Gingerbread Man

a goddamned tightrope here. But, solving this case was the most important thing. More important than anything else, and if she wound up getting her feelings hurt in the process, that was a small price to pay. He had resolved to do what he had to in order to find the truth, and that included using Holly Newman. If it seemed slightly heartless to his more compassionate side, all he had to do was remember the Prague kids. The way they'd ended up. The nightmare he'd walked in on in that abandoned house less than a week ago.
    He gripped Holly's hand and pulled her to her feet. "If I wanted to dance with Amanda D'Voe, I'd have asked her. What do you think, I'm shy or something?"
    She shrugged, but let him pull her along into the area where couples were dancing. "Hey, it's nothing to me either way."
    He claimed a spot for them, and the band immediately ended the upbeat ditty they'd been playing and switched to their rendition of "Lying Eyes." Slow and mellow. He almost groaned because he knew slow dancing with her was an even worse idea, but he couldn't very well say so. So he pulled her closer. Not too close, though. He fit his hands to her waist, and tried not to notice any physical reaction to her arms linking around his neck as they started moving to the music.
    Although
he felt
one. And he attributed
that
to it having been a long time between one-night stands.
    "So what is it then?" she was asking.
    "What is what?"
    "The reason you've been watching Amanda all night"
    He looked at her sharply. "Just curious, I guess."
    "Why?"
    "Why do you want to know?" he asked.
    "Just curious, I guess."
    She was good at sparring, witty and quick. This was not the same Holly Newman who'd been damn close to hysterics over thinking she had glimpsed an intruder at his place. She was complicated. He had to remember that. When he'd met her he had labeled her weak and fragile, then he had decided she was a snoop. More recently he'd been thinking of her as fearful and troubled. Now she was something altogether different yet again.
    Finally, she sighed as if in capitulation. "Fine, I'll fill you in. Amanda was orphaned when she was a little girl. Of course I didn't live here then, but gossip has an unlimited life span in this town, so I've heard all the stories. She came out here to live with Reginald after her family died, and they say she wasn't quite right. Probably just the trauma of losing her parents, but the rumor is that she didn't speak at all when she first moved in with Reggie. Doc Graycloud spent a lot of time with her when they still lived here. Then they moved out west somewhere. The press said L.A., but the locals say it was Arizona and the California story was just to keep the paparazzi off their backs. The move was for Amanda's health, they said. And now they're back. End of story."
    Vince nodded. On the far side of the fire, Reginald D'Voe was still surrounded by kids, his niece at his side, as he read to them from one of the books. He used his hands expressively, and his face, bathed in the red-orange glow of the firelight, conveyed one emotion after another. Vince couldn't hear him, but found himself almost wanting to pull up a lawn chair and listen in. Amanda seemed rapt. "How old is she?"
    "I don't know. Around my age, I guess." Holly tipped her head up slightly so she was looking him in the eye. "You really can go talk to her if you want. I wasn't being flip when I said I didn't care. I only asked you to come here tonight because my mother backed me into a corner. It won't bother me in the least."
    He arched a brow, focusing on Holly now. "I think I've just been insulted."
    She dropped her gaze. "Don't take it personally, Vince. You're just not my type."
    He almost smiled. She was a lousy liar. When he'd first arrived, he'd seen her watching the cabin so hard her eyes must have been watering. She was attracted to him. He felt it like an energy sparking from her skin when she got within a few feet of him. He felt it now. It was setting off his warning systems, telling him to back off. Hell, he was attracted to her, too. There was an almost magnetic pull between them as they slow danced to the old Eagles tune. He had to exert an effort to keep space between their bodies. But he'd expected that. She was needy. He was always drawn to women like her. Usually to his own detriment. It was good she was denying the heat. Nothing could come of it.
    "So, tell me how your mother managed to force you into inviting me to this thing,