Beauty In Her Madness (Winterland Tale #3) - Stacey Marie Brown Page 0,6

Christmas lights, music, and voices battered my senses.

“Jeez, are you trying to get hypothermia?” Gabe grabbed my arm, helping me up. The chill from the icy ground seeped into my tiny elf costume, but I didn’t feel really cold, though it was well below thirty degrees. “Why the hell are you bleeding?” I glanced down at my torn tights. Blood oozed out of a cut on my shin; throbbing pain pulsed around it. “Did you trip over the woodpile?”

“I-I guess.” I used his arm as he brought me to my feet. My head spun with thick cobwebs of images and feelings.

“I leave you for a fuckin’ minute, and you decide to go running around in the dark without a jacket?” Gabe grumbled, stepping back. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” I nodded automatically. Was I? Was I okay?

“Why were you out here? It’s freezing.”

My bones shook, but it wasn’t from the weather. I felt numb to everything, except for the lingering sensation of lips on mine, a hand touching my face.

“I came out to look for you, but you were gone. The lights…they were all off.” I motioned to the lot, which was engulfed in light.

Gabe’s brows furrowed. “You didn’t come looking for me. I was standing right next to the back door, and the lights have been on the whole time.” He shook his head. “Are you sure you’re feeling all right? You getting sick or something?”

“I-I don’t know.”

“Why don’t you head home? You’re bleeding, and it’s dead now. I’ll close.” He stepped with me, heading back for the cottage. “Jesus, I’m having flashbacks to your sister.”

“What?” I whirled to him, his back to me as he trudged back to the cabin. “What do you mean?”

He paused, glancing back. “Your sister, the night two years ago when she got really sick. She said the same stuff to me…that lights were off and she couldn’t find me. Weird fuckin’ shit she was muttering about: Scrooge, Frosty, and a red queen.” He laughed. “And here I was the one out back getting high, but her mind was a fuckin’ trip.” He chuckled again, stepping back into the cottage.

My stomach pitched. I remembered that day. Gabe had called to tell me she was ill and acting strangely. Tension strangled my throat, my gut twisting, remembering clearly…

That was the day everything had changed.

When Alice went mad.

Chapter 3

Four blocks away from my apartment, I finally found parking, my bruised leg causing me to step slowly to the four-story brick box Scott and I called home. The West Hartford neighborhood was okay with lots of bars and cafes near, but our apartment building probably hadn’t been updated since the late eighties. My dad was set on West Hartford for us because it was safer than other areas, but to afford it meant picking a place not as nice.

Cold air puffed from my lips as I strolled up the sidewalk, the Friday night buzz from the bar down the street ringing in the cold night. Looking forward to having a glass of wine and going to bed, I knew I was abnormal for an almost twenty-year-old. Most would be trying out their fake IDs, flirting with the doorman, dancing, drinking, and probably going home with a stranger.

Scott and I were already so settled in our life. We started dating at fifteen, which rendered all those experiences not applicable. I had never even kissed another boy besides Scott.

My brain shot back to the image of a man’s mouth pressing into mine, instantly spiking heat up my legs and into my cheeks.

Your imagination doesn’t count, Dinah. Stop being stupid. I shook my head at myself. I stepped up the front stoop, our window from the fourth floor glowing warmly.

I already knew Scott would be on the sofa playing video games, his way of unwinding after a long week, though you’d never know he had a bad day. He was always happy and light. Nothing ever bothered him, which I sometimes found irritating.

“Dinah….” Reaching for my keys, I felt a burst of air brush down the back of my neck, sliding around, slipping between my breasts like breath, sending shivers down my limbs. My skin tingled, not from the coldness but with awareness. A tapping at the back of my neck turned my head around.

The street was quiet, lined with empty cars, not a person on the street. I swallowed, but the feeling of eyes burrowing through my winter jacket skated over my skin.

Adrenaline hummed in my ears, my attention back on the