Page 103 of Tangled In Tinsel & Knots
A squirrel suddenly jumps out from behind a tree directly in our path, and Chris actually yelps, a high-pitched sound I’ve never heard come out of his mouth in the entire time I’ve known him.
I burst out laughing so hard I have to stop moving for a second. “Did you just scream?”
“Fuck off. It startled me.” But he’s looking around to make sure no one else heard that embarrassing sound.
“You hunt dangerous criminals for a living,” I manage between laughs, “and a tiny squirrel makes you scream?”
“It came out of nowhere!”
The squirrel in question sits on its haunches near the tree, staring at us with those beady black eyes like it’s judging Chris’s masculinity. Then it flicks its tail dismissively and scampers up the tree trunk, disappearing into the branches.
“That was the best thing that’s happened all morning.”
“I’m going to punch you.”
We’re both laughing now as we reach the truck. Once we’re safely inside the truck with the doors closed and locked, Chris starts the engine and cranks the heat to maximum. We both hold our hands up to the vents, trying to get feeling back in our frozen fingers.
I pull out my phone and text Hannah while we’re waiting for the truck to warm up.
Me: Do you know where Scot lives, by any chance?
The response comes back almost immediately, which makes me smile because of course she’s got her phone on her.
Hannah: Not a clue. Never wanted to know so never asked him. Why?
Me: Just trying to track him down. No worries.
I pocket my phone and glance at Chris, who’s studying the photographs he took on his phone, zooming in and examining details.
“She doesn’t know where he lives,” I report.
Chris zooms in on the background of the photo, focusing on the mountains and the waterfall. “We need to figure out where this cabin is. Those mountains, that waterfall, it’s somewhere in this area.”
“This is our bread and butter—finding fuckers who think they can hide in plain sight.”
17
HANNAH
The familiar scent of vanilla and cinnamon wraps around me the moment I step into Flour & Fable’s back kitchen, and despite everything weighing on my mind, I immediately relax a fraction.
Lily is at the industrial mixer, wearing her usual flour-dusted apron over jeans and a sweater, her dark hair pulled back. She glances up when I enter, and her face breaks into a huge grin.
“There’s my sister! I was starting to think you’d forgotten about our coffee date.”
“Never,” I say. “Just running behind because everything in my life is currently insane. Noel has been my shadow for the last couple of days for all my meetings and catching up with all things parade related.”
“The parade is tomorrow, right?” Lily asks. “It’s later this year.”
“Yeah, the council wanted to draw in more tourists, so they scheduled it closer to Christmas. For the same reason, they pushed the tree lighting ceremony to just days before Christmas.So it’s tomorrow, and the event is all ready to go. Though, I’m terrified something’s going to go terribly wrong.”
“Why? You’ve triple-checked everything, haven’t you?”
“Yes, but…” I sigh and pace around the kitchen. “All my recent events have had issues. The Santa was a criminal who was arrested. The strippers were wanted criminals, also arrested. What if things go haywire for this too?” I rub my temples where a headache is starting to form. “Two days ago, the guys found a photo of Scot with those criminals. Together. Like they know each other. And he recommended them to me months ago to book. It’s a huge coincidence that both turned out to be wanted criminals.”
“Hannah…”
“And then there’s the guys themselves.” The words tumble out before I think them through. “They’re this huge, amazing, overwhelming distraction that I’m loving way too much, and I shouldn’t be because I have a business to build and a reputation to establish and?—”
