“It’s John and Uncle Jerry. He’s not really my uncle, but he and John have been best friends since highschool.” Holly floated out toward the center of the main area. “I call John ‘dad’ even though he didn’t come into our lives until I was a teen. That was after the fire when the Tinders took us in. Are they still alive?”
Holly’s worry over the elderly couple who were John’s parents was good to see, but she had no plans to visit them and they were feeling their age. He wanted to ask her why shecared, but Joy answered instead.
“They are, but they are having health issues like most people their age.”
“Maybe I should plan another visit.”
“Maybe you should.” He gave her a stern look. “Or you could move back here.”
Holly squinted her eyes at him before floating away toward her adopted parent.
Joy started to drift after Holly, but he grabbed her arm. “Wait.” He held her until Holly hadmoved to the other end of the lobby. Pulling Joy back to him, he kept his voice low. “You said at the church that you discovered something new. What is it?”
Her slight smile faded and worry creased her brow. “Cameron wants to tell us more, help us, but you’re right, his hands are tied by others. However, after thinking very hard, he gave me a hint.”
He waited patiently for her to go on, hisgaze wandering from her eyes to her lips.
“He said, ‘don’t be subtle.’”
That caught his attention. “Don’t be subtle?”
“Yes. I wasn’t sure what he meant at first, but when I thought about what we want Holly to learn from her visits, it started to make sense.”
“That’s probably the most help we’re going to receive on this assignment. We need to use it to its maximum. Good work.”
Joy’s cheeksturned a rosy hue at his compliment. It immediately reminded him of the photo of himself in her nightstand drawer. Was he more than a sexual fantasy for her? Even that was still a piece of information he was attempting to fit into the profile of Joy.
He pushed away the Joy project for the one they were working on together. If they weren’t supposed to be subtle then his methods would work betterthan Joy’s, so where did that leave him if the only way for him to keep his job was to change his methods?
He curled his hands into fists, beyond frustrated.
“Malcolm?” Joy was looking at him with that worried expression again.
He hated that. “Let’s see how she reacts to this incident.” He waved his hand toward the bank scene before them.
She drifted closer and lifted his hood from his head.“You look friendlier without that. I think this look works better with Holly.” She blushed again, making him conclude that maybe it was actually Joy who liked him better without the hood.
She floated away, her slender waist catching his eye. Maybe it was her belly button that was pierced.
He shook his head to get the thought out of his mind. For all he knew, she had no piercing at all. Maybeit was just a symbol of what she thoughtheliked. If so, she was a good guesser, because the possibility that she had a piercing had his body interfering with his thought process.
Forcing himself to concentrate on the problem at hand, he followed Joy to the other side of the bank lobby where Holly hovered.
Holly watched as John went into the back with a bank employee and Jerry waited in linefor a teller. “I wonder why John is here. I can’t imagine him getting a loan. He’s really good with money.” Holly floated over to them to peek down the hall. “Maybe he needs something from his safe deposit box.”
Joy threw him a worried look.
The bank doors opened. “Everybody get down on the ground, on your stomachs and no one will get hurt.” A gunman with a ski mask waved a semi-automatic whileanother man ran for the teller counter. The customers obeyed without argument, stretching out on the floor.
“Don’t get any ideas about pressing that buzzer.” The other man waved a magnum at both tellers.
“What’s happening?” Holly’s worried gaze was on her Uncle Jerry, who now lay on the floor like everyone else, except the tellers.
Joy put her hand on Holly’s shoulder. “The bank is being robbed.”
“What?” Holly looked at him, and he nodded.
“Move out of the way, gramps.” The man with the handgun kicked Jerry in the ribs then slammed a bag on the counter. “Both of you fill this with everything you have.”
