Colton's Lethal Reunion

by Tara Taylor Quinn

  “When I have something to tell you, or need anything from you, I’ll let you know,” she said. “The investigation is ongoing.”

  Still not allowing herself to look at Rafe, she faced the ousted CEO with complete calm. Ace Colton had never been a threat to her. Only his father had been. Or rather, his supposed father. Truth be known, she kind of felt for the guy. Thinking he was one thing all his life, an elevated, important and very rich something, only to find that he might be as low as Kerry—the hired help.

  She felt the sting of that distinction very clearly.

  Could definitely relate.

  “Can you at least tell me if I’m a suspect?” he asked. “I’d like to be free to head to Tucson if I choose to do so.”

  While Ace had been removed from the Colton board, she assumed he was still working at the company. It wasn’t like all he did all day was sign CEO papers. But she could be wrong about that.

  “At this time I can tell you that the investigation is ongoing and you’ve been advised not to leave town.”

  “You’re wasting Mustang Valley Police Department time. You realize that, I hope.”

  She wasn’t going to let him see that his insulting tone, more than his words, stung. Especially with Rafe standing right there, in between them, but closer to Ace than to her.

  “You have no idea how I’m spending my time,” she blurted, and then hated that she’d done so. That she’d let him get to her. And wouldn’t the high-and-mighty Ace Colton like to know just what she’d been doing with her time the night before. All night long.

  Of course, he might already know. News tended to travel fast in Mustang Valley. But from what she’d understood, news of the townspeople didn’t often reach the elegant offices of Colton Oil. Their interests were outside Mustang Valley.

  But even if the Coltons had heard that Rafe spent the night at her house, she had said that he’d slept on the couch. She was pretty sure even the chief believed that one.

  Who, knowing Kerry, wouldn’t? She wasn’t the type to do something stupid like fall for someone so far out of her league.

  And she lived and breathed police work.

  She was married to her job.

  “Are you listening to me?” Ace’s words stopped her racing thoughts. “I did not shoot my father. I don’t even own a gun.”

  True about the gun. But the crime files were filled with murderers who didn’t own guns. At least not legally.

  “He didn’t do it, Kerry.” Rafe chose one hell of a time to speak up. On Ace’s side, of course. “I know him. He can be a bit of an ass, but he’s not a killer. None of us are.”

  The defense made her mad. Or hurt. She wasn’t sure which. She just knew that her response was reactionary even before it was out of her mouth.

  “Yes, Ace, you are a suspect,” she said. Taking what power she could from both of them. “You were heard to say, and admitted in front of counsel and on tape, that you threatened Payne Colton shortly before he was shot, which is motive, and you have no alibi. I don’t have any hard evidence that will prove you did this—yet. I’m still waiting for some reports to come back. I’ve got other things I’m checking—tapes I’m looking at, people I’m talking to—and if Payne regains consciousness, he might remember something, too.”

  “Let me tell you this,” Rafe said. “If Ace was supposedly in town and at the office, rather than at the ranch, someone would have seen it. Or it would have been on a surveillance camera.”

  That was one of the things she was still checking. “Not necessarily,” she said. “He could have caught a ride into town in any number of ways, if he’d wanted to do so unseen. And most everybody in town knows where security cameras are positioned. He could have made sure he avoided them.”

  It was one of the problems of small towns—people knowing who had security and who didn’t.

  “But there was nothing on Colton Oil security footage showing him either entering or leaving the building.”

  “It didn’t show anyone else entering the building, either,” she quickly pointed out.

  “Give it up, Rafe,” Ace said with one last half sneer at her, and then turned to the man Kerry had just slept with. “But thanks for the vote of confidence. It means a lot.”

  She had to stand there and watch as the older man gripped the back of Rafe’s shoulder and the two men clasped arms and embraced.

  A brother thing.

  Chapter 11

  Rafe followed Kerry home and then, without even getting out of his truck, waved goodbye to her as she pulled into her garage.

  Ace’s visit had upset her. He got that. Understood why. Empathized. And couldn’t change it.

  The visit didn’t change his plan for the evening, nor the fact that he was going to do his best to make it hard for her to argue with him. Outside of Colton Oil business, he didn’t use his family’s weight to get what he wanted, but he was going to make an exception that night.

  He was in and out of his house at the ranch in five minutes, getting together an overnight bag and clothes for work the next day, and was already headed back into town when he made his first phone call.

  He’d used Jason Wendt as a PI once before, when Payne had first appointed Selina to the board. The others might have done their own checking into their father’s affairs, but Rafe had needed to make certain, from a purely Colton Oil financial security aspect, that the woman wasn’t bribing Payne.

  Nothing else had ever made sense. The woman could barely tolerate any of Payne’s offspring, him included. She was rude and generally unpleasant to be around. And Payne let her live in a house on the property. Jason had found a few interesting skeletons in Selina’s closet, but nothing to do with Payne. Nothing to even hint at anything she might have over him.

  He’d cringed a time or two, reading the details on Selina’s life—but he had been immensely impressed with Jason’s thoroughness.

  “Rafe, good to hear from you.” The man picked up on the second ring.

  He didn’t waste time with pleasantries. He needed the man on Odin Rogers, starting immediately, no cost spared. He wanted Jason to look as deep as one could look, go wherever he had to go, if necessary, hire whoever he needed to hire, and keep him posted with every update, or every twelve hours if there was nothing new.

  He wasn’t even halfway into town when that call disconnected. And then he called Shelly Marston, the government attorney he’d once slept with after closing a drilling deal, only to find out later that she was married, to see if his call to her that morning had vetted anything on Grant Alvin.

  She had nothing of use to give him and he hung up.

  He chafed the rest of the way back to Kerry’s neighborhood, just needing to be there. To know that she was safe. She’d rejected her chief’s offer of another night of squad car protection outside her home. Whoever was out there wasn’t committing crimes in town. As long as she stayed home, she’d be okay.

  What that told Rafe was that she didn’t yet know what they didn’t want her to know. And that whatever it was, was up on that mountain. She’d been warned, severely, twice now, to stay off that mountain.

  And she wasn’t going to do so.

  The thought made him shaky.

  One street over from her house he made his third call.

  She picked up on the first ring. A good sign.

  “Do you ever park your Jeep in your driveway overnight?”

  “I have before,” she said. “Why?”

  “Because I think you should again tonight.”

  “Okay, why?”

  “Because it would be best to park my truck in the garage so tongues don’t start to wag.”

  “What? You are not spending the night here again, Rafe. Last night...it was a one-shot deal. We both agreed.”

  “Don’t get your panties in a wad...” He stopped. Couldn’t believe he’d sai
d anything so crass. Especially to her.

  She brought out the little boy in him. The one who’d lived before Payne Colton got a hold of him.

  “I apologize... I am not assuming that I have a place in your bed, nor am I asking for one,” he told her. “The couch will be fine. You have a concussion, and yes the doctor released you, but I would rather you not be alone. I’d set your alarm for every two hours, just to make sure there are no adverse reactions to the concussion. I know the doctor only suggested it as a precaution, and only because you asked, but, seriously, who would know if you don’t wake up?”

  “My friend Lizzie. She insisted on staying, but gave in when I told her I’d text her if I needed her.”

  Rafe knew he should have perhaps considered that she had a support system. A tribe that didn’t include him.

  “I thought maybe we could go over aerial maps of the mountain, homing in on the area where we know the guy was headed today, and see what we can find. I’d like to have a solid plan before we head up and I suspect we’re heading up tomorrow, as soon as you’re off work.”

  She’d given her word she’d take him with her. But he knew her well enough to know that if he wasn’t available when she was ready to go, she’d take that to mean he was letting her out of the deal.

  “I don’t think...”

  “I’m not leaving you alone tonight,” he said. “If you won’t take me, I’ve got a guy on hold to at least watch your house.”

  He’d mentioned to Jason that he might need a second guy. Just for the night.

  “Fine. I’ll move the Jeep. How long until you get here?”

  “Sixty seconds.” He pulled around the corner onto her street.

  And wiped the grin off his face.

  * * *

  She didn’t want Rafe in her space. At the moment, Kerry just wanted to be alone. It was the only way she knew how to deal with pain. Grief. Fear. Confusion.

  From the time she was thirteen she’d done it all alone. Her dad hadn’t been well enough to be a support to her. And Tyler, she’d always put on a brave face for him. Looking out for him, not vice versa.

  Having Rafe just suddenly show up—and strong-arm her into letting him in by threatening to do something he knew she’d hate, and something he knew she knew he’d do—should have made her royally pissed.

  Instead, she was kind of amused by his transparent tactics. And a bit moved by his motive. He was really worried about her.

  It didn’t mean anything life changing. But still, it was nice.

  Which was the only reason she had a smile on her face when she opened her door to him. Still in the jeans and tennis shoes he’d had on earlier, he came in carrying an overnight duffel on a strap over his shoulder.

  And a hanger filled with dress shirt, pants and a tie.

  It wasn’t that she was thinking his visit meant anything permanent, or signified any change between them. It just felt good to know that he was worried about her.

  “Wow, they did a good job,” he said, nodding toward the front room. “You can’t even tell it’s a new window.”

  She could. The old one had had a moisture cloud between the panes on the left-middle side.

  “You can hang those in the closet in the spare room,” she said. “There’s no bed in there, just my desk, but there’s an inflatable mattress if you’d rather use that instead of the couch.”

  Because his being there was not for them to sleep together again. He’d said it. And she needed that fact clearly established from the beginning.

  No way was she going to spend the evening wondering. Wanting. Talking herself into one more night of pretending heaven on earth was real.

  “I’ve called up aerial maps,” she said as soon as Rafe came walking back down the hall minus his bag. In the jeans and T-shirt she’d changed into after her shower, she was leaning over her personal tablet and her department-issued laptop placed side by side on the dining room table.

  “I was hoping I could take a shower first?” he said. She looked up to see flannel pants and a T-shirt in his hands. “I didn’t want to take the time to shower at home...”

  Because he was worried about her and eager to get back.

  “Fine,” she said. “You can use the spare bathroom in the hall. There’s a set of towels under the sink.” And in the meantime she was going to brew herself some peppermint tea, and on her way to do that, she went down the hall, past the spare bath where she could hear the shower start, and in to get her lavender oil. Both were good for headaches. And lavender was calming, too.

  The shower was still running on her way back to the kitchen. No big deal. She’d had guests before. Had them shower in her bathroom. She just hadn’t ever pictured them actually in the act, completely naked, with soap suds on their...

  No. She had to stop.

  The image of Rafe’s penis was just fresh in her mind. Because of the night before. That was all. She wasn’t losing it.

  Or, if she was, it was just the crack on the head. She’d be over it in the morning.

  Or sooner. Did peppermint and lavender take care of unwanted sensual thoughts, too?

  Her tea was not only brewed, but half-gone by the time Rafe was back in the dining room. She’d been studying the aerial photos—satellite images that were readily available on the internet these days.

  She could get Odin Rogers without Rafe’s help, but she had a better chance of doing it and staying alive if she had backup. The afternoon’s events had shown her that much. If she hadn’t texted Rafe, she could have died out on that mountain. And it was clear to her that Dane was going to focus on solving the ranger’s death, not on catching Odin Rogers. She knew his investigation was going to lead him there eventually, unless they wrote this one off as an accident, too, but she wasn’t going to sit around and wait.

  Something was going on; the perpetrators were nervous about her sniffing around, which meant now was the time to sniff harder.

  She was smart to let Rafe help her do that.

  Besides, he kind of owed it to Tyler. And to her.

  One glance at those dark plaid flannel pants, and the T-shirt stretched over the expanse of flesh, and she was reaching for the tea again. She told herself he most definitely had underwear on beneath the pants.

  And if he didn’t, she’d never know about it.

  But Rafe would make certain that he had something to hold on to his hard-on. If he got one.

  Would he get one?

  Being alone in her home with her all night?

  Did she have at least that little bit of an effect on him?

  “So...here are the aerial maps,” she said, tapping on her laptop to wake it up. And then repeating the process with her tablet. “I’m thinking we were right about here...” Using the mouse, she moved the pointer, stepping over a few inches as Rafe came closer, leaned down, to study the screen.

  His hair was still wet. She’d seen it that way as kids, when they’d play in the landscape sprinklers when one sprung a leak, or turn the hose on each other. As an adult—all that blond thickness...

  She stepped back. A good two feet. “Can I get you something to drink?” she asked. “I’ve got tea, or we can brew some coffee.” She had wine, too, but she wasn’t offering any.

  “Coffee would be great. If you’d like we can order some dinner from Lucia’s or Mustang Valley Steak and Seafood...they’ll both deliver...”

  She’d planned to have salad for dinner. Just wasn’t that hungry. But if they ordered in, eating and cleaning up would give them something to do besides his standing there trying to work while she panted after him.

  She was supposed to be sniffing, not panting. Around Odin Rogers, not Rafe Colton. And what was with the dog metaphors? She needed to get a serious grip.

  “Lucia’s sounds good,” she said. Pasta would sit easier than a rich, heavy dinner.

&n
bsp; Of course he had the restaurant on speed dial, but...

  “Wait,” she said. “Let me call. The family dinner is a good deal and I’ve ordered it before and take the rest to work for lunches. We don’t want anyone knowing you’re here,” she reminded him. She didn’t, at least. Probably wouldn’t hurt Rafe Colton’s reputation to go slumming with the detective investigating his father’s attempted murder, but she didn’t want townspeople to think she was the type of woman who got her head turned by a heavy wallet. Or to have them feeling sorry for her for being stupid enough to think that a Colton would give her more than a passing moment.

  By the time she’d ordered dinner she had herself back under control. Maybe the peppermint and lavender had kicked in. Maybe she just came to her senses.

  Either way, there was going to be no sex in her house that night.

  * * *

  Rafe was thoroughly enjoying himself. Dressed like he dressed on Saturday or Sunday mornings when he knew he was going to be home alone, he felt at home. Relaxed.

  He’d told her he’d sleep on the couch. He didn’t expect her to really make him do so. Though, if she really wanted him to, he would. Without question.

  As they sat there eating dinner, discussing Odin Rogers and different theories about the day’s activities, he didn’t even care if they made love that night or not. He was just glad to be the one who was watching out for her. To be with her at all.

  To see her smile.

  And watch her eat.

  “Sorry about Ace today,” he said. He’d been waiting for a good moment to bring it up. Figured there wasn’t one. But she hadn’t looked him in the eye, really looked, since they’d left the hospital. And the only thing that he could think of that had happened in between then and now, as far as they were concerned, was when Ace confronted her.

  She shrugged, twirled some spaghetti around her fork. “No need to apologize,” she said, taking the bite. Finishing it. “Dealing with suspects is all in a day’s work.”