Her head hurt. Kerry turned, easing the pain, and opened her eyes to see Rafe sitting in a chair, leaning in close, watching her.
She’d been in the emergency room for hours, having to wait until the tests came back that would tell them that, other than the surface pain which was completely manageable, she was as fine as she’d said she was. She wasn’t feeling drunk. Her thinking was clear and quick. She was bristling at the inactivity while Odin Rogers’s thug had a chance to get away.
And was pretending to doze, too, so that she didn’t have to converse with the man who’d just risked his own life to save hers. Didn’t trust herself to speak to him while the intense emotions his actions had raised in her were still so raw. Didn’t want him to see how much he meant to her. Not when she didn’t trust him to always be there for her. Not when his being there for her that day made those times when he wasn’t hurt so much more. He had a scrape on the side of his chin. And some blistered knuckles, too, she’d noticed when he’d thought she was resting and had been talking to one of the technicians who’d come into their little white-curtained cubicle.
She’d heard Rafe’s voice, and then the scuffle above her on the mountain, had just wanted to be able to sleep for a few minutes, until her head stopped hurting, but had known, too, that she had to fight to stay conscious. So she’d lain completely still, praying the pain would subside so she could be sure she wouldn’t pass out if she stood up.
And then Rafe had been there and she’d focused on the soft tones of his voice, rested against him as he’d carried her off the mountain. She’d looked at him and smiled a thank-you when he strapped her into the front seat of his truck and then kept her eyes closed the rest of the way to the hospital.
“If he’d been just an inch over, he’d have caught you on the back of the skull and could have killed you.” His voice in that small cubicle was low, but didn’t hide the intensity behind the words as he noticed her watching him.
She gave a very small nod. “The guy who did the CT scan said that the full weight of the boulder just skimmed the back point of my skull.” It had been enough to stun her, knock her over. They weren’t sure if it was the fall or the rock that knocked her out. She hadn’t even needed stitches. Or to have her hair shaved, thank goodness.
She’d only lost consciousness for a few seconds, a minute at most, they figured, based on how soon Rafe came upon the guy and her ability to hear him up there beating the guy to a pulp.
“I’m just pissed he got away,” she said. The chief had been in to see her. And to tell her that by the time Dane got to the mountain, the black car was gone and there was no sign of any man, dead or alive, up above the car. He’d collected the rock that was used to hit her. It was close to where the small pool of her blood had been and had a tiny bit of blood on it. Probably hers. If they were lucky, they’d get prints from it.
They’d brought her Jeep back to the station and put out a notice on the black car, which had so far netted nothing. Kerry had written down the license and they’d done a search to find the car was reported totaled two years before and sent to a scrap yard.
Rafe hadn’t gotten a good look at the man’s face and neither had Kerry. But she remembered he was big. Had a beard, which he could easily shave, and dark hair. Chief Barco had asked, and no one matching that description had come into the hospital, or any of the clinics in town, seeking medical attention for a pummeling, but anyone could have taken him into Tucson. Or even up to Phoenix.
And Dane had gone to the house where she’d seen the car pull out of the driveway, but the woman who answered the door said she didn’t know anyone by the man’s description, that she’d been at the house alone with her elderly mother all day and that she didn’t recognize the car. She suggested it could have been turning around in her driveway. She showed the detective the green hatchback she had parked in her garage and the plates came back registered to her.
Whether she was covering for the thug, or had been telling the truth, they were no closer to finding out who the man was, why he’d met with Odin, and what he was doing up on that mountain.
“I’m going back up there,” she told Rafe.
“I know.” He looked so serious, sitting there in his stained shirt, with his tie still knotted at his throat, and jeans and tennis shoes.
He looked approachable. More like a guy who’d hang out in the same general world she inhabited, rather than a member of the privileged wealthy.
Leaning forward again, his elbows on his knees and his bruised hands clasped, he glanced at her. “I need you to promise me that you won’t go back up there alone,” he said, frowning as though preparing for an argument.
Leading her to want to say, “Make me,” like the kid she’d once been would have said to the kid he’d once been when a dare had been issued.
But the truth was, he probably could make her. He could hire someone to watch her, to follow her. Hell, he could probably have her boss put her on permanent leave, forcing her to move out of Mustang Valley if she wanted to work.
Recognizing the ridiculousness of the thought, Kerry also knew there was truth in it. The Coltons really were that powerful in Mustang Valley.
Still...
“I have to, Rafe,” she told him. Because she couldn’t afford to hire her own goon. “If the chief knows I’m going, he’ll order me not to do so.”
“I know.”
He probably knew that the chief figured she’d be back up on that mountain, too. He didn’t try to stop her from doing what she had to do. Unless she made an official request that would force him to do so.
So, the promise request? That had just been for show?
“That’s why I’m going with you,” he told her. “I’m already in as far as anyone could get, I’ve not only been seen, but I’ve now beat someone unconscious. And I’m going to see this through, Kerry.”
He wasn’t going to let this go. Or leave her alone, either, until Tyler’s murder was solved. And truth was, she had a better chance at success with his help. As proven by his actions that afternoon. If he hadn’t come running as soon as he’d gotten her text...
She’d have lain there until the thug was gone and then gotten herself off the mountain. Or pretended to be dead until he got close enough for her to shoot him.
But it could have gone badly, too. She could have been dizzy. Missed her shot. And ended up in a gully just like her brother and the ranger.
“Okay,” she said softly.
“Okay? You’re not just saying that because you think it will get me off your back on this, are you?”
“No.” She looked him right in the eye. “I’m saying it because I want to find out who killed my brother. I can’t tell the chief what I’m doing and get official help, and I can’t afford to hire anyone to help.”
He nodded. Sat back. Gave her the first smile she’d seen on his grim face since he’d made love to her the night before.
And then, bringing his chair closer, he took her hand, his expression serious again. “I won’t let you down again, Kerry. I’ll always be here for you.”
Her heart slammed shut. “No, you won’t be,” she said, just as softly. “Please, Rafe, please don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
“I...”
She shook her head twice, back and forth, in spite of the pain. “I mean it, Rafe. I need you to agree that there will be no promises between us. Because we both know that as soon as Payne gains consciousness, as soon as your life gets back to normal, our paths won’t be crossing again.”
She wanted him to deny her declaration. To give her some hope that there could be a possibility of a miracle in their future. Someday. That he’d leave his family and their wealth and come into town to live with her.
Because they both knew Payne would never accept her at the family dinner table at the RRR. Or in Rafe’s house, either.
When he said nothing, she had her answer.
Rafe went upstairs to see Payne while Kerry’s physician was in with her. He was her ride home; he knew she wouldn’t leave without him, but still, he was on edge leaving her.
Not good. Or healthy. And one of the reasons he left her. That, and because of his late shower followed by the board meeting and his need to get some other time sensitive things done in the office, he’d missed his morning visit with the older man.
Genevieve was sitting alone in the room and smiled when Rafe came in, accepting his invitation to be with Payne while she went to the cafeteria for a snack.
“How you doing?” he asked the elder Colton as he took a seat close to the bed. The doctor had told them there was every chance the comatose Payne could hear them talk, encouraging them to do so, and Rafe took the opportunity to tell his adoptive father how much it hurt him to lose his oldest friend in the world. He talked about what Kerry had meant to him as a five-year-old, and as a thirteen-year-old, too. He told Payne that he didn’t think it was any mistake that she’d been assigned to his case. He didn’t vent. Didn’t place blame. He just talked, stopping short of admitting to any current relationship with his ex-friend. He wasn’t ready to go there.
To put limits on it.
Or add a definition to it.
The talk wasn’t all that long; Genevieve returned quickly and Rafe had to get back downstairs to Kerry, not that he told his stepmother that he had any other purpose at the hospital. If she noticed the scrape on the side of his jaw, she didn’t mention it.
Nor did she ask why he was in jeans.
Because she didn’t notice enough about him to know the dress was unusual? Didn’t care? Or was just too upset about Payne to bother with anything else? He didn’t know.
She didn’t ask about the morning’s board meeting. Chances were Marlowe, who was her daughter, had already been to the hospital and filled her in.
Nothing had changed as he rode the elevator back down, but he felt better, nonetheless. Didn’t matter whether Payne heard the words or not; he’d needed to tell his father how he felt.
Kerry was fully dressed, disconnected from all hospital monitors and sitting in the chair he’d vacated, when he returned to her cubicle.
“No internal bleeding, not even any brain swelling,” she said as soon as he pushed through the curtain. She stood, reaching for the gun that the chief had taken from her holster when he’d visited her earlier, and then, not finding it, frowned. “Can you just drop me at the station?” she asked. “I need to get my Jeep and my gun.”
He planned to follow her home, too. To make sure she didn’t have any problems driving, not that he told her so.
“I was thinking, maybe since we’re here, we could ask around for some long-term employees, see if anyone remembers the fire from forty years ago, or knows who was working in maternity back then. Or knows someone who would know. If we can’t find Payne’s shooter in one way, we’ll go about it another.”
He stopped at the end of the bed. “You know that the email couldn’t be traced?”
“Ainsley left a message late this morning,” she said. As Colton Oil’s attorney, Ainsley’s choice made sense. Rafe just didn’t like not being the one who gave Kerry Colton news.
He’d been sitting at that table. Had voted on the motion.
“I actually would like to question employees,” he said, “but I think we should wait until tomorrow.” When she looked ready to argue he glanced at her clothes. Her hair. And down at himself. “I think we’d get a better response after a shower and some rest.”
For once, she didn’t argue with him.
Or have a better idea.
“Detective! Detective Wilder!”
Kerry was just getting into her car at the station after a brief talk with the chief and Dane—assuring them both she was fine and would be at her desk in the morning, and retrieving the gun and cell phone the chief had taken into safe custody when he’d seen her at the hospital—when someone called her name from behind. Called it loudly. Demandingly.
Turning she noticed three things at once. Rafe’s truck was still where he’d parked it when he dropped her off. He was getting out of it and approaching her. And from a slightly different direction, so was Ace Colton.
“Mr. Colton,” she addressed Ace, ignoring Rafe’s presence for the moment, not sure whose side he was on for this conversation. Thinking he might have told Ace where to find her. “What can I do for you?”
“What can you do for me?” The forty-year-old intimidating man asked. Tall and leanly muscled, Ace had a reputation for being somewhat ruthless. Kerry wasn’t the least bit intimidated. Even after the day she’d had.
“That’s what I asked,” she said. “Did you need something?”
“Yeah, I need something.” The man, in a suit coat and tie, glanced at Rafe, almost as though just noticing he was there, and then back at Kerry. “You can tell me what’s going on with my father’s case. Three nights ago you haul me away from my family, while we’re all still in shock, you make me call my lawyer away from his family, ask me a bunch of questions, tell me not to leave town, and then...nothing.”
“When I have something to tell you, or need anything from you, I’ll let you know,” she said. “The investigation is ongoing.”
Still not allowing herself to look at Rafe, she faced the ousted CEO with complete calm. Ace Colton had never been a threat to her. Only his father had been. Or rather, his supposed father. Truth be known, she kind of felt for the guy. Thinking he was one thing all his life, an elevated, important and very rich something, only to find that he might be as low as Kerry—the hired help.
She felt the sting of that distinction very clearly.
Could definitely relate.
“Can you at least tell me if I’m a suspect?” he asked. “I’d like to be free to head to Tucson if I choose to do so.”
While Ace had been removed from the Colton board, she assumed he was still working at the company. It wasn’t like all he did all day was sign CEO papers. But she could be wrong about that.
“At this time I can tell you that the investigation is ongoing and you’ve been advised not to leave town.”
“You’re wasting Mustang Valley Police Department time. You realize that, I hope.”
She wasn’t going to let him see that his insulting tone, more than his words, stung. Especially with Rafe standing right there, in between them, but closer to Ace than to her.
“You have no idea how I’m spending my time,” she blurted, and then hated that she’d done so. That she’d let him get to her. And wouldn’t the high-and-mighty Ace Colton like to know just what she’d been doing with her time the night before. All night long.
Of course, he might already know. News tended to travel fast in Mustang Valley. But from what she’d understood, news of the townspeople didn’t often reach the elegant offices of Colton Oil. Their interests were outside Mustang Valley.
But even if the Coltons had heard that Rafe spent the night at her house, she had said that he’d slept on the couch. She was pretty sure even the chief believed that one.
Who, knowing Kerry, wouldn’t? She wasn’t the type to do something stupid like fall for someone so far out of her league.
And she lived and breathed police work.
She was married to her job.
“Are you listening to me?” Ace’s words stopped her racing thoughts. “I did not shoot my father. I don’t even own a gun.”
True about the gun. But the crime files were filled with murderers who didn’t own guns. At least not legally.
“He didn’t do it, Kerry.” Rafe chose one hell of a time to speak up. On Ace’s side, of course. “I know him. He can be a bit of an ass, but he’s not a killer. None of us are.”
The defense made her mad. Or hurt. She wasn’t sure which. She just knew that her response was reactionary even before it was out of her mouth.
“Yes, Ace, you are a suspect,” she said. Taking what power she could from both of them. “You were heard to say, and admitted in front of counsel and on tape, that you threatened Payne Colton shortly before he was shot, which is motive, and you have no alibi. I don’t have any hard evidence that will prove you did this—yet. I’m still waiting for some reports to come back. I’ve got other things I’m checking—tapes I’m looking at, people I’m talking to—and if Payne regains consciousness, he might remember something, too.”
“Let me tell you this,” Rafe said. “If Ace was supposedly in town and at the office, rather than at the ranch, someone would have seen it. Or it would have been on a surveillance camera.”
That was one of the things she was still checking. “Not necessarily,” she said. “He could have caught a ride into town in any number of ways, if he’d wanted to do so unseen. And most everybody in town knows where security cameras are positioned. He could have made sure he avoided them.”
It was one of the problems of small towns—people knowing who had security and who didn’t.
“But there was nothing on Colton Oil security footage showing him either entering or leaving the building.”
“It didn’t show anyone else entering the building, either,” she quickly pointed out.
“Give it up, Rafe,” Ace said with one last half sneer at her, and then turned to the man Kerry had just slept with. “But thanks for the vote of confidence. It means a lot.”
She had to stand there and watch as the older man gripped the back of Rafe’s shoulder and the two men clasped arms and embraced.
A brother thing.