“These guys play rough, and they play for keeps,” the district attorney said.

“You think I don’t know that?” Jake knew he was beginning to sound aggravated. “I’ve been involved in this for months. I’ve seen what they can do.” His brother Adam was still recovering from being shot months ago.

“I have, too.” Rose sounded grim. “I just don’t want to see any more of this close to home. Don’t forget you’ve got one of my favorite cousins working for you, mister. I want to keep her in one piece.”

“No need to worry on that score. I wouldn’t let anybody touch Holly. If I lost her, the office would fall apart.”

FAITH ON THE LINE:

Two powerful families wage war on evil…and find love.

ADAM’S PROMISE—

Gail Gaymer Martin

FINDING AMY—

Carol Steward

GABRIEL’S DISCOVERY—

Felicia Mason

REDEEMING TRAVIS—

Kate Welsh

PETER’S RETURN—

Cynthia Cooke

PROTECTING HOLLY—

Lynn Bulock

LYNN BULOCK

has been writing since fourth grade and published in various fields for over twenty years. Her first romantic novel came out in 1989. Her Steeple Hill Café mystery LOVE THE SINNER is a May 2005 release. She lives near Los Angeles, California, with her husband and sons.

Protecting Holly

Lynn Bulock

To Joe, always

Keep me, O LORD, from the hands

of the wicked; protect me from men

of violence who plan to trip my feet.

—Psalms 140:4

Cast of Characters

Jake Montgomery—Someone was out to make sure the FBI agent never finished decoding Alistair Barclay’s secret files.

Holly Vance—She’d loved her boss in silence for years, but would the traumatic past she’d buried keep them apart?

Alistair Barclay—The former hotel tycoon was going down for numerous crimes. Would Jake be able to connect him with Baltasar Escalante and the Diablo crime syndicate?

Maxwell Vance—The former CIA agent has a vested interest in the case: keeping his three sons out of the line of fire.

Peter Vance—He was one of the last ones to see Escalante alive…and one of the many on hand to testify against Barclay.

Dear Reader,

I hope you enjoyed Holly and Jake’s story. It was quite an experience to work with so many fine authors in this series of books about the Vance and Montgomery families and how they used their faith to fight evil. I suppose we all do that in a lesser way each day, without considering it much. So many days in the past six months have started out with knowing that my “sisters” in this project were encouraging me, or holding me up in a prayer. I’d like to thank all of them, Gail, Carol, Felicia, Kate and Cynthia, for all that they’ve brought into my life.

In addition, a book like this with multiple areas of research can’t be completed without a great deal of help from folks in a variety of professions. I’d especially like to thank Nathan Lee and Karen Nicastro for their excellent help in guiding me through the legal system. Anything I got right was due to their expertise, and the errors are all mine.

I love hearing from my readers. You can contact me at: P.O. Box 1167, Thousand Oaks, CA 91358 or find me at www.lynnbulock.com.

Blessings,

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter One

“You are so lucky.” Sara Phelps straightened a stack of papers fresh from the copier. “You know that everybody else in the Colorado Springs office wants your job, don’t you?”

Holly Vance waved a hand in her friend’s direction. She couldn’t imagine what Sara said being true. “That has to be an exaggeration, Sara. For one thing, ‘everybody’ in this office would only mean about three other people. And why would they want my job, anyway? I do the same things the rest of the assistants here do.”

When Holly told friends she worked for the FBI, they all thought her job must be terribly fascinating. She had to burst their bubble fairly frequently on that little fantasy. For the most part, working for the resident agency of the FBI in Colorado Springs was a lot like working for any other government office. The idea of the work might sound interesting to an outsider, but the day-to-day routine was just that most of the time…routine.

Holly knew that she went to work in a regular office building like most of the population. She spent hours on the computer and a lot of time just like this, queuing up for one of the printers or copiers in the suite of offices, processing a document for her boss, Jake Montgomery. The khakis and sweater she wore on her slender frame weren’t any different from the work outfits of any of her friends. Television, she decided, had overplayed the image of working for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Of course there was the fact that Jake could easily have played one of those TV FBI agents. His dark-blond good looks would make him a casting director’s dream. But Holly knew that personally, she’d never make the cut on a television casting call, and neither would most of the people working in the Colorado Springs office.

Sara leaned on the side of the copier and sighed. Holly thought she looked much younger than twenty-five some days, with her spiky hair and clothing choices that always skated to the limit of what the bureau would allow its support personnel to wear. Today her slacks were gray pinstripe, but tailored in such a way that one wrong move would have exposed the tattoo that Holly knew covered the small of her friend’s back. Watching Sara made her feel even older than the twenty-nine she was, and like a much more seasoned veteran of the bureau.

“Maybe you do the same things,” Sara said, waggling deep burgundy polished nails. “But consider how you do them, and who you get to do them for. If either of the special agents I worked with were half as cool as Jake Montgomery, I’d be so happy.”

Holly picked her own documents out of the print tray. She hardly knew what to say to Sara. Jake probably did seem like the coolest guy in the Colorado Springs office. With his specialization in computers, he didn’t have some of the same restrictions or duties as the other special agents, so he was a little more fascinating than the rest of the professionals on staff. On top of that, he was a Colorado Springs native with plenty of history behind him. Most of the other agents were transplants from somewhere else, some still serving their first assignment probationary period with the bureau.

Still, it was hard to believe that working for Jake could be perceived as that big a plum. Colorado Springs wasn’t even that big an FBI office to begin with. There were only eleven people in the FBI offices in the brick building tucked away on a downtown side street, and six of those people were support staff like her, or other non-agent personnel.

“So you think working for Mr. Montgomery would be a cool thing, huh?” He might look handsome and glamorous, but Holly wondered how Sara would handle Jake’s constant flights into programming language. Most of it didn’t begin to resemble English when he started discussing the complex computer work that he did. Of course, most of it made sense to her, because she’d been assisting him for two years now. And the lingo wasn’t even the most challenging part of working with Jake.

Sara wrinkled her nose. “Well, usually. Not right now, though. I have a life already.”

Holly didn’t even have to ask what that reference was about. “I know. And thanks so much for reminding me that I don’t have one.”

Sara’s cheeks colored. “Hey, Holly, I didn’t say that.”

Holly smiled. “It probably wasn’t even what you meant. But if Jake really has to find all that information on the computers they took in the drug raid, and find it before the trial starts later this month, neither of us is going to have a life until it’s finished. And we all know that’s going to be harder on my boss than it is on me.”

Any casual reader of the Colorado Springs Sentinel’s society pages could tell you that normally, Jake Montgomery had a life. He had, in fact, one of the most glamorous and best documented lives in Colorado Springs. As the mayor’s son and one of the most eligible bachelors in the city, there always seemed to be pictures of Jake’s handsome face in the paper, getting out of his bright-red Viper for a charity event, or partying in a well-tailored tuxedo somewhere.

Holly wondered how much of that would go by the wayside between now and Alistair Barclay’s trial. The shady hotel tycoon was accused of everything from racketeering to running the biggest drug ring the city had seen in over a decade.

The FBI had given Jake the job of going over the computer files taken from Baltasar Escalante, head of the Venezuelan crime family Barclay had been accused of working for, in order to nail down Barclay’s prosecution. From what little her boss had told her, they were going to be working some unbelievable hours until all the information was deciphered. That didn’t really go along with Jake’s usual round of holiday parties and charity events right before Christmas.

It was hard for Holly to feel sorry for him on that score. If anyone had asked her—which no one was going to—she would have said that Jake Montgomery spent too much time flitting from one party to the next with a bevy of escorts. Surely at almost thirty-five he was getting ready to settle down.

“Hey, you still in there?” Sara teased, waving a hand near Holly’s face.

Okay, so maybe thinking about her good-looking boss led to a little daydreaming once in a while. Holly gave a wry grin. “Sure am. Just thinking about all the stuff I’m going to be doing around here in the next month. Of course, I might be talked into trading jobs with someone who only had to organize the office party and the gift exchange on top of a normal schedule.”

Sara shook her head emphatically. “No way. Like I said, Holly, most of the time I envy you because you work for Jake Montgomery. Now isn’t most of the time.”

“That’s true.” Holly knew what Sara’s answer would be even before she gave it. And in truth, that was the only reason that Holly offered to switch jobs with her friend, even in fun. Because when it came down to it, Holly Vance knew that her time every day with Jake was what kept her going. Prayer and her faith held her together through the dark nights, and working with Jake kept her going through the long days.

No matter how many hours of challenging work she put in, she wouldn’t trade for another job. There were cushier jobs out there, and there were better paying jobs out there, but none of them had the fringe benefit of working side by side with Jake eight to ten hours a day. There wasn’t a benefits package out there anyplace that could take the place of watching her handsome boss do what he was best at.

Holly finished her last bit of copying. “Tell you what. I’ll ask you again when this trial is over some time in January. Once you’ve watched Mr. Montgomery pace around snarling for a couple weeks trying to decipher all those files, we’ll see if you still want to trade jobs.” It was an easy offer to make. Jake might be charming to look at, but he growled like a tawny tiger when things didn’t go his way.

Sara’s smile was a little faded. “Sure.” She picked up her papers and headed toward her office down the hall. “But for now I better get back to planning the party.”

For a moment Holly wished that Christmas parties were all she was planning. But she already had an idea how much this prosecution meant to Jake, and to so many other people she knew. This might not be the most festive Christmas she ever had, but if the government won its case against Alistair Barclay, there would be plenty to celebrate later.

“You want this guy as badly as I do.” There was a note of surprise in Rose D’Arcy’s voice. The petite assistant district attorney seemed to be taking a fresh look at Jake. It always amused Jake that one of the toughest legal pit bulls in the county came packaged in this tiny redheaded person.

“Why do you look so surprised? Thanks to him and his crew I could have lost my brother. I know it’s not like Barclay pulled the trigger, but the man who shot Adam was working for him as much as he was anybody.”

Rose shrugged. “Him and Baltasar Escalante. But we can’t put Escalante on trial yet.”

“Not until somebody finds him. And I don’t expect that to happen anytime soon.” Escalante, the drug lord who made the activities of some of the sleaziest crooks in Colorado Springs possible, had managed to escape during the raids on his Venezuelan compound. “But at least Peter Vance got the goods on him.”

“Yeah, he did. With the two of you involved, this has been a great pretrial. He’s a friend of yours, isn’t he?”

“My best friend, from way back. Adam wasn’t the only one who’d risked his life taking on the La Mano Oscura drug ring. Peter built this case for years before you and I got hold of it.”

Jake tapped a stack of computer disks with a slim finger. “Now if I can just tie all this back to Barclay and find the corresponding info on his computer, at least we can put him away for a few decades. And maybe that will give us the time to find Escalante and put him away, too.”

“Yeah, well that’s possible. But I’m not here to congratulate you on helping us to convict Barclay, even though I’ll be cheering you every step of the way. I’m here to remind you to be even more careful than usual while you do it.”

“That will be hard to do.” Jake tried to sound more cool and calm than he felt. “I’m always careful to a fault.” For a change the work-issue sidearm in his shoulder holster felt like a comfort instead of an annoyance.

“Says the man who has paid so many moving violation tickets he’s paid for his own Colorado Springs patrol car.” Rose’s grin was wolfish.

“It can’t be that high. Maybe a scooter by now. Or part of the winter feed for one of the horses. But not a whole patrol car yet. It’s the car, anyway. A red Viper just screams ‘ticket me,’” Jake grumbled. “And the Escalade isn’t any more cop friendly. When I switch over to that when winter starts, it’s just as bad.”

“You could drive something more sedate.” Rose’s expression told Jake she knew that wasn’t going to happen. “Parking tickets aside, I know you’re a pretty safe guy for being FBI. But I don’t trust any of these guys that are still out on the street. Escalante may have vanished, but a lot of money vanished with him. And it would be in his best interests if Barclay walked. Or even better, if he died quickly and quietly and the evidence never materialized.”

Jake waved a hand in dismissal. “Not possible. You and your boss already have plenty of evidence to convict Barclay and put him away for longer than his natural life expectancy. And I know everybody’s watching him like a hawk after what happened to that doctor.” They might be months further along in this process if Escalante hadn’t gotten to his plant within Doctors Without Borders so quickly. After that jail-house murder, nobody was leaving Barclay alone for a moment.

“It’s still not enough to tie him to Escalante, which is just the way everyone would like it. I mean it, Jake. These guys play rough, and they play for keeps.”

“You think I don’t know that?” Jake knew he was beginning to sound aggravated. “I’ve been involved in this for months. I’ve seen what they can do.” Adam was still recovering from being shot months ago during a drug robbery at the Venezuelan clinic he’d been working in for Doctors Without Borders.

“I have, too.” Rose sounded grim. “I just don’t want to see any more of it this close to home. Don’t forget you’ve got one of my favorite cousins working for you, mister. I want her kept in one piece.”

Jake had to think about that one a minute. This tiny terror was related to Holly? Of course. When she wagged her finger in his face as she was doing now, she looked just like her aunt, Holly’s mother. Marilyn D’Arcy Vance had terrorized a couple generations of Colorado Springs high schoolers before moving on to another job.

“Holly? No need to worry on that score. I wouldn’t let anybody touch Holly. If I lost her, the office would fall apart.”

Rose grimaced, wrinkling her pug nose. “Glad to know you’re so fond of her on such a personal basis, Jake.”

Jake shrugged. “Dates are easy to get. But a good assistant…I couldn’t replace her if I tried.”

“See that you don’t have to. I’m holding you personally responsible for her safety, as well as your own. The task force is already spread pretty thin cleaning up the loose ends of Diablo.”

Jake knew there were still branches of the crime syndicate active in and around Colorado Springs. The task force didn’t need to worry about him as well. “We’ll be okay. Go get some rest. Go home and have dinner with your feet up.”

Rose made a most unladylike noise in dismissal of that comment. “Right, like that’s going to happen anytime the rest of this year. Maybe after the trial.”

The two said their goodbyes and Jake went back to his desk. There was still plenty to do in order to nail Alistair Barclay. It was a good thing he didn’t have one particular woman in his life right now, because if he had, she would be plenty peeved at him. Rose was right. Cracking this case was going to take every waking hour for the next few weeks.

On Wednesday Holly got to work at seven-thirty in the morning, sure that she would have a clean desk for a change. There was plenty of space in the parking garage this early for her Jeep, and the roads were clear of the light snow that had fallen the previous day.

She’d stayed until seven the night before, leaving only when Jake promised that he was right behind her on the way out. One look at her work station told her that was a promise he hadn’t kept. There were three files with notes jotted in his awful handwriting all over the margins, and at least half a dozen sticky notes on the papers and her computer screen.

Sighing, she hung her coat on the rack, put down her coffee and started deciphering the notes. The most interesting said “Book us a working lunch at the Stagecoach.”

Jake hardly ever took her out to lunch unless he needed something special from her. Given the nature of the case he was working on, she could only imagine what kind of favors he was going to ask this time. She hoped it wasn’t canceling all his dates to the various charity balls and benefit parties this holiday season. Or ordering flowers as an apology for all his stood-up partners for those functions. She could handle a lot working for Jake, but some things were beyond her comfort level.

Still, she wouldn’t turn down going to the Stagecoach Café for lunch and sampling some of her aunt Lidia’s marvelous cooking. It was just cold enough this morning to hope that Lidia had made minestrone soup and chili to counteract the chill in the air.

By the time Jake came in at eight, Holly had dealt with all the sticky notes except one, and checked her e-mail for bureau updates and other business. Coffee was steaming in a thermal carafe and Jake’s blinds were open precisely enough to let the morning sun in without any glare on his computer screen, just the way he liked it.

Of course he would never notice any of that. Whistling, her handsome boss hung his wool topcoat on the coat rack and went straight for the coffee, where his favorite Colorado State Rams mug sat next to the carafe, upside down and spotless.

“Good morning, Holly.” Her heart leaped at the sight of him, as it did most mornings. By now Holly knew she was practiced enough at keeping her outside appearance calm that Jake never knew how he affected her. His charcoal suit fit like no off-the-rack garment ever could, and his dark-blond hair was cut just perfectly. She was glad to see that, because it was hard to guess when he might get time for a haircut during this case.

“Morning, Jake.” She waved the stack of sticky notes she’d piled up. “What happened to leaving here early enough to go by the Toys for Tots drive at your dad’s office?” Mayor Montgomery had kicked off the local drive with a well-publicized cookies and cocoa party, complete with Santa Claus in attendance. Holly had seen it on the local news last night, but Jake had been conspicuous in his absence.

Jake grimaced, making the laugh lines around his blue eyes crinkle. “So I didn’t quite get there on time. I managed to duck in before Santa left, though. And I brought lots of cool toys, too.”

“I’ll just bet. All of them had wheels, didn’t they?” After two years of being in this office, Holly knew that her boss’s weaknesses were few. He was a hardworking guy who may have gone to a lot of parties, but was seldom, if ever, photographed holding anything stronger than a cola. Cars, however, were another matter.

Jake grinned. “They might have had. Are we on for lunch?”

“We are. Twelve-thirty at your favorite table.” Jake was at the Stagecoach Café so often he had his own spot near the fireplace in the winter, and a prime corner on the patio in the summer. Of course it wasn’t usually Holly who was there with him, even though she often made the reservations.

No, Jake’s lunch companions at the Stagecoach Café were normally beautiful young women from the high society of Colorado Springs, and hardly ever the same one twice. Holly often wondered if it aggravated Jake’s mother as much as it aggravated her that the man flitted from one woman to the next at a speed faster than the processors in his computer.

No matter who else it bothered, his activity didn’t seem to bother Jake. He looked over the messages Holly had already started collecting in the half hour she’d been in and gave a low growl. “Okay, well, I probably won’t be out here much before lunch. Fend off all calls and visitors unless they’re family. And I mean yours, not mine.”

“What?” Jake didn’t often confuse her, but he was doing so now.

Jake’s smile made the laugh lines around his eyes crinkle a little more, making Holly’s heart race a little faster. “You haven’t gotten through all your e-mail, I see. My new ‘calls allowed’ list includes nobody besides Rose D’Arcy and the Vance family, specifically Maxwell, Travis, Peter and Sam.” Holly understood why her cousin Rose topped the list, as assistant district attorney. But it was odd to have Uncle Max and all three of her male cousins make up the rest of that list.

“Well, at least my family will know where I am and what I’m doing.” Holly laughed. “Nobody can grouse when they don’t get a Christmas card from me this year.”

She wasn’t about to tell Jake that nobody ever got a Christmas card from her except a few of the people she volunteered with at the Galilee Women’s Shelter. By the time she was done sending out all the business-oriented ones from the office most years, she was tired of looking at them. And this year nobody was going to get those, either.

“Hey, there are always fruitcakes.” That was what made working with Jake so much fun. He had a quick wit and sharp sense of humor. “No absolutely necessary meetings from inside today?”

Holly shook her head. “I made sure you were off the list for anything but the highest alert levels from the regional field office or Washington. You should be able to make Barclay your only priority for as long as it takes.”

“Ah, Holly, you’re too good to me.” She wasn’t sure what made her smile back so quickly—the words or the smile that went with them. Both made her feel just a little more inclined toward taking care of Jake Montgomery.

His door closed and Holly stared at it with a sigh. What would be more dangerous…Jake remaining happily oblivious about how much she cared for him, or Jake knowing just how much she cared? Either one broke her heart. In the long run, she decided, going back to her cooling coffee and insistent computer screen, having Jake know she cared would be even more dangerous. Because there was no way there could ever be anything between her and a man like Jake Montgomery.

Four hours later Holly was ready to wring her boss’s gorgeous neck. “For a man who doesn’t want to be disturbed, you sure are disturbing me plenty,” she said, coming into the office with his latest request off the shared printer down the hall. He had his own printer in the office, but it wasn’t of the quality of the networked one, nor could it handle some of the bigger demands he put on it. So Holly was the one bouncing up and down getting what he’d ordered.

This was on top of fending off all the calls from everyone who was sure Jake wanted to talk to them and the requests for other computer work from bureau personnel around the state who kept getting put on Jake’s ever growing waiting list. By the time he finished up Barclay’s evidence, he was going to have enough other cases to keep him busy until Memorial Day of next year, Holly was sure. And lucky her, she would be the one placating all those people while they groused about why Jake hadn’t gotten back to them yesterday.

Jake glanced over the documents she brought in. “Thanks. There’s got to be a pattern in this someplace. Maybe if I rearrange it and print it out a couple more times I’ll have the basis to his algorithm.”

His harried comment told her that Jake was still trying to crack the passwords to get into Barclay’s private files. More than likely, there were passwords on top of passwords. Jake would be a bear to be around until he’d found at least one or two levels of them. After a moment of her standing in front of the desk, Jake looked up again. “Something else?”

“We had a lunch date at twelve-thirty, remember?”

Startled, he looked at his watch. “It can’t be that late. But it is.” He stood, setting the papers aside. “Right. Want to ride with me?”

“Sure. Let me get my purse and I’ll be ready to go. But I’m not using my ‘in’ with the police department to get you out of any speeding tickets.”

Jake grinned. “You won’t have to. I think Sam told them to lay off me for the minor stuff as long as I’m working for the task force,” he said with a teasing grin. “Besides, it’s lunch hour in the middle of the city. I can’t go fast enough anyplace to get a ticket.”

He was right there. The short trip to the Stagecoach Café only took about ten minutes anyway, and before they knew it Jake and Holly were sitting beside the crackling fire, looking at the specials. She was happy to see that Aunt Lidia had put chili on the menu today, along with her famous minestrone. A baked potato loaded with Lidia’s chili was just the thing to take the chill off the day. Holly didn’t have to look any further on the menu.

They ordered and sat waiting for their food. Jake pulled out his leather-bound PDA, turning it on and looking over at Holly. “We’ve been working together too long for me to pull one over on you.”

“No such thing as a free lunch,” Holly said with a sigh. “What’s this one going to cost me?”

“Not as much as you might think. Just a little bit of Christmas shopping. You work with the shelter my mom’s so involved in, don’t you?”

She was surprised he’d noticed, even at the gala in October. “Galilee? Sure I do.” It was on the tip of her tongue to ask what that had to do with anything, but she held off. Jake never kept her in suspense long.

“I never know what to get Mom for Christmas. It’s the one gift I usually stew over all of December and frankly this year I don’t have the time. I figured maybe you could figure out something the shelter needs and arrange to get it done in her name.”

He told her what her budget was and Holly’s eyes widened. She didn’t spend that much on her own mom if she added up gifts for a decade. But then, she wasn’t a Montgomery, either.

Their food came, and the waitress served it quickly and left. Holly was ready to ask him what else he needed done when a silky voice greeted him someplace close behind her. “Jake, fancy seeing you here. Please, don’t get up.”

The tone of the woman’s voice said she didn’t mean that, but Jake took her at her word. Holly looked back at the petite blonde, dressed for the Colorado winter in a ridiculously formfitting leather jacket with fur trim. It was the kind of “fun” coat that only someone with as much money as the Montgomerys, and far less common sense, would own.

“Zoe Taylor, Holly Vance. Holly’s my assistant, Zoe.” The woman’s speculating look eased a little. Not that Holly could imagine this woman seeing her as a threat.

“Ah. Business lunch?”

“The first of many, I’m afraid. Which is why I left that message on your machine last night canceling our date for the mayor’s Christmas party.”

Zoe’s full pink lips drew into a pout. “I heard it, and I think you’re mean, Jake. How on earth do you think I’ll get someone else to go with me at this late date? You can’t possibly cancel.”

“I can, I’m afraid. Already have if you remember. Why don’t you give my cousin Brendan a call, see what he’s doing? Or if you like, I could do it for you…”

Zoe backed off in horror. “No, that won’t be necessary. I can still get my own dates to charity functions. I’ll see you later, Jake.”

After Zoe left, Holly and Jake finished their meal in relative silence and before she knew it, Holly was back in the front passenger seat of the red Escalade. It was a reminder of the passing seasons that Jake had garaged his sports car for the winter and brought out the heavier vehicle, still the same deep, glossy red as the Viper. “Okay, now where are we going?” she asked as Jake pulled out of the restaurant parking lot in the opposite direction she expected.

“Courthouse. I need to get one more thing from Rose.” Jake was silent for two blocks, whistling thinly through his teeth.

“That’s odd,” he blurted, making the turn for the courthouse’s underground garage.

“What is it?” It was a rare thing for Holly to see her boss agitated over something while driving.

“I thought for a minute…” Jake trailed off, checking frequently in the rearview mirror. “No, must have been mistaken. There are so many dark-blue SUVs around here. I can’t have really seen the same one three times in the course of one afternoon.”

Holly was inclined to agree with him. But if she did, what was making the hair on the back of her neck underneath the tight dark-brown French braid start to prickle in apprehension?

Chapter Two

“Are you still here?” Sara stood in the doorway to Holly’s office, her coat on and a scarf wound around her neck.

Holly looked up, startled. “Of course I am. Are you leaving early? You have a doctor’s appointment or something?”

Sara laughed. “Early? Not exactly. It’s five-thirty, my regular time to head out of here.”

Holly looked at her watch, stunned. “You’re kidding. We missed lunch again. I’m going to have to start setting an alarm clock or something. Maybe I’ll send out for dinner, anyway.”

Sara started unzipping her coat and walked into the office. Great, Holly thought, here comes a lecture.

Sara didn’t disappoint her. “I know you’re on a big project, but girl, you have got to get a life. At least enough of one so that you don’t come in here when it’s barely light out every morning and leave after dark every day. When was the last time you saw sunlight? You look pale.”

“Hey, I don’t tan anyway. Not during the summer, or even on the ski slopes. So that’s not a good indicator of how often I’m outside,” Holly argued. Maybe it would deflect Sara’s question, because the real answer was almost embarrassing. In the week since she’d had lunch with Jake, the only daylight she’d seen on any day but Sunday had been driving to work in the morning.

Given his drive right now, she’d almost expected Jake to protest when she told him that she wouldn’t be working Sundays no matter what happened. Instead he just nodded. “I expected that. In fact my mother would applaud. She’s horrified that I’m not at least taking the time off on Sunday mornings to meet the rest of the family at Good Shepherd. Of course it isn’t like I make it on a regular basis even when I’m not swamped.”

Holly could have told him that without thinking much. She saw his parents virtually every Sunday, and Adam and his new bride Kate seemed to put in regular appearances since he’d begun to recuperate from his gunshot wound. Even his sister Colleen, jaded and busy newspaper reporter that she was, made it to church many Sundays. Holly held her tongue, knowing that adding to the complaints Jake was already hearing from his mother wasn’t a good idea. She knew how little she heeded anybody who agreed with her own mother’s nagging that she needed to get out more and do things with people. Why aggravate her boss, even if she agreed with his mother? A noise brought Holly back to the present.

Sara was still standing in front of the desk, tapping a foot and waiting for an answer. “Okay, I’ll try to get out more. At least enough to see daylight once in a while, anyway. But it’s not going to happen right away. There’s just too much to do every day to get ready for this trial.”

“It must be something. Even Jake Montgomery, champion workaholic, doesn’t usually keep you here this many hours.”

“I’m keeping myself here most of the time,” Holly countered. It was true, mostly. Jake would have let her go home much earlier than she did, if he’d noticed that she was putting in the kind of hours she was. Of course he didn’t notice much right now that wasn’t related to Alistair Barclay’s computer or the disks he’d gotten from the raid on the La Mano Oscura cartel. That much was obvious in the fact that he hadn’t thought about lunch, or even coffee, for hours.

“You know, I’d better check on Jake, now that you mention it. He hasn’t been out here in hours.” Holly cast a worried glance at his door.

“Do that. And then go home.” Sara looked as stern as a young woman in a fuzzy angora scarf could look.

“I will. Or at least get out of here pretty soon. There are all kinds of things I need to catch up on outside the office.”

“I’ll just bet. And only sixteen shopping days ’til Christmas,” Sara piped up with a wicked grin.

Holly groaned. “Don’t even remind me. Now go home yourself and let me check on Jake.”

“Will do. See you in the morning, Holly. I know you’ll be here when I get in. You always are.”

She couldn’t argue with Sara on that score either, Holly thought as she got up from her desk and crossed the room to Jake’s door. She knocked softly, but there was no answer. “Jake? You there?”

He was there, propped straight up at his desk, all right. Hands on the keyboard, still sitting up in his chair, Jake Montgomery was asleep. Holly stifled a giggle. It was funny and painful at the same time, watching her boss dozing at his desk.

She walked up quietly and softly rested a hand on his shoulder. She didn’t want to startle him too much. “Jake?” she called out quietly. Even that woke him quickly. He reared backwards, almost upsetting his chair.

“What?” Dazed, he shook his head. “Holly? Don’t tell me I fell asleep.”

“Sitting straight up. Jake, this has got to end. You need a real night’s sleep at home in bed. I need the same. And we both need a good, hot nutritious meal.”

Jake recovered quickly from his nap. “Does this mean you’re asking me out?”

“No.” Her reaction was so quick, and so snappish, Holly even surprised herself. How could she react to Jake that way, of all people? “That is, I didn’t mean to suggest that we have dinner together. Just that we both need a hot meal and plenty of rest.”

“I understand. And you’re right. Maybe if I just finish this one thing…”

Holly felt herself clucking like a mother hen. “Jake Montgomery, I’ve never crossed you in the two years I’ve worked here. But this time I’m going to. Neither of us will be worth anything to this investigation if we get sick and worn-out. And you’re skating on thin ice, mister. Go home. Get some rest. Send out for a pizza, or Chinese or something. I know there’s probably nothing worth eating in that bachelor loft you call home.”

“You’re right. I think there’s a carton of orange juice, something that used to be cheese, and an almost empty mustard jar in the whole refrigerator. And don’t even get me started on the pantry. If I had mice, they’d starve.” Jake’s grin was wry. “And you’re right about going home for a change, too.”

“I know I am. And this time I’m going to walk out with you to make sure you actually leave. You keep telling me you’re going home at night and then you don’t.” Holly knew she sounded stern, but she’d learned from the best. Her mom had taught high school English for more than a dozen years before she’d become the receptionist at the Sentinel. Nobody could do stern like a high school English teacher. Jake was just lucky he wasn’t chewing gum.

The next morning Holly took her time heading for the office for a change. It was what she’d “traded” Jake for by making him leave early the night before. “I’ll go home now, and have a decent dinner on the way there, if you don’t show up until at least nine tomorrow morning. Deal?” His blue eyes were sharp again after his little nap.

“Deal. I’ll even make it ten.” Holly hadn’t told him that she’d spend the time before she came in lining up his mother’s Christmas gift. If he thought she was actually doing something for herself, he’d be more tolerant of the late entry into the office. But if she spent all that time on herself, she’d feel worse, so this made more sense.

She knew from past experience that Jessica Mathers Vance would be at her desk fairly early most days, and she’d be the one to speak to about some kind of gift for the shelter to make in Liza Montgomery’s name. Although what Liza hadn’t already given the shelter, Holly couldn’t imagine. In the time that Holly had volunteered there, an anonymous benefactor had donated quite a bit over the years, and a few months ago the mayor’s wife had quietly revealed herself to be that benefactor.

Still, it was good of Jake to actually realize how close the shelter was to his mother’s heart, and to know that doing something for Galilee would make her happier than some more traditional Christmas present. Holly sighed. Her boss was thoughtful in many ways when he put his mind to it. The shame was that he didn’t put his mind to it very often. When he had time to spend outside the office, he spent it socializing with a variety of lovely young ladies like Zoe.

Of course, she reflected, Jake was free to spend his time any way he liked. She just wished he didn’t seem to like that empty party life so much. It wasn’t as if drinking had any draw for him that Holly could see. And the “big money” aspect of that kind of social life didn’t seem to interest him. What did pull Jake into that scene was the biggest mystery about the handsome, secretive man she worked with every day.

When Holly got to Jessica’s office she was surprised to see it empty. It looked like Jessica had been there and just stepped down the hall for something, so Holly stood there by the doorway and waited for a minute.

Jessica’s office was brighter than Holly remembered it. Looking around, she tried to decide what the difference was. There was a great photo of Sam, Jessica and her sweet daughter Amy on the desk. It must have been taken on their wedding day this last fall. All three were smiling broadly at whoever had taken the picture.

It wasn’t just a photo or two that made the room brighter, though. It seemed a warmer, happier place than it ever had before. Of course, Holly hadn’t been in here since Jessica had found her daughter after she’d disappeared, kidnapped by a baby-sitter. Nothing about Jessica’s life had been particularly bright when she was looking for her daughter. Now that Amy was back and Jessica had married Sam, her life was so different.

As Holly stood lost in thought, praising God for the changes in her friend’s life, Jessica hurried down the hall toward her. “Holly, good to see you. I hope you haven’t just been standing here in the hallway very long.” She motioned her into the office and they both sat down.

Holly waved away her concern. “Not long at all. Besides, I was enjoying looking at a desk where you can actually see the top of it.”

Jessica laughed. “Ouch. I don’t have to ask how things are going at work for you, then, do I?”

“Not exactly. Jake is working on stuff for Alistair Barclay’s trial, and it’s coming up soon. I guess that’s partially why I’m here.”

Jessica looked confused. “What does somebody as slimy as Barclay have to do with you being here?”

“Just his trial. It has us so busy, and Jake so completely swamped, that I came by to do two things. I need for you to take me off the volunteer schedule for a while until things get back to normal.”

“I can pass that word on to Susan, the shelter’s director. I hope this doesn’t mean you’ll miss the Christmas party.”

“Not if I can help it. I can’t make room for much on my schedule this month, but if I do anything, it will be the party here. It’s always such a good time.”

Holly had been volunteering at the shelter for most of the time she’d been back in Colorado Springs since leaving her job in Ohio. This was probably the fifth Christmas she’d been around the Galilee Women’s Shelter, and she didn’t have any intention of missing the best Christmas party in town. Mayor Montgomery might have a more elegant one, and Jake probably went to half a dozen most years that were flashier than this one, but nobody had one where more delighted kids squealed over their gifts.

“I really hope you can make it. This one is going to be such a special Christmas for me personally. Lots of firsts involved.” Jessica’s gray eyes shone with happiness.

“I guess so. I’ll just have to make it here for that,” Holly said. “And it ties in nicely with the other reason for my trip over here.”

“Oh? If you’re going off the volunteer schedule, it can’t be an offer of help for the party.”

“Not exactly. At least not from me. But Jake needs to get his mom a meaningful Christmas gift, and he thought that contributing money for something here would be the best thing to do. Once you mentioned the party, I thought maybe I’d ask if you needed any more funding for it.”

“Always. Even with all the wonderful people like Liza Montgomery who give time and money to this place, there’s always more that can be done.” Jessica’s normally smooth forehead wrinkled. “Especially since we were counting on one hundred thousand dollars from Mr. Barclay that turned out to be nonexistent. We could hardly take money from him now. But maybe if you guys put people like him away, and others who help bring drugs into town, we’d have fewer clients to have to provide for in the first place.”

“Wouldn’t that be great?” Holly tried to imagine a world in which no woman felt the need to go to a place like Galilee. It was hard for her to do. Once her life had been sheltered enough that she hadn’t known places like this existed. Now she’d seen enough of the outside world’s ugliness, even before working for the FBI, that she knew just what some people were capable of. Silently, she thanked God that most people weren’t capable of terrible evil.

“It would. And we can always pray for it to happen.” In a flash, Holly knew what was different about Jessica, and about this office. It wasn’t just a physical brightness in the change of lightbulbs, or pictures of smiling people that made things in this office look different. It was Jessica’s new attitude, radiating from her because of her walk with the Lord. It wasn’t just displayed in things hanging on the wall, although when Holly looked around, she noticed a wonderful poster with words from the Psalms on the wall in a location where both Jessica and visitors to her office could see it as a reminder of God’s goodness.

Holly could feel herself smiling, reminded again about how good God was in every situation. “We sure can. And if you want to, we can pray together right now for that, and a little guidance on how to spend the rest of this Christmas present money from Jake in a way that will make his mom happy, honor the Lord and do the best things for the shelter.”

Half an hour later Holly was on her way to the office, buoyed up by the prayer time and discussion she’d had with Jessica, and the knowledge that she’d gotten this errand done quickly and so well. She stopped at the coffee shop in the lobby, never doubting for a moment that Jake hadn’t made coffee upstairs. He drank plenty when it was made, but didn’t bother making a pot just for himself. So she ordered a latte for herself and their largest cup of dark roast for Jake, complete with the three ice cubes he always had them put in the cup to bring the brew to his perfect drinking temperature. Going up the elevator took less time than usual, at what seemed like midmorning for her. When she got to her office, there was only one light on and her computer screen was dark, giving the front office an eerie, almost cavelike look. From his slightly open doorway, she could hear Jake talking to himself, and small metallic noises.

She set her coffee down along with her purse and knocked on his door. “Hey, Jake. You mind company as long as I come bearing coffee?”

“Come on in, Holly, as long as you can stand the mess in here.”

She started to say something glib about never minding the condition of his office, but froze a step into the place and forced her mouth closed to keep her shock from showing. “Uh, Jake? I think Barclay’s computer exploded.” The tower housing of the machine was in pieces and there were bits of the insides of the computer strung out over almost every flat surface in the room.

Jake laughed and took the coffee from her. He took a long drink before he said anything, setting the cup down on a small island of clear space on his desk. “I know. It’s not the commonest way to find somebody’s passwords, but I’m down to desperate measures. See, you can find the BIOS password by taking apart hardware, and I’m figuring that this will lead me to the other passwords I need to open the files he thought he’d hidden. I found them, just can’t open them.”

“Okay.” The room still looked like the elephant’s graveyard of computer parts. Holly trusted her boss to do the right thing in most situations, but this was a new one on her. “There sure looks like there’s more than one computer in all this.”

“There is. Somewhere along the line someone apparently expected this kind of interference. So when I opened up the tower, there were dummy circuits as well as the real thing. I looked around this morning until I found somebody with a similar unit and borrowed it for a little while to compare the innards.”

“This means that somewhere in this building is an agent who has no idea that his computer, which he loaned you, is now totally in pieces.”

Jake’s grin was a delight. “Well, yeah, but it’s Bob. He doesn’t use his computer all that much anyway, and I’m nearly to the point of putting it back together. He’ll never know what it went through. In fact, it will probably run smoother once he gets it back.”

Holly just shook her head. “As long as mine’s in one piece. Now give me your lunch order. I’ve already decided I’m going to run over to the café and bring stuff back about one. From now on we’re eating healthy and keeping to as regular hours as possible.”

“Yes ma’am,” he said, throwing her a mock salute. “And thanks for the coffee. It really hit the spot.”

“You’re welcome.” Holly was surprised he even noticed. If she had this much hardware strung across her office, she wouldn’t have noticed a mere cup of coffee. She did the rest of her morning’s work to the accompanying tune of Jake putting the two computers back together and continuing to talk to himself while he did it. As far as Holly was concerned, there were few sweeter sounds outside the church choir.

Jake looked around at the piles of stuff in his office, wondering if he could really put it back together as easily as he’d told Holly that he could. She was a great assistant, and thought he could do anything. He hated to disabuse her of that notion. If anything would, it would be this case they were preparing for the prosecutors. Everybody knew that Barclay was working for La Mano Oscura, the drug ring that was bringing tons of junk into Colorado Springs. But Barclay had certainly hidden his connections well. So well that even though he’d ratted out his boss in Venezuela, Baltasar Escalante, there just wasn’t the trail leading back to Barclay that would let prosecutors convict him of the worst of the charges against him. They needed proof that matched Escalante’s files to Barclay.

While Jake toyed with all the options for opening those files on Barclay’s hard drive that could provide that proof, he put Bob’s computer back together. It wasn’t a difficult job. During college and in the twelve years since he’d built far more complicated computers himself from parts. In fact, he preferred building his own because it allowed him to look at the circuit boards fairly quickly and see whether or not someone had tampered with anything.

By the time Bob’s tower was back together, Holly was at his door again. “Okay, I’m double checking your lunch order before I go over to Aunt Lidia’s and get it.”

Jake glanced at the watch his long-sleeved shirt hid. “Man, time flies when you’re having fun.”

“So does the snow. It’s been snowing off and on all morning since I came in. Can I borrow your car keys to take Big Red on the lunch run? I’ll be nice to him, I promise.”

Jake fished around in his pocket. As late as he’d made Holly come in, her Jeep was more than likely in a parking space she’d lose if she left it for lunch now. Especially on a snowy day. Since his spot was reserved, it made more sense to let her drive his vehicle. “Sure. And the soup and sandwich I ordered earlier are fine, unless they have apple pie left this late. Then get me a piece of that, too.”

Holly caught the keys he tossed her and grinned. “Already done. I had Aunt Lidia save two slices so they’d be there this late. Otherwise it was no chance. I’ll be back in twenty or so.”

“See you then.” He started putting the screws back into Bob’s tower housing, ready to take it back to the other agent. As he’d told Holly, no one would ever know that the machine had been in pieces on his floor and desk half an hour ago.

He’d dropped the unit off in Bob’s office and was back, reassembling parts of Barclay’s when Holly came in with the bags and bundles that made up lunch. He could hear her rattling around in the outer office, and expected to hear one of her always cheerful greetings. Instead she was standing silently at his doorway a moment later, and she looked upset.

“Hey, you’re back. What’s up?” He laid down his tools and came to the doorway to greet her. His normally smiling assistant looked on the brink of tears.

“I was careful like always, and I parked in one of the café’s twenty-minute spots right in front. I took my eyes off your car only for a minute or two inside.” Her lip was trembling.

“It can’t be that bad, because you drove back here, right? What happened, did somebody hit Red?” If so, they would have come out the worse for wear unless they were driving the biggest truck or SUV on the market. He couldn’t see what Holly was this worked up about.

“Worse. Somebody scratched the paint all the way down the passenger side. It wasn’t a little thing like an accidental door ding, either, Jake. Looked like a screwdriver blade or a key, drawn all the way from front to back.” She covered her face with her hands, and Jake thought the usually calm and reserved Holly Vance was going to sob on him. “It’s all my fault. I should have just taken my old Jeep. Nobody’d even notice if that happened to it.”

“Hey, it isn’t your fault. It was probably some thoughtless kid, or somebody with a kid’s intelligence anyway, just looking for a little stupid fun. Could have happened anywhere, no matter who was driving.”

Holly seemed to calm down a little. “I still feel bad. You drive such nice cars, and keep them up so well. It isn’t fair that somebody would do this to one of them.”

Jake shrugged. “A whole lot of life isn’t fair. Now let’s have lunch and afterward I’ll go down to the parking garage and take a look. It might not be as bad as you’re making it out to be.”

Her dubious expression said that it was going to be bad, but Jake still wasn’t prepared for the depth of the damage when he stood in the garage half an hour later. The gouge was deep, and ran an easy eight feet across the front fender and both passenger side doors. There was no way this could have been anything but a deliberate, malicious act.

He went back up to the office where Holly was still cleaning up the remains of their lunch. She hadn’t done more than pick at hers, even though Jake had tried to reassure her that this was no big deal. He tried to stay nonchalant even as he asked her questions now.

“Anybody parked next to you on the passenger side when you went in?”

“Nobody. I remember, because there was still snow in the space as if no one had been in it for a while. Even when I came out, there were no fresh tracks over there.”

“Did you happen to see any vehicles peel out in a hurry?” Jake was forming a picture in his mind, and it wasn’t pretty.

“Hard to tell. In this kind of weather there’s always somebody seeing what their truck or SUV will do, the old man against machine thing.” Holly had lived here for most of her life, Jake knew. She was familiar with the macho contests that seemed to go on every time it snowed. “I don’t know, maybe…”

“Go on. It doesn’t hurt to be wrong once in a while.”

Her brow wrinkled. “I’m not sure. There might have been a dark-blue SUV pulling out across the street. If I didn’t know better, I would have said the driver of that one didn’t want me to see him.”

“It’s something. Not anything I’d bring to the police, or even put on the insurance report I’m going to file, but it’s something.” It was the kind of something, Jake decided, that made him want to talk to Rose D’Arcy again. And this time he’d tell her that her suspicions that somebody might be out to get him could be on the money after all.

Chapter Three

“I still say this is ridiculous.” Jake’s expression wasn’t quite as grumpy as a frown or a glare, but there was a serious cast to his features that Holly wasn’t used to.

She sat at her desk, determined to stick to her guns. “Sorry, this isn’t negotiable. I was the one driving when Red got all scarred up. I’ll handle all the insurance paperwork. Just give me your card and I’ll do it.”

“With everything else you have to do?” Jake waved an open hand over her desk, highlighting the piles of paperwork, print requests, sticky-note-covered documents and more that kept them from seeing the surface.

“And your workload, we both know, is going to let you handle this before next Christmas?” Holly shook her head. “Face it, Jake, you have to admit I’m right this time. Or at least that my way makes more sense. If you wait until you handle this yourself, it will be February, at least. And if you wait that long, you could be inviting rust spots on Red.”

Holly was pretty sure she had him now. While she might not understand what drove her boss to the endless round of social engagements he usually went to, she did know one thing: the two vehicles that he drove were far more important to him than any of the women he went out with. It wasn’t a priority she would have chosen in her own life, but it was Jake’s.

Jake harrumphed some, and pulled up the side chair next to her desk. Holly felt a twinge of surprise; he never did this unless there was a serious discussion coming on, and she wasn’t sure that even repainting one of his precious vehicles rated that.

“Okay, I’ll let you do it your way,” he said, settling into the chair. “But you have to promise me something.”

“What?” Even for Jake, she wasn’t about to make promises without hearing the details.

“That you’ll be careful while you’re out in public with Red. And it’s not because I’m afraid for the car, Holly. I’m getting a little bit worried for you.”

Now it was her turn to scoff. “What for?”

“It’s the case we’re working on. When Rose was here a week ago, she warned me that somebody working for Escalante might target me because of what I’m doing. I didn’t believe her then, but I’m starting to think she was right. And I don’t want my problems spilling over into your life.”

Holly blinked. This just hadn’t entered her mind before. “Okay, I’ll be careful, even though I think you and Rose are probably getting worked up over nothing. You were probably right when you said it was a kid that did this, or just somebody being ignorant.”

“I hope it is. But until I can be sure of something like that, I want you to look out for yourself. Human beings are worth more than anything with an engine, Holly, and I want you to remember that.”

“I will.” It wasn’t a sentiment she was prepared to hear from her boss. Especially not said with such warmth and conviction, those blue eyes boring into her in a way that made her feel extremely warm. Suddenly it was time to change the subject to almost anything else.

“So, what’s the next step in taking down Alistair Barclay?” The project was taking up more and more of Jake’s waking hours, and because of that, her life as well.

Jake shrugged. “You tell me. The man might have been unfamiliar with computers to a large degree, but somebody working for him was very, very good with them. And the programs that someone wrote to hide and encrypt Barclay’s personal files are good. I keep thinking there’s something I’m missing that could help me unlock all this, but I don’t know what it is.”

Jake was already looking through his open office door, anxious now to get back to the puzzle. “Go in there and work on it. I’ll tell you if I’m going any farther than the copier in the hall, okay?”

“I expect no less.” And whatever else she knew, Holly was sure that she’d do whatever Jake Montgomery expected of her. He headed to his office, and she went back to untangling the piles of notes and paperwork on her desk.

As she plowed through the piles of stuff, sifting out the important tasks and taking care of them, setting aside what she could for later, an idea began to form in Holly’s mind.

By eleven that morning she’d gotten through the worst of the piles of paperwork on her desk, and made the phone calls and e-mails that were necessary to take care of the things that came next. She knocked on Jake’s partially closed door. “I’m going to the drive-though insurance claims office and I have one other stop to make on some errands. So I’ll need your car keys. And yes, before you ask, I have my cell phone.” She hadn’t worked for Jake this long without being able to answer at least half the routine questions before he asked them.

He smiled wanly. “I figured you had your cell phone. And now you’re going to ask if I want you to bring back lunch, right?”

“Wrong. I’m going to remind you that you have the monthly update lunch meeting to get all the regional heads-up bulletins. Even I can’t get you out of that one. It starts in an hour. If I’m not back, do I need to call you and remind you?”

Jake looked positively glum. “I guess not. Some things I have to remember on my own. Which is a shame, because I’d really love to tell them I forgot this one. Meetings. Bah, humbug.”

“Gee, all you need now is a Santa hat and you’d be right into your normal holiday spirit,” she teased. Of course it wasn’t far off. Jake went to the usual round of society and charity holiday events every year, but he grumbled about wearing a tux and doing the party circuit every time. He might be more than a little relieved to get out of most of that, given the evidence he needed to build against Barclay. Holly felt like telling him the best news of all—that she might have found the key to unlocking the codes he’d been working on for over a week. But in case her idea was out of line, she held off. No sense in giving Jake false hope. She borrowed his keys and went off on her errands, trying to keep from whistling cheery tunes as she left the building.

An hour later she was done with the insurance claim business and cruising down the side streets of Colorado Springs, looking for El Rey Construction. She found it without too much problem, and went into the shabby building, hoping to find the one person who could make her boss’s day.

What was up with Holly? Jake wondered about her lighthearted demeanor this morning, even as he worked on Barclay’s computer for an hour and then went to the dreaded staff meeting. It was as awful as usual, replete with boring turkey sandwiches and vapid little tree-shaped sugar cookies to remind him of the season he was spending behind his office door.

There wasn’t much information in the presentation that he could use right now for anything, but mandatory meetings were just that, so he suffered through as long as he had to, and fled the moment he could for his office.

He was back at Barclay’s now reassembled computer, but it still was not yielding all of its secrets. He’d tried every random compiler he knew of, and still wasn’t having any luck with the series of passwords that would let him open the files he was sure had the information that would link Barclay with Baltasar Escalante.

While he was still muttering over the last fruitless series of code breakers, Jake heard Holly come into the outer office. She was so incredibly cheerful today, which was a surprise. Yesterday she’d been almost beside herself because the car had gotten scratched while she was driving it. Now today she was humming Christmas carols. It just wasn’t like her.

She knocked on his half-open door, and it was all Jake could do not to growl at her. He felt like Ebenezer Scrooge holed up in there, crabbing at Bob Cratchit. Except Scrooge’s clerk had never been as good-looking as the young woman who burst through his door, nearly giggling about something. This was the strangest happening of the week. The sedate, staid Holly Vance, almost giggling? Maybe the stress of the long hours was getting to her.

“Okay, what’s up? I have never seen you in this kind of mood before,” Jake said, getting up out of his chair.

“Blame it all on Miriam Atwater!”

“Who’s she? And what did she do to put you in this frame of mind?”

“Miriam is an administrative assistant at El Rey Construction. But that’s not the really good part. Do you know what she did for a living before November 15?”

“Not a clue. But you’re going to tell me, I’m sure.”

“She was Alistair Barclay’s personal secretary.”

“I don’t think so. Wasn’t his assistant that drippy little character Rose already deposed…what was his name…Brimble or something?”

“Trimble. Carlton Trimble. And he was Barclay’s personal assistant. Merely an honorary position, to hear Miriam tell it, sort of like a valet, only work related. Trimble’s some kind of relation to Barclay, third cousin once removed or something on his mother’s side. Our Ms. Atwater was the one who did the day-to-day stuff, like I do for you.”

Suddenly Jake was beginning to understand Holly’s bubbly mood. It was almost catching, in fact. “If she’s anywhere near as efficient and helpful as you are, she knows everything there is to know about Barclay.”

“I should blush. Thanks for the compliment.”

How had he never noticed before the way Holly’s deep-brown eyes shone when she was happy? Was this the first time he’d ever seen her this excited about something? If so, he really felt like Scrooge.

“But yeah, she knows a lot. And given the lousy situation she found herself in when Barclay decided to hide her away at El Rey, she was more than happy to have lunch with me and discuss all sorts of things.”

“I hope you took her somewhere nice, and put it on my tab.” Jake was also thinking he’d need to call Rose this afternoon and tell her of another potential witness to depose in Barclay’s case.

“We had the quietest table possible at the Stagecoach. And we even used her car, which I’ll have you know came back to El Rey unscathed.” She seemed proud of the fact, and Jake almost laughed.

He sat down at the desk again and rebooted Barclay’s computer. It only took a moment for him to get the commands through to find the phantom files that wouldn’t open. “Okay, so what do you think are the passwords to these babies?” The cursor blinked at him teasingly.

“Let me go get my notebook.” Holly dashed back to her office, and came back with a small memo book. “Okay, let’s look at the list. Miriam and I had a great lunch. I know more about Barclay than I ever wanted to know, including where he went to have that horrible hair job taken care of weekly. Ick.” She actually shuddered. Jake could understand her being repelled by the conversations that must have gone on. She flipped through the notebook and sat down in the chair beside his desk.

“Can you find the creation date on the file you need to open?”

“That much I can do, for what little good it does me. So far I haven’t found anything related to the date that suggested a password. Let’s see…the first one was August 27.”

Holly looked in her notebook. “August. Okay, try Trixie for a password.”

Trixie? Feeling like an idiot, Jake typed in the name. Wonder of wonders, the file opened. He stifled a whoop. “Oh, this is great. Let’s try another one. September 15.”

“Bubbles.”

This was too good to be true, but it worked. “Unreal. We’re on a roll, here. October 10.”

“Tiffani. With an i on the end, not a y.”

“November 9.” One last one and they had the whole series. Of course, this was all still coded somehow, but at least it was open for him to start decoding.

“Hmm. That one’s a little fuzzy. Try Suzette. If that doesn’t work, go for…” She looked at the page hard, and then closed her eyes. “Oh, boy. Just try Suzette first and we’ll cross our fingers. The other one’s too embarrassing to say out loud.”

“You’re lucky.” Suzette worked, opening the last file.

“All right, explain this. How on earth did you find these passwords?”

Holly grinned again. “Like I said, I took Miriam to lunch. We talked a lot about her former boss and all his bad habits, including the fact that he was all over town at every social event possible, and always with a different…uh…flavor of the month, so to speak.” Her cheeks took on a shade of rose Jake didn’t think possible. First giggling and now blushing? He was seeing more depth to Holly in this one conversation than he’d found out in two years.

“So these are all the names of his…companions of the moment?”

Holly nodded. “For all his canny behavior in some areas, Barclay didn’t strike me as too bright in others. And you’ve said before that somebody more than likely set up his computer system for him, including the encryption. That he wasn’t all that computer savvy. So I figured he’d want passwords that were easy to remember for him, but wouldn’t make much sense to anybody else unless they knew him well.”

Jake shook his head. “What a loser. Not only did he use these girls just to be seen with them out in public, but he reduced them to a list of possibilities for passwords.”

Holly shrugged. “You knew he wasn’t a nice man, Jake. And it’s not likely that he saw these young women as people. From what Miriam said, he doesn’t see much of anybody as people, just means to an end. That was what made me think of getting the list of names from her, with her trying to remember which ones came when. Maybe if her boss had been more considerate of them, and of her, Miriam wouldn’t have this information to pass on to us.”

Now this was the Holly he knew, more thoughtful and quiet. Still, Jake was so excited to have a solution after the hours of work he’d put in that he was almost beside himself. “Well, remind me to appreciate you and be considerate of you, plenty. Holly, you’re a genius.”

They both stood at once, and the pat on the shoulder he reached out with in congratulation became something else. Jake wasn’t sure how their bodies got that close to each other that quickly. All of a sudden the simple pat on the shoulder he’d intended became more of a collision, with Holly stumbling a half step toward him, eyes wide. His reflexes were good, and he grabbed Holly to keep them both from crashing to the floor. That’s all it was, a movement to steady them both.

But somehow it turned into something else as their bodies collided and Holly’s flushed face got closer and closer to his own, his arms around her in his split-second reaction to their mishap. His arms closed around her instinctively at first, then even more strongly as the warm, supple feel of her registered in his brain.

Her surprised, parted lips were there, and the jolt when they met his nearly knocked Jake off his feet in a way the accidental impact hadn’t. It was the briefest of kisses, surely nothing like those he shared with any of the half-dozen casual dates he’d had in the past months. But this was Holly, not some casual date. This was like nothing he’d experienced before and it stunned him.

“Wow. Sorry. I mean…Holly, you’re still a genius.” He let go of her in a hurry, but they still stood very close together next to his desk. He was so aware of her, from the texture of her soft sweater to the floral scent of her shampoo.

“Thank you. For the compliment.” She seemed even more stunned than he did. “Guess the other was…”

“The heat of the moment. Won’t happen again.”

“No, it won’t.” Her answering smile was brief, and somewhat saddened. It reminded him all too much of the Holly he saw every day, and made him wonder what had built the wall around her that she kept so staunchly in place.

“Thank you again for this information, Holly. I can’t say enough to tell you how important it is to the case.” He looked back at his computer screen, anxious to save all the information he now had access to.

“You’re welcome, Jake. And now I’ll let you get back to work.” She wasn’t humming Christmas carols any more, Jake noticed. But it was the last thing he noticed that afternoon about Holly, as the new information she’d handed him enticed him back to his quest for Alistair Barclay’s hide.

Holly sat at her desk, trembling. What on earth had just happened? Had she really kissed Jake? Surely not. At the very least, she’d certainly let him kiss her. It just didn’t make sense. Her relationship with Jake Montgomery was strictly business. There was no room in it for kisses or anything else of that nature.

Still shivering, she tried to deal with all her confused, tumultuous thoughts. This was the first time in nearly five years that anyone had kissed her. At least anyone male, whom she might have cared about in a romantic sort of way. She hadn’t had a date, or a kiss, since the last trial she’d been this involved with had finished up. That one had been much more traumatic and closer to home.

Will it ever be over, truly over and behind me? she wondered, tears in her eyes. She breathed a silent prayer that Jake would stay involved in his work for the time it took to compose herself and get back to work herself. Looking around the office, she tried to find something that would draw her into the task at hand without making her think of the kiss she had shared with Jake.

Miriam Atwater’s address and phone number were there directly under her purse, written on a slip of paper that stuck out from under a corner of the leather. Holly pulled out the slip and got out the note cards she kept in her desk for special occasions. Willing her hands not to tremble, she grabbed a pen and began a note to the older woman. “Dear Ms. Atwater,” Holly wrote. “Thank you again for our delightful conversation at lunch. I cannot begin to tell you how much Mr. Montgomery appreciated your help.” By the time the note was finished, her hands had stopped shaking, and Holly was able to go on about more mundane tasks that kept her busy the rest of the afternoon and into the early evening while Jake stayed in his office.

She expected him to say something about their earlier encounter when she wished him good-night after dark, but he was so engrossed in Barclay’s computer that she had to call to him twice just to get his attention. And only the fact that he’d obviously changed shirts and wore a different pair of wool slacks the next morning told her that he’d gone home at all in between her “goodbye” that night and her “hello” the next morning.

“How early did you get in here? Or did you just stash a change of clothes somewhere that I didn’t know about?” she asked suspiciously.

“And good morning to you, too,” Jake piped up. “Can’t you tell that I’ve been home, had one of my mom’s home-cooked dinners and a great night’s sleep, and even a nice workout at the club this morning?” His blue eyes sparkled to match the grin he wore.

“Maybe, if I look real hard. Did you honestly go over to your mom’s for dinner?” Holly found that part hard to believe. She had been sure that Jake would have stayed late into the evening after finding the key to unlocking Barclay’s secrets.

“Well, no, I cheated on that part. When I was over there the last time she handed me a stack of frozen dinners she’d made up for me. She said that now that she doesn’t have to worry about how Adam’s eating anymore since he’s married, she only has me to fuss over. Colleen won’t let her.”

“Figures,” Holly said. “Still, I’m glad you got a hot meal. It makes me feel better about not stopping for bagels or anything this morning.” She looked over to the credenza in surprise. “And you even made coffee yourself?”

Jake huffed a bit. “I am capable, you know. I’ll admit to having to ask Sara about the filters, but otherwise it came out just fine. I figured that since you’ll have plenty to do today, I could get that much done by myself.”

“Thanks. Now to get to that pile of sticky notes you’ve already left for me and start getting everything going.” Holly even poured herself a cup of the coffee Jake had made, silently wondering if it would be drinkable. Surprisingly, he could make decent coffee. She thought about telling him that perhaps they should take turns all the time. There was no reason she had to spoil him.

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