Page 60 of Sergeant's Christmas Siege

“Is she Wonder Woman? To continue the family theme.”

Templeton laughed again, sounding even more delighted than before, which Kate assured herself didn’t affect her in the least.

“That depends on your definition. Amy raised three decent kids, which isn’t easy. Now she and her husband are exploring the country in their fifth wheel. But Isaac maintains the house.”

“How many houses does Isaac have?”

“As many as he needs.” Templeton grinned. “He likes to make sure there’s always a safe place to stay.”

Kate turned from the mantel. She squared her shoulders as she looked at Templeton, almost unconsciously. Almost.

“Why don’t you like hotels?”

“I like hotels fine. But I can’t always control the access points. And, funny thing about me, I like to know who’s coming and going. Wherever I am.”

Kate didn’t know how he made that sound dirty. The way he made everything sound dirty. She only nodded and pretended not to hear it. His gaze got that golden gleam that made her feel alarmingly melty inside, but all he did was lead her upstairs and show her which room was hers for the night. They both stood in the narrow hall looking at the full bed beneath the slanted ceiling. Kate felt much too warm. But Templeton didn’t make any suggestive comments.

Once again forcing Kate to question why she felt more disappointed than she did relieved.

She tossed her bag on the end of the bed, sat down next to it, and made a few phone calls to her contacts down in Anchorage, to see if they could help her figure out where exactly in Nenana Liberty and Russ were living. To start a little basic recon before they drove down there tomorrow morning.

When she went back downstairs, Templeton was heating up canned soup on the stove. Kate accepted the bowl he offered her and absolutely did not think about thedomesticity of it all. Or how much it reminded her of that cozy scene at Griffin and Mariah’s house she’d spied through a window in Grizzly Harbor.

It was amazing how far away that seemed to her now.

Kate put her spoon down and cleared her throat. “A friend of mine contacted the Trooper station in Nenana and asked after my cousins. In a roundabout way. And the word is they’re living about ten minutes out in what the trooper on duty called ‘a group situation,’ whatever that means.”

She rolled her eyes, because she knew what she thought that meant. It screamedcultto her. Manifestos, a marked interest in taking down the current government, and her father’s fingerprints all over everything. But maybe that was her baggage. A girl only had to grow up in one cult and she saw them everywhere.

“The house isn’t entirely off the grid, they said. But you know that could go either way.”

Wholly off the gridcould mean trigger-happy and a difficult time raising any backup should that become necessary, like the raid on her father’s compound. Buton the gridcould mean access to more sophisticated expressions of trigger-happiness, rendering any backup moot. There was no way of knowing what they would be walking into.

“Do you have a specific location?” Templeton asked.

Kate took out her phone and pulled up a map. That inspired Templeton to go and get his tablet, and they spent a largely congenial hour or two, talking through scenarios and generally marinating in that professionalism that Kate was so sure she craved.

And when there was a lull in the conversation, and it seemed to her that they’d covered all possible bases, she shot to her feet and made a show of checking her watch.

She assiduously avoided reacting to that knowing look in Templeton’s dark gaze as he sat there across the table in the cheerful little kitchen, with his long legsthrust out before him and his hands piled on the back of his head. Like he was on a beach somewhere, taking in the sun.

“I’m glad we decided to do this tomorrow,” she said, oozing professionalism from every pore. “It will give me a chance to catch up on some sleep.”

“Good idea, Trooper,” he rumbled at her. “Better make sure you’re good and rested.”

Unsurprisingly, she didn’t think about her family members or the life cycle of a cult when he said things like that. She thought about being spread out on a bed before him. Any bed. The one upstairs, for example. She thought about lifting her hips for closer contact to that wicked mouth of his. She thought about that wild, marvelous shattering and all the dark intent on his beautiful face when she’d finally managed to open her eyes again.

And her thoughts must have been written all over her face, because the corner of his dangerous mouth crooked up in what she was terribly afraid was invitation.

Kate smiled coolly. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

With regal dismissiveness, if she did say so herself.

She made herself walk sedately from the room. She climbed the stairs at the same unhurried pace, as if her heart weren’t lodged somewhere in her throat and her palms weren’t damp with the desire to touch him again.

Everywhere, this time.

Then she locked herself up tight in her bedroom, because she was Trooper Kate Holiday, and she didn’t do desire. She never had. And this was no time to start.

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