Page 40 of Reunion at Mistletoe Lodge
“No, you must be wrong.” Zac shook his head in disbelief.
“I’m not.” Liam shook his head. “I saw him, and he came into my hospital room when Eric stepped out to call you, Zac. I fought with him, fell, and hit my head.”
“Why didn’t he just kill you then?” Courtney asked.
“Because they still needed to know who was running the task force you were working for, Courtney,” Zac told her. “Patrick was probably interrupted by Eric and had to get out of there. Eric must’ve then gone outside to phone me, and before he could tell me who it was, he was run down.”
“Patrick’s been keeping close to us, waiting for clues probably to feed to…” before Courtney was finished, she was grabbed from behind and a gun aimed at her head.
“Well done for figuring it all out,” Patrick sneered, pushing Courtney further into the room. “Now I have all the information I need. Including a disk that my employers are very eager to get their hands on.” His cold eyes met Zac’s. “Thank you for telling me about it.”
“You traitor!” Liam hissed. “All this time, you’ve been working for Sally and David!”
“You’re all really on a roll today, aren’t you,” Patrick said with a nasty laugh. “Pity you’re not going to be around to do anything about it.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Courtney told him, standing with her hands in the air while the cold barrel of Patrick’s gun was stuck at the back of her neck. “You won’t have any bosses to go back to. I’ve already called my boss.”
“Not much they’re going to do without that disk for evidence,” Patrick pointed out. “I’m sure Miss Shaw will state you were jealous or something like that. I’ll have the Professor and his niece to ensure he cooperates.”
“You leave Barb out of this,” Zac growled, fear flooding him.
“You can’t give me orders anymore,” Patrick told him. “I’ve finished my mission now. So don’t make this any harder and throw me the disk.”
Zac walked toward Liam’s laptop, but as he went to get the disk, he stopped, seeing Patrick jolt, his eyes widening in surprise before they rolled back in his head and he crumpled to the floor.
“Take that you scum bucket!” Paige hissed.
Zac, Liam, and Courtney all turned to gape at the sight of Paige and her bodyguard, Herschel. Herschel had hit Patrick in the back of the head with the butt of his gun.
“Paige!” they all said in unison before going in for a group hug while Herschel tied up Patrick and called the authorities.
“What are you doing back here?” Zac asked her.
Paige’s eyes narrowed as she looked from her one twin brother to the other. “Are you two back to your normal selves, or are we still pretending Zacis Liam?”
“I have my memories back,” Liam assured his little sister before pulling her in for another big hug. “I’ve never been happier to see you and Herschel in all my life.”
“Why are you back here?” Zac looked at Herschel.
“I bugged Patrick,” Herschel told him. “Last night at the hotel, I noticed he kept getting messages, so I cloned his phone and then bugged him when I realized he was a mole.”
“And before you pick on Herschel for bringing me along,” Paige knew what Zac’s following words were going to be, “I insisted and then snuck into his car when he was on his way here.”
“I’m really sorry about that,” Herschel assured Zac. “I’d never intentionally put Miss Paige in harm's way.”
“We understand, Herschel,” Liam assured him and sent Paige a black look. “We know how sneaky our little sister can be.”
“On the bright side…” Paige said, her eyes lighting up, “now that this is all over, we can enjoy Christmasbecause I’ve canceled everything to spend time with my older brothers.” She looked around the chalet. “And you were right, Li… Zac. This place is magical, and I thought in light of what happened to Liam, we needed to have a family Christmas, which we haven’t had in years.”
“Actually, Paige…” Zac said, his eyes darkening with emotion. “I was going to suggest we leave Mistletoe Lodge now that we no longer need to be here.” He glanced out the large windows that looked across the snow-laden field toward Barb’s bungalow. “Maybe we can go to Hawaii together for Christmas.”
“Why?” Liam. Paige, Courtney, and Herschel asked in unison.
“Because we’re not wanted here,” Zac told them.
“Then we’ll just have to remedy that,” Paige said. “Because if you all want to leave, then go, but I’m staying as I want to get to know my niece and nephew.”
“I secondthat,” Liam said.
