Unexpected Protector Read online

  It was time-consuming and grueling and it all ultimately led nowhere.

  * * *

  Serena Colton absolutely refused to buy into all the lurid hype surrounding her cousin Demi.

  Here, tucked away in her private wing of her parents’ vast, prosperous Double C Ranch, the story of Bo Gage’s murder and how Demi C was found written in Gage’s own blood beside his body sounded like the fanciful imaginings of a second-rate scriptwriter. Except that Bo Gage was found murdered and Demi’s name did appear to be written next to his body.

  “I don’t believe it,” Serena said to her three-month-old daughter, who was dozing in her arms. “There’s got to be another explanation for this, Lora. Sure, Demi has her shortcomings,” she readily admitted, “but she’s not a murderer.”

  Serena sighed, gently rocking her daughter as she restlessly paced around the very large bedroom. “You take all the time in the world growing up, Lora, you hear me? Stay little for as long as you can. And I’ll do my part. I won’t let anything like this ever touch you,” she whispered to the sleeping child. “I’ll keep you safe, little one. I promise.”

  As if to challenge the promise she had just made to her daughter, the sound of approaching sirens pierced the night air.

  The sirens grew progressively louder, coming closer.

  Worried, Serena moved to the window facing the front of the house and looked out. She was just in time to see the headlights from two police vehicles approaching the house—mansion, really—where she lived with her parents and younger sister, Valeria.

  “What could the police possibly want here, and at this hour?” Serena murmured under her breath. Her brother Finn was the police chief and he wouldn’t be coming here like this unless there was something very, very wrong—would he? She couldn’t help wondering.

  As if in response, Lora stirred in her arms. But mercifully, the baby went on sleeping. Although how she didn’t wake up with all this noise was a complete mystery to Serena. The sirens had gone silent, but in their wake came the loud, urgent pounding of a fist against the front door.

  Her heart was instantly in her throat. The next second, she heard her parents and Valeria all rushing down the stairs to answer the door.

  Still holding her daughter in her arms, Serena left her room and went to the landing, hoping to find what was going on from the shelter of the second floor.

  She was just in time to see her father throw open the front door. Not surprisingly, Judson Colton looked furious. The tall, strapping ranch owner wasn’t accustomed to being treated in this sort of manner.

  “Just what is the meaning of all this noise?” Judson Colton demanded even before he had the door opened all the way. When he saw that his own son was responsible for all this uproar, he only became angrier. “Finn! How dare you come pounding on our door in the middle of the night and wake us up like this?” he shouted. “You’re not only disturbing me, you’re disturbing your stepmother and your sisters as well, not to mention that you’re doing the unforgivable and spooking the horses!”

  Lightning all but flashed from the man’s eyes as he glared at his son and the three men Finn had brought with him. Especially since one of them was holding on to a large German shepherd.

  Judson eyed the dog warily. “We raised you better than this, boy,” he snapped at Finn indignantly.

  “I’m sorry if you’re offended,” Finn told his father formally. “But this is police business. Murder isn’t polite,” he added grimly. He and his men had been at this all day. It was nighttime now and he was too tired to treat his father and stepmother with kid gloves.

  “Murder?” Joanelle Colton cried, pressing her well-manicured hand against her chest as if trying to hold a heart attack at bay. “This isn’t about that man who was found dead outside of that horrid bar, is it?” Finn’s stepmother looked from him to Carson. “What does any of that awful business have to do with us, Finn?”

  “That’s what we’re here to find out,” Finn answered patiently.

  Serena had a feeling she knew exactly why they were here.

  * * *

  Carson glanced at the chief. Because this was Finn’s family, he needed to absent himself from the immediate search of the house. If there was anything—or anyone—to be found, the chief wouldn’t want that to be compromised in a court of law.

  “Dan, Jack and I’ll search the property,” Finn told his father and stepmother. “Detective Gage is going to search the house.” He nodded at Carson.

  “Search the house?” Joanelle echoed in stunned disbelief. “Search the house for what?” she added indignantly.

  But Finn and the two officers he had brought with him had already left the house to start their search.

  Taking his cue, Carson, warrant in hand, quickly hurried up the stairs with Justice leading the way.

  “Search the house for what?” Judson repeated more forcefully as he followed Carson and his K-9.

  “Demi Colton or any sign of her, sir,” Carson answered just as he and Justice came to the landing.

  He stopped dead when he saw Serena standing there, holding her baby in her arms. At that moment, totally against his will, he was transported to another time and place in his life. He was back in the hospital hallway where a solemn-faced doctor was telling him that he had done everything he could to save her, but Lisa, his girlfriend, had just died giving birth to their daughter. A daughter who wound up dying the following day.

  Carson felt an ache form in the pit of his stomach, threatening to consume him even as it undid him.

  He struggled to bury the memory again and regain control over himself, just as he had done when his loss had occurred. He’d learned that 99 percent of surviving was just remembering to breathe and put one foot in front of the other.

  His voice was gruff and cold as he told the woman standing there, “If you’re hiding Demi Colton, now is the time for you to speak up.”

  On the stairs behind him, Judson cried, “Demi Colton?” He almost laughed out loud at the detective who worked for his son. “You’re looking for Demi here? Hell, you look all you want, but I can tell you that you’re wasting your time. You won’t find that woman here.”

  “If you don’t mind, sir,” Carson answered stiffly, “I’d like to check for myself.”

  “Then go ahead and do it, but do it quickly,” Finn’s father warned. “And see that you don’t disturb my daughters any more than you already have. Do I make myself clear, boy?”

  “I’d prefer ‘Detective,’” Carson replied. Judson Colton merely glared, then turned and went back downstairs.

  Finn’s stepmother had another sort of complaint to register with him. “Must you bring that mangy creature into my house?” She looked disdainfully at Justice. The canine was straining at his leash.

  “Justice is part of the police department, ma’am, same as the rest of us,” Carson informed the woman without missing a step.

  Rather than cringing or stepping aside, he saw a slight smile grace Serena Colton’s lips as she looked down at Justice.

  “My father’s right, you know. You’re wasting your time,” Serena told him. “I haven’t seen her since yesterday. Demi’s not here.”

  “I need to verify that for myself,” Carson told her shortly. “Why don’t you go downstairs and wait with the rest of your family?” he suggested.

  Carson could feel Judson Colton watching his every move.

  “I’d rather stay up here, thank you,” Serena answered. “She didn’t do it, you know,” she told Carson. “Demi’s not capable of killing anyone.”

  Serena was entitled to her opinion, he thought, even though it was naive. “You’d be surprised what people are capable of if they’re pushed hard enough,” Carson told her.

  “There is a limit,” Serena insisted.

  “If you say so,” he replied, complete disinterest in his voice.

>   His attention was focused on Justice who was moving around Serena’s room with growing agitation. Suddenly, Justice became alert and ran up to the walk-in closet. He began pawing at the door.

  Carson looked over his shoulder at Serena, disappointment clearly registering on his face. “Not here, huh?”

  “No, she’s not,” Serena insisted, crossing the room to her closet.

  Carson waved her back. Taking out his weapon, he pointed it at the closet door and then threw it open. Justice ran in and immediately nosed the hot-pink sweater on the closet floor. The German shepherd moved the sweater over toward his master.

  Picking it up, Carson held the sweater aloft and looked accusingly at Serena.

  “I said I saw her yesterday,” Serena pointed out. “Demi must have dropped her sweater here when I wasn’t paying attention. I never said she wasn’t here yesterday, only that she’s not here now—and she isn’t,” Serena insisted.

  Drawn by all the commotion and the headlights from the police vehicles when they drove to the house, Serena’s brother Anders, who lived in a cabin on the property and worked as the Double C foreman, came into his sister’s bedroom.

  “Serena’s right. Demi was here at the house yesterday afternoon, but she left and she hasn’t been back since. Trust me, I can’t abide that little bounty hunter, and I’d tell you if she was here. But she’s not,” Anders said with finality.

  “And neither one of you would know where she went or might consider going if she was running from the police?” Carson pressed.

  Serena and her brother answered his question in unison.

  “No.”

  Chapter 4

  “Here.” Carson shoved the hot-pink sweater over to Anders. “Take this and put it somewhere, will you? The scent is throwing my dog off.”

  Anders frowned at the sweater Carson had just shoved into his hand. “Sorry. Hot pink’s not my color.”

  Carson wasn’t amused by the foreman’s dry wit, not when he was trying to find his brother’s killer.

  “Just get rid of it for now. As long as that’s around, Justice can’t home in on anything else Demi might have left behind that could wind up proving useful.”

  Muttering something about not being an errand boy under his breath and looking none too happy about having Carson on the premises, Anders took the sweater and marched out of Serena’s suite. Wadding the sweater up, he tossed it into the linen closet that was down the hall and shut the door.

  Carson looked back at his dog. Now that the offending piece of clothing was gone, Justice became totally docile.

  “C’mon, boy, keep on looking,” he urged his German shepherd partner. “Seek!”

  Responding to the command, Justice quickly covered the remainder of the upper floor, moving from one area to another, but nothing seemed to spark a reaction from the dog. Nothing caused him to behave as if he had detected any telltale scent that indicated that the woman he was hunting was hiding somewhere on the floor or had even left anything else behind.

  Serena kept her distance but still followed the detective, shadowing him step for step. For now, Lora was cooperating and went on dozing.

  Coming back through the adjacent nursery, Carson made his way into Serena’s oversize bedroom. His eyes met hers.

  “See, I told you she wasn’t here,” Serena told him. When his face remained totally impassive, she heard herself insisting. “You’re looking for the wrong person, Detective. Demi didn’t kill Bo. There’s got to be some kind of mistake.”

  About to leave her suite and go back downstairs, Carson stopped abruptly. Justice skidded to a stop next to him.

  “My brother’s dead. He wrote Demi’s name in his own blood on the asphalt right above his head. Her necklace was found at the crime scene, and there’s a witness who said he saw Demi running away from the area some fifteen minutes before Bo’s body was found in the parking lot. From what I can see, the only mistake here was made by Demi,” he informed Serena curtly, doing his best to hold his anger in check.

  Part of the anger he was experiencing was because of the crime itself and part of it was due to the fact that having seen Serena holding her baby like that when he’d first entered had stirred up painful memories for him, memories he wanted to leave buried.

  Serena shook her head, refusing to buy into the scenario that Demi had killed her ex-boyfriend in some sort of a fit of misguided jealousy. That was not the Demi she had come to know.

  “Look,” she began, trying to talk some sense into the detective, “I admit that it looks bad right now—”

  Carson barely managed to keep a dismissive oath from escaping his lips.

  Serena didn’t seem to notice as she forged on. “There’s no way that the Demi Colton I know is a killer. Yes, she has a temper, but she wouldn’t kill anyone, especially not her ex-boyfriend.”

  Carson looked at her sharply. What wasn’t she telling him?

  “Why?” he questioned.

  Did Demi’s cousin know something that he didn’t know, or was she just being protective of the other woman? Was it simply a matter of solidarity between women, or whatever it was called, or was there something more to Serena’s certainty, because she did look pretty certain?

  Serena began to say something else, then stopped herself at the last moment, saying only, “Because she just wouldn’t, that’s all.”

  Carson looked at the chief’s sister closely. She knew something. Something she wasn’t telling him, he thought. His gut was telling him that he was right. But he couldn’t exactly browbeat her into admitting what she was trying to hide.

  He was just going to have to keep an eye on the chief’s sister, he decided.

  Just then, the baby began to fuss.

  “Shh.” Serena soothed her daughter. She started rocking the child, doing her best to lull Lora back to sleep.

  But Lora wouldn’t settle down. The fussing became louder.

  Glancing up, Serena was going to excuse herself when she saw the strange look on the detective’s face. In her estimation he looked to be in some sort of pain or distress. Sympathy instantly stirred within her. She hated seeing pain of any kind.

  She had to be losing her mind, feeling sympathy for a man who seemed so bent on arresting her cousin. It was obvious that he had already convicted Demi without a trial and looked more than willing to drag Demi to jail.

  However, despite all this, for some strange reason, she was moved by the underlying distress she saw in his eyes.

  “Is something wrong, Detective Gage?” She waited for him to respond, but he didn’t seem to hear her despite their close proximity. “Detective Gage?” she said more loudly.

  Suddenly realizing that she was talking to him, Carson looked at the chief’s sister. She seemed to be waiting for him to respond to something she’d obviously said.

  “What?” he all but snapped.

  The man was in no danger of winning a congeniality award, Serena thought. “I asked you if something was wrong.”

  Damn it, Carson upbraided himself, he was going to have to work on his poker face. “You mean other than the obvious?”

  Serena mentally threw up her hands. This was hopeless. Why did she even care if something was bothering this boorish man who had come stomping into her house, disrupting everyone without displaying so much as an iota of remorse that he was doing it. Never mind that her brother had led this invasion into her parents’ home, she felt better blaming the detective for this than blaming Finn.

  “Never mind,” she told Carson, changing topics. “I have to see to my baby, if it’s all right with you,” she said, a mild touch of sarcasm breaking through.

  Rather than say anything in response, Carson just waved her back to her quarters.

  Serena’s voice was fairly dripping with ice as she said, “Thank you.”

  With that she turned on her bare heel to
walk back into her suite.

  “Let’s go, Justice,” Carson said to the dog, steering the animal toward the stairs.

  Keeping a tight hold on the dog’s leash, Carson walked out of the house quickly, a man doing his best to outrun memories he found far too painful to coexist with.

  Once outside, he saw the other members of the K-9 team. Not wanting to be faced with unnecessary questions, he forced himself to relax just a little.

  “Anything?” Carson asked the man closest to him, Jim Kline.

  Jim, paired with a jet-black German shepherd whimsically named Snow, shook his head. “If that woman’s anywhere on the property, she’s crawled down into a gopher hole and pulled the hole down after her,” the man answered him.

  Finn came over to join them. Carson noticed that the chief looked as disappointed as he felt.

  “Okay, men, everybody back to the station. We’re calling it a night and getting a fresh start in the morning.” The chief glanced over in his direction. “You, too, Gage,” he ordered, obviously expecting an argument from Carson.

  And he got it. “I’m not tired, Chief,” Carson protested, ready to keep going.

  “Good for you,” Finn said sarcastically. “Maybe when you get a chance, you can tell the rest of us what kind of vitamins you’re on. But for now, I’m still the chief, and I still call the shots. We’re going back to the station, end of discussion,” Finn repeated, this time more forcefully. He left absolutely no room for even so much as a sliver of an argument.

  Resigned, Carson crossed over to his vehicle and opened the rear door to let Justice in. Shutting the door again, he opened the driver’s side and got into the car himself.

  He felt all wound up. Talking to Serena Colton while she was wearing that frilly, flimsy nightgown beneath a robe that wouldn’t stay closed hadn’t exactly helped his state of mind, either.

  Carson shut the image out. It only got in the way of his thoughts. And despite being dragged through the wringer physically and emotionally, he sincerely doubted he was going to get any sleep tonight.