Protecting Holly. Lynn Bulock

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СКАЧАТЬ 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 door.

      “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 СКАЧАТЬ