Hot Winter Nights (Heartbreaker Bay #6)(62)

Her entire body quivered. Stupid body. “Just . . . close your eyes!”

He did as she asked.

“No cheating,” she warned.

“I never cheat,” he said and she knew that was most certainly true.

He wasn’t a man who needed to cheat, at anything. He was honest to the core, almost brutally so. Still, she kept an eye on him as she quickly changed from Business Woman to Bingo Elf. “Okay,” she said when she was done imitating a contortionist to get into the costume. “I’ll be at bingo. I get a break in two hours. According to Mrs. Berkowitz and Mrs. White, that’s the same time that Louise goes on break. She’s the one who used to be an elf, but got a promotion and works in the office now. On her break, she walks to the woods and smokes two cigarettes, taking every second of her allotted twenty minutes. That’s when I’m going to go back into the office and snoop around while their laptops are in there, hopefully unguarded.”

“I’ll be with you.”

She nodded. This was not a surprise. What was a surprise was how much she knew she could count on him and how good that felt.

Dammit.



Lucas got out of the car and watched as Molly entered through the front gates, being waved through thanks to the costume.

He paid the entrance fee for himself and made sure Molly got into the bingo hall safely before he went wandering. He made his way through the grounds including all the booths, noting who was working where. The booths were run almost entirely by female elves, although there were a handful of male elves as well. Their costumes were shorts instead of a dress, and they were just as unfortunately snug in all the very wrong places.

There was a new addition since they’d last been here. A Christmas tree lot, worked by two teenage kids. All transactions seemed to be cash. In between the booths and the tree lot was another new area—a Santa photo booth. It sat empty. The sign said Santa would show at eight p.m.

The same time as Molly’s break.

Lucas circled around to the office trailer and spent some time staking it out. He could see through the two lit windows that the only people inside were Louise and Santa. At five to eight, Santa stood up and pulled on a red coat and wig and exited the trailer, stomping down the stairs and past Lucas in the bushes.

At two minutes to eight, he heard Molly come up from behind him to stand at his side.

“Caught you,” she whispered.

“I heard you coming.”

“Okay, Mr. Never Screws Anything Up.”

He slid her a look. “If that were true, you’d still be sleeping with me.”

“We’re not . . .” She broke off and shook her head. “Not doing this now.” She pulled her phone from her bra and looked at the time. “It’s time to go in.”

He handed her a blank flash drive. “Copy whatever you find onto this if you can.”

She slipped it into her bra.

“Interesting hiding place,” he said.

“Look at me.” She held out her arms. “You see anywhere else to hide anything?”

Nope. He saw nothing but warm, soft, perfect curves. “I’m giving you two minutes.”

“Seven,” she said. “Louise won’t be back for ten.”

“Make it five.”

“Fine,” she said so easily he knew he’d been had and she’d planned on five all along. “Wait here.”

“Like hell.” He took her hand and led her up the stairs, trying not to notice how incredibly long her legs seemed in that short dress and booties. Long enough to be wrapped around his waist while he—

“It’s open,” she whispered of the office door and slid inside, putting a hand on his chest when he went to follow. “It makes much more sense for you to wait outside. It’s far easier to explain me being in there than you, if it comes to that.”

He didn’t give a shit about explanations. He gave a shit about keeping her safe. “Understood,” he said, putting his hand over hers and giving a squeeze. “But only because this way I can watch your six and the door at the same time.” He then gave her a quick kiss that shocked him every bit as much as it shocked her.

“Stay alert,” he said.

She saluted him. “Yes, sir.”

“I like that,” he said, pointing at her. And then he left, vanishing into the surrounding shrubbery.



He hung out in the shadows, counting off the minutes in his head. At the three-minute mark, Louise unexpectedly showed up at the bottom of the stairs to the office.

She was early.

He headed up the walk to stall her. “Hey,” he said. “Just who I was looking for. You’re in charge of the crafting elves, right?”

Louise looked flustered at the sight of him and put a hand to her chest. “Yes. How did you know—”

“They’re having a little tussle at the stockings booth. Someone insulted one of the ladies’ goods and you can imagine how that went over.”

“I bet it was Eleanor. She’s such a bitch.”

Lucas nodded. “Anyway, it escalated and I think they need a referee.”

“Dammit, I told them the next time they started throwing things at each other that I’d fire their geriatric asses and buy out the dollar store and slap homemade tags on everything.” She whirled and stormed back down the path.