Page 17 of Sergeant's Christmas Siege

She didn’t stop when she got to him, so Templeton fell in behind her, which meant slowing himself down, given his size and stride—but not as much as he might have expected. Because, as he’d noticed yesterday, Trooper Holiday took her fitness seriously.

Almost as seriously as Templeton took the view of her from behind as she took the steps back down to town at a decent clip.

When they got to the main street, she started toward the inn, but wheeled around before she’d gone too far and glared at him. She reached up to pull the headlamp off her face now that there were all the Christmas lights twinkling on this and that building to illuminate them both.

“Was it my imagination, Mr. Cross, or were you fixated on my ass all the way down the stairs?”

“Is your ass a permitted topic of conversation? I can rustle up some commentary, if you like.”

“I don’t like.” That flash of vulnerability he’d seen was gone now. She folded her arms over her chest, and the fact that she was wearing cold-weather running gear instead of her uniform did absolutely nothing to take away that cop vibe. “I’m less entertained than you might imagine by your antics.”

“Impossible. I’m delightful. Everyone thinks so.”

“I can only assume that I’m meant to flutter about, blushing and giggling every time you look at me, and forget the reason I came here in the first place.”

“I’ve seen the blushing. When will the giggling start?”

“This isn’t going to end well for you, Mr. Cross. You can call me Kate. You can make suggestive remarks. All it does is paint a picture of a man who thinks he canbreak the rules on a whim. A man who feels beholden to absolutely nothing save his libido and his pride. There’s only one place that’s going to go, and it’s not the bedroom of your juvenile fantasies. It’s a prison cell.”

“It’s okay if you think I’m hot,” Templeton assured her in his mildest drawl. “You don’t have to make it all about handcuffs and domination.” He couldn’t help his grin. “Unless that’s what you’re into.”

“Hilarious. You’re digging your own grave.”

“It’s okay, Kate. I think you’re hot, too.”

If a person could explode without actually moving, she managed to do it. He was sure he could see flames dancing around her head while all she did was take that death glare of hers to another level.

Predictably, he found that just as appealing.

“I can’t express to you how little I care who or what you find hot,” she said, so icily it was like a storm front moved in while she clipped out the words. “The weather reports suggest that wind conditions will shift and the fog will ease around eight. Enough to allow us to travel to Fool’s Cove without risking our lives. I’ll be ready to go at that time. I suggest that you make yourself ready, too, and if you have any sense of self-preservation whatsoever, I’d leave your inappropriate remarks at home.”

And he watched as she turned—without any hint of temper or emotion even when he’dseenit all over her, because she really was good—and walked calmly up the street to the inn. Dismissing him as if he were neither the least bit interesting nor a threat to anyone, which should have offended him.

Maybe it would have if he’d believed her.

Templeton stood there awhile, letting himself get good and cold again because his body wasn’t listening to a single thing he told it to do. Not where she was concerned. And given he was a highly tuned instrument that could be used as a weapon at a moment’s notice, and often was, he found that... alarming.

He ran a loop of Grizzly Harbor, out along the hiking trail that led past the hot springs out to the point, then back. He lifted his hand in the direction of the place he knew Griffin was stationed, though of course he didn’t see a single sign of him. Griffin was like smoke. Most targets never knew he was there at all. They just went down.

When he came back into town, Templeton let himself into the in-law addition off to the side of the house that Griffin used as an office. He had a shower and a couple of extra beds, where his Alaska Force brothers could crash when they found themselves staying in Grizzly Harbor overnight instead of making their way back across the water to Fool’s Cove.

Templeton showered, then dressed again quickly. He realized as he did that he no longer stopped to wonder how, of all of them, someone he would have said was as closed off as Griffin had managed to find himself tucked up in all this domesticity. Griffin’s Mariah had been a client on the run from her ex when she found Alaska Force, and had hidden out on the island for a while. And Griffin wasn’t the only one who’d found someone, surprising everyone else in their tight little unit. Blue Hendricks, former Navy SEAL and all-around hard-ass, was actually engaged to a girl he’d grown up with, who’d tracked him down all the way out here when she found herself in some trouble back in Chicago.

Templeton would have bet real money that neither one of them would ever settle down. With anyone, ever. Or even pretend to. And Templeton wasn’t used to being wrong.

He chose not to question why he was thinking about his friends’ romantic relationships, because that was obviously heading nowhere good.

He called in, getting Isaac on the first ring.

“Incoming,” Templeton said. “I’m meeting our trooper Holiday at eight, and we’re headed straight for Fool’s Cove.”

“Affirmative.” Templeton was sure he could hear Isaac roll his eyes. “What’s your take on this?”

Templeton’s take grew increasingly more X-rated the more he thought about his personal trooper, but he’d already handled himself in the shower. He certainly didn’t need to share his upsetting lack of focus with Isaac, who, in his role as Templeton’s best friend, would shamelessly exploit that weakness.

“Hard to say. I’m going to swing by Caradine’s to see if I can get a sense of how her interview went yesterday after I left.”

“I don’t think you need to get a sit rep on Caradine.” Isaac’s voice changed, the way it always did when the topic of Caradine came up. Because the two of them had so much tension it could clear a room. And had. Templeton wished they would handle it already, but he only said things like that to Isaac when there were drinks around. And therefore less likelihood that his best friend might take his head off for mentioning that tension in the first place. “You can bet she was rude. The end.”

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