Free Frosted by Allison Brennan, Laura Griffin

vehicle. No one had come out of the lodge or the storage shed—which was more than a shed because it housed all the ATVs and snow plow equipment for the facility. It was like a small warehouse. If all had gone well, they would have driven up to the door and left the Jeep to be taken to the garage by the valet. The two of them would have been easily able to protect Adam. But it was dark, and someone may have thought they’d have the element of surprise. And some people looked at a female P.I. —especially one who was slender and petite like Krista—and thought they could take her out. Most people wouldn’t assume that they’d both been cops, that they’d been trained, that Scarlet was a marksman or Krista had a black belt.
    With the lights out, that gave Scarlet’s group the disadvantage if they entered the lodge, because they could be jumped from the entrance or behind.
    What if they assumed she wouldn’t wait for the valet, but drive all three of them into the garage? Why cut the lights in the lodge? To force them to stay out here? A lot of assumptions. And nothing felt logical.
    Scarlet’s feet weren’t getting any warmer or dryer standing in the snow. She peered around the redwood and saw no one. Staying as close to the trees as she could, she trudged as quickly as possible toward the lodge. But instead of going up the front steps, she walked around to the back. The wide deck circled the lodge and had several access points. In the rear of the lodge, the restaurant and bar opened up onto the deck, but would the bar even be open tonight when all the guests were at the other restaurant?
    As she rounded the back, the glow of several heat lamps illuminated the deck, making the trees and snow-covered mountain even darker.
    Cautiously, she trekked up the mountainside, sinking into the snow and getting icy chunks in her boots. She stayed low until she reached the stairs that led to the deck, and then shook the snow out as best she could and walked up the stairs.
    No one was on the deck.
    Scarlet stayed close to the building as she crept over to the doors. The wall was made of glass, and anyone waiting for her would most certainly see her from the glow of lamps. But she didn’t really have a choice, so she picked up speed and pushed open the doors.
    Inside, it was quiet. She walked away from the windows, toward the bar area where a fire burned in a huge stone fireplace. Movement in the bar had her shifting her gun to her left.
    “Hey!” a voice said.
    She couldn’t make out the figure. “Who are you?”
    “Vince. I’m working the bar tonight. What’s going on?”
    Vince, the flirty bellhop who’d carried her bags.
    “You tell me.” She pointed her gun down and away from him.
    “The power went out. It happens sometimes.”
    “Isn’t there a back-up generator?”
    He shrugged. “I guess.”
    No help whatsoever. Scarlet glanced around. She didn’t see anyone else in the lobby. “Is there really no one here?”
    “The wedding party is at the restaurant up the road. They’ll be back by eleven and asked us to keep the bar open until midnight.”
    “What I meant was, is it true that only the wedding people and Adam Brock’s group are in the lodge this weekend?”
    “Oh—yeah. We only have thirty-eight rooms, plus the three suites on the penthouse level. The wedding booked everything but the penthouse.”
    “What staff is here?”
    “Uh, most everyone. Because of the wedding. There are rooms over the garage for staff.”
    “But here—in the lodge.”
    “Mr. Oliver. Me. Janice in the kitchen until ten.”
    Scarlet had seen no movement in the lobby. She left Vince in the bar and walked along the edge of the room, up the three stairs to the lobby level. The power hadn’t come back on. Why wasn’t Vince checking on it? Was Mr. Oliver doing it?
    She called Krista. “Vince the bell hop is in the bar. I don’t see anyone else here.”
    “No one has approached us.”
    “I don’t like it.”
    “Maybe we