Page 71 of Sergeant's Christmas Siege

They spent a long time going through all the files Oz had compiled on Samuel Lee Holiday and his prison records—which Kate knew she should have objected to Alaska Force having in the first place. But she was far more interested in preparing herself for the confrontation with her father.

“Maybe I’m kidding myself,” she said much later, after they’d both read more or less everything there was toread about the man who’d given her life and had tried to take it away, too, fifteen years and two days ago. “Maybe this has always been inevitable.”

“You don’t have to do it.”

Templeton sounded so matter-of-fact it made Kate blink. She studied him, lounging the way he always did, as if a mere armchair could not contain him. As if he were called upon to demonstrate his bonelessness at every turn. His legs were thrust out before him. He’d kicked off his boots and, like her, had nothing on his feet but wool socks to cut the chill. Though she doubted he felt that much chill, since all he was wearing was a T-shirt.

And she didn’t want to admit how much energy she was expendingnotogling the corded muscles that made up his arms, or the way his biceps stretched against his sleeves.

“You don’t have to do it,” Templeton said again. “You’re not in this alone, Kate. I get this is your family and it feels personal, but it’s only as personal as we let it be. Alaska Force is behind you. I’m here. And I’m perfectly prepared to have a friendly chat with your father.” His mouth kicked over into one of those dangerous curves. “Perfectly prepared and raring for the chance to go at him, if I’m honest.”

Her heart flipped over. Because Kate couldn’t think of another time in her adult life that someone had told her that she wasn’t alone. That she was part of a team, and it wasn’t contingent on her doing a job or impressing everyone with her commitment.

No one had ever made sure she knew that they were willing to jump in if she couldn’t do something, for whatever reason. And not only jump in. She’d had partners before. She’d relied on them, to one extent or another, as appropriate.

But she’d never trusted that if she truly needed help, they wouldn’t use that against her down the line.

Something twisted, deep in her gut, at the notion thatshe trusted Templeton in a whole different way. Not only to have her back, or to step in here if needed. Kate knew—she justknew—that he would never hold something like that against her. Never.

She felt a little bit light-headed.

“We have to decide what the best strategy is here,” she made herself say.

“I love me some strategy,” Templeton drawled. “But what’s important is the fact that there’s an emotional component to this. It’s not some random drug bust. You’re putting on a good show, but I can tell that your cousins got to you.”

She made herself smile. “I’m choosing to view them as a warm-up. The way to dip my toe in before jumping into the ocean for a little polar bear dip, like we do up here in the frozen north.”

Not that she, personally, had ever flung herself into frigid water for no apparent reason.

“Kate. It would be weird if it wasn’t emotional.”

“I’m not denying that there’s an emotional component,” she said briskly. Knowing full well that she would absolutely have denied it if she thought she could do so convincingly. “I’m wondering if it makes more sense to use that emotion or not. Do we let my father think he’s winning whatever game he imagines he’s playing? Or do we sidestep all that and let you go in instead?”

“Why, Trooper. Be still my heart. Are you voluntarily brainstorming with me?”

She tried to frown sternly at him, but the way her mouth twitched probably ruined the effect. “I don’t mind letting my father think he’s rattled me if that gets us what we want.”

“I do.”

And there it was again, that intense connection between them, so strong she could almost see it shimmering there above the coffee table.

“You were the one who suggested we look into myfamily,” she said. “I could have told you that turning over these rocks would lead us straight to the worms.” She pulled in a deep breath. “I don’t know, maybe it’s healthy. Otherwise it all festers there, doesn’t it?”

“The past is just the past.” Templeton’s gaze was intent on hers then. “It’s not healthy or unhealthy. It happened. It’s over.”

“We’re all steeped in our past all the time, Templeton. The past makes us who we are. I have to think it’s better to poke at it every now and again, to make sure it’s a scar and not an open wound.”

“If things hadn’t started blowing up in Southeast Alaska, you wouldn’t have touched your family with a ten-foot pole.”

“Maybe not in person.” Kate felt her gaze narrow as she looked at him. “But this conversation is starting to feel less about what I did, or might do, and a little more about you.”

He shrugged. “I don’t look back, Trooper. Ever.”

“Right. You’re a shark. If you stop swimming forward, you die.”

“Do whatever you want.” And Kate was fascinated that he grinned then. Bright, easy. And, without a doubt, completely fake. “All I’m saying is that one of us is a prickly, uptight, lonely trooper who’s gotten so used to being all alone in this world that she thinks it’s a virtue. And the other one is me. Which one of us do you think is healthier?”

He didn’t wait for an answer. He got to his feet in one of his typically, absurdly powerful displays of offhanded might and ease, ran a hand over his head, and let out a booming laugh.

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