“You can always wait at the safe house,” he offered, “and I’ll call you the second we know anything.”
It wasn’t the first time he’d made the offer, and Elise figured he’d continue to make it as long as she stayed put. And as long as she was as visibly shaken as she was now. “I haven’t made up my mind if I want to go or not.”
Colt didn’t roll his eyes exactly, but it was close. “You can’t possibly want to stay here.”
“No. At least not until that body is gone. But I’m not sure I want to go to a strange place with, well, a stranger.”
Elise waited for him to try to convince her that the Ranger who would be guarding her wouldn’t be a stranger for long. And that he would be someone she could trust. He didn’t do either of those things. Colt only made a sound of agreement and pulled her deeper into his arms.
“We’ll work it out,” he said, brushing a kiss on her forehead.
And that’s how his brother Cooper found them when he came in through the back door. Colt’s mouth on her forehead. Her, snuggled in his arms. Colt and she immediately moved apart, but Cooper couldn’t have missed the close contact between them.
Unlike Rosalie and Roy, there was no warm welcome from Cooper. In his divided family, Cooper was clearly on his father’s side, and he saw her as a potential threat. Or maybe the look he was giving her was because he now saw her as someone connected to the body they’d just found.
Cooper was wearing his usual “uniform” of jeans, white shirt, a Stetson and boots, with his badge pinned to his belt beneath his buckskin jacket. His eyes and dark brown hair were a genetic copy of Colt’s, and like Colt, Elise had no trouble seeing the fatigue and stress in his eyes.
“Anything yet?” Colt asked, getting to his feet. Elise did, too, and she tried to move away from Colt, but he held on, dropping his arm from her shoulders to her waist so he could anchor her in place.
“It’ll be a while before the body’s fully excavated. They’re being careful because they don’t want to disturb anything around it in case it might contain evidence. But it’s definitely not a Native American burial. There are clothing fragments on the remains. What appears to be denim.”
So, it was someone wearing jeans. Someone like Whitt. That caused the knot in Elise’s stomach to tighten even more.
“How did they even discover the body?’ she asked. “Because I certainly didn’t see any signs of it.”
“The CSIs brought out a cadaver dog to go through the barn rubble. They wanted to make sure the person who set the trip wire hadn’t been killed and buried in the process. The dog sensed something all right but not at the barn. The CSI dug around and found the body in a fairly shallow grave.”
Just those two words, shallow grave, sent a cold shiver down her. “I swear I didn’t know anything about this,” she said to Cooper.
If he believed her, he made no indication whatsoever. Instead, his attention went to his brother. “I just got an update from the Appaloosa Pass deputy handling the roadblock. Still no sign of Buddy.”
Great. The man had nine lives when it came to escaping, and until they caught him, Cooper or Colt couldn’t question him about his involvement in all of this. However, no matter what Buddy said, he was still her top suspect for what’d happened in that barn.
“But there is some good news,” Cooper went on. “The county DA isn’t arresting Dad for these attacks. Not yet, anyway. And Joplin’s request for a mistrial was denied.”
It was indeed good news, even though that meant she’d be testifying, after all. She wasn’t looking forward to that, but Elise was glad that Joplin hadn’t managed to put a stop to the trial before it’d even started. Colt and his family needed closure. Heck, so did she. Though she wasn’t sure how any of them would feel if closure landed their father in jail.
“I’m sorry if all of this put your family in danger,” Elise said.
Something flashed through Cooper’s eyes. Anger, no doubt. But then those hard eyes softened a bit, and he scrubbed his hand over his face. “What time is she seeing the hypnotist tomorrow?” he asked Colt.
“Eight in the morning.”
Cooper nodded. “Stay with her until then. I’m putting you back on protection detail.”
The relief flooded through her. Too much relief, considering that she figured Colt might be ready to put some distance between them. But then she saw the quick glance that the brothers shared and knew there was more to this.
“What happened?” Colt asked.
Cooper pulled in a long breath, nodded. “The woman Elise investigated, Meredith Darrow, is making waves. She’s filing a lawsuit against Elise for defamation of character, but I’m not as concerned about her as I am about her brother, Leo.”
“Her brother?” Elise and Colt repeated in unison. “Why would he have any part in this?” Elise added.
“Because he’s a small-time thug, that’s why, and he came by the sheriff’s office demanding to see you. I won’t repeat the names he called you,” Cooper said to Elise. “He didn’t exactly threaten you, but it was close.”
Oh, mercy. She so didn’t need this on top of everything else. Colt’s arm went back around her.
“Did you arrest him?” Colt asked, and judging from his tone, he was just as riled about this as she was upset.
Cooper shook his head. “No cause. Yet. But I did issue him a few threats of my own and gave him a ticket for illegally parking outside the office. That didn’t help his temper,” Cooper added. “I checked, and Leo has a record for assault and a couple of restraining orders against him from former girlfriends and employers. He’s obviously very protective of his sister, so he might cause some trouble. You’ll need to be on the lookout for him, along with getting your own restraining order if he doesn’t back off.”
Great. Now, in addition to a dead body and the idiot trying to kill them, they also had to worry about a hothead.
Except they might be one and the same.
“Leo could be behind the attacks,” Elise concluded, and neither Colt nor Cooper disagreed with her. Any man who’d used violence in the past was probably inclined to use it again.
“We’ll be tied up here for a while yet,” Cooper went on a moment later, “but the sheriff in Appaloosa Pass said he’d bring in Leo and question him for us. I figure it’ll just rile Leo even more, but maybe he’ll do something stupid like take a swing at the sheriff, so they can arrest him and get him off the streets.”
It was a testament to how crazy her life was that she actually hoped Leo did try to assault a lawman. They already had enough suspects out there without adding another one to the mix. Especially one who felt he had to avenge his sister and her illegal activity.
“There’s more,” Cooper went on, and she could tell from his expression that this was more bad news. “I just talked to the Rangers before I came in, and someone’s trying to follow the sergeant who was coming out here to pick up Elise.”
Yes, definitely bad. It meant someone had likely learned that she was to be taken to a safe house. If their attacker discovered the location, it would make her an easy target. Again.
“The Ranger will try to get an ID on the person following him, but it’s probably best if Elise stays put for a while. When I can, I’ll escort you to the sheriff’s office. You can stay there until we make sure it’s safe to head to the new location.”
Elise was afraid that might never happen. Hard to feel safe with her world crashing down around her.
“It’s not much,” Cooper went on, “but there’s a small flop room just off the break area at the sheriff’s office. It has a single bed and bathroom. It won’t be comfortable, but it might work out better if you stayed there tonight so someone can help Colt guard you.”
“Yes,” she immediately agreed.
She was a trouble magnet these days, and with someone trying to follow the Ranger, the sheriff’s office was better than going back to the McKinnon ranch where Colt’s family could be hurt. Plus, Colt would have bac
kup at the sheriff’s office and maybe their attacker would be less likely to come after her there.
Maybe.
Cooper turned to leave but then stopped. “I’m sorry,” he added as he walked out.
Coming from him that was practically a hug, but it was Colt who actually did it. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close.
“I’m sorry,” Colt repeated.
That helped, too, but Elise felt if she stayed still, she might explode.
“I have to do something. Anything.” She glanced around at her already clean kitchen. For once she wasn’t pleased about being a neat person.
“You should pack some things before we leave,” Colt suggested.
Yes, and it would get her moving. Better than pacing and waiting by the window for them to pull the body out of the ground. Elise headed toward her bedroom.
Colt followed her, of course. With everything going on, he probably wasn’t going to let her out of his sight—something she didn’t mind.
Elise took an overnight bag from the shelf in her closet and stuffed it with a pair of jeans. She managed to pack some sweaters before the first tear spilled down her cheek.
Mercy, she was a wreck.
Colt made a soft sigh, and before the second tear came, he already had her in his arms again. Something he’d been doing way too much of lately, but like the other times, Elise didn’t resist. However, she did try to stave off a full-fledged crying jag.
She failed at that, too.
“I hate crying,” she mumbled.
“Seems to me that you’ve got a solid reason to cry. If it helps, I can lend you a shoulder or two.”
“Your shoulders always help,” she answered, her voice a choked whisper. “That’s part of the problem.” Elise pulled back, and even though she figured she looked pretty bad with her red eyes and puffy face, she still met his gaze. “What are we doing, Colt?”
Thankfully, she didn’t have to explain that. She could see that he knew what she meant, and he sighed again. “To hell if I know. Seems as if we picked up where we left off as kids.”
They had, but the situation wasn’t nearly the same as it was back then. “Your brothers—”
But that was all she managed to get out before he kissed her again. It was instantly one of those mind-numbing ones, and he was so good at it. Too good. It dried up her tears, fast, but it replaced her feeling of doom and gloom with more of that heat that she knew would only complicate things.
Still, that didn’t stop her. Elise melted into the kiss, and let Colt’s clever mouth ease her fears. Okay, it did more than ease them. That coil of heat went a long way to getting her mind on other things. Like more kissing.
More everything.
Colt and she had never gotten past the make-out stage, but her imagination was pretty good in that area. If this was how she felt just kissing him, then landing in bed would be an experience to remember.
Elise held on to that. Held on to him, too. And let his mouth work some magic on the rest of her body.
For a few seconds, anyway.
She pulled back even though that was the last thing she wanted to do. What she wanted was to test that landing-in-bed theory. Especially since the bed was just a few feet away.
Colt glanced at the bed. Then, at her. So not good. Because they were both thinking the very thing that could get them in trouble.
Thank goodness the only thing that saved them was that there was a team of lawmen just outside the window and any one of them could come walking in at any minute. Cooper had already caught them in a semi-intimate embrace. Best not to let him walk in on something that Colt and she shouldn’t even be thinking about doing.
“I would say that won’t happen again,” Colt mumbled. “But I don’t like lying to myself.”
That made her smile, and Elise realized Colt was probably the only person on earth who could make her do that right now. And that was a huge red flag.
Because she was falling hard for him.
Another so not good. It meant she was fast on her way to a broken heart, and Elise wasn’t sure she was mentally strong enough to deal with that right now.
That didn’t mean she couldn’t put off a broken heart until later, though.
She heard the sound of the door opening in another part of the house. Colt moved ahead of her, and they hurried back into the kitchen just as Cooper was walking in.
“It’s not Whitt,” Cooper immediately said.
Elise released the breath that she’d just sucked in. Yes, there was still a body buried on her property, but at least her gran hadn’t had anything to do with Whitt’s murder.
“Any idea who it is?” Colt asked his brother.
“It’s a woman by the name of Brandy Seaver, from San Antonio. Her wallet was in her jeans, and the driver’s license matches the description of the body. Did you know her?” Cooper asked Elise.
She repeated the name, trying to figure out if it rang any bells. It didn’t. So, Elise shook her head. “Who is she?”
“I made a quick call after we found the wallet and ID,” Cooper went on. “Brandy Seaver had a long record of prostitution, mainly in San Antonio, and a missing person’s report was filed on her nearly a year ago.”
A year ago. When Elise had still been living in Dallas. She hated to think of something like that now, but at least it meant Cooper might believe she didn’t have anything to do with putting the woman’s body in the ground.
“How did this Brandy Seaver get out here to Sweetwater Springs?” Colt asked his brother.
“According to the report that SAPD just sent me, the girls who worked the streets with Brandy said she was last seen getting into a truck with a customer. None of them got the license-plate number, but several were able to describe the vehicle and the driver.”
Cooper paused. “The description of the driver matches Buddy to a tee.”
Chapter Eleven
Colt rolled over, the pain shooting through his shoulder and back, and he groaned out loud before he could stop himself. The groan immediately grabbed Elise’s attention because she jackknifed to a sitting position. Her breath already gusting. Her eyes wide with concern.
And she looked down at him from the small twin bed. It was really more like a glorified cot in the break room at the sheriff’s office.
“You’re in pain,” she said.
“Just not used to sleeping on the floor,” Colt assured her. And a hard tile floor at that.
He worked his way out of the sleeping bag and would have gotten to his feet. If his feet hadn’t both been asleep, that is. He had no choice but to drop onto the bed next to her.
The very place he’d been trying hard to avoid for the past eight hours.
Now, here he was. In bed, literally, with Elise. And despite the lack of sleep and mussed hair, she managed to look way past the hot stage. Of course, she always managed to look hot, so that was nothing new.
“I’m moving,” he insisted.
But she took hold of his arm and scooted over so that she was pressed right against the wall. “We can control ourselves for at least a minute or two while you get the feeling back in your feet.”
Colt tried to smile, failed. Because being this close to her was a special form of torture. “After the dream I had about you, I shouldn’t be within a mile of you,” he mumbled.
“I hope it was sexual.” Her eyes widened again when he looked at her. “I mean better sexual than your wanting to wring my neck.”
He leaned in, risked brushing a kiss on her cheek. “There are a lot of things I want to do to you, but wringing your neck’s not on the list. Kissing it sounds like a good way to start the morning, though.”
And a bad one, too. Because he hadn’t been kidding about that dream. It had been a scorcher. Him and Elise butt naked, not on some tiny bed or floor, either. His bed. And they’d done things that he’d been thinking about doing with her for days.
Like kissing her.
Tasting every inch of her.
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Sinking hard and deep into her.
Then, kissing her again.
So, that’s exactly what he did. He kissed her, knowing that it was a dumber-than-dirt kind of thing to do. Despite the pain and numb feet, every other part of him was humming and aching for her.
“Bad idea?” she questioned, his mouth hovering over hers.
“Oh, yeah. The worst idea.”
Somehow, that made the kiss even better. He’d never been into the whole forbidden-fruit fantasy, but in Elise’s case, he’d make an exception. So, he upped the worst idea into a full-blown kiss. But he didn’t go after her mouth this time. He went after her neck again so he could finish what he’d started.
Well, finish a little part of it, anyway.
He could do something about tasting her.
Oh, man. She was just as good as he’d imagined she would be.
Colt enjoyed the little shivering sound that Elise made when his mouth touched her throat. Enjoyed even more the kick he felt in his own body. The taste of her cruised right through him—all fire and heat—and one part of him in particular was urging him to go in for more.
Which would definitely lead to down-and-dirty morning sex.
Really not a good idea since they were just one wall away from the squad room where Cooper, Reed and heaven knew who else was already at work.
That didn’t make pulling away from her easier, though, and Colt couldn’t quite stop himself. He added yet another kiss several inches lower and heard another of those silky sounds of need from her.
Yet more fire and heat.
Too much for just kisses.
She eased back, her gaze connecting with his. Uh-oh. There wasn’t a let’s-stop-this-now kind of look in her eyes. It was pure need. And plenty of it. Probably the same amount mirrored in his, and Colt figured if he kissed her again, he was going to forget all about that one-wall barrier and go for broke.
And he’d regret it.
Maybe not while he was deep inside her. But later. The last thing Elise needed was a sex-clouded mind. Ditto for him. If he had any chance of protecting her, then he had to stay out of her bed.
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