by Addison Fox
“The note doesn’t say the same?”
“That rhyming mess?” When she only nodded, he continued on. “It’s hasty and dumb.”
“Maybe it’s a break in pattern?”
“Or someone else entirely.”
Aisha had hit on the copycat idea earlier in the week, sharing her thoughts with Daria and Trey only, so it was fascinating to get the hypothesis backed up by Agent Roberts and his profilers.
“A copycat?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“So where’s the real killer?”
“Out there and on the loose. Which is why I’m here.”
Not for a Saturday night flirt session.
Which empirically Daria knew, but still, she couldn’t stop the shot of disappointment that settled down around the same area in her chest as the earlier setback regarding her birth mother.
Burying all of it way down deep, she put on her most professional face, her voice all business. “What do you need?”
“Trey suggested the other day that the governor has taken an interest in this case.”
“Of course he has. And I’d wager whatever pressure Trey is getting, your office is getting double.”
“You’d win that bet.”
She quirked a brow. “How does that affect me?”
“You’re smart and you’re competent. I know we agreed that we’d work together but so far we’ve grudgingly helped each other. I’m willing to show my cards. All of them.”
“Why?”
“Because I want to apprehend the real killer,” he replied. “Catching a fake might make politicians sleep easier, but it won’t help me. Not one bit.”
Daria considered what the agent was saying. And also what he wasn’t. The pressure on all of them to close the Avalanche Killer case was extreme. But if the governor caught wind of a copycat, it would be all too easy, for political reasons, to push to close the case over a fake.
And then they’d all be out of luck, the citizens of Bradford County most of all.
The Avalanche Killer had operated under the radar for well over a decade. If the blame ended up being pinned on some sick copycat and not the one truly responsible, the killer could be in the wind before any of them blinked. Serial killers might have patterns, but they were also smart. Eluding capture for as long as he had, it would be easy enough for the killer to pack up shop and resume his evil machinations somewhere else. As far as the public knew, the Avalanche Killer would be caught, rotting in jail.
And the real killer would be free to wreak havoc all over again.
“I’ll have to check with my boss.”
“Of course. I want Colton’s agreement, fair and square.” Stefan looked around. “Where is he, by the way?”
“At his engagement party. His cousin threw him and Aisha a dinner tonight.” A dinner she wasn’t part of, even though she was a Colton, too.
And whose fault is that, Daria Colton Bloom?
Whatever—or whoever—she was, Daria was honest with herself. She’d been that way always, but had doubled down on the trait with the decision to find her mother. If she didn’t keep a steady grip on her emotions and her motivations, she’d never get the answers she sought.
It was with that understanding that a new idea took root. If she and Agent Roberts did work more closely together, perhaps he could be a conduit to her search for her mother. The level of information and data she had as a county employee was vast, but it was still nothing compared with what the Feds possessed.
Could she trust him to help her?
Did she dare ask?
She’d nearly decided to take the bull by the horns when Stefan smiled again, distracting her from her question. “Good for them. It’s important to take the good where you can find it.”
“Always.”
That vibrant smile fell once more, replaced with a sadness she could actually feel. “It’s too rare not to.”
“Not a lot of good in your life right now?”
“No.” His brown eyes were direct on hers when he spoke. “Not one single bit.”
* * *
Aisha still fumed inwardly as she thought about the sheer malevolence that had spewed off Trey’s opponent for sheriff. Where she’d initially believed Barton Evigan was just a troublemaker, the events at the town hall last week and tonight’s little display in The Chateau’s main dining room had forced her to rethink that opinion.
Yes, he’d come over to their table to make trouble, but the resulting exchange of words had held a dark danger she’d not expected.
Who did that bastard think he was? Trey had hung close after it happened. Her mother and sister had moved in as well, followed by Calvin and Audrey, all of them closing ranks around her. She was in the midst of the people she cared about most in the world, and still, nothing had managed to calm her.
That was what the good people of Bradford County were going to get on their ballots come November?
His brother was a piece of work, too. A big, hulking brute who looked as ready to do harm as Barton did. Maybe even more. She hadn’t missed how he’d hung back with Barton’s wife, almost as if he were the guard dog waiting to attack anyone who dared to get in the way.
“I know that look.” Audrey Colton sat down beside Aisha, her voice soft and low. “My husband tells me that’s the look I get each and every time I head out for a rally.”
Audrey had been an activist since Aisha was eight. She’d fought for everything from the safety of Colorado land to protections for the Native people of their area to basic rights for women and minorities. It was in her blood to raise her voice and use it, and Aisha considered it the highest compliment that Trey’s mom might see even a glimmer of that coming from her.
“I’ll consider that the highest compliment, but one I can’t accept.”
“You had the warrior look on before. You stand up when you need to and that’s all that really matters.”
“You stand up for everything.”
Audrey shrugged, those slim shoulders still elegant into her sixties. “I formed my opinions and my actions in my own time. You’ll do the same in yours.”
“He’s a monster.” Aisha willed the overwhelming frustration aside, hoping by doing so she could find some semblance of balance again. “Trey should have an opponent. It’s not good to have a shoo-in election. Or no real opposition for people to vote on. But Evigan is not that person.”
“No, he’s not.” A definitive snort was added to the comment as Trey’s grandfather Earl came up to stand beside her and Audrey. Although he needed the aid of his cane, his movements slow, he had that Colton determination in spades. Aisha knew Earl had been declining over the past few years, but that night it felt like they had the old Earl Colton with them.
“Mr. Colton.” Aisha leaned down to give him a kiss on the cheek. “I’m so glad you could make it tonight.”
Audrey followed, a soft kiss to the older man’s cheek. “Pops.”
“My girls.” Earl smiled, his gaze drifting to where his sons and grandsons assembled in a small conversation circle. “I love my boys, but I’m damn happy there are more girls in this family. More and more every month!”
“There are a lot of weddings going around,” Aisha agreed, ignoring the guilt that reminded her there wouldn’t be one for her and Trey. That the evening was all for show.
If Audrey felt the same, she didn’t show it, instead turning on the full wattage of her smile for Earl. “Isn’t it wonderful, Pops? Everyone happy and settled.”
“Sure is.”
The old man slapped a hand on his thigh. “We’ll have a lot to look forward to in the fall. Trey’s going to beat that ass, Evigan, and then we’ll have Aisha here joining our family.”
Aisha’s gaze snapped to Audrey’s over Earl’s bent frame, but all she saw was that continued smile. One that had vee
red decidedly toward mischief. Well, Aisha thought. No help from that quarter.
“Thank you, Mr. Colton.”
“About damn time, too. I’ve seen you two running around since you were little ones. Peas in a pod, you both were. That’s what I always told my Alice, may she rest in peace.”
Earl inclined his head on the last, and Aisha had a memory of Earl before age and time had riddled his body. He’d been a strong, proud man and his wife, Alice, had matched him in her love for their family and for the land. She’d been gone several years, but it was easy to see there was a bond that would never leave him.
Wasn’t that what she had with Trey? They might not have the romantic elements, but in all other ways they were boon companions. And they had been from the start.
Was that why the lack of a true romance and love hurt so much?
“Mama Alice loved watching the kids run around,” Audrey added. “She told me years ago that Trey and Aisha were going to end up together someday.”
Aisha nearly tumbled in her heels, despite standing still beside Earl and Audrey.
End up together?
Had she entered a parallel universe? She’d heard the same nonsense from her mother for years, but Audrey knew the truth. She knew that there was nothing truly going on between Trey and Aisha.
Except for those kisses...
Aisha had no idea what to say to any of it. With her mother, it was easy enough to brush it off with an “Oh, Mom” or a “Be serious.” However, with Trey’s family—and a pretend engagement ring on her finger—it wasn’t quite so easy to dismiss. “That’s so sweet to hear. And proof that everybody loves a happy ending.”
“Especially when two good people find each other.” Earl turned to her and pressed a soft kiss to her cheek. “That makes the best sort of happy ending, darlin’. When someone deserves it.”
Earl moved on, headed for the circle of men who’d moved to the end of the table. Aisha watched him go, his words still echoing in her mind.
Oh, how she wanted to deserve it.
All of it.
* * *
Trey walked Aisha to her door, the lingering frustration over Evigan’s visit during dinner nearly erasing what was a great time with their families. While he hated the reason for it, he’d seen how hardship and danger had brought his extended family closer over the past several months, and he couldn’t find fault with the outcome.
His cousins had proved that. Each had given their unwavering support as they’d stood in the dining room, the aftermath of Evigan’s visit still lingering in the air. And each was equally determined to help him in any way they could.
Even his grandfather had been in fine form. They’d all watched with sadness as age had done its inevitable work, but it was great to have had a few hours where remnants of a younger man still shone through.
“You doing okay?” Aisha finished opening her lock and turned to him as her front door swung open.
“I’m good. And remembering all the things I have to be grateful for.”
He saw the immediate question in her gaze but gestured her in. “My family. I’ve been so focused on Evigan I nearly forgot what a nice evening it was. Or how much I enjoy their company.”
She smiled, her natural warmth immediately lighting her features. “It was that.”
“Everyone loves you.”
“And I love them. Your family is quirky and intense but they care deeply for each other. It’s nice to see.”
They also cared deeply for Aisha. That had been a continuous theme through the evening. Every bit of congratulations he’d received had quickly been followed by admonitions of “It’s about time,” “What took you so long?” and “I knew it all along.”
His grandfather had been even more vocal, telling him he’d begun to suspect Trey was a damn fool for making the woman wait so long.
How had he missed what each and every one of them had seen?
And was it even remotely possible it was the governor’s lackey who’d put it all into perspective? Or at least pushed him in the right direction.
Since Trey was increasingly coming to the conclusion it was exactly like that, he wasn’t quite sure what to do with it.
Nor was he sure if Aisha felt the same way.
He knew there was attraction. The heat that generated each time they’d kissed had proved that beyond a shadow of a doubt. But physical attraction wasn’t love. And whatever else they had, the two of them had an extraordinary foundation of love, respect and friendship. Did he dare put any of that at risk?
Yet as he looked over at her, at that beautiful face he knew as well as his own, backlit by the soft lights of the living room lamp, Trey wondered how he could resist her.
“My family thinks you and I are a good idea.”
The smile that still lingered over talk of his family faded. “They all said similar things to me.”
“Do you think it’s a good idea?”
“This engagement?” She let out a small sigh before tossing her small evening purse onto a nearby chair. “We both had our eyes open going in. This is a means to an end, and based on Barton’s intrusion into our dinner this evening, I’d say we made the right decision.”
Logical. Quantifiable. Tangible.
All the reasons they’d entered into this sham engagement in the first place.
But now he wanted more. A lot more, and he wanted it all with her. “My family seems to think so.”
“It’s in the air. They’ve all begun to see love everywhere. From Wyatt and Bailey to Liam and Sloane and all the rest of your cousins who’ve coupled up this year. Even your sister, Bree, and her fiancé, Rylan, have stars in their eyes.”
“What if they’re right?”
“About what?”
Trey hovered there for the briefest of moments. A nanosecond, really, before he closed the gap between them. “Us, Aish. You and me.”
His hands settled at her waist, but that was as far as he went. The urgent need to kiss her—to take her in his arms and brand her as his—pounded through him in intense waves. But he held back, his hands at her hips and the nearness of their bodies the closest he’d come.
He needed her to do the rest.
Needed to know that she not only felt the same way, but that she wanted to take that last step, too.
“Oh, Trey.” The dark depths of her eyes seemed to gleam in the room’s soft light. “Do you know how long I’ve wanted that?”
“You have?”
“Yeah. But it will change us.” She stilled, her hands settling over his. “It will change everything.”
“Maybe I want to change everything.”
“Just so long as you understand we can’t go back.”
Somewhere, deep inside, Trey knew what she meant. They couldn’t go backward. He’d suspected as much, as soon as the suggestion of an engagement left his lips, but now, it was so much more.
And in reality, there was no going back. So he’d do what felt so perfect between them.
He’d push forward.
“I want that, Aish. You. Me. I want things to change.”
She nodded, the lightest sheen of tears filling her gaze before she leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to his lips. But it was the words she murmured after that confirmed she felt as he did.
“I want that, too, Trey. You and me.”
Chapter 13
Aisha wondered if she was in a dream.
It felt like it, she thought, as she reveled in the long, languorous strokes of Trey’s fingertips over her body. They’d drifted into her bedroom, the lamp from the living room spilling far enough to provide plenty of ambient light to observe him.
This was Trey.
And while she’d always felt rather proprietary toward him, something changed inside.
This was her Trey.
Wh
atever happened tonight would be between just the two of them. She wasn’t without apprehension, fully aware they would never go back to where they’d been. Their friendship was rock solid, but making love would irrevocably change them.
Both of them.
She knew she should be more worried about that. That somehow, she should shield her heart from breaking wide-open. Hadn’t she learned that lesson once before? And hadn’t she lived with that heartbreak ever since? She’d loved Kenneth, but their relationship had been nowhere near as deep or intense or essential as her friendship with Trey.
And still, Aisha pressed forward.
She accepted his lips against her own, their mouths fusing together with the heat and need and sheer desperation that now drove their bodies. And when his fingers went to the zipper at the back of her dress, she could only wait in delicious anticipation of what was to come.
The zipper slid lightly over her skin and Trey ran the fingertips of his free hand down her spine, trailing just behind the freed material. His lips continued to play over hers, a mix of hot and urgent that kept her body at the edge of something.
Need.
Want.
Desire.
And underneath it all, love. It was an impractical emotion and one that came with more risks than she could count, but she loved Trey. She hadn’t made love to that many men in her life, but she wasn’t inexperienced. Only in the past, sex was the next step in the relationship. A pathway to love, not something that came after.
But with Trey?
The love had been there, ever since that day on the slide stairs when a girl became friends with a boy. The best boy in school who’d grown into the very best man in the county.
Once again, those few tears she’d felt in the living room pricked the corners of her eyes. Trey Colton was a good man. And the reason they were in this situation was because others were not only unwilling to believe that, but were determined to drag his name through the mud.