Her Mistletoe Protector

She was flabbergasted with Edith’s decision. “Maybe you should take some time to reconsider,” she said. “Gerry has been with the company for seventeen years—I’m sure everything will be fine.”

“I’ve made my decision.” Edith’s tone held an underlying note of steel. “And I’m telling you because you’re the one I was working for.”

Rachel sensed there was nothing she could say to talk her senior assistant out of resigning. “I’ll make sure you get all your vacation pay, Edith,” she said, even though technically she didn’t own the company anymore. Surely the payroll staff would still listen to her. “And if you change your mind—”

“I won’t. Goodbye, Rachel.”

Rachel disconnected from the call just as her phone battery gave out.

“Edith resigned?” Nick asked with a dark frown.

“Apparently.” She sank into the seat next to Nick, trying to grapple with the news. “I feel terrible about this. Edith has been with the company for thirty years.”

“It’s not as if you sold off your shares on purpose,” Nick reminded her gently. “This isn’t your fault.”

Yes, it was her fault, but she couldn’t deny that she’d do it all again in a heartbeat if it meant getting Joey back safely. Up until now, she’d convinced herself that her life was the only one impacted by her decision.

She took a deep breath and met Nick’s sympathetic gaze. There was nothing she could do now but move forward. “Let’s work on that timeline....”

* * *

Nick wanted nothing more than to reach over and pull Rachel close, to comfort her. She looked as if she’d lost her best friend, and maybe she had. He suspected Edith had been her rock, especially after her father passed away.

There wasn’t anything he could say to her to make her feel better, so he took her cue and agreed to work on the timeline.

“I need paper,” he muttered. He’d prefer a large whiteboard or bulletin board, but paper would do in a pinch, far better than the computer.

“I think there was some in the bedroom, I’ll be right back.” Rachel returned a few minutes later with a tattered notebook. “Sorry, but this is all I could find,” she said.

“Perfect,” he said, taking the notebook from her hands. Their fingers brushed and he tried to ignore the tingling that radiated up his arm. This wasn’t the time or the place to think about kissing Rachel again. He tore several sheets of paper out and set them side by side.

“We should probably start with the failed diabetes medication,” Rachel said.

He nodded in agreement. “Do you remember the dates and times of the letters and phone calls?”

She reached over and took the pencil from his hand to write in the information. Her nearness was disconcerting. “And here’s the date I called you,” she added.

“And the same day, you took Joey to his basketball game,” he said.

“Yes, that’s the part that has bothered me.” She scowled at the timeline. “I don’t think I was followed, for sure not by the black truck.”

Nick had to concur, since he’d followed her and had made sure no one had followed him. “It seemed the kidnappers were one step ahead of us for the first twenty-four hours—until we exchanged your cell phone.”

“You thought they were tracking the GPS in my phone, right?”

“Was it a company phone?” he asked, slanting a sideways glance at her. “Or your personal phone?”

“It was a company phone, which also served my personal needs. I saw no reason to have two phones, and it’s handy to have ready access to my work email at all times.”

“Okay, so who would have access to the serial number for your company phone?” he asked.

Rachel shrugged. “Lots of people. Edith, for sure, and probably some of the staff in billing.”

“Do you have an informatics department? Who takes care of interfacing your work email to your phone?”

“We contract with a small company, called Tech Support Inc., and they come in once a month for a day or two to update the computers, scan for problems, that kind of thing.”

He’d never heard of Tech Support Inc. but a quick internet search didn’t reveal anything alarming. “How long have you had a contract with them?”

“For several years,” Rachel responded. “I hardly think they would give out private information like that.”