Scotland for Christmas

There was something about the way Lee said mainly that stood out to Jacob. But the promise of a “driving gig” had already snagged him: alone, in a car with the man who held the answers Jacob needed.

“Okay. When and where do I pick up Mr. Sage?”

“Ah...not quite, Jake,” Lee said. “The job is to drive his niece.”

“His niece? Why would I want to do that?”

Beside him, Eddie shook his head. A quick thumbs-down movement as he scratched his chin. Ratchet it down, that meant. Ratchet down the intensity.

One thing Jake had learned in his life was that intensity was not appreciated. People weren’t supposed to care too much, and if they did, they were supposed to hide it.

Take it easy. Relax. Go with the flow. Withdraw. Nothing is all that important.

That’s what people said to him. Sorry, but it just wasn’t who he was. Everything to him had meaning. It was his weakness and his strength. That fact that Jacob cared, intensely, helped him as an investigator and a bodyguard, even though in real life, it often seemed to alienate him from everybody else.

Or maybe Jacob was just better off alone.

“Look, Jake,” Lee was saying, “you’re right, never mind about the job, why don’t we just forget I called and we’ll—”

“No,” Jacob interrupted. With the phone still at his ear, he stepped away from Eddie, out from under the awning and into the street, where the rain was coming down a little harder. More of a drizzle than a spit. “Sorry. That didn’t come out right. Tell me more about the...niece.”

There was a pause on the other end of the line. “Are you sure you’re okay with this?” Lee asked in the same tone of concern the psychologist had used earlier in the day.

Jacob scrubbed his hand over his face. He was screwing up here, and for a stupid reason. Maybe he was just sensitive from having been fixed up with Donna’s friend. It was ridiculous to even think that way—it wasn’t as if Lee had suggested that he date the niece.

He thought back to the restaurant, and the redhead with the heavy eyeliner who’d looked at him with such expectation.

He really needed to get out of New York.

“Tell me about the job,” he said quietly. “What does it involve, specifically?”

“Nothing you and I haven’t done dozens of times before. Just three days of bodyguard security and easy driving. You’re required to pick up the niece and escort her from Manhattan to the small-town inn in Vermont where she’ll be staying.”

“And then?” Jacob asked, his voice sounding tighter than he wanted it to be.

“And then...you drop her at the inn. It’s a Friday night, and you’ll stick around through Saturday. Sunday morning, you drive her back to Manhattan. Job over.”

Jacob glanced to Eddie, beside him yet again, even in the rain. His eagle ears would be picking up every word.

Eddie smirked at him. “Sounds romantic.”

Jacob ignored the comment. “I assume Sage will be at the inn already?” he asked Lee.

“Affirmative. That’s the point of this exercise. He’s flying directly from Scotland, for the family wedding.”

“A family...” Jacob closed his eyes. Eddie made a noise beside him. A cross between a snort and a laugh.

“Yes, a wedding,” Lee repeated. “Will that be a problem?”

Jacob hadn’t even gone to Eddie’s wedding two years ago. The fact that it had been in Maryland and Jacob had been out of town on a special assignment had been a great excuse to miss it. Nobody had pushed him to go because they knew the nature of his job. Now, however...

“Nope, no problem,” Jacob said. “It’s all good.” Just peachy.

“Okay. I’m told the whole Sage clan will be there. Most of them are flying over from Scotland directly. It’s the, ah, nephew’s wedding. He’s heir apparent to Sage’s empire, so, yes, you had better believe that John Sage will be present.”

Jacob shifted his feet on the slick sidewalk. He saw how the stage would be set. Lee was right. This wedding would be his best opportunity to talk with John Sage alone.

But still...Jacob wasn’t getting a good feeling. “What’s the deal with the niece?”

There was a pause. “Are you sure this won’t be too hard for you?”

“Why would it be hard?” Jacob demanded.

There was another, longer silence on the other end. “I know the Sage family is personal to you, Jake....”

And like a flash, Jacob understood. How could he have missed this? “The nephew getting married...he’s the boy who was kidnapped as a child, isn’t he?” The kid that Jacob’s policeman father had died while protecting. “And this niece I’m driving...she’s the sister? The little girl who was with my father, too?”

“No, she’s not his sister,” Lee said quickly. “Isabel Sage is a different niece. Jake, I wouldn’t have called you without checking that first. Okay? You won’t need to interact with them unless you decide you want to.”

The pulse in Jacob’s neck felt as if it was on overdrive. Extra hits of adrenaline.

He shouldn’t be reacting this way to having to meet them. He shouldn’t be letting it bug him at all. If anything, he was playing right into the agenda of the department psychologist when she’d given him that miserable set of questions.

So you never met your real father? He was Scottish, right? And you were born there, too? Why haven’t you been back? And let’s talk about his death—exactly what happened, and how did you process it, step by step? How does it make you feel?

She’d made it seem as though Jacob was defective when he’d told her that he didn’t feel anything, because he wasn’t familiar with every little detail. That even at the time, he’d felt it only slightly. He’d tried to explain that it was an early divorce and his mother had remarried and his biological father had never been part of his life. Still...blood was blood, the psychologist had implied, and the death must have affected him somehow. And Jacob, to his shame, knew she was right.

He would like to know the details and circumstances surrounding his father’s death. If he was honest with himself, he’d wanted to know for his whole life. He’d been almost twelve when it had happened—just a kid—and nobody had talked much about it to him.

Until now, he’d been discouraged from asking questions. He just wished that his future didn’t rest on his ability to dig up answers from a reclusive Scotsman.

Beside him, Eddie cleared his throat. Jacob had forgotten he’d been listening in. Had forgotten he was standing there with a phone in his hand while he stared into space, lost in the past, furious and not knowing what to do about it.

But he owed Lee an answer.

“Jake,” Lee said quietly into his ear, “if you want the job, it’s yours. But only if you feel you can give Isabel Sage the professional security she deserves. Sage works with my firm because he trusts me. He knows I hire only the best. You’ve got to promise me you can handle the assignment—to guard and protect her—with the professionalism you were trained to do. I’m exposing myself here, big-time, but I don’t need to tell you that. You know where I’m coming from. You know what I owe you.”

“Yeah,” Jacob said. He did know. He got what a favor this was to him, but Lee also knew he could trust Jacob with his business. Hell, he’d trusted him with his life.

“Discretion,” Lee repeated. “Confidentiality. Professionalism. Remember those things and you’ll be fine.”

“You don’t have to tell me. I live discretion and professionalism.”

It was all Jacob knew how to do. He never said a word about the people on his jobs. Ever.

And if he wanted to continue on the path of doing what he was meant to do, to the ultimate prize of being allowed to guard the most important and most defensively vulnerable people in the country, then he needed to have a conversation with John Sage.

Just one hour would be enough. Whatever reservations Jacob felt about the man or his family members—he needed to put it aside in favor of his future.