by Jill Shalvis
Enter Hunt Investigation. Today was day five of surveillance and Lucas and Joe were up.
Lucas drove, feeling Joe’s eyes on him. “Something on your mind?”
“I feel out of the loop.”
“On what?” he asked, and watched Joe struggle to maintain the guy code that said they couldn’t discuss emotional issues for too long. That was the real five second rule. He sighed. “I feel out of the loop on you and Molly.”
“There’s no loop,” Lucas said and wished that it wasn’t true.
Joe took a deep breath. “You were right before,” he said quietly. “About me being overprotective of her. It’s a lifelong habit, one I don’t know how to break.”
“You need to learn before you lose her.” Like I did . . .
They fell silent after that, each lost in his own thoughts. Fifteen minutes later, they were in an upscale restaurant not far from the law firm’s offices, watching the illicit couple in question order and toast themselves with a very expensive champagne.
“He’s telling her he got her a little something special,” Lucas said behind his water glass.
“If it’s his dick, I hope it’s more spectacular than his hairpiece and beer belly stressing the buttons on his shirt,” Joe said.
“It’s probably jewelry.”
“Bet?”
“Yeah,” Lucas said. “Today’s lunch.”
“You’re on. But if you lose, I’m ordering the most expensive dessert on the menu.”
Lucas watched the woman give her lover a secret smile and cock her head toward the back hallway where the restrooms were. Then she got up from their table and sauntered down the hallway and out of sight.
Shit. It was going to be his dick.
Joe shook his head in disbelief as the man waited a minute and then followed her. “Going to need some audio for evidence,” he said. “Your area of expertise.”
“Since when?”
“Since I want dessert,” Joe said, raising a hand to their waitress.
“What about backing me up?” Lucas asked.
Joe tapped the comm he had in his ear. “I’ve got your six, man. Tiramisu, please,” he said to the waitress.
Lucas shook his head and moved down the hallway. The men’s room was empty, even the stalls. He waited a minute outside the women’s room, not wanting to surprise any patrons, but when no one came out, he slipped inside.
One of the stalls was closed. He could see a pair of men’s dress shoes facing out, trousers pooled around the guy’s ankles. It was that along with the rhythmic pounding against the door, accompanied by a male voice that was moaning and panting out, “Bill’s doing a great job, a really great job! Watch Bill do it, tell Bill he’s doing great!”
“Wow,” Joe said in Lucas’s ear. “Sounds like he’s giving himself his own evaluation. Wonder if he’s going to get a raise.”
There weren’t many days where Lucas missed working for the DEA, but this was definitely one of them. Several hours later, they’d delivered the needed evidence to the HR director, closed up the case, and were back at the office.
Molly had locked up and was gone.
Shit, Lucas thought. She was working the Christmas Village tonight. Not bothering to change, he left again, calling her on her cell as he strode across the courtyard. “Come on,” he muttered, listening to her phone ring in his ear. “Pick up.”
She didn’t. Shaking his head, he stopped and texted her:
Where are you?
He could see that she was responding to the text, so he stopped walking to wait. She took her sweet ass time, too. It was three full minutes later when he saw that she’d stopped texting.
And yet nothing came through. Shaking his head, he tried her again.
Lucas: Tell me you’re not heading to the Christmas Village alone.
Molly: Going through a tunnel, bad connection.
“Dammit,” he muttered.
“Problem?”
Lucas turned and found Old Man Eddie sitting on a bench in front of the fountain, tossing a coin up and down in his hand. “Women are insane.”
“Son,” Eddie said on a laugh. “Tell me something I don’t know.” He tossed the coin to Lucas, who caught it automatically, reflexively.
“What’s this for?” Lucas asked.
“To make a wish.”
He laughed and shook his head. “You’ve been eating your homemade brownies again if you think I’m going to bet on this fountain. I know what it does. Look what it did to your own grandson Spence.”
“Hey, I haven’t made any brownies in a while now,” Eddie said. “Archer went directly to my . . . er, um . . . supplier and told him if he delivered to me again, Archer would relocate him. Permanently. So I’m annoyingly sober, which means you can take it to the bank when I tell you that what this fountain did for Spence was bring him Colbie and give him a life he’d never dared dreamed of.”
“You’re going to feed me a line like that and seriously expect me to believe you’re sober?”
Eddie smiled. “You’re scared. I get it. I’d be scared too. Wishing for love on this fountain has been wiping out the single community here one unsuspecting lonely soul at a time. Might as well stop fighting it and toss in the coin and wish.”
“Not going to happen,” Lucas said, knowing that Molly wasn’t going to fall in love with him. She wasn’t going to let herself.
“If you’re so sure it’s dumb,” Old Man Eddie said, “then why not just give it a try?”
Lucas rolled his eyes, a gesture he was aware he’d picked up from Molly. Which made it all the more ironic when he held his closed fist above the water and closed his eyes.
And wished . . .
He let the coin fall from his hand into the water, where it hit with a very small splash. He stared at it as it sank to the bottom and wished . . . wished he believed in the fountain.
Eddie just smiled. “It works in mysterious ways, you know. Going to be exciting to see what happens.”
“Yeah.” Not willing to believe, Lucas went through the pub intending to grab an order of something to satisfy his gnawing belly before hunting down Molly, but he found her at the bar paying for an order to go.
Some of her friends were there eating and talking, and when he moved closer, he heard Sadie say, “They really should put prizes in our tampon boxes, like ‘hey, your period sucks, but here’s a fifty percent off ice cream coupon, you cranky bitch.’”
The girls all laughed and Molly spotted him. She grabbed her bag of food and headed over.
“Going through a tunnel, huh?” he asked.
She shrugged.
He grabbed her free hand when she went to walk away. “Talk to me, Molly.”
“Okay,” she said. “I’d never go to the village alone. I’m not completely stupid, you know.” She paused. “But I do have a shift there tonight that I promised to take, so if you’re ready, I’m driving.”
“Not necessary. I’m parked closer.”
She craned her neck, eyes narrowed at him. “Let me guess. Women can drive in your bed but not on the job?”
He found a smile in the shitty day after all. “You’ve driven me before. When we first went to your dad’s house.”
“We weren’t on the job that night.”
“Okay, first, let me just say that you’re welcome to drive in my bed any night of the week,” he said. “But when we’re on the job and you’re the one going undercover, that makes me the getaway man. Makes more sense for me to be behind the wheel.”
“Fine,” she said.
“To which? In bed or on the road?”
“Keep dreaming,” she said.
Yeah, he had no doubt he’d have to make due with just that, dreams. He eyed the bag of food in her hands. “Bringing your dad dinner first?”
“Yes. But not you.”
“Liar,” he said on another smile. “You won’t be able to help yourself. You’re a caretaker.”
She slid him a look. “Guess it takes one to k
now one.” She paused and took in his surprise. “Come on,” she said. “You already know this about yourself. You take care of your family. You take care of the guys at work. You’re every bit as much of a caretaker-slash-worrywart as I am.”
He thought this over and then shook his head. Damn, she just might be right. “If you tell anyone, I’ll deny it.”
“Don’t worry,” she said dryly. “Your secret’s safe with me.”
A few minutes later, Lucas pulled up to her dad’s duplex. He eyed the building. “Joe home?”
“No, he’s staying with Kylie tonight. They’re marathoning some show they’ve been saving up. It’s their only night off together this week.”
Lucas snorted.
“What,” she said. “Did he lie to me? That son of a bitch. What are they doing instead?”
“If I had to guess? They’re not watching TV, they’re having wild gorilla sex.”
She thought about that and sighed, sounding a little wistful.
Lucas took the bag of food from her hands and set it on the car. Then against his better judgment, he nudged her up against it. “Say the word and you could have the same thing for dinner.”
“I thought you were . . . done,” she said.
He met her gaze. “I thought so too, but apparently my brain and body aren’t in accord.”
The sound of someone ratcheting up a shotgun stopped him in his tracks. They both turned to the porch and, yep, there he was, Alan Malone sitting in his wheelchair on the porch. “How sure are you that thing isn’t ever loaded?” Lucas asked Molly.
“One hundred percent. But that isn’t a comfort if he decides you’re a threat because the military trained him how to kill a person with his bare hands without breaking a sweat.”
“Right. Something to remember,” Lucas murmured and lifted his hands off the man’s daughter and sent what he hoped was a reassuring smile as they walked up the path to the duplex.
“Hey, Dad,” Molly said in greeting.
“Baby,” he said, eyes never leaving Lucas.
“You remember Lucas?”
“Uh-huh.” Her dad casually lifted his gun and checked the site.
“Dad, stop that. He knows there aren’t any bullets in this house. You can’t intimidate him. And we aren’t staying. I’m going to put the food inside for you. Behave.”
Her dad didn’t answer, but she went inside anyway.
“So,” Alan said to Lucas.
“So.” Lucas mentally cracked his knuckles. It’d been a damn long time since he’d tried to impress a dad of any kind. “Nice evening, huh?”
“You going to do right by my daughter?”
Oh boy. He let out a breath and eyed the gun. “It’s not like that between us, sir.”
“Soldier, it’s always like that.”
“I like your daughter,” Lucas said carefully.
“Yes, I believe I heard just how much you like her when you offered her . . . what was it? . . . gorilla sex?”
Lucas grimaced. “It’s not like that either.” At least not anymore.
“So what is it like?”
Lucas drew a deep breath, because he was still coming to terms with the answer to that question. “I care about her very much.”
“Everyone cares about Molly. The question is, will you protect her?”
Finally, something he had an answer for. “With my life.”
Chapter 20
#LobsterLove
After dropping the bag of food on her dad’s table, Molly stepped back outside onto the porch and caught Lucas’s answer.
I’d protect her with my life . . .
She stilled as a set of the warm fuzzies went through her, but then ruthlessly shrugged them off. They were done with that. “Let’s do this,” she said briskly, bending to brush a kiss over her dad’s jaw. “Love you, Dad.” And then she headed past Lucas, leaving him to catch up with her.
In twenty minutes they pulled into the Christmas Village.
“Close your eyes,” she said and pulled her elf costume from her bag. She shook it out. “And you just know something’s wrong with a costume when it fits into a small purse.”
Lucas let out what sounded suspiciously like a snort, but when she glanced over at him, he was blank-faced. “You’re still looking,” she said.
“I’ve seen it all already, remember?”
“Actually, no, you haven’t. We played assault with your friendly weapon in my dark living room. And then in your dark bedroom. You haven’t seen anything.”
He turned toward her in the driver seat, brows arched so high, they vanished into his hairline. “Assault with my friendly weapon?”
“Just close your damn eyes!”
Shaking his head, a small smile curving his mouth, he closed them. Suspicious, she stared at him for a long beat, and when he cracked one eye open and looked over, she pointed at him and said, “Aha!”
“You weren’t moving, I was just checking to make sure you weren’t sneaking off without me.”
“Maybe I was just being all stealthy and silent.”
He gave a soft, amused laugh. “Molly, you’re a lot of things, most of them really great, but you’ve never been stealthy or silent in all the time I’ve known you. Not even once.”
She was all kinds of insulted, but her mouth disconnected from her brain. “I can think of two occasions where I was silent,” she said.
Their gazes met and his heated as his mouth curved with a soft, affectionate smile. “Sorry, but you were most definitely not silent on either of those two occasions.”
She felt her face flame. “I was too!”
“I’ll give you that you didn’t exactly scream my name, but you did whimper it, all breathy and short of air. And you begged a little too, very sweetly I might add.” He paused and his smile widened. “That was my favorite part.”
Her entire body quivered. Stupid body. “Just . . . close your eyes!”
He did as she asked.
“No cheating,” she warned.
“I never cheat,” he said and she knew that was most certainly true.
He wasn’t a man who needed to cheat, at anything. He was honest to the core, almost brutally so. Still, she kept an eye on him as she quickly changed from Business Woman to Bingo Elf. “Okay,” she said when she was done imitating a contortionist to get into the costume. “I’ll be at bingo. I get a break in two hours. According to Mrs. Berkowitz and Mrs. White, that’s the same time that Louise goes on break. She’s the one who used to be an elf, but got a promotion and works in the office now. On her break, she walks to the woods and smokes two cigarettes, taking every second of her allotted twenty minutes. That’s when I’m going to go back into the office and snoop around while their laptops are in there, hopefully unguarded.”
“I’ll be with you.”
She nodded. This was not a surprise. What was a surprise was how much she knew she could count on him and how good that felt.
Dammit.
Lucas got out of the car and watched as Molly entered through the front gates, being waved through thanks to the costume.
He paid the entrance fee for himself and made sure Molly got into the bingo hall safely before he went wandering. He made his way through the grounds including all the booths, noting who was working where. The booths were run almost entirely by female elves, although there were a handful of male elves as well. Their costumes were shorts instead of a dress, and they were just as unfortunately snug in all the very wrong places.
There was a new addition since they’d last been here. A Christmas tree lot, worked by two teenage kids. All transactions seemed to be cash. In between the booths and the tree lot was another new area—a Santa photo booth. It sat empty. The sign said Santa would show at eight p.m.
The same time as Molly’s break.
Lucas circled around to the office trailer and spent some time staking it out. He could see through the two lit windows that the only people inside were Louise and Santa. At five to eight, Santa sto
od up and pulled on a red coat and wig and exited the trailer, stomping down the stairs and past Lucas in the bushes.
At two minutes to eight, he heard Molly come up from behind him to stand at his side.
“Caught you,” she whispered.
“I heard you coming.”
“Okay, Mr. Never Screws Anything Up.”
He slid her a look. “If that were true, you’d still be sleeping with me.”
“We’re not . . .” She broke off and shook her head. “Not doing this now.” She pulled her phone from her bra and looked at the time. “It’s time to go in.”
He handed her a blank flash drive. “Copy whatever you find onto this if you can.”
She slipped it into her bra.
“Interesting hiding place,” he said.
“Look at me.” She held out her arms. “You see anywhere else to hide anything?”
Nope. He saw nothing but warm, soft, perfect curves. “I’m giving you two minutes.”
“Seven,” she said. “Louise won’t be back for ten.”
“Make it five.”
“Fine,” she said so easily he knew he’d been had and she’d planned on five all along. “Wait here.”
“Like hell.” He took her hand and led her up the stairs, trying not to notice how incredibly long her legs seemed in that short dress and booties. Long enough to be wrapped around his waist while he—
“It’s open,” she whispered of the office door and slid inside, putting a hand on his chest when he went to follow. “It makes much more sense for you to wait outside. It’s far easier to explain me being in there than you, if it comes to that.”
He didn’t give a shit about explanations. He gave a shit about keeping her safe. “Understood,” he said, putting his hand over hers and giving a squeeze. “But only because this way I can watch your six and the door at the same time.” He then gave her a quick kiss that shocked him every bit as much as it shocked her.
