by Cindy Dees
“Because I didn’t do it, man.”
The sounded like he was actually telling the truth.
Liam frowned. Who else could have attacked her on the Crooked C and tried to torch her inside the barn? Surely, it had to be this joker.
“What about getting me an ambulance, man? I’m bleeding bad back here!”
“We’re headed for the hospital now,” Liam retorted sharply. “Shut up, stay still and don’t thrash around, and maybe you’ll live.”
The hit man was as still a statue for the rest of the ride and thankfully didn’t complain any more.
As Sloane was rushed into the very emergency room where they’d run into each other a few short weeks ago, Liam escorted the man inside. Daria Bloom met him in the lobby, and they put the perp in a hospital bed and handcuffed his wrists to the handrails on either side.
“I’ll keep an eye on this guy if you want to go check on Sloane,” Daria said kindly.
“Thanks. I owe you.”
“Go.”
Sloane had already been taken away for a CT scan to check for internal damage, and a nurse told Liam an orthopedic surgeon had been called to the hospital in anticipation of doing surgery to repair Sloane’s badly injured shoulder. The real threat to her, though, was the dangerous hypothermia she was suffering from and the real possibility that she might go into shock.
As for Ivan, Liam was having a hard time summoning much sadness that the bastard was dead. Surely the fall off that cliff had been fatal.
A nurse showed Liam to the waiting room, and he began the long vigil of waiting to hear if Sloane was going to live. He had to have gotten to her in time. He had to. No way could he have found her after all this time just to lose her.
Fox and Wyatt were the first to arrive. Bailey had stayed home to watch Chloe. Before long, however, most of the local Colton clan had assembled in the waiting room. He wasn’t sure if he was relieved to have the company or annoyed by the distraction. Mostly, he just wanted to pray to whatever deity might be listening for Sloane to be all right.
He would happily trade his soul for hers. He would give his life for her. Anything...as long as she pulled through.
Chapter 20
Sloane looked around at the recently redone tearoom at the Chateau—the elegant spa attached to The Lodge at Roaring Springs. Mara had really outdone herself this time. The room looked like a gilt-and-pastel enameled Easter egg. It was too fancy for Sloane’s taste, but she had to admit the room was beautiful.
For once, Chloe was behaving herself, happily scribbling with crayons and a coloring book in her high chair. One of the crayons fell to the floor and Sloane bent over to pick it up.
A stab of pain went through her shoulder in its sling. The joint was still healing from surgery to put it back into the socket and repair a torn rotator cuff. She winced as she righted herself, and Mara looked at her in concern.
“Are you sure we didn’t rush you out of the house too soon, dear?”
“I’m fine, Mom. I was getting housebound at the ranch, and I know Chloe was more than ready for an outing.”
“It’s lovely having all my girls together like this,” Mara said as warmly as Sloane could remember hearing her speak. It wasn’t that Mara was a cold woman at all. She just wasn’t demonstrative with her love for her family.
Russ and Mara’s twenty-five-year-old twin daughters, Skye and Phoebe, had joined them for this celebration lunch, along with Bailey.
“It’s a sad state of affairs that we’re all having a single girls’ day out on Valentine’s Day, of all days,” Skye declared.
“Don’t be such a buzzkill,” Phoebe retorted. “I, for one, like being single.”
Bailey spoke up. “Speak for yourself. I won’t be single much longer, and I bet neither of you two will, either. You’re beautiful, smart, fierce women. Men worthy of you will come along sooner or later.”
“It’s the later I’m worried about,” Skye groaned.
Sloane leaned back and let the twins’ banter flow over her. They really were two peas in a pod. A person had to know them very well to tell them apart. But she’d grown up with the two of them continually switching clothes and pretending to be each other. They’d fooled plenty of teachers and boys over the years, but they’d never fooled her.
She had to admit, it was nice just to sit with her family around her. In the past few weeks, she’d become a big fan of quiet, safe and boring.
She’d barely seen Liam since the night of the accident. He’d been at her side when she woke up from her surgery, disoriented and unsure where she was. Apparently, she’d mistaken him again for an angel, and he’d had to explain for a second time that she wasn’t dead, and he wasn’t dead and in Heaven waiting for her.
Since then, he’d been tied up day and night writing reports and traveling back and forth to Denver. He’d been working with the Denver police to wrap up the arrest and indictment of Niall and Carol Durant, who were in jail now, awaiting trial.
When the judge had heard about their attempts to bribe another judge and kill an officer of the court, namely her, he hadn’t granted the Durants bail. Which was just as well. They could get a foretaste of the prison to come.
The hit man had cooperated fully against them in return for a reduced sentence. Although he was still denying having torched the barn at the Crooked C or having attacked her in the barn. Still, he was going away for a long time for his other attempts on her life and for burning down her house. Chloe would be out of college before he was eligible for parole.
Sloane sighed. She missed Liam. She’d been so sure he was on the verge of professing his love to her before all hell had broken loose up at the cabin. But since then, he hadn’t shown any interest in bringing up the subject of their relationship again.
Had getting shot and nearly dying changed his mind, perhaps? She fretted about it and really wanted to talk with him about it, but he was never around long enough to do more than wolf down a quick bite to eat at the ranch and kiss Chloe good-night before he raced back to the police station.
He and Daria Bloom were working on something supersecret, but so far, he hadn’t filled Sloane in about whatever it was occupying them. If she didn’t know better, she might worry that Liam was romantically involved with the beautiful sheriff’s deputy. But Liam didn’t even have time for her, let alone for another woman.
“Why the long face, sweetheart?” Mara asked.
Sloane looked up from her perfect tea cakes, which she hadn’t tasted a single bite of, startled. “No reason. I mean, I don’t have a long face.”
“I know that look,” Bailey announced. “She’s been wearing it pretty much constantly since she got home from the hospital. She’s missing her man.”
Sloane sent a pointed glare at her friend. Sure enough, the twins leaped all over the remark, hooting and teasing her mercilessly about having a crush on a boy.
“Cripes. We’re not in high school anymore,” she complained under her breath.
The twins fell silent all of a sudden, which frankly startled Sloane almost more than their ribbing.
“Excuse me, ladies,” a male voice said from directly behind her.
Liam.
Sloane started to turn around quickly but stopped abruptly as her shoulder shouted in protest.
He moved into her line of sight, wearing a beautifully tailored suit and tie. He looked like a movie star, tall and strong and clean-cut.
“Hi, handsome,” she said shyly. She still wasn’t used to them being a public item, but apparently, he’d made no secret of having feelings for her to her family in the hospital.
“If you wouldn’t mind, Sloane, I’d like a word alone with Chloe.”
“With Chloe?” Sloane echoed, confused.
Chloe was already reaching up eagerly to Liam, who scooped her up in his big, strong arms and carried her over to
the windows, overlooking the mountains.
Frowning, Sloane watched the pair. What was he up to?
Chloe squealed loudly enough that every head in the room turned to look at her. Sloane winced, but then shrugged. It had been Mara’s idea to include her granddaughter in this outing.
Liam came back to the table, carrying Chloe, who was grinning from ear to ear and bouncing up and down in his arms hard enough that even he was having to work at holding on to her.
“Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!” Chloe chirped.
What on earth?
Liam dropped to one knee in front of Sloane and told Chloe, “Now. Give it to your mommy.”
Chloe held out a small black object in her little fingers.
Sloane’s frown of confusion deepening, she looked down at what Chloe was offering her. It was a small black velvet box.
Oh, my.
Her gaze flew up to meet Liam’s. He was smiling, and the expression reached all the way down to the bottom of her heart and twisted it so tight it was almost painful.
“Sloane. I already proposed to Chloe, and she accepted my offer to let me be her forever daddy. And now I’m proposing to you. Would you make me the happiest man on earth and let me be your forever husband? I promise to make you the happiest woman in the whole world to the best of my ability. Forever.”
She opened her mouth, and for once, words would not come.
“Say yes, Sloane. Please. I love you and Chloe with all my heart. You’re my entire world.”
The twins let out simultaneous awwws, and Mara was smiling widely.
Time stopped as Sloane stared at Liam and saw everything she had always wanted in her life. He was offering her love. A home. Safety. A family of her own. All of it. The void in the bottom of her heart that had been her constant companion closed up and disappeared right then and there. As if it had never existed. Yes, it left a mark behind. She would never forget her parents. But for the first time—ever—she felt whole.
“I love you, too, Liam. With all my heart.”
“Is that a yes?” he asked anxiously.
“Yes. Oh, yes.” She flung her arms around his neck and felt Chloe’s little arm go around her as the three of them shared their first official hug as a family.
And it was perfect.
He was perfect.
Life was perfect.
And the future promised to be even better.
* * *
Don’t miss the previous volume in the
Coltons of Roaring Springs miniseries:
Colton Cowboy Standoff by Marie Ferrarella
And look out for the third
Coltons of Roaring Springs book,
Colton’s Convenient Bride by Jennifer Morey,
coming in March 2019 from
Harlequin Romantic Suspense!
Keep reading for an excerpt from Navy SEAL to the Rescue by Tawny Weber.
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Navy SEAL to the Rescue
by Tawny Weber
Chapter 1
Costa Rica, baby.
The small beachside town of Puerto Viejo de Talamanca was filled with character. The laid-back, mellow atmosphere was complemented by thatch-roofed buildings, colorful fabrics and hand-lettered signs.
Midstride down the deserted sidewalk, Lila Adrian stopped to close her eyes and take a deep breath of the rich, ocean-scented air. When she opened her big green eyes again, she was thrilled to see that yes, indeed, it was still gorgeous. What was it about the Caribbean that made everything just a little brighter?
God, she loved her job.
As the brains, brawn and chief headhunter of her own business, At Your Service, she was rocking it. She might be meeting clients in San Francisco one day, in London scouting for an art director the next, visiting a tiny village in Tuscany to woo a former prima ballerina the week after that. And now she was cruising Puerto Viejo for a chef.
Wherever the talent was, she went. And then, with charm, guile and a great deal of wit, she enticed that talent into the job of their dreams. Or into believing the job she wanted them to take was dream-worthy.
It’d all started with a few favors, helping a friend find an elite aromatherapy masseuse for her new spa, connecting a concierge doctor she’d once dated with an upscale hotel chain owned by a friend. But it had been introducing three of her father’s fired housekeepers to wealthy families who’d welcomed their services that made her realize she could turn it into a career.
Something she’d been desperate for. Not just to prove herself to family members who claimed she didn’t have any marketable skills, but to show herself that she was more than a pretty face. With the strings to her trust fund knotted tight, she’d spent most of At Your Service’s first three years living on ramen noodles and depending on the local coffeehouse’s free Wi-Fi.
But sheer stubbornness, a ton of charm and taking advantage of the varied connections she’d made over the years had finally done the trick.
That, and her family name.
Something she knew pissed her father off to no end.
Loving that small victory, Lila increased her pace to make her way around a pair of locals pedaling their bicycles, with baskets filled with produce.
Now she was in Costa Rica to add another feather to her cap. She didn’t figure it’d take an abundance of charm to convince Alberto Rodriguez, formerly of Miami, Florida, and currently the head chef of the aging Casa de Rico, that he’d like to travel the world as the personal chef to the Martins, a wealthy San Francisco banking family.
Mr. and Mrs. Martin—Joe and Mimi, respectively—had spent a week reveling in Rodriguez’s cuisine on their honeymoon. Food so delicious, they often claimed, that they could still taste it a decade later. Lila had followed up their praise with a little research, which assured her that Rodriguez had a great reputation as a chef who could handle upscale gourmet as well as fusion and regional cuisine. The man was wasted in a one-star restaurant that, from all accounts, was on the verge of bankruptcy. Since research turned up no reasons for him to want to stay, she figured he should be more than ready to make a move.
But just in case, Lila had the charm ready to pour on like syrup.
With that in mind, she pulled her cell phone from the front pocket of her capris and opened the web browser to the hotel’s website. She’d already committed the details to memory, but she was a believer in double-checking.
Before she could scroll through the page, the phone rang.
Corinne Douglass. Soc
ialite, diva and the best friend Lila had ever met.
“How’d you know I was holding my phone?” Lila answered with a laugh instead of a greeting.
“You’re always holding your phone,” her sometimes assistant-slash-roommate answered. “Even if it’s not in your hand, you’re still holding it in some form or other.”
“You have a point. What’s up?”
“How’s Costa Rica?” Corinne asked instead of answering.
Lila frowned at the sidestep, but looked around anyway.
“Gorgeous. The air is just humid enough to be sultry. The sun shining hot enough to sink into the bones. The people are friendly, the locale colorful and, so far, the job is on track.”
“Have you met with the chef yet? Is he interested? Are you coming home soon?”
“Not yet, but I’m on my way to the restaurant now. I’m sure he’ll be interested, once he hears the deal. And why?” Suspicion laced the last question, but Lila figured it was well deserved. She might be a card-carrying optimist, but she’d never be mistaken for Pollyanna. “Is something wrong?”
“Nothing, really,” Corinne hedged. “Just wondering when you’ll be back.”
“This shouldn’t take more than two or three days,” Lila estimated. Which she’d told Corinne when the other woman had dropped her at San Francisco International Airport. “Once again, I have to ask, why?”
“Can’t a friend check on a friend?” Corinne dismissed her with a light laugh that Lila knew she used only when she was nervous.
“What’s wrong? Did you hear from your dad?” Not only did the two women have a taste for designer heels and sappy chick flicks in common, but they also had wealthy families led by overbearing fathers. The only difference was, Corinne wanted her father’s attention while Lila wished hers would forget she existed.
“His secretary,” Corinne confirmed. Arthur Douglass rarely deigned to dial a phone himself. “Some things came up. He’s delayed.”
