Cheyenne patted Amanda’s cheek with her cold, chubby hand, and Amanda touched her forehead to her daughter’s. “Am I crazy to feel attracted to him, chickpea? We’re doing okay without a man in our lives, aren’t we?”
But as she climbed the stairs to her suite, Amanda couldn’t help thinking what Cheyenne would miss not having a father in her life. Was it time she put David’s betrayal behind her and opened her heart to another man? And was Slade that man? Was he a man she could trust not to hurt her, if his reason for being at Dead River Ranch was to unearth her family’s buried secrets?
Chapter 9
“What’s your interest in Jethro Colton?” Scottie Breen asked, his voice a rasp on Slade’s cell phone. After Slade had explained who he was and how he’d gotten Breen’s number, the man had started asking questions.
“I’m assisting Chief Peters in investigating a number of crimes that have happened on Jethro Colton’s ranch, including the cold case of my father’s murder here ten years ago.” Slade paced his small bedroom in the employee quarters.
“Your father? Then you have a personal motive for going after the Coltons?”
Slade thought of Amanda and her sister Gabby. Both women had been kind and helpful to him since he’d arrived. His shoulders tensed. “I’m not going after the Coltons. I just want the truth about my father’s death. He deserves justice. If I can help catch the culprit behind the recent attacks while I’m at it, all the better. If you have information that can help do either of those things, I’m all ears.”
“Oh, yes,” the man wheezed. “I’ve been reading about...the recent trouble at Dead River Ranch. That’s largely why...I called Chief Peters.” Breen was silent for a moment, then with a grunt he said, “Could be...helpful to you. Maybe not. Either way, I’m dying, Mr. Kent. Lung cancer. I have...information that needs to be...exposed. I’ve lived with...Jethro Colton’s secrets for...years, and I refuse to...die with a guilty conscience.”
Slade’s grip on his phone tightened. “What secrets?”
“If you...want to know, you come...talk to me in person.”
“Is that really necessary? What’s wrong with telling me now?”
“I’ve spent my life in the political world, Mr. Kent. I don’t trust phones. I’ve learned when you have something important to say, you need to look the other man in the eye.”
Slade raked his hand through his hair and glanced over at his laptop. “What about a video chat?”
“In person, Mr. Kent. Those are...my terms.”
“How can I be sure you’re not some prankster? I don’t have the time or money to waste flying out there to hear about some old gambling debt or parking ticket.”
“Of course not. I wouldn’t waste...my time over a parking ticket...either.”
Slade rubbed his chin, remembering what the police chief had told him. “Chief Peters mentioned some link to former President Joe Colton.”
“Yes. I was President Colton’s...campaign manager every election from...his first run for the state senate.”
Verifying that information would be easy enough. “What does—?”
“I’ve said all...I’m going to over the phone,” Breen growled, breathlessly. “Are you coming...to see me or not?”
The other ranch hands would return from Nevada by lunch tomorrow, relieving the workload. If he made a quick turnaround and got back to the ranch within thirty-six hours, maybe his absence wouldn’t draw too much attention. Solving his father’s murder was his priority, and if Breen knew something that could shed light on his investigation or more recent crimes at the ranch, Slade needed to make the trip happen. “I’ll be there. Day after tomorrow.”
Even as he disconnected with Breen, Slade began pulling up travel websites on his laptop to book his flight and hotel in San Diego. He’d just finished making his airline reservation when a knock sounded at his door.
Amanda waited across his threshold when he opened the door, and she gave him an uneasy grin. “Hi.”
“Hi.” He checked his watch. Eleven o’clock. He frowned, concerned the late night visit meant trouble. “Is there a problem?”
“Not a new one.” She slid her hands in the back pockets of her jeans and tipped her head. “Can we talk?”
He lifted a shoulder. “I suppose.” He stood back and let her in. “Where’s Cheyenne?”
“Upstairs. Gabby is rocking her to sleep.” She flashed a lopsided grin that he felt like a kick in the gut. “Hard to believe all three Colton sisters will be mothers soon.”
Slade blinked. “Gabby is pregnant?”
“No, but she’s marrying Trevor and will be Avery’s mom. And Catherine, whom you’ll meet at the wedding, is due in May.”
Nodding, Slade made a mental note to be out of town by May. If being around eight-month-old Cheyenne was difficult, being near Catherine Colton’s newborn would be torture.
He locked down the pain that reared its head and gave Amanda his attention. “What’s up?”
As she strolled into his room, her gaze immediately went to his laptop with his airline reservation glowing from the screen. “Going somewhere?”
He strode past her and pushed the screen of his laptop closed. “Maybe. You wanted to talk?”
She gave him a curious look. “California? Are you going to see that Breen character Chief Peters mentioned?”
Slade saw no point in evading. “I figured it was worth hearing him out.”
She squared her shoulders, a gesture that drew his attention to her chest and the fact that she didn’t appear to have on a bra under the long-sleeved sleep shirt she wore with her jeans. His imagination conjured an image of her naked breasts and how it would feel to mold them in his hands.
“Take me.”
Slade’s pulse jumped, and he yanked a startled gaze to her gold eyes as his brain scrambled to process what he’d heard.
When he didn’t answer her for several seconds, she said, “Take me with you to talk to Breen.”
Oh. Slade drew a deep breath through his nose and slid a hand over his mouth as a cover when he realized how wrong his misinterpretation had been. So...not an invitation to ravish her.
He cleared his throat. “No.”
She scowled. “Why not? If this guy thinks he has dirt on my dad, I want to hear it.”
Slade folded his arms over his chest. “You came down here to talk about something?”
Amanda opened her mouth as if to argue but seemed to reconsider. She schooled her face, and her shoulders dropped in defeat. “When you were at the police station tonight, did Chief Peters have any new information about my attacker? What did the blood test on Cal show? Did they find the bullet that was fired at me and run ballistics on it?”
“The blood on Cal’s chin was his own, and the puncture wound on his thumb backs up his story how it got there. His clothes and hands were negative for gunshot residue.”
“So he’s not the one behind all the attacks?”
Slade raised a palm. “I can’t say that. But it does appear he’s not the one who attacked you this morning. We have to wait on the ballistics test. They can take a few days. So far we haven’t found a gun to tie to the shooting, either.”
“And we still have no progress finding the mastermind behind the attacks. Someone hired Duke, one of the ranch hands, to kidnap Cheyenne and has been manipulating members of the staff to do his—or her—bidding.”
She chewed her bottom lip in frustration, drawing his focus to her mouth, and Slade’s groin tightened. When she tucked her loose hair behind her ear, exposing the pulse point of her neck, he was blindsided by an awareness of the late hour, the intimacy of having her in his bedroom and a consuming urge to press his lips to the curve of her throat and taste the tender skin there.
“Anything else?”
Again
he needed a moment to bring his thoughts back around from his sidetrack. “Not really. Most police work is slow and tedious. A lot of waiting on backed-up labs.”
She sighed and plowed her fingers through her hair. “It’s hard to be patient when you know someone is trying to kidnap your child. I need to be doing something.”
He understood her drive to act, not sit back and wait. That ambition was what had brought him to the ranch to search for answers about his father. “You’re doing what’s most important. Just keep being a good mother and make sure she’s guarded.”
She shook her head and squared her shoulders again. “It’s not enough. I want to go with you to talk to Breen.”
He puffed out a breath in exasperation. “No.”
She narrowed a disgruntled glare on him then shifted her gaze to his laptop. She made a move toward it, and he stopped her by hooking an arm around her waist, then sidestepping to block her path.
“No,” he repeated and noticed that his hand on her hip, his proximity, seemed to rattle her. Fluster her. Her cheeks had flushed, and a tremor rippled through her.
Intriguing. His touch ruffled Amanda’s otherwise self-assured and stubborn feathers. He could work with that.
When she’d drawn a calming breath, she glanced up at him and caught him staring. Her nose wrinkled slightly as she tipped her head in query. “What?”
“Honestly?”
Her eyebrows lifted. “Yes. You promised to be completely honest with me. Remember?”
He pursed his lips and nodded. “I do.” Stepping close enough to invade her personal space, he caught the silky strands of her hair between his fingers. “I was thinking how much I like your hair down. It’s sexy.”
Her breath hitched, and her golden eyes widened in surprise.
“But then that messy ponytail you wear in the stable is kinda hot, too. The mussed and careless thing makes me think about how it might look after sex.”
She swallowed hard and gaped at him. “I, uh...”
He tugged his cheek in a grin. “You wanted me to be honest.”
“R-right.”
Her gaze dropped to his mouth and lingered there as her eyes darkened to the color of well-aged brandy. Slade’s pulse hammered. Desire flooded his veins, and his skin flashed hot. He leaned toward her, his focus locked on her lips. Around him the room crackled with a kinetic energy, and his body hummed with anticipation. He lifted his hand to her face to cup her cheek. When he stroked her bottom lip with his thumb, she made a small noise between a gasp and a pleasured sigh.
And he stilled.
Flirting with Amanda, to divert her from her crusade to join him on his fact finding trip to California, was one thing. Kissing Jethro Colton’s daughter was quite another matter.
His libido cursed his conscience as he dropped his hand and stepped away. “It’s late. I think we should say good-night.”
Amanda blinked, and Slade thought he detected a degree of disappointment in the dent of her brow. “Oh.” She cleared her throat, and her hand fluttered as she fumbled with the neckline of her shirt. “O-okay.”
Color suffused her cheeks as she backed toward the door, and a stab of guilt jabbed Slade. He hadn’t intended to hurt or embarrass her. He sobered realizing how willingly she’d responded to his advances.
One more reason to keep his guard up around her. He had no intention of tangling himself in a relationship of any sort. Not when he still had nightmares from the last time he opened his heart to a woman.
Chapter 10
Thirty-six hours later, as Slade made his way through security at the Laramie airport, his thoughts were still on the almost-kiss with Amanda. He’d spent two restless nights replaying the hurt look in her eyes when he’d backed away from her.
He took a seat at his gate and tugged his hat down over his eyes, hoping to get a few winks before boarding the connecting flight to Denver. He’d just dozed off when a familiar female voice asked, “Is this seat taken, cowboy?”
Jerking his chin up, he confirmed his suspicion. Amanda stood before him, a diaper bag over one shoulder, a carry-on suitcase behind her and—he groaned internally—her baby in a portable baby seat. He sat up from his relaxed sprawl and furrowed his brow. “What are you doing here?”
She grinned saucily. “I’m going to California. I hear there’s a man there with information about my family, and I’d like to talk to him.”
“Amanda,” he growled in exasperation. “I told you I wanted to go alone.”
“And I told you, if there was information about my family to be learned, I have a right to be there.” She gave him a sweet smile.
He frowned as she dumped the diaper bag in an empty chair. “How did you know what flight I’d be on? Or where in California I was going?”
“I can be ingenious when I need to be.”
“Meaning?”
She set the baby seat on the chair beside him and rolled her suitcase out of the traffic path. “You didn’t erase your browser after you bought your plane ticket and made your hotel reservation.”
Slade sputtered and sat forward. “You hacked into my laptop?”
“Didn’t need to hack. It was sitting out on the desk in your room when I came down to talk to you yesterday afternoon.” She pulled out her boarding pass and examined it.
“I was out checking the herd yesterday afternoon.”
Another coy smile. “I know.”
He gritted his back teeth. “I should arrest you for...something.”
“And you should have your laptop password protected.” She tsked and shook her head as she settled in the next empty seat.
Slade corralled his emotions, tamping his frustration and irritation. He’d underestimated Amanda, but he’d not make that mistake again. For now, she was here and wouldn’t be deterred from accompanying him, so he’d do well to make the best of the situation. Perhaps he could get her to talk about the family, and he’d learn something that would be helpful.
Cheyenne whined, and Amanda turned to tend to her daughter.
“Did you have to bring the baby?” he asked and sighed.
Amanda sent him an incredulous look. “She’s my daughter. She goes where I go. Besides, with a kidnapper lurking in Wyoming, I think between the two, she’s safer in California. In fact, if not for Christmas and Gabby’s wedding, I’d consider staying in California for a while.”
He crossed his arms over his chest and regarded her skeptically. “So what happens when an animal gets sick tomorrow and you’re off following me to San Diego?”
Her gaze casually scanned the other passengers. “There are other vets in Dead River. Cal knows who to call if there’s a problem.” She flashed another maddeningly calm smile as she patted his leg. “Don’t worry, Slade. The ranch will be fine for a couple days without us, and I promise not to interfere with your fact-finding mission. I’m just as eager to hear what this man has to say about my dad as you are.”
She let her hand linger for a moment on his knee, and he realized the sense of connection her touch stirred was...nice. In another situation, Amanda was the kind of woman he could see himself asking out. Eventually, he supposed, he’d have to date again if he didn’t want to spend his life alone.
“Tell me more about your call with Breen. Just who is this guy we’re going to see?” Amanda asked. She unbuckled Cheyenne from the baby seat and held her on her lap.
The little girl gurgled and smiled at her mother and the other passengers. Amanda handed her daughter a cracker to munch while they waited, then faced him with an expression that said he hadn’t answered her last questions.
“He used to be Joe Colton’s campaign manager. He’s bedridden at a hospice with late-stage lung cancer, and apparently he feels compelled to clear his conscience or right past wrongs before he dies.” He explained
in basic terms how Breen hinted at a scandal and his refusal to explain further over the phone.
“So you don’t have any clue what kind of connection he meant?” Amanda wrinkled her nose in consternation, and Slade tried not to think about how adorable she looked when she scrunched her face in deep thought. In the week he’d know her, he’d become well-versed in her quirks, facial tics and unique habits. Because you’ve been paying particular attention to her.
She tipped her head and arched one eyebrow. “Slade?”
“No. No idea. Guess we’ll find out together.”
One of the airline agents stepped to the intercom and announced early boarding. “First-class passengers, express pass ticket holders and families with small children may now board.” The woman sent a smile in the direction of Slade and Amanda when she announced the last category.
Slade’s gut tightened. To the observer, he guessed they did look like a family, but the flight attendant’s presumption made Slade edgy. He hadn’t been part of a family since Krista...
Swiping a hand over his face, he pushed the thought aside before it could fully form.
Amanda returned Cheyenne to her baby carrier and began collecting her possessions...carry-on, purse, diaper bag. Slade had just his backpack with his laptop stowed safely inside. He sighed. So much for easy travel.
Juggling bags, Amanda stooped to lift the baby carrier, and the diaper bag slipped from her shoulder to smack her hip.
Slade tugged her arm. “You take your stuff and board. I’ll bring Cheyenne with me.”
Amanda sent him an uncertain look. “Are you sure?”
He hitched his head toward the gangway. “Go. Before all the storage bins are taken.”
Smiling her thanks, she hurried toward the plane, and he hefted the baby carrier by the handle. The kid was heavier than she looked. How had Amanda dragged all her stuff and the baby through security?
Adjusting his grip on the carrier, Slade joined the flow of passengers onto the plane, noticing Amanda was now several people ahead of him. A guy in front of him stopped in the first-class seating to stuff an oversize bag in the storage bin, holding up the line. Slade craned his neck to see where Amanda had sat down. She was struggling with her carry-on near the bulkhead row in coach...the row of seats he’d selected because it afforded a bit more leg room.
Colton Christmas Rescue Page 9