Page 98 of Sergeant's Christmas Siege

“Ifshe let go,” Kate said when the theory was advanced to her. “Which I doubt.”

Templeton kept waiting to get another moment with her. For her to seek him out and maybe smile at him the way she had when it was just the two of them, driving on those mountain roads on the Seward Highway. He kept waiting, but she didn’t come to him.

And even when her eyes met his, it was like the Kate he knew wasn’t there.

It wasn’t until the troopers began to pack their things up, many hours later, that it occurred to him that Kate was going to... just leave. Without a word.

And he couldn’t accept that. He couldn’tbelieveit.

He caught up to her in the upstairs hall of the inn. This was Grizzly Harbor’s most eventful Christmas since the year a moose got into the general store, and folks were still milling around near the smoldering remains of Tracy’s plane. The Fairweather was doing a brisk business, well into the night, as locals gathered to tell ever more fictionalized tales of their bravery tonight.

If Templeton squinted, he might mistake the crime scene for one of the typical Alaskan festivals that the locals loved so much they threw them all the time. Bundle up well enough, after all, and even a cold December night could feel downright jovial.

But his attention was on the woman who came out of the guest room at the top of the stairs, her bag on her shoulder and not one thing he recognized in her cool brown gaze.

“Did you want something?” she asked him.

“That’s how you want to play this? Like you don’t know me?”

“Maybe you should call me baby,” she suggested. “That worked so well the last time.”

“Kate,” he began.

But she shook her head. “I’m not doing this.”

“Having a conversation?”

“A conversation. The rest of it. Whatever it is, I don’t want it.”

He started to argue, but she shook her head. And her thousand-yard stare was what cut at him the most.

“Tonight was actually validating,” she said, sounding as if she were already gone. “All this time, I’ve been beating myself up for not getting the things that everybody else seems to. For not understanding the world. But it turns out, I understand it fine. I know who people are. And I know what they do.”

He couldn’t understand why that sounded like good-bye.

“The fact that you can trust me should be a good thing, shouldn’t it?”

“I trust you to do what you do, in your corner,” she said, which wasn’t the same thing. “If tonight proved anything to me, it’s that I do best in my own corner, doing my own thing. That’s what I’m good at. That’s what I know.”

“That’s an interesting takeaway.” He wanted to reachout and touch her, but he didn’t. Somehow, he kept his hands to himself. “Meanwhile, what I learned tonight is that I’m falling in love with you.”

She smiled at that, and it broke his heart.

“No, you’re not,” she said, with a quiet certainty that broke the pieces of his heart all over again. “You like a damsel in distress. It’s in your blood. It’s who you are. But that’s not me.”

“Kate.”

He could hear how torn he sounded. How destroyed. He knew she could, too. He didn’t care if his comm unit was on and the whole world heard him.

And still, when she walked away from him, she didn’t look back.

•••

It took four days for Templeton to come to a decision.

One day to get pissed. Another to drink. A third day to analyze the situation the way he would a tricky op.

On the fourth day, he and Isaac were lying on the floor of the so-called box of pain, down by the water’s edge. The brutal morning workout had left everyone gasping. They’d all staggered off when it was done, cursing Isaac’s name in that way that brought him his greatest and deepest joy. That was why Templeton refused to do it himself.

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