Hot Winter Nights (Heartbreaker Bay #6)(70)

“I thought Santa was a cheap bastard.”

Mrs. Berkowitz smiled. “I knew you were a smart cookie. He’s way too cheap to spend this much money on us. And plus”—she lowered her voice—“I overheard him on the phone telling someone that he was taking care of things tonight and not to worry. That’s bad, right?”

Well, it didn’t sound like anything good.

“Do you think he’s going to have the bus run off the narrow curvy summit on the way to Reno?” Mrs. Berkowitz asked. “So he can be rid of us pests once and for all?”

She actually didn’t. That would be a lot of counts of murder. But just in case, she asked, “When are you all due to leave?”

“In an hour.”

“I’m on my way,” Molly said. “Don’t let that bus leave before I get there. Stall, distract him, whatever you have to do.”

“Wear your elf costume, dear. He still thinks you’re just a green-capped elf. He hasn’t yet placed you as an investigator.”

Molly blinked, a bad feeling going through her. “No one should be able to place me,” she said. “I didn’t tell anyone from the village that I was there for anything other than work.”

“That was very smart of you.”

Molly sighed. “Did you?”

“Did I what?”

“Tell anyone I was there for something other than work?” she said, trying to be patient.

“Oh. Well, you know how people talk . . .”

Molly rubbed her temples where she was getting a stress headache. “People like you and Mrs. White?”

The picture on the screen suddenly went sideways and then upside down.

“Sorry!” Mrs. Berkowitz yelled. “Dropped you!” The screen straightened out and Mrs. Berkowitz blinked owlishly at Molly. “There you are again. And your hottie boyfriend’s there too.”

“What? I don’t have a—” Molly turned and found Lucas leaning against the doorjamb, arms crossed over his chest. His biceps and chest strained the material of his black T-shirt. His cargo pants fit him like they’d been made for him and it didn’t escape her attention that he was loaded for bear.

And not looking very pleased.

She turned her attention back to her phone. Mrs. Berkowitz had shifted, holding the phone farther away, which allowed Molly to see more of the elf’s surroundings for the first time. They were near the offices in Santa’s Village. The office trailer was maybe twenty feet back, but the setting sun was just at the right angle to allow Molly a clear view inside the office window.

A woman stood inside, smiling as someone came up behind her. He bent close and kissed her on the neck.

Santa.

Molly tried to focus in on the woman. It wasn’t Louise. It was . . . Janet, who closed her eyes in what appeared to be bliss before turning to face Santa, who pushed her up against the desk and kissed her. Arms locked around each other, they sank out of view, presumably to the floor to finish what they’d started.

Santa and Janet? But the elf was supposedly on Mrs. Berkowitz and Mrs. White’s team, trying to catch Santa at being a criminal. “Janet?” she murmured, shocked.

“Janet’s not here,” Mrs. Berkowitz said. “She left me a text that she’s not going with us to Reno. She got a better offer, whatever that means. At our age, we don’t get better offers than a free to trip to Reno.”

Molly didn’t want to have this conversation until she was on the premises to protect her neighbor. “Just don’t get on that bus,” she said. “Stall if you can. I’ll be there as soon as I can get across town.” She disconnected.

Lucas held out her jacket for her to slip her arms into. His was already on and he had his keys in his hand. “What’s going to be your reason for going in?” he asked.

“I’ll say I didn’t get the text canceling me for tonight. Did you see inside the office window?” she asked. “Janet and Santa are doing it.”

“Doing what?”

“It.”

He grimaced.

“If those two are involved—”

“I know,” he said grimly. And that was the thing about Lucas. He could be absolutely wild in bed and often was, but give him a mission and he turned into a super sexy bundle of focused intensity. “She’s hiding something,” he said.

“Yeah, like maybe she was never on Mrs. Berkowitz’s side at all.”

“Or she’s a plant to report back to Nick,” Lucas said. “She could be totally out of his loop, just a pawn.”

“You really think so?”

“I think I want that memory stick,” he said. “And a little chat with Janet.”

She nodded. “That’s my plan.”

“You mean our plan,” he said. “Partners, remember?”

It was getting hard to forget . . .



Lucas drove to the Christmas Village, doing his best to watch the road and not his partner as she once again managed a full costume change in his passenger seat. Only two wheels went off the road when she gave him an inadvertent peekaboo hint at a midnight blue silky thong. He was proud of himself for that.

“Whoa,” she said, sliding up against the door.

He grimaced and righted them, being more careful even though he got enough of a view of her breasts to know her bra was a matched set to the thong, one of those low-cut numbers that nearly revealed her nipples.