by Lisa Childs
“If you want to see Pandora again, you better get that lawyer back,” she said, “because I’m not going to let you see her.”
“What? Why not?”
“Just go back to London or Milan or wherever you call home,” she said. “I don’t want you here. Pandora and I don’t need you.”
He flinched as if she’d hurt him. But then he shook his head, stubbornly unwilling to believe her. “Liar,” he said.
She didn’t argue with him. She just hurried out of the suite. For the last time...
She was not coming back. She had to let whatever was between her and Blake Colton go. She had to let him go.
* * *
She was lying. Wasn’t she?
Blake had been asking himself that question for the past couple of days. But she had not come to his suite again. She had also stuck by her decision to not let him see Pandora anymore. Was it to protect the little girl, though?
Or to protect him?
“She what?” he asked Finn. The police chief had called him to this meeting in his office at the Red Ridge Police Department.
“She threatened to take out a restraining order against you,” the chief said. “She wants you to stop following her around.”
He shook his head. “I’m not going to stop.”
“She agreed to keep the bodyguards,” Finn divulged. “She just doesn’t want you.”
He was getting that message loud and clear. But what was her motivation?
Was she still furious with him over what the lawyer had said and over what he’d said? He’d denied wanting her to be his mistress. But maybe he did want her to be a kept woman. He wanted to keep her.
But could he trust her?
She had already kept his daughter from him for nearly five years. And now she was trying to do that again. But he wouldn’t let her get away with it this time. He was going to have to hire a lawyer and get that paternity test. He would fight her for visitation.
He would fight her on this, too.
“Why not?”
“You’re not a bodyguard,” Finn said. “You’re not a cop. I never should have allowed you to follow her around in the first place.”
Blake bristled like Sasha when she caught the scent of drugs. “You didn’t allow me to do anything. I can follow her around. I’m not threatening her. I’m trying to keep her safe. No judge in Red Ridge is going to grant her a restraining order.”
Finn snorted. “Because you’re Fenwick Colton’s kid.”
Blake bristled some more. It was as if Finn was deliberately trying to piss him off. “I don’t know what you’re trying to do,” he told his cousin, “but you’re not going to be able to keep me away.”
“Damn it, Blake,” Finn said. “You’re going to get yourself killed if you keep intervening in police business.”
“I haven’t gotten hurt yet,” he said.
Finn pointed toward his face. But his argument was weak. The scratch had faded and all but disappeared.
He shook his head. “What’s the deal? What’s really going on?”
With Finn and with Juliette. She’d acted so strangely that night in his suite.
“She flipped that kid from the airport and got him to inform on a shipment coming into the train station on Friday,” Finn said. “It’s big. She can’t be distracted. You can’t get in her way.”
Panic pressed down on Blake’s lungs, stealing his breath away. He had a bad feeling—a very bad feeling about this.
“You need to bring in someone else,” he said. He’d heard there was a new K9 cop on loan from some other county. “Use the new guy.”
Finn shook his head. “His specialty is explosives. Juliette’s is narcotics. She and Sasha are the best,” her boss said with pride.
Blake felt a flash of pride, too, and he understood a little bit why Juliette had been so reluctant to quit her job. She didn’t just enjoy it; she was damn good at it.
Finn continued, “So no matter what you say, I’m not taking her off this assignment. I need her.”
So did Blake. And he had a feeling that if she went to make that bust, he would lose her forever.
But then, he’d never really had her to begin with. They’d had only that magical night so long ago and a few stolen moments since he’d returned to Red Ridge. But if this assignment was as dangerous as Blake felt it was, he might never get the chance for any more moments with her.
* * *
She’d taken the bait—just as he’d planned. He’d had no intention of shooting that kid—even if he had been able to get close enough.
But those damn bodyguards had been in his way.
As usual...
If they hadn’t been covering all the buildings close enough to the airport for him to get an accurate shot, he might have taken a chance.
Maybe he could have ended this—and her—already. He was getting sick of Red Ridge. It was long past time that he ended this.
Once she was dead, there would be a funeral. Her kid would have to attend. And then she would join her mother—in death.
Just as he’d promised them that day in park. They were going to die.
Juliette Walsh was going to get one hell of a surprise when she showed up at the train station to make her big bust. She was going to get a bullet in her brain. And whoever else got in his way—the bodyguards, the other cops or that rich guy who’d been following her around like her damn dog—was going to wind up dead, too.
Chapter 22
Juliette was in plain clothes for the morning briefing. She wasn’t staying. Her shift wouldn’t start until later, so that she and Sasha would be fresh for the midnight train coming into Red Ridge station.
Would there really be a shipment of drugs on it? Or had the kid just been trying to get out of trouble?
Juliette wasn’t sure if she should have believed him. But he’d been so upset at nearly getting shot that he’d seemed sincere. Hopefully whoever was bringing in those drugs knew about the man from the park. She had to find him. Had to stop him...
Pandora was so sick of the safe house. She wanted to go home. And so did Juliette.
The little girl also wanted Blake.
And so did Juliette...
But this was for the best—for all of them. While he wanted to protect Juliette, he didn’t love her. It didn’t sound like his father had ever been able to show love—at least not to his kids.
Was that how Blake was going to be?
If he couldn’t show love to Pandora, Juliette would rather not have him around the little girl. Or around her...
And it was better for him this way, too. He wouldn’t be in danger anymore.
But when the chief stepped up to the podium to begin the morning briefing, he met her gaze and shook his head. And she knew...
He hadn’t been able to threaten or coerce Blake to stop following her around. That was not good. She didn’t want him at the drug bust tonight.
She just had an odd feeling about it all, like something wasn’t quite right. Like maybe it had been too easy...
“As some of you know, Officer Walsh got a tip that there will be a big shipment of drugs coming into Red Ridge tonight on the midnight train. We’re going to be careful to stay out of sight until the train pulls in. Walsh will be there with Sasha. Detective Gage will be backing her up along with Officer West Brand.”
Brand. She glanced over at the officer on loan from Wexton County. She had an odd feeling about him, as well. Since he’d started, he’d kept to himself—even when working with everybody else. He didn’t volunteer any information about himself, and he gave only vague answers to the questions people asked. He seemed secretive, like he had something to hide.
Yet who was she to talk? She’d kept her child’s paternity a secret for over four years. But her secret hadn’t affected anyone else.
After she’d kept that secret from him—his daughter from him—she was surprised that he wanted to protect her at all. But she wasn’t naive enough to believe he’d forgiven her or that he would ever trust her. That might have been why all he had offered her was his protection.
Not his heart.
He didn’t trust her with it. And she couldn’t blame him after her betrayal. Now she was keeping her daughter from him all over again—threatening that he’d have to call a lawyer and go to court to demand the rights she should have given him when Pandora was born.
Lost in her own thoughts, she hadn’t realized that everyone else had left until the chief stopped next to her chair.
“Are you sure you’re up for this?” he asked.
She uttered a weary sigh. Except for that night she’d slept in Blake’s arms, she hadn’t had much sleep since that day in the park. Heck, she hadn’t had much sleep when she’d heard he was back in town. She’d been scared to see him again. “I’d feel better if you had managed to get Blake to back off. The threat of the restraining order didn’t work?”
He shook his head. “How would it? He knows no judge would give it to you. He hasn’t threatened you. Instead he’s been trying to protect you.”
Frustration gripped Juliette. Why was he so damn stubborn? Must have been the Colton in him. But she couldn’t say that in front of her boss, who was also a Colton. “I don’t need his protection.”
“I know,” Finn said. “We’ve got this. Gage and Brand will have your back. And I’m sure those bodyguards will be close, too.”
“Are you sure about Brand?” she asked.
Finn’s usually open face shuttered, and he looked away from her. “Of course. Why wouldn’t I be sure about him?”
“What do you know about him?”
“He’s an explosives specialist,” the chief said. “He’s good.”
That told her what he did. Not who he was. Not anything about his character. “But is he trustworthy?” she asked.
“Beyond reproach,” Finn insisted.
And that strange feeling she’d had about the temporary team member intensified. She’d thought he was keeping secrets. Now she suspected that the chief was, too, but that secret was about Brand.
Who the hell was he?
“So he’ll have my back tonight?” she asked, needing assurances.
The chief nodded.
But she didn’t feel reassured. She understood now how Blake must have felt when he’d learned the momentous secret she’d kept from him. She certainly didn’t like being kept in the dark.
She just hoped that she wouldn’t wind up there permanently.
* * *
Blake waited in the hall outside the briefing room. The receptionist had not wanted to let him past her. But when he’d turned on the charm, she’d relented and pointed him to a chair in the hall. She kept looking at him over the top of silver-framed glasses, though.
He’d watched everyone else file out of the briefing room—but for Juliette and the chief. Maybe Finn was talking her out of going to the bust.
He didn’t think so. His cousin had definitely sounded as if he considered Juliette the best officer to follow up on the tip about the drug shipment. But every time she’d gone to the airport or the bus terminal, something had happened. She’d nearly been shot.
Blake didn’t like her chances for surviving the train station.
The minute she stepped out of the room with Finn, he jumped up from his chair. She groaned when she saw him and just shook her head.
“Don’t harass her,” Finn warned him. “Or she might be able to get that restraining order yet.”
“I would testify,” the receptionist warned him, her dark brows arching into her bangs.
He didn’t know if she was kidding or not. No one could seriously think he meant Juliette any harm. Could they?
Juliette walked away from him, toward the front doors of the police department. She stopped before she stepped out, though, and turned back to him. “I don’t understand why you won’t leave me alone.”
“I told you that I’m doing this for Pandora,” he said. “I don’t want her to lose her mother.”
She flinched as if the thought filled her with dread. Then why risk it?
“You hired the bodyguards,” she said. “Let them do their job. Let me do my job. Stay out of my way. Stay out of my life, Blake.”
A pang struck his heart, and he felt like she’d stabbed him. It was clear that she meant it now.
She continued, “You won’t help out your dad with his financial problems because you’re worried about your business. How can you leave it this long? Don’t you need to go back to your offices?”
He could work anywhere. But that wasn’t her point. And he knew it. “You really want to get rid of me,” he mused. “Is that why you didn’t let me know about Pandora? You don’t want to share her?”
Her lips pressed together in a tight line, as if she was forcing herself to hold back some words. She glanced around them and shook her head. Then she murmured, “Not here...”
“Then where?” he asked. “You said you’re not going back to my suite.”
“I’m not.”
She wasn’t going to sleep with him again. Had he offended her that much when he’d offered to support her? He knew other women who would have been thrilled with that offer. But Juliette was fiercely independent. She’d been taking care of herself and everyone else in her life for a long time.
But he didn’t know what else to offer her. Marriage? He doubted she wanted that; she’d been pointing out to him over and over again that they had nothing in common.
But they had something very important in common. Someone, actually.
Their daughter.
“Let me come see Pandora,” he said.
“I told you—”
“I know—get a lawyer,” he said. “I can—if you want me to...”
She pursed her lips again as to hold back some more words. And he wanted to kiss them. He wanted to kiss her so badly.
But she was right. Not here...
He wasn’t giving up, though—on their daughter or on her. “Someone else can handle Sasha tonight,” he said. “You don’t have to go.”
Her blue eyes widened with surprise that he knew about the shipment. Then she sighed. “Sasha is my partner. I’m going with her tonight.”
Just as she didn’t want her daughter getting hurt, she didn’t want her dog getting hurt. Was that why she’d threatened him with the restraining order? Did she not want him to get hurt, either?
Was that why she kept pushing him away? For his own protection?
Before he could ask, she pushed open the doors and walked out of the department. He tensed, like he did every time she was out in the open. He expected bullets to fly, expected that psycho to shoot at her.
But nothing happened. She made it to her vehicle without incident. And he released a breath of relief. She was safe for now.
But she wouldn’t be tonight—not during that drug bust. She would be in danger then. That was why he had to be there. He had to try to save her from herself.
But who would save him from her?
* * *
Patience watched her brother as he paced her office. He’d always had more energy than she and their sisters did. That was why his mother had given full custody to their father. She hadn’t wanted to deal with a hyperactive little boy.
But Blake hadn’t exactly been hyperactive. He’d been hyperfocused. Once something had caught his interest, he’d focused all his attention on mastering it. Like football and basketball and golf and lacrosse...
Whatever sport he’d played in school he’d practiced incessantly. And when he’d gotten interested in business, it hadn’t been enough for him to work for someone els
e—especially not their father. He’d had to build his own.
He wasn’t the kind of person who delegated or hired people to carry out his orders. He had to be personally involved. He had to get his hands dirty.
Maybe that was why he persisted in following Juliette around. He didn’t trust that she would be safe unless he was the one protecting her.
But Patience wondered and worried that there was more to it than that. “You love her,” she said.
He abruptly stopped pacing. But he didn’t turn to her. It was as if he didn’t want her to see his face—probably because his feelings were written all over it.
She should have been happy that he could feel—that he could care about someone else. That meant that he wasn’t as much like their father as Patience had worried that he was. But she wasn’t happy about that—because she was afraid that caring about Juliette Walsh might get him killed.
“You love her,” she repeated.
He shook his head. “I don’t know what love is,” he remarked. “I’ve never seen my mom or dad in love. Lust, maybe, but not love...”
And maybe lust was all he’d thought he’d felt for Juliette. But Patience could tell his feelings went much deeper than attraction.
“We’re not our parents,” she said.
“I sure as hell hope not,” he said.
And she could tell that it worried him, that he didn’t want to be like their father.
“But what if I am?” he asked her. “Would it be better if I just walked away from her?”
“Juliette?”
“She hasn’t given me a choice,” he replied. “She wants nothing to do with me.”
So she had cut him loose like Patience had suggested. She should have been relieved. But seeing the look on his face, the pain, she felt a horrible heaviness pressing on her heart. Guilt.
She probably should have kept her mouth shut.
“I’m talking about Pandora,” he said. “Should I walk away from her? Is she better off without me in her life?”
Patience sighed. “Oh, Blake...”
What had she done?
She’d only wanted to keep her brother safe. She’d been so worried about his life, though, that she’d gotten his heart broken with her meddling. Maybe she was the one who was like their dad.