Colton Baby Conspiracy (The Coltons 0f Mustang Valley Book 1)

by Marie Ferrarella

  She didn’t like being told what to do—she never had, not even as a child. She could feel her back instantly going up. “Listen, I—”

  “—can stay put for twenty minutes,” he informed her, managing to predict what she was about to say.

  Marlowe stared at her phone screen. The connection had been terminated. She could feel her temper rising quickly. For a second, she fought against the urge to throw her phone against the wall. Taking in a deep breath to help her get hold of her escalating impatience, Marlowe told herself there was no reason to take her anger out on her phone when she could just as well wait for Bowie and take it out on him in person.

  Two more deep breaths later, she buzzed for Karen. The petite assistant was inside her office almost immediately.

  “What can I do for you, Ms. Colton?” Karen asked.

  “Bowie Robertson will be coming to see me. Bring him in as soon as he gets here,” Marlowe instructed.

  Although she was obviously surprised, Karen did a good job of hiding her emotion. “Very good, Ms. Colton,” the assistant replied. “Anything else?” She stood by the door, awaiting further instructions.

  “Not as far as I know.”

  She knew that it was a vague response to her assistant’s question, but at the moment Marlowe wasn’t feeling all that focused. On the contrary, her mind felt as if it was spinning around here, there and everywhere. A little like a sparrow caught in a storm, searching for somewhere to land before being helplessly blown completely off course.

  About to withdraw from Marlowe’s office, Karen looked at her boss over her shoulder.

  “May I get you some tea, Ms. Colton?” her assistant offered. “You look a little pale, if you don’t mind my saying so.”

  Mind? Why should she mind having an employee tell her that she looked like death warmed over? Marlowe thought.

  She realized that her hands were clenched. She was flying off the handle again, Marlowe thought. What was going on with her, anyway? Her assistant was just trying to be kind, not criticizing her.

  “Herbal tea would be very nice, thank you, Karen,” she agreed. “Cream, no sugar.”

  “Cream, no sugar,” the young woman repeated. “Got it.” Karen said it almost happily, appearing glad to have something specific to focus on.

  Marlowe leaned all the way back in her chair and closed her eyes, trying to think.

  Why was Bowie actually coming here? They’d just seen each other this morning.

  And then she remembered that he had said something about getting her a bodyguard, as well as having someone look into trying to track down the source of that awful email she and the others had all received. Could that be it? Had he found out something important and was coming to tell her in person because he thought the phone lines were being bugged? Was the person who had uncovered all this for her the person he wanted to introduce her to?

  Or should she be worrying about something else entirely?

  Not for the first time, part of her really regretted ever having gone to that energy conference. If she hadn’t gone, then none of this would be happening and she could focus on the drama surrounding Ace’s case instead of feeling so scattered right now.

  But then, if she hadn’t gone to the conference, she wouldn’t have spent that spectacular night with Bowie and she wouldn’t be...

  She wouldn’t be wasting her time sifting through possible scenarios and practically talking to herself like some loon, Marlowe thought, completely annoyed with herself.

  A light rap on her door had her back snapping into place, rigid and alert. Her eyes immediately darted toward the door. But when it opened, it was only Karen coming in with a large steaming mug of tea.

  “Here you go, Ms. Colton,” she said, putting the mug down on the desk in front of Marlowe. “Herbal tea, cream and no sugar.” The young woman began to withdraw from the office. “I’ll let you know when Mr. Robertson arrives.”

  “You do that,” Marlowe murmured.

  Almost without thinking, she wrapped her hands around the large mug. The warmth that seeped into her was oddly comforting. Closing her eyes, she let herself drift for a moment.

  But the knock on her door a few moments later had her eyes flying open.

  “They’re here, Ms. Colton,” Karen announced, opening the door.

  “They?” Marlowe questioned. Who exactly were they?

  The next moment, Bowie came in, followed by what could have very possibly been the largest man she had ever seen. He wasn’t fat, just very, very wide and solid looking. The man had shoulders broad enough to double as a landing field, encased in a navy blue sports jacket that the giant seemed oddly comfortable wearing. But instead of a button-down shirt, he had on a gray turtleneck sweater. Casual, yet refined.

  But just who was this man, and why had Bowie brought him into her office?

  Turning her chair in his direction, Marlowe began to frame her question. “Bowie...?”

  Way ahead of her, Bowie made the introduction. “Marlowe Colton, I’d like you to meet Wallace Bigelow.” He smiled. “Your new bodyguard.”

  It took effort not to have her mouth drop open. She really hadn’t expected Bowie to act so fast. “My what?”

  “Your bodyguard,” Bowie repeated. “We talked about this, remember?”

  She had just assumed that Bowie had forgotten about that. Or would at least take his time.

  Getting up from her chair, she moved over to the side, indicating that Bowie should move with her. When he did, Marlowe said, “I remember you talking. What I don’t remember is my agreeing to this.”

  “Well, you did,” he informed her, “and here he is.” Bowie moved back to the center of the room, next to the man he had brought with him. “Bigelow, this sunny, smiling woman is Marlowe Colton. I want you to guard her with your life and make sure that absolutely nothing happens to her. Understood?”

  “You have my word, sir.” Wallace’s deep voice seemed to practically rumble through the entire office like thunder.

  Okay, this really wasn’t going to work, Marlowe thought. “No offense, Wallace, you seem like a very nice man, but I don’t need a bodyguard,” she told the giant, then turned toward Bowie. “I don’t,” she insisted.

  Bowie’s expression didn’t change. “Would you like me to drag out exhibit A, that giant teddy bear you brought into my office? Or maybe exhibit B, the card that came with him?”

  She knew when she was looking down the sights of defeat. What she needed to do now was gain some concessions.

  “All right, all right, you’ve made your point. But shouldn’t a bodyguard be, well, you know, a little more inconspicuous than, say, a skyscraper?” She turned toward the giant of a man in her office. “Again, no offense, Wallace.”

  For such an intimidating figure, Wallace had a very nice, winning smile. “None taken, ma’am,” he assured the woman he had been told to guard.

  “Ma’am,” Marlowe echoed. She couldn’t help wincing. The label made her feel as if she was ancient. “Okay, if this is going to have a prayer of working, he can’t call me ma’am,” she told Bowie.

  Bowie grinned. “I think it’s in his DNA,” he confided. “But Wallace doesn’t have to call you anything, do you, Wallace?” The man shook his head in agreement. “He just has to be,” Bowie told her.

  “Don’t worry, you won’t even know I’m there,” Wallace promised her.

  That was impossible, she thought. “I highly doubt that,” she told Wallace.

  “Unless you need me,” Wallace added pointedly, his soft blue eyes looking at her.

  “He really is very good at his job,” Bowie told her. “And besides,” he said, getting to what, in his mind, was the important part, “this is nonnegotiable.”

  Marlowe looked at Bowie. Ordinarily, she would have been spoiling for a fight. But there was something annoyingly endearing about ho
w adamant this man, who hadn’t been part of her life a mere two months ago, was about keeping her safe. Not because he wanted something from her, not because he was getting anything out of it, but just because he...cared?

  The thought hit her with the force of a six megaton bomb exploding in her brain.

  “What?” Bowie asked. “You just got a really strange look on your face. Like something frightened you. Is something wrong?”

  She looked at him, not certain how to process this newest thought that had suddenly cropped up in her head. “I’m not really sure,” Marlowe told him honestly. “I’ll let you know when I figure it out.”

  “Okay,” Bowie agreed, backing away from the subject, “but as long as we’re clear, Wallace stays,” he told her.

  Marlowe pressed her lips together, then nodded her head. Resigned. “Wallace stays,” she said. “But he stays restricted.”

  “Meaning what?” Bowie asked.

  To her it was self-explanatory. “He can’t venture into any areas that might contain restricted company secrets.”

  Was that all? He could respect that, Bowie thought. “Fair enough,” he agreed. “Wallace is being paid to be your bodyguard, not my spy. Besides, in case you’ve forgotten, our companies have slightly different approaches toward producing energy.”

  “No, I didn’t forget,” she told Bowie. Her mind went back to that evening at the conference, when everyone else had left and they were still talking, at first trying to convince the other of their stands and then...well, then they weren’t standing at all. “Yes, I remember. I remember that debate we had at the conference that night.”

  “Okay,” he told her. “I’ve got to be getting back for a meeting, but Wallace is going to stay with you 24/7. I’ll call you later and check in,” he told the bodyguard.

  “Wait, what?” Marlowe cried, stopping Bowie. “I thought he was only going to be around during working hours.”

  She should know better than that. “Crazy people don’t punch a time clock,” he told her. “That includes stalkers who leave oversize gifts in your office. Just because he left this for you at work by no means guarantees that this guy won’t pop up anywhere else—and that includes your condo.”

  “We have security at the house,” she informed Bowie. That went without saying.

  “Well, now you have a little more,” he told her, trying to be reassuring. “It’s just until we catch the guy, Marlowe,” he promised.

  “And when will that be?” she asked.

  She expected Bowie to say something, but it was Wallace who answered her question. “Soon, ma’am. Very soon.”

  “Not soon enough for me,” she couldn’t help adding.

  “I’ll call you later,” Bowie promised. His eyes took them both in. “Both of you.”

  Then, before she knew what was happening, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her deeply and thoroughly before releasing her just as abruptly.

  And with that, he was gone.

  Chapter 15

  “I’m sorry, Ms. Colton. She insisted on seeing you,” Karen apologized as Selina Barnes Colton pushed her way into Marlowe’s office.

  “Oh, stop your whining, you useless waste of space. I am part of Colton Oil’s board of directors. That gives me a perfect right to see anyone I damn well please in this building, and I don’t need permission to do it,” Selina informed Marlowe’s assistant in her high-handed manner.

  To Marlowe, hearing Selina’s voice was tantamount to hearing nails being slowly drawn across a chalkboard. It took everything she had not to wince.

  “I’ll thank you not to talk to my assistant that way, Selina,” Marlowe told the woman coldly. “Karen was only doing her job.” Her eyes narrowed as she looked at the attractive woman she and the rest of her siblings thought of as a venomous snake. “Now what’s so important that you have to come barging into my office like this, disrupting everything?”

  But Selina’s attention was diverted to the man she saw standing in the background.

  “And who is this?” she asked Marlowe. Her eyes slowly appraised everything about the wide, imposing bodyguard. Finished, Selina’s eyes shifted back toward Marlowe. There was a smirk on her full lips. “He’s a little old for you, isn’t he, dear? Has your father met him yet?”

  Not waiting for an answer, Selina continued her biting monologue. “I bet Payne hasn’t, and when he does, there will be hell to pay, you do realize that, don’t you, dear?” Selina laughed to herself, as if enjoying her own private joke. “It’s rather ironic. Your father doesn’t really take an interest in any of your lives,” she said pointedly, “except whenever something one of you does might reflect badly on the company.”

  Not giving Marlowe a chance to respond, Selina sidled up to Wallace Bigelow and gave him another once-over, doing it up close this time.

  “My, but you’re a big one, aren’t you? But if you think you’ve got yourself a meal ticket in little Marlowe here, think again,” she advised maliciously. “Her father’s going to have you out on your—”

  She had had just about enough, Marlowe thought. She raised her voice and broke in, wanting to put an end to this and to rescue Wallace from Selina’s tongue, as well.

  “Not that it’s any business of yours, Selina, but Wallace happens to be my bodyguard,” she told the infuriating woman.

  “Your bodyguard?” Selina repeated in a mocking voice. “Oh, is that what they’re calling it these days?” She batted her long lashes at Wallace. “Care to do a little moonlighting on the side, sweetie? You might find it interesting.”

  “Don’t proposition my bodyguard, Selina. It’s beneath you, and he hasn’t had his antivenom shots yet,” Marlowe said, rising to her feet. Wallace was much too polite. In his place, she would have told Selina to get lost a long time ago. But he had merely stood there, enduring the woman’s close scrutiny. “Although I’m starting to think that absolutely nothing is beneath you,” Marlowe told her father’s ex.

  “What a clever turn of phrase, dear,” Selina retorted to her ex-husband’s daughter, her tone nothing if not belittling. “Did it take you long to come up with that?” Selina mocked. “Anyway, I came to find out what, if anything, you and that brother of yours learned at the hospital about how your fake brother wound up going home with your father and that mouse of a first wife of his. Anything?” she prodded.

  Marlowe instantly took umbrage for the person she had known all of her life as Ace. “You’ll find out with the rest of the board when we convene tomorrow,” she informed Selina.

  “You’re planning on drawing this out, are you?” Selina surmised.

  Marlowe didn’t bother to hide the loathing she felt for the woman. “I don’t think it’s fair that you know something before the others do,” she said, deliberately being vague. She knew that it would get under Selina’s skin.

  Selina laughed at her. “You’re bluffing. You have nothing. If you did, you’d tell me just to put me in what you deem is my place,” she concluded.

  Marlowe was up on all of her tricks. She viewed them as rather pitiful. “You’re not going to goad me into saying anything, so you might as well just drop this,” she told Selina.

  Wallace finally spoke up, stepping forward. “Is this woman bothering you, Ms. Colton?”

  “Every day of my life, since the first time I ever met her,” Marlowe replied with feeling. “But that’s all right, Wallace. She was just leaving, weren’t you, Selina?” she asked solicitously.

  Selina drew herself up. There was pure hatred in her eyes. But she kept her temper. “For now,” the woman replied haughtily.

  Turning on the heels of her exceedingly expensive designer shoes, Selina walked out.

  “Sorry about that,” Marlowe apologized to Wallace.

  “No need to apologize, ma’am,” the bodyguard told her, returning to his initial post. “Almost every family has one of th
ose in their number.”

  “Doesn’t make putting up with her any easier,” Marlowe said with a sigh. “I can’t shake the feeling that she’s like this sleek vulture in a designer suit, waiting for one of us to drop in front of her so she can feast on the carcass.”

  It suddenly hit Marlowe that she was sharing bottled-up feelings with a man who was, by definition, a virtual stranger to her. It wasn’t something she normally did—ever.

  “I’m sorry,” she began. “I shouldn’t have...”

  Wallace seemed to understand her discomfort. “That’s all right, ma’am. Talking to me is like talking to a piece of furniture. You don’t have to worry. Whatever you say to me won’t go anywhere.”

  Marlowe couldn’t help laughing at herself and the entire scenario. “You were right,” she told him.

  “Ma’am?” he asked.

  “You really do blend in,” Marlowe said.

  “Yes, ma’am,” he answered agreeably, smiling broadly at her.

  Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all, Marlowe thought. And she had to admit, having this behemoth around to protect her did make her feel a great deal safer. Finding that teddy bear sitting there in her office this morning had made her exceedingly jumpy. That wasn’t a feeling that she welcomed. Though she wasn’t about to admit it out loud just yet, she appreciated having Bowie caring for her and their unborn child.

  “You know,” Marlowe said thoughtfully a few hours later as she finished up the proposal she had been working on, “that woman is always trying to stir up trouble between us.”

  “Between you and her, ma’am?” Wallace asked, deftly trying to pick up the thread of conversation where it had been dropped earlier.

  “No, between all of us. All of my father’s offspring,” Marlowe clarified. “Not to mention that there were more than a few times when she subtly tried to get us to turn not just against our father but against each other, as well.

  “And,” she said, continuing with her thought, “I have no doubt that Selina has whispered in my father’s ear and tried to get him to turn against us wholesale again.” She didn’t know if it was another wave of morning sickness or thoughts of Selina that were making her stomach suddenly churn, but she was feeling sick again as she shook her head. “I have absolutely no idea why he insists on keeping that woman around.” She frowned as she looked at her new confidant. “Dad says she’s good at her job, and I have to admit that she is,” Marlowe said honestly.