Cold Case Colton

by Addison Fox

“My thoughts run along the same lines. If I hadn’t had a nosy bank manager helping me with my savings account, I wouldn’t have heard, either.”

  Although she had no interest in going back to the home she grew up in, La Bonne Vie was still rightfully theirs, though it was seized after her mother’s arrest. They’d all been allowed to take the basics of their possessions, each of them watched by a different member of law enforcement as they emptied their rooms of personal effects.

  Knox, Leonor, River and Thorne had already passed the age of eighteen and were already making their lives. They’d had some sparse, leftover things from childhood, but most everything of theirs had already been collected.

  Not her and Jade.

  Even now, she still remembered that day—the watchful eyes and the seething hatred that had permeated the house as Livia Colton’s children gathered up what was theirs. She’d felt like the criminal as she was watched over, boxing up her things. The town had always had a love-hate relationship with her mother, but by the time Livia’s crimes had fully come out, the pendulum had definitely swung toward hate.

  Thankfully, they’d had Mac. He’d already ensconced himself on the far edge of the property with his own home and ranch and he’d provided a welcome haven. For her and Jade until they reached eighteen, but for all of them whenever they needed a soft place to land.

  “Do you ever wonder about it all?”

  “Wonder about what?”

  “Mom. Her crimes. What’s hidden out at the house.”

  Whatever earlier embarrassment she might have felt faded in full. River wasn’t there on a social call. And his normally still waters were most definitely rockin’ with waves.

  “You think something’s hidden out there?” she asked.

  “You don’t? She made La Bonne Vie her home base for a long time. I’m hard-pressed to believe she didn’t leave a few things behind when she was arrested. I always figured that’s why the feds were holding on to it.”

  “Then why not search it?”

  “I’m sure they did. But she knew how to hide things. Hell, she hid a life of horrible crimes from the people she should have been closest to. I think if she were able to do that, she could find a few hiding places in her own home.”

  His assessment made a frightening amount of sense and as they discussed it, Claudia added one more dimension to the puzzle that was her mother.

  For years, she’d assumed that her strange life under the orbit of Livia Colton was all she was meant to have. She and her siblings lived noticeably different lives from the other kids at school. Claudia had chalked it up to the weirdness of her family and did her best to try and fit in.

  Then her mother’s crimes had come to light. While it was horrible to know all she’d done, it had also given them an amazing sense of freedom. Livia went to jail and they all moved on to their new normal.

  To their new lives. She and Jade living with Mac while her older siblings got their adult lives off the ground. Knox had found his way to the Texas Rangers and Leonor to an art gallery in Austin. River had found his solace in the marines and Thorne a place cattle ranching with Mac.

  They’d all moved on.

  So how frustrating it was to find that all of it had caught up with them. Almost as if they’d simply been marking time in all the years that had followed.

  Waiting.

  “What do you think Mom hid at the house?”

  “Details. Notes. Files.”

  “On her...businesses?” Claudia swallowed around the euphemism. Prostitution and human trafficking and murder weren’t business, but depravity.

  “Her interests. Her businesses, both the legal and the illegal,” River agreed. “Likely all her perceived slights, too. And I’d say there was no one who filled that list like her husbands.”

  “Wes certainly paid a price.” Mac had nearly paid one, too, Wes’s mindless ramblings and desperate need for revenge as misplaced as they were dangerous.

  “He wasn’t my father. Or at least he doesn’t think he was.”

  “Oh, River.” Claudia knew her brother was battling secrets, but she had no idea it was this bad. “How did you find out?”

  “When I returned from active duty I went to see him. He’s being held until his trial and I wanted to talk to him. See him for myself.”

  “Was it awful? Having to see him locked up like that?”

  “No.” His gaze narrowed, the scars he’d returned with seeming to groove deep lines in a face that had seen too much.

  Lived too much.

  “It was sad. To see how far he’d fallen. How badly Livia’s actions had affected him. He told me he loved me. That he’d always loved me, which is something. But then he told me he didn’t think I was his son.”

  More pain. More secrets. More lies.

  Their lives were full of them. And until Livia Colton was caught, it seemed none of them would ever really have anything resembling a normal existence.

  She didn’t want to feel compassion for Wes, but knowing what her mother had done to him, she also couldn’t find it in her heart to hate him. He’d been as manipulated and emotionally abused as the rest of them. To think he’d spent much of his life thinking he had a child when River was never really his.

  And just like that, she saw River’s pain reflected in her own.

  A lifetime of thinking of one person as your parent, only to find out that was very likely not true.

  Did she dare tell him? About the Krupids and their daughter, Annalise? About Livia’s trip to Europe and the sketchy details about her own birth that Hawk had brought to light with his arrival in Shadow Creek?

  She wanted to tell him. Wanted a chance to share her theories and get her big brother’s in return.

  But something held her back. The same reasons she hadn’t wanted to upset the others mattered here, too. Why add to River’s latest personal trials if it was all for naught?

  She’d know soon enough when they got the DNA test results back.

  Even as she decided she wouldn’t tell River about Hawk’s real purpose for visiting, she couldn’t stop the question that had haunted her for years.

  “Does it make a strange sort of sense to you now?”

  “What part?”

  Claudia thought about what she wanted to say. About how to ask River if he’d always known he wasn’t Wes’s son. “Did you ever have a sense Wes wasn’t your father?”

  “No. I mean, he never treated me differently, but I’d have moments. Flashes where I wondered if he was my father. I had no reason for it and I always chalked it up to the behavior of a dumb kid. If that makes any sense.”

  It made more sense than she could ever describe. Only her flashes of insight had come when she looked at her siblings and saw no resemblances to the person who stared back from the mirror every day.

  “Is there anyone she hasn’t used or manipulated?”

  Claudia thought about the details Hawk had shared about Annalise Krupid. The way the young woman and so many others had been smuggled out of Russia, supposedly part of a mail-order bride scam to hide what was really happening to them. What they’d really signed up for.

  Livia’s cohorts had made vague promises to vulnerable young women who gave in before they realized they were signing on to a life of slavery and servitude, all directed toward one outcome. Their conscription as unwilling prostitutes in her mother’s vile business.

  Even if she wasn’t Annalise Krupid’s biological daughter, it didn’t change what her mother had done. What she’d built and run, from the ground up. Just like River’s questionable parentage. Like Livia’s betrayal of Mac and her manipulation of Leonor.

  The joyous moments with Hawk that had filled her afternoon faded as if they’d never been.

  Why did that keep happening?

  How did ev
ery conversation about her mother somehow sink her toward a depression that she then had to take precious time digging her way out of?

  No more.

  And certainly not tonight.

  She had too much joy still humming in her veins. Between the excitement over the wedding and the beauty of being in Hawk’s arms, she was determined not to give in to the dark forces.

  “We need to go dancing.”

  “Go where?” River’s clear eye widened even as both eyebrows lifted at her suggestion. “Now?”

  “No. Tonight. Let’s get a group together and head down to that dance hall a few towns over. I’m tired of talking about Mom and all the horrible things she’s done. I want to have some fun. Some happiness and I want to do it with my family.”

  Her family.

  Hawk had stressed to her that they’d be her family no matter what the outcome of the DNA test. She’d initially taken his comments as lip service, but maybe it was time she started believing it. They were the people who’d stood by her no matter what. And they’d be the people who continued to stand by her, no matter what she discovered.

  River was no less himself if it turned out his father wasn’t Wes Kingston. She’d be no less herself, either, if she was the daughter of Annalise Krupid.

  “You want to go tonight? It’s short notice.”

  “So was dinner the other night but we pulled it off. Come on, River. Let’s get out of here and go dancing. Even if it’s just for a few hours.”

  She saw the moment she convinced him, the layer of skepticism on his face fading as a small smile spread. “I’ve heard there are a lot of pretty women that hit ladies’ night on Thursdays.”

  “Then it’s settled. Let’s start making some calls.”

  * * *

  Hawk had to hand it to her, the idea to go dancing was inspired. And this from a man who’d wanted to do nothing more than spend his evening wrapped up in her arms. Even with the needs of his body drumming in a dull throb, he couldn’t deny the fun of squiring her around the dance floor, the music creating a different sort of seduction between them.

  “You’re quite a two-stepper.” She clung to his hand as they wended their way through the dance hall, a string of songs that had kept them busy for the past half hour finally at an end.

  “I’m rusty.”

  “If that’s rusty, I’d hate to see you at the top of your form.” She lifted her head and planted a quick kiss on his lips. “You’re definitely a natural.”

  “Wait till you see my other moves.”

  Need sparked low in her eyes, visible even in the dim lighting of the dance hall. “I can’t wait.”

  They headed for the members of their group who had stayed to hold their table and Claudia gripped his hand, squeezing tight when they were a few tables away. “I’m so glad Evelyn came. Look at her and Mac talking. This is going so well.”

  “You’re hopeless.”

  “No, I’m hopeful. I’m also so very right. It’s a dangerous combination.”

  It was a dangerous combination, but not for the reasons she meant. Hawk let go of her hand and wove behind her toward a few empty seats on the opposite side of where Mac and Evelyn sat quietly talking.

  Hopeful and right.

  Hadn’t she been trying to prove that to him from the start? That his life wasn’t over and that it was okay to begin again? Better than okay, actually.

  He’d thought about it all afternoon. Once the immediate claws of sexual need had eased their grip, while she was visiting with her brother, Hawk had made a series of mental lists in his mind as he puttered around her shop.

  All the reasons he should keep seeing her, pitted against all the reasons to hightail it home to Houston at first light.

  And the reasons to stay always won.

  In fact, he’d had trouble coming up with even a handful of reasons to leave.

  “Should she be doing that?” Mac pointed toward the dance floor, where Maggie and Thorne danced, their arms thrown in the air.

  Since Hawk’s experience with pregnant women and babies extended about as far as what he saw on TV, he opted out of an answer. But it was Evelyn who spoke, her smile warm as she stared out over the dance floor. “Why not? She’s going to dance on Saturday, too, I hope. It’s nothing more than a little exercise. The real issue is that she’s going to tire out before the baby’s done doing cartwheels tonight.”

  “Babies do cartwheels?” Mac asked, his voice panicky.

  “It feels like cartwheels. It’s probably more like very vigorous swimming.” Evelyn patted his hand. “And it’s all one hundred percent natural and healthy.”

  Her words seemed to calm Mac, and Hawk had to admit Claudia seemed right about the sparks between Mac and Evelyn. Not that he wanted to encourage her, but it looked like she’d pretty accurately pegged the situation. The pointy-toed kick to his shin was a completely unnecessary reinforcement of the same. “Hey!”

  “Hopeful and right,” she leaned over and whispered in his ear. “Like I said, an unbeatable combination.”

  Laughter and conversation ran high throughout the evening, their table forming and reforming as people got up and danced, moved into different conversation groups and ordered beers and burgers. So it seemed perfectly natural when River Colton sat down next to him and laid a casual arm on the back of his chair.

  “My little sister’s crazy about you.”

  Hawk saw her gaze flick over toward them from where she talked to Jade on the opposite side of the table before returning fully to her sister.

  Looked like he was on his own.

  “I’m pretty crazy about her, too.”

  “Crazy like you’re going to stick, or crazy like you want to screw around with her?”

  River maintained that easygoing smile, but Hawk felt the big-brother menace washing over him in a steady stream of male territorialism.

  “I’m not going to hurt your sister.”

  “See that you don’t.”

  Since that didn’t require a response, Hawk decided to give the man his moment and focused on their small group instead. Leonor and Joshua were talking with their heads bent at the corner of the table, sharing a plate of fries. Maggie and Thorne had gotten up to go dancing and had persuaded Mac and Evelyn to head out, as well. Even now, both couples were whirling their way around the dance floor.

  River eased up, his pose casual as he slouched back in his seat. Although Hawk had spent minimal time with any of the other Coltons, he couldn’t deny the very real sense that the man sitting beside him was a lost soul. River Colton showed moments of clarity, as if he were awakening from a dream, but those times were counterbalanced with a lost look that lurked deep in his lone eye.

  “This meant a lot to her.” Hawk didn’t have to ask to know that River meant Claudia. “I’m glad she organized this. Things have been entirely too serious lately and it’s nice to do something that has no more reason for being other than it’s fun.”

  That dreamy state faded as River leaned closer. His gaze flicked to his sister to make his point. “She’s spent enough time dealing with jerks. It’s time she got what she deserved. A good man who’ll stand beside her and support her.”

  “I won’t argue with you there, but you act like she’s got nothing.” Hawk gestured to the table, then toward the dance floor. “I’d say her family’s done a damn fine job of standing beside her up to now.”

  River straightened out of the casual slouch, his good eye going sharp with awareness. “You notice things, Huntley.”

  “I’d like to think I do.”

  “Then what do you make of these threats against her? That weird menagerie outside her shop and then the issue yesterday morning.”

  So River Colton did know what was going on. More than he’d initially given him credit for.


  Hawk bent his head, his tone lower than the ambient din that surrounded them. “Several of your mother’s known associates are still on the loose.”

  “You think this is Livia’s doing?”

  “I think we’d be mistaken if we didn’t consider it.”

  “Have you considered the actual threats? They’re dangerous, escalating and creepy. Take your pick on which is worse but I’m bothered by the sense of escalation.”

  Since that element had bothered him, too, Hawk nodded. “It’s why I fiddled with the cameras in her shop. Why I’m installing a few more tomorrow.”

  “Good.”

  “And it’s why I’m not leaving her alone until we get to the bottom of this.”

  The idea had been swirling through his mind, but now that he’d put it into words Hawk acknowledged to himself he’d just been looking for the proper time to lay down the gauntlet. Whether or not he and Claudia slept together, he wasn’t leaving her alone.

  And that started tonight.

  * * *

  Happy, rosy, rich, smiling faces.

  Dirty, rotten, corrupt smiling faces.

  The Forgotten One nursed a beer in the back corner of the dance hall and watched the Colton family enjoy their little evening out. They’d been there all night, laughing and joking, completely unaware she was even watching them. Waiting for them.

  Waiting for one of them in particular.

  Claudia Colton. The golden girl of the family and the one who’d believed herself too good for Shadow Creek.

  Too good for her roots.

  Look at her now, throwing herself all over her protector. The man hadn’t been here even a week and she’d already whored herself out for him. Had draped herself over him like a common streetwalker.

  She deserved what was coming to her.

  They all deserved what was coming.

  But the golden girl would be first.

  Chapter 16

  Claudia floated out of the dance hall into the hot Texas night. Stars shined high in the sky and she couldn’t stop the crazy, wonderful energy that coursed through her veins.

  Nor did she want to.