Holiday Mountain Conspiracy. Liz Shoaf

FOUR

      Mary Grace hunched over the steering wheel in her rental car as she followed the two snowmobiles in front of her. Ned had said Fran lived several miles away.

      She checked the heater to make sure it was on full blast. She’d never been so cold in her life. She’d take the sticky, sweet humidity in Georgia any day over these bone-chilling temperatures.

      She couldn’t imagine Ned living all alone on that isolated mountain. But maybe not completely alone. She now knew he had a sister and a niece. They evidently visited periodically. When she awoke that morning, she assumed he was all alone, because why in the world would anyone choose to live sequestered in complete isolation?

      Tinker Bell growled when Krieger stuck his massive head between the bucket seats.

      “It’s okay, Tink. Krieger just wants to be friends.”

      Tink growled one more time for good measure and Krieger disappeared into the back seat. The dogs reminded Mary Grace of her and Ned. Uptown girl meets gruff mountain man. She chuckled at the comparison, but sobered when she remembered riding on the snowmobile with her arms wrapped around his waist. Something had stirred deep inside her. It was attraction and that was ridiculous. She didn’t even know what his face looked like. It was almost completely covered by a beard that appeared as if it hadn’t been groomed for months. Her grandmother would have been horrified by his appearance. About the one thing she was sure of so far was that the man calling himself Ned apparently loved his niece and, judging by his reaction, loathed Mary Grace’s brother.

      He was an enigma. She had to find out everything about Ned’s connection to Bobby so she could protect her brother. She had no idea what was going on, but she’d find out. It was her gift—ferreting out secrets and information.

      Outside of his negative reaction at the mention of her brother’s name, the only thing Ned had actually said about Bobby was when he asked if she and her brother were working together to get rid of him and Finn.

      Who was Finn and why would someone be trying to get rid of both men? But the most disturbing question was how her brother was involved in this situation. The people after Mary Grace and Bobby weren’t playing games. Even though she finally felt warm, she shivered at the thought of the recent attempts on her life. She prayed Bobby would be safe until she could resolve this situation.

      Her reporter’s curiosity piqued once again when she made a right turn behind the snowmobiles onto a long driveway that appeared manicured, even beneath the snow. After making several soft turns, a large house loomed at the end of the driveway. A sizable fountain stood in the middle of the circular drive, complementing the wood and stone structure. She wouldn’t classify it as a mansion, but it definitely came under the heading of mini mansion.

      She cut the engine and flung open her car door. This was her best chance to find out more about Ned. There was no name on the mailbox and she needed information. She’d always had great rapport with other women. One mention of their cute kids or their pets or their boyfriends/husbands and they were usually off and running. Politicians would be the exception to that rule. She had to break out the big guns for those interviews.

      She had one leg out of the car when Ned silently appeared and halted her momentum with a big bear claw on the door, stopping her from reaching her goal: to talk to his sister.

      “You stay here. I’ll be back.”

      His quiet but firm order really burned her. The terror she’d experienced on the mountain had melted away and she was more herself now.

      She jutted her chin out. “Why should I?”

      His expression didn’t change, but she noted the twitch in his left eye, the only thing that remotely revealed what he was feeling.

      “Because I’m the only one who can protect you while we look for your brother.”

      Like she was born yesterday. “For all I know, you want to kill Bobby. Why should I trust you?”

      Her heart palpitated when he grinned for the second time since she’d met him, and her gut clenched. No, no, no, she absolutely refused to be attracted to this bear of a man. He hovered over her open door like a caveman. He had to be at least six and a half feet tall. She considered herself of average height at five feet six inches, but he towered over her. He wasn’t skin and bones, either. She briefly wondered how much muscle was hidden beneath those layers of clothes.

      “Because your brother sent you to me.”

      Well, that took the wind out of her sails. He was right. Bobby had sent her to Ned. With little grace, she jerked her leg back inside the car and grabbed the door handle. It’d serve him right if his hand got caught in the door, but that wasn’t to be. He showed his superior strength by holding on to the door until he was ready to release it. She gritted her teeth and pulled hard. He let go suddenly and the door slammed shut, rattling her hand.

      Fuming, she crossed her arms over her chest and watched as Ned met Fran at the sidewalk and together they walked through the front door, firmly closing it behind them.

      “Tink, I don’t trust that man, not with Bobby’s life on the line.”

      Tink barked and Mary Grace jerked when a big, rough tongue licked the side of her neck. She turned her head and looked at Ned’s dog. “If only you could talk.” The animal’s eyes were full of intelligence and she remembered how Krieger had followed Ned’s orders right before the explosion. She sat upright in her seat. Was Krieger military or police-trained?

      As happened when she came across a vital piece of information while pursuing a story, her adrenaline took a sharp spike. She reached across the console and grabbed her backpack from the passenger floorboard of the car. Dropping it onto her lap, she dug through her belongings until her fingers wrapped around her cell phone. She lifted it triumphantly in the air.

      “Ha! Got it.” Tink barked her approval and Mary Grace held the smartphone close to her chest. “Now, if I can get a signal, I’ll be in business.”

      She turned on the phone and fidgeted in her seat, willing the phone to power up fast. She wanted to do a quick search on Krieger before Ned came out of the house. Her heart beat faster when two bars appeared. Opening the search engine, she typed in Krieger—military dog and pressed the search tab. The blue line at the top had never taken so long, but when it finished, she grinned. There were several articles that popped up immediately.

      The first one caught her attention and her nose actually twitched. She was in what she called her “reporter zone,” a place where her gut told her she was on the right track.

      It read: Old-fashioned, giant German shepherd musters out with handler after six years of service in Army Special Forces.

      Mary Grace quickly skimmed the article, looking for a reference to the handler, but it never gave a name. She checked several other articles, but nothing. They did list all of Krieger’s achievements and they were quite impressive. She glanced over her shoulder.

      “I appreciate your service to our country, Krieger.”

      Tink growled again, but Mary Grace ignored her and scanned the house and grounds, searching for anything that would give her a clue she could follow to find out Ned’s true identity. Then an idea popped into her head. She opened Google Maps on her smartphone and a map popped up. She got the address of his sister’s house from there and was just following up on that when the driver’s door whooshed open.

      “Move over, I’ll drive.”

      Mary Grace scooted over the console into the passenger seat and quickly sorted through all her options. She could probably, eventually, find Bobby on her own, and she was uncertain why Ned wanted to find her brother. Was it for information, or had Bobby inadvertently done something to anger this quiet, lethal mountain of a man? On the other hand, there were people trying to kill her and she wasn’t quite ready to meet her Maker. Ned could protect her. She’d stay with him for the time being and