The Coltons of Red Ridge
The significance of the gesture must have sobered him a little because he set her on her feet and closed the door. And as he did, he ran his hand through the hair she’d tousled. “I—I got carried away,” he murmured, his face flushed.
“Uh, technically I was the one who got carried away,” she said. “Or carried down...the stairs.”
His sexy mouth curved into a grin. But the humor didn’t entirely reach his green eyes; he still looked troubled. Maybe he’d changed his mind about bringing her to his room. He left her standing by the door as he headed to the bar on the other side of the large suite.
“Don’t worry,” she assured him. “I know you carrying me over the threshold doesn’t make me your bride.”
He shuddered at the thought.
She’d been so hot earlier—in his arms, with his mouth on hers. But now she was chilled.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “It’s just that I want nothing to do with marriage. My dad has had more than his share of marriages and I don’t think any of them made him happy.” His mouth pulled down into a frown now. “Actually I don’t think anything makes him happy...except maybe his company and his money...”
“I’m sure that you do,” she said. “That he loves you very much...” He had to be so proud of Blake; she’d heard that instead of going to work for Colton Energy with his oldest sister, Blake had launched his own successful start-up company straight out of business school.
He snorted. “You don’t know my father,” he said. “He doesn’t love anyone but himself.”
She’d heard that Fenwick Colton was one selfish son of a bitch. But how could he not love his own child?
She’d been feeling sorry for herself until now—until realizing that even though she’d lost her parents, at least she’d had no doubt that she had made them happy and that they had loved her.
His jaw was tense, a muscle ticking in his cheek. “I’m not going to make the mistakes he has. No marriage for me. No kids. Then nobody will feel like they don’t matter as much as business does to me—because that is all that’s going to ever matter to me.”
He was warning her, but it wasn’t a warning that she needed. She had no intention of getting married or having kids, either. She was taking criminal justice courses at community college because she wanted to be a cop, specifically a K9 cop. Her other job was helping out at the Red Ridge canine training center, and she loved working with the dogs.
“Maybe I’m more like my dad than I realized,” he murmured. Along with Blake’s words, she heard the pain and resentment in his voice. And she felt his pain, as well.
She stepped away from the door, crossing the room to where he stood by the bar with the wall of windows behind him, looking down on Red Ridge. Like she’d always thought he would look down on her.
But Blake Colton wasn’t the spoiled, privileged prince she’d thought he would be. He was vulnerable and charming and incredibly handsome. He sighed and blew out a ragged breath. “I’m so sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t be thinking about anything but how lucky I am.”
She’d always thought he’d been born with a silver spoon in his mouth. But while he didn’t have to worry about money, he had more emotional concerns.
He stepped closer and touched her chin. Sliding his fingertips along her jaw, he tipped her face up toward his. “I’m the luckiest man in Red Ridge that you came back to my room with me.”
Her lips curved into a smile. And there was the charm again. Her prince...
She linked her arms around his neck again and pulled his head down for her kiss. She’d just felt his vulnerability, his pain, and she sought to soothe it with her lips and her passion. That kiss led to more—to making love the entire evening—over and over again.
But just before dawn, when Juliette had heard the creak and clatter of a cart in the corridor, she’d remembered who she was and that she had a shift to begin soon. So she’d slipped out of the arms of her sleeping prince, back into her dress and heels and into the hall.
Within minutes the dress and heels had been stowed in her locker, and she’d been back in her drab uniform of a Colton Plaza Hotel maid. Hours later, Blake had passed her in the hall while she was wearing that uniform, and he hadn’t noticed her at all.
And she’d realized the night that had seemed so special to her was just a dream born of a silly fantasy. She was no Cinderella and Blake Colton was no prince charming. He would never try to find her and propose. He’d made it all too clear what he thought of marriage and that he never intended to make the mistakes his father had made—with women or children.
So when she’d missed her period and taken that pregnancy test, she’d been reluctant to seek him out with the news that he was going to be the father he’d sworn he never wanted to become. She’d known he would be furious with her—maybe even think she’d tricked him.
But before she’d been able to build up her courage to confront him, she’d seen in the Red Ridge Gazette “People” section that he’d left Red Ridge and not just for a vacation. He intended to launch his start-up company in other countries and call it Blake Colton International.
International...
So why was he back in town?
He wanted to talk to Juliette. Why? What did he want from her? Their child? He’d vowed he’d never wanted to be a father. That was why, even when Elle had been urging her to tell him, Juliette had hesitated to seek him out. She hadn’t wanted him to reject his child.
But he hadn’t looked at Pandora like he was going to reject her. Juliette closed her eyes as fear overwhelmed her. Why had he wanted to see their daughter now—when she’d just witnessed a crime?
Now Juliette had to worry about losing Pandora to her father as well as to a killer.
Chapter 4
Blake paced the suite on the twenty-first floor of the Colton Plaza Hotel. This was the same room where he’d spent that incredible evening with Juliette. He hadn’t known her last name then. And after she’d slipped away from him, he hadn’t even known if Juliette was her real first name or if she’d just been a Shakespeare fan. He’d had no idea who she really was. Hell, he still didn’t know who she was or even if she would show up like he’d requested.
He stopped at the windows that looked down onto the lights of Red Ridge. He’d turned on only one of the lamps in the room, so his reflection stared back at him in the glass.
And he had to be honest. He hadn’t requested that she come; he’d demanded. Maybe he was more like his old man than he’d thought—than he’d ever hoped to be. But then, he had every reason to make demands of Juliette. She’d been lying to him—that night all those years ago and every day since, when she’d kept his daughter from him.
The fury he’d felt when he’d seen her—with that child in her arms—coursed through him again. He was not going to spend another day in the dark. Hell, he was not going to spend another minute. He’d give her a little more time to show up tonight. Then he would track her down, and at least this time—unlike last—he knew where to look for her. At the Red Ridge Police Department...
She’d been wearing a uniform. She worked there. He shouldn’t have left the building. He should have talked to his cousin Finn, but not about what was going on in Red Ridge. He should have asked him about Juliette and about what the hell crime her—their—daughter had witnessed.
How much danger were she and her mother in? Was that why Juliette hadn’t shown up yet? Had something happened?
Too anxious for answers, Blake turned away from the windows and headed toward the door. When he jerked it open, he found her standing in the hall—as if she’d been trying to work up her nerve or her courage to face him.
He glanced around her, but she was alone. She hadn’t brought the little girl or her dog. She wasn’t wearing her uniform anymore, either. She’d changed into a khaki skirt and a loose blouse. It didn’t matter what she wore—that glittery gown from years ago, the uniform or casual clothes—like a blonde doll getting dressed up in different outfits, she looked beautiful in anything.
But she was the most beautiful in nothing at all...
“You’re here,” he murmured, and instinctively he reached out to touch her, to see if she was real. Because when he’d thought about that night for the past five years, he’d always wondered if it had really happened or if it had just been some fantasy he’d conjured up.
Before he could brush his hand across her cheek, she flinched and stepped back. “That’s not why I came here.”
She must have thought he was making a pass. And he hadn’t been—at least, not consciously.
“That’s not why I asked you here,” he said. He stepped back so she could enter the suite.
But she hesitated, as if she didn’t believe him.
“Seriously,” he said. “All I want from you is the truth. You damn well owe me that.” She’d owed him that for the past five years.
She drew in a deep breath and stepped across the threshold, which reminded him of that night, of how he’d carried her across it and freaked out. She glanced up, met his gaze and nodded, as if she remembered it, too. “That’s why,” she said. “Even if I could have found you after you left town, I didn’t think you’d want to know. You’d made it clear that you didn’t want to be a father—ever.”
He still didn’t. But he didn’t have a choice now. He was one. Wasn’t he?
“So she is mine?”
She hesitated a moment, as if debating whether she could get away with lying about it.
“I’ll ask for a paternity test,” he warned her. No matter what she told him, he should do that anyway. But he didn’t need one. That little girl looked like him—down to the dimple in her left cheek.
Color rushed to her pale skin as her face flushed. “She’s yours.”
He hadn’t shut the door yet, so he looked into the hall again. Empty. “Why didn’t you bring her?” he asked as he closed the door.
He hadn’t chosen to be a father, but now that he was one, he wanted to know about his child. He wanted to see her, to talk to her, to hold her...especially when he remembered how upset she’d been at the police department. The tears, the fear...
Juliette’s teeth sank into her bottom lip and she shook her head. And in her eyes were the same tears and fear that had been in her daughter’s.
“What happened today?” he asked. “What crime did she witness?” He should have asked that earlier—should have demanded his answers then. But he’d been too stunned to think, to feel anything but shock.
“Murder,” Juliette replied.
And that shock struck him again. He shook his head. “No...” He’d known there had been some murders in Red Ridge, but those had involved grooms. “Were you two at a wedding?”
Juliette shook her head. “We were at the park. She was sitting on top of the tall slide, and she saw a man and woman in the parking lot.” She shivered. “She told me and the detective later what happened—that the woman opened a suitcase full of bags of sand and the man pulled out a gun and shot her. Then he threw the suitcase in the car and came after us.” Her voice cracked with that fear.
And Blake instinctively reached for her again. But this time she didn’t pull away. Instead she let him tug her into his arms and hold her as she trembled against him.
“What happened then?” he asked.
Obviously, she and the little girl had gotten away from the killer. But he wanted the details, needing to know how close he had come to losing them before he’d even known they were here.
“I hid Pandora in the tunnel under the slide...”
Pandora. That was the little girl’s name.
“He didn’t find her?”
“He found us,” Juliette said. “But before he could shoot us, I shot him.”
He shuddered now. He hadn’t known her at all five years ago. She’d seemed so refined—so delicate—but she was much stronger than he’d known.
“I just grazed his shoulder, and he got away before I could arrest him,” she said, her voice heavy with regret. “He told me that he’d get her, though. And I know that he will try. She saw him kill that woman.”
That poor little girl. Nobody should have to witness something so horrific, let alone a child.
He pulled Juliette’s trembling body even closer to his. But he wasn’t sure whom he was trying to comfort now—her or himself. “Where is she?”
“The woman died.”
“No,” he said. “Your—our—” His voice cracked as he corrected himself, and he felt a rush of his own fear. “Our daughter,” he continued. “Where is she?”
Juliette’s breath shuddered out, brushing softly across his throat. Then she stepped back, out of his embrace, and wrapped her arms around herself. “I talked the chief into putting her in a safe house. The killer saw my uniform, so I’m sure he will be able to figure out who I am easily enough and where we live.”
“You’re in danger, too, then,” he said, and he fought the urge to reach for her again, to hold her in his arms and keep her safe. “If he got close enough for you to shoot him, you saw him.”
She nodded. “He was wearing sunglasses and a hood. But the hood blew back, and the glasses slipped down...” She shuddered again. “And I’ll never forget that face, those eyes...”
He’d once said the same thing about her—that he would never forget her. And that had scared him, too, but no way near to the extent that she was afraid. She feared for her life. He’d feared only for his heart.
“So you can identify him,” he said. Hopefully the Red Ridge Police Department could find the guy and put him behind bars for life for the life he’d taken.
“I looked through all the mug shots and—” she shook her head “—nothing. I thought he looked familiar, but I couldn’t find any arrest or outstanding warrant for him.” Her brow furrowed with frustration.
That same frustration coursed through him. Now there was more than one killer on the loose in Red Ridge. But this killer wasn’t after just grooms. He was after Juliette and Blake’s daughter.
“I’m going to hire private guards to watch that safe house,” he said. He’d heard of a reputable security firm out of River City, Michigan. He would hire the Payne Protection Agency to guard his little girl. He hadn’t known he was a father until now—but now that he knew, he was going to do the best he could by his daughter.
Juliette shook her head. “That’s not necessary. Red Ridge PD will protect her. She has an officer staying with her inside the house and another one patrolling outside it. She has police protection 24-7.”
And what about Juliette? Who was protecting her? Nobody had been in the hall with her when she’d arrived. Was there anyone waiting outside to protect her? Or had she come alone?
Blake shook his head. “The department is spread too thin right now. Surely you must realize that—with a serial killer on the loose and then this...murder involving drugs...”
What the hell had happened to Red Ridge since he’d been gone? When he was growing up here, it used to feel like nothing ever happened—except for that one night. But now too much was happening in Red Ridge.
Too damn much crime...
Juliette’s face flushed again, and finally she nodded in agreement. “Our resources are limited right now...”
And they were about to get more limited. That was another reason Patience had called him. If their father lost Colton Energy, Red Ridge would lose their funding for the K9 program, as well. His late first wife’s trust had originally funded the program, and he’d taken over when that had run out.
If the program ended, then Juliette would probably lose her job—her way of supporting their daughter, which she’d been doing alone.
Until now.
“You’ll have to run it past the chief, though,” she cautioned him.
That wasn’t all Blake intended to run past the chief. He intended to make sure Juliette had protection, as well. But he didn’t bring it up now because he didn’t want to argue with her while she was upset.
“He doesn’t even want me going to visit Pandora at the safe house,” she remarked, and there was a little catch in her voice, as if she was choking down a sob.
Blake reached for her again, pulling her against him. His body tensed as attraction overwhelmed him.
“I’ve never been separated from her before,” Juliette said. “She’s never spent a night away from me...”
And his attraction cooled as his anger returned. Now he stepped back, breaking the physical connection with her. And physical was all they would ever have—if that. She was a woman he would never be able to trust—not after how she’d misled him five years ago.
Obviously she had not been the rich businesswoman he’d thought she was. And then to keep his daughter from him...
“I can’t say the same,” he remarked resentfully. “All I’ve been is separated from her. You should have told me...”
“I told you why,” she said, and she gestured at the door and that threshold. “I didn’t think you’d want to be part of her life.”
He shook his head, rejecting her excuse. “I should have been given the chance to decide that for myself,” he said. “You should have told me.”
She shrugged. “You were already gone.”
“But all my family is still in Red Ridge,” he said. Except for his mother, who was always traveling. “You could have found me.”
She snorted. “Like you tried to find me?”
“I told you, I tried,” he said. “But after you snuck out in the middle night without even giving me your last name, I didn’t have much to go on.”
“You walked right past me,” she said.
He laughed. Like that would have been possible. There was no way he wouldn’t have noticed her, especially after that night. “When?”
“The very next day,” she said. “Just out in the hallway.” She gestured toward the door again. “But then, I didn’t expect you to notice me. I was just the hired help.”
He snorted now. “Yeah, right...in that dress, those heels...” The earrings. He still had those. She’d left them on the nightstand next to the bed.
“Those were a tip from a hotel guest,” she said. “I was a maid here, putting myself through college.”
He narrowed his eyes. “What was that night about?” Had she deliberately set out to seduce him? To get pregnant? But if that had been her plan, why hadn’t she told him when she’d gotten pregnant?
If she’d been after money, that would have been the time for her to ask. But she’d never asked. She had raised their daughter all these years with no financial support from him. Unless she’d gotten it from someone else...
He narrowed his eyes and studied her face. “What were you after?”
Maybe it wasn’t him at all. His father dated only younger women. Blake felt physically sick at the thought of her with Fenwick Colton.
“Nothing,” she said. “I didn’t want anything from you then and I don’t want anything from you now.”
“You already took something from me,” he said. “My daughter—and nearly five years of her life.”
Juliette flinched. “I’m sorry. I really didn’t think you’d care...”
That night he’d told her so much—about his family—about himself. He’d been vulnerable with her in a way that he’d never been vulnerable with anyone else. Maybe she’d thought he was like his father despite his vow that he didn’t want to be. Maybe she’d thought he was too selfish to care about his kids or anyone else.
“You should have let me decide,” he said.
Her face flushed again, and she slowly nodded in agreement. “You’re right. I’m sorry.” Her voice cracked with emotion. “I can’t give those years back to you, but I can show you pictures. Videos. Christmas and birthdays and Halloween parties.”
His chest ached at the thought of all those milestones he’d missed. But photos and videos wouldn’t tell him what he really wanted to know. “What is she like?”
Juliette’s lips curved into a smile, and her already beautiful face became even more so as love radiated from within her. “She’s amazing. So sweet. So generous. So funny...” She chuckled as if remembering something.
Something he’d missed. He’d missed a lot of somethings that nothing could bring back. No matter what she told him.
She shared stories with him. Story after story about something Pandora had done or said. And finally she must have noticed that while he listened, he said nothing. His heart ached too much over all the time he’d lost with his child.
She reached out now and ran her hand down his arm. “I’m sorry,” she said again, and tears glistened in her blue eyes until she blinked them back. “I’m so sorry...” It was obvious she felt guilty now.
But Blake couldn’t absolve her of that guilt. He couldn’t change what had happened or get back those years he’d lost. And because of that, he would never be able to forgive her.
She had kept so much from him—his daughter and the truth about who and what she was. So he would never be able to trust her, either.
* * *
Finn looked pointedly at his wrist as he opened his condo door for his late-night visitor. He wasn’t wearing a watch, though. He’d taken that off when he’d gone to bed a couple of hours ago. He was not happy that he’d had to leave his sexy, naked fiancée in that bed alone to answer the door.
Not that anyone knew he was engaged. Because of that damn Groom Killer, he and Darby were forced to keep their engagement secret. He suspected theirs wasn’t the only secret engagement in town.
“What do you want, Blake?” He’d heard his billionaire cousin was back in Red Ridge, but he hadn’t seen him yet. He could have waited until daylight for that. Maybe Blake was still on whatever time zone he lived in now.
“I need to talk to you about Juliette...”
“Walsh?” Finn finished for him. That was the only Juliette he knew.
Blake’s handsome face twisted into a slight grimace as he nodded. “Yes, Walsh.”
Finn wrinkled his brow. “How do you know that particular K9 cop?” Juliette’s partner specialized in drug sniffing. Had Sasha gotten a hit on Blake?
A lot of spoiled rich kids got involved in drugs. But Blake, despite being the only male heir to the rich branch of the Colton family, wasn’t spoiled. Finn knew he’d worked damn hard to establish his own business without his father’s help. Maybe that was because he’d been trying to spite his father, though.
“I met Juliette before I left Red Ridge,” Blake said—almost reluctantly.
“That was nearly five years ago,” Finn remembered. “How would your paths have crossed? Juliette was working two jobs back then to pay off her mother’s medical bills and put herself through college.” He had a lot of respect for the young woman’s work ethic. That was why he was damn happy to have her as part of his police force.
A ragged breath escaped Blake’s lips. “I—I didn’t know that...”
“So you didn’t know her well, then,” Finn said. Sounded like he hadn’t even known her last name. “What’s with your sudden interest in her now?”
“I—I know she and her daughter are in danger,” Blake said. “And I want to help.”
Finn furrowed his brow again. “That’s not necessary.” A civilian like Blake would only get in Finn’s way. “I’ve got it handled. The little girl is in a safe house with around-the-clock protection—”
“Juliette should be in the safe house, too,” Blake said. “With the child.”
Finn nodded. “I tried that. She refused to go into hiding.” He suspected she wanted to personally catch the killer who’d traumatized her daughter. “I’ll have other officers watching her at all times.”
Blake shook his head. “That’s not enough. With all these murders, the Red Ridge PD is spread too thin.”
Finn couldn’t argue with that. He was damn tired of not being able to find Demi. He would have rather she was the cousin who had paid him this late-night visit, so he could figure out whether or not she was the Groom Killer. He suspected not, and there was a psycho on the loose in Red Ridge.
Then he also had the Larson twins and all the criminal activities he suspected they were behind to deal with, as well. He needed more than suspicions to nail them, though. He needed proof. But the officers he’d put on surveillance of the twins’ real estate company hadn’t come up with anything yet.