Lisa Phillips - Yuletide Suspect

“I might still be able to get them back on track. I have a few days of travel left before Christmas Eve. If this gets wrapped up before then, I’ll probably still try to head down to see my parents if I can.” Liberty tucked some hair behind her ear, the way she did when she was avoiding something.

Tate figured she didn’t want him to know her Christmas wouldn’t be anything special, just a visit with her parents. It would be more than what he was looking forward to—assuming his house didn’t sell in the next week.

A fire in his fireplace, hot coffee and a book. Sounded about perfect, but it wasn’t anywhere near as enjoyable as the years they’d meet up on Christmas Eve at one of their homes and watch an old movie together. It had been a tradition, a part of their life together. One he’d dearly missed last Christmas Eve.

Right now wasn’t the time to dwell on memories. Not when they had a plane to find.

“I’m sure that’ll be great,” he said.

She shot him a funny look, but he didn’t have time to figure out what it was about. Tate led Liberty over to the mine’s entrance. Once one of the most prominent sources of coal in this entire area, the cave had an opening big enough to accommodate heavy equipment. It stretched above their heads and to their left and right. The inside was a dark cavern he could barely see into. Good thing he’d brought a flashlight.

When they were close enough for her to see just how big it was, Liberty gasped. “You could totally hide a small aircraft in there.”

“Me, specifically?”

“You know what I mean, Tate. This place is big enough to hide a business jet like the one that disappeared. I really hope we find it and the people who are missing. I can’t imagine what they’re going through.” She started to walk fast.

Fifteen feet from the mine’s opening, a rumble shook the ground. Before Tate could register the fact that it was an earthquake, an orange fireball split the space between the roof of the mine and the walls.

The force of the explosion pushed them back onto the snow with a rush of hot air and flames.

* * *

Dirt and rocks rained down over the entrance like a tsunami of earth as the mine exploded in on itself. Tate grabbed her arm, but Liberty was already climbing to her feet and running. The roar was almost as loud as the deafening explosion. Her ears rang, and she thought he might be yelling instructions to her, but she couldn’t hear. Thankfully, the terrain wasn’t sloped, or there quite likely would have been an avalanche.

The ground started to shift under her as she ran. Liberty stumbled, and Tate scooped her up like the hero he’d been to her for years. Underneath he was still the same protective guy she’d loved. Being in his arms had been the safest place, second only to right at his back during a fire fight. And she knew which she preferred.

Tate picked up the pace, forcing her to keep up. Liberty ran until sweat chilled on her temple and ran down her back. She estimated it was almost half a mile before they were clear of the explosion and the debris it had caused, and Tate slowed.

Liberty set her hands on her knees and bent forward, sucking in breaths.

Tate set his hand on her back. When she looked up he was scanning the area. Then he looked at her. “I think we’re clear.”

Liberty straightened. “What do you want to do now?” She could barely think. They’d nearly died. Her head spun, and it was entirely possible she was going to fall over. Just swoon and pass out, like she wasn’t a Secret Service agent.

She sucked in a breath and squared her shoulders. Then gasped. The mine was gone. The mountain had caved in on itself like an empty burlap sack. Tate stepped toward it, but she waylaid him with a hand on his arm. “We’ll be careful,” he said.

“You want to go over there?” Was it even safe to walk over the debris?

“We need to see if the plane was in the mine. We might be able to get a look.”

“We should tell the Secret Service.” Not to mention the FBI and the sheriff. “There’s no way that explosion was missed, even if it is the middle of the night.”

“It’s only one in the morning.”

She glanced at him. He’d always been Mr. Night Owl, while she was an early riser. Something about the dark had always creeped her out. She didn’t like being outside in the middle of nowhere at night. But even though she wasn’t alone, she still couldn’t relax too much. He would protect her, and she would hold up her end, but it wouldn’t last.

Liberty looked at her phone, just so she could do something unrelated to Tate. His presence had always filled a room. When he was calm, that calmness seemed to permeate the air. When he was agitated, like he was now, she had to let him work through it. He’d told her he had tools he used to process his emotions. Methods for reining it in while he thought through what needed to be worked out.

She couldn’t imagine it had been easy to lose his parents so young and suddenly have to take care of his brother full-time. He’d said it was going into the military that saved him and gave him the structure and discipline he’d so badly needed back then. He’d thrived, making it all the way to a senior NCO. The Secret Service had been a good move, though he’d brushed up against the bureaucracy more than once.

Tate was all about improving methodology instead of doing things the same way over and over. If it could be improved, it should be. Liberty agreed, though she was more of a follower than a leader. Some people were naturally take-charge people. She could do it if she had to, and she had in her personal life. But only when it was a necessity.

“No signal?”

She sighed. “Nothing.”

“I figured as much. The whole mountain where my cabin is, I get nothing.” He held up his own device—one of those ancient flip phones.

“I didn’t even know they sold those anymore. Does it even connect to the internet?”

Tate shrugged. She knew he’d never enjoyed email and probably hadn’t done a Google search in his life. The man still used a phone book to look up numbers. She’d called him a “dinosaur” about technology more than once.

Tate stepped over snow mingled with dirt and rocks, testing each step to make sure it would hold his weight. Liberty did the same, carving out her own path to his right. “The ground seems pretty stable.”

“But the mine is toast.”

She nodded. “We aren’t going to be able to see inside.”

“Still, the explosion might have made the plane visible. We at least have to look at it from all angles, in case we can see something.”

“The FBI and the Secret Service are going to have to bring earth movers up here to clear it out if they really want to find out if the plane was here. Is here.”

He pointed left, past the mouth of the mine that was no more. “There’s a road on the other side. We can follow it out and get to town, get the word out that we think we know where the plane might be.”

Liberty nodded. “That’s a good idea. We can start convincing them you don’t have anything to do with this.”

“Is that why you came by yourself?”

She glanced at him.

“There has to be a reason you didn’t come with your team. You drove out by yourself to my cabin.” He paused. “I didn’t think about it until now, since we’ve been busy fighting off guys. But now that I think about it, shouldn’t you be working with the Secret Service instead of flying solo?”

“Locke knows where I am.” Liberty figured it was time to admit the truth. “He wanted to wait out the snow, but I said I was leaving right away. So yeah, it was bad and I almost didn’t make it. But I got to your cabin, and they should have been maybe an hour behind me. They were going to check into the hotel first.” She shrugged. “I figured I could get a jump on proving you weren’t part of it.”