She rolled her eyes. The women there call it Chauvinist, Misogynist and Douchebag.
Ouch. That bad?
Worse, she growled.
I sense a story.
Dont be a detective tonight, okay?
He threw up his hands. No interrogations out of me. He took a cautious sip of his coffee. Am I still allowed to ask what brings you to Roaring Springsas a friend-slash-past-tormentor?
She shrugged, sipping at her own coffee. Ive moved back home with Chloeshes my daughterto give her a better life.
Better than what?
Darn it. He was being all perceptive, again. Better than a rotten father and a failed marriage.
Liam laid his hand on top of hers briefly. Just a quick touch of his warm, calloused palm on the back of her hand. But the comfort offered was almost more than she could bear right now. She was too worried about Chloe. Her emotionsusually carefully suppressedwere too close to the surface.
She spent the next few minutes fixedly concentrating on her food and regaining her emotional equilibrium. Or trying to, at least.
As if he sensed her teetering on the edge of a breakdown, he gathered up the empty food packaging and said briskly, Take the chips with you. Lets go see if theres any news on your daughter.
As they walked back to the emergency ward, he said quietly, The docs here are excellent. Chloes in good hands.
She nodded, her throat too tight for a response.
Liams timing was perfect because, as they rounded the corner into the emergency area, the nurse whod taken Chloe away for the CT scan came toward them.
Wheres my daughter? Sloane demanded, her inner mama bear on full alert.
Come with me, Mrs. Durant.
Colton. Ms. Colton. Im not keeping my ex-husbands name.
Right. The doctor would like to admit your daughter overnight.
Why? Sloane croaked.
The doctor will fill you in.
She wanted to scream as the nurse walked at far too leisurely a pace to an elevator. Sloane was barely aware of Liam holding the elevator door for her as it opened on the third floor, or that he kept pace beside her as she charged for the doctor standing at the far end of the hall.
Please God, let Chloe be all right. She was Sloanes entire world.
The doctor stood just outside a room with a glass window in the wall. Inside the dimly lit hospital room, Chloe was asleep in a stainless steel crib. She looked so tiny and lost among the wires and blankets.
Whats wrong? Sloane demanded without preamble.
She doesnt have appendicitis, or an intestinal blockage, or an enlarged spleen. But since her fever still hasnt broken, I want to keep her here for observation until we can get her temperature down to a safe level. This is probably just the virus thats been going around. But babies can get hit hard by things like this. Fixing his gaze on hers, he asked calmly, Has your daughter been sick recently? Under unusual stress that might have compromised her immune system?
Oh, God. Guilt crashed in on her. We moved from Denver recently as part of my divorce. Its been hard on Chloe, and she has been reverting to baby behaviors. I had no idea I compromised her immune system. Im a terrible mother. I should have realized something like this would happen She broke off on a sobbing breath.
Arms came around her, gentle and strong. She didnt care whose they were. Her baby was seriously ill and shed completely missed the signs until Little Bug was burning up with fever. Ivan was right. She wasnt fit to be a mother. Chloe would be better off with him and the expensive professional nanny he would hire to raise his daughter for him.
The doctor commented from somewhere beyond the circle of Liams arms, This virus comes on fast. You didnt miss any warning signs, Ms. Colton. The fever was likely the first symptom anyone would have noticed. And you got her here before the fever became dangerous.
Sloane lifted her head to glare at the doctor. Dont coddle me. I suck as a parent.
Liams voice rumbled with light humor in her ear. You couldnt suck at anything you put your mind to.
She would have argued with him, but the doctor commented, If youd like to spend the night with Chloe, theres a daybed in her room by the window.
Duh. Of course she was staying with Chloe. Her baby would be scared to death if she woke up in a strange place and Sloane wasnt there for her.
Liam said briskly, Give me your keys, Sloane, and Ill run by your place and pick up a few things for you. Toothbrush, a change of clothes...
For the first time since shed arrived at the hospital, it dawned on Sloane that she was wearing her pajamas. Thank God shed put on her practical flannel pajamas consisting of a manly shirt and pants. Liam would think she was a total weirdo if shed been wearing her footie onesie that matched Chloes.
Not that she cared what Liam, or any man, thought of her, of course.
You dont have to. I can call my brother to run by and pick up some stuff
And alert the entire Colton clan that Chloes sick? Theyll descend upon you like a swarm of locusts, and you wont get a moments rest tonight. You need your sleep, too, you know. He held out an expectant hand.
He was totally right. Good point. She dug around in the baby bag, where shed randomly tossed her keys earlier. It took an embarrassingly long time, but she finally came up with them. Youre sure about this?
Liam grinned. Its my job, maam. Plus, my prisoner is passed out and likely to stay that way for several hours.
She rolled her eyes at him. But truthfully, she was grateful for the help.
Ill be back in a jiffy. Go be with your daughter and get some sleep if you can. Ill drop off your things with the nurses so I dont wake you up.
What was this? Consideration for her comfort? Huh. So that was what it looked like when a man was decent and caring. Who knew?
Liam turned and headed for the elevator, and she tiptoed into Chloes room.
She couldnt resist brushing the hair off Chloes forehead and dropping a featherlight kiss on Little Bugs hot cheek before she stretched out on the daybed, bunched up the lumpy feather pillow under her head, and pulled a blanket over her shoulders.
She stared at her daughter for a long time while sleep refused to come. The weight of being a single parent, for real now, not just in practical application, landed heavily on her shoulders. She prayed for wisdom to make the right decisions for her baby girl to keep her safe and healthy.
Everyone had told her she had this. That she was a great mom. That she would be better off without her spouse. How hard could it be to raise just one child by herself?
But suddenly, she wasnt so sure she had this at all.
Chapter 2
Sonofagun. Sloane Colton was back in town. And single, to boot. His boyhood prayers had finally been answeredjust a decade and a half too late. The universe had one hell of a sense of humor.
If only Liam had known back then what he knew now about life and about women now. He wouldve gone after her with both barrels back in high school if hed had the confidence to tell her how hed felt about her. Instead, hed kept his feelings hidden. But hed learned since then to rip the lids off boxes and expose the truth, be it in solving a crime or in personal relationships. Life was too short to waste time being shy.
Sloane had only gotten more beautiful with age, which anyone could have seen coming if they bothered to take a good look at her back in high school. What he hadnt predicted, though, was the sadness lurking in her big, expressive hazel eyes. Like shed given up on herself. What had done that to her? Shed been braver than just about anyone he knew.
A need to understand her, to find out what had happened to her, surged through him. She looked as if she could use someone to protect her. Which was quite a change from the girl hed once known.
Ever since hed met her at the ripe old age of seven or so, Sloan had been a firecracker, fully able to take care of herself. She raced through life like a runaway train, flattening every obstacle that dared step into her path.
Not that her fierce independence had prevented her older brother, Fox, from looking out for her just as fiercely. Of course, as Foxs best friend, it had fallen to Liam to help defend Sloane over the years. A task hed taken on with secret relish
Let it go, buddy.
His fantasies of Sloane Colton were just that. Fantasies. She would never see anything in a plain, ordinary, hometown guy like him. If only he could show her who he was now
Nope. Not even then. He was a small-town cop living a small-town life. The girl he remembered wouldnt ever see any appeal in that.
Sloane had run off to the bright lights of the big city as soon as she could after high school and college. Married a rich, high-powered lawyer, and became a renowned defense attorney herself. She obviously wanted excitement out of life. Challenge. She didnt want anything to do with sleepy Roaring Springs or the people in it.
He swore under his breath. Who knew that, after all this time, he could still carry a hotly lit torch for a girl hed grown up with? He had to find a way to douse it and get on with his life.
Liam checked in on the prisoner on the second floor, still sleeping off his alcohol binge, before heading out to his truck. It dawned on him he didnt know where Sloane lived. He could call FoxStrike that. No Coltons. He called the police station to run her address.
Her house was only a few blocks from where hed grown up. And where he lived now. Hed renovated and then moved into the apartment over the garage of his parents home last year after his father died.
It was hell on his social life to be that guy who, in his early thirties, lived at home with his mom. But her health was frail and she needed help. Hed been a late-in-life only child, and there was no one else for his mother to lean on.
Sloanes street was quiet. Bucolic. Lined with trees and upscale craftsman bungalows vying to be the most authentically restored. It was well after midnight, and only sporadic imitation gas porch lights cast any glow into the dark shadows wreathing the street.
Huh. He wouldnt have pegged her for the type to live in a cozy neighborhood like this. What was up with that?
He pulled his truck into Sloanes driveway and was just reaching for the door handle when he spied something slipping around the back corner of her house.
Whatever it was looked too big for a dog or a coyote. Frowning, he climbed out of his truck and crunched up the gravel drive. He moved cautiously toward the bushes, giving a wild animal plenty of time to get away. No sense startling a bear or cougar. He turned on the flashlight function of his smartphone and shone it at the holly bush. No eyes glowed back at him. But jumbled shoe prints leaped into view in the snow. What the?
He raced around the corner of the house, following the boot prints through the ankle-deep snow in Sloanes backyard and into the green belt behind her house. The prints led down a hill to an asphalt bike path that the snow had melted off of in the past few days. The asphalt was dry and gray and gave no clue as to which direction the person had gone. He listened carefully and heard no running footsteps.
His money was on the guy having had a bicycle parked back here. Jerk was long gone by now.
An intruder, maybe? Burglar? Peeping Tom? Or maybe he was thinking too much like a cop. It couldve just been some neighborhood kid sneaking home through her yard.
Except it was too cold and too late on a school night for kids to be out fooling around. In full detective mode, he snapped photos of the footprints and called in the incident, putting it into the official police record. It was going to cause some extra paperwork for him, but whatever. Sloane might be in danger.
Before he unlocked her front door, he inspected the lock and jamb for signs of any attempt at forced entry. Nope, no scratches. Although that was a pitiful excuse for a lock. Just the original brass knobs lock protected her house. She needed a decent dead bolt at a minimum. Even an amateur thief could pick the existing lock in a matter of seconds.
Frowning, he opened the door and stepped in.
The living room was thin on furniture with only some bean bag chairs, a big recliner and a flat screen TV hanging on the wall.
The place had clearly undergone one of those open concept remodels recently that knocked out most of the walls. The living room flowed into a dining room taken up with toddler toys and no furniture and on back into a gourmet kitchen.
He headed down the hallway, and the first room he came upon was Chloes, a princess paradise. A low bed was tucked inside a fairy castle, and a night-light cast firework patterns on the ceiling. He backed out of the room, feeling oversize and alien surrounded by so much...sparkle.
A hallway bathroom was unremarkable and he left that quickly. A utility closet held a furnace, and the door at the end of the hall revealed a bedroom much more his speed. Four-poster bed. No-frills navy comforter. A handmade-looking oak dresser and chest of drawers were crowded with framed pictures of Chloe, but other than those, the room was devoid of decorationor any personality.
Odd. Was Sloane still unpacking, or was she that shut down emotionally?
He opened the first of two interior doors in Sloanes bedroom and found an elegant, but sterile, bathroom. It was pretty but didnt feel lived in.
Where was the real Sloane Colton hiding in this house? He hadnt found her yet.
The second door revealed a spacious walk-in closet the size of a small bedroom. A riot of color and texture assaulted his eyes as he turned on the light. Ahh. Here she was. The fiery Sloane he remembered so clearly.
He looked for something to put her clothes in and spied a duffel bag stuffed on a high shelf. He reached up, needing his full six-foot height to grab it. He turned his head to the side as he reached for the back of the shelf and happened to glance out into her bedroom. Which was probably why he spotted the tiny hole in the wall, hidden high in a shadowed corner of the room, tucked beneath the beautiful, dark oak crown molding.
Maybe if he hadnt already been suspicious of an intruder, he wouldve ignored the hole. But as it was, he took the duffel and moved over to the chest of drawers underneath the hole, and then took a quick peek. A tiny glass circle filled the small opening.
Alarm exploded in his gut and fury threatened to overcome reason.
For all the world, that looked like a surveillance camera.
Stop. Breathe. Think. It wasnt necessarily what it looked like.
Maybe Sloane had some sort of high-tech security system installed in her house.
Or was that camera something more sinister?
Surely, he was being paranoid. After all, he was bored to death being a police detective in a quiet little town where the occasional bicycle theft was about as exciting as police work got.