by Barb Han
Darting across the road without looking, in the middle of one of the worst thunderstorms so far this year, definitely qualified as uncharacteristic. Now that he’d determined she fell into that camp without a simple explanation, it was time to investigate what she was really doing in town and why.
Again, the questions he was about to ask were all for the sake of the investigation, he told himself, despite a little voice in the back of his head calling him out on the lie.
For now, he was able to quiet that annoyance.
Chapter Three
In the dome light, Colton could see that Makena’s face was sheet-white and her lips were purple. Color was slowly beginning to return to her creamy cheeks. He took that as a good sign she was starting to warm up and was in overall good health.
“I thought you were in school to study business so you could come back and work on your family’s ranch.” She turned the tables.
“I realized midway through my degree that my heart was not in business. I switched to criminal justice and never looked back.” Colton figured it couldn’t hurt to give a little information about himself considering she looked frightened of him and everything else. As much as he didn’t like the idea, she might be on the run to something or from something. Either way, he planned to get to the bottom of it and give her a hand up. “How about you? Did you stay an education major?”
“I stayed in my field,” she said.
He would’ve thought that he’d just asked for her social security number and her bank passwords for the reaction he got. She crossed her ankles and then her arms. She hugged her elbows tightly against her chest. To say she’d just closed up was a lot like saying dogs liked table scraps over dry food.
“Did I say something wrong?” Colton may as well put it out on the table. He didn’t like the idea of stepping on a land mine, and the response he’d gotten from her was like a sucker punch that he didn’t want to take twice.
“No. You d-didn’t say anything wrong. You j-just caught me off guard.” The way she stammered over every other word told him that she wasn’t being completely honest. It also made him feel like she was afraid of him, which was strange. Innocent people might get nervous around law enforcement, but straight-up scared? He wasn’t used to that with victims.
“Okay. We better get on the road and out of this weather. I promised one of our elderly residents that I would stop by and check on her property. The rain isn’t letting up and we’re not going too far from here. Her home is nearby. Mind if we—”
“It’s okay. You can just let me out. I don’t want to get in the way of you doing your job.” Panic caused her voice to shake. Colton didn’t want to read too much into her reaction.
“Makena, I hit you with my SUV and the fact is going to bother me to no end until I make absolute certain that you’re okay. Check that. I want you to be better than okay. In fact, I’d like to help you out if I can, no matter what you need.” He meant those words.
Makena blew out a slow breath. “I’m sorry. You’ve been nothing but kind. I wasn’t trying to put you off. Honest. I’m just shaken up and a little thrown off balance.” She turned to look at him, and those clear blue eyes pierced right through him. “Don’t take any of this the wrong way. It’s just been...” she seemed to be searching for the right words “...a really long time since I’ve had anyone help me.”
Well, he sure as hell hoped she didn’t plan on stopping there. If anything, he wanted to know more about her. He chalked it up to nostalgia and the feelings he’d experienced when he was nineteen, the minute he sat beside her in the bio lab, too chicken to pluck up the courage to ask her out.
He’d waited for weeks to see if she felt the same attraction. She was shy back then and he was even shyer. When he finally found his courage, a kid had beaten him to the punch. Dane Kilroy had moved in.
Colton couldn’t say he’d ever had the best timing when it came to him and the opposite sex. Missed opportunity had him wanting to help her now. Or maybe it was that lost look in her eyes that appealed to a place deep inside him.
He knew what it was to be broken. His family had experienced a horrific tragedy before he was born. One that had left an echo so strong it could still be heard to this day.
A decades-old kidnapping had impacted the O’Connor family so deeply that they could never be the same again. The hole could never be filled after his six-month-old sister was abducted.
Colton figured the best place to start with Makena was the basics. “Is your last name still Eden?”
He opened up a file report on his laptop.
“What are you doing?” She seemed shocked.
“Filing a report.” Colton forgot that she was a civilian. She would have no idea about the process of filling out an incident report. “I need to file an accident report.”
“No. That’s really not necessary. I mean, I didn’t get a good look at your car but there didn’t seem to be any damage to your bumper. As far as me? I’ll be okay in a couple of days. There’s really no need to file any type of report. Won’t that get you in trouble with your job?”
She was worried about him?
“My job isn’t going to be on the line over a freak accident. This is what I do. This is my job, my responsibility.”
“What can I say to stop you from filing that report?”
Colton couldn’t quite put his finger on what he heard in her tone when she asked the question, but it was enough to send a warning shot through his system.
“Are you in some type of trouble?” he asked.
Part of him wished he could reel those words back in when he heard her gasp. Too late. They were already out there. And consequences be damned, he wanted to know the answer. Maybe he shouldn’t have asked the question so directly.
“Colton, this is a bad idea. My hip is hurting right now, but it’s going to be fine. There’s really no reason to make a huge ordeal out of this. Despite what you said it can’t be all that good for your career for you to have a car crash on your record. I can’t imagine someone who drives around as part of his job wouldn’t be hurt by a report being filed. I promise you, I would tell you if this was a big deal. It’s so not.”
The old saying, “The lady doth protest too much,” came to mind. Colton realized what he heard in her voice. Fear.
And there was no way he was going to walk away from that. “Makena, I can’t help you if I don’t know what’s going on. Do you trust me?”
Colton put it out there. As it was, everything about her body language said she’d closed up. There was no way he was getting any information out of her while she sat like that, unwilling to open up. And since the person closest to a woman was the one most likely to hurt her, as angry as that made him, his first thought went to her hiding out from a relationship that had soured.
Domestic disturbances were also among the most dangerous calls for anyone working law enforcement.
“It’s really nothing, Colton. We’re making too big a deal out of this. I’m just passing through town.” She heaved a sigh and pulled the blanket up to her neck. “You asked if I stayed with teaching as my degree and the answer is yes. I did. Until the music program was cut from the school where I worked, and I decided to see if I could make it as a musician on my own.”
“Really?”
“I’ve been traveling across the state playing gigs as often as I can set them up. I don’t have a manager and I’ve been living in an RV without the owner’s permission, but I planned to leave a note and some money as soon as I’m able to.” He noticed her fingers working the hem of the blanket. “I’ve fallen on hard times recently and jobs have been in short supply. Really, it’s only a matter of time before I get back on my feet.”
“Sounds like a hard life and one that’s causing you to make tough choices. And the owner knows you’ve been staying there. She asked me to make sure you’re okay.” Colton nodde
d his head. Her explanation nearly covered all the ground of any question he could’ve thought of. She’d pretty much wrapped up her lifestyle in a bow and the reason she would be moving around the state. But was her story tied up a little too neatly?
He decided to play along for just a minute.
“I thought I remembered seeing you on campus a million years ago picking at a guitar.” He tried not to be obvious about watching her response.
“You saw me?” The flush to her cheeks was sexy as hell. She was even more beautiful when she was embarrassed. But that physical beauty was only a small part of her draw. She was intelligent and funny and talented, from what he remembered years ago.
He wondered how much of that had changed...how much she’d changed.
Thunder rumbled and it felt like the sky literally opened up and dumped buckets of rain on them.
Tornado alarms blared. He owed his former father-in-law a call. It was impossible to know if there was an actual tornado or if this was another severe thunderstorm drill. Colton had warned Preston Ellison that overusing the alarm would lead people to disregard it, creating a dangerous situation for residents.
Had the mayor listened?
Clearly not. He hadn’t listened to his daughter, Rebecca, either. The single father and mayor of Katy Gulch had overprotected his daughter to the point of smothering her. She’d rebelled. No shock there.
Down deep, Rebecca had always been a good person. She and Colton had been best friends since they were kids and married for less than a year when she’d died. Damned if he didn’t miss her to the core some days.
But being with Makena again reminded him why he hadn’t married Rebecca straight out of high school.
* * *
“ARE YOU COMFORTABLE?” Colton’s question felt out of the blue to Makena, but she’d noticed that he’d lost himself in thought for a few minutes as he slogged through the flooded street. This must be his way of rejoining the conversation.
The windshield washers were working double time and had yet to be able to keep up with the onslaught.
“I’m better now that I’m inside your vehicle and we’re moving toward safety. Why?” Luckily, the height of the SUV kept the undercarriage of the vehicle above water. The engine sat high enough on the chassis not to flood.
Makena strained to see past the hood. The sirens stopped wailing. The sound would’ve been earsplitting if it hadn’t been for the driving rain drowning out nearly every other sound outside of the SUV.
“The storm’s predicted to get worse.” He wheeled right and water sloshed as his tires cut a path where he made the turn. The sidewalks of the downtown area and the cobblestoned streets had to be completely flooded now.
“Really?” Makena tried to shift position in her seat so that she could get a good look at the screen he motioned toward. Movement only hurt her hip even more. She winced and bit out a curse.
Colton’s laptop was angled toward the driver’s side and the only thing she could see was the reflection from the screen in his side window.
He seemed to catch on and said, “Sorry. I can’t tilt it any closer to you.”
“No need to apologize. Believe it or not, I’m not usually so clumsy, and I don’t make a habit of running out in front of vehicles. Like I already said, give this hip a few days and she’ll be good as new.” Makena forced a smile.
“I hope you weren’t planning on going anywhere tonight.” There was an ominous quality to his voice, and he didn’t pick up on her attempt to lighten the mood.
“Why is that?” Actually, she had hoped to figure out her next move and get back on the road. She’d ducked into the RV to ditch a few friends of her ex-husband, who was the real reason she’d been on the run. Her marriage to an abusive Dallas cop had ended badly. Hunger had caused her to leave the relative safety of the RV. She assumed it would be safer to travel in the rain and easier to cover herself up so she could travel incognito.
It was most likely paranoia, but she could’ve sworn she’d seen the pair of guys she’d caught in their garage late one night, huddled up and whispering with River. She’d surprised the trio and River had absolutely lost his cool. He’d demanded she go back inside the house and to bed, where he told her to wait for him.
River’s decline had become even more apparent after that night. He was almost constantly angry with her over something. Yelling at her instead of talking. Not that he’d been great at it before. Gone was the charm of the early days in their relationship.
When River’s attention was turned on, everyone noticed him in the room and he could make the most enigmatic person come to life. River’s shadow was a different story altogether. It was a cold, dark cave. His temper had become more and more aggressive to the point she’d had to get out.
“According to radar, this storm’s about to get a whole helluva lot worse.” Colton’s voice cut through her heavy thoughts.
Leaving her husband, River, one year ago had been the best decision she’d ever made. Not a night went by that she didn’t fear that he’d find her.
“How is that even possible?” she asked as a tree branch flew in front of the windshield.
“Apparently, Mother Nature isn’t done with us yet. We’re about to see just about how big this temper tantrum is going to get.”
And just when she thought things couldn’t get any worse than they already were this evening, the tornado alarms blared again. Rain pounded the front windshield, the roof. And in another moment of pure shock, she realized the winds had shifted. Gusts slammed into the vehicle, rocking it from side to side.
“Normally, I wouldn’t leave the scene of an accident. However, if we want to live to see the light of day, we better get out of here.” Colton placed the gearshift into Drive and turned his vehicle around. Water sloshed everywhere.
“Where to? You mentioned an elderly neighbor that you need to check on.” Another gust of wind blasted the front windshield. Makena gasped.
“She asked me to check on her ‘guest’ who was staying in her RV. Since you’re right here, a change of plans is in order. My place isn’t far from here. The parking structure is sound and partially underground. We should be safe there.”
Before she could respond, Colton had his secretary on the radio again, updating her on his new destination. Makena figured she could ride out the storm with Colton, giving away as little personal information as she could. Their shared history might work in her favor. Any other law enforcement officer in this situation would most certainly haul her in. Her name would get out.
Makena couldn’t risk River figuring out where she was. With his jealous tendencies, it wouldn’t be good for him to see her around Colton, either. The Dallas cop would pick up on her attraction faster than a bee could sting.
Colton stopped at the red light on an otherwise empty street. Everyone seemed to have enough sense to stay off the roads tonight. The only reason she’d left the RV at all was to find scraps of food while everyone hunkered down.
Makena had thrown away her phone months ago, so she’d had no idea a storm was on its way. The cloudy sky and humidity had been a dead giveaway but spring thunderstorms in Texas were notorious for popping up seemingly out of nowhere. In general, they retreated just as fast.
This one, however, was just getting started.
Chapter Four
“What do you think?” Colton asked a second time. He’d blame the rain for Makena not hearing him, but she’d been lost to him for a moment.
The prospect of her disappearing on him wasn’t especially pleasing. After being in the vehicle with her for half an hour already, he barely knew any more about her or her situation than he had at the start of the conversation.
The fact that she deflected most of his questions and then overexplained told him the storm brewing outside wasn’t the only one.
Since she seemed ready to jump if someone said boo, h
e figured some things were better left alone. Besides, they were trapped together in a storm that didn’t seem to have any intention of letting up over the next twenty-four hours. That would give him enough time to dig around in her story.
Colton relaxed his shoulders. He needed to check in with his mother and see if she was okay with having the twins sleep over. Again, he really didn’t like doing that to her under the circumstances no matter how many times she reassured him the twins were nothing but pure joy.
“About what?” Makena asked.
“Staying at my apartment at least until this storm blows over.” Colton banked right to avoid a tree limb that was flying through the air.
“When exactly might that be?”
Colton shouldn’t laugh but he did. “I’m going to try not to be offended at the fact that you seemed pretty upset about the prospect of spending a couple of hours alone with me. I promise that I’m a decent person.”
“No. Don’t get me wrong. You’ve been a godsend and I appreciate the food. I was a drowned rat out there.” She blew out another breath. “I wasn’t aware there was a big storm coming today. And especially not one of this magnitude. I got caught off guard without an umbrella.”
He didn’t feel the need to add, without a decent coat. The roads were making it increasingly unsafe to drive to Mrs. Dillon’s place. It looked like there were more funnel systems on the way. A tornado watch had just been issued for this and four surrounding counties. He’d like to say the weather was a shock but it seemed folks were glued to the news more and more often every year and some supercell ended up on the radar.
“You didn’t answer my question.” The reminder came as she stared at the door handle.
Makena sat still, shifting her gaze to the windshield, where she stared for a long moment. She heaved another sigh and her shoulders seemed to deflate. “I appreciate your hospitality, Colton. I really do. And since it doesn’t seem safe to travel in this weather, going to your place seems like the best option. I have one question, though.”
