Undercover In Glimmer Creek

A former navy SEAL undercover...and into temptation

Going undercover at the historic Poppy Gold Inns should be easy for former navy SEAL Gabe McKinley. But it’s not. He needs to find out who’s sabotaging his family’s company...and his prime suspect is the resort’s lovely—and fiercely protective—manager, Tessa Connor.

The more he gets to know her—and the more they get under each other’s skin—the more Gabe doubts that Tessa could be the culprit. But has his military focus been compromised by his need to kiss her blind? Because as they get closer to danger, Gabe risks the one thing he fears: falling for Tessa.

What if somebody was watching one of them?

Unable to think of anything else to divert suspicion, Tessa rose on her toes and pressed close to Gabe.

“Tessa?” he whispered again, this time against her mouth.

“Human-shaped shadow across the way,” she mumbled.

Instantly his arms pulled her tight. He turned, making their profiles more visible to the garden, and gave her a thorough kiss.

He touched her lips with the tip of his finger. “Sleep well.”

His eyes glittered in the light spilling out of the living room and Tessa could have sworn it was from laughter. A minute later he released her and Tessa grabbed the door frame for support.

Gabe McKinley’s social skills might be rusty, but he knew how to kiss in no uncertain terms.

Dear Reader,

I loved visiting the California Gold Country as a child. One of my earlier novels is set in this beautiful region, and I’ve always wanted to return to it as a location. So I created Poppy Gold Inns, a bed-and-breakfast complex in the historic district of a former gold-mining town called Glimmer Creek.

Undercover in Glimmer Creek grew out of this setting, and is about the manager of Poppy Gold, who has returned to her childhood home following her mother’s untimely death. Tessa is strong, idealistic and devoted to the business that helps support her family and hometown. But what does an idealist do when she meets a cynical former navy SEAL who’s trying to catch the culprit stealing corporate information from her clients?

Classic Movie Alert: It probably isn’t old enough yet to qualify as a classic, but I enjoy the 2001 film The Majestic, about another cynical man who is transformed by love and the good-hearted people in a small town. Check it out!

I enjoy hearing from readers and can be contacted c/o Harlequin Books, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, ON M3B 3K9, Canada.

Julianna Morris

Undercover in Glimmer Creek

Julianna Morris

www.millsandboon.co.uk

JULIANNA MORRIS grew up in a large, active family that was always competing, which included playing word games such as Perquackey and Scrabble. She also read voraciously, bringing stacks of books home every week from the library. Julianna hasn’t lost her love for games or books and takes them with her even while exploring places such as Glacier National Park and the Blue Ridge Mountains. Of course, her computer is always packed as well, because inspiration is never far away in such beautiful locations.

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To Eli, thank you for your service.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Dear Reader

Title Page

About the Author

Dedication

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

ELEVEN

TWELVE

THIRTEEN

FOURTEEN

FIFTEEN

SIXTEEN

SEVENTEEN

EIGHTEEN

NINETEEN

TWENTY

Extract

Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

TESSA CONNOR KNELT on the hardwood floor and looked at the cat under the four-poster bed. “Please come out, Mr. Fezziwig.”

Mr. Fezziwig yawned and continued bathing himself. He felt the room was his exclusive property and the people who rented the deluxe bed-and-breakfast suite were merely servants who catered to his whims.

“Believe it or not, the guests coming to stay tonight don’t like cats,” Tessa said. “I know you think there’s something wrong with their opinion, but twenty-five years ago they honeymooned in this room, and they’re sentimental about it.”

The enormous brown tabby yawned.

“I understand how you feel, but you have to—”

“Tessa, I want you to meet the new maintenance employee,” interrupted her father.

Tessa straightened and looked toward the door where her dad stood with a tall, unsmiling man.

“Hey, Pop.” Tessa got to her feet and walked over to shake hands with the new guy. Lord, he had the most gorgeous gray eyes she’d ever seen...and the hardest to read. “You must be Gabe McKinley. Welcome to Poppy Gold Inns. My father is a terrific boss. You’ll enjoy working with him.”

“Thankfully, these days I mostly mulch flowerbeds and jockey a lawn mower around,” Liam Connor declared. “Tessa handles everything at Poppy Gold except maintenance.”

They exchanged an affectionate look, yet a familiar stab of sorrow went through Tessa. She’d always expected to take over Poppy Gold when her parents retired, but then her mother had died a year and a half ago. She still remembered feeling as if the world had stopped turning, and it had been even worse for her father. For months he’d gone around in a shocked fog, barely eating or sleeping. When he’d decided running the business alone was too much for him, she’d resigned from her position in the contracts division at her grandfather’s company in San Francisco to help out. Poppy Gold wasn’t just a business to her—it was home.

“Your father has been showing me around,” Gabe McKinley said. “You have quite a setup here, Ms. Connor.”

“It’s Tessa. We’re informal at Poppy Gold. We... Oh, you finally came out,” she exclaimed as a furry body butted her leg. She bent down and scooped Mr. Fezziwig into her arms. His purr boomed until he fixed his gaze on the new employee; the purring stopped as if turned by a switch, and his mouth opened into a long-drawn-out hiss.

Whoa.

Generally Mr. Fezziwig liked everyone, which made him ideal for the Victorian Cat Mansion, one of fifty-plus historic buildings that had been converted to a complex of bed-and-breakfast inns and visitor facilities. These days they hosted business retreats and special events along with tourists. The Victorian Cat was unique because of the amiable felines who lived there—repeat guests usually requested a specific cat for their visits, rather than a room.

“It may take me a while to become accustomed to calling my employers by their first names,” Gabe said stiffly.

“Pop is your employer, not me,” she clarified.

“Gabe is a veteran,” her father interjected. “This is his first position since getting out of the navy.”

“Thank you for your service.” Though it was an automatic response, Tessa meant it sincerely. Pop and one of her maternal uncles had done a tour in the army, while another uncle had died flying a navy jet.

“Er...yeah.” Gabe peered around the room. “I understand you have some sort of patchwork quilters group coming in a few days. And the day they leave, a number of executives are arriving for a retreat.”

“That’s right. Thomas International Products is one of our best business contracts, though it’s a fairly small group this time.” Tessa shifted the cat she held, uncomfortable for several reasons. For one thing, Mr. Fezziwig weighed a ton, and for another, there was something about Gabe McKinley that made her vaguely wary. Her father tried to hire veterans who were struggling to adjust to civilian life, but Gabe didn’t seem the type to struggle with anything.

Appearances can be deceiving, she reminded herself. Yet it was difficult to picture him pruning trees and replacing sod torn up by energetic kids. He seemed more like someone accustomed to giving orders, instead of taking them.

“Could you finish the tour for Gabe?” her father asked. “I just got a call that an order needs to be picked up from the Sullivan Nursery down in Stockton.”

“Sure, Pop. Are you taking the long truck?”

“No, the old one. It’s large enough.” He turned to Gabe. “Poppy Gold has a 1928 AA pickup. People have fun seeing it and think it’s great that such an old truck is still being used. Tessa, can you also show Gabe our fleet of antique vehicles? I hadn’t gotten that far with the tour.”

“No problem. Call when you get back. If you aren’t busy tonight, come over and I’ll fix you dinner.” Tessa kissed his cheek.

When she was alone with Gabe McKinley, she gestured at Mr. Fezziwig. “Just let me deal with this fellow. I’ll be right back.”

Gabe must have missed the “I’ll be right back” because he walked with her to the opposite end of the Victorian Cat. Since no guests had checked in for the day, she’d left the access open to her private, two-story apartment.

“So you live on-site,” he commented.

“Yes, though Guest Registration handles check-ins.” She put Mr. Fezziwig on a chair by the window and ran a finger down his neck. He was still looking at Gabe suspiciously, and Tessa understood exactly how he felt. Gabe had walked right in, past a sign marked Private. “But living at the Victorian Cat works out well, because if one of the cats doesn’t have company for the night, they can stay with me.”

“How often does that happen?”

“We aren’t always fully booked during the off-season, but the closer we get to summer, it’s rare to have rooms available. We try to have something unique about each of the B and Bs, and returning guests have their favorites. Cat lovers usually pick the Victorian Cat, while railroad buffs prefer the Gold Rail Hotel, and so forth.”

“It must be difficult to manage the bookings.”

“We have staff dedicated to reservations and event planning. Poppy Gold Inns is the biggest employer in Glimmer Creek,” Tessa said proudly, “and we support other businesses by buying local whenever possible and outsourcing various services.”

Gabe nodded as if interested, though it was impossible to tell anything from his face. Honestly, they’d only just met, but it was hard to imagine an emotion daring to crack his iron jaw.

“You appear to have a good many antiques. Do you have live-in staff to keep an eye on things at night? I haven’t noticed any video cameras.”

It was probably an innocent question, but it seemed odd to Tessa. She’d dealt with a wide range of new employees and eager beavers who asked everything under the sun on their first day, but Gabe’s manner seemed more like an IRS auditor than an eager beaver. Not that it was fair to make snap judgments; he was still adjusting to civilian life. Anyway, her father would have run a background check before hiring him.

“Actually, we don’t have live-in staff. Security is on duty around the clock, so you won’t need to get involved with those issues,” she said carefully. “Guest Registration is at Old City Hall, which is located by the original town square park.”

“I see.”

Tessa firmly escorted Gabe out and locked the door behind them. “Now, what have you been shown so far?”

“The working areas for Maintenance, including the greenhouses, orchards and vegetable gardens. Also the general employee facility.”

“All right, we’ll go to Old City Hall next.”

They stepped out into the Victorian garden surrounding the large house. Birds twittered in the spring sunshine, splashing in the birdbath and perching on the edge. The California foothills were always beautiful, especially in the historic Gold Country, but spring and summer were the seasons that Tessa particularly loved.

She didn’t even mind the hot days. As a kid she’d swum in the creek when the temperature went up, panned for gold dust in the shallows and picnicked along the shore with friends and family. However busy her parents might have been running their bed-and-breakfast business, they’d tried to join her adventures. Lately Tessa didn’t have much time for adventures, but someday she hoped to get back to them.

“This way,” she said, pointing north.

* * *

CAREFUL, GABE WARNED himself as Tessa Connor continued the tour of Poppy Gold. It was a bad idea to ask too many questions. After all, he was supposed to look like a navy vet, working his first job after leaving the service.

Actually, it was his first job, but he hadn’t applied to Poppy Gold because he needed to make a living. Between his twenty-year retirement from the navy and being a part owner of the family company—Thomas International Products—he had a generous income.

Gabe left running TIP to his younger brother; the thought of being stuck behind a desk all day was more than he could swallow, and doing it for the family company would be that much worse. A muscle in Gabe’s jaw twitched. The company was another reminder of his lousy childhood with a work-obsessed father and a vodka-guzzling mother. He’d enlisted when he was eighteen to get away from the misery at home.

Nevertheless, when Rob suspected a problem with industrial espionage, Gabe had insisted on helping. As a former navy SEAL, Gabe had experience in putting together missions and following suspicious activities around the world. And that didn’t include the joint operations he’d done with the CIA. Together, he and Rob had narrowed down the most likely location where information leaks could have occurred—Poppy Gold Inns. TIP had been holding executive retreats, training and strategy meetings at the small conference center for the past two years.

They’d contacted the FBI with the information, but the agent had said it was only supposition at this point. “Bring us real evidence and we might be able to do something,” the agent had declared.

He and Rob had decided the best way to get the necessary evidence was for Gabe to go undercover. In the past two years, the company had lost millions in deals that had fallen through; it couldn’t continue.

“This is Glimmer Creek’s original city center,” Tessa said, stopping and gesturing around a picturesque park, complete with a gazebo-style bandstand and large fountain. “The town has a different center now, of course, in front of the new city hall. Not that it’s new any longer since it was built in the 1930s, but that’s what it’s called.”

“Why did they build it instead of using the original building?” Gabe asked, trying to sound more like a new employee than an investigator.

“The story is too long to tell right now, but it’s tied up with family history on my father’s side. The short version is that my grandfather owned all of the land and buildings in this part of town before he deeded them to my parents to start Poppy Gold. Before that it was nicknamed Connor’s Folly.”

Connor’s Folly? Obviously that was part of the long story Tessa didn’t have time to tell him.

“Your grandfather must be well-off.”

“Granddad is the owner and president of Connor Enterprises in San Francisco.”

Gabe glanced around at the thriving tourist village—even for a tourist trap, the place was appealing. The extent of preservation reminded him of Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia.

But appealing or not, it was still the most likely source of TIP’s problems. Other than Rob’s office, Poppy Gold was the only location where certain pieces of company information had been brought together, and the failed contract negotiations had always occurred shortly after a visit to the B and B facility. Rob might have suspected some of his executives were responsible, but different execs had been at the meetings each time, often from divergent areas of the company’s operations.

Hacking had also been ruled out because his brother had started keeping data on upcoming deals and contracts off-line. He’d even moved all the files onto a computer that wasn’t hooked up to the internet.

He looked back at Tessa Connor. As the manager, she was in the best position to know everything that was going on at the conference center, but whether she was an ally or an enemy was unclear. She could even be the culprit. While Rob thought highly of Tessa, it didn’t mean she was innocent.

Gabe almost snorted.

His brother’s judgment was probably clouded by Tessa’s slim figure and sparkling eyes. For that matter, Rob had a hard time believing anyone would steal from TIP in the first place, which was why it had taken him so long to acknowledge the problem. Gabe, on the other hand, didn’t have trouble believing the worst of anyone.

“Come on, I’ll show you Poppy Gold’s reservation hub,” Tessa said.

While the remaining tour of Poppy Gold was thorough, Gabe couldn’t pry another shred of personal information from her. He was lousy at chitchat, but it shouldn’t have been difficult since Tessa seemed to chatter away with the slightest provocation. She even had conversations with cats.

Still, Gabe noticed that the tour didn’t include anything related to security. He just didn’t know if the omission meant anything. Working in Poppy Gold’s security division would have been his top choice, but naturally they did far more extensive background checks on those employees than ones in grounds maintenance. It was likely that his connection to TIP would have been revealed and questioned.

“Have you found a place to live?” Tessa asked after they returned to the maintenance center. Though located in a modern building, it had a Victorian-style facade that blended well with Poppy Gold’s ambiance.

“I’ve rented a furnished studio in town.”

“You were lucky to find something local—we don’t have many rentals in Glimmer Creek. I don’t see any other employees around. They must all be out working. Did Pop tell you what to do for the rest of the day?”

“Mow the lawns and edge the walkways around these two houses.” He pointed to a map on the wall. “I understand you primarily use electric equipment to minimize noise.”

“That’s right. We have riding mowers for the large areas, like the old city center park, but whenever possible, we coordinate using them around the guest schedule. Have you been given a locker assignment?”

Gabe shook his head.

Tessa unlocked a cabinet, consulted a ledger and gave him a key. “This is to locker 5A—work gloves and other protective gear should be in there already. I’ll let you get started, but be sure to take your breaks and lunch. If you have any questions, check with the reservations desk and they’ll find me.”

She left quickly, and Gabe wondered if she was eager to get rid of him. Not that he’d blame her. She managed the conference center and surely had more urgent responsibilities than giving new-employee tours and evicting ornery felines from rooms where they weren’t wanted.

* * *

TESSA HURRIED ACROSS Poppy Gold to the Glimmer Creek Train Depot. She tried not to be a micromanager, so she had established her office away from Old City Hall. Since she handled most of the business clients, it was also nice to have the quieter work space.

“Hey, Jamie,” she called to her eighteen-year-old cousin, who was dressed in period costume and talking to a group of schoolchildren.

Jamie waved back. Close to half of Poppy Gold’s employees were related to Tessa in one way or another. In Jamie’s case, she was Tessa’s maternal uncle Daniel’s daughter and had started working at Poppy Gold Inns right after graduating from Glimmer Creek High. She was rather young for her age, which was why Uncle Daniel and Aunt Emma hadn’t pushed her to leave for college immediately.

Tessa’s office was on the second floor, and she gazed out the window for a moment, loving the peaceful scene. The abandoned train track had never been torn out, and it ran like a ribbon through the countryside, much overgrown, leading to the old railroad spur turnaround. Only the section that ran along the edge of Poppy Gold was in good condition. On it sat a steam engine and two passenger cars from the 1870s, sparklingly restored, looking as if they had just arrived at the station. Their visitors loved the train, and in peak seasons, the passenger cars were filled with picnickers.

Tessa thought about the lunch baskets available at the general store, packed with fried chicken, baked ham on biscuits, fresh-baked bread and other goodies. The baskets were more Hollywood illusion than authentic flavors from the 1800s, but they were popular. And there might be things Poppy Gold could do to simulate a train ride.

She jotted a note in her “idea” book. It was filled with things to do at Poppy Gold, supplementing the plan she’d made in college. Her parents had begun to implement her concept a few years ago, but there was always more to do. In a way it made her feel even more responsible, knowing that turning the business into a conference center was something she’d urged them to try. She’d helped, coming home weekends and spending vacations there, but a lot had fallen on her mom’s and dad’s shoulders.

Now it was mostly on her.

She pressed a hand to her stomach. Suggesting changes as an eager college student was a lot easier than carrying them out herself. Where had all the blind certainty of her youth gone? Maybe the final vestiges had been lost with her mother’s death.

“Hey,” Jamie said, poking her head through the office doorway. “The school group is gone. Mom made peach pies last night and sent one for you.”

She came in holding a Tupperware pie-taker. Tupperware containers were ubiquitous in Glimmer Creek thanks to two of Tessa’s maternal great-aunts who’d thrown so many parties to sell the stuff that it was stockpiled in everyone’s basements. Glimmer Creek was filled with relatives on her mom’s side of the family.

Tessa’s mouth watered. Nobody made pies like Aunt Emma. “My taste buds thank her, but my hips aren’t so sure.”

“Like you need to worry. Can you believe it? Mom even said to eat it with ice cream because you’re too skinny. She never says that to me.”

“I’m not skinny,” Tessa denied automatically. Her female relatives kept trying to feed her, claiming she’d lost weight since returning home, but they worried too much.

If they weren’t trying to fix her up with a guy, they were urging her to eat more.

“You’re skinnier than me.”

Jamie tugged at her costume and stuck out her bottom lip in the mock pout she’d perfected as a four-year-old. The same as most Fullerton women, she was a late bloomer and still carried a few childhood pounds she couldn’t seem to lose. Tessa had gone through the same phase herself.