a security lock. “I found something,” she called out to Maverick.
He came down the stairs and looked it over. “Hmm, maybe she had a safe that this unlocks? It would have to be something newer. Not something that’s been around for years. What about that shelf? It looks really new.” He took the card and ran it over the shelf next to the checkout counter. The bottom of the shelf opened to reveal two handguns and several rounds of ammunition.
“Ohmigod, that’s not what I was expecting. If I had known she had these guns here, I could have pulled one out to stop those men and not used a frying pan,” Brooke said.
Maverick chuckled and checked both guns. “Locked and loaded. Do you know how to use them?”
“My parents made sure I knew how to use a gun. I guess my great-aunt did too.”
“Good. Do you want to leave these here?”
“Yeah.” She slipped the security card back in the drawer. “We’ll have to let Josh know about it too. I’m thinking the safe my great-aunt was talking about is probably in the house. Do you want to go to the house for a while, and we can look for the safe over there? We don’t need to split up to watch the shop, just make sure Lucas and I are protected if we’re not in the same place.”
“We can all stay at the house.”
“I’m so glad I have you and Josh in my life. He said we’d spend Christmas together.”
“If you want to be alone—”
“No way. He invited me to share Christmas with the two of you. Now that I’m with him, we’re still doing Christmas with you.” She started to head for the house when she got a knock on the front door. “It’s probably the mail carrier.”
She could see her favorite mail carrier outlined in the beveled-glass door. When she opened it, he smiled and had her sign for a couple of boxes. “No reindeer here today, I take it.”
“No, just one of the owners of the reindeer farm. Thanks. Hope your holidays are great.”
“Same to you.” Then he hurried off to his truck to deliver a million more packages, she was certain. When she looked at the address for the two boxes, she realized they were from Phoenix, and she gasped.
Maverick looked at them. “These are the ones the robbers were after?”
“Yeah. Five boxes are coming from Gulliver’s estate. These are the first two. I began to wonder if they were coming at all—if Mr. Lee hadn’t really sent them.”
“I’d wondered about that too. Let’s get them inside and begin going through them.” Before Maverick could help her move them into the shop, a souped-up Camaro tore up to the door, and a ski-masked guy jumped out, waving a gun at them.
“Where are they from?” the masked man called out.
In the worst way, Brooke wanted to lie, but not when the guy was waving a gun at her and Maverick. “Phoenix.”
“Load them in the car.”
Brooke recognized the man’s scent as that of the man who had been in her attic shooting at her. No way did she want to hand over the boxes, but Maverick told her, “It’s not worth it.”
She wanted to scream, she was so angry. But she didn’t want to be shot or be the reason for the robber to shoot Maverick. She and Maverick loaded the boxes in the car, and after the man jumped into the back seat of the car and the driver tore off, she took pictures of the car and its license tag.
Maverick was on his phone to Brad at the same time, giving him a description of the vehicle. “Brad’s jumping in his car and going after them.”
“It could be too dangerous,” Brooke said, calling Josh right away to tell him what had happened.
“He’s not going to try to apprehend them, just tail them until the police can catch—” Maverick’s phone rang, and he answered it. “On our way.” He ended the call. “The car stopped and dumped the boxes of stuff on the sidewalk and tore off.”
“So they got the thumb drive.”
“Or they didn’t.”
They locked up the shop and hurried through the courtyard to the house. Excited, Lucas wanted to go with them. “I can help. Let me help.”
“We’re picking up what they dumped. Some of the stuff could be valuable,” Brooke said, even if it wasn’t the thumb drive. They climbed into Maverick’s truck and headed down the street to where Brad was pulled over, putting