Page 59 of Sergeant's Christmas Siege

“No, ma’am. If I was talking about sex, sure. I mightpretty it up. But when it comes to the job? The only thing I’m interested in is competency. Believe that, if nothing else.”

And the crazy part was, she did believe him.Or maybe,a more caustic voice inside her butted in,it’s more accurate to say that youwantto believe him. Because you want this man to think of you as competent. If not as highly skilled as he is—because who could be?—then at least pretty damn good at your own job.

“I don’t know if what I have is a gut feeling,” Kate said after a moment, because his flattery deserved an honest response. Or as honest as she was capable of being, anyway. “Or if I just want to get this part over with.”

“Which part? The investigation?”

“The part that involves anyone I’m related to. I didn’t think I was signing on for this twisted little inversion of a family Christmas, but I’d like it to end. As soon as possible.”

“Roger that.” Templeton nodded toward the back of the SUV. “Aside from what I have in my go bag and what I assume you have in yours, we also have what amounts to a minor arsenal in the back. It’s not a full SWAT team situation, but we could have ourselves a little party.”

Kate smiled. “I do like a party.”

But it was already after five p.m. The temperature was plummeting, the snow was falling, and Kate had no idea what they would be walking into in Nenana. Her cousins might very well be nostalgic for the compound, as impossible as that seemed to her. Human beings were complicated, as she knew all too well. They spent significant parts of their lives yearning for things that they not only couldn’t have but that were actively bad for them.

Kate had always claimed that she didn’t understand that sort of self-destructive urge. But that was before she’d met Templeton.

She rubbed a hand over her face.

“I hate waiting. But I think it might be the bettermove.” She cleared her throat. “I’m happy to put us up in hotel rooms and then try again tomorrow.”

There was a silence that was certainly notelectricin any way. Kate told herself she was overtired from her research all-nighters and clearly imagining things.

“First of all,” Templeton said, his voice as dark as the night, “you don’t need to foot the bill.”

“This is my family we’re talking about.”

“Trooper. Get your head back in the game. Your family might or might not be the jackholes responsible for blown-up boats and dead men. But either way, this blackmail attempt is aimed straight at Alaska Force. And we take defending ourselves pretty seriously.”

“I would feel better if I was contributing.”

“Second,” Templeton continued, as if she hadn’t said that last part, “we have a place in Fairbanks. No hotels required.”

Kate wanted to argue. But she was afraid that launching into an impassioned argument about why she needed the relative protection of a hotel room, rather than the perceived intimacy of some house, would do nothing but show Templeton exactly how much she was freaking out at the prospect of being alone with him again in a place where there were beds. And every instinct and gut feeling she had, all of which were silent on the issue of her cousins, bleated out exactly how bad an idea it would be to let him know such a thing.

Besides, she was pretty sure he already knew.

So she stayed silent, as if she didn’t care where they stayed. She said nothing as he drove them across the city, then turned down a heavily snow-packed lane that wound through the trees and stopped in front of a dark little house, locked up tight.

“It’s going to be cold at first,” Templeton said as he bumped them over the snow that covered the clearing. “But it’ll warm up quick.”

Kate bit her tongue rather than throw something backat him, reminding him that she knew all about cold houses and woodstoves here in Alaska. More than he would know, anyway, with his history in the deep, warm South, even if he seemed to know his way around the block heater and timer that he connected to the SUV.

Keep it professional, she told herself.

Because clearly that was going to be the only thing that saved her. If anything could save her, that was. And assuming that particular genie wasn’t already out of its bottle, as she was so desperately trying to convince herself.

Templeton opened the front door of the cabin by keying a code into a heavy-duty padlock. He led Kate inside, flipping on the lights as he went. She could see a living room, a small study, and a kitchen at the back to make up the main floor. And to her surprise, it was a cheerful, modest sort of house that looked as if a family might walk in any second. Not a black ops team.

After kicking off her boots and hanging up her jacket, Kate drifted over toward the pictures all along the mantel, which looked as if it should sit over a fireplace but framed a TV instead.

And was shocked when she saw a smiling, much younger version of a man who could only be Isaac Gentry.

“This is Isaac’s sister’s house,” Templeton told her, once the woodstove was lit and roaring away. He rubbed his hands together as he came to stand beside Kate. He squinted at the picture of Isaac and the woman who was presumably his sister, grinning at the camera with packs on their backs and, behind them, one of Alaska’s blue glaciers. Kate could almost hear the ice crackling.

“Isaac has a sister?”

Templeton laughed. “Doesn’t seem possible, right? But yes. He’s not only mortal, he has a family and everything.”

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