Christmas Witness Protection (Protected Identities Book 1)

by Maggie K. Black

Noah’s hand clasped on his friend’s shoulder. “But the building’s on fire, which means that either the Imposters are here and set the fire, or they did it remotely and are on their way.”

  “Yup!” Liam said. “Divide and conquer. I’ll buy you some time to get away. Then I’ll get to Ottawa, meet up with Mack and Jess, and we’ll strategize from there.”

  And Seth? And what about Seth? Would his body turn up in the rubble? Would his face appear in the next Imposters video about the auction?

  Anguish filled Noah’s heart. They’d come so close to a lead. Now they had nothing, and his friend was gone.

  The sirens grew louder still. He could see the flashing lights of fire trucks on the horizon.

  “Go!” Liam said. “I’ve got this. You take care of Holly!”

  “Okay.” Noah glanced at Holly’s face.

  She nodded, then started running around to the passenger side of Liam’s vehicle. “Find out what happened to Seth!” she called.

  “I will!” Liam shouted. “Stay safe!”

  “You, too!” Noah bolted for the vehicle and leaped inside. Fire trucks were pulling down the narrow road now, blocking their exit. He glanced from the flashing lights to Holly, buckled his seat belt and started the engine. “Hold on. This might get rough.”

  “Isn’t it always?” she said.

  Yeah, pretty much. He gunned the vehicle toward the trucks, swerving in between them like a kid trying to win at bumper cars. Horns honked. Lights flashed. Sirens blared. He set his jaw and drove, ignoring the signals to slow down and weaving through the oncoming vehicles. Suddenly a dirt trail, narrow and snow-covered, appeared to his right. He swerved hard and aimed for it, flinging the SUV off the road and down the track. A field stretched in front of him. The SUV shook as they bounced across it, finally coming out onto a rural road. He glanced back. Lights flashed in the distance.

  “I counted eight fire trucks, two ambulances and three cop cars,” Holly said. “My guess is the Imposters called in the fire before they set the building alight. I expect they’re now going to pop out from somewhere dressed as firefighters, paramedics or police, and mingle in the crowd.”

  Yeah, he suspected that, too. He prayed for Liam’s safety and that Seth was still alive. Then he felt Holly reach over and squeeze his hand. He glanced her way, and saw her eyes were closed and a silent prayer seemed to be on her lips, before she opened them again and let go.

  The road spread out before them, empty and straight. He slowed the engine.

  “Sorry for driving like that,” Noah said. “That’s pretty much the exact opposite of how I promised Anne I’d drive.”

  “I won’t tell her if you don’t,” Holly said.

  “How’s your head?” he asked.

  She frowned. “Not great. But not as bad as it was three days ago.”

  He’d take it.

  “You definitely break a lot of traffic laws for someone who’s such a stickler for keeping the rules,” she said.

  He chuckled. “Hey, if you were paying attention you’d have noticed I signaled every lane change.”

  “Let me guess,” she said. “You’ve never been in an accident.”

  “I’ll have you know I got into my very first accident the day I bought my first vehicle.”

  “Really? I don’t believe it.”

  “It’s true,” he said. “When I was seventeen years old, I bought a truck. It was four-wheel drive, a total beast and secondhand. I started working landscaping jobs when I was fourteen and saved up for years to buy it. My dad and mom gave me this whole lecture about safe driving, and I promised them I’d obey every traffic law.”

  “And?” she asked.

  “And traffic laws don’t apply off-road.” He grinned. “I took it up a hill near my house, drove it through a grove of trees, scratched off the paint, tore out the transmission and hit a rock so big it bent the front axle. I had to hire a tow truck to loop a chain around it and basically pull it down the hill.”

  Holly snorted. Yeah, he could see now it was funny.

  “I was without a vehicle for months after that. Sunk all my money and spare time into trying to fix it.”

  “And how did your dad and mom handle it?” she asked.

  He laughed. “They weren’t happy, but they didn’t punish me. They just made sure I faced the consequences of my actions.”

  He frowned. And hadn’t that been what his life had been built around? The idea that actions had consequences and people had to face them? That life offered no cheat codes or shortcuts, and that bad things happen when people didn’t own up to what they’d done.

  His phone buzzed. He dug it out and glanced at the screen. It was Liam. He’d made it out safely, hadn’t seen any sign of Seth and was now on his way to meet up with Mack and Jess. Regroup. That’s all they’d done since this had started. Run and regroup. Run again and regroup again.

  Noah glanced at the beautiful, strong woman sitting beside him, still with her crazy fluffy hood and superlong hair. Her makeup hadn’t even smudged. His nephew was talented.

  For a moment, Noah let himself just look at her, as all the things he couldn’t do, had failed at or wished he could accomplish cascaded through his mind. If he gave up and sold the gym, he’d be able to use his share of the money to buy a house, pay off his credit card debts and be a responsible enough man to be with a woman like Holly. He wouldn’t have a problem applying for higher level security clearance because Caleb wouldn’t be his business partner, so the feds wouldn’t be looking at the gym’s unpaid bills or his brother’s mistakes and gambling.

  He’d been carrying this burden for so long and still didn’t know the right thing to do. But somehow the idea of letting Caleb ruin himself felt unthinkable. Insurmountable problems hemmed Noah in on every side with no sign of a solution. But maybe he could start by admitting he had a problem, asking for advice and getting his head on straight before he went back to the farmhouse and talked it out with Anne.

  “Holly?”

  “Yeah?” She turned toward him, and again something leaped inside his chest. It was ridiculous, the impact she had on him. How was it even possible for someone to be so beautiful and not know it?

  He took a deep breath.

  “If it’s okay with you, I’d like to make a brief detour before we go back to the house,” Noah said. “I’ve been wrestling with a personal problem for a really long time and I could use some advice. It has nothing to do with the Imposters, the auction or any of that. It’s about Caleb, Anne and the kids. I think I need help, and I’m hoping that maybe you can be the one to help me.”

  * * *

  Bros Gym made a great first impression from the outside, Holly thought, with its huge parking lot and large glass windows on the main floor. Faded signs advertised squash courts, a basketball court, a pool, a dojo, a boxing ring, spin and aerobic classes, saunas, steam rooms, and on-site therapists and coaches of various kinds. Only the deserted parking lot and blank stares of the empty windows gave any sign it was closed.

  “Welcome to my problem,” Noah said. He pulled to a stop by the front door and cut the engine.

  “You own this place?” Holly asked.

  “Sixty percent of it,” Noah said. He slipped from the SUV, then waited as she climbed out and followed him. “Caleb owns the rest. He was really into training here when he was younger. Helped him work out his aggression and attachment issues. He said it was the only place he felt at home. He talked the owner into giving him a job here when he was twenty. Worked here, doing everything from maintenance, to coaching, to eventually becoming the assistant manager by the time he was twenty-eight. When the owner retired, he told Caleb he wanted him to have it.”

  Noah punched a code in the keypad by the door, then pushed the door open and they stepped inside. The building was freezing. The smell of dust, old equipment and neglect filled her lungs. A h
andful of canned energy drinks still sat in the fridge behind the front desk. A single pair of long-forgotten sneakers lay on the shoe rack. Instinctively, Holly reached for the light switch, but he caught her hand.

  “No power,” he said. “Electricity and water were all cut off months ago when Caleb stopped making payments. Come on, I’ll give you the tour.”

  “Lead the way.” She squeezed his fingers gently, and somehow, as they walked toward the cold and dim exercise machine graveyard, she found herself not letting go of his hand. He didn’t let go of hers, either.

  They walked hand in hand, like children sneaking around a building at night, past the front desk, down the rows of exercise machines and toward the main hallway. Empty holes and wires pockmarked the walls where she guessed flat screen televisions had once been. Gaps lay in the rows of equipment, as if someone had taken a single machine and left the rest behind.

  They walked down the corridor, past various training rooms, before coming out in a large central hall that contained the boxing area, punching bags and ring. He stopped, and they stood there for a long moment in silence.

  “It’s been years since I’ve been here,” he said. “More years than I liked to remember. Caleb was still running it then. We argued about some business decisions he had made, then he kicked me out. The next time I drove up this way, the gym doors were locked and Caleb was gone. He’d gotten a job as a long-haul truck driver. He ran from this like he runs from everything.”

  “So, how did you end up buying it?” she asked, her voice a whisper in the darkened space.

  “Caleb wanted to run this business more than anything,” Noah said. “My parents gave him a rather generous inheritance and my mom suggested, pretty much on her deathbed, that I go into business with him as a silent partner. So I did.”

  Wintry blue light filtered in from windows at the side of the room. Dark gray and purple shadows crossed the floor at their feet.

  “It’s a really beautiful place,” she said. “It’s incredible.”

  He glanced around the room, then looked down at his hand still holding hers.

  “It is,” he said. “It could’ve been. You haven’t even seen the second floor yet. But it was always Caleb’s dream, not mine. All I really ever wanted was for Caleb to succeed. But he flaked on this, just like he flaked on everything else. And now...”

  His voice trailed off.

  “Anne wants you to sell it,” she supplied.

  To her surprise, something flashed in his eyes. Something bright, sharp and strong.

  “Anne has found a buyer,” he said. “Caleb is sick of this place and wants it gone. He hasn’t paid the mortgage in months, so I’ve been paying it, along with catching up on the back utility and other bills he left.”

  “This is why you didn’t go for that promotion?” She stepped back. “Because you don’t want the scrutiny coming down on this investment? This is the financial liability you’ve got hanging around your neck...?”

  “Partly,” he admitted. “I know the size of the mortgage in relation to my income looks bad, especially with the past lack of payments and the fact that it’s clearly not turning a profit. The bigger factor is that since Caleb and I are coinvestors in this place, they’re going to take a big, hard look at him, too. And that’s not a pretty picture. He doesn’t want or need that scrutiny. While I don’t think his record of personal mistakes and financial failings is necessarily going to stop me from getting my security clearance, they’re still going to question if he has the potential to get me into financial jeopardy or compromise me legally, and I don’t want that for him.”

  He dropped her hand, took a step back and swung his arms wide.

  “But if you think I’ve lost money in this place, you’re wrong,” he said. “That’s part of what makes the situation so nuts. This property has increased in value. The buyer Anne found will make us a very generous offer. They want to put a whole regional housing and recreational complex in here.”

  She gazed at him, searching his face. Then what was the problem? He’d invested in a business he hadn’t wanted to be part of. His foster brother apparently didn’t want anything to do with it anymore. The solution seemed so simple.

  He lifted his gaze to the ceiling and Holly realized whatever he was going through was way deeper than ridding himself of an investment property.

  “Then why not sell it?” she asked. “I don’t get it.”

  “Do no harm.” He said the words so softly she barely heard him.

  “What?”

  “Lord, may I do no harm.” He looked over and the full strength of his gray eyes fell upon her face. “It’s something my dad used to pray under his breath whenever he was struggling to deal with whatever challenges or pain the children they fostered came through our door with. Whatever tantrum they were throwing or invisible battle they were fighting right there, in my space, in my way, in the middle of our living room or kitchen, my dad would always pray for the same things. That we would do no harm. That we would show love, extend grace and offer mercy. Again and again, over and over, day after day, after day. Those were the words he lived by. That was the kind of man he raised me to be. He’d say we couldn’t control, change or even know the pain people had faced before they came into our lives. But we could do our very best to love them.

  “I invested in this property because I loved him, he was my brother, because he was the happiest, strongest and healthiest he’d ever been when he was training and exercising. And whenever he stopped exercising, it was like he deteriorated, fell apart. Without a purpose he didn’t have the strength to be the man he wanted to be, for himself, for Anne or for the kids.”

  Noah stepped back again and once more raised his arms, like a maestro conducting an orchestra or a boxer celebrating a fight.

  “So, I set conditions on the loan.” His voice rose until it echoed in the room. “Things I wanted him to promise to do, if I was investing my life in him, even though I knew Caleb would hate me for it. But they were all things he’d said he wanted to do. He had to keep going to church. He had to keep getting counseling with Anne, to help them heal the fact that he’d left the marriage and come back, more than once. He had to keep taking business courses to finally get a diploma or a degree. He had to stop gambling once and for all.”

  Noah paused, stepped forward and took her hands again. “Not because I wanted to control his life,” he said, “but because I loved him. Not because I was trying to save him, but because I wanted to help him save himself. I don’t want anything to do with this place. I want to sell it. But if I do and he suddenly gets a windfall from the sale, I’m afraid he’ll gamble it, squander it and wreck his life. I’m afraid he’ll leave Anne and the kids with nothing. You don’t give a drunk a bottle of whiskey, or cocaine to an addict. And I don’t want to sell this place, watch Caleb destroy himself with his share of the money and know I could’ve done something to stop it. I feel so lost and that’s why I’m telling you. Because you’re smart, savvy and driven. Because I like you. I respect you. I trust you. And I’d really like to hear your opinion.”

  She pulled him closer. Her heart seemed to clench in her chest.

  “I don’t know what you should do,” she said. “Maybe if you wait six months, it’ll be right to sell. Or maybe you could wait for years, and the situation would only get worse, and you’d find yourself wishing you’d done something a whole lot sooner. I just know you can’t save him.”

  “I know.” He said the words so softly she could barely hear them, and yet with a strength that felt like they were coming from somewhere very deep inside him.

  “I get that you’re the kind of guy who wants to save everyone,” she said. “I really do. But you couldn’t stop Seth from going rogue, you couldn’t save everyone you grew up with and you can’t even save every single person in witness protection. You can do your very best. But you don’t always succeed.”


  “I know that, too,” he said. “But somehow it really helps to hear it coming from you.”

  He looked down at their linked hands, then stepped closer. So close that their clasped hands were the only thing between them.

  “I’m going to hug you now,” she said. “Okay?”

  That grin she was beginning to really love turned up the corners of his mouth. “Okay.”

  She dropped his hands, stepped toward his chest, wrapped her arms around him and pulled her to him. For a very long moment they just stood there in the empty gym that had somehow swallowed up his life. She closed her eyes and pressed her cheek against his chest and listened to his heartbeat. Then she pulled back, just enough that she could tilt her head up and look in his face.

  “I like, respect and trust you, too,” she said. “Just for the record.”

  He chuckled. “Thank you.”

  “You can’t save me, either,” she said. “I know you want to. And I really, really appreciate that you do. Not a lot of people have ever tried or wanted to save me. But you can’t just roll me up in Bubble Wrap or tissue paper and keep me safe, any more than you can reach into the back of my head and fix the concussion. The best you can do is...”

  Her words trailed off. What had she been about to say? The best he could do was what, exactly? She didn’t want to let herself think the words. Instead, she let her hands slide up around his neck. He pulled her closer until she could feel his heart beating into her core.

  “I can have your back,” he said, softly.

  “Yeah.” Her lips were so close to his now it would take so little to reach up and kiss him. “And you can talk to me about your problems. And you can hug me.”

  “Can I kiss you?” he asked.

  Should he? No, that was a foolish idea. They shouldn’t kiss. He knew it and she knew it. It was reckless and risky and only going to lead to a very painful goodbye.

  But could he kiss her? Yes. Absolutely. Very much, yes.

  She slid her fingers into his hair, tilted his face down toward hers and answered his question by letting her lips brush his. They kissed each other, gently and sweetly in the dying light. It felt right, being there in his arms, with his hands on her back and her fingers on his neck. He felt like strength, safety and home. He felt right in a way that nothing had ever felt right before.