Page 77 of Sergeant's Christmas Siege

“She can pretend to handle anything. What price she’ll have to pay for that later, I don’t know.”

Isaac was quiet, which gave Templeton an opportunity to play that back to himself. What he should have said was that Kate was a well-trained Alaska State Trooper who could and would conduct herself in aprofessional manner no matter the circumstances. That’s exactly what he would have said if he’d been talking about any other law enforcement officer he might have been partnered with—right after he scoffed at the question even being asked.

He might as well have taken out a billboard to announce his relationship with Kate. He basically had.

“This is none of my business,” Isaac began.

“Like that’s ever stopped you before.”

“Here’s what we know about your trooper. She had one of the worst childhoods imaginable, and it’s not like you had a great one yourself. She emancipated herself at fifteen, literally. Put every adult in her life in jail. Unlike every other member of her family, she didn’t go crazy, didn’t spiral into darkness or a repeat of what she left. She became a trooper instead. Climbed the ranks, dedicated her life to taking down groups like her family. Thought that we’re one of those groups, so came on out to Grizzly Harbor and subjected herself to the Templeton Cross charm offensive.”

“I read her file, Isaac. And was there. I didn’t forget any of this.”

“Are you telling me that of all the women in the world—a revolting percentage of whom seem to find you attractive, for reasons unclear to me—”

“Bite me.”

“—thisis the woman that you’ve decided to get close to? After all the carrying-on about your precious rules for all these years?”

“I didn’t tell you that. Deliberately.”

“Yeah, too bad I know you.” Templeton couldseeIsaac shaking his head over three hundred miles away in Anchorage. As if he were standing next to him in this cozy kitchen in Fairbanks. “Big laugh, big show, but if you didn’t care about her, you wouldn’t be psychoanalyzing what she’spretendingto feel. You wouldn’t have calledme at four thirty to update me on your mission parameters when a text would do.”

“I was filled with the Christmas spirit,” Templeton lied. “I wanted to make sure Santa and his handy elves brought you the coal you deserve.”

“It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that this woman has some trust issues, genius. What’s going to happen if she decides she can trust you?”

Templeton thought of their easy, unspoken choreography. At the scenes they’d visited and, better still, right here in this house. He found himself rubbing at his chest and slammed his hand down on the counter.

“Of course she can trust me.”

“To have her back in a firefight, sure. To work on a case together, great. But unless something has changed since—”

“I really don’t need you to remind me.”

Isaac was quiet for a moment. “You know my position on this. It wasn’t your fault. Sometimes missions go bad. That’s just the deal. I’ve been telling you this for years.”

“This situation has nothing to do with that.” But his voice betrayed him. It was too rough, too dark. It gave him away completely.

“It shouldn’t,” Isaac agreed. “But here’s what I know about you, Templeton. You’ve been beating yourself up since the day that car blew up. You’ve been squirrelly about working with local law enforcement ever since. Has something changed?”

“Please. I’m entirely too large to ever be calledsquirrelly.”

“Because I don’t think anything has changed,” Isaac said, answering his own question. “You like this woman. Great. But sooner or later your guilt is going to kick in, because it always does. And when that happens, you’re going to do what you always do. You’re going to flip that switch. No more happy-go-lucky Templeton. No moreeasygoing, big smile, too-lazy-to-breathe guy without a care in the world. It’s going to feel like a bait and switch to her because, guess what? It will be. She won’t like it, and you’ll leave anyway. Meanwhile, all of this could be avoided.”

Templeton rubbed a hand over his face and told himself that the churning in his gut was outrage, not the sneaking suspicion that all of this was an uncomfortable truth he didn’t particularly want to hear. “This is great stuff, Isaac. Really. And all the more poignant coming from a man whose only true long-term relationship is with his mobile phone. Oh, right. And with a woman who can’t stand the sight of him.”

It was a low blow, throwing Isaac’s messy situation with Caradine into the mix, but Templeton felt like low blows were going around. And right now, he felt a lot like kneecapping his best friend.

“Are you going to tell me those things aren’t going to happen?” Isaac asked, and Templeton was glad that there were so many miles between him and the leader of Alaska Force. Because he had the feeling that if there weren’t, that note of dark disapproval in Isaac’s voice would have been the least of his problems. “Kate is smart. She’s good at her job. And if this entire thing hinges around her and her family the way we think it does, she’s already on course for a crappy New Year. The last thing she needs is your Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde act.”

“I never know which one of those is which,” Templeton replied, more growl than anything else. “But this conversation is over. I’ll update you after we talk to the father.”

“Or you could not be a dumbass. Try that one on.”

Templeton hung up before he said something he’d regret. Something else he’d regret.

And he wished, maybe for the first time since they’d started Alaska Force, that Isaac wasn’t one of his oldestfriends. Because if he had the same relationship with Isaac almost everyone else did, Isaac could remain the wise, distant leader. Diplomatic, but never involved. Instead of the friend who felt it necessary to tell Templeton things he really didn’t want to hear.

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