Come Toy with Me. Cara Summers

voice when it came was low-pitched and uncomfortably close. “I come in peace. Don’t shoot me.”

      Dino drew his hand out of his pocket. Jase Campbell could move more quietly than anyone he knew. “That was a risky move. I might have shot you.”

      “Nah.” There was a wealth of humor in Jase’s hushed voice. “I would have taken you down before you ever drew your weapon. Remember that time in Afghanistan?”

      “Yeah.” Dino never forgot the times he’d almost bought it. “You saved my life.”

      “It was a mutual saving that time. Your hunches and my moves. They’re a pretty unbeatable combination.”

      “I hope so.” Dino moved out from behind the Dumpster to where he could once more see Cat and her father. They were eating, and the tension he’d seen earlier had eased. “I need more than your pretty moves this time around. I need your high-tech expertise. Any possibilities on who’s leaking information on an ongoing CIA investigation to Colonel James McGuire?”

      Jake’s chuckle was low-pitched as he materialized out of the darkness. “No proof. But I have a prime suspect. You know, there’s a nice little pub across the street. We could have a beer while I report.”

      “My job and her father are sitting in the window right beneath the Guinness sign.”

      Jase turned to look and gave a soft whistle. “She’s certainly a looker. I wouldn’t mind playacting the part of her fiancé.”

      “You want to bodyguard someone who can’t know you’re bodyguarding her?” And touch her and kiss her in public and still retain a clear head?

      Jase sighed. “There’s always a catch to these dream jobs.”

      “That’s where you come in. I need a second set of eyes.” He’d filled Jase in earlier on everything he knew about the case—which was limited to what McGuire had told him. Jase was going to provide backup twenty-four-seven. “There’s a fed in the doorway next to her shop.”

      “Not anymore. He took off when I asked him for a match.”

      Dino grinned. “He’ll be back.”

      “Hopefully, he’ll find a more, shall we say, subtle hiding place.”

      “Where’s your man stationed?”

      “He’s already in her apartment building. I figured you and I could see she got inside safely. You think the danger is imminent?”

      “I don’t think anything yet. I’m not even willing to believe she’s as innocent as her father says she is. I’m just playing it safe. Drugs, money and terrorists. There could be some pretty ruthless people involved in this.”

      Cat and her father had risen from their table and were pulling on coats as they threaded their way to the door of the pub.

      “So who’s your prime suspect at the CIA?”

      “You’re going to love this. Jack Phillips, Cat’s uncle and McGuire’s brother-in-law by his first wife, is a career man at the CIA. He’s never risen up through the ranks because he has a reputation of being a bit of a rogue. He and McGuire aren’t on the best of terms, but I figure Phillips might be feeding information to McGuire to ensure his niece’s safety.”

      When Cat and McGuire appeared at the mouth of the alleyway, Dino and Jase faded back behind the Dumpster.

      “You know, little girl, you should never take this shortcut alone at night,” McGuire said as they passed.

      “Daddy, this is a safe neighborhood. Everyone uses this alleyway.”

      As the voices dwindled, Jase said, “You’re going to have your work cut out for you.”

      In more ways than one, Dino thought. “Let’s go have that beer.”

      CAT LET HERSELF INTO her apartment and flipped the switch that turned on the Tiffany-style lamp in her living room. The switch also turned on twinkling lights on the small Christmas tree on the narrow table behind her sofa.

      Dropping her tote on the coffee table, she avoided the sofa. If she sat down, she might be tempted to close her eyes—and then it would be all over for tonight. Exhaustion had slammed into her the instant her father had seen her inside the building and turned to walk back across the courtyard.

      She reached the window in time to see him stride out of the alleyway into the street. A rush of love overtook her. Would there come a day when he couldn’t talk her into whatever he wanted her to do?

      A fake engagement was the last thing she needed on her plate right now. She had a delayed shipment of dolls, and an assistant buyer who couldn’t seem to find a way of contacting her. And twenty-four children might be disappointed for Christmas.

      Just thinking about that had a band of pain tightening around her heart. Christmas should be a time of joy, especially for children.

      Cat straightened her shoulders. Giving in to worries and anxiety attacks had never been her way. It had never been her mother’s way either. She focused her attention back on the courtyard. Magnolia, lilac, and dogwood trees that would bloom beautifully in the spring were now strung with tiny white lights that twinkled like stars.

      Christmas was a time for miracles. She’d always believed in that. Those dolls were going to arrive. Tomorrow.

      She shifted her focus back to the tall figure of her father still standing in front of the alleyway. She could see the Guinness sign blinking over one of the windows at Patty’s Pub. It was going to be tricky catching a taxi at nearly eleven in this section of town. She should have reminded him to call for one when they were having an Irish coffee.

      Then a limo pulled up and Orlando, the Merceri family’s chauffeur, stepped out. Cat kept forgetting how much her father’s life had changed since he’d married Gianna Merceri. But she was so happy for him. She was well aware of how much he’d loved her mother and of how close they’d been. But he loved Gianna, too.

      Her lips curved in a smile. Anyone who could find that kind of love even once was lucky, so she figured James McGuire was doubly so.

      Hopefully, one day she’d share in that luck. But right now she had problems to solve: try Matt one more time, check the weather report on the storm that was forecast to slam into Manhattan, and read over the scenario she was supposed to enact starting tomorrow with her never-before-seen fiancé.

      For just a second, she rested her head against the windowpane. Well, she’d make it through this. Eleven days wasn’t that long. And her father was right—she could use an extra pair of hands in the store.

      She might even be able to talk her make-believe fiancé into donning a Santa Claus suit. Cheered by the idea, she was about to turn away from the window and reheat some morning coffee when her eye was drawn to the two men sitting in Patty’s Pub beneath the blinking Guinness sign.

      Suddenly her senses went on full alert. No. Full alert was way too tame a description for the entire-body meltdown she was experiencing. That man—not the one with longish blond hair in a thick black sweater—but the one with hair the color of coal in the black bomber jacket. She’d seen him before.

      Racing into her bedroom, she snatched her binoculars off the top shelf of her closet and dashed back to the window. Yes. Yes, it was him. She’d only had that brief glimpse of him, but she remembered that slash of cheekbone and that impression she’d had of warriorlike strength. He was definitely the same man she’d seen standing at the edge of the small crowd of customers she’d let into her shop that morning. The same man who’d liquefied her knees and sent her thoughts flying away.

      Just looking at him through the binoculars had her heart skipping a beat and her throat going dry. And then the same fantasy that had been teasing at the edges of her mind all day suddenly flooded it. The two of them naked, their bodies locked together and rolling across the floor. A baffling need arose in her to get closer to him—to just go over