Protecting Holly. Lynn Bulock

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СКАЧАТЬ 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 СКАЧАТЬ