Page 16 of Holding Out For A Holiday Hero

“I am the one who discovered the body,” Jake stated, voice calm and cool and so very controlled. “And, no, I didn’t touch anything near the dead guy.”

“You didn’t try to help him?” Harris asked.

Jake laughed. “Uh, no. You can’t help the dead. Clearly, he was dead. Had been that way for hours. I backed away. Got True out of there. And, like the responsible citizens we are, we called the cops.” His hands flattened on the table. “We’ve cooperated. We’ve helped with your investigation. But this grilling BS with True has to stop. She’s obviously the victim.”

“Uh, some would say the vic was the dead man in her house—” Harris began.

“How’d he get in?” Jake demanded. “The front entrance showed no signs of tampering. I’m betting the same can’t be the case for her back door. Or maybe a window. And I saw the ski mask on the floor near the dead guy.”

Wow. What ski mask? She hadn’t noticed it. But Jake had hauled her—carried her—out of the house fast after she’d seen the body.

“You know that someone has been terrorizing True.” Anger rumbled beneath Jake’s words. “Only instead of helping her, you left her on her own.” That wasn’t just anger vibrating in his voice. It was quiet rage. “If I hadn’t been with her last night, if True had been home, just what in the hell do you think that bastard would have done? You think a bastard breaks in, wearing a ski mask, because he’s there to fucking sing Christmas carols to her?”

True realized she was holding her breath.

I hadn’t intended to be home last night. I was going to stay at a motel. I was so sure I could feel someone watching me.

Jake’s head turned toward her. “You told me that you felt like someone had been in your house before.”

She nodded.

“And you told the same story to the cops before you came to me.”

“I…told Harris.”

Jake’s head swung back toward Harris. “And you didn’t investigate? What the fuck?”

“Do you know how many cases I’m working?” Harris jerked a hand through his reddish-brown hair.

“I don’t give a shit about your other cases. I’m here for her. True is what matters to me.” A tight, angry pause. “You should have helped her when she first came to the station.”

Harris grimaced.

But Jake wasn’t done. “The asshole dead beneath her tree? The one near the discarded ski mask?” Jake gritted out.

True flinched.

“He could have been in her home over and over. He could have been sneaking in to watch her while she slept.”

Her stomach knotted. Hello, new nightmares.

“He was stalking her,” Jake continued relentlessly. “Terrorizing her. If she had been home last night, she could be the dead one beneath the?—”

“Don’t,” True whispered even as her hand flew out and curled around his arm.

Jake tensed beneath her touch.

“I’m okay,” she added.

He released a low breath. His head turned once more toward her. “It fucking pisses me off, sweets,” he rumbled. “You should never have been threatened. Cops aren’t doing shit. Interrogating you? Acting like you’re the perp when you’ve been the vic all along? Screw that. From here on out, count on me.”

“Well, damn.” A surprised exclamation from Harris. “It really is like that with you two?”

“Screw yourself, Harris,” Jake ordered without looking away from True.

Her eyes widened. She didn’t think he was supposed to tell a detective to go screw himself.

A knock sounded at the door.

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