The ice and wind might have taken down electric lines and knocked out the power. Or it could be something more ominous.

“Guns or fur?” Bridget asked in a hushed voice, bolting from the bed and heading for the hallway. Normally, she wouldn’t have asked. But since she had a veteran partner, she wanted to know which way he thought they should go.

“Guns,” he whispered back. “If we have trouble, they’ll be human. Most likely.” He was leading the way.

She “listened” intently for any signs that anyone was thinking something close by. They’d have to be right outside, or she couldn’t hear their thoughts, if anyone was out there. The wind was whipping about so wildly, it was wreaking havoc with their sensitive cougar hearing. She figured the only way to pinpoint if anyone was truly out there was to use her psychic senses.

Then she touched Travis’s shoulder. “What if the lightbulb just burned out?”

He paused. “Shit.”

She smiled, hoping that’s all that had happened. But they couldn’t risk it if someone had come to take them out. Maybe whoever ran down Travis’s license plate numbers?

He moved away from her and whispered, “Flipping a switch on in the dining room to see if the electric is really on in the house. Stay back.”

She hesitated then, her gun ready.

She could barely make him out with her cat’s night vision. If humans tried to break in and kill them in the dark, they’d have to use flashlights or night vision gear.

The sound of the light switch being flipped up caught her attention. No light.

“Moving to the front window to see if any security lights are on,” he said, his voice hushed. “Stay where you are.”

“Wait.” She thought she caught the thoughts of someone by the front window.

Better be a big damn Christmas bonus for this, the man thought.

“One by the living room window,” she whispered to Travis.

Thankfully, Travis didn’t ask her how come she believed that.

Someone crunched on ice on the back patio. “Back patio too. Do you have the castle doctrine in Wyoming?” With the cougars, they just had to terminate them. But with humans, they had to do this by the law.

“Yeah. We may use deadly force on intruders in defense of our person, property, or abode or to prevent injury to another.”

“This should count. Too bad we have to let them break-in first. I hate to have to clean up all over again.”

“You and me both. We don’t need to shoot to kill. Just disable them nicely and then call the cops. As long as they’re human, no problem.”

“Okay, sounds good. What if we call the wrong cops? Or, what if these are the bad cops working for Rambo?” She still wished they could take care of this outside of the home.

“No one’s warning us they’re cops. They won’t have a warrant.”

The window broke in the back door and one of the front window panes at the same time.

“Damn it,” Travis said under his breath.

Bridget was thinking Travis might forgo the use of subduing force and go for deadly now that he was going to have to replace windows.

The lock clicked open on the back door. “Getting him,” she said to Travis.

“Got the one out front when he moves inside.”

More glass breaking and then the two men rushed into the house, another following behind the one coming in the door.

She fired shots at both of them and both shouted curses and then she jumped behind the wall for cover.

Travis fired three shots in rapid succession in the direction of the front window and someone hit the floor with a grunt.

Travis moved back toward her, the other men breathing heavily, one holding his stomach, remaining in the dining room, the other starting to move into the living room.

No one said a word, but she listened to their thoughts. The man near the front window was thinking: I’m going to die, damn it. I’m going to die.

He repeated it as a mantra while the one man was in pain and was thinking: Got to finish this before he kills me.

She wondered if he meant them or Rambo, if he was the one who hired them for the hit.

A cell phone vibrated in the man’s pocket as he moved toward them. Humans wouldn’t be able to hear the vibrating noise, but she and Travis did. Both fired at the sound, and the man cried out and went down.

The other stumbled toward the back door.

“Let him go or detain him?” She wasn’t sure if they shot him inside, but if he died outside they’d still be all right.

“I’ll take care of him. Be right back.”

A smack, a man cried out, and a thud sounded as someone hit the floor.

She waited for Travis to return, not about to reveal her position if someone was still hoping to gun them down.

Someone was moving around and she remained quiet. Then someone started to move toward her. “Still there?” Travis asked.

Relief filled her. “Yeah. What do we do now?” Normally, she would have called her boss, but with a bunch of wounded men in the place, she couldn’t tell him they’d taken down a bunch of humans.

“They’re all tied up. Be right back.”

She went to the bathroom to find a first aid kit she’d seen under the counter. She’d never expected to be using it to bandage attempted murderers’ wounds.

Something clicked in the laundry room, and then the kitchen light came on. She suddenly felt vulnerable like there were a hundred men out there ready to shoot up the place as soon as they saw them in the lighted room.

Travis quickly moved back into the hallway where she was waiting with the first aid kit. “Go ahead and bandage them up the best you can. I’m going to call it in.”

She didn’t ask who he was going to call. When one of the men lying on his belly smiled at her, his wrists tied behind his back, she figured he was with the police. Chills crept up her spine. She was used to having the military to back her up. She really felt out on a limb here.

“Yeah,” Travis said in the bedroom. “Three half dead men. The one might be dead by now. We heard them talking about getting rid of their middlemen, only the one said he’d lost control of the van and it ended up in the pond at Rambo Lancaster’s country estate. Then they came here to take us out because we’d been investigating the two drug runners.”

The man on the floor’s face turned red. “What the hell is he talking about?”

This time Bridget smiled. “You know the old saying, ‘My goose is cooked?’ I’d say you’re going to get to go to jail with some of the criminals you helped put away. Karma’s a bitch, isn’t it?” She shoved him onto his back and knelt down to bandage his wound. Looked like he could have hit the left kidney, but damage to the liver and stomach could have also occurred.

At least she was sure hoping these men were going down and this wouldn’t all backfire on her and Travis. She hoped Chet was okay too, but she was afraid to call him and let these men know that someone else had been working with them on the case.

“Ambulances are coming and DEA agents are on the way,” Travis said, rejoining her.

She finished bandaging the man, then went to check on the one by the window as Travis began bandaging the other man. The sounds of sirens filled the night, though everyone was slow in getting there because of the treacherous weather conditions.

The man she’d bandaged was wishing to hell he could kill the two of them and get out of here. He was thinking about how bad it would be if he landed in prison with a couple of drug dealers he’d put away, then taken the drugs off him, and turned them over to Rambo.

Travis unlocked the front door and opened it for the EMTs, the DEA agents swarming all over the place.

Travis identified himself. “This is my home and these men broke in there and there.” He pointed to the front window and the dining room door. “We were just going to bed when I turned on the bedroom lamp and they cut the electricity. Because of the problem I’d had with the men at the Christmas Tree Shoppe, I figured these men were involved in the drug crimes also.”

“We’re police officers,” the one man said.

“Breaking into my house without identifying yourselves? Shutting off the electricity so you could shoot to kill?” Travis turned to the agent and said, “I filed a report and these must have been the officers who said they’d look into it. Instead, they kept the report of my being taken hostage secret. What did I know? I thought they were taking care of the men. But from what we heard them say tonight, they did take care of the two men who owned the shop. Permanently.”

“Travis and I work for the same organization,” Bridget said, giving her story. “He was lucky I was investigating Heaton and Franklin, and saw them take an unconscious man into the shop. When they left, I rescued him. I called about the case as we fled the scene, though I knew there were rumors a couple of the cops, at the very least, were dirty. Unfortunately, when we reported the case, the bad cops must have covered it up. Then they must have run down Travis’s license plate number and located his home.”

“What about this van?”

“We don’t know anything about it but what one of these men said. We can’t be sure who was talking. They were speaking about it outside the windows. They must have thought we had gone to sleep, and didn’t realize we have combat training for our line of work.”

“Just ran a check on you. Your boss, Chuck Warner, vouched for both of you. He also gave us some information about your work in the army. And yours too,” the agent said to Travis. “The police chief and his department are cooperating fully with our investigation.”

Another agent headed into the room. “We’ve got men who have found the break in the ice at the pond on Lancaster’s property.” He smiled. “We’ve waited a long time to connect him with his illegal dealings. The daughter’s been arrested for complicity and she’s singing like a songbird. Apparently, she knows all the details of the drug sales and her father’s protection scam. He had forced her to work at the Christmas Tree Shoppe, and she’s willing to get amnesty to tell all.”

“You know how this works,” the agent said to Travis. “I know you’re moving, but for the time being, this is a crime scene and we’ll have to process the rooms. We’ll need your guns also. You’re free to go. I just need to know where you’ll be staying for the next couple of days and when you leave here. We’ll need your testimony also when the time comes.”

They gave the agent their information and then headed to the bedroom.

“Because of the weather conditions, let’s leave your car here and we’ll take mine,” Travis said to Bridget as he packed a bag, and Bridget grabbed hers. They bundled up before they walked into the garage, then climbed into the Durango.

They didn’t say anything until they headed out on the road, driving slowly through the screen of white.

At the hotel, a Christmas tree stood out front all decorated in lights welcoming them. Bridget still felt tense and uneasy as if they were being followed or listening devices were all over their clothes and cell phones, just waiting for them to incriminate themselves.

“One room? Two rooms?” Travis asked as they parked.

“One room? Safety in numbers?”

“I love the way you think,” Travis said.

But he didn’t just get a regular room. He got the wedding suite which featured a whirlpool tub, fireplace, king size bed, separate bathroom, wide screen TV on the wall, Christmas garland on the fireplace mantle, yellow rubber duckies wearing Santa hats and candy canes on top of the folded towels.

He dropped their bags inside and started the fire in the fireplace. He was about to take Bridget’s hand, but she quickly began digging something out of her purse. Two naughty elves and two angels. She set them on top of the garland, then she took his hand and kissed him lightly on the lips. “I don’t know about you, but I’ve got to have a shower after what we just went through.”

“Together or…”

She smiled. “Safety in numbers, remember? We don’t have our guns now.”

“But we have our teeth and claws.”

“And together we are a powerful force to reckon with.” All her instincts told her that he was the right one for her. Her match.

“I want you in my life for good, Bridget Sinclair. For better or for worse. I just wanted you to know that,” he said, helping her out of her parka.

Her heart raced and she had to force herself to breathe, staring up into his molten dark eyes. She had to tell him the truth about herself. If he couldn’t live with it, she told herself that this strong connection she felt between them didn’t matter. And she’d continue to work for Chuck Warner.

“I have to tell you something important,” Bridget said, holding his hands, having to see his reaction. Not everyone would accept her abilities for what they were. And she couldn’t help feeling apprehensive about this. “You might not want me in your life after I tell you about my…special talent.”

He waited quietly, his expression tightening a bit, but he finally said, “Nothing will change my mind about you. About us.”

“This might. I can read thoughts. Read people’s minds.” She expected him to frown at her. But instead he grinned.

She frowned at him then. “I’m serious.”

He pulled her into a hard embrace. “Thank God for small miracles.”

“I’m serious,” she repeated, not understanding his reaction.

“I’ve been thinking how perfect we are together,” he said, looking down at her like she was the most beautiful woman in the world to him.

“I can’t read your thoughts.”

He frowned.

“I don’t need to. Your actions tell me everything you’re thinking where I’m concerned.”

“Then whose?”

“The men outside the house? That’s how I located them. It was too stormy out to hear them otherwise.”

“I wondered if you’d just heard a sound I’d missed. Does Chuck know about it?”

“Yes. But he leaves it up to me as to who I share with. Not everyone reacts in the way you did. Are you sure you’re all right with it?”

“Hell, yeah. You’re perfect for me in every way. I want to marry you, Bridget.”

“I can’t believe how you’re taking this. Did Chet tell you?”

“No.” Travis let out his breath. “When you rescued me and I learned you worked for the same agency, I knew we were a team.”

She smiled. “You don’t know how relieved I am that you feel that way.” She was going to ask if he had any questions about it for her, but his cell rang, and she waited for him to answer it.

He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and said, “Yeah, Leyton, hey, I’ve been busy, but I wanted to tell you I just hired a new agent for our field office. She’s here with me now.”

“In Cheyenne? She?”

“We finished packing so we’ll be done right after Christmas.”

“Well, I had a job for you, but—“

“Hold on. Let me put it on speaker.”

“Ah, yeah,” Leyton said, sounding tongue-tied all of a sudden. He never sounded that way.

“Bridget Sinclair, meet Leyton Hill, the director of the field office. And Leyton, Bridget, former CID agent in the army.”

“Pleased to meet you,” Leyton said.

“Likewise,” Bridget said.

“So what do you have for us?” Travis asked.

“Since you’ve taken a break up there, if you have time between Christmas and New Year’s, we’ve got a cougar shifter who opened up a murder-for-hire business in Las Vegas. He needs to go down before he can begin fulfilling contracts.”

Bridget pulled off Travis’s jacket and tossed it on a chair, then she began running water in the whirlpool tub.

Travis asked her, “You want to do it?”

“Las Vegas?” Bridget smiled.

Travis smiled back at her. “It’s a deal. We’ve got some other business to take care of before we’re off on the job.”

“Yeah, sure, buddy. Hell, great job with recruiting a new agent for the office.”

Travis watched Bridget do a striptease as she headed into the bathroom. He turned on the radio and smiled as the song was playing “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.”

“She’s just perfect. Talk later.” Travis hung up on him and began to tear off his clothes.

“You didn’t tell him you’ve been working all this time, taking down all kinds of bad guys,” Bridget said, already naked, her dusky nipples rigid, her tongue sweeping over her lips making them wet for him. “Quick shower first, and then lazy time in the whirlpool?”

“There’s not going to be anything lazy about the whirlpool time,” he said, covering her breasts with his hands and massaging them. “But no, we can tell him later.”

“Even about my rescuing you?”

“Especially about that. That’s part of your application process, remember?”

Smiling, she kissed his lips, pressuring him to part them for her and then she plunged her tongue inside his mouth as his hands went down to her buttocks and pulled her tight against his aroused body.

“Anything else you want to do in Las Vegas while we’re there?” she asked.

“How do you feel about dropping by one of those wedding chapels when we get there?”

“Then I can make an honest man of you.”

He laughed and moved her into the shower, not believing he could be this lucky to find a woman and an agent who set his world on fire even in the dead of winter. He began to run soap all over her wet body, getting his Christmas wish, that the next time, he was doing the sudsing. But Christmas Eve, they were going shopping for presents and Christmas Day, well, they’d wing that. Which was about par for the course when his sold house was a crime scene.

“I love you,” he said, rubbing his body against hers like a big cat would, claiming her, covering her in his scent as her hands swept down his back, covering him in soapy water too.

Then he lifted her and she wrapped her legs around him. He dove into her wet sheath, no time for slow and easy with the bath water filling up the whirlpool, where they’d make love all over again.

“I love you,” she breathed out as he came deep inside her.

And then they rinsed and quickly dried off, but he grabbed her up and carried her to the whirlpool bath just in time as “You’re My Christmas Present” began to play.

“Next phase in seduction will be a lot slower, and much more thorough,” he said, and set her in the tub and joined her.