Harlequin Holiday Collection

by Leslie Kelly

  She couldn’t get out. Her only choice was to make her way back to the stairwell door and head back up to the lab. She could lock herself in Callie’s office.

  Listening for sounds, she felt along the wall, making sure there were no obstacles before she moved.

  If she made a single sound…

  She didn’t want to think about it.

  Just move.

  Almost there.

  A few more steps and she would reach the stairwell door. Her fingers encountered the cold metal knob and she froze.

  Where was he?

  She hadn’t heard a sound in several minutes. It could have been only one or two, but it felt like an hour had passed. Her heart strummed against her sternum. Don’t listen to the sound of your fear…listen for the threat.

  Silence.

  If she hadn’t dropped her phone this would be a good time to call for help.

  But she had.

  There was nothing else for her to do. The lab was her only resort. She had to go for it.

  She turned the knob. The sound echoed in the silence. She winced. The door would probably creak, too.

  Screw it. She jerked the door open and moved into the stairwell. With the door pressing against her back, she listened.

  Nothing.

  Slowly, holding her breath, she let the door close. The click reverberated like a rifle shot.

  Still no sound to indicate whoever was in here was close by or even following.

  Holding the handrail like a lifeline, she moved up the stairs. Slowly, trying her best not to make a sound. Her soft-soled shoes were a blessing to her feet on a daily basis but even more so now.

  Second floor.

  One step at a time. Don’t breathe too loudly. Don’t allow your lab coat to brush against the metal railing. Silent as the proverbial mouse.

  Third floor.

  She stood outside the lab for a full trauma-filled minute.

  Once she entered the third floor there was no place left to go. The fourth floor was a storage room for the city, and there was no access from the lab.

  If he—whoever he was and if he was a he—had come to the third floor in anticipation of her going back there or to steal files from the lab…she was in deep trouble.

  Brace yourself.

  Take a breath and open the door.

  A creak echoed from below.

  Door. First floor.

  He was coming.

  Chapter Eighteen

  It took every ounce of courage she possessed, but Olivia opened the third-floor door with the same painstaking effort as she had the others. No need to give away her position.

  She allowed the door to close as noiselessly as was humanly possible.

  Then she ran. Down the corridor. Into the lab.

  She grabbed for the door to Callie’s office and twisted the knob.

  It didn’t budge.

  How could it be locked?

  Her whirling mind recalled her steps as she’d placed her report in Callie’s office. She’d closed the door behind her.

  Had it been set to lock?

  Never mind.

  She had to hide.

  Picking her way carefully between the stations, she rushed through the mental list of other places to hide. She needed to be able to barricade herself away from the threat.

  He would be reaching the lab any second.

  Maybe he already had.

  She had to hurry!

  Something hard stopped her forward momentum. Strong fingers clamped down on her arms.

  Her survival instinct erupted inside her.

  She kicked. Screamed.

  He twisted her body around and flattened her back against his chest. Definitely a he, her mind analyzed.

  “Scream one more time and I’ll shoot,” he growled.

  The cold, unyielding muzzle of a weapon bored into her skull.

  She stopped flailing even as her mind raced to rule out the names and faces that didn’t go with that voice. She knew it, even though he had whispered roughly, obscuring the tones…but there was something familiar about him.

  As he dragged her backward, she tried to assess his height and build. Tried to inhale his scent. Anything that might help her identify him.

  Where was he taking her?

  Then she knew.

  The door that led to the fourth floor and roof access.

  But that door was locked.

  When he reached the fourth-floor entrance, he shoved her face-first into the wall and jammed the muzzle into the back of her skull. “Move and I will kill you.”

  He didn’t whisper this time. The voice was clear…hard….

  Keys rattled. A lock turned. He opened the door, grabbed her around the neck once more and hauled her into the stairwell.

  The smell of disuse filled her nostrils.

  Her mind was replaying his last statement over and over. The words had been void of any emotion. Blank. Dead.

  They moved up another set of stairs. He was taking her to the roof.

  The urge to fight roared through her. But the metal tip of the weapon’s barrel kept her submissive.

  The icy air hit her as he dragged her through the final door. Cold rain fell, making the flat rooftop slippery. Lightning lit the sky, followed by the boom of thunder.

  He pushed her away from him, but kept the muzzle pressed to her skull. “Now get down on your knees and keep your mouth shut. You make a move and you’re dead. You do exactly as I tell you and everything will be just grand.”

  Realization sucker-punched her.

  “Gerald?” She resisted the urge to turn around, to allow her eyes to confirm what her brain had told her. “What’re you doing?”

  Why would Gerald do something like this? Was he responsible for one of the crimes she was evaluating evidence on?

  This was insane.

  “I said keep your mouth shut!”

  She dropped to her knees the way he’d told her, kept her mouth closed.

  “You’ve made this entirely too difficult.” He circled her.

  She dared to look up at him.

  “Keep your head down!”

  She lowered her gaze.

  “Every time I fouled up your data, that idiot McBride just let it go. I even did it from your apartment so they would think it was you.” He laughed. “Surprised, aren’t you? Not only am I a magnificent scientist, I’m a wizard with computers.” He paced and paced, the weapon trained on her. She didn’t have to look to know. “You should have been fired the first breach they discovered. But they just kept you around. I ran out of options. So I made a new plan. I took your badge, took care of the security guard and set the security system to total lockdown—full dark mode. No one goes in or out. And here we are.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  He slammed the gun against the side of her head. The blow knocked her off balance, and she scrambled to get back into a kneeling position.

  “This job was supposed to be mine. McBride had already interviewed me. She promised to call me back. Then you showed up. You know that bitch never even called me to let me know I wasn’t getting the job? I needed it. I had plans for tapping into certain opportunities.”

  “Gerald, I’m sure it was all just a misunderstanding.” Olivia’s head was spinning. She had to calm down, think of the right things to say. She had to keep him talking.

  “Oh, it was a misunderstanding, all right. I wanted her to see what a mistake she’d made. Then you would be fired and the job would be mine.”

  Olivia closed her eyes, ordered her head to stop spinning. Didn’t help.

  “But she didn’t fire you.” He suddenly stopped pacing. “I just can’t deal with any of it anymore. Now I’ll have to kill you.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Jacob had been trying to call Olivia for half an hour. He’d called her cell phone and her apartment.

  Something was very wrong.

  He’d driven like a bat out of hell, ignoring the angry weather, and now h
e couldn’t get into the lab.

  The doors were locked. The lights were out.

  She was in there. Her Volvo was in the rear parking area.

  Every instinct warned that she was in trouble.

  He’d already wasted time going around the building to every single access door. All were locked up tight.

  He wasn’t wasting any more time.

  He raced back to his SUV, started it and pulled the gearshift into Drive. He pulled on his seat belt and floored it, pointing it toward the wall of glass.

  The crash exploded around him. The airbag deployed, knocking the breath out of him. He shook himself. Unfastened his seat belt and scrambled out of the damaged car. Glass crackled beneath his shoes.

  The fact that the security system didn’t sound sent off another set of alarms inside him. He punched 9-1-1 into his cell.

  “This is Jacob Webster. I’m at the Kenner City Crime Lab. There’s been a break-in.” He glanced around the lobby. “Security personnel are down. Send help.” He didn’t stay on the line to answer any of the dispatcher’s questions.

  He had to find Olivia.

  He double-timed it back to his SUV for a flashlight, then headed at a full run to check the first floor.

  By the time he completed his round of the second and third floors, panic had started to set in.

  The echo of a gunshot from above sent ice splitting through his veins.

  The roof.

  He ran for the fourth-floor access, made it to the top of the stairs and hesitated. He needed two things. The element of surprise. And a weapon.

  On the fourth floor he found one item that could loosely be called a weapon—the ax located next to the fire alarm. The alarm was dead, too; he’d tried it in an effort to startle whoever had Olivia on that roof.

  Ax in hand, he headed for the stairs to the roof. He moved more slowly now. Listening for screams, cries, anything.

  As he moved cautiously onto the roof, he did one more thing he hoped would help. He prayed.

  His heart stumbled at what he saw when he cleared the final obstacle between him and the wide-open rooftop.

  Olivia was on her knees. Some scumbag had a handgun pressed to the back of her head. He was ranting at her.

  Moving a scarce inch at a time, Jacob eased closer and closer, the ax ready to swing.

  Sirens abruptly split the air.

  The creep with the gun jerked his head toward the highway. The distant throb of lights confirmed that the police were closing in.

  Jacob had to act now.

  Olivia suddenly twisted at the waist, hitting the man at pelvis level. The gunman stumbled back. Olivia dived for his right leg.

  The weapon discharged into the air.

  Jacob slammed the broad side of the ax square into the middle of his back. The gunman flew forward, stumbling over Olivia. Jacob dived onto him, crushing him with his full body weight. The gun slid across the roof. The perp went crazy, bucking, screaming profanities. It was all Jacob could do to hold him down.

  “Stop!” Olivia shouted.

  Jacob looked up. She had the gun. Jacob didn’t know what kind of marksman she was, but he wasn’t taking any chances. He scrambled up and backed out of the crazy bastard’s reach.

  The fool made a dive for Olivia.

  She squeezed off a warning shot in the air. He cowered on the ground.

  The sound of running footsteps announced the arrival of backup.

  Jacob’s and Olivia’s gazes met for the first time.

  And he suddenly understood that deep, emotional connection he’d never quite gotten before. It had taken him two months to understand the feelings growing inside him, but now he knew.

  He couldn’t ever lose her.

  Chapter Twenty

  Christmas

  Olivia snuggled more deeply into Jacob’s arms. He hadn’t let her out of his sight since Friday night…except for those few hours on Christmas Eve when they had done their shopping. He’d driven her to town and they’d gone their separate ways until the job was done.

  It was Christmas, she was with Jacob and all her worries were behind her.

  She shuddered when she thought of her former neighbor. The police had discovered that Gerald had been diagnosed as bipolar with violent tendencies years ago. Somehow he’d managed to keep it out of his official records. The guy had been bullying his way through life since he was sixteen. He’d gone completely over the edge with his obsession with Kenner City’s crime lab.

  He’d drugged Olivia with a light sedative the night he’d brought over the brownies. He’d done it more than once so that he could access her home computer at a time when she was also home. He’d wanted to make her look incompetent or perhaps even like a traitor.

  Callie and Flemming had been suspicious for several days, but they’d had no proof or clear-cut conclusions on what was going on. So they’d waited and watched.

  Olivia was glad the whole thing was over. She’d called her parents and wished her family a merry Christmas. Jacob had done the same.

  Other than that, they had been simply enjoying each other’s company. And the tree they’d decorated together.

  “We should eat that amazing dinner we prepared,” he suggested.

  Something else they’d done together, but she didn’t want to move. She liked it right here in his arms.

  Her body warmed, melted as she thought of all the kisses they had shared. Lots of slow, lingering kisses. She smiled against his chest. She loved the way he kissed.

  “I’m not hungry,” she confessed. She wanted to sit here like this, in his arms, until one of them had to move.

  They’d talked about their pasts, their hopes and dreams. Everything. It was like fate had had this plan all along. She understood in the deepest, farthest reaches of her soul that this was the man she’d been waiting for.

  The man who would treat her with the respect and admiration with which her father treated her mother.

  Who could ask for more?

  “There are ways to work up an appetite,” he suggested.

  Another smile pulled at her lips. “We could take a walk.”

  “There is that.”

  “Or we could open those presents under the tree.” She’d bought a very special gift for him. One she hoped would show him just how much she wanted to get to know all of him. She had bought him a scrapbook for their mementoes, a framed photo of her to sit on his bedside table and a duplicate of the key to her apartment. For him. His own key to her place. And a slinky negligee for their first night together.

  Which just might be tonight. Excitement whirled beneath her belly button.

  “We could,” he agreed, “but then you’d only get distracted with your gift.”

  She raised her head to look at him. “Just give me one hint.”

  He shook his head. “You have to wait.”

  He’d been saying that all day.

  She sighed and collapsed against his muscled chest once more. “In that case, I can’t think of a thing else to do.”

  “Actually.” He wiggled free of her, stood. “I can think of lots of things.” He picked her up and carried her to his room.

  He kissed her in that slow, sweet way of his and she forgot all about the negligee. She just wanted him to keep kissing her.

  Frantic hands tore at clothes until they were skin to skin. She couldn’t catch her breath. Didn’t care. She just wanted to be with him…in every way.

  Hours later, as they lay completely sated on his tousled bed, she announced, “I’m starving.”

  He rolled onto his belly, propped up on his arms and smiled down at her. “Shall we have dinner in bed?”

  “That would be amazing.”

  He kissed the tip of her nose. “Promise me you won’t move.”

  “Promise.”

  He was gone long enough to make her want to break her vow. When he finally returned, he carried a tray laden with the exquisite dinner they had prepared together.

  “Dig in.” He
backed toward the door. “I just have to get one more thing.”

  She nibbled on a slice of turkey breast. He was back in a flash, the elegantly wrapped gift in his hands.

  He sat it on the bed in front of her. “Open it.”

  Anticipation searing through her veins, she bit her lips, searched his eyes for some hint.

  “Open it,” he urged.

  She released the silky red ribbon, let it fall around the box. She lifted the lid and frowned at the mounds and mounds of paper inside. “What’s this?”

  “You’ll see.”

  She dug through the paper, finally found a long, slender box. Her heart bumped hard. “You shouldn’t have,” she warned.

  “Just open it already.”

  She opened the box. Inside was a dazzling diamond necklace. She gasped. “Jacob, you really, really shouldn’t have.”

  He pressed a fingertip to her lips. “Look under the necklace.”

  She pulled the velvet liner from the box. Another gasp stole her breath.

  A shiny brass key.

  “My home is your home.”

  That dark gaze meshed with hers and in that instant she knew that their future together was set.

  But, for now, it would be their secret.

  It would be better if no one at work knew. Plus, there was just something wickedly sexy about the forbidden.

  She tugged him down onto the bed. Forgot about the food. And her presents for him.

  She hugged him, silently thanking her lucky stars she had found him.

  Season of Wonder

  By Marta Perry

  Chapter One

  It was his angel-girl. David Caldwell stopped dead, letting the waves wash over his feet. He hadn’t seen Allison March in fifteen years, but he knew her instantly, with the kind of bone-deep knowledge that didn’t require explanation. Once again, Christmas had brought Allison back to Caldwell Island, South Carolina.

  He waded out of the surf, his footsteps marring the smooth wet sand as he walked toward the two figures on a blanket near the weather-worn cottage in the dunes. He didn’t have to think twice about the identity of the child. The little girl must be about six, the age Allison had been that first Christmas, and she looked the way Ally had then—hair the pale platinum of the sea oats, a delicate heart-shaped face, and huge blue eyes. Just like the angel on their Christmas tree.