. “I’ll admit, you had me pissed. But I finally figured out you were worth fighting through it.”

“Noah, you’re too good to me,” she meant every word. Maybe that was the problem. She knew how to react when a man treated her badly. It made her suspicious when she met one who didn’t.

“Let’s make a deal,” he said seriously.

She waited.

“Let’s promise each other when something goes wrong, we’ll sit down and at least try to hash it out. All right?”

Dani nodded, lost in brown eyes that were miles deep and filled with promise.

“I have another idea,” he said, eyes beginning to twinkle.

“What?”

“Why don’t we see if that big clanky tub you love so much is big enough for the both of us?”

“Ya think?” she smiled.

“I think,” he winked and scooped her up in his arms to carry her upstairs.

After visiting the police station to give official statements about last night’s incident, Dani and Noah had the rest of the day free. With Christmas only days away, and the promise of more snow in the interim, the streets were filled with last minute shoppers, creating an atmosphere that was crisp, clean, and festive. Christmas carols blared from every available speaker and Salvation Army Santas rang their bells on the street corners.

With Noah at her side, Dani felt like a giddy school girl. Separating only long enough to make purchases not seen by the other, they ended the day in a mile long checkout line at the grocery store, stocking up in case the snow left them housebound for a day or two.