Chapter 26
tate
“Tate!”
I was in the back of the sugar plum fairy light fixture replacing one of the light ropes. “Yeah?”
“We’ve got a situation.”
My walkie went off with Bill’s voice as Molly ran my way.
Dylan, one of my team members, was running down the hill. I quickly plugged in the light and shimmied out from behind the fixture.
“What’s going on?”
Molly was out of breath when she got to the top of the hill. “It’s Amber.”
My chest stalled. “What about her?”
When I got beyond the mechanics of the Wonderland of Lights, I could hear the raised voices. In the heart of the village path a crowd had converged. They were bottlenecked at the food stations.
“Rudolph,” I said under my breath and took off.
“Did you say Rudolph?” Molly caught up with me.
“Yeah. Amber was worried about her fans causing a problem. I told her if she got into trouble to remember Rudolph.”
We ran into a wall of wailing teenagers. Arms were up with phones recording.
“Dear God.” Molly’s horrified reaction only amped mine up.
“Where’s Amber?”
The walkie at my hip went off again. “Boss?”
I unhooked it. “Yeah, this is Tate.”
“We have a situation at Rudolph.”
“I’m on my way.”
“We need more than you.” Came the panicked voice.
I raised my voice. “Please make way. You’re causing a hazard.”
No one moved. In fact, the crowd seemed to multiply as more people came up the path, and others came down from the upper hill where the photo stations were.
I switched the channel on my walkie to the emergency line. “All hands at Rudolph. I need help with crowd control.”
Tears and shouts were echoing around us. Some that were obviously upset to get near Amber, and others simply because of the crush of bodies.
My heart hammered. I lifted the walkie. “Does anyone have Amber?”
“Trying,” came a frustrated voice. “She’s trapped against the doors. We can’t get them opened to let her in.”
I waded into the crowd, trying to calm people but there wasn’t any use. At this point, I just had to get to Amber before the crowd tore her apart.
Tore the building apart.
While the sheds were structurally sound, they were still small units.
Molly was shouldering her way through the predominantly female throng of people. The window that was usually open, was shuttered as people hammered at the windows and doors.
“Back up!” My voice was a roar.
“Tate.”
I almost missed her voice it was so low and scared, but I knew her voice anywhere.
I snaked through the crush, pushing back with the bulk of my body. She and James were backed against the door as the whole shed trembled with the force of the people coming at her.
Her gray eyes were saucers as she fought to try and get the door open, but there was no clearance. The doors opened out and there was no way to get even an inch to spare.
Finally, through sheer will, I got in front of her and pushed back people enough to get the door open.
Tears streamed down her cheeks as fear leached the color out of her face.
Two more of the burlier of my guys came forward to help. Molly must have mobilized everyone.
“I got you.” I gathered Amber close, prying the door open a few more precious inches to get James in, them Amber. “Stay inside.”
She nodded.
“Get down so you’re away from the windows.”
She nodded again, her fingers clutching mine for a second before the door slammed.
“That’s enough.” I held my arms up. “Ambrose won’t be coming out. I’m sorry for those who are disappointed. Please head over to the refreshment stall near the Wonderland Lights and we’ll get you all free drinks and cider donuts.”
“I don’t want a donut, I want Ambrose to sign my arm.”
“Mine too. I want to get it tattooed.” A girl stumbled into another trio wearing sparkly paint with symbols on their faces. I didn’t know what they meant, but I could spot a fanatic versus a fan at this point.
I crossed my arms, making my already big chest seem larger. “If you’re not going to shop, I’m going to have to ask you to leave. Ambrose won’t be taking photos or signing anything today.”
“Man, that’s not fair.”
I ignored the upset voices, signaling to a few extra people I’d hired just for the opening day. Anger rose as I saw the benches overturned and the barrels on their sides spilling the flowers and rocks all along the path. Trash bins had been turned over in the chaos.
The front stoop of two of the retail spaces had been torn off.
A door hung from the Clay Haven shed with broken crockery littering the doorway.
Finally, we moved most of the crowd up to the hill where they could spread out. The grass was muddy from the previous day’s rain along with the foot traffic. There were people waiting with their phones at the ready for Amber to come out.
There was no way I could get her out of there without some motorized help.
I lifted my walkie. “Bill, I need the golf cart with the beefed-up engine to the Rudolph station. I need you to take Amber out of here and to my house. It’s got the most security.”
“On it.”
Molly wove her way through the last vestiges of the crowd. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah. We’ll have to clear out early. There’s too much damage.”
She sighed. “I’m sorry, Tate. There’s more damage down near the front arch as well. A bus load of people came in. They definitely weren’t on the schedule.”
“Based on the number of Ambrose shirts I’ve seen I’d bet there was some sort of fan event put together we weren’t aware of.”
“You think?”
I shrugged. I hadn’t believed her when she said things might get dicey if she came to the opening.
The mob mentality had happened so quickly. Far more intensely than the day at the orchard.
“Let’s just assess the damage. I’ll have Valerie make an announcement that we are postponing the opening tomorrow.”
“Do you think we have to go that route?”
“Have you looked at North Star Lane? They ripped one of the benches out of the damn ground. It was bolted into the stone.”
Molly gasped. “Let me go take a look. Will you be okay here?”
“Yeah.”
I wanted to go inside and check on Amber, but I didn’t trust the fans who were lingering on the sidelines. They kept looking over here, craning their necks and raising their phones as if no one would freaking notice.
“All points check in,” I said into my walkie.
“Zone one, broken barrel and trash everywhere. Broken porch on Knit On’s building.”
“Zone two, broken door on building four, internet box damaged. We’ll need servicing on that.”
I shut my eyes. Fuck, we’d be fixing up this whole place for a week.
A week without sales for us and the retailers that had paid for their spaces.
Fuck me.
More reports came in, all of them mostly surface, but it was more than enough to cause a lot of repairs.
The hum of the golf cart trundling up the side of the building broke into my thoughts. I waved over Bill who had his matchstick in his mouth as he steered around clusters of fans who were rubbernecking again.
“When I get Amber and James out, I need you to get them out of here as fast as possible. They’re going to try and stop you.”
“Call me Crash Bandicoot, Boss.”
I huffed out a laugh. “She’s precious cargo, Bill.”
“I know.”
I opened the door and peeked inside. Amber was already standing. Her eyes were smudged with tears and a hollowness that broke my heart. “Baby, are you okay?”
She nodded and her eyes filled. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. It’s not your fault.”
“It is. I should have known better.” She dashed them away. “I’ll fix it. I promise.”
“Honey, it’s fine.” I looked over my shoulder at the four girls who were definitely paying too much attention. “Okay, we gotta get you out of here. Too many people are paying attention to this shed.”
“I couldn’t think of anything else. Rudolph. Just Rudolph.”
“I know.” I pulled her in close for a tight hug, damn the videos that were being taken. “I know.” I tucked my chin on top of her head for a second. “Bill is going to take you out of here on our golf cart. I told him to take you to my house. Use the gates. You remember your code?”
She nodded. “I do.”
“Good. Hole up there for a while. I’m going to clear this out.”
“Wait. No. It’s opening day.”
“I know.” I didn’t want to tell her about the damages. “It’s just safer.”
“It’ll be okay after I leave, right?” She glanced over her shoulder at James who was quietly seething.
“We’ll figure it out.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“We’ll talk about it later, okay? I just need you safe for now.”
She nodded. “Right. You’re right.”
I waved to Dylan who was doing a good job of playing goalie with the craftier fans. The kid nodded and jumped into action, blocking people from passing by the makeshift barriers they’d created.
Bill backed up as close to the door as possible. I opened the Rudolph rear doors and waved them out.
James squeezed my arm on the way by. “I’ll take care of her.”
I nodded, feeling helpless as the golf cart took off down the sidewalk we used to bring in food and product for the retail spaces. It was the fastest way out of the village.
And the safest.
The collective unrest finally started to lift, followed by the glee of gossip.
Small towns could probably power Destiny Street on it.
I could only imagine what was going to hit the Chronicle tomorrow. Especially with Valerie’s continued filming. I’d caught her a few times, using that stabilizer while the emergency was going on.
Not helping.
Just watching and feeding off it.
I knew she was more self-serving than I was comfortable with, but I hadn’t realized just how far she’d go.
Once Bill gave me the head’s up that Amber and James were safely tucked away at my house, I began the painful evacuation process. Without internet, the retailers could only do so much anyway.
I had a lot of calls to make.