Page 241 of Screwged for Christmas

She moved to the bar and clutched the bag Damon prepared and tossed it beside hers at the back door.

“Call dad. Tell him to check in on the other families on the outskirts of the Ridge. Reaper’s family might not be the only ones they attacked.”

Damon clasped Drake’s hand. “We’re headed out that way now to see if we can help.”

“Read you loud and clear.”

Ivy pulled on as much gear as she could while Damon piled on another scarf around her neck and slipped on a thicker pair of gloves over the ones she already had on. He went back for another hat when she threw up her hands. “Anything else and I won’t be able to move. Is all this necessary?”

“It is if you’re human.”

He pulled on blizzard gear next.

Sixty seconds later the lights of Savage Ridge faded to tiny dots as they sped away. Swirls of snow slapped against the windshield as darkness swallowed them whole.

“We can get halfway there before we have to take the snowmobiles. Suddenly she became very grateful for all the layers of winter clothes he bundled her in.

She sighed. Some damn Christmas. She started out her trip here running away from responsibilities when all she did was find more.

Several hours later Ivy was bone tired. So much blood.

Reaper had been wrong about the brother he thought died. Miracle number one thousand of the night. All six of Reaper’s siblings had survived, including his old man. In all the hustle, adrenaline and fear, Reaper had missed finding a pulse much to his relief.

Damon had called the sheriff while she and Reaper worked to save his other brothers.

Still, her heart ached for the violence. No one deserved to have their home, their family, their town in danger. It being Christmas drove that feeling home all the more.

Propped up on the doorway, she sipped at a cup of warm cider Reaper offered her and Damon now that the commotion died down. Reaper slipped out to check the perimeter, leaving her and Damon alone to see over the injured in Reaper’s massive log home.

When they pulled up hours ago bodies dotted the property, and from a distance they resembled toy soldiers forgotten by an absent-minded child. As they had gotten closer to the aftermath of the battle realization painted a far uglier picture.

Fact: Death happened. It wasn’t her fault.

An involuntary tremble racked her body. So callous and cold. According to Damon he recognized several of the faces belonging to the traffickers out in the snow. When the law arrived it would be fairly easy to piece together what went down.

She pressed a hand to her forehead. Houston seemed like a lifetime ago from where she stood over the makeshift beds spread out over the plush carpet of the living room. She’d insisted on keeping everyone together.

The blood had been cleaned up hours ago and it almost seemed unreal such a thing could happen on Christmas Eve.

“You saved them.” Damon pressed a soft kiss to the top of her head then pulled her in to wrap his arms around her. Gathered in the large family room three times the size of her tiny two-bedroom apartment the soft glow of the fire blanketed the entire home in warmth. A real home. She half imagined a cave in the side of an icy wall on the drive over. Half frozen when they arrived, Reaper ushered them in and she immediately set to work washing, bandaging and stitching all the while amazed by the kindness from the people she heard were no better than wild mountain men.

“This isn’t the first time they’ve murdered to get what they want, but hopefully it will be the last.”

Her eyeballs grew wide and a thousand questions wanted to come out all at once, but now didn’t seem like the time to pepper Damon with questions about his past. “What happens now?”

“I’ll contact my old Sergeant. Fill him in on what’s been going on. They’ll put in another undercover cop and take the new group out like they did when I was the undercover cop. Or, they’ll pull in the bigger guns depending on how big this organization has gotten.” Damon answered, his eyes flashing with a lethal edge.

Reaper strolled back in covered with snow and like he wasn’t wounded. Men never changed.

“Thank you,” Reaper offered, shaking her hand. He lifted it to his lips and pressed a kiss to the back of her knuckles. “If you find yourself in need of help, you know where to find me.”

She smiled.

“It’s time for us to leave too.”

“Before you leave there’s something you must know about yourself, Ivy.” Reaper cupped her smaller hand in his larger one. “You have a healer’s heart in you. I noticed it the first time I met you and tonight you have proven it. If not with my family, with the simple change I see in our mutual friend. Thank you.” He looked at Damon. “Not much can change a man’s heart but you’ve found a way.”

She didn’t know what to make of that. What he said struck a nerve and rang true but when faced with patients fear gripped her heart and wouldn’t let go. Here, tonight, she acted and looking back realized she did what these people needed of her without a drop of fear or hesitation.

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