Chapter 13
Thirteen
Present Day
As soon as the plans were finalized, Donovan left to hang out with Cassie.
Cal, Landry, and Eliza said their good nights soon after.
But Gray and Mo continued to hash out details for another twenty minutes.
Bronwyn wanted to stay up and talk to Meredith long into the night the way they’d done a hundred times as teenagers.
But the lack of sleep from the night before and the stress of the day hit her almost as soon as the doors closed on Mo and Gray.
She made her apologies to Meredith, settled her in the guest room, and was in bed well before ten.
Despite her worries about what they’d found tonight, fatigue won, and she had no memory of tossing or turning. But now she sat in bed, panting for breath, convinced that something had awakened her—a quick glance at her nightstand, and she understood.
It wasn’t that she’d heard something.
It was that she’d heard nothing.
She looked to her bedside clock, but the familiar red glow was absent.
The power was out.
Wait.
If her power was out . . .
She jumped from her bed and scrambled into the clothes she always left prepped in her bathroom.
In her job, middle-of-the-night emergencies required her to look at least somewhat presentable.
It didn’t happen often, but occasionally, a guest flipped out, received traumatic news, or—once—became convinced they’d seen a ghost and demanded to see her.
She grabbed her phone from beside the sink and checked the time.
3:57 a.m.
She called the reception desk.
No response. That was weird. That desk was supposed to be staffed 24/7.
“Bronwyn?” Meredith’s voice floated down the hall. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Just need to run to the office.”
“Why?”
“The power’s out.”
“Yes, I noticed that when my fan cut off. But why do you need to go to the office?”
“No one’s answering the phone.”
Meredith grumbled something unintelligible, then, “I’m getting dressed. Don’t leave without me.”
“This isn’t your problem. Go back to bed.”
“Like I would do that.” Her voice was closer now, the light from her phone a glowing orb bouncing along the wall. Meredith pointed the light at Bronwyn. “There’s a zero percent chance of you walking out the door alone. Also, where’s your gun?”
That’s when Bronwyn noticed the small pistol in Meredith’s other hand. “Why are you walking around the house with a gun?”
“Hold that thought.” Meredith disappeared into her room and emerged thirty seconds later with her shoes on and her hair up in a clip. “I think under the circumstances, the more important question is why aren’t you carrying yours? We’re in the middle of a situation here.”
“Just because I can doesn’t mean I make a habit out of walking around armed! And I don’t want to make it a habit. Since when do you carry a gun everywhere you go, anyway?”
“Since I got myself engaged to the chief of police and he decided I should become even more proficient with firearms than I was before. And I don’t always carry it. I’m not walking around like half the old ladies in town with a pistol in my purse.”
“That’s a relief.” Bronwyn headed to the door, but Meredith held up a hand. “What now?”
“Now we tell Mo, Cal, and Gray what we’re doing.
And we do that before we go running off into the night.
If”—Meredith pecked away at her phone—“I wanted to grab you, this is the kind of thing I’d do.
I’d create a situation that forced you out of your house.
Anyone could snatch you and have you in the woods in seconds. ”
Bronwyn waited until Meredith was done. “Would this be a good time to point out that this property is fenced? Even if they drag me into the woods, they can’t get far.”
Meredith nodded. “True. But it only takes a few seconds to kill you and leave your body behind. So let’s not tempt fate. Okay?”
On that cheery thought, they jogged to her car and drove to the main reception area.
The night desk clerk, a bubbly and beautiful young woman named Miller, threw up her hands when she saw them.
“Oh, Ms. Pierce. Thank goodness you’re here!
I was sitting at the desk and pop! Everything went dark.
The emergency lights are on, of course, but still!
Some of our guests will flip right on out when they realize there’s no power! ”
“There will be power,” Bronwyn said. “We have generators. We’ll need the maintenance crew to get them fired up, but it won’t take long.”
“How did I not know that?” Miller’s eyes were wide. “That’s something I should have known.”
She was right. It was. But, unlike many of her coworkers, most of whom shared Bronwyn’s last name, Miller genuinely seemed to want to learn and do her very best. Bronwyn couldn’t fault her work ethic.
“We haven’t needed to use them since you’ve been here. Don’t worry about it. We’ll get things sorted. The first step is to find out what happened and when we can expect to regain power. There’s an emergency protocol in your desk drawer.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Find it and bring that and your phone to me.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Miller dashed away. She returned a minute later, huffing but with a beaming smile. “Got it!”
“Excellent.”
Moments later, Bronwyn was on the phone with their local electric company, Miller was on the phone with their lead maintenance engineer, and Meredith was on the phone with someone she’d decided needed to be awake at 4:00 a.m.
A few guests wandered over, but no one was upset or frustrated.
They were curious and returned to bed once their questions were answered.
Fifteen minutes after she’d arrived on the scene, the maintenance crews were preparing the generators, the electric company was trying to hunt down the source of the outage, and Miller was proving to be an even better employee than Bronwyn had realized.
She’d taken it upon herself to call their twenty-four-hour room service and ask them to deliver coffee, hot chocolate, and any available pastries to the lobby.
Bronwyn munched on a doughnut and stared at her phone, willing it to ring with good news.
“It’s so weird.” Meredith took a sip of hot chocolate. “I mean, it’s summertime. It’s not like we’ve had snow or ice. The last time it rained was three days ago. There’ve been no thunderstorms lately. I wonder what would have caused the power to go out.”
“That’s what I’d like to know as well.” Bronwyn’s uncle William came around the corner.
He looked like he’d just left a business meeting.
His pants had a crisp crease, his button-down shirt was wrinkle-free, and his shoes gleamed when hit by cell phone flashlights.
“Bronwyn.” He stepped into her line of sight.
She didn’t respond. Her mother would have a hissy fit over what she would perceive as rudeness. But Uncle William had pushed every button Bronwyn had for so long, she simply didn’t care anymore. This was a power play, and he was about to find out who held the reins.
“I’m speaking to you, young lady.” His voice was low, his tone aggressive and hostile, and his breath reeked.
“Uncle William, before you come out in the middle of the night again in a situation that might involve interacting with our guests, do us all a favor and brush your teeth. Or, at the very least, grab a mint.” And with that, she walked away.
Meredith slid into step beside her a moment later. “You’re a rock star.”
“I’m done, is what I am.”
“Well, he isn’t. Round two incoming.”
“Bronwyn!” Uncle William’s voice boomed out. She continued on her path. She could hear him getting closer, his feet pounding as he ran up to her. She expected him to step in front of her again. She wasn’t prepared for him to grab her arm above the elbow and yank. Hard.
She stumbled back a step and then caught her balance. Before she could react further, a large body slid between her and Uncle William. One masculine hand wrapped around her waist. The other gripped Uncle William’s arm above the wrist.
In a tone that she’d never heard and hoped she would never hear directed at her, Mo said, “If you want to maintain the use of that hand, I strongly suggest you let her go.”
Uncle William’s fingers immediately relaxed their grip on her arm. “I’m not sure what business it is of yours, Mr. Quinn. I need a word with my niece, and she is treating me with disrespect.” Despite his big words, he stepped back . . . or tried to.
Mo didn’t release his arm, and he leaned into Uncle William’s personal space.
“She’s been my business since we were five years old.
And you can sell that spiel to someone who might believe it.
I saw and heard the entire interaction. You don’t get to demand respect just because she has the misfortune of sharing DNA with you.
Respect is earned, and you haven’t earned it. ”
Bronwyn experienced a flicker of fear when Uncle William looked at Mo. Her uncle generally regarded her with disgust, but the look he gave Mo was one of full-blown hatred. “You’ll regret this, Quinn. I’ll see to it that you never step foot on this property again.”
Mo’s smile was so cold, it could have frozen the solid. “Another suggestion for you tonight. This one’s for free. Before you threaten me or anyone I care about, you might want to do a better job of covering your tracks.”
Bronwyn had no idea what Mo was talking about, but based on Uncle William’s expression, he did. It didn’t help that he spluttered and tripped over his words in a pitiful attempt at a comeback. He eventually landed on, “I have no idea what you mean.”
Mo turned and walked away from him, and in the process, Bronwyn went with him. After they took a few steps, Mo called over his shoulder, “Make sure you don’t try to claim that little trip to Greenville as a business expense.”
Mo kept his hand at her waist until they were back to the spot where Meredith stood, cell phone out and pointed in their direction.
“I got the whole thing on video.” Her grin was a little scary.
“I’d like to see him try anything like that again.
” She pursed her lips. “I’m not sure what your dad would say, but your grandmother would lose her mind if she saw this. ”
“We can’t show that to Grandmother.”
“Duh. I would never. But that doesn’t mean we can’t use it for leverage. What’s his problem, anyway?”
“He hates me. He always has.”
“Bronwyn!” The call came from Emory, The Haven’s maintenance engineer who kept everything running.
“Excuse me.” She stepped away from Mo and Meredith. Or she planned to. Mo was no longer touching her, but he stayed beside her.
Emory didn’t speak until they were standing in front of him. He threw an unmistakable look at Mo. “You sure he needs to be here for this?”
“Whatever this is, he can hear it.”
“Okay, but you aren’t going to like it.”
“What happened?”
“Got a call from the power company. They know what the problem is.”
“And?”
“Someone took out a transformer.” Emory made eye contact with Mo.
“Can that actually happen?” Bronwyn asked.
“Yes, ma’am. It’s not a common occurrence, but it has happened.”
“How’d they do it?” Mo asked.
“Rifle.” Emory mimicked shooting a gun. “The transformer is fenced in, and there are security cameras. It’s not impossible with a high-powered hunting rifle, a good scope, and some knowledge of where to aim.
Whoever did this didn’t have to risk being caught on video, and they could have been long gone before anyone responded. ”
“Does Gray know?” Mo ran a hand through his hair, and the motion left it standing up in ways Bronwyn itched to fix.
“He’s on his way there now.” Emory turned back to Bronwyn. “The good news for us is that the transformer was old and was already slated for replacement. They have what they need to do the work. The current estimate is four hours. Maybe less.”
“That’s not bad at all.” Bronwyn almost sagged into Mo but caught herself. What was wrong with her?
“No, ma’am, it isn’t. My crew will have us running on generators in the next ten minutes.
We’ll have a few blips in service when they put us back on the grid but nothing that should cause anyone too much drama today.
” Emory looked at his watch. “Not that it’s any of my business, ma’am, but you should go back to your place and get some more sleep.
There’s not a thing you can do out here. ”
“She micromanaging you, Emory?” Mo’s voice held nothing but gentle teasing.
Emory grinned. “Not usually. She just takes good care of her people. She can’t help it. But she’s dead on her feet. Anyone with eyes can see it.”
“I guess you told me.” Bronwyn couldn’t argue. She was dead on her feet. And frustrated. And scared again. Because there was no way this was a fluke.