Brenda Jackson The Westmoreland Collection: ZaneCanyonStern

by Brenda Jackson

  “So, is it?” he asked in a deep, sexy voice.

  She self-consciously licked her lips. “Is what?”

  “This seat taken? It seems to be the only one empty.”

  She glanced around the courthouse’s lunchroom. He was telling the truth. “No, it’s not taken.”

  “Mind if I join you?”

  She had to bite her lips to keep from saying he could do anything he cared to do with her. Instead, she said, “No, I don’t mind.”

  She watched as he pulled out a chair and settled his tall frame in the seat. She had to be in court in less than an hour. At any other time she would have been annoyed at being disturbed, but not this time. This man was worth the interruption.

  Extending his hand out to her, he said, “I’m Canyon Westmoreland. And you are?”

  “Keisha. Keisha Ashford.” She accepted his hand and wished she hadn’t. Her belly vibrated the moment they touched. And then, suddenly, it seemed the room quieted and they were the only two people in it. The only thing she heard was the sound of their breathing. The way he stared into her eyes made her breath catch. She felt the rush through her veins.

  The sound of silverware hitting the floor made her blink, and she realized Canyon still had her hand. She tugged and he released it.

  “So, Keisha Ashford, are you an attorney or a paralegal?”

  She lifted a brow. “Does it matter?”

  He shrugged broad shoulders. “Not with me. I’m sharing a table with a beautiful woman and I’m not complaining about anything.”

  She chuckled, appreciating his compliment. “You sound easy.”

  “Um, maybe.”

  A smile spread across her lips. She liked him. She had checked out his ring finger. It was bare, with no indication that a ring had once been there. “I’m an attorney.”

  “So am I,” he said smoothly.

  “I can tell. You look the part,” she said.

  He leaned over the table and she drew in his intoxicating male scent. “Let’s meet later so you can tell me what you mean by that.”

  Oh, she thought. He was good. As smooth as silk. Any other time, and with anyone else, she would have brushed off what was definitely a flirtatious come-on. But not today. And, for some reason, not with Canyon Westmoreland.

  Instead of agreeing to his suggestion, she said, “Canyon is an unusual name.”

  “Not according to my parents,” he said, smiling. “I was conceived one night in the Grand Canyon, so they felt my name fit. I understand it was one hell of a night.”

  She tilted her head. “Your parents told you that?”

  “No, but I heard them share a private joke about it every once in a while. It brought them fond memories for years.”

  “And what do they think now?”

  She saw a flash of pain flare in his eyes. “I don’t know. My parents were killed in a plane crash a little over fifteen years ago.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” she said.

  “Thanks. Now what about meeting me later for drinks? There’s a place not far from here. Woody’s.” He glanced at his watch. “Around five. Hopefully, if we win our individual cases, we will have reason to celebrate.”

  She smiled. “That would be nice. I’ll be there.”

  He tipped his head and the smile that spread across his lips was priceless...and sexy as hell. “Good. I’ll look forward to later, Keisha Ashford.”

  She swallowed as his gaze raked over her in a way that had her skin scorching. At that moment she was drenched in full awareness of him and could only respond by saying truthfully, “So will I....”

  “Mommy.”

  Keisha’s thoughts returned to the present at the sound of her son’s voice. He had been busy playing with one of his toys while sitting in his car seat. Beau was just as high-spirited as any other two-year-old and typically never stopped talking except when shoving food into his mouth. But today things were different. She couldn’t help wondering if Canyon’s presence had something to do with it.

  “Yes, Beau?”

  “Dad gone?”

  Was that disappointment she heard in his voice? Moving here from Texas had been hard for him. Her mother had become a regular fixture in his life and the first months away from his grandmother hadn’t been easy. Beau had made her fully aware what tantrums were about.

  “He’s in the car behind us.”

  She looked in the mirror and saw Beau trying to twist his body around in his car seat. “Why?”

  She lifted a brow. “Why?”

  “He not here. Our car?”

  Keisha felt a headache coming on and knew after Canyon’s visit she would have to have a talk with her son. “Because he has his own car.”

  “Go home with us?”

  “Yes.” Too late she realized how that sounded and quickly moved to clear it up. “He has his own home. Not ours.”

  “Not our house?”

  “No, not our house.”

  He didn’t say anything, but went back to playing with his toy. When they got home she would feed him dinner, give him a bath and then let him have a little playtime before putting him in bed. When it came to bedtime, she was lucky. Beau didn’t have the issues some other kids did with fighting sleep. He eagerly went to bed each night as if it was his God-given right to get eight hours or more of sleep.

  She glanced back into her rearview mirror at the car still following closely behind her. Her gaze connected with Canyon’s once again.

  She no longer loved him, she was sure of it. Her love hadn’t dissipated immediately but in slow degrees. And just to think—she had planned to tell him about her pregnancy when she had returned home early and found him with Bonita.

  She broke eye contact to face the road ahead, which is what she’d been doing since that night. And she didn’t intend to look back again.

  Moments later she was pulling into the driveway of the home she considered hers. The community was a new one, and most of the families were progressive couples or singles with small children. She’d already joined the homeowners association and knew several of her neighbors. It was a friendly neighborhood and she enjoyed living here.

  She brought the car to a stop and then got out. She had moved around to the side of the car by the time Canyon got out of his. She glanced over at him and said, “I really wish you’d wait and talk to me at another time.”

  “We don’t always get what we want, Keisha.”

  Feeling frustrated and annoyed, she narrowed her eyes at him and opened the door to get Beau out of his seat.

  “I’ll do that,” Canyon said.

  She stepped aside to let him, not wanting to make a scene in front of Beau. However, the main thing she intended to do when they talked was to make it absolutely clear that while he might be Beau’s father, she would not allow him to bulldoze his way into their lives.

  Pulling her keys from her purse, she moved up the walkway to her front door. Canyon followed with Beau in his arms. She was tempted to remind Canyon once again that Beau could walk, but decided to keep quiet for now.

  The moment she opened the door, Keisha knew something was wrong. For starters, the chime from her security alarm didn’t sound. And when she took a step inside and glanced around, she gasped in horror.

  Someone had broken into her home.

  Three

  Canyon quickly went into action and handed Beau to Keisha. “Take Beau and get back in the car.”

  Already he was on the phone calling Pete. “This is Canyon. The woman who was being followed earlier today had her home broken into.”

  “What’s the address? I’m still in the area. Don’t mess with anything.”

  Canyon turned around, not surprised that Keisha hadn’t gone back to the car like he’d told her to do. “What’s
the address?” He could tell from her dazed look that she was still in shock at what she’d found when she’d opened her door.

  “Keisha?”

  She looked at him. “Yes?”

  “What’s this address?”

  She rattled a number off to him which he gave to Pete.

  “Home messy, Mommy.”

  Their son’s words made Keisha suck in a deep breath and Canyon saw how Beau’s innocent words had crushed her. This was the home she had made for her and their son and someone had invaded her sanctuary. They had violated it.

  “Come on, let’s step outside, Keisha. The police are on the way,” he said softly. When she opened her mouth to protest, he added, “We can’t touch anything until they get here.”

  Keisha closed her mouth and drew in a deep breath, feeling the pain in her chest when she did so. Canyon, she knew, was intentionally blocking her view but she’d already seen her living room and could just imagine how the rest of her house looked. Had the intruder gone into her bedroom? Beau’s room? What had been stolen?

  “Keisha?”

  “Yes?” The single word had been hard to get past her lungs.

  “Come on, let’s sit in the car.”

  She hesitated but knew what he was suggesting was reasonable. There was nothing they could do until the police arrived and Beau could tell she was troubled. She didn’t want to upset him.

  “Play, Mommy,” Beau said when they reached her car. She placed him back in his car seat and gave him his favorite toy. When she went around to get into her seat, she noticed Canyon talking on his cell phone. Was he talking to the police again?

  * * *

  “Yes, Keisha’s okay, Dil,” Canyon told his oldest brother. He’d given Dillon a quick rundown on what had transpired over the past hour, including the fact that he had a son.

  “Everyone is here for dinner, so how do you want me to handle things?” Dillon asked. “I’m sure you’ll want to be the one to tell them about Beau.”

  Canyon drew in a deep breath. “Yes, I want to be the one. Pete is on the way. When we finish here, Keisha and Beau are coming with me until we figure out who did this and why. I’m leaving my car here so I’ll need someone to pick it up and drive it to my place later.”

  “I can do that. But will Keisha agree to go anywhere with you, Canyon?”

  Canyon rubbed a frustrated hand down his face. He was more than certain she wouldn’t. At least not at first. Keisha had an independent streak that she’d inherited from the single mother who had raised her. He’d always admired her ability to stand her ground and not depend on anyone for anything. But in this case things were different. She didn’t have just herself to think about. She had their son.

  Their son.

  The thought sent an unexplainable thrill through his veins. “No, Dil, she’s not going to go along with it, at least not easily. But I’m convinced what happened to her house and that car following her today are connected. My only ace is that she has Beau to think about. If it was just her she would dig in her heels.”

  At that moment three police cruisers pulled up and the one leading the pack was driven by Pete. “Pete’s here now, Dil. I’ll call you back later.”

  * * *

  Keisha stared at the policeman in confusion. “What do you mean I was targeted personally?”

  Pete leaned against the kitchen counter as he stood beside Canyon. “You’ve verified that nothing of value was taken, not even that container filled with gold coins sitting in plain view on the dresser in your bedroom. My only conclusion is that the person who did this didn’t take anything because this is about you personally. It seems to be more or less a scare tactic.”

  None of this made sense. She had been grateful that her next-door neighbors, a couple with a set of twins a few months older than Beau, had come over and offered to take him to their place, feed him dinner and keep him entertained while she handled the break-in.

  With Canyon and Pete by her side, she had gone from room to room taking in the devastation. Her sofa and chairs had been turned over, pillow cushions thrown about along with her magazines. In her kitchen, the person had opened a canister and floured her counters to the point where it looked like snow in August. Not one bedroom had been left untouched...not even Beau’s room. Some of his favorite toys had been broken. And in her bedroom, in addition to her clothes, which had been pulled out of the drawers and strewn about, the intruder had left water running in the bathtub to flood the floors.

  What Pete said was right. Nothing of value had been taken. Not the coin collection her mother had started for Beau, not the set of expensive purses in her closet or any of her big screen televisions. The only thing the person had done was trash every part of her home as if he’d been trying to make a statement. However, she was clueless as to what statement that could be.

  “Think hard, Ms. Ashford. Are there any cases you’re working on that someone would want to scare you away from?” Pete asked.

  For the life of her she couldn’t think of one case, past or present, where anyone could want to extract some kind of revenge. She had won all her cases lately, except for one, and none of the cases were such that either party would encounter any financial hardship.

  “I honestly can’t think of any case like that, Deputy Higgins.”

  Pete nodded and shoved his notepad into his pocket. “If you think of anything later, let me know. I’m turning this over to a detective who will contact you. There is also the issue of the car that was following you earlier today, the one Canyon reported.”

  She’d almost forgotten about that.

  “You think the two are related?” Canyon asked before she could.

  “Right now, Canyon, I’m not discounting anything. By the time I reached the area where the car was supposed to be, you had taken matters into your own hands and run the guy off. I should have known it was too much to expect a Westmoreland to do what he was told.”

  “Whatever,” Canyon said, shoving his hands into his pockets and then releasing a deep breath. “So what’s next?”

  “We’re still looking for the vehicle. I’m going to pull the videos from the red-light cameras and traffic-surveillance cameras in the area. I hope they’ll reveal something. Although we already know the license plate was stolen and the car was a black Ford sedan, if we have a picture of the vehicle itself we can determine if there are any dents or scratches that might make the car stand out. If there are, then it will make locating the vehicle easier. I want to find the person who did this.”

  “So do I.”

  Keisha and Pete looked at Canyon. It wasn’t what he’d said, but how he’d said it, in a low, threatening tone. In a way, she wasn’t surprised by his reaction. She’d felt the intense anger radiating from Canyon as he’d gone from room to room with her. She’d felt the hostility even more when he’d seen the senseless destruction in her and Beau’s bedrooms.

  Instead of either of them addressing what Canyon had said, Pete looked over at her. “I wouldn’t advise you to stay here tonight. Whoever did this was able to bypass your security system.”

  “She won’t be staying here,” Canyon said before she could respond. “She’s coming with me and will be staying at my place for a while.”

  “That’s a good idea,” Pete said as if that settled it.

  It didn’t. “Whoa. Wait a minute. I won’t stay here, but I’m checking into a hotel,” Keisha said.

  Canyon looked at her. “No, you’re not.”

  She placed her hands on her hips, stiffened her spine and narrowed her eyes at him. “Yes, I am.”

  “No, you’re not.”

  Pete cleared his throat. “I’ll let you two hash out those details without me. But if you remember anything at all, Ms. Ashford, call the precinct. Detective Ervin Render will be handling your case.” Pete quick
ly left, as if he didn’t want to get in the line of fire.

  Even before Pete had cleared the doorway that separated the kitchen from the dining room, Keisha turned back to Canyon. “Now, wait just a damn minute, Canyon Westmoreland. Why should I stay with you when I can stay at a hotel? Besides, what I do or where I go is none of your business, so back off.”

  Hearing her sharp tone, any sane man would not have hesitated to do what she’d suggested. However, instead of backing off, Canyon took a step forward. The fierce expression on his face and the laser-sharp look in his eyes had her dropping her hands to her sides.

  “Probably, if it was just you, I might back off, Keisha, since your decision about me three years ago proved just how little trust you have in me. You had the gall to believe I would admit to loving you and then sleep with another woman...in your bed.”

  She tightened her hands into fists at her sides. “I know what I saw, Canyon.”

  His eyes flared with anger. “And just what did you see? Did you see me screwing Bonita? Wrapped in her arms or she in mine? No. What you saw was me, naked except for the towel wrapped around my waist, stepping out of the bathroom from my shower to find Bonita lying in your bed.”

  Keisha’s own anger escalated. “She was naked!”

  “I saw that fact at the same time you did. I told you what happened. Bonita came by your place looking for you minutes after I got in from the gym. She was upset about some argument she’d had with her fiancé, Grant Palmer, and I offered her a drink to calm her down. She asked me to share it with her and I saw no reason not to. Afterward, she thanked me, said she needed to pull herself together and asked if she could stay for a few minutes because she was too upset to drive home. I told her yes, but that I needed to take a shower. I expected her to be gone when I got out of the bathroom, because she’d said she would be.”

  He paused a moment and then added, “I had no idea she had stripped off her clothes and gotten into your bed until I walked out and saw you standing in the middle of the bedroom with an accusing look in your eyes. I told you the truth. But you didn’t believe me. You preferred believing the lie your friend Bonita told you instead.”