Colton 911: Baby's Bodyguard

by Lisa Childs

  She lifted the hand that had touched his to her lips and pressed a kiss to it. And his heart caught when she blew that kiss...until he realized she was blowing it at her son. Not at him.

  After she blew it, she turned on the wedge heel of her sandal and started down the hallway. A man stood in an open doorway to one of the offices, staring at her. Forrest could understand why he stared. She looked beautiful in a yellow dress that clung to her shapely curves and sleek legs.

  Something tightened in his chest, like someone was squeezing his heart. While he understood it, he didn’t like how that man looked at her. And he wondered how she would look at him. The doors closed before he could witness their interaction, but it left him wondering.

  What kind of threat had that note been?

  A serious one?

  Or one designed to manipulate her into reaching out to help from a friend? Or someone who wanted to be more than a friend?

  Forrest couldn’t be certain, though, if it was his detective instincts that had come up with that possibility or his jealousy. Despite what had happened between them last night, he had no right to feel jealous or possessive of Rae Lemmon. Hell, he’d never felt jealous over anyone before—not even his fiancée.

  No. He was probably just concerned—because when he left he had that feeling again, like someone was watching him. Was it the person who’d threatened Rae or someone else?

  * * *

  Once Rae turned away from the elevator, a sudden panic struck her, stealing her breath away and making her knees tremble. She turned back, but the doors had already closed. And the button above them showed that it was descending, taking her son and Forrest away from her.

  Just for the workday.

  They would come back for her. Forrest had promised that he would keep Connor safe. That he would protect her son.

  She really didn’t want him making her any promises, though. Her father had made her more than enough of those, promises that Beau Lemmon had never managed to keep. Had he even intended to when he’d made them?

  Rae doubted it. He’d probably only been telling her what she’d wanted to hear, that he would come back.

  That he would get his act together so that he could be the husband her mother deserved and the father she deserved. But that was a promise he had never kept.

  Forrest clearly intended to keep his promise, to keep her and Connor safe. But she didn’t know if that was a promise he would be able to keep or if the person who’d left that threat was more determined than he was.

  “Who was that?” someone asked.

  Rae turned back to find Kenneth Dawson standing in the open door to his office. She forced a smile. “Just a friend.”

  But images of the night before, of how Forrest had kissed her, touched her, pleasured her...rushed through her mind. Her pulse quickened, and her flesh heated—just as it had the night before. She’d never experienced anything as powerful as making love with Forrest. Last night had been amazing. Forrest Colton had been amazing.

  His fiancée had been an idiot to leave a man like that. His injured leg hadn’t hindered him at all—in the bedroom or in life. In fact, it had probably only made him stronger and more resolved.

  So when he made a promise, he would do everything he could to keep it. But would it be enough?

  “Must be a good friend for you to trust him with your baby,” Kenneth murmured. “Or is he the father?”

  Rae wished that Connor had a man like that in his life for more than protection. But she would be enough for her son. Just like her mother had been enough—more than enough—for her.

  “Rae?” Kenneth prodded her. “Is he?”

  She turned back toward the man, and as she drew in a deep breath, she reminded herself that he was one of her superiors at the firm, even though his name wasn’t technically on the sign. She could not reply as she wanted—to tell him to mind his own damn business. Forcing a smile, she shook her head. “No. He isn’t. That was Detective Colton with the Whisperwood Police Department.”

  “He’s the one who found the body in your backyard,” he said.

  She wasn’t certain how he would know that unless the media had mentioned it. But in every news report she had seen, Forrest or the chief had refused to answer questions about an ongoing investigation.

  As if he’d noticed her suspicion, he reminded her, “I heard it on the police scanner.”

  She suppressed a little shiver of revulsion over his being such an ambulance chaser. It was lawyers like Kenneth Dawson who had earned the profession the bad reputation.

  That was why she wanted to work on the other side—for the prosecution. For law and order, and not financial gain.

  But Kenneth had always been nice to her, so she forced another smile for him. “That’s right. Well, I better get to my desk. I’m sure I have a lot of work to do.”

  He stepped out of his doorway just as she headed toward her office, and she accidentally brushed up against him when she passed. Another shiver of revulsion coursed through her. Wasn’t he the nice man she’d wanted to believe he was?

  Or maybe it was just that damn note that was making her suspicious of everyone. Except Forrest.

  She knew that he would do his best to protect her and Connor—even though the chief hadn’t taken the threat as seriously as he had.

  Forrest had done more than protect them last night, though. He’d made her feel things she hadn’t felt in so long—if ever. So much damn pleasure that it had overwhelmed her.

  Even thinking about it now overwhelmed her. The way he’d kissed her, touched her, moved inside her...

  Heat coursed through her body now as she remembered how he’d made her feel. Her hand shook as she turned the knob on her door and pushed it open. Her legs trembled as she crossed the threshold and headed toward her desk.

  Forrest was such a thorough lover. He’d made certain that she’d found her pleasure—many times—before he’d taken his own. She’d never known so generous a man. Most of them she’d known had been selfish.

  Could she really trust that Forrest was that different, that he might actually stick around? She doubted it. His only interest in her was protecting her and Connor. Well, maybe not his only interest.

  But she couldn’t give in to that desire again. She would only fall for him more deeply than she had already.

  She dropped into the chair behind her desk and reached for the mail the clerk had left on the corner of it. She handled a lot of the incoming correspondence. So she began rifling through it. One of the envelopes bore only her name, though. No address. Nothing to do with the law firm at all.

  Who would have sent something to her at the office?

  It must have been an interoffice message from one of the partners. Maybe from Kenneth, although he usually liked to come and talk to her personally.

  She sliced the envelope open and dumped out a single folded sheet of paper. When she unfolded the note, she found the same scrawled block letters that she’d found on the slip of paper on her pillow. The message was a little different, though.

  It was more threatening.

  Get rid of the detective, or your kid won’t be the only one who suffers.

  “Oh, my God,” she murmured. She needed to call Forrest to warn him. Somebody really wanted him gone, so much so that they were willing to hurt a baby and her to get to him. She fumbled her cell phone out of her purse and punched in the contact Bellamy had given her for Forrest.

  “This is Forrest Colton, interim detective with the Whisperwood Police Department, please leave a message and I’ll return your call.”

  Why had it gone directly to voice mail?

  Why wasn’t he picking up?

  She left a message. “Call me back. I just got another threat.”

  But would he be able to return her call?

  Or had she tried to warn him too late?


  * * *

  The cell phone sitting on the table at JoJo’s Java began to vibrate, and the screen lit up with a number Jonah Colton didn’t recognize. His beautiful fiancée leaned across the table between them, her blond hair sliding across her cheek as she glanced down at the screen.

  “Probably a telemarketer,” he commented as he left the phone lying there. He would rather focus on Maggie than an offer for new windows, cable or a way to reduce his nonexistent credit-card debt.

  She shook her head, though, so she must have recognized the number. “You need to get that. It’s Rae.”

  Jonah furrowed his brow. “Why would she be calling me?” Maggie had filled him in on what had happened to her friend—about the threatening note and that Rae had called Forrest to report it.

  Forrest would have handled the threat. Despite his injured leg, he was every bit the outstanding lawman he’d always been. It was too damn bad that, because he hadn’t been able to meet the physical requirements of his job, Austin PD had forced him to retire on disability. That limp didn’t slow down Forrest at all.

  So, why would Rae be calling Jonah?

  Had something happened?

  He grabbed up the phone and hit the accept button. “Rae, is everything all right?”

  “No,” she said, her voice tremulous with fear. “I don’t know what Maggie told you—”

  “Everything,” he interjected. He and his fiancée had no secrets. Only love and understanding.

  Her shaky breath of relief rattled his phone. “I got another threat—at the office—about Connor and Forrest,” she said.

  “Did you show it to Forrest?”

  “He left with Connor,” she said, and her voice cracked again. “And he’s not picking up his phone.”

  Her fear filled him now, and he jumped up from his chair. “I’ll find him,” he said.

  “Hurry,” Rae implored him. “This threat was left in my office.”

  According to Maggie, the other one had been left on a pillow on her bed. The person threatening her had to be someone close to her.

  Rae had apparently come to the same conclusion, because she added, “If he knows where I work and where I live, he probably knows where Connor’s day care is. Forrest was going there with my son when he left me at the office.”

  And now she couldn’t reach him.

  She had to be terrified about her child. “Please find them,” she pleaded.

  It was clear that Connor wasn’t the only one she was worried about; she was worried about Forrest, as well.

  So was Jonah. “What day care?” he asked.

  “I know,” Maggie said. She’d jumped up from her chair as well, forgetting her coffee. “I’ll go with you.”

  He shook his head. If Forrest was in danger, and it certainly sounded as if he was, then Jonah had no intention of putting his fiancée in danger, too.

  But she headed out the door ahead of him, straight for their vehicle. From the urgency in Rae’s voice, he didn’t have time to fight with Maggie. So he just hurried after her. “I’ll let you know when I find them,” he told Rae before clicking off his cell.

  He only hoped when he had found them that he would have good news to share with her. As one of the Cowboy Heroes, unfortunately he usually had more bad news to share than good.

  Chapter 12

  He hadn’t been wrong. Someone had been watching him and Rae arrive at her office. Fortunately that someone had followed him from the lot instead of staying behind to stalk Rae.

  But then again the threat had been against her child—not her—and Connor slept peacefully in the back seat. Peacefully but not exactly safely, not with the big cargo van following them. The van windows were tinted, so Forrest couldn’t see the driver or even how many passengers might be inside with him. Was Forrest outnumbered?

  He reached for his cell, but when he pulled it from his pocket, the screen was black. He hadn’t brought a charger to Rae’s last night, and the battery must have died. A curse slipped through his lips, followed by a twinge of guilt striking his heart. He glanced back at Connor, but the baby was still asleep. Even if he hadn’t been, though, he probably wouldn’t have understood what Forrest had said, and he certainly couldn’t repeat it. Yet.

  Forrest had to make sure that Connor would have the chance someday to talk, to curse, to grow up.

  He had to make sure he kept his promise to Rae and kept her son safe. The van edged closer, as if the driver was no longer worried about Forrest’s noticing him.

  Another curse burned his throat, but he forced it down. Swearing wasn’t going to help him, and with his dead phone, he couldn’t call for backup. He had to protect Connor himself.

  As he pressed down on the accelerator, he glanced into the rearview mirror. He wasn’t looking at the van behind him, though. He was trying to see the car seat, to make sure he’d secured it like Rae had showed him. She’d been adamant about how to install it so that the baby would be safe.

  But he’d removed it at her office and had then put it back in without her supervision. Had he done it right?

  Would Connor be safe at this speed?

  He glanced up from the baby to the back window, where he saw the van was now so close that its grille was all Forrest saw. He pressed on the accelerator again just as the van brushed the back bumper of Rae’s small SUV. Then he jerked the wheel and took a sudden turn onto a side street. The van passed it, but the brakes squealed as it stopped and backed up.

  The driver was determined. But so was Forrest. He’d grown up in Whisperwood; he knew all of the streets well. Using his knowledge, he led the van around the city. But the driver must have known the city well, too, because Forrest didn’t lose his tail.

  The van also had a more powerful engine, because it easily kept up with the speeding SUV. Where were the police officers? Why had nobody stopped them?

  But that was why Forrest had been hired, despite his disability, because the department was spread so thin—too thin obviously to patrol the streets. Too bad the day care had been in the opposite direction from the police department, or he would have been closer to Whisperwood PD.

  He headed there now, though, but the driver sped up. If he knew Whisperwood as well as he seemed to, he might have guessed where Forrest was heading. And he was determined that he and Connor would not make it there.

  The driver closed the distance between the vehicles and struck the back of the SUV hard. Connor awoke with a scream. Forrest cursed as he gripped the wheel, struggling not to lose control.

  But the van struck again and again.

  And Forrest worried that Rae had been right not to trust him. He shouldn’t have made the promise to her—because he wasn’t going to be able to keep it after all.

  * * *

  Rae had expected a call back. She’d hoped for a quick assurance from Forrest that he and Connor were all right, that he’d just been too busy talking to Bob McCauley to answer his phone.

  But she knew that if he’d been able, Forrest would have taken her call. He wouldn’t have wanted to worry her, and he would have been worried about her. She didn’t take that personally, though, even after last night. He was just doing his job. He wasn’t just a detective; he was a lawman who’d sworn years ago to serve and protect. And he’d promised to protect them, as if the threat was somehow his fault.

  But he’d only been doing his job when she’d received that threat. A job that someone obviously didn’t want him doing. It had to be the killer leaving the notes. Who else would want to get rid of Forrest?

  She’d once thought she had when he’d showed up at her back door that day he’d found the body. Now she didn’t want him gone. She just wanted him to be all right.

  He and Connor had to be okay.

  He’d promised.

  The phone call she wanted never came. Instead Jonah Colton showed up in her offi
ce doorway. She’d been staring at it since she’d called him. But his wasn’t the face she’d wanted to see looking in at her.

  And even if she had, she wouldn’t have wanted to see him like this—his jaw tense, his face pale with concern or fear. Heart pounding, she jumped up from her chair. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

  She peered around him, looking for Forrest. Maybe he’d just moved slower due to his limp; maybe that was why he wasn’t in the doorway, too. But she knew—she just knew—there was another reason.

  “There’s been an accident,” Jonah said, confirming her fears.

  “Accident?” She shook her head in denial. “It was no accident.” She reached back and grabbed her purse from her desk. Then she shoved past him in the doorway. “Where are they? Where are Connor and Forrest?”

  “At the hospital,” he replied, his voice soft with sympathy and that concern that pinched his handsome face.

  Panic nearly buckled her knees, making her stumble as she headed toward the elevator. Jonah reached out and steadied her with his hand on her elbow.

  “I’ll bring you there,” he said.

  Her son was in the hospital. He was so little, so fragile...

  What the hell had happened?

  She wanted to know the details about that, but more important she wanted to know that he was all right. She had to make sure that he was all right.

  Jonah pushed the button for the elevator, and the doors immediately opened. They stepped inside, and he pushed the button for the lobby. He was in as much of a rush to get her to the hospital as she was. If he hadn’t offered to drive her, she would have run to the hospital. Nothing and nobody would keep her from her child.

  And Forrest.

  Her stomach pitched as the elevator stopped in the lobby. What had happened to him?

  Tears stung her eyes as fear overwhelmed her. If only she had listened to him and hadn’t gone to work.

  He could have kept her and Connor safe at their home, as he had last night. But Forrest hadn’t just kept them safe; he’d made love to Rae and had made her start to fall in love with him.