Page 28 of Holding Out For A Holiday Hero

“This is True. So sorry I can’t take your call…”

He hung up.

Then immediately dialed again.

Jake heard the faint hum of a ringing phone coming from inside the closed double doors. He grabbed for the doorknob on the right. Twisted it. Locked. Automatically, he twisted the left doorknob, too. Both were locked. But…

“This is True. So sorry I can’t?—”

Jake’s phone was at his ear, being held in place by his shoulder.

True’s phone was inside the Egyptian display area. Maybe she’d left it in there earlier. Or maybe True was in that space right the hell then. “True!” Jake bellowed.

No response.

“True!” He shoved his phone into one of the billowing pockets in the Santa coat.

Footsteps thundered toward him. His head turned, and a flashlight hit him dead in the eyes. What the fuck was up with these security bozos shining their lights at him?

“What’s happening?” Braden demanded.

“Unlock these doors, now,” Jake fired.

“I-I don’t have the key to this display space. I don’t get access to the big exhibit areas. I mostly patrol the exterior and the open hallways. Robert has keys for the high-value rooms. We can go find him?—”

Screw that. Jake lifted his big, black, Santa boot…and he kicked in the doors.

Chapter Seven

“Santa Claus is coming to town.

And he is gonna kick the ass of anyone who wants to hurt True.” – Jake Hale

* * *

“What are you doing?” A desperate shriek from Braden. “You can’t?—”

The lights flashed on overhead even as Jake bounded inside the exhibit. His gaze cut around the exhibit space. No sign of True. But there were some broken shards of pottery near a black display stand.

“She’s not here,” Braden said, voice cracking a bit around the edges. “And you just broke the doors. I am going to be in so much trouble. We have to get out of here, now.”

Jake hauled his phone back out and dialed her number again. It rang once, twice—he heard the rings in that damn display room. His focus zeroed in on the sarcophagus to the right.

“This is True. So sorry I can’t?—

Jake thrust the phone back into a pocket and lunged for the sarcophagus. He could hear rings coming from inside that sarcophagus and…faint thumping sounds.

“No!” Braden jumped in front of him. “Don’t smash it the way you smashed the doors. This is on loan! Miss True will kill me if you damage it! Kill. Me!”

“Get the fuck out of the way, or I may damage you, kid.”

The kid got the fuck out of the way. Jake shoved aside the top of the sarcophagus. Shouldn’t the thing have been secured more? Locked in place or something?

Only when that top slid to the side, he didn’t see some ancient mummy waiting for him. He saw True. With ropes on her hands and feet and some kind of gag in her mouth. Her eyes were wide and terrified, and a killing fury tore through him even as he hauled her out of the sarcophagus. A freaking coffin. Someone stuffed True in a coffin.

“Sweets?” With True in his arms, Jake double-timed it out of the exhibit area even as Braden trailed him.

The kid kept saying, “OhmyGod” over and over again.

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