The Coltons of Texas

Who was the man? Where had he come from? Apparently he’d followed her all the way from Granite Gulch and she hadn’t even known it.

She stumbled across the ground, inwardly screaming. Once again her father was responsible for chaos and danger...a danger she’d brought here to Tanner.

What if he’d been shot? What if he’d been killed? His daughters would have probably wound up in foster care, and the foster-care system had been responsible for Josie needing to go into the witness protection program for so many years.

Who was the man? The question played over and over again in her mind. Was he one of her father’s old buddies? How had he known she would lead him to the watch? If Tanner hadn’t attacked first, would the man have shot them both if she hadn’t produced the watch? Oh, God, what a mess.

By the time they reached the truck, her frantic heartbeat had begun to slow. Tanner helped her into the passenger seat and then he got behind the wheel and started the engine with a roar.

“Are you losing a lot of blood? Are you keeping pressure on the wound? Do you feel like you’re going to pass out?” The questions fired out of him as the truck bumped across the land at what felt like a breakneck speed.

“No, I’m not going to pass out.” She pulled the T-shirt away from her arm. Blood. Bright red blood, but not as much as she’d expected. “I think the bullet just grazed me.” She returned pressure on the wound.

“Hopefully Troy is still at the house. We need to report this.”

“No!” She straightened up in the seat and shot him a frantic glance. “Please, don’t do that.” He cast her a quick frown and she continued, “He can’t do anything about this. I’ll explain everything to you when we get back to the house. Just please don’t get the sheriff involved in this.”

He made no reply.

The drive back to the house seemed to take forever. Tears pressed hot behind her eyes. The tears weren’t for her. She never cried for herself.

The emotion was the result of the close call they’d just had and because Tanner could have been killed because of her. He was just an innocent bystander thrust into the disaster of her life. He had nothing to do with her, her father, the watch or the danger that had come out of nowhere.

When they reached the house Tanner parked next to the barn where they’d originally started from, and they both got out of the vehicle.

“Let’s get you into my suite, where I can take a look at your arm and see if you need real medical care,” he said.

Thankfully they managed to make it to his suite without encountering anyone else. Once there he unlocked the door and gestured her inside.

Brianna stepped out of the nursery, took one look at the bloody T-shirt Josie held against her upper arm and turned pale. “Oh, my God, what’s happened? How did she get hurt? Did you hurt her?”

“No, I didn’t hurt her,” Tanner replied with exasperation in his voice. “Brianna, take the girls to the dining room for lunch,” he added curtly.

Lunch? Was it just now noon? It felt as if an entire lifetime had passed since she’d pulled up to the front gates to meet Eldridge and his family.

Tanner led her through the master bedroom and into an adjoining bathroom, where he motioned her to have a seat on the commode. He disappeared for a moment and then returned wearing a navy blue short-sleeved pullover shirt.

She sank down, her body once again trembling uncontrollably. Tanner gently pulled the T-shirt from her grasp and released a sigh of obvious relief. “It’s already stopped bleeding and I don’t think there’s a bullet in your arm.” He tossed the shirt to the floor and then bent down beneath the sink and retrieved a bottle of hydrogen peroxide and some cotton balls.

“This might hurt a bit,” he said and then began to clean the wound.

She closed her eyes and winced as he carefully cleaned the area. Instead of focusing on the pain, she concentrated on the outdoorsy, wonderful scent of him and the tenderness of his touch.

“Thank God it’s not worse,” he said softly, his breath warm on the side of her face. “You were right—it’s just a graze.”

She opened her eyes to look at him. “You could have been killed and it would have been all my fault.”

“I could have gotten you killed with my kung-fu-fighting imitation,” he replied drily. He stepped back from her and grabbed a large bandage and some antibiotic cream.

“You saved my life,” she replied. Tears once again blurred her vision as she thought of the moment the man had jumped out with his gun pointed at them.

Tanner’s sensual lips thinned and he gently rubbed the antibiotic cream on her and then covered the bullet graze with the bandage. Once finished he stepped back from her and held her gaze. “And now you’re going to tell me exactly why an armed man would follow you here and want a watch that has only sentimental value to your dying father. Is your father really dying or was that just a lie?”

She would have liked to take offense at his sharp, skeptical tone, but she knew it was more than warranted after what had just happened. “My father really is dying and he told all of us kids that he wanted the watch for sentimental reasons, but we suspect the watch is more than just a simple keepsake.”

The musical laughter of a toddler drifted from the nursery, sending a new wave of horror through Josie. She gazed up at him and once again her vision blurred slightly by impending tears. “For the past couple of weeks I’ve had the feeling that somebody was following me, but I chalked it up to my overactive imagination. I didn’t know I was bringing danger here. I can’t believe I might have gotten you killed. I could have been responsible for your daughters becoming orphans.”

“But that didn’t happen. Come on. Let’s get out of here and go into the living room, where we can talk more comfortably.” He held out a hand and after a moment of hesitation she grabbed it and allowed him to pull her up from the commode.

They returned to the living room, where he gestured for her to sit on the sofa and he sat in a nearby chair. Brianna appeared pushing a two-seat stroller with the twins jabbering happily.

Tanner didn’t speak until Brianna and the girls had left the suite for lunch. “Do you need something cold to drink? Or maybe a cup of hot tea?” he asked.

She shook her head. “No, I’m fine.” She touched the bandage over the throbbing gunshot graze. “Thank you for cleaning me up.”

He nodded and held her gaze intently. “Now, tell me—why shouldn’t we report this to the sheriff?”

* * *

Her pale features appeared haunted and she grimaced slightly, whether at his question or because of the wound in her shoulder, he didn’t know.

“It’s kind of a long story,” she finally said.

He leaned back in the chair. “We have all afternoon.” He was determined to get answers from her no matter how long it took. After what they’d just been through she definitely owed him some answers.

She held his gaze for a long moment and then focused on some undefinable point just over his shoulder. “Have you heard about the Alphabet Killer?”

“I didn’t follow the case closely, but I read something about a serial killer who drew a red bull’s-eye on victims’ foreheads.” Why was she bringing up a heinous case like that? If he remembered right, it had been solved in the last month or so and the killer was now behind bars.

She nodded. “The woman who was finally captured as the killer, Regina Willard, murdered women with long dark hair and marked them with the bull’s-eye. Her victims’ names were Anna, Brittany and Celia and others following the pattern, so she earned the nickname of the Alphabet Killer.”

“Okay, but what does that have to do with you?” Had she been marked as a victim? Josie had long dark hair and the killer had been working her way down the alphabet with the first names of her victims. Was Josie on Regina Willard’s radar for when she got to the letter J?

“I was a suspect in the case.”

He stared at her for several long moments, wondering if perhaps he’d misheard what she’d just said. “A suspect?” he finally said. “Why on earth would the authorities think you might be the killer?”

Once again her gaze drifted to someplace just behind him and she shifted positions on the sofa, then released a deep sigh. “The red bull’s-eye on the forehead was the same MO as another serial killer who was at work in and around Granite Gulch over twenty years ago. That man murdered nine men and one woman, my mother. His name is Matthew Colton. He’s my father.” This time when her gaze met his, her eyes were filled with a deep weariness.

A small wave of shock whispered through Tanner. He focused on keeping his features carefully schooled in neutrality. “I’ve worked here for the Coltons for years and never heard them mention your father or his crimes.”

“I only met these Coltons for a brief moment, but they don’t strike me as the kind of people who would want to gossip about or ever acknowledge my father’s existence,” she replied ruefully. “In any case, I’m certainly not eager to have Sheriff Watkins find out about all of this with Eldridge missing. It will only confuse things for him because whatever happened to Eldridge has nothing to do with me or my father and what happened at that tree.”

Tanner’s brain worked overtime in an attempt to digest all the surprising information coming his way. “But the man in the woods...”

“That was definitely about me and my father.” Her face paled once again. “It’s true that my father is dying. He’s in prison and is deathly ill. It’s also true he requested to be buried with the watch that is supposedly here on the property. He said he wanted it for sentimental reasons, but my brothers and sister believe there is a possibility the watch contains a clue to money stashed someplace from old bank heists my father committed before he went away to prison.”

“Apparently you and your siblings aren’t the only ones who believe that,” he replied. A chill tried to take hold of him as he thought about the moment the man had appeared with the gun. They had been lucky. Things could have gone so very wrong.

She leaned forward. “Tanner, I’m so sorry. The last thing I’d want to do is put you in any danger here.” A strand of her hair fell over her shoulder and she quickly shoved it back behind her ear. “I desperately want that watch, still I’d leave in a hot minute to protect everyone here, but Sheriff Watkins has made that impossible. Right now more than anything I’m afraid for your safety. That man saw me with you and that puts you at risk as well as me.”

“We’ll both be safe around the house. After what happened to Eldridge, Whitney will see to it the security team is on top of their game. However, it’s definitely too dangerous to try to dig up the watch again right now. It’s even possible the man in the woods thinks you already have the watch. Are you sure you don’t want to report this to the sheriff?”

“Positive.” She sat back. “Besides, what could we tell him? I have no idea who the man was or where exactly he came from. I certainly don’t know where he ran off to. I’d say Sheriff Watkins has enough on his plate right now without us adding to it. My oldest brother, Trevor, is an FBI agent. I’ll let him know what’s happened and he can work things from his end to see what he can find out about who else might want the watch.”

Tanner was vaguely surprised to realize he was okay not reporting the incident to Sheriff Watkins. Normally he always tried to play by the rules, but in this particular case she made sense.

“I’ll let the security team know to keep an eye out for any strangers lurking on the property, but I’m sure they’re already doing that. And now we should get you settled into a room.” He rose from the chair and she got up from the sofa.

“I have one bag to get out of my car,” she said as they left his suite. “I only brought it in case it might take more than a day to find the watch.”

It took only a few minutes to retrieve her bag from the car and have her move the vehicle to a parking area just outside of the staff wing. As they accomplished this, Tanner couldn’t help but notice every cowboy in the area now wore their guns on their hips.

Whitney’s son Zane, who was in charge of security on the ranch, would be tearing his hair out knowing somehow somebody had gotten to Eldridge in the master suite of the main house.

A quick phone call to Moira told Tanner two things—the room next to his suite was empty and everyone was still in virtual lockdown until further notice from the sheriff.

He now carried Josie’s pink-flowered bag down the hallway to the small, empty staff room next to his. They hadn’t even stepped inside the room when Brianna appeared pushing the stroller.

“Dada-love! Dada-love,” the twins chanted with excitement at the sight of him.

Despite the happy greetings from his girls, his gut tightened at the pinched expression on Brianna’s face. She stopped the stroller just in front of him and grabbed the end of her braid.

“How did lunch go?” he asked, wondering if perhaps one of the girls had misbehaved and that was the reason for Brianna’s obvious unhappiness.

“They ate fine, they behaved okay, but I can’t do this anymore,” Brianna replied.

“Can’t do what anymore?” he asked, even though he knew the answer and a heavy dread filled his chest.

“I can’t work here anymore. There’s just too much tension and I don’t feel comfortable being here where a kidnapping took place. Everyone was up in arms in the staff dining room and I’m not sure my chakra is ever going to be right again.”

The dread spread through his entire body. “So, are you giving me your two-week notice?” he asked as he set down Josie’s suitcase on the carpeting.

“No, consider this your two-minute notice,” she replied. “I need to get away from all the negative energy before I’m completely sick.”

A wild panic took the place of the dread. Two-minute notice? What in the hell was he supposed to do with that? Before he could even respond Brianna raised her fingers in a familiar sign. “Peace out,” she said and then twirled on her heels and headed back down the hall.

Tanner stared after her and then looked down at his daughters. “Dada-love?” Lily’s lower lip began to tremble and Leigh echoed the cry.

He bent down and grabbed Lily into his arms, grateful when Josie picked up Leigh. He stared at the pretty young woman who held his daughter.

Josie had just confessed to him that she was not only the daughter of a serial killer, but had also been a suspect in a string of heinous murders, and yet as Leigh reached up to grab her nose, a crazy plan formulated in his head.

“How would you like a temporary nanny job?” he asked.

Her eyes widened in obvious surprise. “You’re insane,” she replied. Leigh laughed and clung tighter to her.

“It’s too dangerous for us to go back to that tree for the watch for the next couple of days or so. You mentioned you mothered the other children when you were in foster care. If you’ll play nanny to the girls during the day, then when I think it’s safe enough I’ll take you back to the tree to get the watch.”

Her eyes narrowed. “That sounds suspiciously like blackmail,” she said.

“Really? To me it sounded like the promise of a desperate father. Look, I’ll pay you what I was paying Brianna and I’ll start interviewing somebody for the position immediately. The girls have already taken to you and did I mention I’m desperate?”

“Nose,” Leigh said and once again tried to capture Josie’s nose.

Josie easily dodged the little fingers by turning her head slightly, but her gaze remained locked with his. “Okay,” she said. “You just got yourself a temporary nanny.”

Tanner should have felt a huge relief. He’d always considered himself a decent judge of character. But he’d certainly misjudged his former wife and then a couple of the women he’d hired to watch his girls. He just hoped he wasn’t making another mistake in trusting Josie Colton with his most precious possessions.

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