The Colton Sheriff

by Addison Fox

  Rae gasped. “Was it...like the body you and Jonah found?”

  Maggie shuddered. “I hope not.”

  That body had been mummified. Rae hadn’t seen it, but just the thought of it had given her nightmares. She couldn’t imagine what Maggie had gone through because of that and the threats to her life.

  All of the crime in Whisperwood was what had compelled Rae to take the LSAT to try to get into law school. Nobody had probably been as surprised as she’d been that she’d done so well that she’d had her pick of schools. Of course she’d chosen to stay in Whisperwood with her friends. With her mom gone, they were the only family she had now—except for Connor. She’d already been pregnant with him when she’d taken the exam.

  Bellamy nipped her bottom lip with her teeth. “Maybe Donovan and I shouldn’t go away right now.”

  “No!” Rae and Maggie both shouted.

  Connor, startled, began to cry. Rae jumped up from the bed and took him from Maggie. Holding him close, she rubbed her hand up and down his back and murmured, “It’s okay, sweetheart. You’re okay.”

  He settled down with a hiccupping sob. Then the tension drained from his tiny body and he began to drift off to sleep like Rae had longed to.

  “You’re so good with him,” Maggie said with a smile.

  “You are,” Bellamy agreed. She looked more like Rae, with dark hair and eyes, and with as long as they’d known each other, they were more like sisters than friends. “You’re amazing. I can’t believe how much you’re doing all on your own.”

  Rae smiled with pleasure and pride. But then she reminded her friend, “You’ve done the same.”

  Maggie’s mouth pulled down into another frown, and regret struck a pang in Rae’s heart. She hadn’t meant to cause any issues between the sisters. They’d already had too many.

  “I was never alone,” Bellamy said. “I had you, Rae.” She turned toward Maggie and smiled at her sister. “And you... I just didn’t realize what all you were doing for me.”

  “Rae’s right,” Maggie said. “You did all the heavy lifting on your own.” Taking care of their ailing parents. “You deserve this honeymoon. You deserve every happiness. Don’t let Donovan back out of going.”

  Bellamy smiled. “Not a chance. He’s determined to go. He and Jonah are going to work on convincing Forrest to step in and take over the murder investigations.”

  Maggie nodded. “Oh, that’s what big brother is up to.” She’d fallen for the oldest of the Colton brothers. “He said he was going to pick up Forrest.”

  Another little pang struck Rae’s heart at the mention of that particular Colton brother. It was probably just regret again. She shouldn’t have asked him to dance at Bellamy and Donovan’s wedding. But as one of two maids of honor, she’d wanted to make sure every guest enjoyed the celebration. That was the only reason she’d asked—not because he was ridiculously good-looking, with his chiseled features and his brooding intensity.

  He hadn’t had to be so curt with her, though. Sure, she’d known he had a limp from an injury in the line of duty. But he still worked with the Cowboy Heroes, so she hadn’t thought he was really disabled. He could have held her and just swayed from side to side. It wasn’t as if she’d asked him to two-step or line dance with her. But she shouldn’t have asked at all. The only reason she had was because of how alone he’d looked...even among all of his family.

  And that loneliness had called to hers. Because even with her son and her good friends, she sometimes felt alone like that, too. That was better, though, than falling for someone only to have him leave.

  “I didn’t think Forrest was going to stick around much longer,” she said. “Won’t he move on to the next natural disaster, with the rest of the Cowboy Heroes?”

  “Whisperwood needs them for more than rescue-and-recovery efforts right now,” Maggie said. She shuddered again. “There’s a killer on the loose.”

  “That’s why we should postpone our honeymoon,” Bellamy said.

  “No,” Rae and Maggie said again, their voices soft this time, though.

  Bellamy sighed. “Okay, but you both need to promise me that you’ll be extra careful.”

  “Of course,” they agreed, again in unison.

  “I know Jonah won’t let anything happen to you,” Bellamy told her sister. “But you...”

  Rae smiled. “I can take care of myself.” She’d done it for most of her life.

  Bellamy took the sleeping baby from her arms and snuggled him against her. “But you have Connor to worry about, too, and your classes. I’m really concerned about you living out there in the country, alone.”

  “I’m not alone,” Rae reminded her.

  Bellamy pressed another kiss to the soft hair on Connor’s head. “He’s not going to be much protection against a bad guy—at least not for a few more years.”

  “Like twenty,” Maggie added with a chuckle.

  “I don’t need a man to protect me,” Rae said. She’d never had one. Her father had been more likely to put her and her mother in danger—at least financially—than to protect them. “I don’t need a man at all.”

  “You proved that by having this little guy on your own,” Maggie said. “I admire you.”

  “Me, too,” Bellamy added. “Although I think I had more fun conceiving mine the way we did.”

  Rae stared at her friend. “What?”

  “I’m pregnant,” the new bride announced, her face glowing with happiness and love.

  Tears rushed to Rae’s eyes. “That’s wonderful.”

  “So wonderful,” Maggie agreed as her eyes filled with tears, too. “I’m thrilled for you.”

  “Me, too,” Rae said. “You and Donovan are going to be amazing parents.”

  “I’m going to drive you crazy,” Bellamy warned her, “with all the questions I’ll be asking you.” Bellamy’s mom was gone, like Rae’s was.

  Rae missed her mom every day. They’d been so close; Georgia had been more of a friend than a mother to her. Now that she was a mother herself, she’d never needed her more.

  “You won’t drive me crazy at all,” Rae assured her. “I’m not sure I’ll have all the answers, though.” Mostly she felt as if she was stumbling around in the dark, blindly finding her way as a parent and as a student again at thirty-five.

  “You’ll have more than I’ll have,” Maggie said. “You’re the smartest, most independent person I know.”

  The tears already stinging her eyes threatened to spill over, but Rae blinked them back to smile at her friend. “I’m not sure about smartest. Law school is tougher than I thought it would be.”

  “Because you just had a baby two months ago and you’re working,” Bellamy reminded her as she stared down at Connor, who was sleeping so peacefully in her arms.

  If only he slept that peacefully at night...

  “It’ll get easier,” Rae said. That was what she kept telling herself.

  Bellamy chuckled softly. “You’re smart, but I think it’s your stubbornness that keeps you going.”

  A smile tugged at the corners of Rae’s mouth. She couldn’t deny that.

  “Just don’t be so stubborn and independent that you put yourself in danger,” Bellamy advised. “Promise?”

  Rae sighed. “Of course I’m not going to put myself or Connor in danger,” she assured her. “Stop worrying about me. And let’s get you ready for your honeymoon!”

  “Since she’s already pregnant, I think she knows about the birds and the bees,” Maggie teased.

  They all laughed, rousing Connor from his impromptu nap. But he didn’t cry when he awakened; he just groggily looked up at Bellamy, who was holding him. She was like an aunt to him, and Maggie was fast becoming like another. These women and her baby were the only family that Rae needed.

  She didn’t need a man for protection or for anything el
se. But when she left Bellamy’s cute two-bedroom house and headed home with Connor safely buckled into the back seat, an odd chill passed through her despite the warmth of the August night. Fear.

  Maybe it was all of the talk about bodies and killers.

  Or maybe it was her postpartum hormones.

  She preferred to blame the hormones. Because she had nothing to fear.

  * * *

  The television screen illuminated only the area of the dark room around the TV. From the shadows, he watched the evening news report from the crime scene at Lone Star Pharma.

  Her body had been found. His hands clenched into fists as rage coursed through him.

  Damn it...

  The news crews had been kept back, behind the police barricade. But the camera zoomed in on the scene and captured the people investigating the discovery. The Cowboy Heroes.

  What the hell were they doing there?

  He unclenched one fist to turn the volume up.

  “Chief Thompson has enlisted the help of former Austin cold-case detective Forrest Colton,” the reporter announced. “Colton has been given special dispensation from the Whisperwood Police Department to lead the investigation of this murder and the body discovered last month in a mummified condition. Colton holds the highest clearance rate in the Austin Police Department, so an arrest seems imminent.”

  He cursed again.

  No. An arrest was not imminent. Forrest Colton might have gotten lucky in Austin, but his luck was about to run out in Whisperwood. And maybe his life, as well.

  Copyright © 2019 by Harlequin Books S.A.

  ISBN-13: 9781488041396

  The Colton Sheriff

  Copyright © 2019 by Harlequin Books S.A.

  Special thanks and acknowledgment are given to Addison Fox for her contribution to The Coltons of Roaring Springs miniseries.

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  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

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