by Addison Fox
She saw his mouth open in question but he quickly snapped it shut, saying nothing.
“I finally stopped crying. It took a few days, but I got it out of my system.”
“I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
“I’m not. Those tears gave me a lot of clarity. Some things I hadn’t been willing to admit or address in my life.”
His eyebrows narrowed in question, adding additional creases to those dark circles. “Clarity on what?”
“I’m no longer interested in working for the DA’s office. I’ve had a good run but I think my talents can be put to better use somewhere else.”
“That’s a loss for Arielle and for Grave Gulch.”
“I don’t think so and neither does she. I’ll see out all my current cases for the foreseeable future, but I’m starting classes in a few weeks. My new focus will be social work. Hopefully I can help people before they find themselves in need.”
“Congratulations.”
“Thank you. But to be honest, that’s not why I’m here.”
“Why are you here, Evangeline?”
“I thought it was important to tell you that I love you.”
“I don’t—”
She held up a hand. “I don’t expect you to say it back. I also don’t expect you to do anything about it. But I do expect that you won’t lie to me.”
She saw the flash of heat in his eyes. Good. The jab hit its mark and she didn’t even need boxing gloves to do it.
“I haven’t lied to you,” he said.
“Then you’ve lied to yourself.”
As more anger flashed, Evangeline knew she’d landed another direct hit.
“You’ve somehow convinced yourself that the calling you have for your job means you can’t have a life. And that’s a steaming pile of crap.”
“It’s true.”
“No, actually, it’s not. Do you want to know how I know?”
She saw it then. The moment when everything shifted. When the walls he’d put up to protect himself began to crack. “How do you know?”
“Because I was there, too. I believed more of my father’s lies and abuses than I realized. I convinced myself that I didn’t have what it takes. Or that I had a hand tied behind my back because I always had to prove myself. That I was emotional. Or hysterically reacting to a situation. I wasn’t, but I forced myself to remain calm and dispassionate to make my choices.”
She let out a hard sigh. “Because of it, I let Len Davison slip through my fingers. I read the data but I didn’t truly read the evidence.”
“I’ve told you from the start that’s not all your fault.”
Oh, this sweet, sweet man, Evangeline marveled. Still singing that tune.
“But you see, Troy. It is my fault. That’s what I’ve had to come to accept. That data and details are just that. Items that sometimes add up and sometimes don’t. It’s what’s inside—” she moved closer, laying a hand on her chest “—what’s in here that matters.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because you’ve convinced yourself the only way you can honor your mother is to keep the cop separate from the man. But it’s the man you are that makes you an amazing cop. One your mother would be proud of.” Evangeline doubled down, full well knowing it was the truth. “One she is proud of.”
He came around his desk then and stood before her. “I can’t be someone I’m not.”
“I’m not asking you to.”
“Then what are you asking?”
“That if you love me you’ll take the chance on us. That you’ll fight for us. And that you’ll still be Detective Troy Colton every day, too.”
Whatever lingering ire filled his eyes vanished, replaced by a haunting vulnerability that skewered her clean through. “What if I don’t know how?”
“We’ll figure it out together.”
He closed the remaining distance between them, pulling her against his chest and bending his forehead to hers. “I do love you.”
“I love you, too.”
He lifted his head, his gaze never leaving hers. “Do you think it’s enough?”
“I think it will always be enough.”
And as Evangeline’s lips met Troy’s, she knew, with absolute certainty, that she was right.
Epilogue
Troy stared at his bride-to-be across the expanse of the restaurant at the Grave Gulch Hotel and considered how far they’d come in only a few weeks. The night he and Evangeline had shared here, having dinner, had been something special. Until it wasn’t, as Sal Petrillo had lurked in the shadows.
But no matter how scary that evening was, it had been the catalyst to crack Evangeline’s case wide open and ultimately bring them to this moment.
He would have preferred they’d gotten here without the risk to her life, but now that Petrillo was in their rearview mirror—and awaiting trial in Grave Gulch County—Troy had begun to breathe easier.
Evangeline mingled around the room, Desiree excitedly chattering beside her as she introduced Evangeline to their assembled guests.
“Has she met the family yet?”
Troy turned toward his brother, Palmer, and they clinked the tops of their beer bottles to one another in greeting. “She’s getting there. Every time I think she’s met everyone, someone new pops up and I realize I’m wrong.”
Palmer laughed at that, lines creasing the skin around his vivid green eyes, tanned from all the time he’d spent outside on his ranch. “There’s always another Colton to meet.”
Troy eyed his brother and realized that he’d seen Palmer staring in the direction of Soledad de la Vega more than once this evening. The fraternal twin of Dominique de la Vega, their cousin Stanton’s fiancée, had been invited to join them all for the evening.
With a nod to the beautiful baker, Troy pressed Palmer, “You see something you like?”
“Come on. You know me. I’m a perpetual bachelor.”
Troy heard his brother’s words but didn’t miss the distinct notes of longing before Palmer shut it down. Nor did he miss Palmer’s rush of excuses to head to the bar for a refill when Dez and Evangeline walked up to join them.
“Did someone say bar run?” Desiree smiled, linking her arm with Palmer’s. “Count me in.”
Troy put his arm around Evangeline, taking joy in how simple it was to pull her close as Palmer and Desiree headed for the bar.
Why had he fought this for so long?
It was a question he’d likely ask himself for many years to come, only there was another part of him that knew the answer. Until the past few weeks, he’d admired Evangeline from afar, but had never really gotten to know her. His interest, up until then, had been superficial at best.
But now...
Now he knew so much more. And even better than the knowing, he recognized that they’d have a lifetime of learning all there was to know about one another. It was a heady thought, one that caught him unawares at the oddest moments.
Yet as he stood there, looking out over the room full of the people he loved, he had to admit that his sister had been right all along.
Love did find you at the most unexpected times.
As he bent to press a kiss to Evangeline’s forehead, Troy knew another truth. One he’d had to learn for himself.
When you found it, you needed to hang on with both hands, and never, ever let go.
* * *
Check out the previous books in the
Coltons of Grave Gulch series:
Colton’s Dangerous Liaison by Regan Black
Colton’s Killer Pursuit by Tara Taylor Quinn
Colton’s Nursery Hideout by Dana Nussio
Colton Bullseye by Geri Krotow
Guarding Colton’s Child by Lara Lacombe
And don’t miss Book Seven
&
nbsp; Rescued by the Colton Cowboy
by Deborah Fletcher Mello
Available in July 2021 from
Harlequin Romantic Suspense!
Keep reading for an excerpt from Close Quarters with the Bodyguard by Lisa Childs.
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Close Quarters with the Bodyguard
by Lisa Childs
Chapter 1
Landon Myers shook his head. The bodyguard could not have heard his boss correctly—because what Parker Payne had said made no sense at all. Landon leaned closer to Parker’s desk and asked, “Who do you want me to protect?”
“Jocelyn Gerber,” Parker replied.
When he’d resigned from the River City Police Department, Landon had hoped he’d never have to see that particular assistant district attorney again. “Why?”
“She’s being threatened, along with everyone else associated with Luther Mills’s upcoming trial.” The notorious drug dealer had been charged with first-degree murder of a police informant. Mills thought himself so above the law that he’d shot the kid right in front of an eyewitness—the informant’s sister.
Anyone else would have accepted a plea deal, knowing they’d be convicted. But Luther had gotten away with murder before, along with countless other crimes.
Landon snorted derisively. “What? Is Gerber’s boss threatening to kill her if she loses this one like she has every other case she’s tried to bring against him?”
None of those cases had ever made it past the grand jury, though, for an indictment—despite all the evidence she’d been given. Landon knew because he’d brought her some of that evidence only to have it mysteriously disappear.
“Luther’s threatening her,” Parker said. “The police chief learned about a plot Mills has in place to take out everyone associated with his trial. And Chief Lynch thinks Luther has help from within the police department and within the district attorney’s office.”
Landon snorted again. “Yeah, and I can tell you who. Her. Jocelyn Gerber is his help within the district attorney’s office.” That was the only thing that made sense for why Luther had never been tried before.
“If that’s true, why would he be threatening her?” Parker asked him.
Landon leaned back in his chair, his knees bumping into the front of Parker’s desk again. He would have pushed it back to accommodate his long legs, but the wooden chair was already against the paneled wall behind him. “So she’ll do what he wants—like she has every other time River City PD got close to taking him down for his crimes—and the evidence against him will miraculously disappear.” Along with the eyewitness. He probably should have been glad he hadn’t been assigned to protect her; whoever was guarding Rosie Mendez had been given a death sentence.
Parker shook his head. “The district attorney wouldn’t have assigned the case to Ms. Gerber if she had any doubts about her.”
“The district attorney should be trying the damn case herself,” Landon said.
“Her doctor has ordered her to bed rest because of her high-risk pregnancy, and once she delivers, she’ll be out for a while for maternity leave,” Parker said.
Landon furrowed his brow, surprised his boss knew so much about the district attorney.
As if he’d read Landon’s mind, Parker replied, “Amber Talsma-Kozminski is married to my brother Logan’s brother-in-law Milek.”
The Paynes were related to just about everyone in River City. The former chief of police was Parker’s half brother, and the current one, former FBI bureau chief Woodrow Lynch, was now his stepfather.
An only child of only children who’d passed away a few years ago, Landon didn’t have any family but for his fellow team members, who were also former vice cops like he was. But while he was the only Myers left in River City, Jocelyn Gerber wasn’t the only assistant district attorney. Not in a city the size of theirs. River City, Michigan, was even bigger than Detroit but on the west side of the state near Lake Michigan. “The DA should have picked someone else for Luther’s trial, after all the times Jocelyn has failed to bring charges against him despite the evidence we brought her.”
“I’m sure that she didn’t purposely drop those charges,” Parker defended her.
“You left River City PD before I did,” Landon reminded him. Parker had left the vice unit when his twin brother, Logan, started the Payne Protection Agency. He’d worked for Logan for a few years before starting his own franchise of the agency, which consisted of all former vice cops, like Landon. “You don’t know Jocelyn Gerber.”
“And you do?”
Landon felt heat rush to his face. If he didn’t distrust her so much, he would have liked to know her better. With her long, silky black hair and long, lithe body, she was gorgeous. But she was just as treacherous as she was sexy—probably more so because she was so damn sexy. He shook his head.
“Well, you’re going to get to know her since you’ll be protecting her 24/7 from the threat to her life,” Parker told him.
Landon groaned. “C’mon. She’s not being threatened.” She was the threat—to the case and maybe to him, as well, since he would have to spend so much time around her. She was definitely too damn sexy.
* * *
The sound of her heels striking the concrete echoed throughout the dimly lit parking structure. But instead of slowing down, Jocelyn Gerber sped up as she hurried toward her vehicle. She hadn’t needed the chief of police phoning to warn her that she was in danger. She’d known the minute she’d taken the case against Luther Mills that she was putting her life at risk.
But neither the chief nor Luther Mills was going to scare her into giving up the trial. This time the charges would stick, and she would win.
She had to...
That win mattered most. No, putting Luther Mills out of commission mattered most.
A chill chased down her spine, and it wasn’t just from the crisp autumn wind whipping through the parking structure. Someone was watching her. She was used to that. Since she’d been assigned this case, she knew everyone was watching her—waiting for her to fail again. But someone was following her now, too. She heard an echo from more than her heels. She heard the echo of louder footsteps—from someone bigger and heavier than she was.
She shivered.
Of course, it didn’t mean that someone was following her. Maybe he was just heading to his vehicle like she was hers. But, since all the downtown offices had closed hours ago, there were very few vehicles parked yet in the structure. Most of the spaces were empty. The couple of cars she had passed, it sounded as though those footsteps had gone by them, as well. No lights blinked on, no horn tooted.
She pressed her key fob, but she wasn’t close enough to her vehicle for her lights to blink or horn to toot. Where the hell had she parked?
She needed to get to her SUV. But just in case she didn’t make it to her vehicle before the man caught up with her, she reached inside her purse, which hung over her shoulder next to her bulky briefcase. As she fumbled inside her leather bag, she turned her head to glance over her shoulder. She could see only a shadow behind her, but that shadow was enormous.
Her heart began to pound even faster and more furiously. The chief had warned that Mills would probably go after the eyewitness first. But what about Jocelyn?
She should have been safe—at least until the trial started. But it was weeks away and that enormous shadow was only feet away from her now. Her fingers finally closed around her weapon. She pulled it from her purse and whirled around to face her stalker, yelling, “Stay away from me!”
“That’s going to be damn hard to do when I’ve been assig
ned to protect you,” a deep voice drawled.
“Who are you?” she demanded to know as the man remained in the shadows. A hood was pulled over his head, and it shadowed his face like the dim light shadowed his entire body—his long, broad-shouldered body.
“Your bodyguard,” that deep voice rumbled.
She shivered again and clutched her weapon tighter.
That was the other thing the chief had told her, that he was hiring the Payne Protection Agency to protect everyone involved in Luther Mills’s trial. And like she had told him, that was a mistake. One that could prove fatal.
Was it going to prove fatal now—to her?
“Who are you?” she asked again, and she raised her weapon to point directly at his chest.
He chuckled. “You’re going to tase me?”
She moved her finger toward the trigger of the weapon. She knew how to fire it to plunge those probes into his chest because, unfortunately, she’d had to use it before. Luther Mills wasn’t the only criminal who had tried to hurt her.
“Yes.” But before she could fire it, the weapon was snapped out of her grasp and she was spun around so that her back was pressed against his chest, his strong arms wrapped around her.
She screamed.
But he just chuckled again. He knew there was nobody around to hear her. To help her...
She struggled in his grasp, but his arms just tightened around her, stilling her movements. She tried to kick back, with her stilettos, but when her heel struck his leg, the shoe slipped off her foot. And she hadn’t even fazed him; he was that strong, that muscular.
If this man really was her bodyguard, it was just as she’d feared. He was as big a threat to her as Luther Mills was—because, if she was right, someone within the Payne Protection Agency could be working for Luther. She had a horrible feeling that she’d just found out who—the man who had already overpowered her.
* * *
“Where are they?” Chief Woodrow Lynch wondered aloud as he looked around the nearly empty conference room.