Page 45 of Holding Out For A Holiday Hero

He ended the call. The bathroom door cracked open. True peeked at him.

She was so beautiful with her disheveled hair and bright eyes and her plump lips. He closed in on her, and his gaze dipped to her throat.

A faint, red mark still remained on her skin. A mark he’d made with his mouth.

“What’s the plan?” True asked him as she continued to grip the covers to her body.

The plan…

Charm you. Protect you. Convince you to fall hopelessly in love with me.

“Jake?”

He cleared his throat. “We search your house. We go over every attack you’ve had, and we investigate every person in your life. We find out who the hell is after you, and I rip out his heart.”

She blinked those big, blue eyes of hers. “Maybe we should lock him up in jail?”

“Sure, that, too.” Lock him up and make certain he never got out again. After Jake ripped out his heart. “You’ll be safe while we hunt. I’ll protect you.”

“I know.” Soft. “I trust you, remember?”

I trust you.

Maybe one day soon, she’d be saying…

I love you.

Huh. How about that? Turned out, he did want something very badly for Christmas. True’s love.

Time to fight dirty for it.

Chapter Ten

“Tis the season…to solve a murder.”

– Detective Harris Avery (What? I wanted a quote, too.)

* * *

The cops had left up a line of yellow police tape near True’s front door. Jake saw it the instant he stepped out of his vehicle. The yellow tape definitely clashed with the festive garland that True had hung up around her entranceway. He’d barely noticed the garland on his last visit to her place. The garland inside on her bannisters? Yeah, he’d seen that stuff. But he hadn’t paid much attention the house’s exterior decorations.

Probably because he’d been too focused on her. And then on the dead body. Dead bodies tended to distract people.

He walked around the vehicle and raised his hand to open True’s car door for her.

Someone is in the black BMW. The one parked in front of her neighbor’s house. Only Jake didn’t think that driver was a guest of the neighbor.

Jake’s hand pulled away from the door. He turned toward the BMW.

The BMW’s driver side door opened.

And True opened her door, too. “Jake? What’s wrong?”

A man climbed from the BMW. Tall. With carefully styled black hair, wearing a blue sweater and khakis, and aviator sunglasses perched on his nose, he turned his head and seemed to zero in on Jake.

Then the fool began walking toward Jake. A slightly unsteady walk. And maybe those aviators were a little lopsided on his nose.

“What is he doing here?” Horror filled True’s voice. “Richard shouldn’t be in Rosewood!”

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