by Lisa Childs
He shuddered as he pushed it down around his shoulders and sat up. Juliette had unzipped hers, as well, and she sat across from him with her back against one of the metal sides of the van. There were no windows in the back and a solid partition between the front seat and the cargo area, so nobody could see them. He kicked off the bag and shuddered again.
“You could have wound up in one of these for real,” Juliette warned him, her blue eyes suspiciously bright, as if she was about to cry.
But he doubted she cared enough to cry over him. She was probably upset about her friend.
“Officer Landon is going to be okay,” he reminded her.
She sighed. “Not for a while.”
The doctor had warned all his coworkers that he had a long recovery ahead of him. While Finn and Juliette had griped about the security agency Blake had hired, he was even happier that he had since the Red Ridge PD was going to be stretched even thinner than it had already been. He was also glad that the security firm could help reunite mother and child.
While he was determined to stick close and protect Juliette, he wasn’t convinced that his meeting the little girl was a good idea. His stomach knotted with nerves. He trusted that the security firm would make sure the killer didn’t follow them. He was nervous about meeting the child—his child. He had no experience with kids. He didn’t know what to say to her, how to act.
Hell, he didn’t know what to say to her mother or how to act, and Juliette was an adult. She was stubborn but also strong and brave. She’d been that way all those years ago—confident beyond her years.
Was that because of her mother’s illness? He wanted to ask her about it—about all the medical bills Finn had said she’d been working two jobs to pay. Why hadn’t she asked him for money back then? She could have, and he would have given it to her. Hell, after that night, he would have given her anything.
But his heart...
After watching his father’s failed attempts at marriage and love, Blake knew they weren’t for him. He’d also decided never to be a father, but now he was. He didn’t have to get involved, though.
He didn’t have to be part of her life. She and Juliette had done just fine without him all these years. But now that he knew...he couldn’t just walk away. He couldn’t pretend that he didn’t have a child—like his father had pretty much done Blake’s entire life. Sure, he’d acknowledged him and his sisters from time to time, but never with any real attention.
Even if he was bad at this, he still had to be better than his father was. But would he be good enough for a little girl who’d already been traumatized?
Juliette stared at him, as if she was watching all those doubts and fears cross his face. “Do you want to do this?” she asked him.
Those doubts and fears rushed up, choking him, so that he could only nod in response.
“What do you want to tell her?” she asked.
“The truth,” he replied as he internally battled back his doubts and fears. “It’s been kept for far too long.”
She flinched but then persisted, “And what is the truth, Blake? Do you want to be part of her life? Do you want to be a father?”
“I am a father,” he said. He wasn’t certain how to be one, but he would have to figure it out.
“I’m not sure this is the best time to tell her that,” Juliette said. “Not after what she’s been through, the danger she knows she’s—”
“Maybe having a father will make her feel safer.” Having a father hadn’t meant a whole hell of a lot to him. But then, he hadn’t meant a whole hell of a lot to his father, either.
“She knows she has one,” Juliette said.
At least she hadn’t told the child he was dead.
“She just doesn’t know who he is,” Juliette continued.
“Then I would say that it’s time she found out who I am, and that I will be here for her,” Blake said.
Juliette narrowed her eyes. “For how long? Are you staying in Red Ridge?”
He flinched now. He hadn’t even wanted to come back for a visit, but Patience had convinced him. “I can be her father whether I’m here or abroad.”
Her lips drew into a tight line of disapproval. And he knew what she was thinking—the same thing he was—that he was going to be about as involved in Pandora’s life as his father had been in his.
He flinched now. Maybe the best thing he could do for the little girl was continue the lie. But he knew how he felt over the truth being kept from him all these years—how betrayed he felt. He couldn’t do that to the child.
The van stopped, idling, as something rattled open. Then the van lurched forward before stopping again. The ignition shut off. And something rattled closed. Moments later those back doors opened, but there was still very little light. They were in a garage, parked next to another vehicle. It must have belonged to the officers guarding Pandora.
“We’re here?” he asked.
The bodyguard—a burly former Marine—nodded. “Yes, Mr. Colton.” The guy reached up to help Juliette down from the back, but she ignored his hand and leaped down on her own.
She was so independent. Too independent.
Why had she never told him about their daughter? She’d already been struggling with her mother’s bills. Why hadn’t she at least sought him out for financial support?
He ignored the proffered hand and jumped down, as well. “Is it too early?” he asked her. “Will we be waking her up?”
Juliette smiled, transforming her already beautiful face to breathtaking. “She’s an early riser. Even on my days off, she doesn’t let me sleep in.”
The door between the house and the garage opened, and a young woman breathed a sigh of relief before reholstering her weapon. “I’d hoped that was you!”
The two women embraced.
Blake recognized her as the Red Ridge officer who’d helped Juliette with Pandora at the police department. They seemed like more than coworkers, though. It was clear they were very close friends, especially when the woman glanced at him, and said, “You told him.”
Juliette nodded.
And Blake stepped forward with his hand outstretched. “Yes, she told me,” he said. “I’m Blake Colton.” He was certain that she already knew, though.
There was an ironic twist to the curve of her lips when she replied, “Yes, I know. I’m Elle Gage.” She took his hand and squeezed it. Like Juliette, she was stronger than she looked, and she was obviously trying to send him a message.
Probably not to hurt her friend.
He couldn’t hurt someone who didn’t care about him. If Juliette had cared, she wouldn’t have kept his daughter from him for all these years. But he doubted Elle had had anything to do with that.
She had enough troubles of her own.
He extended his condolences to Elle. “I’m sorry to hear about Bo.” When Patience had called to compel him to come home, she’d told him about everything that had happened in Red Ridge—about Bo Gage, the first victim of the Groom Killer, getting murdered the night of his bachelor party. “Was he a very close relative of yours?”
“My brother,” she said, and sadness darkened her brown eyes. “I’m surprised you heard about it with how far you live away from here.”
“My sister Patience called and told me about it,” he explained.
“Everybody thinks Demi Colton did it,” she told him, and there was an almost accusatory note in her voice. “She and Bo had been a couple until he broke up with her for another woman.”
Oh, God, the last thing Red Ridge needed was the old feud between the Coltons and the Gages firing back up. But that sounded exactly like what Bo’s murder had started. Blake just shrugged.
He wasn’t part of that. He didn’t live in the past like most of this town did. But as a little girl peeked around Elle, he felt a pull to the past—wishing he could go back
and reclaim the years he’d lost with her.
“Mommy!” she cried out, and she slipped around the female cop to throw herself into her mother’s arms.
Juliette picked her up and spun her around, holding her close. And the look on her face...
It took Blake’s breath away. He had never seen such a look of love. It stunned him.
“Mommy! Mommy!” she said as she pulled back and put her tiny hands on either side of Juliette’s face. “I missed you...”
The wealth of emotion in those three words pulled at Blake, making his chest ache. He could see how true it was as tears sparkled in the little girl’s eyes.
Juliette leaned her forehead against her daughter’s and said, “I missed you, too, sweetheart.” Then she kissed the little girl’s nose.
Pandora wrinkled her nose and giggled. “Can we go home now, Mommy?”
Juliette’s lips lowered in a frown. “Not yet, baby...”
“You haven’t caught the bad man yet?” the child asked, and now the tears in her green eyes were tears of fear.
Anger surged through Blake. He wanted to take down that killer himself. And now he understood Juliette’s insistence in staying on the job—in trying to find the man who’d threatened their daughter.
“Not yet, honey, but we’re getting closer...”
He wasn’t so sure about that. The killer had gotten close to her last night—too close when he’d shot the man right next to her.
“I heard about Dean,” Elle remarked. While she kept her voice calm for the little girl’s sake, anger shone in her eyes.
If the killer was smart, he would get the hell out of Red Ridge now. He was an even more wanted man than he’d been from the shooting in the park. Now he’d shot an officer.
“Dean will be fine,” Juliette assured her friend.
Blake glanced back at her and noticed Pandora was staring at him. Was this it? Was this when he needed to introduce himself? What the hell would he say?
But then she asked, “Are you my daddy?”
And everyone gasped in surprise.
“I heard Auntie Elle say you live far away.” Apparently the little girl had been standing behind the officer longer than they’d realized. She continued, “And my daddy lives far away.”
So Juliette hadn’t lied to their daughter.
All three females stared at him, waiting for his reply. He swallowed hard, choking down the emotion rushing up on him. “Yes,” he answered her. “I am your daddy.”
A long silence followed his acknowledgment. Then Pandora extended her arms toward him, angling away from her mother. For a moment he didn’t know what she wanted—until he realized she was reaching for him.
He lifted her from Juliette’s arms.
He didn’t know much about children, but he suspected Pandora was small for her age. She was so light. He barely felt the weight of her in his arms, but he felt it in his chest, weighing heavily on his heart.
As she had with her mother, she reached up and planted each of her tiny hands on the sides of his face. And she studied him intently as if trying to figure out if they looked alike. And they did.
Or maybe she was trying to discern what kind of man he was. A bad man like the guy who’d killed the woman in the park. Or a good man.
Blake wasn’t always sure what he was. He wasn’t a killer. But he could be quite cutthroat in business. Some women might claim he was the same with personal relationships. But before and after that night, no one had ever affected him like Juliette had.
A little finger traced over the dimple in his cheek. “I have a dent in my face, too,” Pandora said.
“It looks better on you,” he said.
“You’re handsome,” she said. “Just like Mommy said...”
He glanced at Juliette, who flushed a bright red while Elle chuckled. Curious, he asked, “What did Mommy tell you about me?”
“She told me that my daddy was a handsome prince who swept her off her feet.” Her mouth curved down into a frown of disapproval. “Why would you knock Mommy down?”
“I picked her up,” he said. “I didn’t knock her down.”
Elle laughed harder and murmured, “That might be a little too much information...”
“He carried me,” Juliette clarified. “Because I almost tripped on some stairs...”
Pandora wasn’t paying attention to either of the women. She was totally focused on him.
So he felt compelled to say, “I would never hurt your mommy. Or you...”
“Mommy said you left Red Ridge before she could tell you about me.”
He glanced at Juliette again, wanting to convey his appreciation that she hadn’t lied to their daughter. She could have let Pandora believe that he’d wanted nothing to do with her, especially since that was what she’d thought after the things he’d said that night, that he never wanted to be a husband or a father.
But Juliette wouldn’t look at him.
So he focused on their daughter again. “I would have come back sooner,” he said, “if I’d known about you.” And he gently tightened his arms around the little girl, holding her close to his heart.
She settled her head onto his shoulder and emitted a soft sigh. “I’m glad you’re back now,” she said. “You can protect me and Mommy from the bad man.”
He would damn well try his hardest to guard them—even if his efforts had him ending up in one of those body bags again.
Chapter 8
“By now you’ve all heard about Officer Dean Landon,” the chief said as he began the morning meeting.
Juliette glanced around the squad conference room. Every Red Ridge PD officer had been at the hospital the night before—whether they’d just stopped to check on him during a shift or they had come in while off duty. They had definitely all heard about Landon getting shot.
Did they blame her for it? Nobody was looking at her, but it was almost as if they were making a conscious effort not to. Maybe they knew she already felt guilty enough over what had happened to their coworker.
“Officer Landon is expected to fully recover from the gunshot wound,” the chief assured them. “However, it will take some time, so I will be actively looking for a temporary replacement for him during his recovery.”
Juliette expelled a breath. That was good. They couldn’t be shorthanded right now.
“Until I find that temporary replacement, I need you all to pull together like never before,” the chief continued. “No more infighting.”
Juliette felt no guilt over that; she wasn’t part of the feuding going on within the department because she was neither a Gage nor a Colton. It seemed as if, with a few exceptions like Dean Landon and Dante Mancuso and her, everyone in the K9 unit of the RRPD was related to one or the other.
“Have you heard from your sister?” Detective Carson Gage asked Brayden Colton, who was sitting in the chair in front of Juliette in the briefing room.
Brayden didn’t answer him. Everyone knew Carson was romantically involved with a Colton—Serena, who’d become close to Demi before she’d fled. Serena believed in her innocence. But Carson was ambivalent. Unlike the detective, though, Brayden was sure his sister was not the Groom Killer. He thought she’d been framed.
From what Juliette knew of Demi Colton, she had to agree with him. If Demi had killed someone, she would have done a better job of covering her tracks. Not that she hadn’t had a motive to kill Bo Gage. Apparently, he’d gotten her pregnant and then become engaged to another woman.
“Have you heard from her?” the chief asked now. “Any texts? Calls?”
The last time Demi had texted one of her brothers, she’d insisted she was innocent—and had said the baby was fine. No one could she be sure if she’d actually given birth yet, though the timing was right. Brayden shook his head. “No. And it’s been a while...”
; Juliette could hear the concern in his voice. His sister was on the run—alone, heavily pregnant or traveling with an infant, and desperate. Juliette knew how that felt. Compassion compelled her to reach out and squeeze his arm.
“I’m worried something could have happened to her,” he admitted. “To them...”
“And whose fault would that be?” Carson asked.
“Her baby is a Gage, too,” Brayden reminded the detective. “Do you want to lose another one?”
Carson flinched.
“Knock it off,” the chief said. “After what happened to Dean last night, we all have to trust that we have each other’s backs. I can’t send any of you out there until I know that for certain.”
Carson closed his eyes and nodded. “I’m sorry. Of course, I know that. And I do...” He looked across the aisle of chairs at Brayden. “I have your back.”
“Juliette’s the one we need to watch right now,” the chief directed.
“You should be in witness protection with your daughter,” Carson told her. “Not out trying to do my job to track down that killer.”
“I will be able to recognize him,” Juliette pointed out. “And maybe my being out there will flush him out...” Because this had to end soon. Pandora wanted to go home—to her bedroom with all its stuffed toys and to her familiar bed.
And to her daddy...
This morning she’d asked if he was going to come live with them when they went home. Blake had told her that was her and Mommy’s house, not his. His home wasn’t in Red Ridge anymore. Would he leave once the killer was caught?
Of course he would. His business was called Blake Colton International. Not Blake Colton Red Ridge, South Dakota. He would have to return to his headquarters in London or his other branches in Hong Kong and Singapore.