Page 65 of Sergeant's Christmas Siege

The man on the roof spat. In disgust, presumably.

And for a long, tense moment, nothing else happened.

“What do you want?” the man demanded right when Templeton was beginning to feel itchy, like maybe he should shoot something to keep the ball rolling.

He could tell that Kate figured that question was a tacit agreement that the guy was, in fact, her cousin. Or he assumed that was what her serene trooper smile was all about.

“It’s the holiday season,” she said, loud enough to bounce back from the house. “People are ripe for reconciliation and reunion this time of year, don’t you think?”

“What I think is that you’re trespassing,” Russ called down into the clearing. He let out a disgruntled sort of noise. “Cousin.”

“It’s good to see you, too,” Kate called back. Like she meant it.

It was impossible not to admire his trooper. Templeton didn’t try.

There was the sound of locks being thrown, and then the front door of the cabin opened. Templeton moved his gaze from the idiot on the roof for no more than a split second, but it was enough to get a picture. A woman stoodthere, a regular shotgun in her arms and a scowl on her face. She looked nothing like Kate. She was rounder and softer, though her face looked more like a long-haul road in winter, cracked and hard and salted besides.

But he recognized that scowl. This was clearly Kate’s cousin Liberty.

“Are you hunting us down,” Liberty asked, her voice hard. “Again?”

“If I was hunting you down, I would be here with a SWAT team,” Kate replied, still sounding cheerful. As if they were exchanging Christmas cookie recipes, not gunfire.

Liberty motioned to Templeton with the muzzle of the shotgun, another thing Templeton did not care for. At all. “What do you call him?”

“My insurance policy.” Kate’s smile widened. “Seeing as Cousin Russ is lying on the roof with a shotgun, I suspect you know a thing or two about insurance policies.”

“We haven’t broken any laws,” Liberty said, though she lowered the shotgun. Fractionally. “Since I know that’s what concerns you, Miss Law and Order.”

“Trooper Law and Order, thank you,” Kate said, still smiling. “I saw Will last night.”

“My brother isn’t welcome around here.” Liberty’s voice was hard. “And neither are you.”

“All I want to do is talk.” Kate looked from Liberty to Russ then back. “We can do that, can’t we? Just talk?”

“Not until your goon puts down that gun,” came Russ’s voice.

Templeton let out one of his better laughs, long and loud. “You first, buddy.”

“How about everybody puts down their guns?” Kate asked, a little more edge in her voice. “Like whoever is lurking there behind you, Liberty.”

Templeton had already clocked the man lurking in the shadows and suspected there was at least one moreadult in that house. But he didn’t see any more obvious weapons.

“We don’t like strangers,” Liberty snapped. “And that’s all you are to us, Kate. A stranger. Worse than that, a stranger who used to be family before you sold us all out.”

“If I’d sold you out, I would have gained something from the experience,” Kate said, as if this were a pleasant conversation, not an armed confrontation in the bitter cold. “I can’t say I did.”

“You got the attention you always wanted,” Liberty retorted. “You had no trouble stepping right into that spotlight, did you?”

“I was a fifteen-year-old girl. Terrified for my life.” Kate shook her head, and Templeton thought her smile was a little edgier than before. “We don’t have to do this, do we? I know why you hate me. I don’t think we need to do a point-by-point analysis of all the reasons why I think you shouldn’t. We’re unlikely to reach an agreement. Still, I’d like to talk to you. Maybe somewhere where we’re not all risking frostbite or worse.”

There was another long, tense silence. Templeton kept his eyes on the roof. Because as much as he wanted to keep watch over Kate—maybe he wanted that too much, a detail he was going to have to examine when he wasn’t some idiot’s idea of winter target practice—he knew that this was like any day on the job for her. And that she knew what she was doing. She’d lowered her hands to her sides, and he’d bet everything he had that his trooper was quicker on the draw than her cousin. Than either one of her cousins.

“Fine,” Liberty said.

She let out a piercing whistle. Templeton watched Russ scowl but lower his weapon. Templeton took his sweet time doing the same.

Liberty watched him closely, like she was expecting a trick. “You can leave your insurance policy outside.”

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