by Lynn Bulock
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 do
or.
“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.”
