by B. J Daniels
He hadn’t hesitated when she’d told him she needed his help. She’d looked into his blue eyes and known she could trust him. He’d been so sweet and caring that she’d almost told him the truth. But she’d stopped herself. Because she didn’t think he would believe her? Or because she didn’t want to involve him? Or because, at that point, she thought she could still handle things on her own?
Unfortunately, she no longer had the option of keeping the truth from him.
“I’m sure you have a lot of questions,” she said, after swallowing her last bite of pancake and wiping her mouth with her napkin. The food had helped, but her body ached all over and fatigue had weakened her. “You had to be surprised to see me again, especially with me showing up at your door in the middle of the night looking like I do.”
“I didn’t even know you knew my last name.”
“After that night in Billings... Before I left your hotel room, while you were still sleeping, I looked in your wallet.”
“You planned to take my money?” He’d had over four hundred dollars in there. He’d been headed home to his fiancée, he’d told her. But the fiancée, who was supposed to pick him up at the airport, had called instead with crushing news. Not only was she not picking him up, she was in love with one of his best friends, someone he’d known since grade school.
He’d been thinking he just might rent a car and drive home to confront the two of them, he’d told Lola later. But, ultimately, he’d booked a flight for the next morning to where he was stationed and, with time to kill, had taken a taxi to a hotel, paid for a room and headed for the hotel bar. Two drinks later, he’d run into Lola as he’d headed from the bar to the men’s room. Lola had saved him from getting stinking drunk that night. Also from driving to Gilt Edge to confront his ex-fiancée and his ex-friend.
“I hate to admit that I thought about taking your money,” she said. “I could have used it.”
“You should have taken it then.”
She smiled at him and shook her head. “You were so kind to me, so tender...” Her cheeks heated as she held his gaze and remembered being naked in his arms. “I’m sure I gave you the wrong impression of me that night. It wasn’t like me to...with a complete stranger.” She bit her lower lip and felt tears well in her eyes again.
“There is nothing wrong with the impression you left with me. As a matter of fact, I’ve thought of you often.” He smiled. It was a great smile. “Every time I heard one of those songs that we’d danced to in my hotel room that night—” his gaze warmed to a Caribbean blue “—I thought of you.”
She looked away to swallow the lump that had formed in her throat before she could speak again. “It wasn’t an old boyfriend I was running from that night. I let you believe that because I doubted you’d have believed the truth. I did need your help, though, because right before I collided with you in that hallway, I’d seen one of them in the hotel. I knew it was just a matter of time before they found me and took me back.”
“Took you back?”
“I wasn’t a fugitive from the law or some mental institution,” she said quickly. “It’s worse than that.”
He narrowed his gaze with concern. “What could be worse than that?”
“The Society of Lasting Serenity.”
Chapter Three
“The fringe religious cult that relocated to the mountains about five years ago?” Colt asked, unable to keep the shock from his voice.
She nodded.
He couldn’t have been more stunned if she’d said she had escaped from prison. “When did you join that?”
“I didn’t. My parents were some of the founding members when the group began in California. I was in Europe at university when they joined. I’d heard from my father that SLS had relocated to Montana. A few years after that, I received word that the leader, Jonas Emanuel, needed to see me. My mother was ill.” Her voice broke. “Before I could get back here, my mother and father both died, within hours of each other, and had been buried on the compound. According to Jonas, they had one dying wish.” Her laugh could have cut glass. “They wanted to see me married. Once I was on the SLS compound, I learned that, according to Jonas, they had promised me to him.”
“That’s crazy.” He still couldn’t get his head around this.
“Jonas is delusional but also dangerous.”
“So you were running from him that night I met you?”
She nodded. “But, unfortunately, when I left the hotel the next morning, two of the ‘sisters’ were waiting for me and forced me to go back to the compound.”
“And tonight?” he asked as he pushed his plate away.
Lola met his gaze. “I escaped. I’d been locked up there since I last saw you within miles of here at the Montana SLS compound.”
Colt let out a curse. “You’ve been held there all this time against your will? Why didn’t you—”
“Escape sooner?” She sounded near tears as she held his gaze.
He saw something in those beautiful eyes that made his stomach drop.
Her voice caught as she said, “I had originally gone there to get my parents’ remains because I don’t believe they died of natural causes. I’d gotten a letter from my father right before I heard from Jonas. He wanted out of SLS, but my mother refused. My father said he feared the hold Jonas had on her and needed my help because she wasn’t well.”
“What are you saying?”
“I think they were murdered, but I can’t prove it without their bodies, and Jonas has refused to release them. Legally, there isn’t much I can do since my parents had signed over everything to him—even their daughter.”
Murder? He’d heard about the fifty-two-year-old charismatic leader of the cult living in the mountains outside of town, but he couldn’t imagine the things Lola was telling him. “He can’t expect you to marry him.”
“Jonas was convinced that I would fall for him if I spent enough time at the compound, so he kept me there. At first, he told me it would take time to have my parents’ remains exhumed and moved. Later I realized there was no way he was letting their remains go anywhere even if he could convince me to marry him, which was never going to happen.”
Maybe it was the late hour, but he was having trouble making sense of this. “So after you met me...”
“I was more determined to free both my parents and myself from Jonas forever. I wasn’t back at the compound long though, when I realized I was pregnant. Jonas realized it, too. I became a prisoner of SLS until the birth. Then Jonas had the baby taken away and had me locked up. I had to escape to get help for my daughter.”
“Your daughter?”
She met his gaze. “That’s why I’m here... She’s our daughter,” she said, her voice suddenly choked with tears. “Jonas took the baby girl that you and I made the first night we met.”
* * *
COLT STARED AT HER, too shocked to speak for a moment. What the hell? “Are you trying to tell me—”
“I had your child but I couldn’t contact you. Jonas kept me under guard, locked away. I had no way to get a message out. If any of the sisters tried to help me, they were severely punished.”
He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Wait. You had the baby at the compound?”
She nodded. “One of the members is a midwife. She delivered a healthy girl, but then Jonas had the child taken away almost at once. I got to hold her only for a few moments and only because Sister Amelia let me. She was harshly reprimanded for it. I got to look into her precious face. She has this adorable tiny heart-shaped birthmark on her left thigh and my blond hair. Just fuzz really.” Tears filled her eyes again.
Colt ran a hand over his face before he looked at her again. “I’m having a hard time believing any of this.”
“I know. If Jonas had let me leave with my daughter, I wouldn’t have ever troubled you with any of t
his,” she said.
“You would never have told me about the baby?” He hadn’t meant to make it sound like an accusation. He’d expected her to be offended.
Instead, when she spoke, he saw only sympathy in her gaze. “When I met you, you were on leave and going back the next day. You were talking about staying in the Army. Your fiancée had just broken up with you.”
“You don’t have to remind me.”
“What you and I shared that night...” She met his gaze. “I’ll never forget it, but I wasn’t fool enough to think that it might lead to anything. The only reason I’m here now is that I need help to get our daughter away from that...man.”
“Don’t I have a right to know if I have a child?”
“Of course. But I wouldn’t be asking anything of you—if Jonas hadn’t taken our daughter. I’m more than capable of taking care of her and myself.”
“What I don’t understand is why Jonas wants to keep a baby that isn’t his.”
She didn’t seem surprised by his skepticism, but when he looked into her eyes, he saw pain darken all that beautiful blue. “I can understand why you wouldn’t believe she’s yours.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.” She got to her feet, grabbing the table to steady herself. “I shouldn’t have come here, but I didn’t know where else to go.”
“Hold on,” he said, pushing back his chair and coming around the table to take her shoulders in his hands. She felt small, fragile, and yet he saw a strength in her that belied her slim frame. “You have to admit this is quite the story.”
“That’s why I didn’t tell you the night we met about the cult or the problems I was having getting my parents’ remains out. I still thought I could handle it myself. Also I doubt you would have believed it.” Her smile hurt him soul deep. “I wouldn’t have believed it and I’ve lived through all of this.”
He was doing his best to keep an open mind. He wasn’t a man who jumped to quick conclusions. He took his time to make decisions based on the knowledge he was able to acquire. It had kept him alive all these years as an Army helicopter pilot.
“So what you’re telling me is that the leader of SLS has taken your baby to force you to marry him? If he’s so dangerous, why wouldn’t he have just—”
“Forced me? He tried to...join with me, as he put it. He’s still limping from the attempt. And equally determined that I will come to him. Now that I’ve shamed him...he will never let me have my baby unless I completely surrender to him in front of the whole congregation.”
“Don’t you mean our baby?”
Lola gave him an impatient look. Tears filled her eyes as she swayed a little as if having trouble staying upright after everything she’d been through.
He felt a stab of guilt. He’d been putting her through an interrogation when clearly she was exhausted. It was bad enough that she was scraped, cut and bruised, but he could see that her real injuries were more than skin deep.
“You’re dead on your feet,” he said. “There isn’t anything we can do tonight. Get some rest. Tomorrow...”
A tear broke loose and cascaded down her cheek. He caught it with his thumb and gently wiped it away before she let him lead her to the guest bedroom where she’d showered earlier. His mind was racing. If any of this was true...
“Don’t worry. We’ll figure this out,” Colt said as he pulled back the covers. “Just get some sleep.” He knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep a wink.
Could he really have a daughter? A daughter now being held by a crackpot cult leader? A man who, according to Lola, was much more dangerous than anyone knew?
Lola climbed into the bed, still wearing his too-large sweats. He tucked her in, seeing that she could barely keep her eyes open.
“Dayton.” At his puzzled look, she added, “That’s my last name.” They’d shared only first names the night they met. But that night neither of them had been themselves. She’d been running scared, and he’d been wallowing in self-pity over losing the woman he’d thought he was going to marry and live with the rest of his life.
“Lola Dayton,” he repeated, and smiled down at her. “Pretty name.”
He moved to the door and switched off the light.
“I named our daughter Grace,” she said from out of the darkness. “Do you remember telling me that you always loved that name?”
He turned in the doorway to look back at her, too choked up to speak for a moment. “It was my grandmother’s name.”
* * *
LOLA THOUGHT SHE wouldn’t be able to sleep. Her body felt leaden as she’d sunk under the covers. She could still feel the rough skin of Colt’s thumb pad against her cheek and reached up to touch the spot. She hadn’t been wrong about him. Not that first night. Not tonight.
She closed her eyes and felt herself careening off that mountain, running for her life, running for Grace’s life. She was safe, she reminded herself. But Grace...
The sisters were taking good care of Grace, she told herself. Jonas wouldn’t let anything happen to the baby. At least she prayed that he wouldn’t hurt Grace to punish her even more.
The thought had her heart pounding until she realized the only power Jonas had over her was the baby. He wouldn’t hurt Grace. He needed that child if he ever hoped to get what he wanted. And what he wanted was Lola. She’d seen it in his eyes. A voracious need that he thought only she could fill.
If he ever got his hands on her again... Well, she knew there would be no saving herself from him.
* * *
COLT KICKED OFF his boots and lay down on the bed fully dressed. Sleep was out of the question. If half of what Lola had told him was true... Was it possible they’d made a baby that night? They hadn’t used protection. He hadn’t had anything. Nor had she. It wasn’t like him to take a chance like that.
But there was something so wholesome, so innocent, so guileless...
Rolling to his side, he closed his eyes. The memory was almost painful. The sweet scent of her body as she lay with her back to him naked on the bed. The warmth of his palm as he slowly ran it from her side down into the saddle of her slim waist to the rise of her hip and her perfectly rounded buttocks. The catch of her breath as he pulled her into him and cupped one full breast. The tender moan from her lips as he rolled her over to look into those violet eyes.
Groaning, Colt shifted to his back again to stare up at the dark ceiling. That night he’d lost himself in that delectable woman. He’d buried all feelings for his former fiancée into her. He’d found salvation in her body, in her arms, in her tentative touch, in her soft, sweet kisses.
He closed his eyes, again remembering the feel of her in his arms as they’d danced in his hotel room. The slow sway, their bodies joined, their movements more sensuous than even the act of love. He’d given her a little piece of his heart that night and had not even realized it.
Swinging his legs over the bed, he knew he’d never get any rest until he checked on her. Earlier, he’d gotten the feeling that she wanted to run—rather than tell him what had brought her to his door. She hadn’t wanted to involve him, wouldn’t have if Jonas didn’t have her baby.
That much he believed. But why hadn’t she told him what she was running from the night they’d first met? Maybe he could have helped her.
He moved quietly down the hallway, half-afraid he would open the bedroom door only to find her gone and all of this like his dream about being back in Afghanistan.
After easing open the door, he waited for his eyes to adjust to the blackness in the room. Her blond hair lay like a fan across her pillow. Her peaceful face made her appear angelic. He found himself smiling as he stared down at the sleeping Lola. He couldn’t help wondering about their daughter. She would be three months old now. Did she resemble her mother? He hoped so.
The thought shook him because he realized ho
w much he wanted to believe her. A daughter. He really could have a daughter? A baby with Lola? He shook his head. What were the chances that their union would bring a child into this world? And yet he and Lola had done more than make love that night. They’d connected in a way he and Julia never had.
The thought of Julia, though, made him recoil. Look how wrong he’d been about her. How wrong he’d been about his own mother. Could he trust his judgment when it came to women? Doubtful.
He stepped out of the room, closing the door softly behind him. Tomorrow, he told himself, he would know the truth. He’d get the sheriff to go with them up to the compound and settle this once and for all.
Colt walked out onto the porch to stare up at the starry sky. The air was crisp and cold, snow still capping the highest peaks around town. He knew this all could be true. Normally, he would never have had intercourse with a woman he didn’t know without protection. But that night, he and Lola hadn’t just had sex. They’d made love, two lost souls who’d given each other comfort in a world that had hurt them.
He’d been heartbroken over Julia and his friend Wyatt. Being in Lola’s arms had saved him. If their lovemaking had resulted in a baby...a little girl...
Yes, what was he going to do? Besides go up to that compound and get the baby for Lola? He tried to imagine himself as a father to an infant. What a joke. He couldn’t have been in a worse place in his life to take on a wife and a child.
He looked across the ranch. All his life he’d felt tied down to this land. That his father had tried to chain him to it still infuriated him—and at the same time made him feel guilty. His father had had such a connection to the land, one that Colt had never felt. He’d loved being a cowboy, but ranching was more about trying to make a living off the land. He’d watched his father struggle for years. Why would the old man think he would want this? Why hadn’t his father sold the place, done something fun with the money before he’d died?