Chapter 11
Nick let the picture frame door close, plunging the cubby into complete darkness.
“How are we supposed to see without turning on the light?” Mary’s whisper was like a disembodied voice.
“Hang on.” Nick switched the flashlight to the red setting, giving them enough light to navigate, but not enough to give away their location. “Let’s get out of here.”
“It’s handy having an agent around with nifty gadgets.” Mary picked her way across the cubby and into the tunnel. Free to move without knocking into anything, she sprinted to the end.
Nick followed, impressed by her light-footedness and ability to recognize when not to argue.
When they came to the closet at the other end, Mary waited for Nick. “You go first. I’ll shut the door.”
Nick edged around her, his body bumping against hers in more places than one, reminding him of the kiss in the cubby. How had this woman gotten beneath his skin in so short a time? He sucked in a breath, the scent of her hair making him hot in the cool tunnel.
Not good. Not good at all.
He was transient, a secret agent destined to leave when he found her father.
He had nothing to offer the beauty from North Pole, Alaska.
A woman who still believed in Santa and happy families.
Mary deserved a husband like her father, full of goodness and optimism.
Not someone like Nick who’d seen the worst in people, poisoned by life in the foster care system.
If he ever had kids, he’d want them to be happy, with a mother like Mary and a grandfather like—
“Are you going through or what?” Mary’s voice shook him out of his daydream. He’d stopped halfway through the narrow space, blocking her way out. With a mental shake, he slipped through and shone the red light for her to see by.
Mary hurried through the tight space, her breasts skimming the water tank.
Next thing Nick knew, he’d find himself jealous of a stupid hot water heater.
While Mary grabbed for her coat, Nick shrugged into his jacket and stood outside the closet, shining his light in until she was jacketed and ready.
“We might only have a few minutes to get out of here and back to the B and B before she sounds the alarm—assuming she sounds the alarm.” Nick closed the closet door.
“Right. Let’s go.” Mary led the way through the aisles to the back of the building. “You go on out. I’ll set the alarm.”
Nick stepped outside, the bitter wind an immediate reminder of his lack of appropriate clothing for a midnight stroll in subzero temps.
Mary closed the door between them so that she could reset the motion sensors and enter the code to activate the alarm.
With Mary out of his sights, tension peaked and Nick looked around for something with which to cover their tracks. A young spruce tree stood at the edge of the paved area, its branches laden with snow. Nick broke off a limb, shook the snow free and returned to the back door.
What was taking Mary so long?
Holding his breath, Nick leaned close to the door, trying to hear anything over the wail of the wind.
Nothing. Had she been waylaid? Had she forgotten the code?
What if someone hadn’t changed the off code but had changed the alarm reset code?
Certainly, lights and sirens would have gone off by now and the police would be notified.
But would the door lock automatically, trapping Mary inside?
Nick had seen security systems like that. But who would need one so robust in this forgotten corner of the world? Still, he reached for the doorknob, intent on pulling Mary out prior to the door locking.
Before he wrapped his gloved hand around the handle, the door opened and Mary hurried through.
Branch in hand, he stared at her, the desire to hug her foremost in his mind.
Her brow furrowed and she pointed at the branch in his hand. “What’s that for?”
Her question pulled him back to the task at hand. “To cover our tracks. You go first. I’ll follow.” Nick gestured with his free hand for her to lead the way.
Mary skipped down the steps and around the side of the building where someone had cleared the drive earlier. Unfortunately, snow lay another two inches deep since that time and every step she took left a glaring footprint.
Nick followed behind her, sweeping the snow gently with the spruce branch, effectively obliterating their trail.
All the way back to the B and B, Nick dragged the branch behind him. With the continuous snowfall, their path would be completely covered in the next ten minutes.
When they reached the B and B, Mary was first through the back door.
Nick tossed the branch behind nearby bushes and entered behind her.
Mary pulled the package of papers and photographs from her jacket. “My place or yours,” she whispered.
With thoughts of activities other than looking at faded pictures of GIs springing into his head, Nick brushed past her, fishing for the key in his pocket. “Mine. I want to compare that picture with the one I have of a younger Frank Richards.”
Once inside, Nick shed his jacket, pulled out his cell phone and called Kat.
“Back already?” Kat answered on the first ring. “What did you find?”
“Some photos and documents from the Bosnia NATO peacekeeping operation.”
“Anything interesting?”
“Maybe. We’ll know more after I scan and send them to the office.”
“Good. Need me for anything?”
He glanced across to Mary. who watched him closely. Oh yeah, he needed Kat to run interference between him and his crazy desire for Santa’s daughter. “Not yet. Get some rest. We have a lot of ground to cover in the morning.”
“If you’re sure.” Kat yawned in Nick’s ear. “I haven’t caught up on sleep since my honeymoon.”
“See ya in the morning.” Nick hung up, opened his laptop with one hand and held out the other toward Mary. “Let me have the group photo first. I want to scan it and send it to headquarters.”
Mary unzipped the plastic bag and laid all the papers across the bed. When she located the group photo, she handed it over, pointing to the man on the left side. “That’s my dad.”
“At least we know one of the guys in the picture.”
She returned to the bed, her fingers skimming across the documents and the individual photos of her father. “Do you think that’s what my father wanted us to find?”
“I don’t know,” he murmured, “but it’s a good start.”
“Why would he want us to look at stuff that happened thirty years ago? Surely all this is old news. Who would be a threat to him after so long?”
“That’s what we have to find out.” Nick clicked the mouse and brought up the picture of Frank Richards in his uniform as a young man. “That’s Richards.” He pointed to the group photo and the man standing in the back row behind Charles Mercer.
Nick peered closely at the name tags on the other uniforms. Yellowed and fading, the letters were blurred. Reaching into a computer accessories bag, he extracted a magnifying glass and held it over the photograph.
Without turning, he sensed Mary’s presence behind him. She’d shed her heavy winter coat and stood in the formfitting black turtleneck sweater, the scent of her shampoo completely wrecking Nick’s concentration.
When she leaned over him, her breast touched his shoulder.
Nick caught himself before he groaned.
“You come prepared, don’t you?” she said, her breath warming his neck and the back of his ear.
An image of a foil packet tucked in his nightstand jumped into his mind until he realized, with a bit of disappointment, she’d been talking about the magnifying glass. “Part of the job description.” He held the glass out to her. “Can you make out any of the names?”
As soon as she took the glass, Nick swiveled and stood, inserting distance between him and Mary.
Who’d have thought a woman with a name like Mary Christmas could turn him on so utterly?
He touched the document scanner icon on his cell phone, ready to start the scanning process. Keeping his hands busy excluded him from touching anything else. Namely one curvy little blonde.
“Let me scan the photo.” Nick held out his hand. “My people can run a check on your father’s military records and see if they can find the names of the men in his unit.”
When she handed him the picture, their hands touched.
Something like an electric shock, more intense than the static electricity normal to the dry winter Alaskan climates shot through his arm and into his chest, making his entire body tense.
She looked up, her eyes wide. Had she felt it too? “Nick?”
Her blue eyes mesmerized him, making him forget what he was supposed to do. When her tongue darted out to moisten her bottom lip, he almost came unglued.
Before he lost his mind and perspective, he snatched the photo and laid it on the dark surface of the dresser. “I can take care of this if you want to go back to your room and get some sleep.”
“I’m not really sleepy. I’d rather look at the picture and see if I can read some of the names. I think there were two or three of the name tags I could make out. Give me a few more minutes with the magnifying glass.” As if to belie her words, she yawned, slapping a hand over her mouth.
“Yeah, you’re not sleepy and it’s not two in the morning.” He strode to the door. “Go on, hit the sack. I might need you coherent in the morning.”
“I can go without a little sleep. It won’t kill me.”
“Maybe so, but I can’t. And if you stay in my room, I know I won’t get any sleep.” He gave her a heated look, his gaze panning her body from her blue eyes to the flare of her hips.
“Oh.” She stared at him, wide-eyed. “Okay.” Her feet dragged toward the door, her hand reaching slowly for the knob.
Nick almost felt home free. If she’d just leave, his unreasonable attraction would subside.
Instead of opening the door, she turned back toward him, her face rosy. “If you find out anything...anything at all..., will you wake me?”
“You bet,” he lied.
Not on your life.