“I’m not running away. I promise. I’ll come back when he’s asleep.”
“You really think you could find this place again? You were paying that much attention when we drove out here?”
“Well, I...”
“Just accept my offer to drive and get your coat.” He hitched his head to the door of the kitchen where Nicholas, red faced and sniffling, had just appeared. “When you’re ready to go, I’ll meet you at the Range Rover.”
Her shoulders dropped in defeat. “Will you move his car seat, then?”
“I’m on it.”
Pen had her son bundled in a blanket and her own coat on in short order, and once Nicholas was buckled in his car seat, she rewrapped him in the blanket.
“No coat for him?”
“New studies say it’s not safe.” She tucked the ends of the blanket under his feet. “The car seat straps won’t be snug enough with a coat on him.”
Why hadn’t he known that? As a police officer, he’d been required to stay on top of safety regulations and warnings in order to enforce not only the law but to advise the public of the safest practices. He’d allowed his attention to such matters to lapse in recent months. He didn’t have a kid, so why bother following safety seat recommendations? Except that he had new nephews and/or nieces on the way. A new generation of Coltons to look out for and protect.
As well as Nicholas.
They got on the road, and Reid angled the rearview mirror so he could better see Pen’s son. Even before they made it all the way down the long bumpy driveway to the highway, the toddler had quieted to a snuffle and was trying to see the night-darkened view out his window.
A sensation like the warmth and satisfaction of that first sip of hot coffee on a cold morning filled his chest. Affection, he realized. Because whether he wanted to admit it or not, he was growing attached to the little boy. Nicholas’s endearing grin, wide and insightful eyes and infectious laugh had burrowed into Reid’s heart and taken root. Even his crying spells and tantrums didn’t irritate him the way they had in the first few days. He’d begun to understand how the toddler ticked and what precipitated a meltdown.
But along with the mellow tenderness that filled him, a stark edginess crept in at the periphery, as well. Reid had a new appreciation for the demands of parenting. The job of raising a child was huge, never-ending and quite possibly, even more pressure-packed than being a policeman. As a detective, Reid could go days or weeks without facing an emergency situation where he literally had a person’s life in his hands. But a parent was responsible for their child’s life every minute of every day. Feeding them, keeping them from getting hurt, keeping them clean and warm and happy...
Not to mention how a parent’s example, interactions and instruction shaped their child’s personality, outlook on life and preparedness for the future. Just considering all the ramifications made Reid’s hands sweat, even in the cold car. He rubbed his palms, one at a time, on his chest. He wasn’t ready to be a father. He cared deeply for Pen and appreciated her son in a new light, but how could he tie himself down to that mountain of responsibility and pressure?
“Are you mad at me?” Pen asked softly as she gave him a long, scrutinizing look.
“Huh? No. Why?”
“You just looked so...upset. You were scowling and so quiet. I thought maybe you were angry at me for defying you and insisting we drive out.”
“No. It’s not that. I’m...” he flipped up one palm on the steering wheel “...just thinking.”
“For what it’s worth,” she whispered, peering into the backseat, “it’s working. His eyes are getting droopy.”
Reid checked the mirror and smiled at Nicholas’s efforts to fight sleep.
By unspoken agreement, he and Pen remained silent, allowing the whir of the tires and light sway of the vehicle to lull Nicholas. When he did ask Pen a question about how soon was too soon to return to the lake house to ensure the boy stayed asleep, he got no response. Glancing her way, he found her head lolled to the side and her lips parted slightly in sleep.
He smiled and resisted the urge to stroke her cheek for fear of waking her. She needed her sleep as badly as Nicholas did. He knew she’d been restless and had had trouble sleeping over the past several days. The whole situation with her father, the attempt on their lives and the stress of caring for Nicholas in a new environment were weighing on her. He’d seen the circles under her eyes grow darker each day.
So he kept driving. He’d drive all night if it meant she got some much needed rest. He used the time to ruminate on his own concerns and plans. Repairs he needed to make at the lake house, the unsolved case of his missing father, the next steps in proving Hugh Barrington’s deceit and corruption. He needed to get a copy of Hugh’s phone records. He still needed to see if he could link a known hit man to the fictitious Mareau Towing, where the sizable bank draft had been sent on the day of the gunman’s attack. He needed—
“Reid?”
He whipped his head toward Pen, who blinked sleepily at the scenery out the window. “Why are we here?”
He brought his attention to where he’d driven and groaned. The fences of the farthest pastures of his family’s ranch whizzed by and the turnoff to the mansion loomed in the distance. He snorted his wry amusement. “Autopilot, I guess. I wasn’t really thinking about where I was.”
She gave him a reluctant glance. “Do you want to stop in as long as we’re here?”
“Naw. I’ve got nothing particular to report to them. Nothing to pick up.” He craned his neck to check on Nicholas. “Besides, little guy is asleep. Let’s just head back to the lake.”
She nodded her agreement, and while Reid was deciding whether to turn around on the driveway or make a loop by following the highway to the next street, he spotted a pair of headlights coming down the drive from the house. He squinted to see who was leaving the house at this late hour. Evenings out drinking or partying weren’t uncommon for any of his siblings in the past, but the Colton clan as a whole had become much more the homebodies in recent months, now that his brothers and sisters had someone to stay home with.
So who...? A prickle of suspicion nipped at his spine. Thinking quickly, he pulled onto a rutted lane that the ranch hands used as access to the farthest pastures and turned off his headlights and engine. “Get down.”
“What?” Pen’s tone held a note of panic, as she clearly remembered the last time he’d instructed her to duck in a front seat.
“I don’t know yet who that is.” He nodded toward the vehicle that was turning from the drive onto the highway, aiming in their direction. “And I don’t want the wrong person to see you with me.”
She unfastened her seat belt quickly and slid low on the seat, just before the dark Mercedes rolled past. Though Reid recognized Aaron Manfred’s car, he squinted to verify that the driver, his angular face illuminated by his dashboard lights, was, in fact, his father’s longtime butler. The older man didn’t so much as glance at Reid’s darkened vehicle sitting just outside the range of his headlights.
“I’ll be damned,” he muttered.
“What? Can I get up now?”
“Yeah.” He waited until Aaron was well down the highway before starting the Range Rover again and turning on his headlights. “Where does he keep going at this hour?” he mumbled to himself.
“Who was it?” Pen rebuckled her seat belt and cast a curious gaze down the dark highway.
“Aaron Manfred.” Reid pulled onto the road and set out after Aaron.
“Your father’s butler? Why is it a big deal that he’s going out somewhere?”
“It’s not, in and of itself. But this isn’t the first mysterious nighttime trip he’s made. He’s actually making it something of a habit lately.” He shot her a lopsided grin. “You up for a little spy work?”
“Spy wor
k?” she wrinkled her nose. “What, are you going to follow him?”
“Damn right. I don’t have a problem with him leaving in the evenings, but the sneaky way he’s done it raises questions for me. He’s been having his wife tell us he can’t fill his duties in the evening because he doesn’t feel well. That he’s tiring easily these days. That little lie, his leaving without telling the family where he’s going, has me curious.”
Pen pivoted on the seat and checked on Nicholas. “He’s still asleep, so... I guess there’s no harm.”
She barely had the words out before she was lost to a jaw-cracking yawn.
Reid gave her a small grin. “Put the seat back and catch some z’s yourself. You don’t have to stay awake on my account.”
“You sure? I can help you spy if you want?”
Aaron turned at a crossroad, and keeping a manageable distance between them, Reid followed. “I’m good. If I need you, I’ll give you a nudge.”
She nodded, reaching below the seat to push the button that angled her seat back. She turned toward him, tucking a foot under her, and her eyes closed before she’d even settled her head. Reid couldn’t resist stroking a hand along her cheek, which looked especially pale and smooth in the bluish glow of his dash lights.
“G’night.” She gave a soft, sleepy hum as he tucked her hair behind her ear and gave her chin a final caress. The murmur of tired satisfaction rippled through him, a more potent intoxicant than a shot of the best whiskey he had at his lake house.
Giving his head a small shake, he gripped the steering wheel harder. Focus. He needed to keep Aaron in his sights without letting their butler know he was being followed. He doubted Aaron would recognize the Range Rover, especially at night, but he didn’t need to take the chance that the older man would realize someone was tailing him.
Pen drew a deep breath in her sleep that was just shy of a snore, and Reid smiled. She’d be horrified to think she’d snored in front of him. She may have rejected her father and his upper-class lifestyle, but she was still, at heart, the lady her mother had raised her to be.
Aaron entered the on-ramp of the interstate headed into Dallas, and Reid twisted his mouth. “Where are you going, old man?”
If Aaron were just out on a quick errand, he’d already passed any number of grocery stores, bank ATMs, all-night drug stores, fast-food restaurants and liquor stores.
He tailed the butler into downtown Dallas and off the interstate, onto the streets of a low-income part of town. He hung back a bit as Aaron took one turn after another until finally slowing to a stop in front of a multi-story older brick building in a low-rent neighborhood. He stopped a block back, but near enough to watch what transpired. “What the hell?”
Reid knew his family paid Aaron well. If he was renting a place in this neighborhood, it was not for lack of funds. A woman bundled up against the cold in a long coat and hat stepped out of the high-rise building where Aaron had stopped, and Reid goggled. Was the family’s trusted butler having an affair?
Reid squinted as the woman turned and tossed a bundle of what looked like laundry into the backseat of the Mercedes before climbing in the front seat. He caught a good view of her face and grunted his surprise. “Moira?”
Both Aaron and his wife were up to nighttime shenanigans? Both of them were sneaking off and making mystery trips away from the ranch? Clearly they were in cahoots, and covering for each other when either of them needed an alibi with the family. “At least he’s not cheating on her,” he groused, then gave a wry chuckle.
“What?” Pen whispered, her voice heavy with sleep. She sat up, adjusting her seat so she could look around. “Where are we? Who’s cheating?”
Moira closed the car door, and Aaron drove away from the curb. Checking for cross traffic from the side street, Reid continued his pursuit.
“No one is cheating. At least not on their spouse, but...” He aimed his finger toward the Mercedes. “I followed Aaron into downtown Dallas. He picked up his wife at this place,” Reid motioned toward the building as he slowly drove past. “You recognize it?”
She blinked tiredly at the front door and cocked her head to the side to look up at the facade. “Don’t know it. I don’t see any signs saying what the building is or any businesses inside. What street are we on?” He told her their location, and she rubbed the sleep from her eyes with the pads of her fingers. “Can’t say I’ve ever even been in this part of town before. What do you think she was doing?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.” Reid angled his head to study the front entrances of the stores and edifices as they cruised down the nearly empty city street. Many of the buildings were shuttered, signs declaring them for lease or condemned. He spotted a barbershop, a liquor store and a greasy-spoon diner. “Something seriously fishy is going on. Aaron and Moira would never—”
Penelope gasped and cried, “Reid, stop!”
Startled by her shout, he slammed on the brakes, and before he could stop her, she’d unfastened her seat belt and was shouldering open the passenger door. “There was a kitten in the road. I don’t think you hit it, but...”
“What? Wait, Pen...” He grabbed for her arm to stop her, but she was out of the car in a flash. He called to her, “Are you sure it wasn’t a rat?”
As he shifted into Park, he checked his rearview mirror and saw nothing in the street. His sudden stop had wakened Nicholas, and the little boy rubbed his eyes and whimpered.
Could he leave Nicholas in the car alone long enough to fetch Pen? He didn’t dare. Not at night in this questionable part of town. But he didn’t want Pen out on the street unguarded, either. He opened his door and leaned out. “Pen, come on! What are you doing? Get back in the car.”
He peered through the darkness down the street in time to see Aaron’s Mercedes make the turn onto a side road a few blocks ahead. If Penelope didn’t get back in the car pronto, he would lose the butler and his wife. “Pen, now!”
* * *
Penelope crept around the Range Rover, peering under the vehicle and calling quietly, “Kitty? Here, kitty.”
She could hear Reid yelling for her to return to the car, but until she knew the kitten was safe, she couldn’t in good conscience walk away. Her love of animals and soft spot for homeless animals was one of the things she’d shared with her mother. One of the things she always knocked heads with her father over. Before her mother died, Pen and her mom had kept a continuous stream of rescued dogs, cats and even a rabbit and ferret over the years.
“Jeez, Pen. At least answer me!” Reid shouted, his voice rife with frustration and...worry?
“I hear you, but it’s going to be below freezing tonight.” Not finding the kitten under the car, she moved across the street toward the opposite sidewalk. “The poor thing could die. Not to mention the fact it’s running into traffic and could get hit.”
“What traffic? Besides Aaron, we’re the only car out here!” Reid had climbed from his Range Rover and stood in the V of the open front door.
A dilapidated truck rolled past at that moment as if to prove Reid wrong, chugging clouds of exhaust behind it. Reid waved away the fumes with his hand and coughed. “Pen!”
“Stay with Nicholas. I’ll just be a minute.” She lifted a crushed cardboard box that leaned against a brick wall and heard a scurrying sound. “Kitty?”
“And what do you plan to do with a kitten?” Reid called.
She waved him off and crouched to look deeper into the pile of trash, praying she didn’t encounter one of the sewer rats Reid had mentioned. What would she do with the kitten? She didn’t know, beyond taking it back to the lake house tonight and giving it the TLC it deserved.
“Kitty, where are you?”
A tiny mewl answered her, and she zeroed in on the kitten’s location. When she moved another crumpled box, a white and orange kitten scrambled ou
t. “I won’t hurt you, honey. Calm down.”
As she neared the frightened kitten, it tried to bolt away again, and she made a grab for it, just catching its tail. Not ideal. She didn’t want to hurt the poor thing, but it stopped the cat from getting away. With her free hand she scooped the kitten under the belly and lifted the squirming, terrified feline to her chest. She held its back feet together to keep it from clawing her as she nestled it against her. She hurried back to the Range Rover crooning, “Easy, baby. I won’t hurt you. You’re okay.”
She hurried back to the Range Rover, and when Reid saw her coming, he climbed out of the car and ran around to open the passenger door for her.
“What in the hell do you plan to do with that?” he said with a meaningful glance to the kitten clutched to her chest.
“I’m taking it back to the house with us.”
He opened his mouth as if to argue, but he could apparently see in her expression her mind would not be changed, and he said nothing. Releasing a small sigh, he helped her buckle her seat belt, since her hands were full with the wiggling cat.
“Pull my scarf off me,” she said when he’d returned to the driver’s seat.
He did, then helped her wind the wrap around the kitten, effectively trapping his scrabbling paws wielding needlelike claws. Once she had a secure hold on the kitten, he pulled away from the curb with a disgusted look on his face.
“You’re wearing the same sour expression my father used to wear when my mother and I rescued animals.”
Her statement clearly rattled him, and he shot her a stunned glance. “I don’t like that comparison in the least.”
“I know you’re mad at me, but—”
“Not mad...exactly. Just...” He blew out a lip-buzzing breath of exasperation. “I know you have a soft spot for animals. And I know your soft spot includes underdogs of all sorts. It’s one of the reasons I love—” He cut himself off and blinked rapidly, his expression growing briefly stunned...or panicked?
Love. Had he been about to say he loved her? The notion made her heart swoop and her pulse twitter.
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