Colton's Twin Secrets

by Justine Davis

  But looking around, he wasn’t so sure it wasn’t a crime scene.

  Flash had stopped in the doorway, taken in the scene for all of three seconds, then turned to head back to his safe haven in the back of the SUV. Dante couldn’t blame him. But instead he led the reluctant dog through the chaos and put him out on the patio for the moment. Flash seemed relieved when he slid the door shut.

  Then Dante turned around. The girls had subsided to quieter sniffling punctuated by an occasional burst of protest. Gemma looked harassed but determined as she held Lucia, who had been making the most noise.

  He looked at the three of them, thinking he should feel like Flash, ready to turn and run. But he didn’t.

  Instead he went to Zita and picked her up, swinging her up in the air. The weeping turned to excited giggles in an instant. And Lucia subsided into fascinated observation of her sister.

  He turned to look at Gemma. “Thank you,” he said quietly.

  She looked startled, glanced around at the mess, then back to him. “For what?” she began, but then her eyes widened. “You got him? The phone number helped?”

  “Yes and yes. And that’s what I originally wanted to thank you for. But now that I’m here and see this,” he said wryly, gesturing at the room and the twins, “it’s that they’re still alive.”

  She grimaced. “I should have known it was pure novelty that got me through these last three weeks.”

  “And determination will get you through this,” he said softly. “You’re not a quitter, Gemma.”

  “I had my doubts this morning,” she said. “They’ve discovered a new level of volume.”

  “I know it’s been hard, cooped up in here. But that may be over soon, too.” She gave him a questioning look. “I’ve got a name for the guy who attacked you and the girls. A last name, anyway.”

  “You’ve had a busy morning.”

  “Thanks to you, your sister and Flash, yeah.”

  “Flash?” She glanced toward the patio. Dante explained what had happened, without the specifics that he couldn’t tell her.

  “So now what?” she asked. “Now that you have the guy, do you go back to work full-time?”

  “Chief didn’t say. He just told me to take the rest of the day off. So,” he said, looking around, “I guess I know what I’ll be doing. What is that on the wall, anyway?”

  “Carrots.”

  “Who hated them enough to throw them?”

  “Zita. And she was quite proud of herself when she saw what she’d accomplished.”

  “Budding artist, maybe? Or crime-scene investigator.” At her look he explained his earlier thought, figuring she’d think it either twisted or gross. Instead she laughed.

  “Lucia, on the other hand, decided to smear them on every article of clothing she could reach, including her sister’s and mine.”

  Making a snap decision, he said, “Why don’t you get yourself and them cleaned up while I tackle the new wall decor, and washing their clothes before it sets. Then we’ll get out of here for a while.”

  He knew it was the right call when he saw her eyes light up. “Really?”

  “Yeah. We’ll go get something for us to eat, pizza or something, and take it somewhere these two can make all the noise and get as dirty as they want.”

  “What about Flash?”

  He liked that she thought of the dog. “We’ll take him, too. Maybe stop at the dog park over by the pizza place. He could use a bit of slow exercise. If you don’t mind, that is.”

  She smiled. “I don’t. He’s such a personality. Even with the drool.”

  He gave her a crooked grin. “You’re just a sucker for his sad-eye routine.”

  “Lucky for you, I’m a sucker for yours, too.”

  Caught off guard by the teasing, something sparked inside him, so powerful he had to look away for a moment. “Damn,” he muttered.

  “Not exactly the response I was hoping for.”

  His gaze shot back to her face. “What were you hoping for? That I’d say you make me feel things I’ve never felt before? And not just in bed, great as that is? That I’m so damned glad you walked into my life, and not just for the twins?”

  “That’s a lot closer,” she said, smiling now.

  He sucked in a breath. Hesitated. Aw, hell. Go for it. “How about...I love you?”

  Her eyes widened. Her lips, those eminently kissable lips, parted.

  “I know,” he said quickly, “it’s been less than a month, but—”

  He stopped. She was shaking her head. Damn, he’d blown it. She didn’t feel it, it wasn’t the same for her, she didn’t—

  “I love you, too,” she said a little breathlessly. “I just didn’t dare say it.”

  It took him a moment to get past the declaration to ask, “Didn’t dare? Why?”

  “Because I came here foolishly thinking I knew what love was, and that I was in love with Dev. And I made that clear, so I didn’t think you’d believe me after only three weeks.”

  “Why not? My entire life changed in ten seconds.” Her eyes widened, as if she hadn’t thought of it in quite that way. “And it made me a package deal, Gemma,” he added, waving at the girls.

  She grinned then, and it took his breath away. “News flash—you always were. Mr. Sad Eyes out there.”

  He grabbed her then, kissed her fiercely. It was a long time before he surfaced. He was looking down at her, savoring the color in her cheeks and the just-kissed look of her lips when the silence registered. He glanced warily at the suddenly docile twins.

  “Why are they being so quiet?”

  “Probably saving up for an explosion later,” she said with a wry smile.

  “Then let’s eat first. I don’t want to deal with that on an empty stomach.”

  “Good idea. You’re going to need your strength later, too.”

  She said it lightly, but it hit him like a punch low in the gut. Oh, yeah. Tonight. Tonight was going to be something special. He’d see to that.

  He was still pondering the ways when they ended up with that pizza—and he was a bit surprised to see she was a traditionalist there, no fancy designer pies for her—sitting on the blanket she’d folded up and stuffed in the back of the stroller before they’d left home. They were on the grass next to the fenced-in dog park with the girls beside them, for now playing happily with the set of brightly colored blocks on a string that Gemma said was their current favorite because they could both play with it at the same time.

  There were only a couple of other dogs there, and after an initial get-to-know-you sniff, the trio apparently decided they could coexist and went their separate ways. The two smaller dogs resumed their play, and Flash went about his greatest joy—sniffing.

  “It’s really amazing what he can do,” she said.

  Dante nodded. “Especially since we train them to go against their first instinct, which is to follow whatever trail is freshest.”

  “That makes sense. So you have to train them to go after a specific trail?”

  He nodded. “And once they do, they never forget. That’s how he found that stolen evidence this morning.”

  She watched Flash rambling around, glanced at the girls to be sure they were still occupied, then looked at him. “He needs a yard to do that in. A big one.”

  “Yeah. I’ve been thinking about that. I’ve kind of resisted a place farther out, where I could get some land, because of the driving time to work.”

  “You spend that in taking him to the park or the training center instead of letting him into his own backyard. Not to mention the girls will need more room, inside and out.”

  He let out a breath. Faced the facts, the most overwhelming of which was who she was. He’d fallen in love with a woman used to the best of everything, which was not something he could provide. Especially now. “I can’t aff
ord anything...like you’re used to.”

  She gave him a sideways look. “Was that an invitation?”

  “A warning, maybe?”

  “There’s always your brother’s house,” she said, rather archly. And then she laughed, and he could imagine what his expression had been. Pure horror, no doubt. But her expression changed then, became serious. “What about your brother? Did he leave anything to the girls?”

  “Everything,” Dante admitted. “With me as legal guardian. There’s some money involved, but...I don’t want to touch it. Don’t want it to touch the girls.”

  She studied him for a moment. “Because of how he got it,” she said. He nodded. She gave him a smile then, and a nod that seemed to be saying she’d expected that. “You’re a genuine good guy, Dante. It must have been hell growing up like that.”

  “It had its moments,” he admitted.

  “If your brother had gotten his money legitimately, then what?”

  He frowned. “What are you getting at?”

  “Just trying to find out if you’d still have qualms about help with the girls from an...honest source.”

  It finally hit him. He was shaking his head before he could even think of what to say.

  “So is it ethics that has you saying no before you even hear me out? Or is it pride?”

  “Yes,” he said, feeling a bit helpless.

  “You know some people are going to say you’re with me for my money no matter what, right?”

  He winced. Then sucked in a deep breath. “As long as you know different.”

  “Oh, I do. Because I know you. Dante Mancuso doesn’t take anything he hasn’t earned.”

  Her words warmed him, in the way he’d discovered only Gemma could do.

  “So here’s my plan,” she said briskly. “You handle the basics—housing, food, all that manly stuff. And I’ll handle the girly stuff. Clothes, shoes, makeup—”

  “Makeup?” he yelped.

  “Well, down the road, I mean, of course,” she said kindly. “Oh, and I can have that talk with them, too. You know, boys and things. I’ve learned a little about the difference between infatuation and love lately. And by the time they’re ready to think about such things, they’ll have had a good example in front of them for a long time.”

  Dante stared at her. Words were beyond him. Finally Gemma gave him a quizzical look. “I know you, Dante,” she said again. “You wouldn’t love halfway. If you said it, you meant the whole thing.”

  “I... Yes.”

  “All right, then.”

  After a moment of silence, he slowly shook his head in wonder. “Is this how you do it? The fund-raising? You overwhelm people so that they just go down the path you want, and then realize it’s the path they wanted, too?”

  “Is it the path you want?”

  “Yes.” He swallowed, said it again more forcefully. “Yes. But you’re who you are and—”

  “Tell you what,” she said cheerfully. “I won’t hold your family against you if you don’t hold mine against me.”

  “I don’t mind most of your family.”

  “Except my father. Yeah, he has that effect on people. So take him out of it. I think my siblings make up for that, don’t they?”

  “Yes.”

  “And these two,” she said, gesturing at the twins, who had apparently discovered the blue flowers on a bottle gentian a few feet away and were working mightily on getting there by squirm or by roll, “more than make up for anything your family ever did.”

  He looked at the girls, felt that tug of connection again. “Yeah,” he whispered.

  “Besides, Coltons and K9 officers seem to be a trend,” she said. “Bea, Blake, now me.”

  His mouth quirked. “Something in the water, maybe?”

  “Nope,” she said, again in that light, teasing tone, “we have good taste.” Then, holding his gaze, she added softly, “It just takes some of us a little more time to find it.”

  His throat tightened so much all he could get out was her name, but he tried to put everything he was feeling into it. And by the look on her face he must have succeeded, because—

  A loud baying sound cut off his thoughts. It sent a shiver up his spine no matter how many times he heard it. Flash. He quickly spotted him at the far end of the dog park.

  “He looks so funny when he’s running, with his ears flying like that,” Gemma said affectionately.

  He’d appreciate that tone in her voice later, but right now he was staring at the dog. Not because he shouldn’t be running on that sore leg, although it was a concern. But Dante was staring because he knew that body language. And he knew what it took to set the hound to baying.

  Flash had scented something. And it had to be on the air or his nose would be on the ground. And he was headed their way. Which meant the scent was coming from their direction.

  His mind raced through the facts in a split second. He was on his feet before he’d even processed it all. His fingers were curling around the grip of the Springfield at his back as he scanned the area.

  “Dante?” Gemma’s voice had changed. He took a quick glance at her, and his heart nearly stopped. She had gathered the girls to her and was huddled around them, as if to protect them from the threat she didn’t even understand with her own body.

  “Get the girls in the car and get out of here,” he ordered, tossing her the keys. “Stay away until I call you.”

  “And leave you here alone?” she asked, sounding so aghast that it warmed him despite the warning bells that were clamoring, waking every instinct he had.

  “When you’re safe, call 911 and ask the area car to head this way. But get out of here with the girls. Leave everything.”

  “Dante—”

  “I love you,” he whispered. “Now go.”

  He glanced back at Flash, saw the dog still running. He let out another spine-tingling roar. Quickly Dante tried to calculate the angles, where the dog was headed from where he was. The trees, he thought. The only cover.

  And then he started to move. But he had seen that spark of acknowledgment in Gemma’s eyes that told him she understood that I love you was...just in case. He wondered if it would change her mind, if she would decide living in a cop’s life wasn’t worth it. He shoved the thought out of his head and focused on the job. Maybe it was a threat, maybe it wasn’t, but he’d gamble on Flash’s nose any day.

  He walked toward the left of the trees, as if he were headed that way rather than where he was fairly certain his quarry was hiding.

  Third time’s the charm...

  The moment the old saying ran through his head, he was sure. It was Lambert. The man who had indirectly caused Dominic and Agostina’s deaths and then tried to kill Gemma and the girls. Something hot and primitive rose in him, and he gave himself an internal warning—this guy could be the thread that unraveled the Larsons and their little criminal fiefdom. It warred with the urge to just take the scum out, and in that moment he honestly didn’t know which would win out. All he knew for sure was that he had him, because if he got away now, Dante would go get Flash and the man’s fate would be sealed. The bloodhound would track him to the gates of hell.

  As he’d hoped, when he got even with the trees, the guy bought it, thinking Dante was on a wrong trail and he was clear. And he moved. Dante spun around and ran for the trees. He gained a precious few yards before Lambert—for he’d seen him now—realized he’d been had. The man threw him a startled glance and hastily capped off a round. It went wide, hitting a tree to Dante’s left and sending bark flying. A piece of it caught him under his left eye, but he never looked away from Lambert. And he kept running.

  Lambert spun around and started to run, too. He tripped over an exposed tree root—city boy, Dante thought—and that gained him another couple of yards. But it also sent Lambert careening into the clear, out of
the trees. He looked back over his shoulder as if to see if he had a better shot now. Dante ducked behind a large spruce. Lambert hesitated, but only for a moment. He started to run again.

  “Lambert!” Dante shouted his name, hoping that realizing he was burned would slow the guy down.

  It only made him change direction. Right toward where Gemma and the girls had been moments ago. Dante spared a split second to thank God she’d done as he’d told her and gone; the space the big SUV had been parked in was empty. But he’d realized in that moment when she’d instinctively moved to protect the girls that she would always put them first.

  Lambert hesitated by the blanket, as if he hadn’t realized they were gone. It gave Dante the extra seconds he needed. When the man realized how close he was, he bolted.

  Without even thinking Dante grabbed the handle of the abandoned stroller. And shoved. It hit Lambert a glancing blow on his right knee. The man staggered. His feet tangled with the stroller wheels. And Dante launched.

  He took Lambert down on his right side, pinning him with a knee over his kidneys. The hand with the weapon was beneath them. Lambert squirmed, twisted.

  “Yeah, fight me,” Dante begged. “So I can say you struggled and your own gun went off and killed you.”

  Lambert went suddenly still. And a moment later Dante heard the siren.

  It was over.

  Chapter 33

  “Have I got this right?” Gemma stared at him. “You took down an armed man with the baby stroller?”

  “Whatever works,” Dante said, watching Lambert, hands cuffed behind him, being led to the marked unit. Gemma couldn’t help it, she laughed. He turned his head to look at her. Said, rather solemnly, “Thank you.”

  “For laughing at your method?” she asked.

  “For doing what I asked.”

  Her mouth curved wryly. “You mean for following orders?”