by LENA DIAZ,
She slammed the broom against Colin’s forearm, knocking the pistol out of his hand.
“Run, Brian! Run!” she choked out.
He whirled around and took off toward the front door.
Colin swiped his pistol up off the hardwood floor and gave her a furious, searing look that burned right through her heart. Then he sprinted through the house after her brother.
Chapter Three
Peyton twisted her hands together in her lap as she sat beside one of the desks in the squad room, waiting to discover her fate. The police officer who’d ordered her to sit there was talking to a handful of other men and women at the far end of the vast, open room. It seemed like every cop in Gatlinburg was here. The place was buzzing with anger and excitement as they studied maps and gathered flashlights, preparing to hunt her brother down like a rabid dog.
She wanted to scream, shake them, somehow make them realize what she couldn’t all those years ago: her brother was innocent. The only thing stopping her was that there was no denying what she’d seen with her own eyes—Brian, standing in her kitchen five years before his sentence was up. They were right that he’d broken out of prison. But they were wrong about the horrible, evil thing they also claimed that he’d done—killed a Memphis police officer after the escape.
Brian had always been headstrong and rebellious, with anger and impulse-control issues that had had him seeing a therapist from the time he was ten years old. But he was also sweet and sensitive. Never a bully, he was the kid who got picked on by his classmates because he was so awkward and shy. He adored animals and had gotten in trouble countless times for bringing home strays. The brother who cried after watching a sad commercial could never have set fire to a building with two people inside. That was the reason she could never, ever believe in his guilt. And that was the reason she knew that he hadn’t shot that police officer in Memphis.
“Is that why you came back to Gatlinburg? Because you knew your brother was planning to escape and you wanted to be here to help him?”
She jerked around to meet Colin McKenzie’s accusing stare as he stood beside the desk. It pained her that his deep voice, angry or not, sent the same jolt of longing through her that it had since they’d both turned fifteen and discovered their friendship had blossomed into something more. The cute boy who’d made all the girls’ hearts flutter in high school had matured into a mouth-wateringly gorgeous man. But all that physical perfection was spoiled by the look of hate blazing from his stormy blue eyes.
The hate was definitely new.
“I suppose from your viewpoint I deserve that. But, no. Why I came back has nothing to do with my brother. Even though he was wrongfully convicted, I would never help him escape from prison.”
“You’d just help him escape from your kitchen when a law-enforcement officer placed him under arrest. Is that the line you’ve drawn in the sand?”
She curled her fingers against her palms. “Okay, I definitely deserved that. And I completely understand that it looked that way to you. But from my viewpoint, my innocent brother was being threatened with a gun. I was protecting him.”
He jerked his shirt sleeve up a few inches on his left arm, revealing a smattering of puckered burn scars. “I pulled two people out of a burning barn after your brother set the fire. Innocent isn’t a word I’d use to describe him.”
Threatening tears burned her eyes but she viciously held them back. “I’m sorry, Colin. About everything. I truly am. I hate that you were hurt. But the truth hasn’t changed. Brian didn’t set that fire.”
He jerked his sleeve back down. “Do you want to go to prison?”
She stared at him in surprise. “What?”
“You’re in a precarious position, Peyton. If I officially arrest you and the DA decides to press charges, you could end up in prison for aiding and abetting a felon.”
“But, I didn’t mean—”
“Why did you do it? Why did you help him?”
She spread her hands in a helpless gesture. “I told you. I was protecting him. It was instinct. A choice—family or...” She chewed her lip.
“Or me. And once again, you didn’t choose me.”
The bitterness in his voice made her ache. But there was nothing she could do, nothing she could say that could ever fix what she’d destroyed so many years ago.
Because he was right.
“Give me a reason not to arrest you.”
She slowly shook her head, no longer able to hold back the tears. “I can’t. What I did today was wrong. I know that. But it was automatic, without any rational thought behind it. I’d probably do the same thing again if I had a do-over. Protecting my family is as ingrained in me as breathing. Can’t you understand that?”
Every muscle in his body seemed to tense, as if he was debating what to say but didn’t trust himself to speak.
She brushed the tears from her cheeks.
He swore softly and turned away, his ground-eating stride quickly taking him across the room to one of the groups of officers talking by a window.
Sniffing, she breathed deeply, willing the tears to stop. And all the while, she watched him, unable to look away. Her gaze caressed his profile the way her fingers once had. She knew every angle of his chiseled face, had traced the stubble across his jaw to his hairline, had kissed the barely there mustache. He still maintained that same look, like a man who hadn’t shaved in three days. But where she’d loved and adored the boy, she didn’t know what to make of the man. He was a stranger, with the power to destroy the fragile new world she’d created. And she couldn’t even give him a reason not to.
He nodded at something one of the men said, then strode back to the desk. “Get up.”
Her face flushed hot with embarrassment. She stood and smoothed her jeans and blouse into place before holding her wrists out in front of her.
He frowned. “What are you doing?”
“Hoping you won’t make me put my hands behind my back to put the handcuffs on. This is humiliating enough as it is.” When he only stared at her, she lowered her arms. “Aren’t you arresting me?”
“That depends on whether you’ll give me what I want.”
She drew in a sharp breath, his words awakening memories of the two of them together. His mouth, hot against her neck. His tongue tracing the valley between her breasts. His teasing smile as he slid down her body and hooked his fingers into the top of her jeans.
His breath hitched. “Don’t look at me that way, Peyton.”
She shivered and ruthlessly fought back the erotic images that had goose bumps breaking out all over her suddenly hypersensitive skin. Trying to pretend ignorance, she asked, “What do you mean?”
His eyes narrowed. “Like you’re remembering how good it was between us.”
She swallowed, remembering exactly how good it had been.
His blue eyes darkened, but not with passion. “The past, what you and I shared, died the day you left Gatlinburg without so much as a goodbye. A lifetime of growing up together, four years of dating, of sharing everything two people supposedly in love can share, and you couldn’t bring yourself to answer any of my calls, respond to even one of my texts. Well I got the message from you, loud and clear. And nothing could ever make me go down that road again.”
Her face flamed at his cruel, unnecessary rejection. She cast a surreptitious glance around the room before sinking back down into the chair so she could put some space between the two of them. Thankfully, no one seemed to be paying any attention to her and Colin at the moment. They were all too busy making plans to go after her only sibling.
Wait. Phone calls? Texts? What was he talking about? He’d never called her, not once. “Colin, I don’t understand. What are you—”
“What I want is to make a deal with you. Your cooperation in exchange for your brother’s life.”
She pressed a ha
nd against her throat, unable to reconcile his shocking words with the man standing before her. This wasn’t the Colin she remembered, not even close. Had she ever really known him at all? Or was this hard, unyielding man the result of what she’d done?
“You’re seriously threatening to kill him if I don’t cooperate? How could you be so heartless and cruel?”
His eyes narrowed again, his brow wrinkling with anger. “Don’t accuse me of contemplating murder as if you have some moral high ground to stand on.”
She gasped with outrage. But before she could respond, he leaned toward her, arms braced on the desk, crowding her back against her chair.
“Unlike your cop-killing brother,” he said in a furious whisper, “I’m not a murderer. I wasn’t saying that I was going to harm Brian. Look around you, Peyton. I’m not the threat. Everyone else is. They’re all fired up to hunt him down. Once the trackers get here, his chances plummet to near zero.”
Alarm skittered up her spine. “Trackers? Chances? What are you saying?”
“Your brother murdered a law-enforcement officer. He—”
“No. He didn’t. He wouldn’t.”
Colin made a frustrated sound in his throat before grabbing a chair from beside a nearby desk and rolling it in front of her. He plopped down and moved close, his knees almost touching hers.
“They’re bringing in bloodhounds to hunt down your brother and the other escapees.” He kept his voice low, barely above a whisper. “Police officers and federal agents are lining up in neighboring counties, demanding a chance to help with the search. They’re going to find them, Peyton. A cop killer isn’t going to escape, not around here.”
“Stop saying that. My brother’s not a killer.” She let out a ragged breath. “Please, Colin. Stop.”
Something shifted behind his eyes, like clouds tumbling through a darkening sky. He drew a slow, deep breath and glanced around the room as if to get himself under control. When he looked at her again, some of the anger seemed to have drained out of him. In its place was a sense of urgency and frustration, visible in the tense set of his shoulders, the firm line of his jaw.
“What I’m trying to tell you is that Brian’s life is in danger. Not because anyone is going to purposely try to kill him. But because everyone is hyperaware that someone who’s shot one police officer won’t hesitate to pull the trigger on another.”
“But—”
He held a hand up to stop her. “What you don’t seem to understand is that whether or not Brian’s the one who pulled the trigger doesn’t matter. The officer was killed when Brian and three other criminals escaped. Under the law, all four of them are guilty of felony murder.”
Muscle memory had her reaching for his hand before she even thought about what she was doing. To her surprise, he took it, and entwined their fingers together. In spite of his anger, in spite of everything that had happened, or maybe because of it, Colin McKenzie was holding her hand. And just like that, she was able to pick up the pieces of her crumbling world and glue them back together.
It had always been that way between them. A simple look, or the warmth of his touch, grounded her, calmed her when things were going wrong. How odd that it would work today when he was part of the reason that her world was falling apart.
“What does felony murder mean exactly?” she whispered, barely able to force the words past her tight throat. “Does it mean...does it mean Brian could face the death penalty?”
He nodded, his hand tightening around hers.
“Oh, dear Lord. What am I going to do?”
“All you can do for now is help me try to save his life. Worry about the trial, about possible penalties, later. The entire law-enforcement community is on edge. They feel like their uniforms make them a target for a man who’s already killed one of their own. They’ll be quicker than normal to pull the trigger, out of self-preservation. That makes for an exceedingly dangerous situation, all the way around.”
His words rang true. The room was bursting with anger, nervous energy. Soon they’d be searching for her brother with that dangerous mix of emotions fueled by fear and adrenaline, while heavily armed. Brian was in a world of trouble, even worse than she’d realized.
“What kind of a deal are you offering?”
“I won’t lie and pretend that I can guarantee your brother’s safety. But he has a better chance of making it out of the mountains alive if I’m the one who catches him.”
She blinked. “You? But you...”
“Have more reason than most to want to catch him? You’ve got that right. But out of respect for your parents, whom I once thought of as my own family, I’d like to capture their son alive and give him a chance in the courts instead of against a hail of bullets. If you cooperate fully, help me figure out where he might be hiding, then I’ll hold off on arresting you for now.”
His implied threat had her tugging her hand free. “Hold off? For now? What does that mean?”
He flexed his fingers and sat back, his face an unreadable mask. “I reserve the right to arrest you and charge you with a felony for that stunt you pulled at your family’s house today. If you don’t legitimately help me figure out where he is, I will put you in jail and bring you up on charges.”
“You’re forcing me to choose again? Between you and my brother?”
He arched a brow. “What would be the point? We both know how that would turn out.”
She jerked back, his words stabbing her like a hundred daggers straight to the heart. But it wasn’t the words that hurt the most. It was the pain that leached through his tone, pain he was obviously trying to hide beneath a veil of rage. His pain was so much worse to bear than his fury, because she was the one who’d caused it. She’d taken a sweet, kind young man and twisted him into this bitter, angry person in front of her.
She wrapped her arms around her middle and closed her eyes, shutting out the ugliness of everything that had happened, everything that was still happening. Somehow, she had to get a handle on her swirling emotions, without relying on her former childhood sweetheart to help her. She had to find the inner strength to do this on her own. If she gave in to her emotions, she’d slide onto the floor in a boneless puddle of anguish and self-disgust. And that wouldn’t help anyone.
“Peyton?” His voice was laced with impatience now.
Breathe. Just breathe. Pull yourself together.
“Peyton? Are you okay? Do I need to call an EMT?”
The genuine concern underlying his tone had her eyes fluttering open. The truth was there, in the way he was watching her so intently. In spite of everything, he still cared. Maybe she hadn’t destroyed him after all. Maybe there was still some goodness left inside. Maybe, just maybe, she could trust him to help Brian.
She straightened, drew a bracing breath. “No, I’m... I’ll be okay. Thank you.”
He frowned, seemingly unconvinced. But he gave her a curt nod and motioned toward the groups of officers scattered around the room. “You can play the odds and wait and see if the makeshift posse shoots first and asks questions later. Or you can work with me to increase his odds of being brought in alive. That’s the offer that I’m making. It’s your choice. But you have to make a decision. Right now.”
“What happens if I say yes, that I’ll try to help you?”
“Since your house is still being processed as a crime scene, we go back to my place and you answer my questions there. You tell me everything he’s told you through the years, in every visit you made to the prison or every letter or email you exchanged. We make lists of places he mentioned, places he talked about visiting again one day, any people still in this area whom he might turn to for help. And we make a plan to lure him into a trap.”
A trap for Brian, just like the trap closing in around her. She shivered even though the air-conditioning wasn’t all that successful in keeping out the brutal summer heat.
“If I don’t help you, my brother could be killed and I go to jail. If I do help you, he could still be killed, but you’ll do your best not to kill him. And even then, he faces the possibility of the death penalty. In return, I have no guarantees that I won’t go to jail at some point too. Do I have it right? That’s the so-called deal you’re offering?”
The fight seemed to drain out of him, leaving him looking tired, almost defeated. “That’s the deal. I know it’s not much. But it’s the best I can offer.”
“Okay.”
His eyes widened. “Okay? Just like that?”
“I’m not an idiot, Colin. I can see for myself that you’re right about the danger that Brian’s in. And I can’t help him while sitting in a jail cell. I’m going to have to trust that the Colin I once knew is still inside you somewhere—the man with honor, integrity and mercy. I’m putting my faith, and my brother’s life, in your hands. We have a deal.”
Chapter Four
After conferring again with some other officers, Colin returned to the desk. “The police are gathering in the main conference room to ask you some questions,” he told her. “They’ll let us know when they’re ready.”
Peyton followed his gaze to a door on the other side of the room. “The police? You make it sound like you aren’t one of them.”
“I’m not.” His eyes hardened like brittle chips of ice. “Guess I neglected to formally introduce myself given our past...association.” He pulled an ID badge out of his pants pocket and held it up. “Deputy US Marshal Colin McKenzie. At your service.”
She ignored the gibe about their past, and his sarcasm, even though it was hard to keep absorbing his barbs without lashing out. That wouldn’t do her or her brother any good. Still, she secretly admitted that the shiny silver circle with a five-point star in the middle that said United States Marshal made her proud. He’d followed his dream, kept his family legacy alive by going into law enforcement like his prosecutor mother and federal judge father. The Mighty McKenzie must be very proud of his third-born son. She wondered if his brothers had pursued similar careers.