Hot Toy by Jennifer Crusie Read Free Book Online

like—”
    He stopped and cupped her face with his hands and whispered, “Trudy, please shut up.”
    â€œWhy?” Trudy whispered back.
    He leaned closer and whispered in her ear. “Because I think Reese is a bad guy. And I think he wants your MacGuffin. And I think those guys out there are his minions. So we should—”
    â€œMinions?” Trudy said, so startled she spoke out loud.
    Nolan put his hand over her mouth. “And we don’t want them to find us,” he whispered. “Not unless you’re prepared to give up that MacGuffin.”
    Trudy shook her head, and he took his hand away and bent to her ear again. “Then we should hide it here. They’re going to find us, and we can tell them the box is here and let them spend the rest of their lives looking for it—”
    Trudy shook her head again. “No.”
    He slapped his hand over her mouth and whispered, “ Listen. I’m not a toy collector, I’m an undercover cop.”
    Trudy pulled back, trying to see him in the dark. “I don’t believe it,” she whispered back. “An undercover cop who teaches Chinese lit?”
    â€œI’m a well-educated undercover cop.”
    â€œThis is your explanation.” She shook her head and started to move away, and he pulled her back.
    â€œLook,” he whispered in her ear, “we knew the bad guys were operating from the university lit department, and I really do have a degree in Chinese. And some literature. Hey, I’m a good teacher.”
    Actually, he was, Trudy remembered. That was another thing that had made her want to go out with him, competence. And now he was telling her that there was a toy-theft ring operating out of the lit department. “‘The bad guys.’ Is that really cop talk?”
    â€œIt’s too dark to show you my ID. Want to feel my badge?”
    â€œYou have to be kidding me.”
    â€œYour buddy Reese—”
    â€œHe’s not my buddy,” Trudy said, and then she heard Reese call her name from the center space of the warehouse and stepped closer to Nolan.
    â€œListen to me,” Nolan said. “They’re toy hijackers and they want that doll. If things get bad, give it to them. ”
    Toy hijackers? “No.”
    She heard him draw in his breath in exasperation, but she didn’t care.
    â€œThis is for Leroy,” she whispered. “His rat daddy ran off with the rat nanny, and his mother is in meltdown, but he knows Santa is bringing him a MacGuffin. He’s getting it.”
    â€œOh, Christ,” Nolan said under his breath. “I’ll get him another one, I swear. Just give them that one so we can walk out of here alive.”
    â€œThat’s not very heroic.”
    â€œI’ll be heroic when you’re not here,” Nolan whispered. “Now I just want you out in one piece.”
    â€œI’m not giving up Leroy’s Mac. What’s your Plan B?”
    Nolan sighed his exasperation and then took her arm and drew her deeper into the shelves. “We hide.”
    â€œHide?” Trudy whispered back. “How—”
    â€œShut up,” he whispered, and she did, following him deeper into the darkness until they came to a wall. He took her hand and led her along the wall until he found a staircase, and then he took her slowly up the stairs, testing each tread to make sure it didn’t creak, which wasn’t really necessary since “The Little Drummer Boy” had given way to Brenda Lee singing “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” making her usual Christmas fortune in residuals.
    When they reached the top, they were on a walkway, looking out over the warehouse beneath the windows of a darkened office. Nolan tugged her arm and she sank down with him on the metal platform as silently as possible, her shopping bags rustling.
    â€œNow what?” she whispered.
    â€œNow we wait for