Page 38 of Snowed Inn For Christmas

She opened her mouth to say something, but closed it instead, offering a small shrug.

“Mom, you guys should have left this at the apartment.This could be evidence.Now it has all of our fingerprints on it, so who knows if it still has his?How are the police going to lock him up if the incriminating evidence is missing?”

“There was never a plan to show it to the police,” Patrick said, clearing his voice as he sighed heavily and kept his eyes closed as he laid on the bed.

“Aren’t you supposed to be sleeping?”

“I’m resting, Julie.That’s as good as it’s going to get right now.”

“You’re so stubborn,” I grumbled, looking through the rest of the papers.My fingers trembled as I saw the stack of photos where Joel had glued his head where Mike’s had been.Even in the dim light, the sight was enough to make my blood curdle.

“Wait—what do you mean there was never a plan to show this to the police?”I asked, setting the papers down in my lap as I turned my head and stared at my brother once his words finally caught up to me.

He sighed heavily, turning his head to look at me.

“I have no intention of going to the police with any of this,” he clarified.

“What?”My eyes nearly bulged out of my head.“Why not?”

“Because what I plan to do to him doesn’t involve the cops.In fact, it’s better that they don’t know anything to begin with.”

“Then why did you have Dad call the police earlier if you don’t want them involved?”

“There’s a trail for everything.If it shows that we called the cops as soon as we felt there was a threat up here, then we have more on our side to show it’s justified if we accidentally shoot and kill an armed intruder.That is, if the cops show up before I can dispose of the body.It’s just a little added protection in case we need it.”

“You can’t be serious,” I stammered, my mind struggling to process everything he was saying as Gage’s hand rested lightly on my thigh.

“I told you—I don’t fuck around when it comes to my family, Julie.”

Twenty-Three

Gage

“You need to sleep,”Patrick scolded as he stood at the foot of the bed and stared down at where his sister was asleep on my shoulder.

I didn’t know what time she finally fell asleep, but I was thankful that she was resting.It had been a long day, followed by an even longer night, and I didn’t want her to catch whatever cold Daisy had.The sun had already come up, and her parents had taken Daisy into the living room after Patrick and Dave made sure everything was safe.Duke had been calm for once, which made me feel more at ease that whatever threat there had been was gone.On top of everything, the power had come back on sometime early this morning, which made me question whether it had anything to do with Joel.While Duke had been on alert last night, there were also strong winds that wreaked havoc outside, which may have triggered him.