by Lisa Childs
No blood smeared his pink skin.
He hadn’t been hurt. But he could have been.
Or he could have been taken from her.
Someone had been inside her house. Inside the nursery and close enough to Connor to cut a lock of his hair.
She shivered with fear and revulsion.
Her poor baby...
Why? Why would someone have broken in to...?
What?
Remembering the note, she held it up to read the words crudely scrawled across the lined paper. Get rid of the cop, or you’ll lose your kid. For good.
Get rid of the cop?
Forrest?
Or all of the police who’d been working the crime scene in her backyard?
That wasn’t her fault. She hadn’t found the body. She hadn’t called them.
She glanced down at her phone. She couldn’t call now for help. Whoever had left that note, whoever had been inside her house, might be outside—waiting, watching...
Seeing if she would ignore his warning.
And what would happen if she did?
Would he break back into her house? Would he come inside and steal Connor?
Or kill him?
Chapter 5
She had a name now. The body found during the parking-lot excavation belonged to twenty-year-old Patrice Eccleston. Patrice’s family had reported her missing shortly after Hurricane Brooke had struck the Gulf Coast.
They weren’t sure when they’d talked to her last, though, and couldn’t pinpoint an exact moment when she had disappeared. Nobody knew what she would have been doing anywhere near Lone Star Pharma.
Forrest had come back to the crime scene. He needed to release it so that the construction could continue on the parking-lot extension. But first he needed to make sure nothing had been missed—nothing that might lead them to Patrice’s killer.
Her body had been found late in the afternoon, so the scene had been processed into the night. Something could have been missed.
Not bandages and embalming fluid, though. She hadn’t been mummified like the other bodies. But he wondered... Was that because the killer had been interrupted? Or because he was too old to handle the bodies as he once had?
It would have taken strength to strangle Patrice. She was young and very fit. She would have been strong, too. She would have fought.
The coroner had confirmed signs of a struggle in the bruises and scratches. Poor Patrice had fought for her life. But she’d lost.
Forrest needed to find who had won. Who had taken the young woman’s life way too soon?
The yellow tape sagged between the thin metal posts that had been planted between the mounds of dirt and the backhoe that had dug up those mounds and the body. The body of Patrice Eccleston.
Why here?
And why her?
Had she known the person who’d murdered her? Or had a stranger chosen her at random?
So many questions...
But even though he now had her name, Forrest still had no answers to those questions. To the ones that would give Patrice’s grieving family true comfort.
Forrest lifted his stiff leg and stepped over the sagging tape, his boot sinking deep into the soft earth on the other side. The freshly dug up soil reminded him of the crime scene at Rae Lemmon’s house. Hurricane Brooke hadn’t brought up that body like she had the corpse of the chief’s long-missing younger sister. Someone else had brought up that body, had dug it up just like this one had been dug up.
But Patrice had been inadvertently dug up during the parking-lot extension. The body in Rae’s backyard had appeared to have been intentionally dug up.
What the hell was going on?
Forrest walked around the crime scene, moving closer to the hole where Patrice’s body had been. Had something been missed? Was there a clue here like those old coins or buttons or whatever he’d discovered at Rae’s?
He pulled out one of the posts holding up the sagging tape and began to poke through the mounds of dirt. A soft metallic clink rang out as his makeshift tool struck something within the dirt. Using the pole as a shovel, he moved the soil aside until he uncovered a trio of coins. Or buttons.
Leaning over, he peered closer to inspect them. These were caked with dirt and grime like the ones he’d found in Rae Lemmon’s backyard. Exactly like the ones he’d found in Rae’s backyard despite this being a recent crime scene and that an old one.
Or was it?
Had the body just been moved there?
He needed to find out why these scenes were linked. And how Rae Lemmon’s property and Rae figured into these murders if at all.
* * *
Despite locking all of the windows and barricading the front door, Rae hadn’t been able to fall back to sleep the night before. She’d felt him out there.
She didn’t know who he was, but she’d had no doubt that he was somewhere close enough to watch her, to see what she would do. If she would disregard his warning.
She’d wanted to so badly. She’d wanted to call the police. Or at least her friends.
But her friends would have insisted that she call the police or, worse yet, Forrest Colton. And she hadn’t been willing to risk it—to risk her son’s life—for anything.
Maybe she would have fallen back to sleep if she hadn’t stayed in his room, curled up in the chair next to his crib. Despite his late-night haircut, Connor had had no issues falling back to sleep. Maybe what had happened had seemed just like a bad dream to him.
Rae wished that it had been. But the note and that little clipped lock of hair proved that it hadn’t been just a nightmare. It had happened.
It could not happen again. No stranger could get that close to her son.
An image flitted through her mind—an image of Forrest Colton holding Connor so easily and comfortably in the crook of his strong arm. The baby had been so content after such a fussy night. Connor obviously hadn’t felt as if Forrest was a stranger.
But he would have to be one now. He would have to stay away from her and her child.
While Connor had slept in, she’d showered and dressed for work—not that she had any urge to go. But as a single mom, she was the only one who could pay the bills—for day care, for food, for utilities...
She didn’t have to pay for the house. Her mother had left it to her when she’d passed away last year. Mama had bought the house before she’d met Rae’s father, and she’d always refused to put him on the deed. She’d probably worried that if she had, he would have lost it somehow. Instead she’d lost her husband. When she’d gotten sick, he’d just taken off.
That had proved to Rae that men couldn’t be trusted, and she vowed to never need anyone. Which was good because none of the guys she’d dated had chosen to stick around either.
She leaned over the crib railing and brushed her finger across Connor’s cheek. But she needed this little guy. Even though he’d been in her life only for a short time, she couldn’t imagine her life without him.
And she vowed now that she would never have to because she would make damn certain that nothing happened to him.
An engine rumbled outside the closed window as a vehicle pulled up to the house. Why hadn’t she heard that last night? Had the intruder arrived on foot? Or horseback as Forrest had the morning before?
Connor must have heard the engine, too, because he opened his eyes and stared sleepily up at her. Had he seen the person last night? He must have, because he’d cried out with such fear. He’d seen whoever had broken into their home. If only he could talk.
She picked him up from the crib and clasped him close to her before walking through the house to peer out at the driveway. And a curse slipped out of her lips when she spied the police SUV and the man who stepped out of it.
Forrest Colton.
She glanced around the SUV, around
the driveway and front yard. But she couldn’t see anyone lurking out there now. Maybe he’d gone with the dawn, since he’d had no shadows left to hide in. Or maybe he was still there.
Still watching her.
And now he would see that Forrest was here despite his warning. He would think that she had ignored it.
That she didn’t care.
Fear gripping her, Rae clasped Connor so tightly that he tensed and began to cry. If not for his crying, she would have pretended that they weren’t home. But Forrest knew they were, and he rang the bell.
Keeping Connor against her with just one arm holding him now, she used her other hand to jerk the chair from beneath the door handle. Not that she intended to let Forrest in.
She opened the door but stood inside the jamb and coldly asked him, “What do you want?”
His brow furrowed for a moment with confusion and then he glanced at Connor, who continued to cry. “Oh, did he keep you awake last night, too?”
Too? Did he know about the intruder?
Then she remembered that he knew about her sleepless night before he’d discovered that body in her backyard. “No, not him.”
He raised a brow, as if silently asking who.
But she wasn’t about to tell him about the reason she really hadn’t slept. So she just shook her head and reminded him, “It’s none of your business.”
“Actually, it is,” he said. “Your property is a crime scene. I need to know who’s had access to it. Who has been visiting you?”
She wished she knew. “My friends come by—you know them, Maggie and Bellamy.”
That eyebrow arched again. “Nobody else?”
“I don’t know,” she answered honestly. “I haven’t seen anyone else.”
But she knew someone had been there. She had proof of it—not that she was going to show it to Forrest. No. She had to get rid of Forrest as soon as possible. So she began to close the door. “If that’s all, I really need to get ready for work.”
Somehow his foot had crossed the threshold, and his leg pressed against the door, stopping her from closing it on him. “You look dressed,” he murmured gruffly, and something like disappointment flashed through his hazel eyes.
He couldn’t have actually found her sleep shirt sexy, though. Or her.
She wore black dress pants now with a blouse buttoned all the way to her neck. The partners at the law firm were very conservative—even Kenneth Dawson, despite his ambulance-chasing tendencies.
“I need to get Connor ready to bring to day care,” she said.
His cries had quieted, but he squirmed against her. Awake now, he had to be hungry. Fortunately he felt dry or she might have had to change herself again with as closely as she’d been holding him.
Forrest’s eyes narrowed now as he stared at her. “Is something wrong?” he asked.
Heat climbed to her face, but she shook her head. “No. I’m just busy—so busy that I don’t have time to keep telling you that I don’t have any information to help you. I don’t know anything about how that body wound up in the backyard. I can’t help you!” She put her shoulder behind the door now, trying to squeeze Forrest out.
“You need help,” he said.
And she froze. What did he know?
“Don’t go getting all defensive,” he said. “I know you think you can handle everything all by yourself.”
She did get defensive now, as her pride smarted from his remark. “I can.”
He pointed toward the chair next to the door. “You’re obviously scared.”
“A body was found in my backyard,” she reminded him.
“You weren’t scared yesterday,” he said.
“I didn’t have time to think about it,” she admitted. Or she would have realized that he was right—that she was in danger and vulnerable out here on her own.
“Think about reaching out for help,” he advised her.
She shook her head. “I don’t need or want your help!”
“I wasn’t volunteering,” he said. “I was thinking about your friends, Maggie and Bellamy.”
Her face got hotter with embarrassment. Of course she should have realized that he wasn’t offering his personal protection or help. He hadn’t even wanted to dance with her. If she told him about what had happened the night before, about the warning, he would probably assign another officer to her case. He had bigger cases to solve than finding out who had threatened her.
“Bellamy is on her honeym—”
“She and Donovan get back today,” he interrupted. “And Maggie hasn’t gone anywh—”
“Without Jonah,” she said. And while he wasn’t actually a police officer, he was one of the Cowboy Heroes, and maybe her intruder considered him law enforcement, as well.
“Don’t you like my brother?” Forrest asked, and he seemed defensive now.
She sighed. “I like Jonah. I especially like how happy he makes Maggie. I don’t want to intrude on their new relationship.” That was very true. She was so happy for her friend that she didn’t want to dump her worries on her, especially after everything Maggie had just been through with her crazy ex-husband.
“I know my brothers wouldn’t consider your reaching out to your friends to be an intrusion,” he said. “And while I don’t know Bellamy and Maggie that well yet, I doubt they would be your friends if they considered your asking for help an intrusion.”
“They wouldn’t,” she admitted. Hell, they would be happy to help if she reached out. Too happy.
And once they knew what had happened last night, they would insist that she report it to the police and probably to Forrest in particular, since his investigation in her backyard must have been what had precipitated the threat.
Why?
She wanted to know who had been buried back there. More important she wanted to know who had done it and for that person to be brought to justice. But she wasn’t willing to risk her baby’s life for it or for anyone.
“I need to get to work,” she said as she leaned against the door again, trying to push it closed—on Forrest. “So you need to leave.” Before anyone saw him here. “Now!” Her voice cracked with desperation.
He kept his boot planted on her threshold, and his body planted in the doorway, and he was too big, too muscular, for her to move. His hazel eyes narrowed again, and he leaned closer to study her face.
She sucked in a breath as an intense feeling gripped her. It wasn’t fear this time. It was...
The same thing she’d felt when she’d asked him to dance at the wedding. Sure, she’d felt sorry for how alone he’d seemed that night. But that wasn’t the only reason why she’d asked him to dance. She’d been attracted to him. Then. And now.
Forrest Colton was so damn good-looking, so sexy...
But she couldn’t give in to that attraction—even as he leaned closer, so close that his lips could have brushed across hers. If she rose on tiptoe, if she lifted her mouth.
Temptation tugged at her. But the last thing she wanted the intruder to see was her kissing Forrest Colton...even if she wanted so badly to do it, so badly that a cry of frustration slipped out between her lips.
“Please,” she murmured. “Please leave me alone.”
As if she’d slapped him, he jerked his head up and stepped back. And finally she was able to slam the door between them. She slammed it with such force that Connor began to scream.
Regret gripped her now as powerfully as that attraction had. And she wasn’t just regretful that she’d upset her son. She regretted not kissing Forrest Colton. But maybe he hadn’t intended to kiss her at all.
Maybe she’d just imagined his intent, just like she wished she’d imagined that man breaking into her home the night before. When she left the house moments later to leave for work, Forrest was still parked in her driveway. And there was no trace of attraction
on his face, just irritation...with her.
“Why are you still here?” she asked.
He held up a piece of paper. “I got that warrant you told me I needed,” he said.
Her brow furrowed. “Warrant? But you already searched my property without it.”
“Not the house,” he said.
“You want to search the house?” She tensed.
He nodded. “And this piece of paper gives me the legal authority to conduct that search.”
She only glanced at the paper, which must have been printed from one those mini printers officers used to issue citations in their vehicles. Then she shrugged. “Whatever. You won’t find anything.” She stepped back onto the porch and unlocked the door for him. He wouldn’t find the note. She’d tucked that into her purse, sealed in a plastic bag, along with that lock of hair. “Just lock up when you leave.”
As if that mattered.
The intruder had gotten in easily enough last night that she hadn’t even heard him until Connor had cried out. Was he out there now?
Watching?
And what would he do about Forrest’s being here again? Over his staying to search the house?
Would he make good on his threat?
Tears rushed to her eyes, and she blinked furiously as she turned away. But Forrest must have seen them, because he caught her arm, the one from which Connor’s car carrier swung. He turned her back toward him.
“Are you okay?” he asked, his deep voice sounding even deeper with concern.
She closed her eyes and willed the tears away. “I...” She couldn’t tell him.
As if he’d read her mind, he implored her, “You can tell me.”
But she shook her head. “I have to go.” She jerked away from him and rushed toward her small SUV. Hopefully her intruder had seen that and realized that she was doing everything she could to get rid of Forrest.
Unless...
Unless he didn’t just want the detective to go away. Maybe he wanted him dead.
Chapter 6
She had been on his mind since she’d left him alone that morning to search her house. Hell, she’d been on his mind even before that, even before he’d found that body in her backyard. She’d been on his mind since he’d seen her, looking so damn beautiful, at Donovan and Bellamy’s wedding.