Happily-ever-after...or dead on time?

A Coltons of Red Ridge thriller

For one magical night, they were Cinderella and the prince. Reunited four years later, billionaire Blake Colton and K9 cop Juliette Walsh are worlds apart, and he is furious to learn that Juliette’s secret daughter is his. But with danger closing in, Blake and Juliette must risk more than their rekindling passion to have a future with their child.

Ever since LISA CHILDS read her first romance novel (a Mills & Boon story, of course) at age eleven, all she wanted was to be a romance writer. With over forty novels published with Mills & Boon, Lisa is living her dream. She is an award-winning, bestselling romance author. Lisa loves to hear from readers, who can contact her on Facebook, through her website, www.lisachilds.com, or her snail-mail address, PO Box 139, Marne, MI 49435, USA.

Also by Lisa Childs

The Bounty Hunter’s Baby Surprise

His Christmas Assignment

Bodyguard Daddy

Bodyguard’s Baby Surprise

Beauty and the Bodyguard

Nanny Bodyguard

Single Mom’s Bodyguard

In the Bodyguard’s Arms

The Colton Marine

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk

Colton’s Cinderella Bride

Lisa Childs

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-07910-5

COLTON’S CINDERELLA BRIDE

© 2018 Harlequin Books S.A.

Published in Great Britain 2018

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

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www.millsandboon.co.uk

Version: 2020-03-02

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With great appreciation for my amazing family—my

immediate family and to all my aunts, uncles and

cousins who support me, too! I am so fortunate to have

you all in my life!

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Extract

About the Publisher

Chapter 1

Everything happens for a reason...

Mama had told Juliette that so many times over the years and so often during the long months of her terminal illness. Not wanting to argue with or upset an invalid, Juliette had just nodded as if she’d agreed with her. But she hadn’t really. She had seen no reason for Mama getting sick and dying, no reason to work two jobs to pay off Mama’s medical bills and her own community college tuition.

But as she stared up at the little blond-haired angel sitting atop the playground slide, her heart swelled with love, and she knew Mama had been right. Everything happens for a reason, and Pandora was that reason.

Her daughter was Juliette’s reason for everything that had happened in the past and for everything that she did in the present.

“Is it too high?” she called up to the little girl who’d convinced Juliette that since turning four, she was old enough to go down the big kid slide. She was small for her age, though, and looked so tiny sitting up so high that a twinge of panic struck Juliette’s heart.

Maybe she was just uneasy because it looked as though it might start storming at any moment. The afternoon sky had turned dark, making it look more like dusk than five thirty. Since July in Red Ridge, South Dakota, was usually hot and dry, rain would be a welcome relief—as long as it came without lightning and thunder, which always scared Pandora.

Juliette probably shouldn’t have stopped at the park that apparently everyone else had deserted for fear of the impending storm. But when she’d finished her shift as a Red Ridge K9 officer, and had picked up her daughter from day care, the little girl had been so excited to try the slide that she hadn’t been able to refuse.

“Come on, honey,” she encouraged Pandora as she pushed back a strand of her own blond hair that had slipped free of her ponytail. “I’m right here. I’ll catch you when you reach the bottom.” She wouldn’t let her fall onto the wood chips at the foot of the slide.

“I’m not scared, Mommy,” Pandora assured her. “It’s supercool up here. I can see all around...” She trailed off as she stared into the distance. Maybe she could see the storm moving in on them.

As if she sensed it, too, Sasha—Juliette’s K9 partner—leaped up from the grass on which she’d been snoozing. Her nose in the air, the beagle strained against her leash that Juliette had tethered around a light pole. Sniffing the air, she emitted a low growl.

Despite the heat, a chill passed through Juliette. Sasha had been trained for narcotics detection. But what was she detecting and from where? Nobody else was in the park right now. Maybe the scent of drugs had carried on the wind from someplace else, someplace nearby.

“Mommy!” Pandora called out, drawing Juliette’s attention back to where she was now half standing, precariously, at the top of the slide.

“Honey, sit down,” Juliette said, her heart thumping hard with fear.

Pandora ignored her as she pointed across the park. “Why did that man shoot that lady with the purple hair?”

Juliette gasped. “What?”

Pandora pointed again, and her tiny hand shook. “Over there, Mommy. The lady fell down in the parking lot and she’s not getting back up.”

Like her daughter, Juliette was quite small, so she couldn’t see beyond the trees and playground equipment to where her daughter gestured. She hurried toward the slide and vaulted up the steps to the top. Then she looked in the direction Pandora was staring, and she sucked in a sharp breath. About two hundred feet away, in the parking lot behind the playground area, a woman lay on the ground, a red stain spreading across her white shirt while something red pooled on the asphalt beneath her.

“Oh, no...” Juliette murmured. She needed to get to the woman, needed to get her help...but before she could reach for her cell to call for it, a car door slammed and an engine revved. That car headed over the grass, coming across the playground.

The shooter must have noticed Pandora watching him and figured she’d witnessed him shooting—maybe killing—someone.

Juliette’s heart pounded as fear overwhelmed her. She wrapped her arms around Pandora and propelled them both down the slide. Ordinarily her daughter would have squealed in glee, but now she trembled with the same fear that gripped Juliette.

The car’s engine revved again as it jumped the curb and careened toward them. Juliette drew her gun from her holster as she gently pushed Pandora into the tunnel beneath the slide. The side of the thick plastic tunnel faced the car, which had braked to an abrupt stop. A door creaked open.

Juliette raised her finger to her lips, gesturing at Pandora to stay quiet. The little girl stared up at her, her green eyes wide with fear. But she nodded.

Sasha was not quiet. She barked and growled, straining against her leash. Instinctively she knew Juliette and Pandora were in danger. But with the man between them now, Juliette could not release her partner to help. And maybe that was a good thing. She had no doubt that Sasha would put her life in danger for Juliette’s and especially for Pandora’s.

Juliette would put herself in danger for Pandora, too.

Crouched on the other side of the tunnel so he wouldn’t see her, Juliette studied the man who’d stepped out of the sedan. He’d pulled the hood of his light jacket up over his head, and despite the overcast sky, he wore sunglasses. He was trying hard to disguise himself. But was it already too late? Had Pandora seen him without the hood and the glasses?

Who was he?

A killer.

She had no doubt that the young woman he’d shot was bleeding out in the parking lot. Frustration and guilt churned inside her, but she couldn’t call for help now and alert him to where she’d hidden her daughter. If not for Pandora, the cop part of Juliette would have been trying to take him down—even without backup. But because Pandora was in danger, the mother part of her overruled the cop.

Especially since he was heading straight toward the slide. But Pandora was no longer perched atop it. So he looked around, and he tensed as he noticed the tunnel beneath it. He raised his gun, pointing the long barrel toward that tunnel.

Toward Juliette’s daughter...

Her heart pounding so hard it felt as if it might burst out of her chest, she raised her gun and shouted, “Police. Drop your weapon! You’re under arrest!”

Instead he swung the gun toward her, and his glasses slid down his nose, revealing eyes so dark and so cold that a shiver passed through Juliette.

He shook his head and yelled, “Give me the damn kid!”

And she knew—Pandora had seen him without the hat, without the glasses. Then the wind kicked up again and blew his hood back, and Juliette saw his dark curly hair. And something pinged in her mind. He looked familiar to her, but she wasn’t sure where she’d seen him before.

“Put down the gun!” she yelled back at him.

But he moved his finger toward his trigger, so she squeezed hers. When the bullet struck his shoulder, his face contorted into a grimace of pain. He cursed—loudly.

“Stop!” she yelled. “Drop the gun!”

Despite his wounded shoulder, he held tightly to his weapon. Before she could fire again, he turned and ran back toward his car. Over his shoulder, he called out, “That kid is dead and so are you, lady cop!”

Juliette started after him. But a scream drew her attention. And a little voice called out urgently, “Mommy!”

The car peeled out of the lot, tires squealing against the asphalt. Juliette stared after it, trying to read the license plate number, but it was smeared with mud. From where? The weather here had been so dry.

He’d planned to obscure that plate. He’d planned to kill that woman.

Now he planned to kill her and Pandora. She moved toward the end of the tunnel and leaned over to peer inside at her daughter. “Sweetheart, are you okay?”

The little girl’s head bobbed up and down in a jerky nod. “Are you dead, Mommy?”

A twinge struck Juliette’s heart. “No, I’m fine, honey.” But that woman was not. She pulled out her cell phone and punched 911. After identifying herself as a police officer, she ordered an ambulance for the shooting victim, an APB on the killer’s car and her K9 team to help.

But she knew they would arrive too late. She doubted that woman could be saved, and she was worried that the killer might not be caught. At least not until he killed again...

And he’d made it clear who his next targets would be. Her and her daughter...

Pandora began to cry, her soft voice rising and cracking with hysteria as her tiny body shook inside the tunnel. Juliette’s legs began to shake, too, then gave out so that she dropped to her knees. She crawled inside the small space with her daughter and pulled her tightly into her arms.

Pandora was Juliette’s life. She could not lose her. She had to do whatever necessary to protect her.

* * *

What the hell am I doing back here?

There was nothing in Red Ridge for Blake Colton. He’d built his life in London and Hong Kong and Singapore—because his life was his business. And those were the cities in which he’d built Blake Colton International into the multibillion-dollar operation that it was.

That was undoubtedly why Patience had called him—because of his money—since he and his sister had never been close. He wasn’t close to any of his other sisters, either, or to his father or mother. Maybe that was partially his fault, though, because he’d left home so young and had been gone so long now. But Patience hadn’t called to see how he was doing; she’d called to ask him to help.

He didn’t know how he could provide the kind of help his family needed, though. In addition to their father’s business problems, she’d told him about a murderer on the loose. A murderer everyone believed to be a Colton, too—one of Blake’s cousins.

Blake pulled his rental vehicle into an empty parking spot outside the long one-story brick building on Main Street—the Red Ridge Police Department. Maybe his cousin Finn, who was the police chief, could explain to him just what the hell was really going on in Red Ridge.

But only Blake could answer the question of what had compelled him to hop on his private plane and head back to Red Ridge. And he had no damn idea...

With a sigh, he pushed open the driver’s door and stepped out. The sky was dark with the threat of a storm that hadn’t come. Blake felt the weight of those clouds hanging over him like guilt.

He knew what Patience wanted—what she expected him to do. Bail out their father so that their sister Layla wasn’t forced to marry some old billionaire to save Colton Energy. How like their father to care more about his company than his kids...

That was the Fenwick Colton whom Blake knew and had spent most of his life resenting. But he could understand his father a little better now. Blake didn’t have any kids, but his company was like his child. If he withdrew the kind of money required to save Colton Energy, he could cripple his own business and put thousands out of work.

He couldn’t do that—not for his father and not even for Layla. There had to be another way. Finn probably wouldn’t have any answers to that, but he would know all there was to know about this crazy “Groom Killer” targeting men about to be married. At least the threat of dying had caused Layla’s fiancé to end their engagement. But according to Patience, that threat was hurting her sister Beatrix’s bridal shop business. It was also affecting their youngest sister Gemma’s personal life because her boyfriend would not get as serious with her as she would have liked.

With a rumble of thunder sounding ominously in the distance, Blake hurried toward the doors of the police department. He didn’t want to get caught in a deluge. A woman rushed toward the building, as well. She had one arm wrapped around a child on her hip and the other hand holding the leash of the beagle running ahead of her. He stepped forward and reached around her to open the door, and as he did, he caught a familiar scent.

He hadn’t smelled it in years. Nearly five years...

But he’d never forgotten the sweet fragrance and the woman who’d worn it. It hadn’t been perfume, though. She’d said it had been her shampoo, so it had been light, smelling like rain and honeysuckle.

The scent wafted from the woman, whose pale shade of long hair was the same as the woman who’d haunted him the past five years. But it couldn’t be her...

He’d looked for her—after that night—and hadn’t been able to find her anywhere. She must have checked out of the hotel and left town.

She certainly hadn’t been a Red Ridge police officer like this woman. She wore the distinctive uniform of a K9 cop and held the leash of her partner. But when she turned back toward him, her gaze caught his and held. And he recognized those beautiful blue eyes...

Remembered her staring up at him as he’d lowered his head to kiss her...

But no, it could not be her. Being back in Red Ridge, staying at the Colton Plaza Hotel, had brought up so many memories of her, of that night, that he was starting to imagine her everywhere.

* * *

He’d found her easily enough. But he couldn’t take out her or her daughter here—outside the damn Red Ridge Police Department. Hell, after that bitch had shot him, he could barely raise his arm.

Blood trickled yet from the wound, soaking into his already saturated sleeve. He needed medical attention. But he’d have to find it somewhere other than a hospital or doctor’s office. RRPD would have someone watching those places, waiting for him.

Damn the timing...

The park had looked deserted. He hadn’t noticed anyone else around—until he’d heard the dog bark. Then he’d seen the little girl—but not before she had watched him fire those shots into that thieving dealer’s chest. Did she understand what she’d witnessed?

She was old enough that she probably did. And because he hadn’t known anyone else was around, he hadn’t had his hood up or glasses on then. So she would be able to identify and testify against him. And so would her damn cop mama.

But that wasn’t going to happen.

She and her mother were not going to live long enough to bring him down.

Chapter 2

Noooo...

Not now. Not ever...

Juliette had determined long ago that she would never see Blake Colton again. Even though she had heard that he’d recently returned to Red Ridge, she hadn’t thought that she would actually run into him. It wasn’t as if she worked at the Colton Plaza Hotel anymore.

And she hadn’t expected him to show up at the Red Ridge Police Department.

What was he doing here—now?

She froze as their gazes locked. She should have been running instead—running away from him with Pandora. But she hesitated too long before stepping through that door. And his gaze went from her face to her daughter’s.

While there was no mistaking that Pandora was her biological child, the little girl’s blond hair was darker than Juliette’s—more a dark gold like Blake’s. Pandora’s eyes were green instead of blue. Green like her father’s eyes that stared at her now, widening with shock. She also had the same dimple in her left cheek that he had, but since neither was smiling now, it was just a small dimple and not the deep dent it became when they grinned.

Pandora wasn’t grinning, though. She was sobbing; she hadn’t stopped since the man had come after them despite Juliette’s assurances that they were safe now. Juliette didn’t feel safe, though.

Pandora must not have, either, because she buried her face in Juliette’s neck, hiding from the handsome stranger who held the door for them. But she’d done that too late. He’d already seen the little girl just like he’d seen Juliette.

And from the expression crossing his handsome face, Juliette could tell that he’d recognized her despite the nearly five years that had passed. From the way he was staring at Pandora, with his brow furrowed as if he was doing math in his head, he might have also realized that the child in her arms could be his.

No. They were not safe.

He turned back to Juliette, and the look in his green eyes chilled her nearly as much as the look in the killer’s dark eyes had. She shivered.

“It’s you—” he murmured “—isn’t it?”

She shook her head in denial. “I—I don’t know what you’re talking about...”

His eyes narrowed with skepticism and suspicion. “It is you. And she...” He raised his hand as if to reach for Pandora.

But Juliette spun around, keeping her child away from him. “She’s just witnessed a crime,” she said, her voice cracking with regret and fear that her poor little girl had had to see what she had. A murder...

“I can’t do this now,” she told him. But before she could rush through those doors and get away from him, someone rushed out.

Like Juliette, the woman was clad in a RRPD uniform, her brown eyes dark with concern.

“Oh, my God,” Elle Gage exclaimed. “I just heard what happened. Are you all right?” She focused on the little girl. “Is Pandora?”

“Pandora...” Blake murmured the name, drawing Elle’s attention to him.

She gasped. “You—you’re Blake Colton,” she said. Then she glanced at Juliette. She was the only one who knew—the only one Juliette had trusted with the truth. “Were you at the park, too?” she asked him.

Blake’s brow furrowed. “Park?” He turned toward Juliette. “Is that where the crime happened?”

She nodded. “I need to complete the report.” But that wasn’t all she wanted to do. She wanted to make sure she had a safe place for her daughter. Pandora needed protection from at least one man—the one who’d sworn she would die. She might need protecting from this one, too, if he had realized that he was Pandora’s father.

“But I need to talk to you,” he said through teeth gritted with frustration and anger.

* * *

Elle reached for Pandora, extricating the little girl from Juliette’s arms. “Come here, sweetheart,” she said. “Let you, me, and Sasha get something to eat and drink...” She took the beagle’s leash from Juliette’s hand, too, and with a crook of her neck gestured at Blake. Since she’d learned he’d returned to town a couple of days ago, she’d been urging Juliette to talk to him.

But there really was no time. Not now...

Fear pounded in her heart as she watched her friend walk away with her daughter. She’d nearly lost her just a short time ago—at the park. If Juliette hadn’t shot the man in the shoulder...

If she hadn’t wounded him, he would have killed them both. She just had to convince her boss of the same. She had no time to deal with Blake Colton. But when she moved to follow Elle and Pandora, he caught her. Wrapping his big hand around her arm, he held her back.

Her skin tingled from his touch. It had been so long. But she could still remember how it felt...how he’d touched her that night...

She jerked her arm from his grasp. Just as he’d spoken through gritted teeth, she did the same. “I. Cannot. Do. This. Now.”

“We need to talk,” he insisted.

She knew it was true and not just because Elle had been badgering her to seek him out. She knew it was the right thing to do. But at the moment she needed to be with her daughter—needed to see for herself that her child stayed safe.

“She’s mine, isn’t she?” he asked, and his voice cracked slightly with the emotions making his green eyes dark.

Her reply stuck in her throat, choking her.

“She’s the right age,” he continued as if he was trying to convince himself. “And she looks like me...”

Juliette felt like she had when she’d stared into the barrel of the killer’s gun. Trapped. Terrified. Desperate...

* * *

Frustration gripped Blake, twisting his gut into tight knots. He wanted to shake her, but when he reached for her again, she flinched as if she expected him to hurt her. He wouldn’t have, of course—despite his feelings. But he dropped his hand back to his side.

“Tell me,” he said, badgering her like she was a reluctant witness on the stand. “Tell me if she’s mine.”

“Yes!” she exclaimed, as if her patience had snapped. Or perhaps it was her conscience. “She’s yours.”

He expelled a sharp breath, like she’d punched him in the gut. All these years he’d spent thinking about her and about that night, he had never once considered that she might have gotten pregnant—that they might have made a child together. He was a father.

Anger coursed through him now, replacing the shock. “How—how could...”

Her lips curved into a slight smile. “The usual way...”

He glared at her. “How could you keep her from me?”

Her face flushed now, but she just stared at him with those damn beautiful eyes of hers.

“How could you?” he asked. “For years?”

“I—I—” she stammered. “You left Red Ridge right after...”

“You could have found me,” he insisted. His family was in Red Ridge. They’d known where he was.

She tensed now and glared back at him. “You could have found me—even without knowing.”

“I tried,” he admitted. “You slipped out in the middle of the night, and I didn’t even know your last name. Hell, right now I’m not sure you gave me your right first name, Juliette.”

She flinched.

And he wondered. Had she told him anything that was the truth?

“Juliette is my real name,” she said.

Someone from inside the police department called it now. She glanced back toward the building. “I—I need to go,” she said. But when she started forward, he caught her arm again—stopping her.

“No—” He’d spent five years wondering what had happened to her. Where she was... He wasn’t just going to let her walk away from him again.

“She needs me,” Juliette said.

And he felt once again like she’d struck him. The child needed her mother. She didn’t even know she had a father. Unless Juliette had passed off another man as the little girl’s daddy. Blake glanced down at the hand of the arm he held—her left hand. Her fingers were bare of any rings. She wasn’t married or engaged now.

But a lot could have happened over the last nearly five years. She might have had a husband. Hell, he’d thought she might have on their night together, and that was why she’d slipped away like she had, so nobody would spot them together.

She hadn’t worn a ring then either, though. So maybe, as a cop, she’d just decided not to wear one.

How had she afforded that beautiful gown—those shoes and earrings—on a cop’s salary—if she’d even been a cop back then? She looked younger now, without makeup, than she’d looked that night.

“Let me go,” she said—once again through gritted teeth. She had beautiful teeth and lips and features...

He’d started to believe that he’d romanticized her and that night over the years. That she couldn’t have been nearly as beautiful as he’d thought she was. He’d been wrong—about romanticizing it.

She was also stressed and afraid, her face pale and eyes wide with fear.

“I will let you go,” he agreed because he had no choice. Her daughter—their daughter—needed her.

Before the little girl had hidden her face in her mother’s neck, Blake had noticed her tears and, worse than that, her fear. His gut churned again—with a sense of helplessness even worse than when Patience had told him about his sister Layla’s predicament.

“But you’re going to come to my suite later,” he told her.

Her eyes narrowed as if she thought he expected a repeat of that long-ago night. Of what had happened over and over that night...

His pulse leaped at the thought, but he was too angry with her to ever want her again. So he clarified, “Just to talk.”

Someone called her name a second time, and she tugged free of him. But as she stepped through those open doors to the lobby, she turned back and nodded.

“I’m staying in the same suite as I was that night,” he told her.

Color rushed back into her pale face, and she nodded again. She would be there. Eventually. But he suspected it might be a while before she could make it.

Still reeling from what he’d just learned, he no longer wanted to talk to his cousin—the police chief. Blake didn’t want to step into that police department where she and their daughter were.

He just wanted to be alone. He wanted to think and process and deal with all the emotions gripping him. The anger, the shock, the fear...

His daughter had witnessed a crime of some sort, and from the way both she and her mother had acted, they were definitely frightened.

Could they be in danger? Could he lose his child just as he had finally discovered her existence?

* * *

“He’s back?” Fenwick Colton already knew that his son had returned to Red Ridge. The concierge at the Colton Plaza Hotel had confirmed that Blake had checked into a suite on the twenty-first floor a couple of days ago. But Fenwick hadn’t seen him. And he sure as hell hadn’t heard from him.

Patience, Fenwick’s daughter and Blake’s half sister, nodded in reply, but she had to understand what he was really asking. Why hadn’t Blake come to see him?

The boy was Fenwick’s only son. They should have been close. Fenwick had had primary custody of him, since a hyper boy had been more than his jet-setting mother had wanted to handle. But the kid had always acted like he couldn’t stand to be near him. And as if to prove it, he’d spent the past five years living in other countries. Maybe that was just because he was like his mother, though.

“Why is he back?” Fenwick asked his daughter.

Patience lowered her head slightly, and her dark bangs shielded her dark eyes. She was staring down at her desk in her office at the Red Ridge K9 training center. If he wanted to talk to his daughter, he usually had to come to the training center, where she worked as a veterinarian. It was the same with Bea; he would have had to go to the bridal shop to see her. At least Gemma visited him, but it was usually to ask for money.

He ran his hands over his tailored suit, plucking a strand of dog hair from the expensive fabric. Then he touched his hair, making sure the blond piece hadn’t slipped. As mayor of Red Ridge, he had to make sure he always looked good. “You called him,” he surmised.

“I had to,” she said, and her voice was sharp with resentment. Patience didn’t understand business like Layla did. Like Blake did...

“He’s not going to help,” Fenwick said. It wasn’t a question. He knew that with just as much certainty as he knew that Blake had returned to Red Ridge.

Patience looked up from her desk now. “He might. He will,” she persisted, but she sounded more like she was trying to convince herself than she was him. “Why else did he come home?”

That was what worried Fenwick. If Blake hadn’t come back to help his family, then he probably had another reason—a personal reason—for returning to Red Ridge.

“You shouldn’t have called him,” Fenwick admonished her.

“He’s your son,” she said. “My brother. He deserved to hear what’s going on with the family from one of us.”

Fenwick suspected the media had probably beaten Patience to the punch, though. Coltons were news. And a Colton scandal was even bigger news.

Damn his reprobate cousin Rusty and his equally disreputable kids for causing such a scandal. But it went beyond a scandal. Rusty’s daughter Demi was a murderer. Evidence and witnesses proved—to him, at least—that she was the psycho killing grooms-to-be because she’d been dumped by her own one-week fiancé. Of course a Colton being a killer wasn’t news. Other Colton family members—very distant family members out of state—had committed murder, as well.

Fenwick didn’t know what he might be forced to do if Layla wasn’t able to carry out their plan of marrying to save the company. This damn Groom Killer nonsense was threatening their livelihood. But now that might not be all that was threatened.

“You shouldn’t have called him,” Fenwick repeated, “because you might have put him in danger.”

Patience’s dark eyes narrowed. “What are you talking about?”

“This maniac,” Fenwick said, “is killing grooms. Men.” He was a little scared for himself—not that he had any intention of getting married again. Three times was more than enough. And he had more fun dating than he’d ever had being married.

“Blake isn’t engaged,” Patience said. “He’s not marrying anyone. He didn’t even have a serious girlfriend when he did live at home. So I doubt there’s anyone in Red Ridge he would be tempted to propose to.”

Fenwick wished he could trust that. “Couples are afraid to go public. Engagements have been canceled. Everyone is afraid of the Groom Killer. But that hasn’t stopped anyone from coupling up in private.”

He could think of at least six new couples in Red Ridge—some damn unlikely couples.

“And you know your brother,” Fenwick continued. “If anyone tells that stubborn kid not to do something, he’s twice as determined to do it.”

Like build his own damn company. Fenwick had told the boy not to do it, that he didn’t have what it took. Hell, he’d been fresh out of graduate school with his MBA and had no real business experience when he’d begun his “start-up.” But Blake had had to go out and prove him wrong.

He was so damn stubborn it would be just like him to try to prove Fenwick wrong now about getting engaged. But then he wouldn’t be risking just some money.

He would be risking his life.

Chapter 3

Juliette sat on one of the chairs in the row outside the chief’s office. She’d given her report and she had helped Pandora give hers as well as a description of the shooter to Detective Carson Gage who would be working the murder case.

The last thing the Red Ridge Police Department could handle right now was another murder investigation. They were already spread so thin with the Groom Killer murders and the suspected criminal activities of the Larson twins. Did the RRPD have enough resources left to protect Pandora? That was what Juliette wanted to know, what she waited outside the chief’s office to discuss with him.

But of course, Finn Colton was busy. So busy that she had to wait. The receptionist was busy, as well, taking one call after another. Usually they would have had time to talk while Juliette waited to see the chief. She would have asked Lorelei about her teenage kids, and Lorelei would have asked about Pandora.

Elle was with Pandora, coloring pictures in the conference room and trying to get her to eat the pizza she’d ordered for them. Elle was a good friend.

The only person Juliette had told about that night nearly five years ago. The night she’d felt like Cinderella being invited to the ball.

The invitation she’d received had come in the form of a tip from a hotel guest. Juliette had been cleaning the woman’s room all week. She’d sought Juliette out a couple of times for more towels, to restock the minibar, and she’d talked to her like Juliette was a person and not just a maid. The woman had compelled Juliette to confide in her about working two jobs to pay off her late mother’s medical bills and tuition for community college.

So later that week Juliette was disappointed that the woman had checked out before her business conference ended. She was even more surprised that instead of finding money as a tip, she found a note lying atop a glittering mound of a gown and some sky-high heels and long, dangling glittery earrings. The note read:

No cash for a tip, but take these as thanks. Had my heart broken in them and will never wear again.

Juliette wasn’t so sure that was the case. The woman she’d met had seemed too strong and self-reliant to care much if her heart had been broken. She’d probably left her the items instead of cash because she’d known the cash would have just gone toward those medical bills. The shoes and earrings and that glittery gown were something Juliette never would have bought for herself. One, she couldn’t have afforded them. And two, she wouldn’t have needed them since she had no place to wear them. But lying beneath the note was a ticket granting her entry to the conference awards black tie dinner.

Because of her mom’s long illness, Juliette had skipped her high school prom a couple of years ago. It hadn’t mattered much to her then—not as much as it had meant to her mother, who’d felt so bad that Juliette hadn’t attended it. But it wasn’t as if Juliette had had a date anyway. And even if she had, she wouldn’t have wanted to miss a minute left of her mother’s limited time.

Juliette had already forgotten her father because he had died when she was very young. At least now her parents, who’d been high school sweethearts, were together again.

And Juliette was alone. Should she dress up and give herself the prom she’d missed? But instead of goofing around with high school kids who didn’t understand how precious life was, she would be socializing with adults, with accomplished businesspeople.

The idea thrilled her too much for her to resist. The guest had been like a fairy godmother leaving behind that dress and heels and earrings. All that was missing were the carriage and the horses. But Juliette didn’t need a pumpkin and some mice. She had her own vehicle.

When her shift ended, she left the hotel in her maid’s drab uniform with her tips tucked inside her backpack. Her friend, who was going to cosmetology school, was thrilled to do her hair and makeup, so just a few short hours later, Juliette returned to the hotel where she worked. But not even her coworkers recognized her as she swept into the ballroom wearing those impossibly high and dainty heels as well as the long, nude-colored glittery gown. Her hair was half up and half down in some complicated style that defied gravity. And when she moved, the long dangling earrings brushed against her neck. For the first time in her life, Juliette felt like a princess. Even then she’d suspected it would be the last time she would ever feel like this.

So she’d vowed then and there to make the most of this magical evening. To experience everything that she could—because she knew very well how short life could be. Her ball wasn’t exactly what she’d expected, though. Her fairy godmother must not have been the only one who’d cut the conference short, because the ballroom was not crowded, which made him impossible to miss.

He was younger than most of the other men in the room, and by far the most handsome in his black tuxedo. He was lean and muscular and just the right height that with these heels on, she would be able to stare into his eyes. Eyes that she knew were green and sharp with his keen intelligence. He wasn’t much older than she was, but he already had his MBA.

Blake Colton. The only male heir of the wealthy branch of the Colton family. He was the prince of Red Ridge. And Juliette was...

For the night, Cinderella.

She felt the moment he noticed her—because her pulse quickened, and her skin began to tingle. She didn’t even need to look up to know that he was coming toward her. Her heart beat faster and faster as he drew nearer to her.

“Hello,” a deep voice murmured.

She turned and stared right into his eyes. And she knew in that moment, she never wanted to look away. She didn’t just see him; she saw herself in his eyes—the way she wanted to be: beautiful, interesting, happy.

He sucked in a breath, and she knew that he felt it, too—that instant and intense attraction between them. He extended a hand to her, and it shook slightly. “I—I’m Blake Colton.”

She knew who he was. Hell, everybody in Red Ridge knew who he was. But he didn’t know that she was from Red Ridge. She could have been from anywhere—could have been anyone. And for tonight, she could pretend that she was.

But her first instinct was to be honest, so she murmured, “I’m Juliette...” And she put her hand in his.

He cocked his head, and a lock of dark blond hair tumbled across his forehead. He was obviously waiting for her last name.

But instead of giving it to him, she just smiled.

He chuckled. “You’re going to be mysterious,” he said.

Her smile widened. “I’m going to be smart.”

Just in case she got caught crashing the event, she didn’t want to get fired from her job. Technically, since he was a Colton, and she worked for the Colton Plaza Hotel, he was her boss. He could even fire her.

“You don’t trust me,” he said.

“I don’t know you,” she said.

He uttered a sigh, as if that was a relief—that she didn’t know him. But then he said, “Let’s change that. Let’s get to know each other.” He entwined their fingers and tugged her along with him as he headed out of the ballroom.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

He stopped near the bank of elevators and pressed the up button. While he didn’t live in the hotel, he had a suite reserved on the twenty-first floor. Was this why? Because he could pick up women as easily as he’d picked up her?

He turned back to her. “I want to see you under the stars,” he said. “There’s a bar on the roof, and a band. A better one than the conference has. I suspect that’s where everyone has gone.”

So he hadn’t just assumed she’d go to his room. That was good. But she had to acknowledge a flash of disappointment. She wouldn’t have been upset at being invited to see his suite. The night wasn’t over yet. She’d just left the ball, and she didn’t mind since she was leaving with the prince. The elevator doors swooshed open to a full car of rowdy-sounding guests. They must have been abandoning the quieter bar in the lobby for the rooftop lounge.

She stepped back, willing to wait for the next elevator. But Blake pulled her inside with him. As crowded as it was, they had to stand very close to each other—so close that they touched everywhere. Arm, hip, thigh...

A guest jostled Juliette, and her heel twisted, nearly twisting her ankle, as well, but Blake’s arm slid around her waist, pulling her more tightly against him. Even after the doors opened and they exited onto the roof, Blake kept his arm around her.

He led her onto the dance floor and pulled her closer yet as he held her in his arms. They danced slowly—slower even than the beat of the music. It was as if Blake, too, wanted to savor every minute of the evening like Juliette did.

He stared at her so intently that she lifted a hand to her face and asked, “What’s wrong?”

Had her makeup run down her face? She usually didn’t wear this much, but her friend had applied it heavily, to make Juliette look older—like the accomplished businesswoman her fairy godmother had been.

Blake lifted her hand from her face and replaced it with his, sliding his thumb along her jaw. “You are so beautiful—” he uttered a wistful sigh “—more beautiful than the stars themselves...”

She smiled. Her prince was definitely charming. Not that he was hers...except maybe for this night. A night she intended to make the most of—while it lasted.

They danced until the band stopped for a break. Then Blake, his arm still around her, began to steer her toward the rooftop bar.

But Juliette saw who the bartender was, a young man she’d turned down for a date several times. If he recognized her and—given how he always stared at her—he probably would, she knew he would blow her cover and destroy her evening. So she dug in her heels and propelled them to a stop.

“Don’t you want a drink after all that dancing?” Blake asked.

“Uh, yes...” Despite the cool autumn air blowing around the roof top, she was hot and flushed, but that was more from his closeness than from the dancing. “But not here...”

Blake glanced down at her. “Then where?”

She knew what he would think, but she didn’t care. She didn’t want her ball to end at midnight. She was greedier than Cinderella. She wanted longer than a few hours and more than a few dances. She wanted Blake. “Your room.”

He stared into her eyes, and as he did, his pupils dilated, swallowing the green. Then, his arm around her, he led her back to the elevators. But a line had already formed for them. So he pushed open the door to the stairs. “It’s just one flight down,” he assured her.

But when her heel slipped on one of the steps, he swung her up in his arms. “We can’t have you breaking an ankle,” he murmured.

“I can take off the shoes,” she offered. She didn’t want to break an ankle, either, because when this evening was over, she would have to go back to her real life and her two jobs and mountain of bills.

“I have you,” he assured her.

A wistful sigh slipped through her lips. She wished he had her, but he didn’t even know her. If he did, he wouldn’t be carrying her; he would be asking her for extra towels. But she wasn’t going to worry about that now. She was just going to enjoy being treated like a princess. So she linked her arms around his neck and snuggled against him, brushing her lips over his throat.

His pulse leaped beneath her mouth, and he tensed. “Now I might slip,” he murmured. But he was already on the landing, pushing open the door with his shoulder. A few strides down the hall and he stopped outside a door. “You’ll need to take the key card from my pocket,” he said, and his voice sounded strange, strangled.

She smiled and slid one hand over his ass.

He nearly jumped and cleared his throat. “Not that pocket. Inside jacket pocket.”

So she moved her hand between them, pushing aside his jacket to run her fingers down his dress shirt and over the rippling muscles beneath the silk.

“You need to find that key,” he said through gritted teeth, “quickly.”

“Why?”

He showed her why—with his mouth. He lowered his head and brushed his lips across hers before deepening the kiss.

Passion coursed through Juliette, and she kissed him back with all the desire she felt for him. Her hands moved through his short, spiky dark gold hair as she held his head to hers.

His arms tightened around her, and he shuddered slightly. Lifting his mouth from hers, he panted for breath and murmured, “The key card...”

She fumbled inside his jacket until she found it. When she pulled it out, the card nearly slipped from her fingers. Blake caught it and swiped it through the lock. Then he pushed open the door and carried her over the threshold.

The significance of the gesture must have sobered him a little because he set her on her feet and closed the door. And as he did, he ran his hand through the hair she’d tousled. “I—I got carried away,” he murmured, his face flushed.

“Uh, technically I was the one who got carried away,” she said. “Or carried down...the stairs.”

His sexy mouth curved into a grin. But the humor didn’t entirely reach his green eyes; he still looked troubled. Maybe he’d changed his mind about bringing her to his room. He left her standing by the door as he headed to the bar on the other side of the large suite.

“Don’t worry,” she assured him. “I know you carrying me over the threshold doesn’t make me your bride.”

He shuddered at the thought.

She’d been so hot earlier—in his arms, with his mouth on hers. But now she was chilled.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “It’s just that I want nothing to do with marriage. My dad has had more than his share of marriages and I don’t think any of them made him happy.” His mouth pulled down into a frown now. “Actually I don’t think anything makes him happy...except maybe his company and his money...”

“I’m sure that you do,” she said. “That he loves you very much...” He had to be so proud of Blake; she’d heard that instead of going to work for Colton Energy with his oldest sister, Blake had launched his own successful start-up company straight out of business school.

He snorted. “You don’t know my father,” he said. “He doesn’t love anyone but himself.”

She’d heard that Fenwick Colton was one selfish son of a bitch. But how could he not love his own child?

She’d been feeling sorry for herself until now—until realizing that even though she’d lost her parents, at least she’d had no doubt that she had made them happy and that they had loved her.

His jaw was tense, a muscle ticking in his cheek. “I’m not going to make the mistakes he has. No marriage for me. No kids. Then nobody will feel like they don’t matter as much as business does to me—because that is all that’s going to ever matter to me.”

He was warning her, but it wasn’t a warning that she needed. She had no intention of getting married or having kids, either. She was taking criminal justice courses at community college because she wanted to be a cop, specifically a K9 cop. Her other job was helping out at the Red Ridge canine training center, and she loved working with the dogs.

“Maybe I’m more like my dad than I realized,” he murmured. Along with Blake’s words, she heard the pain and resentment in his voice. And she felt his pain, as well.

She stepped away from the door, crossing the room to where he stood by the bar with the wall of windows behind him, looking down on Red Ridge. Like she’d always thought he would look down on her.

But Blake Colton wasn’t the spoiled, privileged prince she’d thought he would be. He was vulnerable and charming and incredibly handsome. He sighed and blew out a ragged breath. “I’m so sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t be thinking about anything but how lucky I am.”

She’d always thought he’d been born with a silver spoon in his mouth. But while he didn’t have to worry about money, he had more emotional concerns.

He stepped closer and touched her chin. Sliding his fingertips along her jaw, he tipped her face up toward his. “I’m the luckiest man in Red Ridge that you came back to my room with me.”

Her lips curved into a smile. And there was the charm again. Her prince...

She linked her arms around his neck again and pulled his head down for her kiss. She’d just felt his vulnerability, his pain, and she sought to soothe it with her lips and her passion. That kiss led to more—to making love the entire evening—over and over again.

But just before dawn, when Juliette had heard the creak and clatter of a cart in the corridor, she’d remembered who she was and that she had a shift to begin soon. So she’d slipped out of the arms of her sleeping prince, back into her dress and heels and into the hall.

Within minutes the dress and heels had been stowed in her locker, and she’d been back in her drab uniform of a Colton Plaza Hotel maid. Hours later, Blake had passed her in the hall while she was wearing that uniform, and he hadn’t noticed her at all.

And she’d realized the night that had seemed so special to her was just a dream born of a silly fantasy. She was no Cinderella and Blake Colton was no prince charming. He would never try to find her and propose. He’d made it all too clear what he thought of marriage and that he never intended to make the mistakes his father had made—with women or children.

So when she’d missed her period and taken that pregnancy test, she’d been reluctant to seek him out with the news that he was going to be the father he’d sworn he never wanted to become. She’d known he would be furious with her—maybe even think she’d tricked him.

But before she’d been able to build up her courage to confront him, she’d seen in the Red Ridge Gazette “People” section that he’d left Red Ridge and not just for a vacation. He intended to launch his start-up company in other countries and call it Blake Colton International.

International...

So why was he back in town?

He wanted to talk to Juliette. Why? What did he want from her? Their child? He’d vowed he’d never wanted to be a father. That was why, even when Elle had been urging her to tell him, Juliette had hesitated to seek him out. She hadn’t wanted him to reject his child.

But he hadn’t looked at Pandora like he was going to reject her. Juliette closed her eyes as fear overwhelmed her. Why had he wanted to see their daughter now—when she’d just witnessed a crime?

Now Juliette had to worry about losing Pandora to her father as well as to a killer.

Chapter 4

Blake paced the suite on the twenty-first floor of the Colton Plaza Hotel. This was the same room where he’d spent that incredible evening with Juliette. He hadn’t known her last name then. And after she’d slipped away from him, he hadn’t even known if Juliette was her real first name or if she’d just been a Shakespeare fan. He’d had no idea who she really was. Hell, he still didn’t know who she was or even if she would show up like he’d requested.

He stopped at the windows that looked down onto the lights of Red Ridge. He’d turned on only one of the lamps in the room, so his reflection stared back at him in the glass.

And he had to be honest. He hadn’t requested that she come; he’d demanded. Maybe he was more like his old man than he’d thought—than he’d ever hoped to be. But then, he had every reason to make demands of Juliette. She’d been lying to him—that night all those years ago and every day since, when she’d kept his daughter from him.

The fury he’d felt when he’d seen her—with that child in her arms—coursed through him again. He was not going to spend another day in the dark. Hell, he was not going to spend another minute. He’d give her a little more time to show up tonight. Then he would track her down, and at least this time—unlike last—he knew where to look for her. At the Red Ridge Police Department...

She’d been wearing a uniform. She worked there. He shouldn’t have left the building. He should have talked to his cousin Finn, but not about what was going on in Red Ridge. He should have asked him about Juliette and about what the hell crime her—their—daughter had witnessed.

How much danger were she and her mother in? Was that why Juliette hadn’t shown up yet? Had something happened?

Too anxious for answers, Blake turned away from the windows and headed toward the door. When he jerked it open, he found her standing in the hall—as if she’d been trying to work up her nerve or her courage to face him.

He glanced around her, but she was alone. She hadn’t brought the little girl or her dog. She wasn’t wearing her uniform anymore, either. She’d changed into a khaki skirt and a loose blouse. It didn’t matter what she wore—that glittery gown from years ago, the uniform or casual clothes—like a blonde doll getting dressed up in different outfits, she looked beautiful in anything.

But she was the most beautiful in nothing at all...

“You’re here,” he murmured, and instinctively he reached out to touch her, to see if she was real. Because when he’d thought about that night for the past five years, he’d always wondered if it had really happened or if it had just been some fantasy he’d conjured up.

Before he could brush his hand across her cheek, she flinched and stepped back. “That’s not why I came here.”

She must have thought he was making a pass. And he hadn’t been—at least, not consciously.

“That’s not why I asked you here,” he said. He stepped back so she could enter the suite.

But she hesitated, as if she didn’t believe him.

“Seriously,” he said. “All I want from you is the truth. You damn well owe me that.” She’d owed him that for the past five years.

She drew in a deep breath and stepped across the threshold, which reminded him of that night, of how he’d carried her across it and freaked out. She glanced up, met his gaze and nodded, as if she remembered it, too. “That’s why,” she said. “Even if I could have found you after you left town, I didn’t think you’d want to know. You’d made it clear that you didn’t want to be a father—ever.”

He still didn’t. But he didn’t have a choice now. He was one. Wasn’t he?

“So she is mine?”

She hesitated a moment, as if debating whether she could get away with lying about it.

“I’ll ask for a paternity test,” he warned her. No matter what she told him, he should do that anyway. But he didn’t need one. That little girl looked like him—down to the dimple in her left cheek.

Color rushed to her pale skin as her face flushed. “She’s yours.”

He hadn’t shut the door yet, so he looked into the hall again. Empty. “Why didn’t you bring her?” he asked as he closed the door.

He hadn’t chosen to be a father, but now that he was one, he wanted to know about his child. He wanted to see her, to talk to her, to hold her...especially when he remembered how upset she’d been at the police department. The tears, the fear...

Juliette’s teeth sank into her bottom lip and she shook her head. And in her eyes were the same tears and fear that had been in her daughter’s.

“What happened today?” he asked. “What crime did she witness?” He should have asked that earlier—should have demanded his answers then. But he’d been too stunned to think, to feel anything but shock.

“Murder,” Juliette replied.

And that shock struck him again. He shook his head. “No...” He’d known there had been some murders in Red Ridge, but those had involved grooms. “Were you two at a wedding?”

Juliette shook her head. “We were at the park. She was sitting on top of the tall slide, and she saw a man and woman in the parking lot.” She shivered. “She told me and the detective later what happened—that the woman opened a suitcase full of bags of sand and the man pulled out a gun and shot her. Then he threw the suitcase in the car and came after us.” Her voice cracked with that fear.

And Blake instinctively reached for her again. But this time she didn’t pull away. Instead she let him tug her into his arms and hold her as she trembled against him.

“What happened then?” he asked.

Obviously, she and the little girl had gotten away from the killer. But he wanted the details, needing to know how close he had come to losing them before he’d even known they were here.

“I hid Pandora in the tunnel under the slide...”

Pandora. That was the little girl’s name.

“He didn’t find her?”

“He found us,” Juliette said. “But before he could shoot us, I shot him.”

He shuddered now. He hadn’t known her at all five years ago. She’d seemed so refined—so delicate—but she was much stronger than he’d known.

“I just grazed his shoulder, and he got away before I could arrest him,” she said, her voice heavy with regret. “He told me that he’d get her, though. And I know that he will try. She saw him kill that woman.”

That poor little girl. Nobody should have to witness something so horrific, let alone a child.

He pulled Juliette’s trembling body even closer to his. But he wasn’t sure whom he was trying to comfort now—her or himself. “Where is she?”

“The woman died.”

“No,” he said. “Your—our—” His voice cracked as he corrected himself, and he felt a rush of his own fear. “Our daughter,” he continued. “Where is she?”

Juliette’s breath shuddered out, brushing softly across his throat. Then she stepped back, out of his embrace, and wrapped her arms around herself. “I talked the chief into putting her in a safe house. The killer saw my uniform, so I’m sure he will be able to figure out who I am easily enough and where we live.”

“You’re in danger, too, then,” he said, and he fought the urge to reach for her again, to hold her in his arms and keep her safe. “If he got close enough for you to shoot him, you saw him.”

She nodded. “He was wearing sunglasses and a hood. But the hood blew back, and the glasses slipped down...” She shuddered again. “And I’ll never forget that face, those eyes...”

He’d once said the same thing about her—that he would never forget her. And that had scared him, too, but no way near to the extent that she was afraid. She feared for her life. He’d feared only for his heart.

“So you can identify him,” he said. Hopefully the Red Ridge Police Department could find the guy and put him behind bars for life for the life he’d taken.

“I looked through all the mug shots and—” she shook her head “—nothing. I thought he looked familiar, but I couldn’t find any arrest or outstanding warrant for him.” Her brow furrowed with frustration.

That same frustration coursed through him. Now there was more than one killer on the loose in Red Ridge. But this killer wasn’t after just grooms. He was after Juliette and Blake’s daughter.

“I’m going to hire private guards to watch that safe house,” he said. He’d heard of a reputable security firm out of River City, Michigan. He would hire the Payne Protection Agency to guard his little girl. He hadn’t known he was a father until now—but now that he knew, he was going to do the best he could by his daughter.

Juliette shook her head. “That’s not necessary. Red Ridge PD will protect her. She has an officer staying with her inside the house and another one patrolling outside it. She has police protection 24-7.”

And what about Juliette? Who was protecting her? Nobody had been in the hall with her when she’d arrived. Was there anyone waiting outside to protect her? Or had she come alone?

Blake shook his head. “The department is spread too thin right now. Surely you must realize that—with a serial killer on the loose and then this...murder involving drugs...”

What the hell had happened to Red Ridge since he’d been gone? When he was growing up here, it used to feel like nothing ever happened—except for that one night. But now too much was happening in Red Ridge.

Too damn much crime...

Juliette’s face flushed again, and finally she nodded in agreement. “Our resources are limited right now...”

And they were about to get more limited. That was another reason Patience had called him. If their father lost Colton Energy, Red Ridge would lose their funding for the K9 program, as well. His late first wife’s trust had originally funded the program, and he’d taken over when that had run out.

If the program ended, then Juliette would probably lose her job—her way of supporting their daughter, which she’d been doing alone.

Until now.

“You’ll have to run it past the chief, though,” she cautioned him.

That wasn’t all Blake intended to run past the chief. He intended to make sure Juliette had protection, as well. But he didn’t bring it up now because he didn’t want to argue with her while she was upset.

“He doesn’t even want me going to visit Pandora at the safe house,” she remarked, and there was a little catch in her voice, as if she was choking down a sob.

Blake reached for her again, pulling her against him. His body tensed as attraction overwhelmed him.

“I’ve never been separated from her before,” Juliette said. “She’s never spent a night away from me...”

And his attraction cooled as his anger returned. Now he stepped back, breaking the physical connection with her. And physical was all they would ever have—if that. She was a woman he would never be able to trust—not after how she’d misled him five years ago.

Obviously she had not been the rich businesswoman he’d thought she was. And then to keep his daughter from him...

“I can’t say the same,” he remarked resentfully. “All I’ve been is separated from her. You should have told me...”

“I told you why,” she said, and she gestured at the door and that threshold. “I didn’t think you’d want to be part of her life.”

He shook his head, rejecting her excuse. “I should have been given the chance to decide that for myself,” he said. “You should have told me.”

She shrugged. “You were already gone.”

“But all my family is still in Red Ridge,” he said. Except for his mother, who was always traveling. “You could have found me.”

She snorted. “Like you tried to find me?”

“I told you, I tried,” he said. “But after you snuck out in the middle night without even giving me your last name, I didn’t have much to go on.”

“You walked right past me,” she said.

He laughed. Like that would have been possible. There was no way he wouldn’t have noticed her, especially after that night. “When?”

“The very next day,” she said. “Just out in the hallway.” She gestured toward the door again. “But then, I didn’t expect you to notice me. I was just the hired help.”

He snorted now. “Yeah, right...in that dress, those heels...” The earrings. He still had those. She’d left them on the nightstand next to the bed.

“Those were a tip from a hotel guest,” she said. “I was a maid here, putting myself through college.”

He narrowed his eyes. “What was that night about?” Had she deliberately set out to seduce him? To get pregnant? But if that had been her plan, why hadn’t she told him when she’d gotten pregnant?

If she’d been after money, that would have been the time for her to ask. But she’d never asked. She had raised their daughter all these years with no financial support from him. Unless she’d gotten it from someone else...

He narrowed his eyes and studied her face. “What were you after?”

Maybe it wasn’t him at all. His father dated only younger women. Blake felt physically sick at the thought of her with Fenwick Colton.

“Nothing,” she said. “I didn’t want anything from you then and I don’t want anything from you now.”

“You already took something from me,” he said. “My daughter—and nearly five years of her life.”

Juliette flinched. “I’m sorry. I really didn’t think you’d care...”

That night he’d told her so much—about his family—about himself. He’d been vulnerable with her in a way that he’d never been vulnerable with anyone else. Maybe she’d thought he was like his father despite his vow that he didn’t want to be. Maybe she’d thought he was too selfish to care about his kids or anyone else.

“You should have let me decide,” he said.

Her face flushed again, and she slowly nodded in agreement. “You’re right. I’m sorry.” Her voice cracked with emotion. “I can’t give those years back to you, but I can show you pictures. Videos. Christmas and birthdays and Halloween parties.”

His chest ached at the thought of all those milestones he’d missed. But photos and videos wouldn’t tell him what he really wanted to know. “What is she like?”

Juliette’s lips curved into a smile, and her already beautiful face became even more so as love radiated from within her. “She’s amazing. So sweet. So generous. So funny...” She chuckled as if remembering something.

Something he’d missed. He’d missed a lot of somethings that nothing could bring back. No matter what she told him.

She shared stories with him. Story after story about something Pandora had done or said. And finally she must have noticed that while he listened, he said nothing. His heart ached too much over all the time he’d lost with his child.

She reached out now and ran her hand down his arm. “I’m sorry,” she said again, and tears glistened in her blue eyes until she blinked them back. “I’m so sorry...” It was obvious she felt guilty now.

But Blake couldn’t absolve her of that guilt. He couldn’t change what had happened or get back those years he’d lost. And because of that, he would never be able to forgive her.

She had kept so much from him—his daughter and the truth about who and what she was. So he would never be able to trust her, either.

* * *

Finn looked pointedly at his wrist as he opened his condo door for his late-night visitor. He wasn’t wearing a watch, though. He’d taken that off when he’d gone to bed a couple of hours ago. He was not happy that he’d had to leave his sexy, naked fiancée in that bed alone to answer the door.

Not that anyone knew he was engaged. Because of that damn Groom Killer, he and Darby were forced to keep their engagement secret. He suspected theirs wasn’t the only secret engagement in town.

“What do you want, Blake?” He’d heard his billionaire cousin was back in Red Ridge, but he hadn’t seen him yet. He could have waited until daylight for that. Maybe Blake was still on whatever time zone he lived in now.

“I need to talk to you about Juliette...”

“Walsh?” Finn finished for him. That was the only Juliette he knew.

Blake’s handsome face twisted into a slight grimace as he nodded. “Yes, Walsh.”

Finn wrinkled his brow. “How do you know that particular K9 cop?” Juliette’s partner specialized in drug sniffing. Had Sasha gotten a hit on Blake?

A lot of spoiled rich kids got involved in drugs. But Blake, despite being the only male heir to the rich branch of the Colton family, wasn’t spoiled. Finn knew he’d worked damn hard to establish his own business without his father’s help. Maybe that was because he’d been trying to spite his father, though.

“I met Juliette before I left Red Ridge,” Blake said—almost reluctantly.

“That was nearly five years ago,” Finn remembered. “How would your paths have crossed? Juliette was working two jobs back then to pay off her mother’s medical bills and put herself through college.” He had a lot of respect for the young woman’s work ethic. That was why he was damn happy to have her as part of his police force.

A ragged breath escaped Blake’s lips. “I—I didn’t know that...”

“So you didn’t know her well, then,” Finn said. Sounded like he hadn’t even known her last name. “What’s with your sudden interest in her now?”

“I—I know she and her daughter are in danger,” Blake said. “And I want to help.”

Finn furrowed his brow again. “That’s not necessary.” A civilian like Blake would only get in Finn’s way. “I’ve got it handled. The little girl is in a safe house with around-the-clock protection—”

“Juliette should be in the safe house, too,” Blake said. “With the child.”

Finn nodded. “I tried that. She refused to go into hiding.” He suspected she wanted to personally catch the killer who’d traumatized her daughter. “I’ll have other officers watching her at all times.”

Blake shook his head. “That’s not enough. With all these murders, the Red Ridge PD is spread too thin.”

Finn couldn’t argue with that. He was damn tired of not being able to find Demi. He would have rather she was the cousin who had paid him this late-night visit, so he could figure out whether or not she was the Groom Killer. He suspected not, and there was a psycho on the loose in Red Ridge.

Then he also had the Larson twins and all the criminal activities he suspected they were behind to deal with, as well. He needed more than suspicions to nail them, though. He needed proof. But the officers he’d put on surveillance of the twins’ real estate company hadn’t come up with anything yet.

“We’re spread a little thin,” he reluctantly admitted. “But we protect our own. Nothing will happen to Juliette or her daughter.” He would make damn sure of that.

Blake shook his head again, and there was a slightly wild look in his green eyes. Fear. He was really afraid for Juliette and Pandora. But why did a woman he’d barely known years ago matter so much to him?

“I’m hiring a private security company out of Michigan,” he said. “I want to have bodyguards backing up the police at the safe house and the car following Juliette around.”

Finn groaned. He didn’t need outsiders getting in his way any more than he needed billionaire Coltons. He already had Blake’s father breathing down his neck to find Demi; he didn’t need Blake breathing down his neck, too. At least his father had a reason; he was worried about his business. Apparently his daughter was supposed to marry a zillionaire to save Colton Energy in a merger. But because of the Groom Killer, Layla Colton’s fiancé had called off the necessary wedding.

What was Blake’s reason?

So Finn asked, “Why do you care so damn much about a woman you must not have seen in five years?”

Blake’s jaw clenched so tightly that a muscle twitched in his cheek—in his left cheek with the deep dimple in it. The same one Juliette’s little girl had.

“She’s yours,” Finn said with sudden realization. “Juliette’s daughter is yours.”

Blake nodded.

“I didn’t know...” Finn murmured. How had the Red Ridge rumor mill missed that juicy bit of gossip? Hell, how had the media?

“Neither did I,” Blake replied.

And Finn flinched for him. Obviously, his cousin had just learned that he was a father—as his daughter was in danger. He reached out and squeezed his shoulder. “I don’t know what to say, man...”

“Say that you’ll accept my help,” Blake said. “These bodyguards are the best.”

Finn sighed.

“And along with the bodyguards, I intend to protect Juliette myself,” Blake said.

Finn snorted.

Blake tensed, looking offended.

“Come on,” Finn said. “You’re no bodyguard.” He was a billionaire.

“The bodyguards will be there, too,” Blake pointed out. “So will your officers.”

“Yeah, so you don’t need to be,” Finn said.

“Yes, I do.”

And from the determination in his cousin’s voice, Finn knew there would be no arguing him out of it. Even if he flat-out told him not to, he suspected Blake would follow her around anyway.

“Why?” he asked again. Blake’s revelation explained why he wanted the extra protection on Pandora but not on Juliette. “Why would you put your life in danger for someone who didn’t even tell you that you had a kid?”

Blake sighed. “This isn’t about me. It’s about that little girl. She can’t lose the only parent she knows.”

Finn echoed Blake’s sigh in agreement. But he had to point out, “She might lose both of you since you’re putting your life in danger, too.”

Chapter 5

“Why can’t you come tuck me in, Mommy?” The question emanated from the speakers in Juliette’s personal vehicle since her cell had connected via Bluetooth.

She wanted more than anything to be with her daughter, to hold her in her arms. She had only missed that first night of tucking Pandora into bed, but Elle had assured Juliette that the little girl had been so exhausted she’d fallen immediately to sleep. That was not the case tonight. Tonight, she was so upset that Elle had had to call Juliette to settle her down.

Pandora seemed to be getting more and more upset. She wanted to be with Juliette as badly as Juliette wanted to be with her. They were all each other had ever had. And it was killing Juliette to be away from her.

Last night Juliette had had a distraction—that meeting with Blake. It had gone better than she’d expected it would. While he had been angry with her, he hadn’t been as furious as he could have been with her, as he probably should have been with her.

But he’d been too concerned about the danger she and Pandora were in to focus too much on what she’d done. On how she’d betrayed him. She had no doubt that, despite her apologies, he hadn’t forgiven her, though.

He had just made keeping Pandora safe his top priority. But what would happen once the killer was caught? What would Blake do then?

He would want to meet his daughter. He deserved to meet his daughter. Yet right now that would be putting her at risk—just like Juliette visiting her would. That was why the chief had insisted that if she was determined to keep working, she couldn’t go to the safe house. They couldn’t risk the killer following Juliette to her daughter.

But when that soft voice emanated from the car speakers, breaking with sobs as she pleaded, “Mommy, come tuck me in...” Juliette worried that she’d made the wrong choice. Her heart ached with missing her little girl.

She’d thought that if she stayed on the job, she would be able to find the killer faster than her coworkers. After all, she’d seen him; they hadn’t. Hell, she’d even hoped to draw him out, so that this would all be over soon. So that she and Pandora could go back to their everyday, perfect life together.

But even after the killer was caught, they wouldn’t be able to do that—because of Blake Colton. No matter what, he would be part of their daughter’s life now. And that would make him part of Juliette’s. He wouldn’t be just a nearly five-year-old memory. Juliette focused on her daughter again. “Sweetheart, I wish I could be with you right now...”

But she loved her too much to put her in any more danger than she already was.

“I’m working right now, though, baby...”

A little hiccupping sob echoed throughout the car. “Did you get the bad man, Mommy?”

“Not yet, honey,” she said. “But I will find him pretty soon. Then we can go home.”

“I wanna go home now, Mommy!” Pandora said, and now her sobs became wails of frustration and anxiety.

Juliette’s already aching heart threatened to break. She hated when her daughter cried, which, until the day before in the park, had been very rarely.

“Shh, shh,” she tried to soothe the child. “Don’t cry, sweetheart. We will be together again soon.” They had to be. It was hurting Juliette as much as it was Pandora for them to be apart.

However, she didn’t know if putting the killer behind bars would guarantee that they would never be separated again. What if Blake wanted visitation? What if he would be the one putting their daughter to bed on some nights? But his life wasn’t here in Red Ridge; it was overseas, in various other countries, according to the tabloids. The same tabloids that had published photos of him with models and actresses and foreign royalty.

If not for Pandora, Juliette wouldn’t have believed that night had happened, because guys like Blake never noticed women like her. She wasn’t famous or rich or well connected.

“You gotta catch the bad man, Mommy,” the little girl pleaded. “You have to make sure that he doesn’t make us dead like he said...”

“You are safe,” Juliette promised her. “Nothing will happen to you.”

“Are you safe, Mommy?”

Juliette had thought she was. She’d had a very uneventful day despite spending it on the streets, talking to informants, trying to find out if anyone knew anything about the man Pandora had witnessed committing a murder or at least about the purple-haired woman he’d killed. Since Pandora had seen her with a suitcase of drugs, she must have been a dealer. But nobody had been talking.

Yet. She would keep at them until they did.

But while she’d felt safe during the day, she had an odd sensation now. And Sasha, sitting in her harness in the back seat, must have felt it, too, because the beagle suddenly sat up and strained against the pet safety belt.

“Yes, of course I’m safe,” Juliette assured her daughter. But then she noticed the glimmer of lights in the rearview mirror. She’d been driving for a while as she’d internally debated whether or not she should go to Pandora. So the routes she’d taken had been circuitous, leading toward neither her house nor the safe house. She’d just turned onto random roads until she found herself on the outskirts of Red Ridge in an area of greenhouses for one of the bigger plant nurseries. In July the greenhouses would be empty—too hot to use for the summer. So why were there lights behind her?

Who would be heading out this way? She didn’t think the road led to any housing developments.

A knot of apprehension tightened in her stomach as she faced the likelihood that the vehicle was out there only because it had followed her.

Who? Was it the shooter? Or one of those people Juliette had questioned today? Maybe one of them was ready to talk to her.

She hoped that was the case, but she had to be prepared that it was the former. The killer carrying out the threat he’d made on the playground.

Her pulse quickened. While she was afraid, she was also—oddly—hopeful. Maybe she wouldn’t have to search any longer to find him. Maybe he had found her.

The challenge was going to be taking him out before he could take out her. She couldn’t leave her daughter alone. But then, Pandora wouldn’t be alone. She had a father—a man she had never officially met, though.

“I have to go for now, honey,” Juliette told her daughter as she flipped off the headlights and made a sharp turn around one of the empty greenhouses. “But I will see you soon.”

As the vehicle following her also made the turn, she swallowed the fear that had rushed up on her. She hoped she would be able to keep that promise to her daughter. She hoped she would be able to see her again.

* * *

“Where the hell did she go?” Blake asked himself.

She’d suddenly shut off her lights. But despite that, with the moon shining brightly, he’d been able to see her vehicle turn into the plant nursery. He’d followed it between two greenhouses. But her car was gone.

At least, he couldn’t see it.

She couldn’t have gone far. His lights shone onto the fields behind the greenhouse. The trees in it were seedlings—not big enough to hide a vehicle, even one as small as her economy sedan.

He drove a little farther—to the end of the greenhouse. Then he rolled down his window to peer around the back of the long building. He felt a sudden presence. From the corner of his eye, he caught the glint of moonlight shining off the barrel of a gun—the one pointed right at his head.

Maybe his cousin Finn had been right. Maybe he should have left the security detail to the professionals. But he hadn’t even seen them following Juliette. He’d worried that she’d been left all alone.

“What the hell are you doing?” a female voice asked.

And now he kind of wished he’d left her alone. Juliette sounded furious with him. She pulled her gun back, sliding it into the holster on the belt of her uniform. She hadn’t changed even though her shift had ended a couple of hours ago. But with the threat against her and her daughter, she would always be on duty.

Until the killer was caught.

“I’m following you,” he said. He’d followed her all day as she’d gone from drug house to drug house. He knew she’d been looking for the killer or for information that would lead to him.

He was stunned that Red Ridge had areas like the ones where she’d gone. Had things changed that much in the past five years? Or had he been so sheltered and self-involved all those years ago that he hadn’t known those areas existed?

She uttered a sigh of pure exasperation. “I know you’re following me. But why?”

“To protect you.” His face heated now with embarrassment that he’d thought he could keep her safe. She was the one with a gun. His only weapon was his cell phone to call for help. For backup from the bodyguards and the police who were supposed to be following her. Where had they all gone?

She snorted. “How? By distracting me so I’ll miss seeing the killer if he finds me?”

How was Blake a distraction to her? Was it just his presence? Or was it because of their past? Because of what they’d shared that night and what they had, unbeknownst to him, created? A child...

“I didn’t mean to distract you,” he said.

“Well, you did...” Then she muttered something else, something that suspiciously sounded like, “You’ve been doing it for years...”

But he hadn’t been around for years. Had she thought of him as often as he’d thought of her? Probably not—because he’d thought about her all the time.

He pushed open the driver’s door to step out of his car. But she caught and held it.

“Get back inside,” she told. “Turn this car around and leave me alone.”

He sucked in a breath, not at her rejecting him—or at least not entirely because of that—but because of the thought of her being alone. Physically he was stronger than she was, so he managed to open the door. But he was careful that he didn’t hit her with it; he did propel her back a bit, though. Then he stepped out and shut the door—so there was nothing between them but a few feet of night air. He wanted to wrap his arms around her to protect her, but he was also furious with her.

“What the hell are you doing?” he asked her. “Why are you out here alone?”

Where were the bodyguards and the patrol car? he wondered again. They were supposed to be following her, too, and because of that, they were all aware of the make, model and license plate number of his rental vehicle.

He glanced around and noticed a faint glow of lights on the other side of one of the green houses. The tightness in his chest eased a little. They were here. She had backup.

She hadn’t answered him. Had she noticed the glow of lights, too? Maybe those were from her car, though. He still couldn’t see where she’d parked it. But it must have been close because he heard the low growl of her dog.

She must have, too, because she cocked her head and listened. And in the moonlight her brow furrowed.

“You aren’t meeting someone out here, are you?” he persisted. “I thought your shift ended hours ago.”

“It did,” she said. “But I didn’t want to go home...”

To an empty house. He could hear the pain in her voice, the ache of missing her daughter.

He felt both a twinge of sympathy and one of resentment. She knew their daughter enough to miss her. He didn’t even know the child.

“And Elle called me for Pandora,” she continued. “She wants to see me.”

“Finn thinks it’s too dangerous,” Blake said, “that someone could follow you.”

She sighed. “I guess he’s right. You followed me.”

“But you noticed me,” he pointed out.

Her lips curved into a slight smile as the moonlight bathed her face with a golden glow. “You’re not a professional,” she said. “You shouldn’t be trying to protect me. You’re only going to get hurt.”

“Too late,” he murmured. He already was—hurt over all the years he’d missed with his daughter.

The smile slipped away, and she closed her eyes. “I’m sorry...”

She knew what he was talking about—what he would probably never get over—because no matter what, he couldn’t get back those years he’d lost. He just had to make sure he didn’t lose any more with her.

“Do you think Finn would let me see her?” Blake asked.

Juliette gasped. “The chief knows? You told him?”

That twinge of resentment spread to an ache. “I’m not keeping a secret that never should have been one in the first place.”

Juliette’s teeth sank into her bottom lip as if she was physically holding back a protest.

“What are you worried about?” he asked. “What people will think of you?”

She shook her head. “I don’t care what people think. I didn’t grow up like you. I grew up in the poor area of Red Ridge. People always thought I was trash. So they can’t think any worse of me than that.”

Trash? He could not reconcile that impression with the one he’d carried of her the past nearly five years—of her in that glittery gown with those high heels and dangling earrings. She’d looked like a movie star. Or a princess...

Cinderella. That was who she’d been. His Cinderella...

But he hadn’t been able to find her. Until now...

“I’m worried about Pandora,” she said. “I don’t want her in any more danger than she already is.”

“So you want to keep me away from my daughter even longer?” he asked.

“I want to keep the killer away from her,” Juliette said. “If he learns that you’re her father—and once word gets out it will be all over the news—then he could follow you to her if you try to see her.”

And he couldn’t deny that he could probably be easily followed. But Juliette wasn’t the only one missing their daughter. She was missing her after just one day. He was missing five years.

But could he take the risk that he might put her in more danger than she already was? No.

* * *

This was a hell of a risk. But he had to take it; he had no choice. The longer the K9 cop and her little kid lived, the greater the chance they would identify him. He needed to get rid of her now.

She wasn’t alone, though.

He wasn’t the only one who’d followed her to the plant nursery. She’d led a damn parade here. So he had to be very careful when he took the shot. He had to make sure it counted—that it killed her—and that he had time to get away before anyone saw him.

Like those other guys, he’d been following her the whole damn day from the time she’d left the Red Ridge Police Department that morning. She’d spent the day shaking things up—talking to informants, visiting drug houses.

He knew why.

She was trying to find him, or at least someone who would tell her who he was. Hopefully all those people were too scared, not just of him but of the people who’d hired him, to talk. But they were drug users, and so they were unpredictable.

He couldn’t risk that someone might talk to her. He had to get rid of her. Now.

He stared through the scope of the long gun, trying to center her in the middle of it. But that damn guy kept getting in the way...

Who the hell was he? And why was he following her?

Beyond some mild curiosity, it didn’t really matter to him who the guy was, though. If he got in the way of the shot, he was going to be dead—like the beautiful K9 cop. And soon her cute little kid would be dead, too.

He put his finger on the trigger.

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