Colton 911--The Secret Network

by Marie Ferrarella

  “Any particular family you have in mind?” he asked, bracing himself as he watched her face and waited for her response. He had a feeling that he knew what she going to say.

  “Yes, wise guy, a very specific family in mind,” she told him, then said, “Mine.”

  “Since it’s your family—and since I’m not family,” he stressed, “wouldn’t I be, you know, crashing this gathering?”

  “Technically, you’re my—our—bodyguard,” she amended, glancing toward Maya. “That makes you as much a part of all this as my clothing. In case you’re not following me, I wouldn’t leave my clothing home, either.”

  Sean couldn’t help but laugh. “That is a very novel way to describe it—but by the same token, very effective,” he added, doing his best not to envision her without her clothing.

  “As long as you get the message,” January told him with a wide smile.

  She put the eggs on low as she deposited the four slices of bread into the toaster. When they popped up, she buttered them all quickly, then placed two slices each on two plates and went on to distribute the eggs among the slices.

  “So?” she asked as she set the plates down in front of Maya and Sean.

  Sean flashed her a smile. He wasn’t accustomed to being served in his own home. “Breakfast looks great,” he told her.

  “I know,” she said, accepting the compliment as if there was nothing else he could have logically said. “But what about the invitation?”

  “Shouldn’t I wait to get it before I answer?” Sean pointed out.

  It was clearly a stall tactic on his part and January knew that, but right now she really wasn’t in the mood to play.

  “You just did get it,” she informed him. “From me.”

  “Well, if you put it that way,” Sean allowed, “I guess the answer is yes.”

  “Finally,” she declared as if she had just won a tournament that had taken way too long to win. “You certainly believe in making a person work for everything, don’t you?”

  “You mean that there’s another way?” Sean asked innocently.

  She didn’t bother suppressing the smile that rose to her lips. “Yes, I believe they call it being straightforward.”

  “Oh, but this way, it just feels so much more rewarding when it finally comes through,” Sean told the social worker.

  She studied him for a long moment. “You know,” January said, “with your rather unconventional sense of logic, you might be a Colton without knowing it.”

  Sean raised a puzzled eyebrow. “Is that your idea of a compliment?”

  “No,” she replied with an innocent expression, “just a simple fact.”

  Sean had been watching her. January had been moving around this entire time, preparing their breakfast and then serving it to them. There were only two plates, he noted.

  “Aren’t you going to eat?” he asked.

  “Oh, I nibbled while I was preparing your breakfasts. And I did have toast earlier—two slices,” she volunteered, knowing he would probably ask for a number.

  “Nibbling?” he questioned. “Shouldn’t you have more than just a nibble?”

  She grinned at the detective, her eyes once again warming him.

  Try as he might, he couldn’t seem to get used to that. It was a pleasant surprise each time it happened. And he caught himself thinking about how it might feel, nibbling on her very tempting neck,

  “A bodyguard and a nutritionist,” she marveled, her eyes teasing him. “Anything else?”

  “Yes,” Sean answered seriously, doing his best to shut down these feelings threatening to run riot through him. “I also have a pretty short fuse when it comes to comments from wise guys.”

  “Duly noted,” she said, nodding her head as she gave him the point.

  “Just trying to look out for your best interests.” Sean felt he needed to add that.

  “And I appreciate it,” she told him in all sincerity. “Now, I’ll take care of the dishes, and then Maya and I will get ready for this shopping trip you’re taking us on.”

  He took the plate out of her hand. “I’ll do the dishes,” he informed her. “You and the princess go get ready.”

  “Are you sure?” January asked, nodding at the dish. Most men weren’t fans of washing dishes and he had already proven that he only did so when there was no way out. “It won’t take me long.”

  “I’m sure,” he said, still holding the dish in his hand. “Just because I don’t wash dishes very often doesn’t mean I don’t know how. It just means I don’t like to, which, the last time I checked, makes me a normal male. You find me a man who claims to like doing dishes and I’ll show you a man who belongs in a museum under glass—or a notorious liar who’s trying to impress the woman he’s dating.”

  January grinned at him, amused. “As a matter of fact, you’re probably right,” she agreed.

  Sean blinked several times and then pretended to cover his heart with both hands. Taking a “shaky” breath, he declared, “Be still my beating heart.”

  “You are also most definitely a wise guy,” January told him.

  “Guilty as charged.” Then he ordered, “Now get going.”

  January took Maya’s hand, turning toward the doorway. He didn’t have to tell her twice.

  Chapter 15

  Sean had never been a fan of shopping for clothing. Ever since he became an adult, he had never entered a mall of his own volition unless it was an absolutely unavoidable necessity. The last time he remembered actually walking into a mall was more than two years ago. It had been to help Harry Cartwright, his former partner, go shopping for his wife’s birthday. Harry had wanted to buy her something special, and true to form, he hadn’t had a clue what to get.

  Sean had gone with him during lunch for moral support. Three weeks later, Sean grimly remembered, Harry’s wife and child were dead.

  January saw the faraway, distracted expression on Sean’s face as she brought Maya out to model one of her choices.

  “Where are you?” January asked the detective.

  Sean shook off the unwanted memory. “Nowhere where you would want to be.”

  January knew when not to pick at a scab and this had all the signs of being a bad one, so she tactfully backed off. But for Maya’s sake, who was looking at him as if the sun rose and set around the man, she knew she had to get the detective to respond to the little girl.

  “I think Maya’s trying to impress you, Detective,” January told him pointedly. “You need to smile your approval.”

  “Sorry,” Sean said, his eyes washing over Maya as he warmly smiled at her.

  Sean’s smile, January noted, did wonders for both the detective and the little girl who was on the receiving end of that smile. Maya lit up right before Sean’s eyes, causing the detective to respond even more.

  January nodded her head. “Good,” she declared with approval.

  Sean wasn’t sure if that was meant for him, but he saw no harm in taking it that way.

  Taking his hand, Maya fairly skipped along beside Sean as they made their way through the store. He smiled at her, determined to make her feel safe and carefree despite the fact that he couldn’t shake the feeling that they were being observed. It might have been his natural paranoia acting up, but he didn’t think so. He remained vigilante and alert.

  * * *

  By the time the shopping trip was officially over—and they had managed to hit three different department stores during that time frame—Maya was completely outfitted with a supply of fresh new clothes. Sean had offered to pay for them, but January told him not to worry about it. Social Services would take care of it.

  Sean knew for a fact that, the way that particular department operated, it would be a long time before January would be reimbursed. He had a feeling that she was actually footing the bill, but he wasn’t about to press
her on it. He trusted that if she was inclined to pay for Maya’s wardrobe, January’s family would probably take care of it in part.

  “I think that Cinderella’s going to be all decked out when it comes time to go to the ball,” January told him once they finally returned to his vehicle.

  Sean had carried almost all the items to the car while January and Maya each brought along a few items. And everything was summarily deposited into the trunk.

  Putting away the last of it, Sean turned to see January sign something to the little girl. He assumed the message had something to do with what she had just said to him. He was sure of it when he saw the way that Maya laughed in response.

  “My guess is that there’s enough here for several balls,” he told the social worker. “By the way, when is it?” he asked, because with everything that was going on, the date had slipped his mind.

  It. Sean’s question seemed to come out of the blue. She wanted to be sure they were on the same page before she answered him.

  “Are you asking about my family’s gathering?” she asked him.

  “That’s the only ‘ball’ that I know of,” he told her, waiting for January to secure Maya in the car seat that had, in his mind, become hers.

  “Saturday,” she told him.

  “This Saturday?” he asked uncertainly. It really didn’t seem possible, since the event had almost come out of nowhere.

  January was convinced that the detective was attempting to stall again, but why? Supposedly, in attending this event, he was just going to be her escort, the way he had for grocery shopping and now at the mall. Granted, attending the gathering wasn’t going to be as impersonal as escorting them to the supermarket and the department stores at the mall had been. But it wasn’t exactly as if she was bringing him as her date for the afternoon and definitely not as her “significant other,” although the idea wasn’t as off-putting as she might have once thought.

  Sean was just going to be a warm body watching over Maya and over her, she reminded herself.

  Why was he behaving as if he was suddenly spooked by the idea?

  “Uh-huh,” January confirmed with an attempt at nonchalance. “This Saturday.” She glanced at him. “I didn’t think you’d have a conflict since you said you were going to be our bodyguard until you or your department are able to find Maya’s family as well as who killed those three victims in the warehouse. The same people,” she pointed out, “who probably broke into my town house.”

  “No, I don’t have a conflict,” he replied, then decided he might as well own up to the problem. “I just don’t do well at family gatherings.”

  She looked at him. There was no do well about it, January thought. There was just being there, and he could certainly do that.

  “Don’t worry. Nobody’s going to ask you to perform or do any magic tricks. You’ll be fine. Tell you what,” she said as she got into the front passenger seat and buckled up. “Why don’t you pretend that you’re undercover? That way, you can assume another personality during the time that we’re over my parents’ house. Would that make it easier for you?”

  But he was stuck on another point. “Your parents’ house,” Sean echoed.

  “Uh-huh. They’re very nice people,” she assured him. “Mom made Dad take down the photograph of the body of the last police detective he shot. It’s no longer hanging over the fireplace,” she told Sean with an incredibly straight face.

  “Okay, point taken,” Sean conceded.

  “My parents are very nice people. My entire family is comprised of nice people. Don’t get me wrong,” she said, in case he thought she was just trying to whitewash her family. “There are times when they can make me crazy, but those times don’t last and at bottom my whole family all mean well. Personally, without going out on a limb, I think that you’ll find you like them.

  “And, if you find any time during the course of the day that you just can’t take it, all you have to do is say the code word and we’ll leave,” she promised.

  “Code word?” Sean repeated. She hadn’t said anything about a code word, he thought.

  January looked over her shoulder to smile at Maya as they drove away from the mall.

  “Uh-huh.” He could swear that her eyes were laughing at him. “Everyone’s gotta have a code word,” she said solemnly.

  “Okay,” Sean replied gamely. “What’s my code word?”

  “Stratosphere,” January answered. She smiled brightly.

  He shot her a look. “Stratosphere?” he repeated incredulously. “How the hell am I supposed to work that into the conversation?”

  January’s smile just grew wider. Sean could have sworn that she lit up the interior of his vehicle.

  “You’re intelligent,” she told him in all innocence. “I have great faith in you.”

  Sean snorted. Yeah, right, he thought. Out loud he said darkly, “Very funny.”

  “Not half as funny as the expression on your face,” January said. “Relax, detective. I promise you’ll have fun. Everyone in my family is easy to talk to—with the possible exception of my cousin Jones, but his only difficulty is with my uncle, not anyone else in the family. Personally, I think you and Jones will probably get along famously.” She added, “He owns Lone Wolf Brewery, you know,” to cinch the argument.

  That managed to surprise Sean. “You’re kidding,” he cried, looking at her. “Your cousin actually owns that brewery?”

  “I wouldn’t kid you about that,” she answered. “It’s certainly an easy enough fact to look up.”

  Sean rolled that surprising piece of information around in his head, trying to absorb it. “Son of a gun,” he murmured.

  Satisfied that Maya was all right in her seat, January turned back around and returned her attention to the detective.

  “Is there a reason behind that remark?” she asked, curious about his reaction to the information.

  “Lone Wolf happens to be my favorite local brewery,” Sean admitted.

  That pleased her. It would certainly help matters when it came to the gathering. “See? You’ve already got something in common with a member of my family. This will be fun,” she assured him again. “Really.”

  “Yeah, maybe it won’t be so bad after all,” Sean allowed, driving back to his apartment.

  “Wow, you really know how to dish out high praise,” January said with a laugh. The man would probably announce the advent of the second coming by saying, Looks like He’s back.

  Sean shrugged. “It’s the best I can do at the moment,” he told her. He tended to try to be low-key whenever possible. “Look, I said that I’m going with you. Why don’t you just take the win and be done with it?”

  “Okay. You’re right. I’ll take it,” January said, then quietly added under her breath, “For now.”

  * * *

  “You’re bringing someone?” her mother asked later that evening when January called to tell her about Maya and Sean. She could hear Farrah Colton struggling not to sound as excited as she actually felt. “What’s his name? Where did you meet him? Why haven’t you—”

  “Calm down, Mom,” January said, raising her voice to be heard above her mother’s. “Believe me, it’s not what you think—”

  “Not what I think?” her mother echoed. “Why? Is he a robot? A rubber doll? What? Talk to me, January.”

  January didn’t know where to start. She didn’t want to scare her mother, but she wasn’t about to let her think that this was a boyfriend she was bringing. That would definitely kill any future between them.

  “He’s a police detective, Mom.”

  “So?” Her mother obviously didn’t see a problem. “You know that I’ve always had the greatest respect for the law enforcement community. You’re not handcuffed to him, are you?”

  “No, I’m not handcuffed to him, Mom, but he is coming to this gathering in his police d
etective capacity,” January told her.

  She could tell that she had managed to lose her mother. The next thing Farrah Colton said confirmed her suspicions. “Okay, you’re going to have to explain that to me, Jan.”

  Maybe if she went back to the beginning. “You know I didn’t go on vacation with Simone and Tatum.”

  “I am aware of that,” her mother told her. “Are you aware of the fact that they didn’t go on vacation, either?” she asked, assuming that might have not registered with her youngest, even though she and her husband were throwing this party and wouldn’t be having it if two of their daughters were unable to attend. Sometimes, her children got too involved in what they were doing and just became oblivious to key points.

  “What?” January cried. Both of her sisters had told her that they were still going on that vacation. She felt a stab of guilt. Had they done this because of her?

  “They decided to postpone until you were able to come with them. They didn’t think it would be enough fun without you, which I think is a really nice compliment. They also said something about you taking in a little deaf girl because your department was shorthanded and there was no one else available who could communicate with her.”

  Her mother paused, waiting for confirmation. When January didn’t respond, she asked, “Did I get that right, January? Is that why you didn’t go on that vacation?”

  “Yes, Mom, you got it right,” January told her. “Maya’s been staying with me and it was necessary to get a protective detail for her. That’s why Detective Stafford is coming with me. With us,” she amended. “He’s the protective detail.” January was doing her best to word it so that she didn’t wind up alarming her mother about how dangerous the situation potentially was.

  She should have known that her mother wouldn’t just leave the matter alone.

  “Why does she need a protective detail?” her mother asked. “Is she in danger?” And then another question, far closer to home, occurred to January’s mother. “Does that mean that you are in danger, too?”

  “Mom, don’t get ahead of yourself. I’m just taking care of her until Sean...um... Detective Stafford locates her parents.” She attempted to divert her mother by appealing to the woman’s incredibly kind heart. “You can imagine how scared that little girl had to be, surrounded by a bunch of strangers in a world where she’s unable to hear anything that’s going on.”