by Marci Bolden
Sam continued as if Holly hadn’t attempted to deflate her enthusiasm. “The pants he was wearing perfectly accentuated his tight little behind. I wanted to take a bite out of him. But”—she let the word linger as she turned to Holly—“the way he was looking at the boss lady, well, let’s just say I bet he wouldn’t mind if she were the one doing the biting.”
“What did we just discuss?” Holly chastised.
Sam exaggerated a frown before looking at Alexa. “Apparently I whisper too loudly. He heard me make a comment or two about how scrumptious he is.”
“Dipshit,” Alexa muttered.
Sam shrugged. “I can’t seem to help myself when there’s man candy around. I just wanna…” She made a show of smacking her straight, overly whitened teeth together, making a loud chomping sound, and then growled.
Alexa gasped and put her hand to her chest as if she’d never seen such a display.
Holly scoffed at her dramatic response. “Oh, please. You aren’t much better. You’re lucky the bartender at the pub hasn’t filed a restraining order against you yet.”
Whenever the team went to lunch at their favorite burger and beer spot, Alexa requested they be seated in the back right-hand corner of the building. Then she smiled and batted her eyes at the bartender all during lunch. And got free beer. Holly pretended to be irritated that Alexa would misuse her feminine wiles to get a free drink, but in all honesty, she was a bit jealous. She’d never learned how to be a carefree flirt like Alexa and Sam.
No. She was a blatant “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours” type. That might get her a one-night stand on occasion, but rarely did it get her free drinks just for walking into a place.
“I know when and where to make inappropriate comments, and a lobby that amplifies every single noise isn’t the place. Remember that,” Alexa said, pointing a finger in Sam’s face.
Holly sighed. “Sam, get back to that research I asked for. If there are more missing women out there who we can tie back to this suspect, we need to know.”
Sam gave a limp salute before leaving.
Holly leaned back. “She’s such a handful.”
“She’s getting better.”
“Is she? It’s a damn good thing Detective Tarek laughed off her comments.”
“I’ll talk to her again.”
Holly shook her head. Everyone at HEARTS looked to Holly for leadership, except Sam. Sam seemed to need a surrogate big sister more than a leader. Alexa did well in that role. She had a much more tender approach than Holly’s no-nonsense attitude. Holly wasn’t so great at tender. “I don’t think my expectations are too high. I just need some professionalism out of her.”
“Your expectations are reasonable. She’s just got some growing up to do.”
“I’m not trying to be a bitch, Lex. But we can’t afford our reputations to be tarnished because she’s lacking common sense.” Holly grabbed the mug Sam had brought to her.
Alexa was quiet for a moment. For too long. Clearly she was analyzing what Holly had said. Or how she’d said it. Or her facial expressions. Or blinking patterns. Or some other crazy shit Alexa had the ability to notice that no one else seemed to.
One of the benefits of having an agency filled with women was that they all looked out for each other. But that was the downfall as well. Holly was a loner. She looked out for her team, noticed the smallest of changes in them, and knew when something was off. Unfortunately, they all held those same qualities. They’d each been trained in some branch of military or law enforcement, so their instincts were sharp. Too damned sharp sometimes.
Holly didn’t get away with nearly as much internalizing as she used to.
Finally, Alexa used the soft tone she utilized to gain the confidence of witnesses and asked, “Are you okay?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“You think we haven’t noticed how much time you’re putting in lately? Because we have. And we’re all getting a little worried. It’s only been a week since we took on this case, and it’s already breaking you down.”
“A week in a missing person’s case is a very long time. You know that.”
Alexa’s older sister had been kidnapped twelve years ago. She knew better than most the reality of the ticking clock and what the passing time meant for the victim. “She was missing for almost a month before he brought her to us.”
Holly winced, hating the bitter truth Alexa was trying to serve her. “Are you trying to soften the blow of this being a recovery rather than a rescue?”
Alexa tilted her head, and the pencil holding her long, caramel-colored hair in a haphazard bun slipped free and bounced off the black vinyl captain chair beside her. She bent, disappearing behind Holly’s desk for a moment before standing again. She put the pencil between her red-painted lips and muttered around it. “The odds are not in her favor. You know that.” A moment later, she tucked the pencil back into the mass of hair. “You need to prepare yourself and the Fredricksons for the worst while hoping for the best.”
“I know. The detective was here because the woman he is looking for matches Julia’s description. She was abducted last week in the same manner.” Holly let her shoulders sag. “I didn’t say it to the detective, even though I’m sure he was thinking the same thing, but I think she’s a replacement for Julia.”
Alexa stopped messing with her hair. “You think he’s killed Julia and needed a live victim to take her place?”
Holly looked at the photo of the smiling woman staring up at her. She’d spent far too much time the last week entranced by the bright blue eyes captured in the image. “I can’t think of any other reason he’d take a woman who was basically identical to her. Can you?”
Putting her palms on Holly’s desk, Alexa stared straight at her. “If Julia is dead, that is not on you, Holly. You have done everything you can to find her.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“Yes, I do.” She exhaled heavily. “But I don’t think that will offer much comfort to her family.” Holly lifted her hand when Alexa took a breath. “Don’t start on me.”
“You’re too close to this.”
“I’m not.”
“You are. You should reassign this case. Let me take it.”
“Because a missing person isn’t too close to you?”
Alexa gestured to the photo Holly kept on the shelf behind her desk, but Holly didn’t turn around. She understood the point Alexa was trying to make.
“My missing sister looks nothing like Julia Fredrickson, Holly. Your mother, on the other hand… You think I haven’t seen the way you look at Julia’s photos? The photos of her and her daughter.”
“I’m fine.” Her proclamation sounded as false to her ears as she knew it to be. She had stared at those photos, part of her envying the time Julia and her daughter had spent together. Wishing she knew what growing up with a mother felt like.
“You’re connecting with a victim on a level that you have no business reaching, Hol,” Alexa pressed. “Julia Fredrickson is probably dead. She was probably dead before you got this case. The likelihood of any other outcome is slim in this case.”
Holly shifted as Alexa’s words poked at things she didn’t want touched. “I know that.”
“If you don’t find her alive, you’re going to carry that with you.”
“And you won’t?”
“Not like you will. Not like you’ve been carrying your mother’s death on your shoulders all your life.”
Holly ground her teeth together and glanced at the frequently traveled hallway outside her office. Lex was the only one privy to the details of Holly’s mother’s death. One night too many drinks and too much guilt had loosened her tongue, and she’d regretted it since. Leaning forward, she met Alexa’s determined gaze with her own. “And what of your lifelong guilt? Hmm? Will bringing Julia home—alive or dead—help put your sister’s ghost to rest?”
Alexa blinked as if she’d been slapped and then stood upright. �
�No. It won’t.”
“We all have things in our past that pushed us to be where we are now. We can’t hide from them forever.”
“I know.”
“So let me do this. Let me find Julia. And deal with whatever emotions that stirs up. I’m in too deep to hand this off. If, by some miracle, she is alive, she doesn’t have time for you to learn everything I know about her case just to save me a little hurt.”
Alexa nodded. “Okay. But if this starts getting to you, I’m here. I’m happy to help.”
“I know that. Thank you.”
Without another word, Alexa left. Exhaling, Holly turned her chair to look at the picture behind her. Alexa wasn’t wrong. Julia Fredrickson did look like her mother. And seeing the images of Julia and her daughter had stirred something deep within Holly. A kind of personal sadness she didn’t indulge often. She was eight when her mother died. They’d never had the kind of bond Julia had with her daughter. She’d never seen her mother age. She’d never been able to seek out the advice only a mother could give.
Holly fondled the pendant on her necklace for a few moments before tucking the little heart into her shirt and turning back to her desk. She didn’t have time to think of her loss. She had to do what she could to stop the Fredricksons from facing their own.
Jack slowed his stride as he entered the conference room later that afternoon. Holly was standing stone still, as she had been the day before. Lesson learned—he wouldn’t sneak up on her again. But he would certainly take a moment to appreciate what he hadn’t the first time he’d seen her. She didn’t quite reach his chin, but she had proven she was fit and agile. Her physical strength had been a stark contrast to the subtle vanilla scent that had filled his nostrils when she’d pinned him to the floor. She said she had trained in martial arts, but that kind of natural defense instinct had come from being in the line of fire for too long.
Sergeant Holly Austin had done two active-duty tours in the Army. He guessed that explained the haunted look in her eyes when she’d helped him off the floor. She’d undoubtedly seen some shit he’d only viewed through the censored lens of television media.
Skimming over her, as her admin had suggested she do to him, Jack noticed how her suit was fitted but loose enough to allow her to body slam a man without restricting her movements. The jacket she wore hid the gun he knew was on her hip but stopped short of hiding the delicious curve of her ass.
“You going to stand there all day?” she asked as he took in her long legs.
“I was debating the best way to approach you without being physically assaulted.”
She faced him, and that odd sensation he’d been feeling every time she crossed his mind hit him right in the gut. Her smile—her genuine smile—was beautiful. She was gorgeous without it, but seeing her blue eyes brighten with amusement made him want to slide his hand into her long hair and taste her lightly tinted lips.
He imagined her slender body would fit perfectly against his as he pulled her in to kiss that smile from her face. She wore makeup, but just enough to highlight her features. She didn’t hide behind a mask of blush and eyeshadow. He liked that. He liked that she was confident enough in her beauty that she didn’t feel the need to falsely enhance it.
She bowed her head slightly. “You may enter.”
He did, stopping at her side to look at the pictures she had been examining. She’d added copies of his photos of Penelope Nelson to the wall right below the images of Julia Fredrickson. The similarities between the two struck him again. Which reminded him once more how much Holly reminded him of both. He couldn’t stop himself from looking at her to again confirm the resemblance. A primal need to protect her took root deep in his stomach. She might deny the danger of a man who hired a PI who looked eerily similar to his missing wife, but Jack wasn’t going to.
Holly cleared her throat. “Any progress last night?”
He glanced in her direction but couldn’t look at her long. The only real progress he’d made was imagining her leaning over him again but without her knee planted in his back. The fantasy flashed through his mind—her light hair hanging down as she moved her lithe body over him. He forced his breath out and the image from his mind along with it. Focus, Tarek. “I dumped the description of the man on your video into the photo lineup database. From what little we can make out on the videos, I wasn’t able to nail down a photo. We need more information. I was thinking we should interview the families again. Maybe you’ll catch something I missed and vice versa.”
She nodded. “Let me call Fredrickson. He’s not enthusiastic about working with the police these days, but maybe I can convince him this could help.” She pulled her cell phone from her pocket but stared at it for a moment before looking up at Jack. “We danced around something yesterday that I think we need to face.”
Jack’s breath hitched. He had already figured out Holly didn’t like to pull punches, but was she really going to call out the fact that there was definitely a spark between them?
“If this is the same suspect—if the same guy took Nelson who took Fredrickson—the likelihood is that he was replacing her. Julia is probably dead. I have to let her husband know that, but until we find evidence otherwise, we are treating this like a rescue mission. We’re going to reassure him of that. That we’re trying to save her, not just find her remains. Got it?”
He nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Ma’am?” She smirked and focused on her phone. After tapping the touchscreen a few times, she turned her back to Jack and put the phone to her ear. “Mr. Fredrickson, it’s Holly Austin.” She listened for a moment. “No, but I would like to stop by with a detective. He’s working a similar case and may have some insight.”
She ran her hand over her hair, and Jack had to clench his hand to stop himself from doing the same. When she pulled her hand free from the golden strands, she left them a bit of a mess. He couldn’t quite determine if he wanted to soothe the strands back into place or hold her hair in his fist as he pulled her to him. Either way, he was using all his restraint not to touch her.
“I know you’ve lost faith in the police,” Holly said, “but Detective Tarek is working on this case from a different angle. He’d just like to hear your side of the story. I don’t want to put you through this again, but working with him really could be very helpful.”
She dropped her hand to her hip and nodded as if the man on the other end could see her. “Thank you. We’ll see you in a few minutes.” Ending the call, she turned to Jack.
The surprise on her face and slight quirk of her brow made him take a step back. He hadn’t even realized he’d moved closer—so close he was unintentionally violating her personal space.
“Uh.” She licked her lip and broke from his gaze. “He’s waiting for us. I’ll drive.”
He fought the urge to grin. Of course she’d drive. She was the most alpha female he’d ever met, and he doubted she ever fell back for anyone—especially a man. He wanted to disagree just to see how she’d react but instead gestured for her to lead the way. She grabbed the file off the table and headed to her office, where she opened a desk drawer and snagged a pair of keys. As she did, he took a quick glance around her office. Clean, neat, and completely impersonal. She had two photos behind her desk. One was a group of women he assumed to be her co-workers, since they were standing in front of the sign in the lobby. The other was older and appeared faded. As he moved closer to take a better look, she rounded her desk and nearly pushed him out of her space and back into the hallway.
As they entered the lobby, the women there—Sam, the naturally tan blonde who had unnecessarily sown the seeds of his attraction for Holly, and a brunette who skimmed over him with obvious distrust—stopped their conversation.
“Detective Tarek and I are going to interview our victims’ families to see if we missed something.”
The woman blatantly looked him over as if memorizing his appearance. “You wearing your tracker?”
“She never does,
” Sam sang like a child telling on her older sibling.
Holly looked from one to the other. “I have my phone. You can trace that if you need.”
The woman glanced at Jack. “Everybody knows to toss the phone first. If it were that easy to track a missing person, wouldn’t Julia Fredrickson be home already?”
“I’m going to be with a police detective, Rene. I’m confident between the two of us, we can handle anything that comes our way.”
“Leave addresses of where you’ll be.”
Holly grabbed a pen and piece of paper off Sam’s desk. While she jotted down addresses, the woman continued assessing Jack.
Sam smiled when he cleared his throat. “Detective, since Holly doesn’t have a lick of manners, this is Rene Schwartz. She’s one of our investigators.”
Jack held his hand out, and Rene stared at it for a moment before accepting his greeting.
“Nice to meet you, Detective,” she said with an accent that held subtle hints of Brooklyn.
Jack was sensitive to where people came from. He knew better than most those roots couldn’t be altered. Growing up a Middle Eastern Muslim in a midsized predominately white Midwest city had taught him that.
“Likewise, Ms. Schwartz.”
She pressed her lips together as if she didn’t believe him before looking at Holly. “You want backup?”
Holly shook her head. “I trust the detective.”
Sam gasped dramatically. “Holly trusts someone? Has hell frozen over? Are pigs flying? Is it the twelfth of never?”
Holly did that brow lift she seemed to have perfected. The silent warning was enough to make Sam snap her mouth shut.
Her teasing smile disappeared as she muttered, “Sorry, Hol.”
Jack cleared this throat again, this time as a reminder to the women that he was still standing there, but they all seemed content to ignore him.
Holly slid the paper to Rene as she asked Sam, “Find any additional cases?”
“No. Should I expand my search?”
Holly didn’t bother to check with Jack. “No. But keep checking and let me know if anything pops up. Joshua is monitoring the morgue for me just in case someone fitting Julia’s description finds her way to him.”
