Chapter 24
I sank to the couch and put my head in my hands, both of them still shaking. There was a knock on the door and then my mom’s voice could be heard loud and clear. Ellis whipped it open and my mom rushed in, followed by Stan. She was hugging me before I could even stand up.
“Baby,” she whispered, her voice choked. “It’s okay,” she soothed, rubbing my back to calm my shaking.
“Mom, it’s not okay. They shot a cop!”
“Shhhh,” she whispered, her cheek on my head. “I know. I checked before we came over and he’s in surgery, but he’s going to live.”
Ellis sat down on the other side of me and Stan rested his butt on the coffee table. We were all silent, unsure of what to say, think, or even do.
“I was just giving him his birthday present,” I stuttered, my breathing ragged. “They started shooting.” I moaned in frustration, the anger making me shake as much as the fear. “What the hell is wrong with people?”
Ellis rubbed my thigh calmly. “Addie, I want you to stay up here while Stan and I go down and board the windows.”
I grasped his shirt in my hand. “No, don’t go down there. The shooters got away!”
“Honey, we have to protect the salon. We don’t want people walking in off the street.”
Stan knelt and tipped my chin up. “We got you, Addie. Just relax. They shot a cop. They’re long gone and not coming back. Let us protect the salon and then we’ll take you to our place.”
I had my hands over my mouth, my mind racing while trying to sort out what had to happen first. They were right. The door first, then everything else. “I don’t know where to get plywood,” I said, as we heard a faint noise on the stairs.
Ellis stood as pounding and yelling ensued that could only be associated with one person. Ivy. He opened it to an anxious Ivy, Mel, and Holly, who had definitely been rolled out of bed. Ellis stepped aside to let them in and we heard a screw gun from downstairs.
Ivy was next to me instantly, her arm around my shoulder. “Mason and Shep are covering the door right now. Don’t worry about a thing. We’ve got you,” she promised, her voice soft and calming.
“Thank you,” I whispered into her ear. “Has anyone gotten an update on Officer Wilson?”
Ivy shook her head slightly and my mom checked her phone, nodding as she read a text. “He’s out of surgery. Through and through of his left leg. He’s already asking when he can get out of there to help his partner.”
I leaned my head back on the couch and sighed. “Thank God. I can’t believe he got hurt because of me. This is so unfair.”
Ivy grabbed my arm forcefully until I made eye contact. “He didn’t get hurt because of you. He got hurt because of some asshole who thought he was above the law.”
“Ahem, language, Aunt Ivy,” Holly scolded from where she stood by the Christmas tree. “Santa’s watching.”
We burst into giggles and had to take a moment to compose ourselves. Leave it to a child to bring the only bit of levity to the situation we were in. I held my arms out and she ran to me, vaulting over the coffee table and into my lap where she hugged my neck.
“I’m sorry your door got broken, Addie. I’ll help you clean up the glass after Dad and Uncle Shep finish putting the board up.”
I rubbed her back and inhaled the scent of her lavender shampoo. “Thank you, baby girl, but it can wait until morning. I don’t want anyone to get cut on the glass in the dark.”
That was a lie. I didn’t want anyone down there any longer than necessary. I couldn’t risk someone getting shot again. The rest could wait until tomorrow when the sun was out and everything wasn’t dark and scary. She rested her tired head on my shoulder and I stroked her hair as much for me as her.
There were footsteps on the stairs and Mason stuck his head in. “Gabe is back. He’d like to talk to you.”
Mel took a sleepy Holly from me and I rubbed her back. “You can rest on Ellis’s bed if you’d like, Holly. I know you’re tired and have school tomorrow.”
Mel mouthed thank you and Ellis stood to help her as I followed Mason down the stairs, followed closely by Stan and my mom.
Gabe stood in the middle of the salon that was already in the process of being cleaned up by a familiar face. “Heather,” I cried, hugging her desperately. “I was going to call you. How did you know?”
She patted my back and laughed. “It’s Bells Pass, Addie. I literally had Audrey Violet at my door three minutes after it happened.”
Heather could barely tear her gaze away from Gabriel to speak to me, so rather than continue to make her put words together into a sentence, I spoke to him. “Gabe, we heard Officer Wilson is okay, that’s a relief.”
He nodded from where he leaned on the reception desk. “Sorry I had to take off there for a few, but we had to at least try to recover the guys. They’re long gone, probably picked up on the highway by a Thunder Viper and are back in Saginaw already. I need to take your statement and then coordinate with State Patrol.”
“I just have one question,” I said before I took the paperwork he held out to me, “how did he engage them that quickly? We had just given dispatch the information.”
He pulled a pen from his pocket and handed it to me before answering. “Wilson picked them up outside of town for speeding and a broken headlight. He didn’t know what had happened. It crackled across his radio as he was approaching. He barely had time to duck back behind his car door. Didn’t get his leg clear before they shot. He couldn’t return fire easily because of his proximity to civilian homes. He was prepared to engage if they approached the car, but they took off. He wasn’t in any shape to give chase.”
“Why Bells Pass, Gabe? Why not Saginaw?” Ellis asked as he came down the stairs with Mel.
“From what the cops there have shared with us, they’ve got them locked down in the city. The gang decided to send their pledges out into other communities to do initiations. Of course, this just came to light when all the neighboring departments started calling in for information. It’s the reason we’re coordinating with state patrol. We need to knock this down quickly before someone is killed.”
“Agreed,” we all said in unison.
Gabe checked his watch. “Listen, it looks like you’ve got this covered here. The statements aren’t life or death tonight. Jot down your recollections and save them until morning. Add anything you can think of and then call me. I’ll come over and you can sign and date them with me tomorrow. I want to get out there and help the other officers if you’re okay with it.”
I handed him the pen back and Ivy stepped forward. “We have our own post ready to open. Lance is making coffee and hot cocoa as we speak and the four of us are going back to man it. Tell the officers we’ll be open all night. We’re there with food, coffee, a warm place to rest, restrooms or anything else. We got you, you get them.”
He grinned and hugged her gently. “You’re a true nightingale, my girl. Be careful. No one is alone. Got it?” He pointed at Mom and Stan and me and Ellis.
Stan patted my mom’s back. “She’s going with Ivy to man the diner while I stay here to man the volunteers. Ellis is taking care of Addie and Holly upstairs. No one takes potshots at my almost daughter and gets away with it. No one shoots one of our cops and gets away with it here. We’ve got this. Go,” he ordered, pointing to the door.
Gabe saluted him and headed to the door. I was so confused I couldn’t think straight until he pulled the door open and I stepped around Ivy to look past the plywood.
“What the heck?” I asked, following Gabriel to the door. I looked left and then right, up and down the sidewalk. The salon was staked out with men from town, hunting rifles in hands, standing elbow to elbow protecting the building. I stumbled backward and Stan caught me before I fell on my butt.
He pulled me away from the door and back behind the plywood where Ivy and Mel each hooked an arm in mine. “No one messes with Bells Pass and gets away with it.”
An alert sounded and Ellis grabbed for his pocket. “That’s my alarm system. Someone triggered the motion sensor at the back door.” He opened the app to get the still shot that was sent to his phone and he laughed. Laughed! He turned it for me to see. There were four guys lined up across the back of the door covering the alley.
Stan pointed at the phone. “I can promise you, the front is equally covered. You don’t need an alarm system tonight.”
Mason and Shep came back through the door and pointed at Ivy, Mel, and Mom. “Ladies, we’re ready. All the entrances are protected. Let’s get to the diner.”
Mel turned to me and held my shoulders. “Holly can stay?”
I grabbed her around her neck and held her to me, tears on my cheeks. “Of course, I’ll take care of her. She’s in good hands. I won’t let anything happen to her.”
Mel patted my back before she released me. “I know you won’t. She’s asleep and should stay that way all night, but call me if you need anything.”
I hugged all of them quickly. “Thank you, so much, for everything. I know they don’t want me out there, but pass it along to them please?” I motioned out the door and they agreed as they grabbed their coats and headed out.
Heather set the broom back in the storage room and joined us in the front. “Listen, Audrey and I are going to the diner, too. She’s probably already there,” she laughed and rolled her eyes in exasperation, but they were filled with love for a woman who always came through. “We’ll help Shep, Mason, and Loretta. I know we can’t convince Ivy or Mel to go home, but we will keep them off their feet as much as possible.”
I nodded, hugging her again. “Thank you. I’m worried about Ivy and I know Shep is, too. Just make sure they don’t overdo.”
“Promise,” she said, crossing her heart. “In the meantime, get upstairs and lock yourselves in. All of this is covered. We’ll be bringing refreshments out to the volunteers all night. Rest. You’ll have work to do tomorrow.”
She put her coat on and I grabbed her sleeve before she could leave. “Heather, watch my mom. Don’t let her stand out in the open or by the windows. I shouldn’t even have to say this, but they’re after someone and she’s a prime target.”
“She’ll be safe. She’s manning the pie and cookie oven with Mason. We’ll protect her.”
“Thank you,” I said again as she waved and left, pantomiming for me to lock the door and shut the lights off. I laughed and locked the door, walking back to Ellis who shut down all the lights but the emergency ones.
“This town,” he whispered against my ear as we trudged up the steps.
“Is pretty incredible,” I finished, my heart once again buoyed by the power of love.
.
“I needed this.” We lay by the tree on a nest of blankets and he held me tightly. The lights of the tree twinkled to calm my nerves and bring a little bit of peace back to my soul. My phone was close by and we were getting hourly updates from everyone. “I feel a little bit guilty lying here warm and safe under these blankets, though.”
He stroked my arm soothingly and kissed my neck. “Don’t feel guilty. No one out there wants that. They want you to feel safe and loved. Anything else is an insult to their devotion to the community. I know for a fact if this was anyone else being targeted, you’d be doing the same thing they are. Oh wait, you already did.”
I laughed softly to make sure I didn’t bother Holly who was out like a light. “I guess you’re right, but it’s hard to settle my swirling thoughts. For an instant, there was terror like I’d never experienced thinking you’d been shot, then relief when you were okay, then terror again when we heard about Officer Wilson. I can hardly stand it. All because my skin is a little bit darker than yours. The simplicity of it is what makes it so hard to wrap my mind around. How terrifying it must be to live in a big city and try to let love rule over fear.”
He snuggled me in closer until we practically became one. “I lived in a big city. In a big city, everyone is out for themselves. I’ll take a town like Bells Pass any day. We have everything we need here and I’m not talking about things to do or places to go.”
“You’re talking about community and love for each other. Putting us before me.”
He nuzzled the nape of my neck with his nose. “Couldn’t have said it better myself.”
“Addie,” a little voice said from the doorway of the spare bedroom. “I have to go potty.”
Ellis stood and motioned for me to stay. “I’ll take her down. She doesn’t need any help.”
“Hurry back and you can lay under the tree with us,” I said as she took Ellis’s hand and her sleepy head nodded.
While they were gone, I checked my phone for an update, but there weren’t any, which in this case was a good thing. I stood and grabbed the pillow from Ellis’s bed, making a little nest by me for Holly just as they walked back in the door and locked it behind them.
I patted the spot and she lay down, snuggling in next to me while Ellis snuggled in behind me. “Is everything okay, Addie?” she asked, her voice tiny and scared. “I saw lots of people outside with guns when we came here tonight.”
I held her and kissed her temple, Ellis’s arms tightening around my waist. “Everything is fine. You’re safe here. Watch the lights of the tree and sleep. You have school tomorrow.”
“I heard Mom and Dad talking,” she said and I sighed, resigning myself to the inevitable. “They said your door got broke because someone doesn’t like that you’re dating Ellis.”
Ellis spoke before I could. “We don’t know why they broke the door, Holly, but there are lots of people out there who will make sure they don’t come back before morning.”
“I think I know why,” she said, her head nodding. “I was thinking about it when we first got here and I saw the tree.”
My eyes traveled to the tree and I noticed Ellis raise up on one elbow. “What about the tree?”
She pointed with her tiny finger at the jingle bells. “Just like mine.”
I glanced up at Ellis and he grimaced but recovered quickly. “Jingle bells are everywhere and they all look the same,” he told her with feigned confidence.
“You’re wrong. I know because I touched them,” she added, her hand tucked back under the blanket. “I touched them and they had the same magic in them that the one Santa gave me had. I’ve been thinking about it a lot since I met Santa and I figured it out.”
Ellis raised a brow. “You figured what out?”
“I figured out that you’re Santa,” she said smugly.
Ellis waved his hands around in the air, his mouth opening and closing like a fish. He prepared his denial, but she didn’t give him time.
“I mean like, you’re Santa on Saturday and on Christmas Eve, but you’re Ellis the rest of the time. My friends say the mall Santas aren’t real. They said there’s a Santa at every mall every day and Santa can’t be in all those places at once. The time continuum doesn’t work that way.”
“The time continuum,” I said, chuckling. This girl. Even at two a.m., she can surprise me like no one else can. I noticed Ellis was silent, barely breathing in fact, and needed help to fix this.
“Ellis isn’t Santa, Holly. He’s a yoga instructor, and,” I said, tickling her side until she giggled, “he’s my boyfriend!”
She rolled her eyes until she could see her forehead and rolled her head back and forth on the pillow. “Duh, Addie. I know he’s your boyfriend. He loves you. He told me that when we were doing yoga.”
Ellis snickered and shook his own head. “I had to,” he explained, resting his hand on my hip, “she said she’d make me go ten rounds with Mason if I didn’t.”
“Holly,” I said, a brow lowered to my nose.
She huffed and crossed her arms. “It was before I found out his heart was bad. I shouldn’t have said it but my mom was really worried he was going to make you sad. I was already sad and I didn’t want you sad too.”
I stroked her forehead and pushed the hair out of her eyes. “It’s okay. We know you were having a hard time then.”
She sat up and nodded, her eyes bright as she stared at the tree. “I was, but then I met Santa and his magic bell gave me something else to think about.”
“I want to hear why you think I’m Santa. I’m not Santa, Holly.”
She turned to him and motioned at his hair. “Ellis, let’s be real here,” she said and I snortled. Oh, Mel and Mason had their hands full with this one. “I saw the movie.”
“What movie?” I was completely stymied by this turn of the conversation.
“The Santa Clause. The one where Santa is young here but old at the North Pole. Then he has to find a Mrs. Claus or he can’t keep being Santa.”
Ellis grinned. “I love those movies. Except for the creepy Santa robot. I don’t care for him.”
“I don’t imagine you do,” she said, her voice way too grown up for her age. “I wouldn’t either if I was the real Santa and there was a robot being mean to kids.”
“Holly, I’m not Santa,” he said again, forcefully and with authority.
“It can be our little secret,” she said winking. “I knew it was you the first day in the gazebo even though it wasn’t you.”
“Holly, I think you need more sleep. Even I’m confused now.” I motioned for her to lie down.
She waved her hand around. “You know how you see someone and you think they’re familiar but you can’t figure out where you know them from?” she asked and I nodded. She motioned at Ellis. “That’s what I’m trying to say. Santa, he walked and moved and sounded like Ellis, but he looked like Santa. He tried this fake ho-ho-ho thing in a deep voice that made me giggle, but I knew him somehow. It took me the whole week to figure it out. That’s why I came back and asked for help on Saturday. It just made sense.”
“It made sense that I can help you because I’m Santa?” Ellis repeated and she nodded.
“That’s why Mason can see you in the diner and why he can email you. That’s why I knew you could help me with my problem.”
“I’m not sure that’s how this works, Holly,” I said slowly.
She gave me the okay sign with her fingers and winked. “It’s okay, Addie. I won’t tell anyone. I know that Ellis wants you to be his Mrs. Claus and you’ll go to the North Pole and be old there, but stay here during the summer and be young again. It will be our little secret.”
Rather than argue further I gave Ellis the palms up and grinned. “You have to promise not to tell a soul, Holly. This Santa magic is strong stuff and nothing to mess with.”
She held up her hands as she lay down on the pillow. “I won’t tell anyone, not even Mom. It’ll be hard, but I can do it.”
Ellis leaned over me to hold Holly’s gaze. “You still haven’t told us what that has to do with a broken door.”
She looked at him like he wasn’t the sharpest crayon in the box. “It was Robot Santa. He doesn’t want you to go back to the North Pole. You’d see him being bad to all the kids, but you have to go back, Ellis. I mean Santa!” she said sitting up so fast she almost knocked him in the head.
Ellis grabbed her before she hit him. “Oh, you’re right!” he exclaimed. “Good thing you’re here. I never thought about that. I better go back north and see what’s going on.”
She shooed her hand at the door. “Go, go, hurry.”
He waved his finger in front of her face. “I can’t do that. Kids aren’t allowed to see. You have to be asleep before I can go. Don’t be surprised if when you wake up, I’m back here again. The time continuum is different between here and the North Pole. A day in the North Pole is like five minutes here.”
She immediately plopped back to the pillow and closed her eyes. “Okay, I got this, Santa!” she promised, squinching her eyes shut tight for all she was worth. He was laughing behind me to the point I didn’t know how he wasn’t making a sound. I wasn’t doing much better, but I stroked her arm rhythmically until she relaxed and started to drift off again. It didn’t take long and soft breathing filled the room, her body pliant again.
I rolled to face him and grasped the nape of his neck, bringing his nose to mine. “She’s something else.”
“Her theory works,” he whispered, kissing my lips tenderly. “I’ll have to watch the movie again tomorrow. I need to make sure I get it right.”
“I love you,” I whispered. “You’re the best Santa to ever Santa.”
His lips found mine again and he kissed me breathless. “That makes me happy. Maybe someday you’ll want to be my Mrs. Claus.” He added a wink, but I put my arms around his neck and held him close.
“You never know the magic that can happen in Bells Pass at Christmastime.”
He gathered me into him and for the first time all night my eyes were heavy. I fell asleep thinking about evil elves, robot Santa, wooden soldiers, and the man who was going to keep us safe from all of it.
My very own Santa.