The Colton Marine

by Lisa Childs

  Claudia laughed. “Not sure we have something small enough for you here.”

  “Do you have anything big enough for me?” another voice chimed in, along with the bell announcing her arrival in the shop. “I’ve already outgrown the maternity clothes you’ve already made me.” Maggie Colton ran a hand over her protruding belly. Her blue eyes sparkled with happiness. Like Claudia, she pulled Edith into a hug.

  Edith gasped as she felt the baby move between them.

  “Yeah, he’s a kicker,” Maggie said as she rubbed her belly again.

  “He?” Edith asked.

  Maggie shrugged. “I don’t know for certain.”

  “Hope it’s a girl,” Claudia said. “I’ve already started designing some dresses for her.”

  “Of course you have,” Maggie said.

  “And I have some more maternity clothes that I think you’ll love,” Claudia promised her.

  “She also has some things you’ll love,” Evelyn assured Edith. “Honeysuckle Road carries all sizes. Mac said you’re a runner.”

  “Yes.” And it was sort of an addiction for her. If she didn’t get in a good run, she got too stressed out and restless. Maybe that was what was wrong with her. Because of the concussion, she hadn’t been able to run yet. It wasn’t that she wanted to have sex with River; it was that she needed to log some miles.

  Her body pulsed at just the thought of River, of him touching her. And she knew a run wouldn’t be enough to help her overcome her attraction to him.

  “We’ll find you something, too,” Claudia assured her.

  “I’m glad you came by,” Evelyn said. “Mac texted me earlier that he hadn’t had the chance to ask you to dinner yet. Now I can.”

  “River already invited me,” she said. All of the women turned toward her, speculation in their gazes as they stared at her. Heat rushed to her face. “Not like that...”

  “Like what?” Claudia asked, her lips curving into a slight smile.

  “It’s not a date,” Edith insisted. “It’s just a family dinner.” She instantly regretted saying that, but Claudia had no reaction. Even though she had no Colton DNA, she must have still considered herself one.

  “Technically,” Maggie said. “You’re only related to Mac and Thorne—not River.”

  “That’s true,” Claudia remarked, her gray eyes twinkling.

  Evelyn leaned closer and whispered, “Watch out for that matchmaker.”

  “Do you have any complaints?” Claudia teased her.

  Evelyn smiled and waved a hand in front of her face, as if it had suddenly gotten hot in the boutique. “None at all.”

  Edith’s heart filled with happiness for her uncle. After all Livia Colton had put him through, he deserved it. And Evelyn seemed like such a lovely woman.

  “What about you?” Claudia turned to Edith.

  “About what?” she asked. “I’m very happy for my uncle and Evelyn.”

  “No,” Claudia said. “About River. Do you have any complaints?”

  “We’re not dating,” Edith repeated. “He’s working for me.”

  “At La Bonne Vie,” Claudia murmured with a grimace of revulsion. “I can’t believe he’s willingly hanging out there. But then, River hasn’t been himself since he’s come back.”

  “Who is he, then?” Edith asked.

  And the chatty Claudia fell suddenly silent. After a long moment, she replied, “I guess I don’t know anymore. He was gone for ten years, with just a few short visits home between deployments.”

  “Mac said that he was just a boy when he enlisted and left for the Marines,” Evelyn added.

  “Then he came back a man,” Edith found herself remarking. More man than she’d ever met before. He was so strong—so masculine. Her pulse quickened just thinking about him.

  Claudia looked at her again with that gleam of speculation in her eyes. And Edith could have bitten off her tongue for her slip.

  “Is he all right?” Maggie asked. “Thorne is very worried about him.”

  Edith remembered that first morning after her return to Shadow Creek when she’d heard River calling out in his sleep. He had been caught up in a nightmare that morning. But he’d quickly awakened from it and shaken off the vestiges of whatever horrors he’d endured during his deployments. And she had seen no signs since that he struggled with either emotional or physical wounds.

  He was ostensibly recovered. So she’d had no right to question him the night before. But she’d been desperate then to protect herself from the feelings he’d inspired in her.

  She shrugged, but she couldn’t shake off the memories of his kisses, of his touch...

  “I don’t know what he was like before,” she replied. “But he seems fine. He’s been working very hard to help get La Bonne Vie ready.”

  “Ready for what?” Claudia asked. “What does your boss intend to do with it?”

  Edith shrugged again and turned her attention to the racks of brightly colored clothes. After the destruction and drabness of La Bonne Vie, she needed vibrancy. And maybe—just maybe—she wanted to look good tonight.

  “She can’t talk about it,” Evelyn answered for her. “Her boss has her locked into a confidentiality agreement.” Mac must have shared Edith’s situation with her, and she’d sweetly jumped to her defense. Just like River had with Jade.

  He had defended her to his own family.

  The petite woman turned toward Claudia with a grin. “Maybe we should think about having one of those.”

  “So you can’t talk about me?” Claudia asked.

  “So you can’t talk about me,” Evelyn said with a chuckle. She winked at Edith. “She loves bragging about her matchmaking skills.”

  Claudia laughed. “Well, when you’re this good at something.”

  Edith gasped as she pulled a dress from the rack. “This is what you’re good at,” she said. “These are amazing.” When Declan had been dating a model, she had attended some fashion shows with him—one in New York and one in Paris. But she had never seen anything as beautiful as these dresses.

  Her compliment hadn’t been meant to distract Claudia, but fortunately it did. She forgot all about matching Edith with a man and instead worked hard to match her with a dress. After a while of trying on different outfits, Edith began to feel like a life-size Barbie doll for the designer.

  Finally, Claudia clapped her hands together. “That’s it,” she proclaimed.

  Edith spun around in front of the antique oval mirror and had to agree that the yellow sundress, with the crisscrossed back straps and side slits, was perfect for her.

  “I love it,” she murmured. She couldn’t wait to wear it that evening. She didn’t even care that she might be a tad overdressed for a family dinner at a ranch. She wanted to see River’s reaction when he saw her dressed up in something other than the jeans or shorts she wore with tank tops around the house.

  Thinking of La Bonne Vie brought on a wave of guilt. She needed to return to work. She’d taken a long enough break. So she hurried into the dressing room to slip off the dress and back into her shorts and tank top. With the garment in her hand, she hurried up to the counter and opened her purse to dig out her wallet.

  Claudia waved her away. “It’s yours. On the house,” she said. “A gift.”

  Edith shook her head. “I appreciate that, but I can’t accept it. You’re running a business here.”

  “Sometimes she forgets,” Maggie interjected. “And as her accountant, I need to remind her.”

  “Your business will thrive,” Edith predicted. “Your designs are amazing. I knew it from seeing Maggie’s wedding gown, but...” Claudia was incredibly talented.

  Claudia beamed with pride. “I love designing wedding gowns,” she admitted and glanced at Evelyn. “In fact I can’t wait to design
another...”

  “Slow down,” Evelyn told her. And she reached for the card Edith held out to swipe through the cash register.

  Along with her wallet, Edith had also pulled out a scrap of lace. The pink handkerchief fluttered to the counter as she dropped it.

  And Claudia gasped. She stared at it in horror. “Where did you find this?”

  Only moments ago the young woman had been joking and laughing. Now she looked so serious and scared that Edith’s heartbeat quickened.

  “At La Bonne Vie,” she replied.

  “What is it?” Maggie asked as she stepped closer to the counter.

  Claudia reluctantly touched the lace like she was touching a spider, and her hand trembled as she held it up. “It’s one of my mother—of Livia’s—handkerchiefs.”

  Edith stared at it, as well. “It’s no surprise that I would find it in the house. Some of her stuff is still there.”

  Her gray eyes narrowed, Claudia examined the piece of lace. “Where exactly did you find it—in her dresser or a chest?”

  “No,” Edith said as she recalled pulling it out when she’d retrieved her can of pepper spray. “It was under the basement stairs.”

  Claudia shook her head. “It should be dirty, then. And it’s not.”

  “It’s a little dirty,” Evelyn said as if trying to assure her.

  Claudia sniffed the lace. “But it doesn’t smell musty. It doesn’t smell like it’s been lying on a concrete floor for ten years. In fact, it still smells like her perfume...”

  “What are you thinking?” Maggie asked, and her face had paled, as well.

  “I’m thinking she’s been in the house,” Claudia replied. “That she might still be in the house...”

  Edith shook her head. “No...” But then she remembered the eyes she’d glimpsed in the darkness that first night. Had they been human?

  “The last time one of her handkerchiefs showed up,” Claudia said, “it was at a crime scene.”

  La Bonne Vie was not a crime scene. At least it hadn’t been when Edith had left. “River is there alone...”

  Claudia was already reaching for her cell.

  “Are you calling him?” Edith asked.

  She shook her head. “No. He never picks up. I’ll call Knox to check on him.” But would River’s brother get to the estate in time to help him?

  * * *

  Knox found the front door unlocked, so he let himself in. He knew he was trespassing. La Bonne Vie didn’t belong to the Coltons anymore. But he doubted she would ever accept that. If she had returned to Shadow Creek, this was where she would be. But the house wasn’t empty. Edith was staying there. And River was there, as well.

  “River?” he called out for his brother. While Edith’s car was gone, his brother’s truck was parked by the gurgling fountain. He had to be there. Claudia had just called in a panic about their brother being alone at La Bonne Vie. He would have liked to tell her she was overreacting, but now he wasn’t so sure. “River?”

  Finally he heard something, some weird clanging noise, and the floor nearly vibrated beneath his feet.

  Was this the noise that had driven Edith downstairs that night she’d been hurt?

  “That’s not pipes rattling,” he murmured as he headed toward the kitchen. The noise was louder here, and the basement door stood open. He reached for his weapon, but since he was no longer a Ranger, he didn’t carry it on him anymore. He had a permit to, though, so maybe he would start again. Now that he knew...

  Slowly and quietly, he headed down the stairs—carefully searching the shadows for any signs of movement. The noise came from deeper in the basement, probably from the wine cellar where River had found Edith lying beneath those racks and crates.

  His heart pounding fast and hard, he hurried in that direction. As he ducked under the arch of the wine cellar, he noticed the gaping hole in the back wall and gasped. But it wasn’t a hole. It was a doorway. And there was another room beyond it. He stepped through that doorway, and as he did, he noticed a flash of movement to his right. He ducked just as the crowbar swung toward his head. “Son of a bitch,” he exclaimed, the curse slipping between his lips.

  The crowbar dropped onto the concrete floor, and River said, “Oh, my God, I didn’t know that was you.”

  “Well, that’s good. I’d hate to think you tried to brain me on purpose,” Knox remarked.

  “No, no,” River assured him, then expelled a ragged sigh. “I didn’t know you were here. Why are you here?”

  Knox narrowed his eyes and studied his younger brother’s face. He looked like he had when they were kids and Knox had caught River playing with his BB gun. Guilty as hell. “I came here to give you a heads-up.”

  River grinned. “Good. You finally decided to run for sheriff.”

  Knox sucked in a breath. “We have one.”

  “We have a joke,” River said with a snort of derision. “You would be a sheriff.”

  “That’s not why I’m here,” Knox said. Not yet. He had to talk to his wife first.

  “Then why?” River asked, and he looked even guiltier, like he’d been caught doing something he shouldn’t. And he looked impatient as well, like he wanted Knox to leave so he could get back to it.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “Uh...” River’s face flushed with color. “Edith needs to find everything in the house and inventory it. So I needed to open up these secret rooms.”

  Knox glanced around the room, but he saw only old wine bottles in this one. Nothing like the other secrets of their mother’s that had been discovered and used against her. But the FBI had seized all that evidence already. “She’s not in Florida.”

  River snorted. “I never thought she was. It’s too damn hot and humid for her to go there in July.”

  Knox chuckled. He hadn’t thought of that, but his brother was right. “Josh’s FBI contacts let him know that they caught the person they’d thought was her. It was just someone she’d hired to pose as her.”

  “Like in Vegas.”

  It wasn’t a question, but Knox nodded. “So she could be anywhere...” And he glanced around again. If there was one secret room, there was bound to be more. Livia had always gone all out. “I thought I’d better check here.” He didn’t share that Claudia had called in a panic for Knox to check on him. He didn’t want to wound his younger brother’s pride.

  “She’s not here,” River said.

  “You’re a little jumpy, though,” Knox pointed out. “You nearly hit me with that crowbar.”

  River sighed. “I didn’t think you were her. Maybe a reporter...”

  Knox chuckled.

  “You know you’re a son of a bitch, too,” River told him.

  Knox tensed, then realized his brother was referring to the curse he’d uttered when the crowbar had nearly struck him.

  “We’re both sons of the same bitch,” Knox said. A coldhearted one who had no qualms about killing anyone who got in her way.

  River sighed. “She needs to be back in prison.”

  Nobody would be safe until she was.

  Chapter 14

  The last time River had just walked into La Bonne Vie, Edith had dropped a vase. The times before that, she’d nearly used pepper spray on him. So this time he rang the bell. And thanks to his finding the broken circuit and fixing it, it actually worked now.

  After going home to clean up, he was back to pick her up for their date. Had she changed her mind?

  The bell rang out from inside the house, echoing throughout the foyer. But nobody opened the door. He heard no footsteps crossing the marble. Through the sidelights he couldn’t see any movement, no glimpse of a shadow.

  Had he and Knox searched thoroughly enough earlier? That was why Knox had visited—to give him th
e heads-up and to search to see if Livia could be hiding anywhere inside La Bonne Vie. Had they missed a hiding place?

  Edith’s vehicle was there, so she should have come to the door already. If she was able...

  His heart pounding fast and furiously, he unlocked, pushed open the door and stepped inside the foyer. He was hurrying across it when his heart stopped entirely for a moment—at the sight of Edith coming down the staircase. She’d looked beautiful the night before wearing just an oversize T-shirt. Tonight she was stunning in a yellow dress; she was luminous like a beam of sunshine.

  His breath escaped in a shaky sigh. “Wow...”

  A smile curved her lips, and at the bottom of the steps, she twirled around. “Isn’t it a great dress?” she asked.

  He’d barely noticed it. It was the glimpses of skin it exposed and the sleek curves it highlighted that had all of his attention. The straps left her shoulders and most of her back bare, while her toned legs peeked out the side slits. Desire slammed through him, tensing his every muscle. “Yeah,” he murmured. “It’s great...”

  “Claudia designed it. She’s so talented.”

  He couldn’t argue with her. “Yeah, she’s amazing,” he agreed. And he would have to thank her personally for designing this particular dress. It looked like she’d made it specifically for Edith.

  “You look beautiful.” So damn beautiful that his body ached for her.

  Her lips curved into a smile at the compliment. “It’s the dress.”

  It had nothing to do with the dress. He wanted to tell her that, but he wanted to show her even more. He stepped closer to her.

  With heels on, she was just a little bit shorter than him. He wouldn’t have to lean down far to brush his mouth across hers. She’d painted her lips, or maybe they only had gloss on them. They were shiny, like her dark hair that she’d curled softly around her face. Now he knew why she hadn’t answered the door. She’d been getting ready.

  Was all this for him?