Page 3 of Holding Out For A Holiday Hero

“But we had two classes together,” she continued determinedly. “You sat behind me in both of them.”

He’d picked those seats deliberately. True had always smelled like strawberries. By sitting behind her, he’d been able to savor that sweet scent.

“You must remember me?—”

“I remember you.”

Her shoulders sagged. “I’m desperate.”

The people who came to him usually were. Thoroughly intrigued now, he studied her with a more assessing gaze. “You want me to hunt someone for you.” That was his bread and butter, after all. Bounty hunting. While working special ops, he’d become one fine hunter. These days, he stayed stateside, but he still hunted down the perps who thought they were going to escape justice.

No one escaped on his watch.

“Yes.” A sigh. “That’s exactly what I want you to do.”

Now they were working in his wheelhouse. Jake nodded. “Well, tell me the perp’s name, and I’ll start to dig. If he’s jumped bail, then I should be able to?—”

She was shaking her head. No.

“No…what?” Jake asked. His nostrils flared. He thought he’d just caught the scent of strawberries. Still as mouth-watering as ever. Do not drool on the potential client. That would be bad form.

“I…don’t have a name.” Halting.

His eyes narrowed on her. “That will make things more challenging.”

She glanced away from him. “Please don’t think I’m crazy.”

“Uh, okay.”

Her stare flickered back to him and lingered. “Someone is trying to kill me.”

Jake leapt away from the desk. “What?” He grabbed the arms of her chair and leaned in toward her. “Who the hell is doing that?”

“I don’t know, exactly.”

His hands tightened on the chair arms. “Have you gone to the police?”

“Yes, but they didn’t believe me.”

And why not?

“They think I’m imagining things. I’m not.” She was adamant. “Someone shoved me off the sidewalk a few days ago. I was almost hit by a car, but, luckily, the driver swerved at the last moment. I got away with some scrapes and bruises.”

He caught her hands in his. Electricity seemed to pulse through him as he touched her. Damn. Gritting his teeth, Jake turned over her hands. He immediately noticed two things. First, her skin was insanely soft. But, second, he could see the healing scrapes on her palms.

She must have slammed down her hands to try and break her fall.

“I came back to town last year. After my divorce.”

Right. He knew that she’d been married to a lawyer in Atlanta.

“I’ve been working at the museum in town, and two nights ago, part of our Egyptian exhibit came tumbling down toward me. That exhibit piece was secure, I swear it was, and I barely jumped out of the way in time. If I hadn’t looked up when I did, if I hadn’t heard a faint scratch of sound that alerted me, I could have been knocked out. Or worse.”

Damn.

“And…there’s more.”

He maintained his position. And, yes, indeed, he did smell strawberries. And maybe his thumbs were lightly rubbing along the inside of her palms.

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