Page 27 of Noel
And I can feel it now—the shift from professional distance to something else entirely.
The protective urge that isn’t about the job anymore.
I thumb the comm button on my radio.“Kai.”
“Yeah, boss?”
“How’s she doing?”
A beat.
Then, “Shaken, but holding it together.Keeps asking when you’re coming back.”
My jaw tightens.“Tell her I’ll be there in five.”
Because the truth is, I can handle surveillance, suspects, and threats in my sleep.
What I can’t handle is the idea of Holly sitting alone in that room, scared, thinking she’s just another case file.
She’s not.
Not anymore.
Chapter7
Holly
The Stargazer Hotel—Studio B
I’ve lost track of time.
It feels like I’ve been sitting here for hours, though the clock on the wall insists it’s only been forty-five minutes.
The silence hums.Even the sound of my own breathing feels too loud.
Kai, the big blond agent standing guard at the door, is polite but carved from stone.
He answers my attempts at small talk with grunts that could mean anything from yes to please stop speaking.
So instead I scroll through work messages, pretending my stomach isn’t twisting itself into knots.
There’s an email from the caterer confirming the dessert table redesign, one from the florist, and—oh—three missed calls from Big City Events, which I ignore.
The last voicemail is from Clementine Aziz, my current client and friend.
I hit play.
“Holly, honey, call me when you can, okay?Connor told me what happened.Please tell me you’re safe.”
Her voice tightens at the end, the way it always does when she’s trying not to worry.
My throat thickens.I hit call back.
“Clementine Callahan,” she answers on the first ring, breathless.
“Hi, Clem.It’s Holly?—”
“Oh, thank God!Tell me you’re somewhere safe, my darling party wizard.”
