Colton K-9 Cop

by Addison Fox

  “I’m the last person qualified to answer that question.”

  “Why?”

  “I’ve lived on autopilot myself for an awfully long time. Gets to a point where you stop noticing it anymore.”

  He hadn’t expected to say that much and the words left a bitter aftertaste on his lips.

  Bellamy didn’t immediately respond. It was only when he felt the light touch on his hand, where it lay over the center armrest, that she spoke. “What are you running from?”

  “The same thing I’ve been running from my entire life. I’m not a Colton and my family refuses to see that.”

  “What do you mean, you’re not a Colton?”

  “I’m not. I was left in the Colton stables Christmas morning thirty-one years ago. Hays and Josephine took me in but I’m not their son.”

  “Of course you are. They’re your family. Adoption or biology doesn’t change that.”

  Her ready defense was sweet but Donovan had lived a lifetime feeling like an imposter. A poser. The truth haunted him and only grew worse this time of year.

  “It changes everything. I’m not one of them, no matter how much they want to believe otherwise.”

  “Biology doesn’t dictate your relationships. Look at Maggie and me. We’re sisters and we can’t seem to find common ground. What matters is the relationships you have. The love you have for each other. The family you make.”

  “You don’t love your sister?”

  “Of course I love her.”

  The emphatic response gave him heart that there was a path for Bellamy to move forward with her sister, but the dichotomy of their familial situations wasn’t lost on him.

  “So you have a family you can’t seem to reconcile with, and I have a family who wants me in it and I keep walking away. Is that it?”

  “When you put it like that, I suppose so,” she agreed.

  “Family’s hard. It’s messy and emotional. That’s why I love animals so much. They take you just the way you are.”

  “From what you’ve said, the Coltons took you just the way you were. You’re the one who doesn’t want to accept that.”

  Bellamy’s words lingered long after they cleared Austin traffic and entered downtown. Donovan didn’t want to believe them—didn’t want to accept that he was the one who’d rejected his family’s love—but the lingering guilt that had accompanied him since he was young glommed on to her statement.

  And way down deep inside, he knew she was right.

  Chapter Eight

  The K-9 training center was quiet for midafternoon, but Donovan hardly noticed it as he unclipped Alex’s leash and let him bound off into the large grassy area they used for training. He’d always encouraged Alex’s socialization time with the other dogs and smiled as his partner headed toward two other members of K-9 teams. Loud barks and leaps onto each other’s backs indicated both greetings and the time to play, and Donovan couldn’t help but smile at the happy tail wags of his partner.

  It was a huge contrast to his own confusion.

  Confusion that sat squarely in the knowing eyes of Bellamy Reeves.

  She’d already headed for one of the trainers and a group of puppies scampering around the yard. Her diverted attention gave him the reprieve he needed to analyze his thoughts.

  What had happened on the drive down?

  He and Alex had been with her for four days. Four agonizing days in which he’d diligently ignored the interest that simmered between them in favor of focusing on the task at hand.

  Keeping her safe.

  Clearly the sexual tension must have gotten to him because here he was, less than a week in her company, and he was like a singing canary.

  He never spoke of his family or his feelings of inadequacy as an adopted member of the Colton clan. Yet there he went, spilling his guts to Bellamy like he’d known her for years.

  The Coltons took you just the way you were. You’re the one who doesn’t want to accept that.

  Her words continued to roll through and roil up his thoughts. Was it merely a matter of acceptance? Or was that too convenient an explanation?

  No matter how much love his parents had lavished on him, they couldn’t change the fact that his biological parents had left him. The people who were supposed to love him most had abandoned him in some rich family’s barn, hoping and depending on the kindness of strangers. Wealthy ones, who could easily take on another mouth and who would be unlikely to abandon him a second time.

  That wasn’t a slight on Hays and Josephine, but a fact of his existence.

  So why did it so often feel like punishment to the people who’d promised to love him the most?

  Here he was, encouraging Bellamy to take the comfort and help of her sister, yet he’d been unable to do the same. Biological or not, his parents had shown their love in myriad ways since his infancy. The day they’d taken him in and given him a home was only the first.

  So how did he begin to change? The helplessness he sensed in Bellamy—that question of where to start with her sister—was the same for him. He’d been distant for so long he had no idea where to close the gaps.

  No idea of even where to try.

  With one last look at Alex, Donovan headed back into the main building. His desk at the K-9 center had all the same equipment and latest software as police headquarters and he was determined to do some digging on Lone Star Pharmaceutical. The company had an outstanding reputation, but the contents of Bellamy’s email continued to nag at him. It was a clue that couldn’t be dismissed or ignored.

  If the corporation was involved in some bad dealing, he owed it to the investigation to tug that line and tug it hard. Deliberately mismanaging the vital supply of vaccines was a crime and a health hazard and no one, no matter how powerful, should be allowed to get away with that.

  Since Bellamy was still in the courtyard, safe with the trainers, he wanted to take a few minutes to tug those lines.

  In moments he had several articles pulled up on Lone Star Pharmaceutical and its founder, Sutton Taylor. The man was well-known in and around Whisperwood, and Donovan was humbled to realize he only recognized the man peripherally. That knowledge only reinforced his earlier thoughts of his family, another proof point that he was out of the loop with his hometown news, gossip and local politics.

  Donovan scanned article after article, getting a sense of the man, before shifting to some of the more telling websites. Anonymous reviews on those job sites where people said what they really thought of their employer, Austin area gossip sites and even a few posts on Everything’s Blogger in Texas, a blog that had shown zealous attention to his extended family in the past.

  The additional sites provided layers and context to his profile of Sutton Taylor, including a subtle thread of the man as something of a lothario.

  He supposed it went with the territory—a powerful man with a powerful job—but it smacked of cliché at the same time. He wasn’t a man who’d ever understood the appeal of cheating. You either wanted to be with the person you were with or not. It seemed awfully low to string them along when it was easier just to get out of the relationship and start a fresh one.

  Was it pragmatic?

  Or maybe it was a sign he thought relationships were too disposable?

  Either way, Donovan knew it was how he was wired. He’d had several relationships over the years that had simply run their course. Nowhere during that time did he feel he needed to look elsewhere, but when it was time to leave it was time to leave.

  Unbidden, an image of Bellamy the first time he met her filled his mind’s eye. Bright-eyed and welcoming, she’d helped him with Alex and had been content to stand there in the general store parking lot as his small puppy had gotten sick. The moments that had followed had been even more special, talking and laughing and getting to know
each other. He’d never forgotten that evening, nor the number of times he’d thought of her since.

  Maybe it was those moments together that helped him see the person beneath the current pain. Or maybe it was just an attraction that hadn’t been dulled by the ensuing years. Either way, he was attracted to her. It was inconvenient and not ideal, seeing as how he was working her case, but he was interested.

  And he’d like to see where things might go between them.

  A flash of awareness skittered through his mind as the night he met Bellamy came fully into focus. He’d been called away at the end to go to a nearby accident scene. Shifting gears on the computer, he minimized the articles on Sutton Taylor and pulled up his case files, logging backward until he found that night five years ago. In moments he had it up, the particulars of the accident coming back to him as he recalled the scene.

  A drunk driver racing and swerving home from a holiday party. An older couple returning from an evening out. A small patch of road just off the main highway that lead into Whisperwood.

  His gaze scanned the screen but Donovan already knew what he’d find.

  Airlifted to Austin Memorial due to severe injuries: Daniel-Justice Reeves. Moved by ambulance to Austin Memorial for minor cuts and scrapes and further evaluation: Virginia Reeves.

  He’d left Bellamy that night to go to the scene of her parents’ accident. That was why he’d never seen her again.

  It was the night her life shattered.

  * * *

  BELLAMY HELD THE now-sleeping puppy in her arms, loathe to let the little guy go. He was a smaller version of Alex, the K-9 facility trainer confirming for her that they had a lot of success with Labradors in the program. They’d rescued this one from a small flop in Austin and decided to raise him as their own. The trainer had already assured her they’d find a home for him if he ended up not being focused enough for the K-9 program and, on impulse, Bellamy had given the woman her phone number.

  Her thoughts earlier in the week about having a dog had clearly taken root. She smiled ruefully as she headed into the building to find Donovan, but took joy in the idea that the pup had a future, no matter what happened to his time in K-9 training. They’d already named him Charlie and she thought it fit him to a T. That warm little body cuddled closer into her chest as she rounded the corner toward a large open-office area, and she bent down to smell his sweet little puppy head.

  Oh yes, this was the right idea. And if Charlie ended up being a fit for K-9, Bellamy had been promised visiting privileges and the name of a rescue organization in Austin that would love to have another ready adopter on their list.

  She entered the staff room and saw Donovan hunched over a desk. Winter sunlight streamed into the room, backlighting his broad frame as he focused on his screen. It made for an odd tableau and something in the set of his shoulders pulled her up short.

  “Donovan? Is everything okay?” The puppy stirred lightly at her voice but quickly snuggled back into her arms.

  He turned from the screen, his dark eyes shuttered. His expression was enough to have her moving forward. Something was wrong.

  “What is it?”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “For what? Did something happen?”

  The puppy did stir then, either sensing her confusion or from a subtle tightening in her arms. He wriggled as his head lifted and she pulled him close, attempting to soothe him.

  Since Donovan’s attention had been on his computer, she veered there, surprised when he backed up to give her access to the screen.

  “Bellamy, I’m sorry.”

  She scanned the screen and recognized the words, but didn’t understand why Donovan had the record of her parents’ accident pulled up. “Why do you have this?”

  “It’s my case file. That night. The night I met you when Alex got sick. We were talking and then I had to leave abruptly to go to an accident scene.”

  His words rattled around her brain like a loose pinball racking up points against the bumpers. “You? You were there?”

  “I never realized it was your parents.”

  Her gaze roamed over the words once more, disbelief battling with the facts on the screen.

  Drunk driver. Daniel-Justice Reeves. Virginia Reeves. Austin Memorial.

  And the date all their lives changed.

  Had he never put it together? Donovan had been called out to an accident, which was why he’d needed to rush off. There hadn’t been one as massive as her parents’ in years.

  For the past week she’d simply assumed he knew and didn’t want to hurt her by bringing it up.

  But he’d had no idea.

  She dropped into a nearby seat, the puppy now fully awake and squirming in her arms. He licked her face in obvious concern and she hugged him close, taking the comfort he offered.

  “Are you okay?”

  “I thought you knew. I took comfort that you were there.”

  “You did?”

  “Of course. You saw them that night.”

  “Yes.”

  She’d always had a picture in her mind of what the accident must have been like, but didn’t know the reality. She couldn’t know what it smelled like or what it sounded like to hit another car with such force. She couldn’t even begin to imagine.

  For all his injuries, her father had seemingly moved past that point—past those horrid memories—but her mother never did. She’d struggled to sleep ever since the accident, to the point that Bellamy had considered a week with only one nightmare a good week.

  And Donovan had been there.

  “Did you help them?”

  “We did all we could to keep your parents comfortable and steady until ambulance arrived.”

  “You were there for them.”

  Donovan only nodded, his lack of words somehow fitting.

  What was he supposed to say?

  It had been the same with everyone else in her life. People cared—they wanted to help and they definitely wanted to express sympathy—but in the end, there wasn’t anything for them to do. Grief left a person helpless, but she’d learned it was no easier to comfort a grieving person. That had been the oddest part of her journey with her parents and had left the largest craters in her heart.

  It had also served as the fuel to push others away.

  She’d lost contact with her friends. She kept her colleagues at a distance, always claiming an excuse when she couldn’t attend a happy hour or an event outside of work. Even her relationship with Maggie had suffered.

  Years lost, along with some of the most important relationships in her life.

  She hugged Charlie close, her attention shifting to Donovan. She’d been attracted to him five years before and a few days in his presence hadn’t changed that. If anything, the concentrated time they’d spent together over the past week had only reinforced that initial attraction.

  Was it coincidence that he’d come back into her life at a point where she needed a friend?

  More to the point, did she want a friend, or did she want something more?

  “Are you okay?” Donovan reached across and ran a finger over the top of Charlie’s head. The little guy preened under the additional attention before lifting a paw to swat at Donovan’s hand.

  “I am. I’ve had a long time to get used to what happened. On some level, it’s comforting to know you were there with them when they needed you. I’ve seen how capable you are. And I know how good it felt to have you there at LSP when we were dealing with my car.” She reached out and laid a hand over his. “I’m glad you were there. Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  Their gazes met and locked and Bellamy wondered, with all that had happened in her life, how the world just fell away. The rest of it—her job, her car, even the threat at the house—it all
seemed so far away.

  In its place was something real and present.

  She’d put off having a life for so long, it was startling to realize just how good it felt to be the object of someone’s attention. To be the object of Donovan’s attention.

  “So you’re okay?”

  “I’m okay,” she murmured, already anticipating the feel of his lips pressed to hers as he leaned in closer.

  “Who’s your friend?” His eyes dipped between them, the perusal intimate.

  “You mean Charlie?” Her gaze dropped to the puppy, his excitement at having two humans so close causing him to wriggle even more.

  Donovan kept a soothing hand on the dog’s head, the steady attention holding him still, the back of his hand tantalizingly close to her breasts. “That’s a good name. A good partner’s name.”

  “He’s the newest recruit for the K-9 program.”

  “Can you can give him his first lesson?”

  “His lesson?”

  Donovan moved even closer, his lips drawing nearer. “You think you can hold him still while I kiss you?”

  A shot of heat traveled the length of her spine before spreading through her entire body. “I’ll do my best.”

  The last coherent thought she had was that Donovan Colton was doing his best.

  The press of lips against hers was both firm and yielding, the perfect mix of give-and-take. He kept a calming hand on the puppy, his other hand settling against her hip. His fingers teased the top of her slacks where her waistband met flesh, a tantalizing brush against her skin.

  But his mouth. Oh, the wondrous responses he could create with the greatest of ease.

  Bellamy fed on his attentions, the sweet push-pull of desire fueled by their sensual play of tongues and the light moans each drew from the other. His fingers continued to trace light patterns against her skin, featherlight yet deeply powerful as her body heated at the simple touch.

  She briefly questioned if her response was tied to how long it had been since her last relationship, but even she wasn’t silly enough to think any man could compare to Donovan. Strong. Sure. Safe.