CHRISTMAS AT THE CARDWELL RANCH by B.J. Daniels Page B

headlights on his back, glancing off the rearview mirror and his side mirrors. The vehicle was almost directly behind him.
    Tag told himself that the driver must be drunk or not paying attention or blinded by the falling snow. Unless the person behind the wheel was hoping to make him crash.
    He tried to shake off even the thought. He wasn’t that far from the road up to Lily’s house. Suddenly the headlights behind him went out.
    Glancing in his mirror again, he was shocked to find the vehicle gone. Had the driver run off the road? Or had he turned off? There had been a turnoff back there....
    Ahead, Tag saw the sign. As he turned, he looked back down the main road. No sign of the other vehicle. Breathing a sigh of relief, he drove on up the narrow, snowy road. Wind whipped snow all around the SUV. He had his windshield wipers on high and they still couldn’t keep up with the snow.
    The road narrowed and rose. He knew he had to be getting close. He thought he caught the golden glow of lights in a house just up the mountain. His fear for Lily amplified at the thought of her alone in such an isolated place.
    A dark-colored vehicle came out of the snowstorm on a road to his right. He swerved to miss it and felt the wheels drop over the side of the mountain, the SUV rolling onto its side. His head slammed into the side window. He felt blood run into his eye as the SUV rolled once more before crashing into a tree.

Chapter Seven
    The snowstorm blew in with a fury. Inside the house, Lily could hear the flakes hitting the window. It sounded like the glass was being sandblasted.
    She shivered and checked her watch as she went to put more logs on the fire. Tag said he would come as soon as he could. She told herself he’d probably been held up by the storm. She just hoped he would be able to get up the road.
    Her house sat by itself on the side of the mountain, far from any others. The road often blew in with snow before the plows made their rounds. Since she didn’t usually go to work at her brother’s bar until the afternoon, it hadn’t ever been a problem.
    But tonight, she was anxious to show Tag what she’d come up with so far and she worried since there had already been some good-size drifts across the road when she’d looked out earlier.
    She’d worked trying to decode the random letters until her head ached. What if she was wrong? What if this was nothing? But she was convinced that there were two lists of names. She’d gotten at least a start on the code, making her more assured that she was on the right track.
    A loud noise from outside made her jump. She stopped stoking the fire to listen for a moment and heard it again. Her pulse spiked before she could determine the sound.
    She couldn’t help being jumpy. Wasn’t it enough that a woman she worked with had been murdered last night and another one was missing? But Lily didn’t kid herself. Her nerves were more because of Tag and the thought of the two of them alone in her house.
    Another noise, this one a loud thud. She peered out at the porch swing an instant before the wind blew it back into the side of the house again with a loud thump. The shadows had deepened on the porch, running a dark gray before turning black under the pines. The porch light illuminated only a small golden disk of light against the falling snow.
    Hugging herself, she assured herself that there was nothing to be afraid of up here. She’d always felt safe. The porch swing thumped against the side of the house, followed by a loud thud closer to her front door. Probably that potted pine she had by the door. She started to turn back to her work when something caught her eye. Fresh footprints in the snow on the steps up to the porch.
    A gust of wind blew snow against the glass. For a moment, it stuck, obstructing her view. Tag? Could he have come to the door and she hadn’t heard him?
    The knock at the door made her jump. She chastised herself as she hurried to the front door, thankful