“By now you’ve all heard about Officer Dean Landon,” the chief said as he began the morning meeting.
Juliette glanced around the squad conference room. Every Red Ridge PD officer had been at the hospital the night before—whether they’d just stopped to check on him during a shift or they had come in while off duty. They had definitely all heard about Landon getting shot.
Did they blame her for it? Nobody was looking at her, but it was almost as if they were making a conscious effort not to. Maybe they knew she already felt guilty enough over what had happened to their coworker.
“Officer Landon is expected to fully recover from the gunshot wound,” the chief assured them. “However, it will take some time, so I will be actively looking for a temporary replacement for him during his recovery.”
Juliette expelled a breath. That was good. They couldn’t be shorthanded right now.
“Until I find that temporary replacement, I need you all to pull together like never before,” the chief continued. “No more infighting.”
Juliette felt no guilt over that; she wasn’t part of the feuding going on within the department because she was neither a Gage nor a Colton. It seemed as if, with a few exceptions like Dean Landon and Dante Mancuso and her, everyone in the K9 unit of the RRPD was related to one or the other.
“Have you heard from your sister?” Detective Carson Gage asked Brayden Colton, who was sitting in the chair in front of Juliette in the briefing room.
Brayden didn’t answer him. Everyone knew Carson was romantically involved with a Colton—Serena, who’d become close to Demi before she’d fled. Serena believed in her innocence. But Carson was ambivalent. Unlike the detective, though, Brayden was sure his sister was not the Groom Killer. He thought she’d been framed.
From what Juliette knew of Demi Colton, she had to agree with him. If Demi had killed someone, she would have done a better job of covering her tracks. Not that she hadn’t had a motive to kill Bo Gage. Apparently, he’d gotten her pregnant and then become engaged to another woman.
“Have you heard from her?” the chief asked now. “Any texts? Calls?”
The last time Demi had texted one of her brothers, she’d insisted she was innocent—and had said the baby was fine. No one could she be sure if she’d actually given birth yet, though the timing was right. Brayden shook his head. “No. And it’s been a while...”
Juliette could hear the concern in his voice. His sister was on the run—alone, heavily pregnant or traveling with an infant, and desperate. Juliette knew how that felt. Compassion compelled her to reach out and squeeze his arm.
“I’m worried something could have happened to her,” he admitted. “To them...”
“And whose fault would that be?” Carson asked.
“Her baby is a Gage, too,” Brayden reminded the detective. “Do you want to lose another one?”
Carson flinched.
“Knock it off,” the chief said. “After what happened to Dean last night, we all have to trust that we have each other’s backs. I can’t send any of you out there until I know that for certain.”
Carson closed his eyes and nodded. “I’m sorry. Of course, I know that. And I do...” He looked across the aisle of chairs at Brayden. “I have your back.”
“Juliette’s the one we need to watch right now,” the chief directed.
“You should be in witness protection with your daughter,” Carson told her. “Not out trying to do my job to track down that killer.”
“I will be able to recognize him,” Juliette pointed out. “And maybe my being out there will flush him out...” Because this had to end soon. Pandora wanted to go home—to her bedroom with all its stuffed toys and to her familiar bed.
And to her daddy...
This morning she’d asked if he was going to come live with them when they went home. Blake had told her that was her and Mommy’s house, not his. His home wasn’t in Red Ridge anymore. Would he leave once the killer was caught?
Of course he would. His business was called Blake Colton International. Not Blake Colton Red Ridge, South Dakota. He would have to return to his headquarters in London or his other branches in Hong Kong and Singapore.
Her face flushed as she realized how well she’d kept apprised of him in the past. She told herself that it was just because he was Pandora’s father. But Juliette had been keeping track of him even before that night they’d conceived their child.
She’d had a crush on Blake Colton for a long time.
But a crush was all it was. Nothing could ever come of it. They were too different. Her life was in Red Ridge as a K9 cop. His was in international cities with his business and his models and actresses.
She doubted he was going to give any of that up—even for his daughter. But she was worried that Pandora, after just that one meeting, had already gotten attached to her daddy. And Juliette was worried that after watching him during that meeting—watching him play and speak so sweetly with their little girl—that Juliette was getting too attached, as well.
“Walsh!” the chief shouted her name.
And she realized she’d missed whatever he’d been saying—to her. Her face flushed even hotter with embarrassment. “I’m sorry,” she murmured. “What were you saying?”
“That you are not going to use yourself as bait to flush out this lunatic,” the chief said. “That’s too damn dangerous.”
If he wasn’t the boss, Juliette might have dared to call him a hypocrite. Not too long ago he’d used himself as bait to flush out the Groom Killer. He’d drawn out an obsessed stalker instead.
“I don’t have to,” she said. “I just need to do my job. He must be involved with the drug problem in Red Ridge since he killed that woman in the park to take that briefcase of drugs from her. My partner is the drug sniffing expert. I need to keep going to the train terminal and the airport and the bus terminal...”
The more people she caught smuggling drugs in and out of Red Ridge, the better the chance that she would get a lead on the killer during one of those arrests.
“You’re going to have another patrol car on you at all times,” the chief said.
She shook her head. “That’s not necessary. We’re already spread thin—with the Groom Killer on the loose.”
“The killer hasn’t acted in a while,” the chief reminded them.
“About the same amount of time since anyone’s heard from Demi...” Carson muttered. But his comment was loud enough for Brayden to overhear and tense with anger.
So much for the détente...
Then Carson shook his head and murmured an apology before adding more loudly, “Probably because everybody’s scared to even think about getting married...”
But Juliette knew many of her coworkers were already thinking about it. Even the chief had recently fallen in love and moved in with the first murder victim’s ex-wife, Darby Gage. And Juliette knew her best friend Elle Gage had fallen in love, as well—with a Colton, no less. Juliette suspected there were probably quite a few secret engagements in Red Ridge. She figured that was one secret that she and Blake would never have between them.
Unless he was already engaged to someone else—to one of those models or actresses he dated. But then, she would have already read about that in the tabloids.
No. He probably meant what he’d told her nearly five years ago about never wanting to get married. And she knew that she would not be the one to change his mind.
Blake had been quiet when they’d left the safe house with just enough time to spare so Juliette wouldn’t miss the morning meeting. Maybe he’d just been tired since they had not slept at all the night before. She was tired. But she didn’t think that was why he hadn’t talked to her. It probably hadn’t been because he had been worried that the bodyguards might have overheard their discussion, either.
She suspected he’d been angry. After meeting their amazing little girl and realizing what he’d missed, he was probably so furious with Juliette that he wouldn’t care anymore if the killer got to her.
Because when she stepped out of the meeting, she didn’t find him waiting in the hall for her. The only person in the reception area was Lorelei Wong. She glanced up from her desk and smiled at Juliette. Her silver-framed glasses had slipped down her nose. She pushed them up and blew a breath through her black bangs as she spoke on the phone.
She was too busy again to talk—probably fielding calls about the Groom Killer.
Juliette just waved at her as she and Sasha headed out to their patrol car. As she put the beagle in her harness in the back of the vehicle, she glanced around and still caught no sight of Blake. Of course, she hadn’t noticed him the day before, either—until after work. So he might have been out there—with the bodyguards whose presence she didn’t notice.
Despite the heat of the July day, she shivered. The killer could be out there and undetected, too. If he was smart, though, he’d be lying low—because he’d made a serious mistake when he’d shot a Red Ridge police officer. Now the entire department was even more determined to find him.
* * *
“Dad wants to see you,” Patience told Blake.
“He knows where to find me,” Blake reminded her. Even if he didn’t own the hotel anymore—with all the financial difficulties he was currently having—he would know it was where Blake would stay.
“And I already told you that I can’t help him,” Blake reminded her. Withdrawing the amount of cash from his corporation that his father needed could cripple his business and cost too many of his loyal employees their jobs. He couldn’t do it—not even to save Layla from marrying some old wealthy guy who’d struck a deal with Fenwick Colton. What he’d rather see was Layla standing up for herself, choosing her life and her heart over business. For once.
Patience’s sigh rattled the cell phone Blake held. The rental car didn’t have Bluetooth. After he’d brought back the damaged one, the company had been willing to loan him only one of their older models. He hoped it was reliable enough to follow Juliette’s patrol car. Maybe he just needed to buy a vehicle—something like the SUVs the bodyguards he’d hired drove. Not that he could see them...
He could see the other patrol car, though, the one the chief had following Juliette. She must have been headed toward the bus terminal. That was better than the places she’d gone the day before.
“Dad wants to see you because he’s worried about you,” Patience said.
And Blake snorted in derision. “Yeah, right...”
Even if his father had, by some odd chance, heard that Blake was present at the shooting the night before, Blake doubted he would have been all that concerned about his safety. They’d barely spoken the past five years.
“I told you about this Groom Killer,” Patience said.
“Yeah, that’s why Dad can’t marry off Layla to some old guy and save his company,” Blake said.
Patience expelled another sigh that was clearly of exasperation. Blake wasn’t certain if she was exasperated with him or with their father, though.
He tried to focus on their conversation. But it was hard when he was watching Juliette at the same time. She was so damn beautiful—even in the drab Red Ridge Police Department uniform. She and the beagle moved with confidence through the crowd of people in the bus terminal.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “Why would Dad be worried about me?” Had he heard about him and Juliette? About his grandchild? Maybe Blake did need to speak with his father. But he hesitated even to tell his sister.
“I don’t know,” Patience said. “I assured him that you were in no danger.”
He flinched as he remembered the night before—the bullets hitting the rental car so close to where he’d been standing. If Juliette hadn’t knocked him down, if she hadn’t saved his life...
Had he even thanked her?
Everything had happened so quickly at the plant nursery that he didn’t think he had. And then after...
The hospital and the safe house and meeting Pandora...
His heart contracted, affection for the little girl squeezing it. He’d been so overwhelmed after meeting her that he hadn’t been able to think, much less talk to Juliette. He should have thanked her for how well she’d raised their daughter. But he hadn’t been entirely able to let go of his anger with her, of his resentment over her keeping him from being part of his child’s life.
“It’s not like you’re about to get married or anything,” Patience continued.
Blake opened his mouth to laugh, but the chuckle stuck in his throat as he wondered, should he be? Then he wouldn’t have to worry about Juliette keeping him away from Pandora anymore. But that was crazy. He didn’t have to marry Juliette to make sure any of that happened. He could legally claim his child without legally tying himself to her mother—to her lying, secret-keeping mother.
“No,” he said. “I’m not about to get married...” Especially not to a woman he couldn’t trust. And no matter how well she’d raised their daughter, Blake could not trust Juliette. Five years ago she’d led him to believe she was someone she wasn’t and then she’d kept a secret from him.
Kept Pandora from him...
“That’s good,” Patience said. “I don’t want to have to worry about you, too.” Like she worried about Layla marrying a man she didn’t love and about their father losing what mattered most to him—his company. She was worried about Bea, too. Their sister loved the bridal shop she’d inherited from her grandmother.
Blake understood his sister’s concerns. And he didn’t want to add to them. He knew he needed to tell her that she was an aunt. But then he would also have to tell her that the little girl had witnessed a murder and was in danger.
“Nope, you don’t have to worry about me,” he said. And he clicked off the call to quickly make another.
The bodyguard picked up on the first ring. “Yes?”
“Any sign of him?” Blake asked.
“We didn’t get a look at him last night,” the bodyguard reminded him. “But there’s no one suspicious-looking hanging around...”
Just as the man made the claim, Juliette’s canine partner reacted to someone boarding a bus.
It would make sense that the killer would be trying to leave town right now.
Was it him?
* * *
He had been told to leave town—actually, to get the hell out of it. His head still rang with the way his current employer had shouted the order at him. “What the hell were you thinking—shooting a cop?”
Juliette Walsh was a cop. If he hadn’t missed and struck the male officer instead, he would have killed a cop. But he hadn’t bothered pointing that out.
“You’ve brought the heat of the entire department now,” he’d been warned. “So you need to get the hell out of here!”
It was probably good advice. But he had unfinished business in Red Ridge. He had never left a witness alive before and he didn’t intend to do that now. He had to find that little girl. He already knew where her mama was.
He also knew he wasn’t the only killer in Red Ridge right now. “The police are all preoccupied with that Groom Killer,” he reminded his boss. “I’m not their only focus.”
“You are now,” he’d been told. “No grooms have died lately. They probably think that killer’s moved on. You need to do the same. Get the hell out of Red Ridge.”
He’d reached for the back door to the realty company office. But a shout had stopped him. “And for God’s sake, make sure nobody sees you leaving here!”
Anger twisted his guts. They’d begged him to come work for them. Luring him with the promise of big money for carrying out their dirty work. But now that his hands were dirty, they wanted nothing to do with him.
He was tempted to end not just his association with them but them, as well. He’d forced a smile instead.
“Nobody sees me come and go,” he’d promised.
And the boss had snorted. “Except a little girl...”
He’d held on to his smile because he’d known that little girl would never be getting any bigger or any older than she currently was. Because she would soon be dead—right along with her cop mama...