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Alicia shook her head. “I don’t know. She appears angry when she has some business to attend to, and you want to thwart her. She must reach her goal, but you’re an impediment.”

Ben laughed.

The others all looked at him reproachfully.

“You’ve never been with her intimately. I’ve never seen her before, but I know, as if I’m in her body, that you are a problem for her,” Alicia said.

Everyone looked at Andy.

Hell if he knew what any of that meant, but he assumed the worst—he would meet the woman he’d met before in a current traffic accident, since the blizzard was coming—and they would disagree about how things would go.Great. That’s all he needed—an uncooperative accident victim whom he knew when all sorts of other trouble could be brewing.

Ben shook his head. “Whenever my cousins or brothers have major issues with a female, they mate. So it can’t be all that bad, can it?”

“I’m sure it will work itself out,” Alicia said confidently.

Most of what Rob and Alicia envisioned was dire. With the soccer ball scenario, any parent could assume that a soccer ball left outside before a snowstorm hit White Bear could be buried and disappear.

Even though Ben was trying to make light of the situation, he wore a worried frown. In fact, everyone was.

“Everything will be fine.” Yet Andy was now thinking it wouldn’t be.

In an unmarked car,FBI Special Agent Monica O’Connell watched the heavyweight kidnapper drag his ten-year-old female victim in through the front door of a white wood-framed house while the snow began coming down. Weather reports had warned of a blizzard of epic proportions hitting the area soon. She needed to rescue the girl pronto.

Monica called for backup, but every minute counted. She wasn’t waiting for anyone to show up. As soon as she told them where she was, she left her car, raced around to the back of the house, found a glass door, and peered inside. The giant of a man forced the girl down on the brown leather couch, tied her wrists in front of her, and left her to enter the kitchen.

Monica wished she could shift into her polar bear and take him down.

She knocked lightly on the glass door to alert the girl that she was there for her. Sherry Tuttle glanced in that direction, and her eyes widened. Monica pointed at the door lock. Sherry glanced at the kitchen, then dashed to the door. She unlocked it, and Monica pulled her outside. Putting her finger to her lips, Monica told her to be quiet and then closed the glass sliding door.

Her heart and Sherry’s were beating frantically as Monica motioned for Sherry to move to the side of the house where she prayed the girl would be safe. Sherry ran off through the snow. The kidnapper came out of the kitchen with a sandwichon a plate, saw she wasn’t sitting on the couch any longer, and glanced at the glass sliding door.

When he saw Monica with her gun readied, his eyes widened.

He dashed for the kitchen. Monica moved away from the door so he couldn’t shoot her through it.

Now that the kidnapper didn’t have Sherry under his control, Monica didn’t barge into the house to try to take him down. She would wait for backup. His significant figure filled the glass door before he jerked it open.

“Down on the ground, now!” she shouted.

He changed his mind and returned to the house, slamming and locking the door. She peered in to see what he was doing next. He headed out through the front door, and Monica raced around to the side of the house to make sure Sherry was still there and out of his sight.

Tears were running down Sherry’s cheeks, and Monica pulled out a knife and cut the rope that was binding her wrists. Sirens wailed, headed in the direction of the house. Thank God.

“Stay here, all right? We’ll get you home soon.” Monica called her boss. “Sir, I’ve got Sherry. The kidnapper is getting into his pickup truck and attempting to flee. Police are nearly here.”

“Keep me informed.”

“I sure will.”

She motioned for Sherry to stay at the side of the house and checked around the corner to see where the kidnapper was. He was gassing the engine of an old blue Ford pickup, but it wasn’t moving out of the driveway.

Then, four patrol cars drove up and blocked him in. The officers piled out of their vehicles, using them for cover. With weapons pointed at his truck, they shouted at him to get out of the vehicle.

Monica waved her badge at them. “FBI Agent Monica O’Connell. I’ve got Sherry over here. She’s safe.” She had to letthe officers know that the kidnapper didn’t have Sherry in the truck where he could use her as a hostage.

“We’ve got you surrounded. Come out of the truck!” the officer shouted to the kidnapper.

He opened the driver’s door.