Frostbite

Bo might have sighed, but Noel pretended not to hear him, and if he hadn’t heard him, it hadn’t happened.

“From the beginning.” Thea took on her stern tone, and he wished he’d been there with a bottle of wine and chocolate. A tremor ran through him, but he refused to give in to it while Bo was nearby, so he cleared his throat and tried to focus.

“I went there, but she didn’t open when I rang the door. So I went around the back—”

“Why? Who goes around the back of the house in December? People aren’t out in their backyards when it’s snowing.”

“I don’t know why, but I did.”

She hummed.

“When I got there, the patio door was open, and I found it weird, so I went inside and more or less shouted I was Noel Chance from Chance Leads. I heard a muffled sound and figured she had fallen and needed help or was sick or something.”

She made another sound of agreement, and Noel relaxed a fraction. Thea got it. She’d have run in too.

“I followed the noise into the living room. She was sitting on a chair with her back to me, so I… rushed in. The same moment I reached her, someone shot her in the forehead. It’s splattered on me, Thea.” His voice might have cracked a little on the last part, but he pushed on before Bo could notice or Thea could jump on it. “I ran. The man raised the gun again, so I got myself out of the room and ran toward the basement. I found a food cellar and crawled into a corner and got spiderwebs in my hair.

“Ugh, that sucks. I hate the way it sticks to you.”

“Right! Like fucking glue.”

Bo took an unnaturally deep breath, and Noel glared at him. He focused on Thea again. “I couldn’t call Matt.”

“Right, fuck, baby. How did you get out? Did you call Jack?”

“No, I’ll call him next. I called…” He scrunched his nose. “Bo.”

Thea cough-laughed. “No, you didn’t.”

“I did. I promised Matt. I never intended to keep the promise, but I called him.”

Thea groaned. “And he hung up?”

“Amazingly enough, he didn’t. He didn’t believe me and stopped for fucking doughnuts on the way over there, not caring in the least I was hanging out with a murderer in the basement. Maybe he thinks I’d do well in the role of a too-stupid-to-live hero who spends his afternoons in a horror basement with a killer. But hey, I’m still alive, so I think Matt will forgive him.”

Bo’s hold on the steering wheel tightened.

“The fucking bastard.”

Noel hoped he heard Thea through the phone. He should’ve put her on speaker. “Mmm.”

“But you lived, so clearly you aren’t too stupid. I’ll have you know I was aware all along. I don’t hang out with idiots, and finding somewhere to hide is always the better option.”

Noel hummed. Yeah, maybe he wasn’t too stupid to live.

“So now you want us to solve her murder?”

“Well… since I introduced myself, and therefore, by extension, you to the murderer, I think it’s in our best interest he’s caught.”

Silence stretched longer than ever before during a conversation with Thea. “Fuck.”

“Yeah. Do you think you could stay somewhere else for a few days? And someone needs to feed Fluffers.”

“What? Where are you?”

“Bo kidnapped me. I escaped the murderer but not the ice queen.” Oops, he shouldn’t have said the last part while Bo was within hearing distance. He refused to look his way despite feeling his gaze on him.

“Shit, Noel, do you know how to treat frostbite?”

“Soaking in warm water, but I don’t know if there is any warm water where we’re heading. You can still see where my phone is, right? We still have the connected devices thing?”

“Of course.”

“Good, because I think he’s taking me into the woods.”

Bo groaned, an interesting sound when coming from him.

“Never let them take you to a secondary location! You know this, Noel. Kidnapping 101. We did an episode on it.”

Noel slumped against the door, resting his forehead against the cool window. “Yeah, I know. But Matt trusts him. What was I to do? I tried to get Sanders to take me, but he had a plane to catch.”

“For fuck’s sake, Noel!” Bo’s snarl made him jump, and he glared at him.

“Hey, I’m having a private conversation here. Close your ears.”

Thea chortled. “He’s that close?”

“We’re in the car.” He glanced at Bo, who was grinding his teeth. It was a lot of emotion for the ice queen. Or king. He looked more like a king than a queen, but it didn’t have the same ring to it. “Can you go stay with Dad for a few days? I’ll call and warn him.”

“Okay, but only for a few days, right?”

“I should hope so. Sanders will be back in town in a few days. He seemed like a capable man, so he might have a chance of finding the murderer.”

“What about Bo?”

“What about Bo?” Noel was confused. Since when did she care about Bo?

“I mean, isn’t he capable?”

Noel studied him for a moment. He still looked pissed off for some reason. “He’s the brawn in this operation, not sure about the brains. Bodyguard might be more his calling.”

Bo raised one hand off the steering wheel and gave him the finger. Noel was so surprised he laughed.

“What? What happened?”

“He gave me the finger.”

“Oh, there is hope in the world. I didn’t know ice sculptures could give people the finger.”

“Me either.”

They said goodbye. Thea promised to head over to his dad’s and listen to the recording, and then they’d talk again once Noel had the address to the secondary location where Bo would kill him.

“You’re such an ass.” Bo gave him a blank look—back to that again, then—before focusing on the road again.

“No, I’m not. You’re an ass, and you know it.”

Bo didn’t reply.

“I’m gonna call Dad too. Where are we heading?”

“My cabin.”