Protecting Holly
“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 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 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.”
“You’re right. I think there’s a carton of orange juice, something that used to be cheese, and an almost empty mustard jar in the whole refrigerator. And don’t even get me started on the pantry. If I had mice, they’d starve.” Jake’s grin was wry. “And you’re right about going home for a change, too.”
“I know I am. And this time I’m going to walk out with you to make sure you actually leave. You keep telling me you’re going home at night and then you don’t.” Holly knew she sounded stern, but she’d learned from the best. Her mom had taught high school English for more than a dozen years before she’d become the receptionist at the Sentinel. Nobody could do stern like a high school English teacher. Jake was just lucky he wasn’t chewing gum.
The next morning Holly took her time heading for the office for a change. It was what she’d “traded” Jake for by making him leave early the night before. “I’ll go home now, and have a decent dinner on the way there, if you don’t show up until at least nine tomorrow morning. Deal?” His blue eyes were sharp again after his little nap.
“Deal. I’ll even make it ten.” Holly hadn’t told him that she’d spend the time before she came in lining up his mother’s Christmas gift. If he thought she was actually doing something for herself, he’d be more tolerant of the late entry into the office. But if she spent all that time on herself, she’d feel worse, so this made more sense.
She knew from past experience that Jessica Mathers Vance would be at her desk fairly early most days, and she’d be the one to speak to about some kind of gift for the shelter to make in Liza Montgomery’s name. Although what Liza hadn’t already given the shelter, Holly couldn’t imagine. In the time that Holly had volunteered there, an anonymous benefactor had donated quite a bit over the years, and a few months ago the mayor’s wife had quietly revealed herself to be that benefactor.
Still, it was good of Jake to actually realize how close the shelter was to his mother’s heart, and to know that doing something for Galilee would make her happier than some more traditional Christmas present. Holly sighed. Her boss was thoughtful in many ways when he put his mind to it. The shame was that he didn’t put his mind to it very often. When he had time to spend outside the office, he spent it socializing with a variety of lovely young ladies like Zoe.
Of course, she reflected, Jake was free to spend his time any way he liked. She just wished he didn’t seem to like that empty party life so much. It wasn’t as if drinking had any draw for him that Holly could see. And the “big money” aspect of that kind of social life didn’t seem to interest him. What did pull Jake into that scene was the biggest mystery about the handsome, secretive man she worked with every day.
When Holly got to Jessica’s office she was surprised to see it empty. It looked like Jessica had been there and just stepped down the hall for something, so Holly stood there by the doorway and waited for a minute.
Jessica’s office was brighter than Holly remembered it. Looking around, she tried to decide what the difference was. There was a great photo of Sam, Jessica and her sweet daughter Amy on the desk. It must have been taken on their wedding day this last fall. All three were smiling broadly at whoever had taken the picture.
It wasn’t just a photo or two that made the room brighter, though. It seemed a warmer, happier place than it ever had before. Of course, Holly hadn’t been in here since Jessica had found her daughter after she’d disappeared, kidnapped by a baby-sitter. Nothing about Jessica’s life had been particularly bright when she was looking for her daughter. Now that Amy was back and Jessica had married Sam, her life was so different.
As Holly stood lost in thought, praising God for the changes in her friend’s life, Jessica hurried down the hall toward her. “Holly, good to see you. I hope you haven’t just been standing here in the hallway very long.” She motioned her into the office and they both sat down.
Holly waved away her concern. “Not long at all. Besides, I was enjoying looking at a desk where you can actually see the top of it.”
Jessica laughed. “Ouch. I don’t have to ask how things are going at work for you, then, do I?”
“Not exactly. Jake is working on stuff for Alistair Barclay’s trial, and it’s coming up soon. I guess that’s partially why I’m here.”
Jessica looked confused. “What does somebody as slimy as Barclay have to do with you being here?”
“Just his trial. It has us so busy, and Jake so completely swamped, that I came by to do two things. I need for you to take me off the volunteer schedule for a while until things get back to normal.”
“I can pass that word on to Susan, the shelter’s director. I hope this doesn’t mean you’ll miss the Christmas party.”
“Not if I can help it. I can’t make room for much on my schedule this month, but if I do anything, it will be the party here. It’s always such a good time.”
Holly had been volunteering at the shelter for most of the time she’d been back in Colorado Springs since leaving her job in Ohio. This was probably the fifth Christmas she’d been around the Galilee Women’s Shelter, and she didn’t have any intention of missing the best Christmas party in town. Mayor Montgomery might have a more elegant one, and Jake probably went to half a dozen most years that were flashier than this one, but nobody had one where more delighted kids squealed over their gifts.
“I really hope you can make it. This one is going to be such a special Christmas for me personally. Lots of firsts involved.” Jessica’s gray eyes shone with happiness.
“I guess so. I’ll just have to make it here for that,” Holly said. “And it ties in nicely with the other reason for my trip over here.”
“Oh? If you’re going off the volunteer schedule, it can’t be an offer of help for the party.”
“Not exactly. At least not from me. But Jake needs to get his mom a meaningful Christmas gift, and he thought that contributing money for something here would be the best thing to do. Once you mentioned the party, I thought maybe I’d ask if you needed any more funding for it.”
“Always. Even with all the wonderful people like Liza Montgomery who give time and money to this place, there’s always more that can be done.” Jessica’s normally smooth forehead wrinkled. “Especially since we were counting on one hundred thousand dollars from Mr. Barclay that turned out to be nonexistent. We could hardly take money from him now. But maybe if you guys put people like him away, and others who help bring drugs into town, we’d have fewer clients to have to provide for in the first place.”
“Wouldn’t that be great?” Holly tried to imagine a world in which no woman felt the need to go to a place like Galilee. It was hard for her to do. Once her life had been sheltered enough that she hadn’t known places like this existed. Now she’d seen enough of the outside world’s ugliness, even before working for the FBI, that she knew just what some people were capable of. Silently, she thanked God that most people weren’t capable of terrible evil.
“It would. And we can always pray for it to happen.” In a flash, Holly knew what was different about Jessica, and about this office. It wasn’t just a physical brightness in the change of lightbulbs, or pictures of smiling people that made things in this office look different. It was Jessica’s new attitude, radiating from her because of her walk with the Lord. It wasn’t just displayed in things hanging on the wall, although when Holly looked around, she noticed a wonderful poster with words from the Psalms on the wall in a location where both Jessica and visitors to her office could see it as a reminder of God’s goodness.
Holly could feel herself smiling, reminded again about how good God was in every situation. “We sure can. And if you want to, we can pray together right now for that, and a little guidance on how to spend the rest of this Christmas present money from Jake in a way that will make his mom happy, honor the Lord and do the best things for the shelter.”
Half an hour later Holly was on her way to the office, buoyed up by the prayer time and discussion she’d had with Jessica, and the knowledge that she’d gotten this errand done quickly and so well. She stopped at the coffee shop in the lobby, never doubting for a moment that Jake hadn’t made coffee upstairs. He drank plenty when it was made, but didn’t bother making a pot just for himself. So she ordered a latte for herself and their largest cup of dark roast for Jake, complete with the three ice cubes he always had them put in the cup to bring the brew to his perfect drinking temperature. Going up the elevator took less time than usual, at what seemed like midmorning for her. When she got to her office, there was only one light on and her computer screen was dark, giving the front office an eerie, almost cavelike look. From his slightly open doorway, she could hear Jake talking to himself, and small metallic noises.
She set her coffee down along with her purse and knocked on his door. “Hey, Jake. You mind company as long as I come bearing coffee?”
“Come on in, Holly, as long as you can stand the mess in here.”
She started to say something glib about never minding the condition of his office, but froze a step into the place and forced her mouth closed to keep her shock from showing. “Uh, Jake? I think Barclay’s computer exploded.” The tower housing of the machine was in pieces and there were bits of the insides of the computer strung out over almost every flat surface in the room.
Jake laughed and took the coffee from her. He took a long drink before he said anything, setting the cup down on a small island of clear space on his desk. “I know. It’s not the commonest way to find somebody’s passwords, but I’m down to desperate measures. See, you can find the BIOS password by taking apart hardware, and I’m figuring that this will lead me to the other passwords I need to open the files he thought he’d hidden. I found them, just can’t open them.”
“Okay.” The room still looked like the elephant’s graveyard of computer parts. Holly trusted her boss to do the right thing in most situations, but this was a new one on her. “There sure looks like there’s more than one computer in all this.”
“There is. Somewhere along the line someone apparently expected this kind of interference. So when I opened up the tower, there were dummy circuits as well as the real thing. I looked around this morning until I found somebody with a similar unit and borrowed it for a little while to compare the innards.”
“This means that somewhere in this building is an agent who has no idea that his computer, which he loaned you, is now totally in pieces.”
Jake’s grin was a delight. “Well, yeah, but it’s Bob. He doesn’t use his computer all that much anyway, and I’m nearly to the point of putting it back together. He’ll never know what it went through. In fact, it will probably run smoother once he gets it back.”
Holly just shook her head. “As long as mine’s in one piece. Now give me your lunch order. I’ve already decided I’m going to run over to the café and bring stuff back about one. From now on we’re eating healthy and keeping to as regular hours as possible.”