Page 84 of Sergeant's Christmas Siege

Kate knew it couldn’t last. Real life might not be the hole her father had wanted to bury them all in, but that didn’t mean that it was this, either. Still, she tipped her head back and let herself fall head over heels into all the happiness anyway.

Because she doubted that she would ever feel like this again. The only other time she’d come close was inTempleton’s arms. And she wasn’t sure, given the way he’d closed down today, that she’d get to experience that again, either.

She couldn’t bear that thought. Kate reached across the center of the vehicle and put her hand on Templeton’s leg. The way he’d done before they’d hit the prison. And when—after a long, frozen moment—he covered it with his, she smiled. And for a couple of hours on the strangest Christmas of her life, Kate didn’t worry about what came next. She basked in the now.

And she knew she’d made the right decision when they made it back to the island that night. Because instead of landing in Fool’s Cove, the plane diverted to Grizzly Harbor instead.

“I hope we’re going to the Fairweather,” Kate said when they landed. “I could really use a drink.”

Templeton was staring at his phone, the way he’d been doing since he’d leaned forward and told the pilot to head to town instead of the cove. It seemed to take him an ice age or two to lift his gaze to hers. And what she saw there made her chest feel funny.

“You have a visitor,” he told her. Tersely, no hint of a grin. “Waiting for you at the inn.”

“Most of my colleagues know that I’m on leave,” Kate said. She tossed her bag over her shoulder as she crawled off the plane, then waited for Templeton to jump down to the dock beside her. “But I wouldn’t think—”

“It’s not one of your colleagues.” Templeton’s gaze had grown even darker. More intense. And Kate was terribly afraid that what she saw on his face was a sort of kindness that edged too close to pity for her tastes. “Kate. I wish...”

Her chest felt more than funny. And now she really did feel numb.

But he shook his head, tossing off whatever he’d been about to say. “It’s your mother.”

Twenty

Templeton watched her change in an instant. From the almost dreamy Kate he’d spent the afternoon with straight back into full-on trooper, like she had flipped a switch.

“My mother,” Kate said, as if she had to say it out loud to believe it. Her voice was flat and laced with steel, but she didn’t sound like she’d been gut-punched. “Tracy Warren Holiday.”

“That’s the one.”

“She’s supposed to be in Anchorage. Enjoying her life as an ex-con while still being married to one of Alaska’s most notorious criminals.”

“She came in on a seaplane about an hour ago, walked into the Fairweather, and asked for you.”

Kate looked as if she were sorting out math problems in her head, and Templeton didn’t know what to do with the mess inside of him. Everything Isaac had said kicked at him, mostly because he wanted to deny it. And couldn’t.

He was right on schedule to do exactly what Isaac had predicted he would. An argument could be made that he’d already done it, given how distant he’d been actingall day. But none of his rules seemed to matter when his trooper looked so deflated. Even if it was only for a moment.

But this was Kate, so when the moment was up, her chin lifted. Something flashed over her face, and she didn’t waste another second. She charged off the dock, then started up the hill into town, clearly prepared to storm the Blue Bear Inn right this minute.

“You’re just going to go in there?” Templeton asked, keeping pace with her as she sprinted along the road, such as it was. “Guns blazing?”

“Metaphorically.” She stormed past the Fairweather. “Unless she gets mouthy.”

“You already had a face-to-face with one of your parents today. You don’t need to deal with both of them.”

“It appears that I do. Because it never rains, it pours. And in my family, at the first hint of moisture you can expect a flash flood.”

If anything, she picked up her pace.

“Kate.” But she didn’t slow down. She didn’t stop. “Baby, come on.”

She stopped so fast then that Templeton almost tripped over his own feet as he tried to stop along with her. Almost. The Christmas lights were sparkling, making the wooden boardwalk beneath their feet seem to gleam, and the way Kate looked at him made his heart stutter in his chest.

“Baby?” she repeated in what sounded like disbelief. And maybe something angrier. “Now I’mbaby? You could barely look at me all day.”

He wished she’d hauled off and punched him. He would have handled it better. “I looked at you.”

The look she gave him then was withering.

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