Christmas Confidential
Read Christmas Confidential Online
Authors: Marilyn Pappano; Linda Conrad
Two stories of private investigators hot on the trails of the women they love…just in time for Christmas!
Holiday Protector
by
MARILYN PAPPANO
The last person Miri Duncan wants to see on her first day out of jail is P.I. Dean Montgomery—the man who put her there. But when their cross-country drive turns dangerous, she can’t deny that Dean’s protection is good for her. But is it good for her heart?
A Chance Reunion
by
LINDA CONRAD
Who is the mysterious woman who looks so much like his dead wife? Gage Chance doesn’t know, but he has to find out. And when bullets begin to fly, he’ll risk his life to save hers and get to the bottom of things. Will the truth be more than he can handle?
Praise for
MARILYN PAPPANO
“A good mystery combines with a great romance for a fantastic book.”
—RT Book Reviews on Protector’s Temptation
“Pappano’s highly entertaining story has it all…Once you start it, you’ll be reading until all is revealed.”
—RT Book Reviews on Criminal Deception
“This engrossing, atmospheric story is loaded with hot, sultry passion and complex characters.”
—RT Book Reviews on Scandal in Copper Lake
Praise for
LINDA CONRAD
“A great romance and adventure that the reader won’t be able to put down.”
—RT Book Reviews on The Sheikh’s Lost Princess
“Conrad casts her own magical spell with a terrific mix of good versus evil and plenty of passion and sensuality. Readers will be bewitched!”
—RT Book Reviews on In Safe Hands
“Packed with sincere emotions and realistic danger, resulting in an intensely satisfying romance.”
—
Cataromance.com
on Safe by His Side
MARILYN PAPPANO
has spent most of her life growing into the person she was meant to be, but isn’t there yet. She’s been blessed by family—her husband, their son, his lovely wife and a grandson who is almost certainly the most beautiful and talented baby in the world—and friends, along with a writing career that’s made her one of the luckiest people around. Her passions, besides those already listed, include the pack of wild dogs who make their home in her house, fighting the good fight against the weeds that make up her yard, killing the creepy-crawlies that slither out of those weeds and, of course, anything having to do with books.
LINDA CONRAD
When asked about her favorite things, Linda Conrad lists a longtime love affair with her husband, her sweetheart of a dog named KiKi and a sunny afternoon with nothing to do but read a good book. Inspired by generations of storytellers in her family and pleased to have many happy readers’ comments, Linda continues creating her own sensuous and suspenseful stories about compelling characters finding love.
A bestselling author of more than twenty-five books, Linda has received numerous industry awards, among them the National Reader’s Choice Award, the Maggie, the Write Touch Readers’ Award and the
RT Book Reviews
Reviewers’ Choice Award. To contact Linda, to read more about her books or to sign up for her newsletter and/or contests, go to her website,
www.lindaconrad.com
.
Marilyn Pappano
Linda Conrad
Christmas Confidential
Contents
Dear Reader,
We have exciting news for you! Starting in January, Harlequin Romantic Suspense is unveiling a brand-new look that’s a fresh take on our beautiful covers.
There’s more! Along with new covers, the stories will be longer—more action, more excitement, more romance. Follow your beloved characters on their passion-filled adventures. Be sure to look for the newly packaged and longer Harlequin Romantic Suspense stories wherever you buy books.
In the meantime, you can check out this month’s adrenaline-charged reads:
CHRISTMAS CONFIDENTIAL by Marilyn Pappano and Linda Conrad
COLTON SHOWDOWN by Marie Ferrarella
O’HALLORAN’S LADY by Fiona Brand
NO ESCAPE by Meredith Fletcher
Happy reading!
Patience Bloom
Senior Editor
Marilyn Pappano
Holiday Protector
Contents
Chapter 1
W
alking out of the prison doors for the first time was much easier than walking in.
Miri Duncan stood in the bright afternoon sun, just soaking it all in: the grass beneath her feet, the crisp December air, the gates and tall fences of the armed fortress behind her. After 432 days, she could do what she wanted—walk down the highway in either direction, sit down right where she was, do anything or nothing. She was free.
Free.
Such a heady thought...and a scary one. She had to make decisions for herself now. Luckily, she’d been planning this day since the day she’d arrived at the women’s correctional center. She had places to go and people to see—three, to be exact. Her sister, Sophy, in Copper Lake, Georgia, their brother, Oliver, in Asheville, North Carolina, and baby sister, Chloe, in Dothan, Alabama.
The nearest town was about a mile south along the highway, one of the guards had told her, so she turned in that direction. There she could catch a bus to Dallas, where a storage locker held some of her belongings. Then she would head to Copper Lake with a gift like Sophy had never seen.
The sound of an approaching vehicle made her step a few feet farther from the white line marking the southbound lane. She glanced over her shoulder and saw a silver pickup, a red-and-green wreath secured to its grille and large brown antlers affixed to the roof. The reminder that Christmas was only four days away surprised her. Once upon a time it had been the most exciting time of the year for her and her siblings, with a tree, decorations, parties and more gifts than they’d ever needed or even wanted. Mama had
loved
Christmas and celebrated it with a vengeance.
Until everything went wrong and neither Mama nor Miri had ever again acknowledged the day as anything but one more to get through.
Stiffening her shoulders, Miri shoved the memories back into their dark corner and focused on the days ahead. She’d had Sophy’s gift ready for delivery last Christmas, before she’d found out she would be a guest of the state of Texas for the holiday. Sophy was only four years younger than Miri, so in their last months together, they’d shared the burden of caring for their family. They’d soothed the younger kids and Mama, then cried on each other’s shoulders when the others slept. She was the one Miri wanted to see first. The one Miri missed most.
The sounds of another vehicle approaching caught her attention. This time she didn’t bother to look but walked on, one foot scuffing the edge of the shoulder. The whine of the tires on pavement decreased, and a moment later, the hum of a powerful engine came alongside her. She didn’t shift her gaze, as if ignoring the car would make its driver ignore her.
It seemed to work for a moment. The car drove past, then steered onto the shoulder, blocking her way ahead. She stopped suddenly, hands clenching in her pockets. She knew that car. Worse, she knew its driver.
The driver’s door opened slowly, and she wondered if she could run back to the prison before the man could catch her. But she would be damned if she would let him make her run. The past was done. Her debt was paid.
Lengthening her stride, she passed the car on the passenger side. Her peripheral vision caught a glimpse of black hair, a jacket that she knew smelled of old leather and felt as soft as butter. She willed him not to speak, willed herself not to hear, but that worked about as well as ignoring him.
“Hey, Miriam.”
She’d switched to her middle name twelve years ago, shortening it to Miri, thinking to make a new start as a new person. He was the only person in all that time who’d called her Miriam. She did
not
like it, the way it came out
meer-e-yumm,
any more than she liked him.
“I would have been here sooner but I got held up on the way.”
She kept walking.
The car door closed, then he jogged to catch up and circle around in front of her. “Aw, come on, Miriam. No grudges, right?”
She kept walking, forcing him to move backward to stay ahead.
“Hey, give me a break, huh? I was just doing my job. At least let me make it up to you now with a ride into Dallas.”
She kept walking, shoving past him when he stopped, tensing at the contact, half expecting him to grab her arm or her hand.
Not
disappointed when he didn’t.
“I’m just trying to be a nice guy, Miriam,” he called after her.
Finally she stopped, her entire body stiff. She turned to face him slowly, hands fisted in her pockets. “No one would mistake you for a nice guy, Montgomery.”
Foolish enough to think she could be cajoled, he smiled that big-kid smile that got him pretty much anything he wanted from women of all ages, opened his arms in an expansive gesture and laid on the Texas drawl. “
You
used to think I was nice, Miriam. You thought I was
real
nice. Nice enough to kiss. Nice enough to—” His shoulders lifted in a shrug.
The kicker was, he was right. He’d been charming and sexy and funny, and he had a way of looking at a person as if she were the only thing that existed in his universe. She
had
thought he was nice. She’d thought he might be The One.
Men were put here to break our hearts, baby,
her mother used to say in her rare moments of lucidity. Miri had had experience with only two—her father and Dean Montgomery—and they’d both surely done that.
“What do you want?”
His smile disappeared into a tight-lipped grimace, and he shoved his hands into his jacket pockets. Inside the left one, she knew, were his keys. Inside the other, a stash of cellophane-wrapped peppermints. Despite the chill, he was radiating heat. He always did, as if he had too much passion for his body to contain.
“Listen, Miriam, I just want to make up a little for my part in what happened. What’s the harm in accepting a ride into the city from me? Hell, I’ll take you wherever you want to go. It’s my way of saying I’m sorry.”
He sounded sincere, but Miri had too much experience with expert liars to trust him. Her father was the best liar in the world. She was a pretty good one, too. She even lied to herself and even, sometimes, believed it.
Still, she wanted to get to Georgia before doubt had a chance to win her over to its side. Doubt said she should put the gift in a box and ship it to Sophy, that Sophy didn’t want to see her, probably didn’t even remember her. After all, she’d been just six when Social Services had separated them. Eventually Miri had returned home with their mother, but the younger three kids had all been placed in new homes with new families.