Holding Out For A Holiday Hero

Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

“Forget rocking around the Christmas tree. I’d rather just make love to True beneath it.”

– Jake Hale

Her lips—red and lush—parted. “What?”

“I didn’t know if you actually had a stalker. I just knew I wanted to be close to you. You painted me as a hero when I was just a selfish bastard, and you need to know the truth.” His hands slammed down on either side of her body.

“You-you brought me home with you that first night because you wanted me?”

“You weren’t staying in that low-rent motel. It was dangerous.” An exhale. “But at that point, I had no clue if your story was real or not. I just knew you were a fantasy, and for the first time, I was close to you.”

“Jake, I?—”

Her words were interrupted because some jerk was pounding on his door. What. The. Hell? Now?

The pounding continued.

Her eyes were on him. He didn’t want to move. He needed to—hell, Jake wasn’t sure what he should do. Ask for forgiveness? Tell her that he was insanely in love with her? Would she even believe that? He’d just fully figured that shit out himself. She’d walked into his life less than what—forty-eight hours ago? Seventy-two? Who would believe love happened that fast?

It wasn’t fast. I think part of me has been in love with her since we were sixteen. Since the first time I didn’t have that damn, fancy-ass calculator for math class because the last thing I’d wanted to do was ask mom for more money. I was in the middle of the class, glaring around, and True shyly passed her calculator to me. She’d shared with him every day and never said a word about it.

So, yeah, he’d been falling in love with her for a very long time.

The pounding came again.

His jaw clenched. “Stay here.” Because they’d set the trap for the perp. And though he seriously doubted the SOB would just show up and knock on the door, he didn’t want to take chances with True’s safety. Jake jumped to his feet. He marched for the front door, and as he did, he pulled his phone from his back pocket. A tap on the screen had him getting a view of his front porch via his doorbell camera.

And he could clearly see the jerk pounding away so hard. Hell. Not what I need right now.

Jake wrenched open the door. “What are you doing here?”

A perp wasn’t at his door. His brother Tommy was.

Tommy frowned at him. “Uh, hello to you, too, brother dearest.” He didn’t wait to be invited inside. He just strode right over the threshold. Like he owned the place. He didn’t. “And I’m here for our annual we-hate-Christmas-so-let’s-get-drunk-and-complain celebration. I’m here because—” Tommy broke off. He pointed. “You have a Christmas tree in your den.”

“Astute of you to notice.”

But the tree wasn’t the only thing Tommy had noticed.

True was on her feet. Standing beside the massive tree, she had her hands tucked behind her back.

“And you have…you have a True beneath your tree,” Tommy loudly whispered. Loud whisper, yep, that would be Tommy. “Damn, bro.” Tommy cut him a glance. “You must have been extremely good this year. I mean, to finally get that wish you’ve had for so long? Are you delirious right now? Hey, do you remember when I found that old photo of her that you used to carry in your wallet? I swear, you took that thing half-way around the world with you and?—”

“ Thank you, Tommy.” That wasn’t a whisper. But Jake’s words were loud. Very, very loud. Loud enough to cut through his oversharing brother’s ramble. “I do remember that, thank you. Thank you so much for bringing it up. Right in front of True.” Jake cleared his throat. “Now, how about you just scoot on out, and I’ll catch up with you tomorrow?”

But Tommy wasn’t scooting anywhere. Well, actually, he was. He was scooting closer to True. Jake shut and locked the front door and followed his brother back to the den.

As he closed in on True, Tommy removed his black gloves and shoved them into the pocket of his billowing coat. Tommy was a clotheshorse. Probably because they’d grown up with secondhand items, Tommy now only bought the most expensive things he could find. Custom fits, most days. He was always ragging on Jake to up his style game, but it wasn’t like you needed a fancy suit when you were running down bounties.

Tommy extended his hand to True. “Do you remember me?” he asked her. “I was two years behind you in school. Thomas Hale, at your service.”

She took his hand. Gave it a quick shake. “I remember you. No one ever forgets the Hale brothers.”

“Aw, right. Back in the day, we were the Raising Hales, weren’t we?” A shake of his head at the old nickname. Yes, they had raised plenty of hell. So the nickname fit. “But we settled down since then,” Tommy assured her. “Or at least, I have.”

He hadn’t let go of True’s hand.

“You are even more beautiful now,” Tommy murmured. “Has my brother told you that? He’s not big on compliments, so he probably hasn’t.”

“True is fucking gorgeous. She always has been.” Jake hauled his brother—and his brother’s hand—away from True.

“How did you get True here?” Tommy squinted at him. “You always got tongue-tied around her in school. Do you remember how you used to just growl and— hey! Stop!”

He did not stop. In fact, Jake shoved his brother toward the front door even harder. “Time to go.”

“But it’s our annual we-hate-Christmas ?—”

“I don’t hate it,” Jake cut through his brother’s words. “I don’t hate it at all.”

Tommy’s stare darted back to True. “Yeah.” Soft. “I guess you don’t, not anymore.” He pulled free of Jake’s grip. “Gonna tell me how you worked this miracle? Because last I knew, you were just giving her stalkery looks when you saw her in the coffee shop.”

Jake glowered. “You can stop oversharing at any point.” Seriously, any point. Jake raked a hand over his face. “True is in danger.”

That news wiped the smile off Tommy’s face. “What?”

“She’s been the victim of several attacks. A dead body was found in her house.”

Tommy managed to shut his gaping mouth. “Are you serious?”

Did it look like he was joking? And why in the world would he ever joke about True’s safety?

“I’ve been out of town—a ski trip with some colleagues to Vail. I had no idea…” Tommy shook his head. “So she’s here because you’re…what, protecting her? I don’t get it. You’re protecting her…with a giant Christmas tree?”

His brother was a pain in his ass. “She’s staying with me because I’m keeping her safe.”

“But you never put up a Christmas tree. Not since you moved out of mom’s place when you were eighteen and you enlisted.”

Tommy was fixated on the tree. “I put one up now.” Or, rather, Perry had technically brought in the tree for him.

“You did it for her. Because she’s…in danger?”

The floor creaked behind him. Jake knew True was closing in. “Because I want her happy. The tree makes her happy, so we have a tree.” It was not a big deal.

Tommy’s eyelids flickered. “Shit. This is gonna be bad, isn’t it?”

Bad? Yeah. If True told him that he needed to get his sorry self out of her life, it would be bad. If she was furious because of what he’d done, it would be bad. And she had to be furious. Talk about your manipulative pricks—that was him.

“We’ll have to start a new tradition, I guess,” Tommy announced after a thoughtful moment. “But that’s cool. Just don’t make me start singing carols. I will kick your ass if you try.”

Tommy couldn’t kick his ass on the best of his brother’s days.

Tommy craned around Jake. “He’s not a bad guy.” Gruff. “Actually, he’s the best guy I know. He paid for my college and law school. Saw more hell on earth than most people can imagine while he was doing his special ops work, but he never shares those nightmares with anyone. He never shares any pain with anyone. He also doesn’t get a lot of joy.”

Why, why did his brother have such a big mouth? Jake didn’t talk enough. Tommy talked too freaking much.

“Can you give him some joy, True?” Tommy asked. “Or are you just here because he’s keeping you safe?”

Wrong question to ask her. Jake unlocked and yanked open the front door. “See you tomorrow, Tommy.”

“I thought it was a fair question. I mean, don’t you want to know?—”

He pushed his brother across the threshold and hauled the door closed behind them. “I’m trying to convince the woman to give me a chance.” Low, meant just for Tommy. Though, considering his confession about why he’d taken her case, that chance had probably been blown to hell and back. “This is important. She is important.”

Tommy nodded. “Important enough for a tree.”

“Stop harping on the tree.”

Tommy rubbed his jaw. “It’s a pretty tree. Little bit lopsided. Could use some lights.” His hand fell. “Maybe I’ll even put one up at my place.” A smile tugged at his lips. “Do you remember that year when I got the football that had been autographed by the University of Georgia quarterback? Thought that was like…the best thing in the world. I was eight and, I swear, I slept with that football for months after Christmas. I took it everywhere. Showed everyone.” An exhale. “Thought Santa had some serious connections in order to get me that ball. He had to be a Georgia fan, right?”

Jake didn’t say a word.

“I still have that football. Guy who signed it went on to be a legend in the NFL. Always thought that was the most amazing present ever.” Tommy turned away. Took two steps. Stopped. “It took me years to realize that you’d given me that football.”

Cold wind blew against Jake’s face. Small snowflakes danced in the air around him.

“How’d you pull it off?” Tommy looked back at him. “How long did you stand in line to get me that autograph?”

It hadn’t been a line. It had just been him, waiting hours and hours outside of the locker room at the University of Georgia. A scrawny kid who’d scraped and saved and taken the bus to the college. His mother had been furious when he finally came home. She’d thought that he’d run away.

“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jake told his brother. “I need to get back inside.” He turned away and reached for the doorknob.

“The football wasn’t the best present I ever got. You were the best present.”

Shit. “Don’t you dare get all emotional on me.”

“I would never.”

Yeah, he would.

“Just…thanks for being my brother. That’s all I’m saying.”

Jake whipped around and stared in surprise at Tommy.

“If she’s smart, she’ll fall in love with you, and this will just be the first of many Christmases when I come over to find True and a giant Christmas tree waiting at your place. You deserve some happiness, brother. And I hope you get it.” Tommy pulled out his gloves. “Damn cold out here. We’re supposed to get a lot more snow soon. A white Christmas will be fun, don’t you think?”

“It will be a pain in the ass.” Automatic words. Words that he…didn’t mean.

Tommy laughed. “Bah humbug, to you, too.” He waved and darted for his car.

“Tommy!”

His brother glanced back.

Jake swallowed. Twice. “Merry Christmas.”

A wide smile split Tommy’s face. “Didn’t kill you to say it, did it?” Laughing, he hurried away.

No, it hadn’t killed him.

Jake swung away. He twisted the doorknob and headed inside. Silence waited for him. Squaring his shoulders, he strode for the den. He and True had to finish their talk. The one where he very much hoped she didn’t tell him that they were done.

“True, I?—”

He drew up to a dead stop.

True stood near the Christmas tree again. Only she wasn’t alone. A man in a bulky, black coat—a man wearing a black ski mask over his face and gloves on his hands—stood right beside her. And in one of his glove-covered hands, he held a gun.

A gun that was pressed to True’s head.

Every muscle in Jake’s body locked down.

“Ho, ho, ho, bastard,” the man in the mask rasped. “Don’t make another move, or I will pull the trigger, and your big Christmas gift this year will be one dead True.”