“That’s good to hear, ’cause I only want you to make room for one man. Me.”
Kerry wasn’t prepared to deal with this sudden intimate exchange. She’d expected after tonight their time together would end once and for all. And it had to, she thought desperately. Jared Colton was the last man who could fit into her life.
Her hands shaking, she shut the door and quickly started the engine. “Goodbye, Jared.”
He reached through the window and laid a hand on her shoulder. “You’d better buckle up before you drive away,” he said dryly.
Flustered from his touch and the fact that she was letting him get to her, she snatched up the belt and fumbled with the two ends until they snapped together.
“That’s better,” he said smugly. Then pulling his hand from her shoulder, he tapped the door in a gesture of farewell. “See you later, Kerry.”
Even though she’d already pulled the gearshift into Reverse, she pressed on the brake and looked through the window at him. “Jared, I expect you to respect my wishes.”
His brows lifted with flirty innocence and he bent his head toward the open window. “And what are your wishes?” he asked softly.
Kerry silently groaned. No man should be allowed to be this sexy or tempting, she thought desperately. It wasn’t fair to womankind. “That you not try to see me again. For any reason.”
A twisted grin lifted one corner of his mouth. “We both know you don’t really wish that, Kerry.”
Kerry was all set to argue, but Jared didn’t give her the chance. Before she could make any sort of response, he waved goodbye and stepped back from the car.
Grateful for the chance to escape, she stepped on the gas and wheeled the car around. As she drove away, her eyes longed to find him in the rearview mirror. But she refused to look up or to acknowledge that Jared Colton had left her shaking from her head to her toes.
Chapter Five
The newspaper landed with a plop on the keyboard of Kerry’s computer. Frowning at the interruption, she looked up from the screen to see Christa’s grinning face.
“What’s up?” Kerry asked. “Have you already run out of something to do?”
Giggling, Christa glanced over her shoulder to make sure none of the bosses were nearby. “Actually my desk is loaded with work, but I just had to see if you’d had a chance to look at the paper yet.”
Her face blank, Kerry shook her head. “The paper?”
“Kerry!” Christa practically shouted. “Have you forgotten? You and the town’s new hero!”
Dear Lord, since she’d left Jared’s house last night all she’d been able to think about was him. The newspaper article had totally slipped her mind.
Snatching up the paper she began to flip through the pages.
“Try the front page,” Christa said smugly. “Lower left-hand corner. It’s hard to miss.”
Kerry flopped the paper back over then gasped as her gaze zeroed in on the photo. Just as she’d feared last night, the image was more like a snapshot at a family reunion.
“Oh, this is—” she paused and miserably shook her head. “What was that reporter thinking? The three of us look like we’re posed for a family Christmas card!”
“You do look right at home with each other,” Christa said with another giggle. “So tell me, what was it like being that close to Jared Colton?”
Kerry glowered at the other woman. “What sort of question is that?”
Christa tossed another covert glance behind her just to make sure the two of them weren’t being observed. “Oh come on, Kerry. I know you don’t go out on dates. But that doesn’t mean you’re totally dead. Jared Colton is a real hunk. Surely your heart was doing some sort of tap dance while the two of you were rubbing shoulders.”
Her heart had been dancing all right, Kerry silently admitted. But she’d done her best to ignore the affliction. And she was going to keep right on ignoring the strange feelings she got every time she thought about the man.
“He is a handsome man, Christa,” Kerry said firmly. “But that doesn’t mean anything to me.”
Christa leaned over the front of the desk and picked up Kerry’s wrist. “Better let me take your pulse, lady. You’re definitely not normal.”
Kerry shook her hand away from Christa’s fingers, then shoved the newspaper under a stack of banking forms. “Look Christa, the reason you don’t think I’m normal is because my common sense is much stronger than my libido.”
The blonde slapped a hand across her forehead and lifted her eyes toward the ceiling. “Okay, I admit my marriage was a disaster and, like you, I picked a guy that couldn’t have been worse for me. But that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped being a woman. And—” she lowered her head and leveled a pointed look on Kerry “—you haven’t stopped being one either.”
Kerry knew if she protested too loudly here it would only make Christa suspicious and the last thing she wanted was for anyone to think there was something going on between her and Jared.
Sighing, she said, “All right. I admit I still think about men. I even wish I could find a perfect father for Peggy. But that doesn’t mean I let a handsome face and sexy body turn my head. Most anyone in this town would agree that Jared Colton is a confirmed bachelor. He’s not the sort of man a serious woman would look at twice. Unless she wanted her heart broken.”
“Hmm. You could be right. But he looked right at home in that picture.”
Kerry laughed. “That’s because he was home, Christa. Now get out of here and let me get back to work. I promised Clarence to have these papers finished before noon and at this rate it will be noon tomorrow.”
Christa made a tsking noise of disapproval as she started toward the door. “All work and no play. When do you ever have any fun, Kerry?”
Kerry was still thinking about that question long after Christa had disappeared from sight.
When Kerry arrived home that evening after work, two neighbors were on the front porch with Enola. The sight of the women made Kerry groan with dread. She’d already spent most of the day discussing the newspaper article. Now that she was home, she didn’t want to have to go over it again. But both women appeared to be comfortably glued to their lawn chairs as they waited for her to climb out of the car.
“Kerry! We’re so glad you got home before we left. We want to know what it’s like to be a town celebrity.”
The remark came from Helen, a large, gray-haired woman who’d raised three sons close to Kerry’s age.
“I’m not really a celebrity, Helen,” she said with a weary smile. “The only reason my picture is in the paper is because I’m Peggy’s mother.”
Alice, a small woman with dark hair, quickly spoke up, “Oh, you’re being modest, honey. All three of you are celebrities now. Everyone in Black Arrow is talking about this.” She tapped a red fingernail against the paper in her lap.
“That’s right,” Helen put in. “Just about everyone is saying what a lucky thing that Jared Colton was back in town when Peggy got trapped. That young man is a real hero. If it hadn’t been for him—well, I’d hate to think what would have happened to little Peggy.”
“And it sure doesn’t hurt that he’s as cute as a bug in a rug,” Alice added with a wink. “I wouldn’t mind getting my picture taken with him. Not at all.”
“Do you know if he’s back in town to stay?” Helen asked.
Did these women really think she would know something that personal about Jared Colton? Kerry wondered. Just because he’d plucked her daughter from the jaws of the earth, didn’t mean there was any sort of intimacy between them.
“I wouldn’t know,” Kerry said dully. “But I seriously doubt it. Jared follows his job.”
Alice sighed as though she was thirty years younger and still in the market for a man. “Well, the way he has his arm around you in this picture, I’d say he’d rather be following you.”
A few feet away in another lawn chair, Enola cleared her throat. “Kerry, you’d probably better go check on Peggy. It’s about time she woke from her nap.”
Kerry knew exactly why her mother was interrupting. Just the thought of anyone linking her daughter to Jared in a romantic way was enough to send Enola into spasms. And normally Kerry would have resented her interference. But not this time. Thoughts of Jared had tormented her all day. She needed an escape.
“Sure, Mom,” Kerry said, then quickly excused herself to the two women.
Inside the house, she went straight to the bedroom she shared with her daughter. Peggy was still asleep, her face buried in the faded patchwork quilt covering the bed. Not wanting to disturb her, Kerry quietly changed from her office clothes into shorts and a T-shirt, then slipped out of the room.
She was in the kitchen, making herself a glass of iced tea when the telephone rang. For a moment, she considered not answering. She’d heard all she wanted to hear about Jared Colton’s heroism. Yet she knew if she ignored the ringing, Enola would hear it and come to answer the phone herself.
With a weary sigh, Kerry carried her glass over to the wall phone which was situated at one end of the cabinets.
“Hello.”
“Kerry, it’s Jared.”
The deep voice momentarily stunned her. He was the last person she’d expected to be hearing from today. Especially after she’d made an issue of not wanting to see him again.
“Jared—why are you calling?”
“I wanted to see what you thought about our article.”
She didn’t bother to stifle her groan. “Not you, too.”
Jared chuckled. “I take it you’ve been getting a lot of response over it.”
“I could hardly work with all the people stopping by my office and calling on the telephone. There’s two neighbors out on the porch right now who are probably still singing your praises to Mom.”
He chuckled again. “Oh, I don’t expect that’s going over too well.”
“No. But they’re old friends. After a while she’ll tell them to shut up. Especially Alice. She thinks you’re as cute as a bug in a rug.”
“I’m not really worried about what Alice thinks. I’d like to know what Kerry thinks.”
One hand gripped the receiver while the other tightened its hold on the icy glass of tea. “I think I should have never agreed to that interview last night. Now people are starting to think that we—well, I’m not sure all of them are reading the article. I think most of them are just looking at the three of us hugged up together like mama bear, daddy bear and baby bear.”
Jared’s loud laughter sounded in her ear. “Kerry, I really don’t know how you can be so funny when every bone in your body is the serious kind.”
She swallowed down a few sips of tea in an effort to loosen the ball of nerves in her throat. “Look, Jared, I told you last night—”
“Please don’t go into that again. I remember everything you told me. And I have no intentions of letting that stop me from trying to see you again. So what about having dinner with me? Tonight?”
Jared Colton was asking her out on a bona fide date. Kerry couldn’t deny that she was thrilled he found her attractive. After all, there wasn’t a woman on earth who didn’t want to be desired by a man. Yet the part of her that Damon had crushed was very afraid.
She breathed in a deep bracing breath. “Don’t you ever work?”
Once again his soft laughter met her ear. The sound was so seductive, it was all she could do to keep from shivering.
“I’m working now, Kerry. If you walked out to the open field behind your house and looked toward the site, you could see me standing beside my pickup truck.”
“Well, then keep working and forget about having dinner with me,” she said as sternly as she could.
“I have to eat and so do you.”
“I already had Peggy out late last night. I’m not about to take her out two nights in a row.”
“I wasn’t planning on taking Peggy with us.”
Even though she wasn’t looking at him, she could easily envision his gray eyes glinting sexily back at her.
“You’re crazy if you think I’d go without Peggy.”
“That’s easy to fix. We’ll take Peggy with us.”
She rolled her eyes. “No. We have nothing in common, Jared. And you’ve already said yourself that you’ll be leaving once your job is finished.”
His sigh was full of frustration. “Kerry, this isn’t a marriage proposal. I’m just asking you to have a meal with me. As two friends. Nothing more.”
“Why would you want to do that?” she asked suspiciously.
There was a long pause, then he said, “I’m not sure what that question means.”
Expecting her mother to walk into the room at any moment, Kerry moved as far as the coiled cord would allow in order to peer through the straight shot of rooms to the front of the house. Through the open screen door, she could see Alice’s crossed legs. Apparently the two neighbors were keeping Enola occupied.
In a hushed voice, she said, “Jared, I’m not stupid. You don’t need to bother yourself with me just to have female company.”
He clicked his tongue with disapproval. “Kerry, you don’t believe all those old rumors you’ve heard about me, do you?”
“Yes.”
He laughed. “Then you have to give me a chance to plead my case. And Kerry, just so you understand, I want your company. Not just female company.”
How could she resist him when the hungry, lonely part of her heart was begging her to reach out to him.
“Like I said, I won’t take Peggy out again tonight.”
“Then tomorrow night?”
Her heart began to hammer at what she was about to do. “All right. Tomorrow night.”
“Good. I’ll pick you up at six-thirty,” he said with undisguised pleasure. “And Kerry, it doesn’t matter what you wear, just so you’re wearing a smile.”
“Goodbye, Jared. I’ll see you tomorrow evening.”
Early the next morning, Jared was using a laser instrument to shoot the correct angle of the new pipeline his crew was laying when he heard one of the workmen yell that the high sheriff had arrived.
Handing the laser tool to his foreman, he said, “Take over, Mitch, and make sure you keep Harv digging at the right level. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
Jared climbed out of the ditch and walked over to where Bram had parked his pickup truck in an out-of-the-way spot at the edge of the work site.
“What’s up?” he called to his brother.
The lazy smile on Bram’s face as he climbed out of the vehicle quickly assured Jared that the sheriff’s early visit had nothing to do with an emergency.
“I’ve been sent on a mission,” Bram said.
Jared casually propped his boot on the pickup bumper. “Well, from the way you’re grinning it must not be a dangerous one.”
Bram chuckled. “I don’t know yet. Depends on whether you want to be stubborn about this.”
Jared’s brows lifted in surprise. “Me? What do I have to do with anything?”
Bram slanted him a mocking look. “Oh come on, Jared. You’re Black Arrow’s newest hero. And the mayor has sent me out here to fetch you to his office. He wants to present you with a key to the city. And I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if he and the city council vote to change the name of Main Street to Jared Colton Boulevard,” he added dryly.
Willow had already warned Jared that the mayor had been trying to contact him. But he still found it hard to believe that a city politician wanted anything to do with him. For the past ten years Jared had spent most of his time away from Black Arrow and before then he’d never been a civic-minded citizen. He’d mostly been a hell-raiser and womanizer. The idea that the mayor, or anyone else for that matter, saw him in a heroic light was almost laughable.
Shaking his head with disbelief, Jared said, “Don’t tell me the press is going to be there.”
Bram grunted with amusement. “It’s election year. The mayor is hardly going to pass up a chance to get his photo in the paper. Especially when it’s connected to a happy story. And I’ve already had a call from someone in Oklahoma City saying AP has picked up your story and published it in the Daily. So I don’t look for this thing to die down soon.”
Jared frowned and heaved out a heavy breath. “Not when the public officials around here want to keep feeding it.”
“Humor me, brother,” Bram told him. “Since the mayor wants me to join in on the ceremony, too, I can hardly go back and tell him you don’t want a key to the city. I do have to get along with the man.”
With another shake of his head, Jared said, “Don’t get me wrong, Bram, I appreciate the mayor’s gesture. But if this hero stuff keeps up, it’s going to start getting embarrassing.” And for some reason it was important that he didn’t come across to Kerry as a showoff. He’d worked hard to rescue Peggy because he’d desperately wanted to save the little girl’s life. Not to make himself out a hero.
“Since when did you get so humble, little brother?” Bram asked wryly. “You’ve always loved the spotlight. Especially when it caused the females to flock around you.”
Pulling his boot from the bumper, Jared hooked his thumbs over his belt and looked out over the busy work site. The morning sun was already warming a bright blue sky and beyond the heavy equipment and the scars they had made in the earth, deep green grass and fully leafed trees announced the rebirth of spring. It was going to be a glorious day and Jared had never felt more glad to be alive and to be back in Black Arrow.
“You make me sound like some rooster calling for a bunch of hens to gather around him.”
Bram chuckled. “Well, you are, aren’t you?”
Jared turned his gaze back to his brother. “Why no,” he said with faint surprise. “Those days are long gone, Bram.”
Bram stared at Jared as though he was a thief caught in the act, yet still trying to plead his innocence. “What in hell has come over you? You’ve been a terror to women since you were eight years old. You’d have to be dead to give up on them now.”
Shrugging, Jared folded his arms across his chest and glanced evasively back to the spot where his foreman was directing a backhoe operator. No matter where he looked he saw Kerry’s luminous brown eyes and soft gentle lips. It had been that way with him ever since he’d pulled Peggy out of the crumbling pipe and placed her in Kerry’s arms. He didn’t understand why or how such a quiet, unassuming woman had captured his thoughts so completely. But she had. And he wasn’t at all sure how he was going to cure himself.
“I didn’t say I was giving up on women entirely,” he said to Bram. “I just meant—well, I’m thirty-four years old. I’m bored with all that playing around I used to do.”
Bram studied his brother through squinted eyes. “All right,” he said finally, “who is she?”
Jared’s look of surprise was followed by a laugh that was full of denial. “There is no she. Yet,” he added, then quickly deciding it was high time to change the subject, he slapped an affectionate hand on Bram’s shoulder. “Now tell me about this thing with the mayor. When do I have to be there?”
Bram glanced at his watch. “About thirty minutes. So hop in and give me the honor of driving Black Arrow’s hero into town.”
Seeing there wasn’t anyway he could disappoint his brother, Jared said, “All right, you don’t have to drag out your handcuffs. I’ll go. Just let me go tell the foreman what’s going on.”
Enola stared moodily at the television set as Kerry watched out the front door for Jared’s arrival.
“You know I am not happy about this, Kerry.”
Careful to keep her sigh silent, she said, “Yes, Mom. I can see that I’ve disappointed you by choosing to have dinner with Jared.”
Tight-lipped, Enola turned her gaze on her daughter. “It’s not the dinner—it’s the idea that you want to spend time with this man.”
“Yes, I do want to spend time with Jared,” she conceded. “He’s been very nice to me. And Peggy adores him.”
Enola turned her gaze back to the television, but Kerry knew her mother couldn’t have told anyone what was flickering across the screen. The woman was silently seething.
“That’s because he knows exactly how to charm women. Mark my words, you and Peggy will both be hurt if this carries on much further.”
The way you were hurt, Kerry wanted to say. But she didn’t. Pointing out her mother’s miserable marriage wouldn’t help matters now.
“Mom, it’s been nearly four years since I’ve had a man in my life. That’s a long time and I’m still a young woman. I don’t want to bury myself forever.”
Enola shot her an accusing look. “How many times have I tried to get you to go out? I could probably think of ten young men in the past year that you could have dated. But no. You always found excuses not to go.”
Kerry tried her best not to bristle. Maybe she had made a mistake with Damon, but she was her own person. Good or bad, she had to make her own choices. “I wasn’t attracted to any of those men, Mom. There wasn’t one of them I would have felt comfortable going on a date with.”
Her remarks brought Enola to her feet. “So you’re telling me that you find Jared Colton attractive? That you feel comfortable with him?” she asked in an astounded voice. “Kerry, the man is up to no good. He’s only going to use you and hurt Peggy in the process.”
Amazed at how desperate she was to see Jared arrive, Kerry kept her eyes focused on the driveway. “All men aren’t users, Mom. And did you ever stop to think that Jared might want to spend time with me because he actually likes me? Or have you decided that the only reason a man would pay attention to me is to get me in bed?”
Enola gasped with outrage. “That’s a filthy remark.”
Kerry made a pleading gesture with her hand. “Look, Mom. Damon crushed my self-worth. For a long time I didn’t think much of myself. And I didn’t think anyone else did either, especially men. But I’ve tried to put all that past me. It lifts my spirits to think that Jared might see something special in me. Something more than just a one-night stand. Surely you can understand that.”
Enola shook her head. “Jared Colton sees all women as objects and the sooner you realize that, the better.”
With that her mother stormed out of the room and Kerry let out a weary sigh. All afternoon, she’d been asking herself if she was crazy to agree to this dinner date with Jared. Even this evening, while she’d been dressing, she’d still been doubting the wisdom of her decision to go. But that had all changed the moment Enola had ripped into her.
Being in Jared’s company might be worse than playing with fire. But she was tired of living behind the shelter of her mother’s apron.
“Mama, when is Jared coming?”
Peggy’s voice broke into Kerry’s thoughts and she looked around at the angelic sight of her daughter all dressed up in a red sundress and white sandals. Claws was carefully cradled in one arm and the sight of the little orange cat made her soft smile deepen. Jared had chosen the perfect pet for her daughter. In spite of the endless, sometimes pestering attention Peggy gave the cat, the little guy never hissed or clawed. He seemed to understand that Peggy loved him and he returned her affection with purrs and licks from his spiky tongue.
“Any minute now, darlin’. Are you ready to go?”
Peggy grinned and hopped on her toes. “Yeah! I want Jared to carry me.”
“Carry you?” Kerry asked with a puzzled smile. “You’re a big girl now. You don’t need to be carried.”
Peggy giggled and the tinkling, musical sound reassured Kerry that her daughter was slowly returning to normal.
“I know. But Jared smells good. And he’s big and strong.”
When a three-year-old noticed such things, there was no way a grown woman could ignore them, she thought wryly. But she had to try. She couldn’t let herself fall victim to Jared’s charms. If she did, she would lose her head and then her heart.
Twenty minutes later, the three of them were seated in the booth of a popular downtown steakhouse. To no surprise of Kerry’s, her daughter had chosen to sit in a booster seat placed next to Jared and so far the child had dominated the conversation.
As of yet, Kerry had not interfered with the interplay going back and forth between Jared and her daughter. Instead of giving him a break, she’d purposely allowed Peggy to chatter on. Which was mean of her, she supposed. Especially when she knew Jared wasn’t accustomed to entertaining small children.
Yet these past few minutes had given her a chance to study the man sitting across from her, to watch for any sign that he resented Peggy’s presence. But so far he’d displayed nothing but patience and genuine fondness for her daughter. That in itself was enough to soften Kerry’s heart toward him.
“Peggy, you’re about to talk Jared’s ear off. He’ll have to get it sewn back on.” She finally spoke up.
Chuckling, Jared reached up and tugged his ear that was receiving the brunt of Peggy’s chatter. “Your mama is teasing, little dove. My ear is still hooked on pretty tight.”
As though she needed to confirm things for herself, Peggy reached up and touched Jared’s ear, then shot her mother a quizzical look.
“His ear is okay, Mama. It’s not gonna fall off.”
Kerry laughed softly. “I was only teasing, Peggy.”
“That means you can talk all you want to,” Jared said to Peggy as he reached over and gently tweaked her rosy brown cheek.
The playful gesture was natural and full of affection and Kerry couldn’t help but imagine what it would be like for Peggy to have this man as her father. Seeing him like this with her daughter made Kerry believe he would be a wonderful, caring father. But would he always be there to love her and support her, even after she’d grown into womanhood? she wondered. Or would the role of father and husband be boring to him after years of playing the field?
Thankfully the waitress suddenly appeared with their orders and scattered Kerry’s wandering thoughts. The meal wound up being far more relaxed and enjoyable than she’d expected. When Jared eventually suggested it was time for them to leave, she was actually disappointed.
“Of course,” Kerry told him as the three of them left the booth. “Don’t let us keep you out late. Especially when you have work tomorrow.”
Amused by her sudden jump to conclusions, he gave her a crooked grin. “I didn’t mean that we needed to go home now. I have something else planned for the two of you.”
Feeling a bit like a foolish teenager on a first date, her heart lifted with excitement. “Oh? What is it?”
“I thought you might want to have a little visit with Great-grandfather George,” he answered as the three of them made their way toward the exit of the building. “I’ve already told him about you and Peggy and I know he’d enjoy meeting the two of you.”
Kerry studied his face and as she did the corners of her lips tilted to a faint smile. If Jared Colton was nothing but a playboy, he was doing a good job of masking it. She said, “I guess you realize that you’re not living up to your reputation.”
Grinning, he snapped his fingers in a gesture of regret. “Dang, I must be losing my touch.”
No. He wasn’t losing his touch, Kerry thought. She was falling for his masculine charms hook, line and sinker. But she’d worry about that later. Tonight she was simply going to enjoy herself. And him.
The smile on her face deepened. “If that’s the case, then Peggy and I would be happy to visit your great-grandfather.”
Chapter Six
About forty minutes later the three of them drove down a narrow dirt lane until they came to the small house where George “Nahiman” WhiteBear lived. Built just before the Great Depression and dust bowl had devastated Oklahoma, the structure was covered with brown tar siding made to look like mortared rock. A shallow porch ran across the narrow front and was totally shaded by an enormous cottonwood tree that grew on the west side of the tiny yard.
They found the old man sitting in a wooden rocker on the porch. Nearby, a carved cane of native cedar was worn smooth from years of use. As Kerry drew closer, she decided that George had to be somewhere in his mid-nineties and appeared to be amazingly alert for his advancing years. His sharp, hawklike features were dark brown and lined with a network of endless wrinkles. Black eyes were partially hidden by drooping folds of skin, while coarse, gray hair was slicked back from his face and fell to his shoulders. He wore black jeans, a white shirt and a black vest patterned with beaded shapes of horses and bears. Soft brown moccasins covered his otherwise bare feet.
“Great-grandfather, this is Kerry WindWalker and her daughter Peggy,” Jared said.
The old Comanche lifted a gnarled hand adorned with a large silver ring that was set with smooth stones of turquoise and malachite. Kerry clasped the bony fingers and smiled with genuine pleasure.
“It’s an honor to meet you, Mr. WhiteBear.”
George cast Jared a look that said he was already impressed with Kerry’s gracious manners. To Kerry he said, “I have already heard a lot about you and the little dove who was lost. I’m glad my grandson was able to save her life.”
She glanced up at Peggy who was perfectly content with her perch on Jared’s strong arm. “I’m very glad, too, Mr. WhiteBear.”
The old man’s head shook back and forth. “Call me George,” he said to her. “Mr. WhiteBear makes me sound like an old man.”
Jared laughed. “You are old, Great-grandfather. There’s no use trying to make Kerry believe otherwise. And don’t go making eyes at her either ’cause she’s my girl.”
To emphasize his point, he curled his free arm around Kerry’s shoulders. A few days ago, the intimate gesture would have sent her into a silent panic. But tonight was different. She was beginning to trust Jared enough to relax. And his touch made her feel special and protected. Two things she’d never expected to feel again in her life.
Jared set Peggy on her feet and the child immediately scurried to the opposite end of the porch and sat down cross-legged on the floor. Since no other chairs were available, Kerry took a seat beside Jared in a nearby wooden porch swing.
George inclined his head at the two adults and grinned. Except for an empty gap where an eyetooth used to be, his teeth were incredibly straight and white.
“You have liked many women, my grandson. But I think this is the woman our Great Spirit has made for you.”
For as long as Jared could remember, George had been spouting off words of wisdom and predictions of things to come. Especially where family members were concerned. But Jared had never paid too much attention to Great-grandfather’s remarks. The mystic lore of his Comanche heritage had never figured into his busy modern life. Yet this particular divination sent a strange shiver down his spine. Just because he wanted to spend a little time with Kerry didn’t mean he was looking for a wife!
He turned his head slightly toward Kerry to see that she was studying him with raised eyebrows. No doubt she’d latched on to George’s remark about his grandson’s many women. Damn it. The old man could have kept that to himself.
“He’s exaggerating about the women,” Jared whispered. “You’re the first woman I’ve ever brought out here to meet him.”
Kerry didn’t know whether to feel flattered or worried. She’d believed Jared had brought her out here to his great-grandfather’s place because he’d thought she would enjoy meeting the old Comanche man. But now he seemed to be hinting there was a more intimate meaning behind this visit. And what had George meant by the Great Spirit making her for Jared? she wondered. Did he really believe God intended the two of them to be together?
Don’t be crazy, Kerry. Jared Colton has no long-term interest in you. He’s only enjoying your company while he’s here in Black Arrow. George WhiteBear was a very old man. He probably didn’t know half of what he was saying.
Seeing the unsettled look on Kerry’s face, Jared decided it would be best to change the subject completely.
“How have you been, Great-grandfather?” he asked. “Have your knees been giving you trouble?”
George rested long bony hands on both knees. “I walked a mile yesterday with Betty. The old woman says all I need is a good limbering up.”
“She’s probably right,” Jared agreed with a chuckle, then explained to Kerry, “Betty is an eighty-year-old woman who lives down the street from my sister’s feed store. She’s had a crush on Great-grandfather for years now. But he refuses to give in and marry her.”
“Apparently bachelorhood runs in your family,” she said with wry amusement.
He flashed her a guilty grin before he turned his attention back to his great-grandfather. “Well, did the walk limber up your knees?”
George WhiteBear cackled with glee. “Guess the old woman was right. Today my knees feel as good as they did when I was seventy. Maybe I ought to give the old woman a kiss. What do you think about that?” he asked Jared.
“I think you’re going to mess around and get yourself in real trouble with Betty. She might be more woman than you can handle.”
George’s chest swelled as he waved away his great-grandson’s suggestion. “Bull. I’m a Comanche warrior. I could still ride these plains and fight off the Kiowas if I had to.”
“Yeah, but I think Betty has the idea you’re a big chief. I wonder where she came up with a notion like that?” Jared asked, then shared a covert wink with Kerry.
“Well,” George said with a sheepish shrug, “the woman thinks she knows nobility when she sees it and I didn’t want to make her out as a liar.”
Jared laughed loudly and Kerry could plainly see he adored his great-grandfather.
“Naw,” Jared agreed with George, “that wouldn’t have been a gentlemanly thing to do.”
Suddenly George grabbed up his cane and slowly pushed himself to his feet. When he turned and walked over to where Peggy still sat, the little girl quietly studied him with wide, fascinated eyes.
“Come with me, Chenoa,” he invited with a gentle pat on top of her head. “I’ll show you my chickens and horses. I might even let you gather the eggs. Would you like that?”
After regarding him for a moment, Peggy gave him a slow, thoughtful nod, then looked to her mother for permission.
Kerry said, “Stay close to George. And do what he tells you to do.”
“I will, Mama,” she promised.
After George and her daughter had left the porch and disappeared around the side of the house, Kerry said, “I’m surprised. Peggy doesn’t normally take to men. Except for you,” she added wryly. “But she seems to feel comfortable with your great-grandfather.”
“Charming women runs in the family,” Jared teased, then with a contented sigh, he pushed the toe of his boot against the floor and put the swing in gentle motion. “Actually, I don’t know of any kid that doesn’t like George. Maybe that’s because even though he’s in his nineties, he still has the heart of a young boy.”
The fiery ball of evening sun had finally fallen, lengthening the shadows across the porch and the fresh-mown grass. Out near the wire fence that separated the small yard from the nearby woods, a two-story martin house was covered with the small purplish birds. Their happy songs were joined in by the high-pitched drone of cicadas inhabiting the cottonwood and the occasional call of a tree frog. The summer sounds and the velvety warm air wrapped around Kerry like the welcome arms of a lover.
“Exactly how old is George?” she asked him.
“No one really knows for certain. I don’t believe he ever had an original birth certificate. He claims he’s ninety-seven and Gloria, our grandmother, believes he was born well before statehood in nineteen-seven. So we figure he has to be in his upper nineties for sure.”
Kerry was amazed. “Oh my. That means he was a baby when this land was still Oklahoma Territory. There was no law to speak of and every bandit and gunslinger in the West came here to evade jail or the end of a rope. It’s incredible to think that anyone from that era is still living, much less be as spry and alert as George.”
His gray eyes sparkled as he studied her face. “You make his life sound fascinating.”
Her widened eyes said she found his remark incredible. “His life is fascinating. He’s seen decades of history.”
One corner of his lips crooked upward in an expression of guilt. “Well, I’m not exactly a history buff, Kerry. And George has spent his whole life here in Comanche County. He’s not what you’d call world educated.”
“You don’t have to see the world in order to be wise about life, Jared.”
Funny that this beautiful young woman would say the very same thing to him that George had said to him more than twelve years ago when he’d first left Black Arrow to spread his wings. At the time Jared had considered living in a quiet Oklahoma town as not really living. And down through the years he’d stayed away from Black Arrow far more than he’d visited. But now he was beginning to wonder if he’d been missing out on things he’d once taken for granted.
“Well, some people around town might debate whether George is wise or not. But one thing is for sure, he’s never been bashful about letting any of his relatives know when he thought they were doing wrong.”
She sighed wistfully. “Like I told you the other night, you’re a lucky man, Jared. You have such a sense of family. I’ve never had anyone but Mom,” she admitted. “And Peggy, of course.”
“What about your father? Is he not around anymore?”
With a shake of her head, Kerry looked away from him and focused her gaze on the shadows stretching across the opposite end of the porch. “No. Marvin passed away a few years ago. But he was someone I hardly knew. After I was born my parents drifted apart. Dad would wander in and out of our lives when we least expected it. Sometimes he’d be gone for months, other times he might return after a few days. I’ve tried to think of a time I saw him when he wasn’t drinking. But I can’t. And I used to wonder if I was the reason he drank. Because he didn’t want the responsibility of a child. But after he died…well, I gave up trying to figure him out.”
The sad regret Jared saw on her face suddenly had him thinking back to all the happy times he and his brothers had shared with their dad while fishing on Lake Waurika, hunting pheasant up in the panhandle or just tossing the football in the back yard. Trevor Colton had loved his children and even though he’d been a hardworking man, he’d always made time to give each of them attention.
For a long time after his father’s death, Jared had been bitter and angry that someone he’d loved and needed so much had been taken from him. But now he could see that Kerry was right. He was lucky. He’d had a loving father and he had years of wonderful memories of a man who’d spent his whole life making things as good as he could for his wife and children. That was much more than Kerry would ever have. And the realization tore at him.
“Your mother never remarried after Marvin died?”
Kerry shook her head. “She runs if a man so much as looks in her direction. And if one does manage to corner her, she isn’t bashful about setting him straight about her feelings.”
He nodded. “She sounds like my Grandmother Gloria. George has often tried to get her to marry, but being widowed at a young age must have twisted her. She doesn’t have any interest in becoming a wife again.”
Curious, Kerry asked, “Did your dad and his twin brother ever know their father? Or did he die before they were old enough to remember?”
“From what I understand none of the family ever met the man. Back in nineteen-forty Gloria left here and went to Reno, Nevada. She was working as a cocktail waitress when she met and married my grandfather. By the time she finally came back here to Black Arrow, she was pregnant with twins and her husband had been killed in some sort of accident.”
“How tragic,” Kerry murmured. “She must have never gotten over her first love.”
Her remark had Jared curiously studying her face and after a moment he reached over and picked up her hand. “Is that what happened to you? You’ve never gotten over Peggy’s father?”
Surprise parted her lips and then her heart lurched into a heavy thud. “What—makes you ask that?”
His gray eyes continued to roam her face and she felt her cheeks warming to their touch. He was so close his thigh was brushing against hers and his masculine scent was swirling around her like a seductive cloak. She’d never been so aware of a man or so reminded that she was a woman. A woman who’d not been caressed or kissed in nearly four long years.
“You told me you don’t date,” he reasoned. “Peggy is three years old. Most women would have gotten over losing a lover by that time.”
A lover. How strange that term seemed in connection with Damon. At one time Kerry had considered him the very light of her life. Yet now she had to look back on that time in Virginia and wonder if what she’d felt had been infatuation for him and the idea of having a family of her own.
“Peggy’s father is…truly out of our lives.”
The relief Jared felt was so great it almost seemed indecent. He shouldn’t be glad that Peggy’s father was out of the picture. The child deserved two loving parents. Yet he was happy, very happy that Kerry was free for the taking.
“I can’t imagine any man not wanting to be involved in his daughter’s life,” Jared said. “Especially one like little Peggy. She’s bright and beautiful and loving.”
Kerry found herself squeezing his fingers in response to his kind words. “Damon doesn’t even know what sex his child is, much less that she’s a lovely little girl. He doesn’t want to know.”
“Do you…ever try to contact him?”
Her mocking snort was full of bitterness. “No. Even if I did, he wouldn’t respond. You see, Damon Whitfield is from an old, respected family in South Carolina. He’d rather die than let his friends or relatives know that he fathered the child of a Comanche Indian.”
Jared put down the toe of his boot and the gentle sway of the swing stopped so abruptly she teetered forward.
“Kerry, are you telling me that you’re a single mother because some man didn’t think you were good enough to be his wife?”
Embarrassed heat poured into her cheeks and she quickly looked away from his probing gray eyes.
“I don’t know why you sound surprised,” she said with a sigh. “You’re a Comanche, or at least part Comanche. You, more than anyone ought to know we’re not always looked upon as regular folks.”
Jared let out a loud groan of protest. “That sort of racial thinking went out ages ago. Once in a great while, I might hear a crude comment made about red-skins or savages. But it’s usually uttered by some nasty drunk in a bar or an illiterate redneck that doesn’t know any better.”
Before Jared had picked her and Peggy up this evening, she’d worried about keeping her distance from this man. And not just in a physical sense, but in an emotional way, too. She’d wanted their dinner date to be enjoyable but safely detached. Yet now that she was sitting here beside Jared in the waning twilight and his warm hand was closed protectively around hers, it felt natural, even right to be sharing a part of her life with him.
“That’s usually true, Jared. And I guess you’re wondering what I was doing with a guy like that in the first place. But believe me, I didn’t know about Damon’s real feelings until it was too late.”
Jared glanced briefly over his shoulder. Now that he had Kerry talking, he hoped his great-grandfather would keep Peggy out at the brooder house long enough for him to find out the reason for her broken heart.
“Where did you meet him? In college?”
She nodded. “He was in his final year at the University of Virginia and I was working on my master’s.” She paused and the tightness of her features told Jared that relaying her past to him was like digging into a festering wound.
“I have to admit that I was naive,” she went on. “Before I met Damon, I’d never had a steady boyfriend. I guess the misery I’d watched my mother go through with Marvin made me leery of getting involved with anyone. But Damon was persistent. And he was white. For some idiotic reason, I thought that made him safe. I thought there wasn’t any way he could be like my father. But in actuality he was worse.”
“What do you mean by that?” Jared asked. From what he remembered of Marvin WindWalker, the man had been a worthless drunk. As far as Jared could see, the only redeeming quality he’d had was having a daughter like Kerry.
Pushed by the painful memories crowding into her mind, Kerry rose from the swing and walked to the opposite end of the porch. A moment later, as she leaned against one of the wooden posts that supported the roof, she felt Jared’s hand close over her shoulder.
Drawing in a bracing breath, she said, “This is hard to talk about, Jared. It’s hard to admit to anyone that I was such a fool.”
“Kerry,” he whispered gently. “Don’t call yourself a fool. That’s not true.”
As she looked up at him something hard and painful snapped inside her and the release was so great she lay her head against his chest. “Oh Jared,” she said softly, “I never stopped to think that Damon was just using me. That he only wanted my body. He had a glib tongue and I believed him when he said he wanted to marry me once he finished his college studies. I believed all the wonderful plans he made for the two of us.”
The feel of her cheek nestled against him was one of the sweetest sensations he could ever remember and the gesture of trust evoked a sudden fierce longing to protect this woman in a way Jared had never felt before.
Softly, carefully, he stroked the back of her hair. “So what happened? You got pregnant and he left you?”
“Not exactly,” she murmured. “After a time both of us began to realize we wanted different things in life and those differences caused all sort of arguments and problems. By the time I discovered I was pregnant, we’d already ended our relationship. But I wanted my child and I thought Damon would, too. I believed he would care enough to work out our differences and that he would want to get married for the sake of the baby.”
Jared had always considered himself fortunate that none of his former girlfriends had approached him with the news that he was going to be a daddy. But then he’d always been very careful not to get a woman or himself in such a predicament. Which hadn’t been all that hard considering his relationships were purposely kept to a short-term basis. Yet now that he’d heard Kerry’s story, he knew that he could never walk away from a child. Even if he didn’t truly love the mother.
“So this guy didn’t want to get married?” Jared asked.
She made a strangled sound that was intended to be a mocking laugh. “Not hardly. He made it plain that he’d had other plans all along and that I would have never fit into his social circles back in South Carolina.”
The intense rage Jared felt toward the man who’d betrayed Kerry took him by surprise. “He must have been a real bastard.”
Her eyes shadowed with the past, Kerry lifted her head to look at him. “His duplicity is what really jolted me, Jared. It was so hard to believe that the man I’d known was all just an act on his part. Then on top of that, I had to face the fact that I was so gullible, so dumb that I hadn’t seen through him.”
Shaking his head, he reached out and cupped his hand against her cheek. “You weren’t dumb. You had a gentle, trusting heart and the man took advantage of it. I’d like to get my hands on him for about ten minutes. He’d be eating out of a straw for a few months. Then maybe he’d think twice about treating some other woman the way he treated you.”
The fact that he wanted to avenge the hurt she’d been put through thrilled her. She’d never had a father, brother or any man take up for her in such a gallant way and it made her feel protected and very feminine.
Rising up on her toes, she pressed a brief kiss against his cheek. “Thank you for the thought, Jared. And for caring.”
He did care, he realized. Far more than she could guess and way more than he’d ever intended.
“I do care,” he murmured, then before she could pull away completely, he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and lowered his mouth to hers.
Instinctively, her eyelids fluttered downward. Her heart seemed to quit beating, the air in her lungs grew stale and her mind refused to think about anything except the sudden sweep of sensations through her body.
Beneath his hands he felt her muscles tense like a skittish colt and he told himself to keep the kiss light and short. But the taste of her lips was too sweet, too tempting to resist. Before he realized what he was doing, he was drawing her closer and slanting his mouth over hers hungrily.
Kerry was quickly losing her sanity and she silently screamed at herself to tear her mouth from his, to leave the seductive circle of his arms. But the pleasure of being this close to him was stronger than her common sense.
Thankfully, only a few more moments passed before the approaching sound of George’s voice tore the two of them apart.
Embarrassed by her reckless behavior, Kerry quickly turned her back to Jared and gripped the porch post to steady her shaky legs.
Behind her, Jared reached out to touch her shoulder.
“Kerry.”
The hoarse whisper of her name suggested to Kerry that he’d been just as affected by their kiss as she’d been. But then she was hardly in any shape to gauge her own reaction, much less his. Besides, he’d had all kinds of practice with women, she told herself. He probably knew just what to say, just how to sound to make himself seem sincere.
“Don’t say anything, Jared,” she quietly pleaded. “It’s too embarrassing.”
“Embarrassing!” he repeated in a loud, insulted tone. Then seeing that George and Peggy were now climbing the steps, he lowered his voice for Kerry’s ears only. “I didn’t feel anything embarrassing about kissing you!”
Seeing that he’d misinterpreted her remark, she whirled back to face him, then inwardly groaned as her eyes connected with his dark, striking features. The man was simply too good to look at and definitely too good to kiss.
“That’s not what I meant. I—I’m ashamed at my behavior. I should have—never kissed you like that. Now you’re probably thinking I’m not a lady.”
Even though George and Peggy had now returned to the porch, Jared laughed with pure pleasure and caressed her cheek in an extremely intimate way.
“Honey, you’d be surprised at what I’m thinking about you.”
Chapter Seven
The next afternoon Kerry carried a stack of completed promissory notes into Clarence’s office for his signature and found the older man quietly reading the newspaper.
“Is that all you have to do around this place?” she teased.
He looked up questioningly and smiled the moment he realized the intruder in his office was Kerry.
“Work, work, work,” he bantered back at her. “You won’t even give a man five minutes to read the newspaper.”
She smiled. “I only need your signature on a few things before I file them away.”
“No problem.” He placed the paper to one side of his desk and reached to take the load of documents from Kerry’s arms.
As she handed them over, her eye caught the large photo on the front page of the local paper. Even from an upside-down position, she identified one of the men as Jared.
“I’m finished with the paper if you’d like to read it,” Clarence said as he began to scrawl his name across the bottom of a typed page.
Unaware that she’d been craning her neck for a better look, Kerry frowned at him. “Why would I want to read the newspaper? I have work to do.”
“Then why are you breaking your neck to see that picture of the Coltons?” He handed the paper up to her. “Here. Take a look while I finish signing these notes.”
Knowing it would look foolish to argue, Kerry took the newspaper and eased down in the chair situated in front of Clarence’s desk. As she scanned the photo of Jared accepting a huge key from the mayor of Black Arrow, Clarence said, “Looks like the Coltons have really made a splash in this town.”
“I wouldn’t call two newspaper articles making a big splash,” Kerry countered, while wondering why Jared hadn’t mentioned this meeting with the mayor to her last night. Maybe he hadn’t considered it a big deal, but she did. Especially when the whole incident was connected to her daughter.
“From what I hear, the news of Jared saving little Peggy has hit the Daily Oklahoman and the Tulsa World. And this morning while I was over in the courthouse building, Hazel tells me that someone was in there yesterday digging up more information on the Coltons.”
A quizzical frown wrinkled Kerry’s forehead as she looked up from the paper. “In the courthouse? There wouldn’t be any sort of information there about Peggy’s rescue. Who was this person?”
Clarence shrugged. “Some man she’d never seen before. She didn’t think he was from this area. Must have been some reporter.”
“Must have been,” Kerry murmured thoughtfully. “What sort of information was this person wanting?”
Clarence put down his pen and propped his elbows on his desk. “Hazel said he wanted genealogical information on Gloria and all of her descendants.”
“That’s odd,” Kerry mused aloud. “If he wanted that sort of information all he had to do was go to the sheriff’s department and visit with Bram. He’s the oldest of both the Colton families. He probably knows more about the family tree than most of the younger members. Or better yet, he could have talked to Gloria herself.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t call it weird, Kerry. Jared has been in the spotlight for the past few days and people all over the state are reading about him. Someone probably wants to do a story on him and his family. That’s all.”
Clarence could be right, Kerry thought. But something about the whole thing didn’t ring true with her.
“If that’s the case, he should have interviewed Jared personally. That’s the normal way to gather information.”
“Maybe he did,” Clarence suggested.
Kerry immediately shook her head. “No. He couldn’t have. I—”
She stopped so abruptly that Clarence immediately raised his eyebrows and prodded her to continue. “You what?” he asked.
Rosy color tinged Kerry’s cheeks as she quickly stood and placed the newspaper back on his desk. Spending time with Jared was not necessarily something she needed to keep secret. But Clarence was the closest thing she had to a father and she wasn’t ready to hear a lecture from him about dating a playboy. She’d already gotten enough of that from her mother.
“Well, I just—happened to be with Jared last night,” she explained. “And he didn’t mention anything about this stranger at the courthouse.”
Clarence leaned back in his chair and studied her with wry speculation. “I wasn’t aware that you were that well acquainted with Jared Colton.”
Kerry’s shrug was more of an effort to appear casual than anything else. “Gloria Colton and her father, George, were living here long before I was born. And many of her grandchildren are around my own age. We went to school together. The Coltons are a well-known family in Black Arrow. Especially with Bram being the sheriff and Gray a judge.”
“That’s true,” Clarence agreed. “But from what I understand, Jared hasn’t been a homebody. He’s been gone from here for the past ten or twelve years. And he is quite a bit older than you.”
Kerry leveled an annoyed look at him. “Aren’t you jumping to conclusions, Clarence? Just because I was with the man last night doesn’t mean there’s anything serious going on between us.”
Chuckling, he held up both hands in a gesture of innocence. “Whoa. I’m not jumping to anything. I was just a little surprised, that’s all. You’ve worked here for three years and I’ve never known you to date anyone.”
Clarence made it sound as though she’d suddenly taken a major turn in her life. And it wasn’t that way, she thought. She couldn’t let it be that way. Jared’s kiss might have turned her inside out, but he wasn’t a man she could let herself get serious about.
“Jared and I aren’t—exactly dating. He’s—been helping me with Peggy. She was so traumatized after her ordeal that she would hardly talk, much less eat. But she trusts Jared. And since he’s been spending time with her, she’s getting right back to her old self.”
A sly smile creased the older man’s face. “So this is not a case of like daughter, like mother.”
“Not at all,” Kerry said, then turned and headed out of the room before he could say anymore about her connection with Jared.
“Uh, Kerry,” Clarence called to her. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”
She paused at the door to glance questioningly back at him.
“I’ve signed all the notes,” he said, inclining his head toward the stack of papers she’d carried to him only minutes earlier. “Don’t you want to file them?”
Red-faced now, Kerry hurried back to his desk and snatched up the stack of documents. “Everyone gets distracted now and then,” she explained.
Clarence grinned at her. “Yeah, we do. And I’m very glad to finally see that you haven’t forgotten you’re a woman.”
If Kerry had forgotten, Jared had suddenly reminded her last night with that tantalizing kiss. Now she was going around as though she was moonstruck. She had to snap out of it before she did something foolish, something that might not only break her heart, but her daughter’s heart, too.
“I’m a mother first, Clarence. Always.”
That evening when Kerry arrived home from work, she found the house quiet and a note from her mother saying she and Peggy had gone to visit a friend over at Indiahoma and wouldn’t be back until later that evening.
After changing into a pair of jean shorts and a white sleeveless blouse, she made herself a sandwich and a glass of iced tea and carried the whole lot out to the porch to eat her solitary supper. As she ate, Kerry continued to ponder over the talk that a stranger had been at the courthouse digging into the Colton family records. The whole idea still struck her as odd and she wondered if Jared or any of the Coltons knew about the stranger.
It’s none of your business, Kerry. You don’t need to use this as an excuse to see Jared again. Being in the man’s company isn’t healthy for your heart or your head.
Okay, she conceded to the little voice of common sense. If seeing Jared was a bad idea, she could call Jared’s younger sister, Willow. But she hadn’t spoken to Willow in ages. Calling her up out of the blue and relaying such an odd story would have the woman thinking Kerry was crazy.
Of course, there was another option to consider. Bram was the sheriff. He was the man who needed to be alerted to suspicious goings on. But right now Kerry only had hearsay and she didn’t want to bother a busy sheriff with something that might turn out to be nothing more than gossip.
No, going to Jared and telling him about the stranger would be far easier. Then she could leave it up to him as to whether Bram or the rest of the family should be told. With that final reasoning, she stepped off the porch and walked around to the side of the house where the yard opened up and she could see beyond the houses and trees to the work site where Peggy had been trapped.
From this angle she could see the movement of heavy machinery and several men at work on the ground. At this distance it was impossible to tell if one of them was Jared, but she was fairly certain his white pickup truck was among the vehicles parked nearby.
With sudden decision, she went back into the house and left a note that she’d gone for a walk. Then after a quick brush through her hair and a dab of cherry-red lipstick, she set off for Jared’s work site.
A few minutes later Jared spotted her slim figure picking her way over the uneven ground. The sight of her stunned him. Even though she’d kissed him last night like she’d enjoyed it, he’d not expected her to visit him on her own accord. The idea that she might actually want to see him filled him with warm pleasure.
Pulling off his hard hat, he walked out to meet her.
“Hello,” he greeted with a broad smile. “This is a nice surprise.”
Kerry felt a blush sting her cheeks as she tried to keep the memory of their kiss at bay. But it was impossible to do when just looking at his lips sent a curl of excitement spiraling through her.
“Hello,” she said, then quickly asked, “Do you have a minute or two? Or did I come at a bad time?”
He ran a hand through the sweaty hair plastered to his forehead. “No time is a bad time for you, Kerry.”
The suggestive gleam in his eyes caused her breath to hang in her throat. When she did finally speak, she sounded as though she’d just run from the WindWalker house rather than walk. “Well, I know I’m disturbing you. But I had something on my mind that couldn’t wait.”
The smile on his face deepened to a sexy grin. “I hope the something is me.”
She tried to keep a stern face, but the joy at seeing him again was radiating through her like a golden sunray and tilting the corners of her lips. “Have you always liked to tease?” she asked.
“Who said I was teasing?” he asked with a chuckle, then without explaining his intentions he took her by the arm and led her over to a shady spot where his truck was parked. After he let down the tailgate, he placed his hands on her waist and lifted her up to the makeshift seat.
Kerry’s heart was pounding by the time he joined her on the tailgate, yet she tried her best to remain calm and collected. A task made even more difficult by the fact that he made denim work clothes and muddy boots look so sexy it felt like a downright sin just to look at him.
“Jared,” she began with a tone of gentle warning, “I don’t want you to start getting any ideas about—that kiss last night. That’s not the reason I’m here.”
He feigned such a look of disappointment, she laughed before she could stop herself.
“How can you laugh?” he asked. “I’m hurt. Deeply hurt that you didn’t walk all the way out here to get a kiss from me.”
She rolled her eyes at his nonsense, then squealed with shock as he suddenly snatched a hold on her shoulders and tugged her up against his chest.
“Jared! What—”
The leisurely kiss he planted on her lips stopped her words and took her breath away. By the time he finally pulled his head back, she was sputtering for air.
“I didn’t come out here to put on a show for your crew either!”
His soft laughter fanned her ear. “The crew can’t see us from here.”
Kerry twisted around so that she was looking back in the direction of the work site. Thankfully, he was right. The two of them were hidden by the cab of the truck and the bulk of the vehicle parked next to them.
“That’s beside the point,” she said as she managed to squirm out of his arms and scoot to the very end of the tailgate. “Just because I went to dinner with you last night doesn’t mean I gave you a license to handle me.”
Clearly amused by her outburst, he shook his head. “Oh Kerry, don’t go getting all serious on me. I stole a kiss because I was glad to see you. Not because I think you’re a fast and loose woman.”
He made kissing her sound so simple and harmless. And maybe it was for him. But her heart was still galloping at a sickening pace and even worse, she was having to fight to stop herself from sliding back to his side.
“Okay,” she conceded. “Maybe I am guilty of overreacting.”
He continued to grin at her. “No. You’re guilty of being too serious.”
Without warning, he reached out and took a strand of her hair and rolled it between the pads of his fingers, making Kerry silently groan at the sensual contact.
“What are you doing now?” she asked.
“Looking at your hair. It’s beautiful. Did you know that? It has a blue sheen to it. Like a crow.”
She tried not to take his compliment to heart but it went there anyway and filled her with ridiculous pleasure.
“Crows are scavengers,” she pointed out. “I’m not so sure it’s a compliment to be likened to a crow.”
His fingers meshed into the black silkiness until the tips were lightly touching her scalp. To Kerry the contact was almost as intimate as the kiss from his lips.
“George can tell you all sorts of stories about the crow,” he said. “They’re a highly intelligent and tenacious bird, two qualities admired by the Comanche.”
She swallowed as the nervous beating of her heart seemed to rise up in her throat. “And it’s impossible to sneak up on one,” she added. “So you shouldn’t try it.”
Her words of warning caused him to laugh and he pulled his hand away from her.
“I’ll remember that, Kerry. So tell me, what are you doing here this evening?”
Kerry dared to glance at him. The hair falling across his forehead was dark enough to be called black. Yet here in the brighter light of day, she could see threads of deep brown and russet. Like his gray eyes, the subtle shades in his hair were a throwback to his white blood, she supposed.
“Before I go into that, I’d like to know why you didn’t mention anything to me about getting a key to the city?” she asked. “You must have known I would see your picture in the paper.”
A sheepish expression stole over his face. “Oh. So you saw that little piece.”
She nodded. “One of the loan officers at the bank showed it to me. It looked as though the mayor had quite a little ceremony for you.”
“Believe me, Kerry. I didn’t ask for any of that. Actually, I tried to get out of the whole thing, but Bram wouldn’t let me. With him being the elected sheriff of Comanche County, it would have reflected badly on him to have his brother refuse such a nice gesture from the town leader.”
He sounded apologetic, which caused Kerry’s brows to lift with surprise. “There’s no need to apologize, Jared. I was only wondering why you didn’t mention it last night. I would have been watching for the article in the paper today. As it was, I learned about it secondhand.”
Jared shrugged. “I guess I stupidly hoped you wouldn’t see it.” He reached for her hand and gently smoothed it between both of his. “I don’t want you thinking I saved Peggy just to garner attention for myself. I might have been guilty of being a ham back in my younger days. But nowadays I’d just as soon stay in the background.”
He actually seemed embarrassed by all the notoriety he’d been receiving these past few days. Which didn’t fit in with her image of a playboy, at all. The notion put a soft smile on her face.
“You saved Peggy because you cared about her. Just as you would any other child. I’ve never believed anything else.”
He released her hand and smiled at her. Not a teasing or humorous smile. But a genuine smile of gladness. “It’s a relief to hear you say that, Kerry.”
Oh Kerry, this man is smooth. Too smooth for you.
In spite of the inner warning, her heart melted like a gooey candy bar. “Uh—the reason I’m here is—well, it’s going to sound strange. But I decided you should know about it.”
He looked intrigued. “Now you’ve stirred my curiosity. Tell me.”
Feeling a bit foolish, she shook her head. “I don’t really know how to start, especially when this is hearsay. But Clarence, he’s a loan officer at Liberty National—he told me that a stranger was in the courthouse yesterday looking up information on your grandmother and all her descendants. Clarence suggested that the man probably had intentions of doing a story about you. But I told him that wasn’t the normal way to go about it.”
Jared studied her for long moments and just about the time Kerry expected him to burst out laughing, a concerned frown marred his forehead.
“That’s odd,” he said. “Where did your co-worker get this story?”
“Straight from the courthouse,” Kerry told him.
Thoughtfully, Jared stroked a thumb and forefinger against his chin. “And he—this stranger was looking into Gloria’s history?”
“That’s the story Clarence gave me.”
“Hmm. Maybe he’s doing a book on Comanches,” Jared reasoned. “Although she married a white man, she’s full Comanche and so is George.”
Kerry considered his suggestion. “Could be,” she agreed, “but the Comanche tribe numbers around ten thousand right now. That’s not very many people compared to the rest of the population. However, it is when you consider that most of them live in or around Black Arrow. So why would your grandmother’s life be singled out? Unless it has something to do with you being in the news here lately.”
Jared shrugged. “I don’t see any connection.”
“Neither could I. That’s why I thought I should tell you about it,” Kerry said, then asked, “can you think of anything connected to your grandmother that might make someone interested in her genealogy?”
His head swung back and forth. “Not really. Except for the time she spent in Nevada, she’s lived right here in Black Arrow all her life. Everyone knows her and all of us Coltons.”
“Maybe you Coltons have some land this person is interested in. Land that may have changed hands through the family,” Kerry suggested.
He shot her a guilty look. “To be honest, Kerry, I don’t keep up with all the goings on in my family. As long as I know they’re healthy and happy, I don’t interfere in their lives. So if this stranger did have some connection to Gloria, I doubt I’d know about it.”
“Maybe you should ask her,” Kerry went on.
Once again, Jared shook his head. “No. She works hard in the Feed and Grain store. And at her age, she doesn’t need any more stress than that. And if you’re wondering why us kids don’t make her retire, well, believe me we’ve tried. I do know that much.”
“Well, there’s probably nothing to this courthouse thing anyway,” she replied.
Jared said, “Just the same, I think I’ll talk to Bram about it. He might know what’s going on.”
“That’s probably a good idea,” she agreed, then with a pointed glance at their entwined hands, she cleared her throat. “You’d better let me go now. I have to get back home.”
“So soon? You just got here!”
“We’ve been sitting here longer than you think,” she told him. Definitely long enough for her senses to go bounding off in all the wrong directions, she thought. “And I’m keeping you from your job.”
He flashed her a crooked grin. “I’m the boss. And a good one. I don’t have to ride my men with a whip. They know what I expect from them and they do it.”
Yes, he was a man who knew exactly how to get what he wanted from people, Kerry silently agreed. Especially women. And if her ordeal with Damon had taught her anything, it was to never let herself be manipulated by another man. Even one as sweet and sexy as Jared Colton.
Drawing in a bracing breath, she glanced toward the direction of the WindWalker house. “Mom and Peggy went to visit a friend in Indiahoma. They might be back by now and if I’m not home, Mom will be wondering.”
She glanced back at him and immediately saw the wheels turning in his gray eyes.
“I’m not about to let you go home now,” he said softly.
“Jared—what are you doing? Stop!” she cried as he grabbed her around the waist and lifted her down to the ground beside him.
“Don’t argue,” he said, “or I’ll kiss you again.”
His hands were warm and possessive, while the sultry gleam in his eyes backed up his playful threat. The eager beat of her heart warned Kerry that she’d be in big trouble if he kissed her again.
“All right,” she murmured submissively. “I suppose I can spare a few more minutes.”
“That’s better,” he said smugly. “Now let me help you into the truck and I’ll go tell the guys I’m leaving.”
Kerry remained silent as he assisted her into his four-wheel drive truck, but once he returned from talking with his crew, she said, “Jared, I didn’t come here to—to go out with you!”
He shook his head as he started the truck’s engine. “We have to eat supper and since you’re alone and I’m alone, we’ll eat it together.”
She groaned at his persistence. “I’ve already eaten a sandwich.”
He shot her a grin as he wheeled the truck onto the nearest street. “Then we’ll go have a milkshake.”
Kerry very nearly laughed. “Milkshake! I thought men like you took a woman out for cocktails. Strong ones.”
His low chuckles were as sensual as the glint in his gray eyes. “What do you know about men like me?”
“Mainly that you’re dangerous.”
The amusement on his face disappeared and before Kerry could guess his intentions, he reached for her hand and brought it to his lips.
“I would never harm a hair on your head, sweetheart.”
But what about her heart? Kerry wondered. She couldn’t lose it to this man who was content to live his life roving from one job to the next, from one woman to the next.
Ten minutes later the two of them were parked at a local drive-in. The truck windows were rolled down to catch the evening breeze and a few feet away, the faint sound of rock ’n’ roll music was filtering out from a car radio. Young waitresses dressed in shorts and roller skates weaved their way around the parked vehicles to serve trays of drinks and fast food.
Since Kerry knew that Jared had to be hungry after a long day at work, she’d insisted he order himself a meal, while she settled for a vanilla milkshake.
Once they were served their order, Jared brought up the subject of the courthouse stranger again.
“I’ve been doing some thinking about the whole thing,” he said, “And I’ve decided you and I should take a look at those records in the courthouse. Maybe we could figure out what the man was really looking for. Because I tell you one thing, Kerry, the more I study about it, the more I’m convinced he wasn’t just a genealogy buff.”
Kerry stared at him as two words stuck in her mind. “You and I? We should go over the records? What about Bram? Shouldn’t he be the one looking into this matter?”
Jared swallowed down a mouthful of French fry before he shook his head. “My brother is already bogged down with paperwork, much less all the emergency calls he has to respond to. Besides, I think we need to be a little sneaky about this. Otherwise, we might alert this person that we’re on to him. If Bram suddenly showed up at the courthouse asking questions, the whole story would spread like wildfire.”
She squared around in the seat so that she was facing him. “You’re probably right about that, Jared. But when would you and I have a chance to go over records in the courthouse? We both have jobs. And I can’t afford to miss work.”
“And I wouldn’t ask you to,” he assured her. “We’ll go after work.”
Her mouth fell open. “Jared, what are you thinking? The courthouse closes at five, the same time we bank workers leave the building. We couldn’t get in.”
His expression said he wasn’t the least bit deterred by that minor problem. “Hey, I got a key to the city, didn’t I? Surely I can get us into the courthouse after working hours.”
Maybe he could, Kerry thought. But spending time alone with Jared would be asking for big trouble. He was already kissing her, touching her as though he had the right. As though he was certain she wanted to be connected to him in that way. How would she be able to resist the man? Darn it all, she couldn’t!
“You really don’t need me tagging along with you, Jared. This is about your family. You would know much more about what to look for than I would.”
His sly grin said he wasn’t about to let her wiggle out of the task. “Maybe. But two heads are much better than one. And you are the one who so sweetly informed me about this stranger in the first place,” he reminded her.
He was right, she silently admitted. She was the one who’d brought this whole matter up to him. If she’d cared enough to tell him about the stranger, she ought to be willing to help him do a little investigative work.
“All right. I’ll help,” she agreed. “When did you want to start?”
“I’ve got a meeting with the representative of a drilling company later tonight. And I’ll need time to get a key to the building,” he said thoughtfully. “What about tomorrow night at seven? I’ll pick you up.”
“No!” she blurted out loudly, then quickly added, “I mean, I’ll meet you there.”
The close scrutiny of his gray eyes turned her cheeks a deep, rosy shade. “What’s the matter? Afraid your mother will meet me at the door with a shotgun?”
Maybe he thought it was funny, but Enola’s attitude was like a worrisome splinter in her foot. Glancing away from him, she said, “My mother doesn’t like you.”
Jared was more amused than offended by Kerry’s admission. Chuckling softly, he said, “Kerry, you’re a grown woman. Isn’t it about time you picked your own friends?”
Did he think of himself as her friend? she wondered. He seemed like so much more to her. Which only proved that she was getting in way too deep for her own good.
“Enola doesn’t run my life. I’m just—oh, she thinks you’re a sorry, no-account womanizer.”
The amusement on his face rapidly disappeared. “And what do you think I am?” he asked gently.
A good man, she thought. A man that cared about his family and friends, and the men who worked for him. He was also a man who was capable of breaking her heart. If she was crazy enough to give him the chance.
“I don’t—necessarily think you’re a womanizer,” she said. “You’re just a man who likes women. And that’s not a crime. Nor does it stop us from being friends.”
His gray eyes turned rueful as he reached over and stroked a finger down her bare arm. “I guess I’ll never be able to live down my past entirely,” he said. “But for what it’s worth, Kerry, I don’t have a bunch of women in my life. In fact, you’re the first woman I’ve kissed in…let’s just say a long time.”
Kerry desperately wanted to believe him. She wanted to think she was special to this man. But she wasn’t totally naive. Sooner or later Jared would be leaving Black Arrow and when he did, she would be nothing more to him than a pleasant memory.
“I doubt you could convince Enola of that,” she said, deliberately trying to keep her tone light and teasing. “But if you insist on picking me up at the house—then okay, I’ll be ready at seven.”
“Good,” he said with a pleased grin. “Maybe the two of us can put our heads together and figure out what’s so interesting about my grandmother’s family tree.”
Chapter Eight
The next evening Jared left the excavation site early to drop by the sheriff’s office. Bram was in the parking lot about to climb into his truck when Jared trotted up to him.
“What’s the hurry?” Bram asked. “Is there a problem out at the site?”
“No. I need to talk to you about something. I tried to call you last night, but you wouldn’t answer the phone.”
“I had a meeting with the civil defense. It didn’t end until late,” he explained. “Why didn’t you leave a message?”
Jared leaned a shoulder against the door of Bram’s truck. “Because I wanted to talk directly to you about this.”
One of Bram’s brows lifted with amused intrigue. “What’s this about? Kerry WindWalker?”
Jared scowled at him. Joking about his female conquests in the past was one thing, but clumping Kerry in that same group bothered the hell out of him.
“No. I don’t need advice on my love life or lack of it,” he said in a voice gruff enough to cause Bram’s eyes to widen. “This is about our grandmother and our family. Somebody is trying to stick their nose into our personal business.”
Bram’s expression turned serious. “What are you talking about? Has someone been harassing Grandmother at the feed store?”
Jared shook his head. “Apparently you haven’t heard. A man was at the courthouse a couple of days ago asking to see records on Gloria Colton and her descendants.”
“Who was it? I’ll have him checked out.”
“Not that simple, brother. Apparently the man was a stranger.”
Bram absently scratched his cheek. “Hmm, that’s odd. I wonder why he didn’t question Grandmother or me?”
“That’s what Kerry and I wondered, too.”
Bram looked at him. “Kerry? I thought this wasn’t about her?”
“It isn’t. I mean, it isn’t directly about her. She’s the one who told me about the stranger. She was worried that he might be up to some mischief toward our family.”
Grinning now, Bram said, “Sounds like you’ve already gotten her in the palm of your hand.”
“Damn it, Bram. I’m not trying to get Kerry—” he stopped abruptly as he realized he was unwilling and even uncertain as to how to go on. On one hand he wasn’t trying to “get” Kerry in the way that Bram was thinking. But then he had to admit that he was more than mildly interested in the woman. All his waking thoughts were centered around her and spending every available moment he could with her was becoming a craving he couldn’t seem to assuage or dismiss. Still, he wasn’t about to admit he was falling in love. That was something that Jared Colton just didn’t do. “And you quit trying to change the subject.”
“All right,” Bram relented, “back to this stranger. You don’t have a name or description of the man?”
Jared shook his head. “No. But in the meantime, I’d like to have a key to the courthouse so that Kerry and I can search through the family records and see if we can come up with a reason for somebody to be snooping.”
Bram let out one mocking laugh. “You want a key to the courthouse. Just like that. Well, so would a lot of other people, little brother. It’s always an advantage to know whose property is coming up at the next sheriff’s sale.”
“Hell, Bram. I’m not hunting land that’s about to go for unpaid taxes! I only want to look at the birth, marriage and death records. They might tell us something.”
Bram laid an assuring hand on his brother’s shoulder. “Look Jared, I think you’re blowing this whole thing out of proportion. Everyone knows us Coltons. We don’t have any skeletons in the closet. Forget about it and let the stranger look all he wants.”
Jared sighed. “Bram, you wanted me to humor you about that damn key to the city thing. Now it’s your turn to indulge me about this. ’Cause frankly, I think something fishy is going on and I want to know what it is.”
Bram held up one hand before Jared could further argue his case. “All right. I’ll see what I can do. Come back by the office in about an hour and I’ll have a key rounded up for you. But you’d better make sure you guard the thing with your life. And I’d better not hear of anything left out of place.”
Jared affectionately slapped a hand on his brother’s arm. “Thanks Bram. And don’t worry. No one will ever know we’ve been anywhere near the courthouse. Much less inside it.”
The Comanche County courthouse was situated on a city block that also included the Liberty National Bank building. Most days Kerry gave the government building little more than a passing glance. And never in her wildest dreams did she think she and Jared Colton would be sneaking into the back door, long after closing hours. She still wasn’t sure why she was there at all. Except that once he’d invited her to join him, she’d not been able to turn down the chance to spend this quiet time with him.
“Do you know where the records are kept?” Kerry whispered to Jared as the two of them headed down a wide, dimly lit corridor.
Grinning, he reached for her hand. “You don’t have to whisper, Kerry. I don’t think anyone on the outside can hear us. And I sure as heck don’t expect anyone in this place to be working after hours.”
The feel of his fingers twined around hers was uniquely intimate and as they walked forward into the dark cavernous building it was easy for Kerry to imagine that Jared was leading her to his own private lair instead of a room with a bunch of file cabinets filled with old documents.
“Okay,” she said in a more normal tone of voice. “Do you know where you’re taking us?”
“Let’s look for a sign. Maybe we’ll get lucky and the door will be labeled.”
Jared’s assumption turned out to be correct. In one corner on the bottom floor, they found a door labeled Records. Once inside, Jared shut the blinds on the window, then switched on the overhead light. After that, it was easy to find the alphabetically filed documents.
The two of them pulled out everything they could find on Gloria and her twin sons Trevor and Thomas, then carried it all over to a small table equipped with padded metal chairs.
“What about the grandchildren?” Kerry asked as they sat shoulder to shoulder. “There’s what? Ten or eleven of you?”
“Eleven. So we can’t possibly go through each one of them tonight. We’ll have to come back tomorrow night.”
She arched her brows at him. “You expect me to come back here tomorrow night? With you?”
He chuckled at her dismay. “You make it sound as though I’ve brought you to a house of sin instead of a stuffy old courthouse.”
One of her shoulders lifted and fell. “That’s exactly what my mother thinks.”
He laughed with ease, then sobered as he watched a scowl wrinkle her face. “Still giving you problems over me?”
“She’s moved on to the silent treatment now. So I don’t want to imagine her reaction if I asked her to watch Peggy again tomorrow night. While I go out again with you.”
“Well, I wouldn’t mind if you brought Peggy with us,” he suggested.
Kerry glanced around the shadowy room lined with rows of tall metal file cabinets. It was hardly the place to keep a child quietly occupied.
“It’s sweet of you to offer, Jared,” she said, “but Peggy would be whining in no time flat. Especially if she couldn’t have Claws with her.”
Resting his arm along the back of her chair, he eased closer until his chest was very nearly touching her arm. “Don’t make the mistake of thinking I’m sweet, Kerry. I’m not. I’m selfish. Most men are, you know. And even if I wasn’t concerned about some stranger digging into my family’s private business, I’d still be searching for a way to spend time with you.”
His frankness shouldn’t have surprised her. After all, he’d made it pretty clear that he was physically attracted to her. But hearing him say it like this with the two of them so totally secluded, set her heart to pounding and her mind to wondering. Just how far did he intend to take this allure he had for her? As far as she would let him?
Licking her lips, she reached for the documents lying on the table in front of them. “I think—we’d better get to work. Before someone comes in here and catches us.”
He chuckled softly and the sensual sound slithered down Kerry’s spine. More and more she wanted to touch this man, to feel the excitement of his arms around her. And most of all, to taste his lips. Little by little, he was seducing her and he wasn’t even trying.
“This stuff we have here is public records,” Jared rationalized. “Anyone can look at it. All they have to do is ask.”
“Yes, but do we have a right to be in here after hours? I’m sure Bram has stuck his neck out by giving you that key.”
Shrugging, he said, “Bram has important friends in this town. And he knows he can trust me.”
She waggled a handful of papers at him. “Then we’d better get to work.”
With a good-natured groan, he eased back from her. “All right. You win. For now,” he added with a promising wink.
More than an hour and a half later, Jared leaned back in his chair and released a frustrated sigh. “I don’t know about you, Kerry, but this stuff we’ve been studying is boring to me. There’s nothing unusual here. It’s all birth certificates and my parents’ death certificates. And so far all the names and dates look correct to me. I don’t understand why anyone would need this sort of information.”
Kerry thoughtfully glanced at the papers still scattered on the tabletop. She and Jared had pored over the documents and so far none of the information had come as a surprise to Jared. As he’d said before, his relatives were all natives of Black Arrow. The information was mundane.
Yes, to him, she thought suddenly. But not to a stranger.
“Jared,” she said mindfully. “Maybe we’re not seeing anything here because we already know this information. But obviously the stranger didn’t. Something about these dates or names might be important to him.”
A quizzical frown wrinkled his dark features. “But why?”
Kerry had been trying to think of all the possibilities, but so far all of them seemed lame.
She glanced at him as another thought struck her. “Are you sure someone in your family hasn’t hired someone to do a family tree?”
Jared tossed the paper he was holding onto the table with the rest. “I don’t know why. Gloria has a bible with everyone’s name and birthday written in it. Anyone could get all this information from her.”
Kerry carefully considered his remark. “Which makes me believe this man doesn’t want to have contact with the Colton family. Nor does he want you to know he’s been prying into your background.”
Jared slowly nodded in agreement. “I think you’re right. But Bram wasn’t very alarmed when I told him about the stranger. He thinks the whole thing is probably harmless.”
“Well, everything we’ve come up with so far is speculative,” Kerry had to agree.
“True,” Jared admitted, “but it’s still weird. And I’m not going to rest until I find out just what the jerk is up to.”
Kerry folded her arms across her breasts as she studied him with new regard. “You know, this mission seems out of character for you.”
A wry grin twisted his lips. “Why is that? I’m not the James Bond type?”
She shook her head. “No. You’re not the family type. And you told me earlier that you’ve always been guilty of not keeping up with family interests. Why the concern now?”
Her question was something Jared had been asking himself. Bram probably suspected that he was doing this little investigation only as a means to spend time with Kerry. And that might be partially true. But it wasn’t the main reason he felt driven to protect the family. Something had happened to him that night he’d pulled Peggy from the dark, suffocating pipe and placed her in Kerry’s arms.
Seeing the terror in Kerry’s eyes change to joyous relief had jolted him from the happy-go-lucky life he’d tried to lead since he’d lost his parents. Taking life lightly had become second nature to him. If he always laughed, he reasoned with himself, there’d never be room for tears. But experiencing firsthand the close call with Peggy had made him see even more just how fleeting and precious life could be.
A sheepish smile touched his lips. “You’ve been telling me how lucky I am to belong to a big loving family,” he said, “and I guess it’s dawned on me that you’re right. I’m fortunate to have them all and if I can help to keep them safe and happy, then that’s what I want to do.”
The corners of her lips curled upward into a tempting grin. “You’d better be careful, Jared Colton, or you’re going to lose your reputation as a playboy.”
Chuckling, he started gathering the documents together. “Come on,” he told her. “Let’s put these things back where they belong and get out of here. We’ll look the others over tomorrow night.”
Carefully, the two of them returned the records to the correct slots in the file cabinets, then turned off the light and reopened the blinds.
At the back exit, Jared let the two of them out into the warm night. While he locked the door, Kerry stood close beside him and surveyed the shadowy clumps of shrubs that randomly dotted the lawn.
As her eyes reached the far corner of the building, she saw the limbs on one of shrubs rustle, then grow still. There was no wind tonight and the only sound she could hear was that of the light traffic traveling the main street in front of the building, yet she was quite certain someone was near.
“Hurry up with that lock, Jared,” she whispered softly. “I think someone is watching us.”
Jared pulled the key from the slot and rattled the door to make sure it was solidly locked before he turned around and took her by the upper arm. “Did you see someone? Where?”
“At the end of the building there.” She pointed directly in front of them to a spot where the building jutted up to a low stone wall. “That shrub was moving. And it couldn’t have been the wind. We don’t have any tonight.”
Instead of laughing away her suggestion, he lifted his head and studied the whole area around them. About thirty feet away, a graveled parking area was dimly lit with two streetlights. At the moment, the only vehicle in sight was Jared’s white truck. Between it and the spot where they stood was a wide lawn shaded by a huge sycamore tree and dotted randomly with several head-high shrubs. If someone was lurking nearby, it would be easy to keep to the shadows and go unnoticed. But why would someone be lingering about the courthouse at this time of night, he wondered. No one but Bram had been aware that Jared was going to be here. Unless someone had been following him, he thought grimly.
“Wait here and I’ll go look,” he said, keeping his voice low.
“No!” Kerry cried. “You’re not leaving me alone back here! I’ll go with you.”
Recognizing fear in her voice, he took her hand and squeezed it. “All right,” he conceded, “but stay behind me. And don’t say a word.”
Slowly they crept to the corner of the building where Kerry had seen the movement. By the time they reached the dense darkness created by the bush, her heart was pounding with fear and she wondered what she would do if someone stepped out of the shadows and attacked them. No doubt Jared was man enough to handle himself. But not if he was distracted with trying to save her.
She gripped his hand tightly as he edged toward the corner of the building, then peered furtively around the huge, hand-hewn sandstone.
“There’s no one here now,” he whispered. “Let’s get out of here.”
He kept Kerry close to his side until they reached the truck, then quickly he unlocked the vehicle and helped her inside. Once he was behind the wheel, he touched the electronic button to lock the doors.
“You really think someone might have been hiding in the shadows?” Kerry asked him. “I expected you to laugh at me for suggesting such a thing.”
He gave the secluded area around them another long search before he started the truck and pulled out of the parking lot.
“We may both be crazy,” Jared told her as he maneuvered the truck onto a nearby street. “But something back there was making the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.”
Kerry outwardly shivered. “Jared, this—whatever it is—is not some harmless genealogy buff digging up records.”
“No,” he agreed. “That’s why we have to find what this man is looking for before he has the chance to find it himself.”
The next evening, instead of asking her mother to baby-sit for her while she helped Jared at the courthouse, she drove Peggy over to stay with her friend, Christa.
“Don’t worry about the two of us,” Christa told Kerry as the two women stood in the living room of Christa’s apartment. “We’re going to have great fun with some new acrylic paints I just bought.”
Before her marriage had crumbled, Christa had longed to have a baby of her own. Since that wish hadn’t materialized, the other woman always jumped at the chance to spend time with Peggy. And thankfully, Peggy was already ready to visit her “aunt” Christa.
Kerry groaned good-naturedly. “It’s a good thing I let her wear an old T-shirt and shorts. Just don’t let her smear the stuff in her hair. It’s just now growing out from the wad of bubble gum I had to cut from the back.”
Christa laughed. “I’ll tie a kerchief around her head.”
Glancing at her watch, Kerry said, “I’ll be back to pick her up by nine.”
“Like I said, we’ll be fine,” Christa assured her as she followed her friend to the door.
“Thanks, Christa, you’ve saved me from having another round with my mother.”
The young blonde shook her head with disapproval. “Kerry, I understand it’s financially better for you to live with your mother. But, believe me, money isn’t everything. I let Steven get away with thousands just to get rid of him. Your mother has no right to dictate who you see or where you go.”
With a weary sigh, Kerry pushed a hand through her thick black hair. “I know, Christa. And one day soon I’m going to start making plans to move. But right now—well, Mother loves us. And we’re all she really has. She’s giving me problems about Jared because she’s afraid I’m going to get hurt.”
Christa’s expression became knowing as she studied Kerry’s troubled face. “You are getting serious about the man, aren’t you?”
Kerry opened her mouth to protest, but instead her shoulders slumped with defeat and she lowered her voice so it wouldn’t reach Peggy, who was sitting on the floor in front of Christa’s television.
“I don’t know, Christa. I keep telling myself that the man is just a friend, but when I’m with him, I feel…more alive than I have in a long, long time.”
Christa grinned and waggled her eyebrows. “I can see why. The man looks as sexy as sin.”
“He is as sexy as sin. And Mom is probably right. I shouldn’t be spending time with him. But…”
“But you want to,” Christa finished with a wicked wink.
Nodding, Kerry let out a rueful sigh. “Do you think I’m crazy?”
Christa’s playful grin suddenly sobered. “Look Kerry, as men go, we’ve both had a couple of losers in our lives. But I’ll be darned if I let Steven ruin the rest of my life. And you shouldn’t let Damon ruin yours. You need to get out and enjoy yourself. And as far as I can see, there’s nothing wrong with enjoying yourself with Jared.”
Kerry glanced at Peggy to make sure she wasn’t picking up any of the conversation. It would be highly embarrassing if her daughter started repeating things to Jared.
“Christa, the man is—or at least he was, a lady’s man. He probably changes his women each time he finishes a job. I can’t expect any more from him.”
Christa looked at her closely. “Do you want more from him?”
She did, damn it. Somehow, the man had worked his way under her skin. She was to the point where she needed to be with him. Just having him near, listening to his voice, seeing him smile, filled her whole being with joy. Now that he’d come into her life, she couldn’t imagine giving him up.
“I’m afraid I do, Christa,” she whispered miserably. “And I know that’s crazy. Because I know Jared Colton. I’ve known him since I was a small girl. He used to be one of those reckless bad boys. You know, the kind that wore his hair just a tad too long and roared around the streets on a Harley.”
“And the girls all swooned at his feet,” Christa added.
Kerry nodded glumly. “And now I’m swooning when I should be running.”
“Oh Kerry, you’re thinking about this in the wrong way. Jared is older now. He’s probably a changed man. And for all you know, he might be getting serious about you.”
Kerry was suddenly remembering the embrace they’d shared on George WhiteBear’s porch. For the most part his kiss had been exciting and sexy. Yet underneath those things, she’d felt a tender desire that had caught her off guard and had almost made her believe he might care about her. Almost, but not quite.
“Jared serious about me?” Her light laughter had nothing to do with being amused. “No, Christa. Jared is a man who likes to enjoy himself. And he likes female company. That’s all there is to it. And I’m not about to make the mistake of thinking otherwise.”
Christa shook her head. “Kerry—”
“I’ve got to go, Christa. Jared is probably waiting for me. I’ll see you about nine.”
Before the other woman could say more, Kerry quickly blew a goodbye kiss to her daughter, then let herself out of the apartment.
By the time Kerry parked next to Jared’s truck in the courthouse parking lot, he was waiting at her car door to greet her.
The sight of his tall, muscular body dressed in jeans and a pale blue polo shirt stirred her senses, but it was the warm smile on his face that touched her heart and made her very, very glad to see him.
“Six minutes late. I was beginning to think I was being stood up,” he said as she climbed out on the ground beside him.
“Sorry. It took a few minutes to get away from Christa’s,” she explained, wondering what he would think if she told him that she and Christa had been discussing him. Probably give her a smug laugh, she thought.
“You’re forgiven,” he said softly, then taking her by the shoulders he drew her into his arms.
Kerry didn’t question or protest his actions. Instead, her heart drummed with eager anticipation as she lifted her face up to his.
“Aren’t we supposed to be heading into the building?” she asked huskily.
He lowered his head to hers. “First things first,” he whispered against her lips.
Kerry was helpless to resist the desire to taste his lips, to feel the warmth of his body firing hers. Mindlessly, she closed her eyes and lifted her arms to circle his neck. While his lips made a hungry foray of hers, she felt his hands roaming her back, her rib cage, then lower to where her waist curved to the top of her hips.
Heat and need rushed through her like a bolt of lightning, making her cling to him like a wet, shivering puppy. She would have been happy to stand there kissing him forever, but after a few minutes he broke the contact of their lips and rested his forehead against hers.
“I think we’d better go in before I forget why we’re here,” he murmured.
He was right about that, she thought. One more minute and she wouldn’t have cared if they’d been standing in the middle of main street, just as long as he kept on making love to her.
She drew in a ragged breath. “Uh—just a minute. I’d like to know what that little kiss was for?”
His sexy grin flashed at her through the semidarkness. “I wasn’t aware that was a little kiss. You must be a hard woman to please. But believe me, it will be a joy trying.”
She groaned at his nonsense and the desire still churning in the pit of her stomach. “That’s not what I meant. Why tonight? Now?”
The grin of pleasure remained on his face. “When I drove you home last night, you jumped out of the truck so fast, I didn’t have the chance to get a hand on you. So I was making up for the loss now.”
Kerry had made a quick exit last night. Mainly because she’d been afraid. Their private time together in the courthouse had heightened her senses and made her desperately aware of how much she wanted to get close to him. If she’d allowed him to kiss her, she might not have been able to stop herself from begging him for more. Even now she wanted to tell him to forget about the dusty documents inside the courthouse and take her to some hidden place where there was nothing but the two of them.
Oh my, she was losing it, she thought desperately. She had to shake away this sensual spell he’d put over her, before she wound up being one more notch on the headboard of Jared Colton’s bed.
“I see,” she said in a voice that still sounded breathless to her own ears. “And what makes you think you’re supposed to get a hand on me?”
Chuckling, he curled one arm around her shoulders and began to guide her toward the back entrance of the building. “Great-grandfather George said the Great Spirit had made you for me. I can’t argue with that kind of reasoning.”
“You told me that you Colton children don’t believe half of what George says. Why should you put any stock in that one prophetic statement?”
His hand tightened on her shoulder. “Because this time I happen to agree with him.”
Kerry was so stunned by his comment she couldn’t utter a word. But once she did collect herself, she decided the best thing she could do was let the whole thing slide.
He probably sweet-talked every woman he’d ever wooed, she told herself. And as for George WhiteBear’s prediction, Jared probably considered the whole thing as nothing more than amusing words from an old, old man.
Chapter Nine
Inside the building, Kerry and Jared walked straight to the records room. After Jared had shut the blinds and turned on the light, the two of them went to the file cabinets and pulled all the documents they hadn’t had time to examine the night before.
Once they’d taken seats at the table, Kerry asked, “Did you tell Bram that we thought someone was watching us last night?”
“No. I tried to call him today while I was at work, but he was out of the office. I’ll catch him later. And maybe by then we’ll have something more concrete to tell him.” He glanced at her. “What did you tell your mother you were doing tonight?”
Kerry’s gaze skittered away from his. “I told her the truth. That I was helping you with a family matter. She thinks I’m headed for a heartache by keeping company with you.”
As soon as the words were out, Kerry bit down on her lip. She didn’t know what had made her say such a thing to him. After their little interlude in the parking lot, she’d intended to keep their conversation off the personal.
“And what do you think?” he asked solemnly.
“That I’m headed for a heartache,” she whispered hoarsely.
“Oh Kerry.” With a shake of his head, he reached for her hand and threaded his fingers through hers. “I don’t know why you think I’m some evil snake out to bite you at any moment. I told you last night I wouldn’t harm a hair on your head.”
The gentleness in his voice only made her throat tighten that much more. If this man loved her and left her as Damon had, she didn’t think she could live through it. Not a second time.
“Not intentionally.”
“Not in any way.”
Her gaze dropped to the table top. “I’m not looking for fun and games, Jared. I’m not like you.”
His brows inched upward over his gray eyes. “What makes you think I’m looking for fun and games?”
One of her shoulders lifted and fell. She didn’t want to have this conversation with him. She’d only wind up humiliating herself and making him feel awkward.
“As far as I know you’ve always lived that way.”
His lips compressed to a thin line. “And you expect me to do what I’ve always done for the rest of my life? Did you ever think I might be ready for a change?”
She couldn’t stop the faint flutter of hope in her heart. Lifting wide eyes to his, she said, “You’re still young, Jared. Being tied down with a family is not what you want.”
“So you’re telling me that you know more about what I want, than I do myself.”
He sounded irritated with her, but Kerry couldn’t help it. She had to be honest. She had to make it clear that she wasn’t in the market for an affair with him. No matter how sweet and wonderful it might be.
Her head bobbed up and down. “I’m not that same naive young woman who used to waitress at Woody’s Café. I’ve learned not to believe everything a man says.”
Jared’s nostrils flared with disgust as he studied her face. “Look Kerry, I’m not like Peggy’s father. If I had a child somewhere, she wouldn’t have to wonder where her father was or why he didn’t want her.”
His bluntness reddened her cheeks. “I didn’t say you were like him. I meant—oh, I don’t want to talk about this, Jared. It’s…pointless.”
Tearing her hand from his, she quickly jumped to her feet and walked over to stand in front of the room’s sole window. She was staring unseeingly at the closed blinds when she felt him move up behind her. His sigh was audible as he placed both his hands on the backs of her shoulders.
“Kerry, I don’t know what you want me to say,” he said quietly. “I don’t know what you want from me.”
Her eyes closed, she tried to swallow away the lump of tangled emotions in her throat. “Honesty, Jared. That’s what I really want.” She turned suddenly to face him, her eyes challenging him to open up to her. “So don’t tell me you’re looking at me with marriage on your mind. I won’t believe you.”
His hands gently cupped the sides of her face. And in spite of her doubts about his feelings, his touch made her heart beat with excitement and joy.
“Kerry, I’ll try to be as honest with you as I can be. But that’s hard to do when…I’m not sure—” He broke off with a shake of his head. “When I first saw you running up to me that evening when Peggy was lost, I was—well, shaken. Don’t ask me why. Because I can’t explain it. I only know I was very, very glad to see you and to learn that you were back in Black Arrow.” He grinned wryly as he added, “Don’t you remember me asking you for a date? Way back, after you just graduated high school?”
If her face had been red before, she knew it was absolutely burning with color now. No doubt his hands could feel the heat traveling up her neck and into her cheeks.
“Yes. I remember. But you dated many girls back then. I didn’t want to be just another number.”
As Jared’s gaze slipped over her face, then settled on her chocolate brown eyes, he realized she’d never been just another girl to him. Nor could she ever be. Besides her dark beauty, there was something about her, a quiet, graceful dignity that pulled at him, that told him if she ever loved a man, it would be with a deep forever kind of passion.
“I thought you didn’t like me,” he said.
She couldn’t stop the faint smile that spread across her face. “I liked you. But I was very scared of you.”
His brows lifted in question at the same time his hands decided to dig into her silky hair and push it back from her oval face. “Scared?”
She nodded. “You were way too old and too sexy for me.”
He chuckled softly. “Too old? I don’t like the sound of that. But the too sexy is flattering.”
The nearness of his body tempted her to step forward and slide her arms around his waist, to bury her face against his chest and simply stand there until she’d drunk her fill of his male scent and the strong security of his body.
“So you’re telling me you wanted to go out with me now, because I refused to date you back then.”
His grin turned sheepish as he continued to play with her hair. “Something like that. You sorta squashed my pride back then. I thought catching your attention now would make up for your rejection.” His expression sobered as he brushed his fingertips against her cheek. “But I wasn’t counting on—liking you this much, Kerry.”
Liking. To Kerry that was almost as important as loving and the idea that Jared might care that much for her, shook her through and through.
“Jared—”
“I know,” he gently interrupted. “You don’t put much stock in what I say. But you will. Sooner or later, I’ll make you believe in me.”
He was tempting her to peek down a primrose path, to believe that something special could happen between them. Kerry desperately wanted to imagine the two of them together. Not for just a few days or months, but forever. Yet at this moment, all she could envision was losing her heart to him, then watching him wave goodbye.
“Maybe,” she murmured, then with a great breath, she ducked away from him and hurried toward the door. “I’m going to the rest room. I’ll be back in a few minutes,” she tossed over her shoulder.
In the shadowy hallway outside the door, Kerry walked until she found a ladies’ rest room. She didn’t really need to use the facilities, but she needed time to collect herself and try to remember what she was actually supposed to be doing here tonight. And it certainly wasn’t falling in love with Jared!
After about six or seven minutes, Kerry decided enough time had passed for Jared to have gotten his mind off charming her and back onto the Colton family documents. She left the small cubicle and headed back to the records room.
Somewhere along the hallway, the faintest scent of smoke caught her attention, making her pause long enough to glance over her shoulder and sniff.
That wasn’t someone’s cigarette smoke filtering in from outside, she thought. It smelled like burning wood. Maybe someone in town had broken the rules and was burning a pile of brush in their yard, she thought.
Deciding it was nothing, Kerry headed on down the hall, but ten steps later a strange crackling noise caused her to stop dead in her tracks.
Quickly, she attempted to follow the sound and eventually found herself in front of a door marked County Tax Assessor. She twisted the knob. Locked! But the panel of wood felt warm to her hand and the hissing, sizzling sounds beyond it had to be fire!
Adrenaline shoved her into overdrive and she raced the remaining distance to the records room. “Jared! Hurry,” she called to him from the doorway. “I think there’s a fire in the building!”
Jumping up from his seat at the table, he hurried over to her. “Fire? What are you talking about?”
Grabbing his arm, she tugged him out in the hallway. “In the room next to this one—at the Tax Assessor’s office! I smell smoke and the door feels hot!”
After inspecting the door, Jared took only a moment to come to the same conclusion as Kerry. “Hurry. Go call 9-l-l,” he instructed. “And I’ll try to get the door open.”
“But aren’t you supposed to leave hot doors shut?” she questioned fearfully.
He nudged her toward the shaft of light spilling out into the hallway from the records room. “Don’t worry about me. Just go make the call before this whole place goes up in flames!”
Not wanting to waste any more time arguing, Kerry raced to find a phone. As soon as she placed the call and repeated the necessary information to the emergency dispatcher, she ran on shaky legs back to the spot in the hallway where she’d left Jared.
The door to the burning room was now open and Jared was nowhere in sight. Apparently, he’d kicked it down and gone inside!
“Jared! Jared!”
He didn’t answer and fear clawed through her like a fierce animal. She had no other choice but to follow him into the fire. If he needed help, she had to be there for him.
Stepping into the smoky room, Kerry immediately gasped at the sight. Orange flames were crawling hungrily up two entire walls and had already invaded part of the ceiling. Apparently, Jared had found a fire extinguisher from somewhere in the building and was now spraying part of the flames he could reach with the thick white foam.
Kerry hurried to his side and shouted over the din of the roaring fire. “What can I do?”
He jerked his head in the direction of her voice. “Kerry! Get out of here!”
“No! Not unless you come with me,” she yelled back at him, then coughed as the dense smoke began to choke her. “The ceiling is already on fire! It might start crashing down any minute!”
By now he’d emptied the extinguisher and the flames were no more contained than when he’d first started. Tossing down the empty cylinder, he reached for her arm and began to lead her toward the door. “If the fire department doesn’t get here soon, all these files and records are going to go up in flames!”
“There’s nothing we can do to save it now. What about the room connecting to this one?” she asked.
He slammed the door shut on the smoke and flames, then turned to her. “I don’t know. Let’s see if we can find another extinguisher before the flames spread to it.”
Kerry nodded. “I’ll go this way,” she said pointing to the nearest annex.
Before she could dash off, Jared grabbed her arm. “No. We’re not going to separate now. We may have to get out of here fast and when that time comes I want to know where you are. We’ll go look for an extinguisher together.”
Relieved that he wasn’t going to get out of her sight, Kerry bobbed her head in agreement and hand in hand they ran down the shadowy corridor, while behind them the fire burst through the door and licked at the rubbery tile covering the floor.
The eerie sound jerked Kerry’s head around and she couldn’t hold back a scream. “Jared! It’s spreading across the hallway!”
He continued to tug her along behind him. “Don’t look back right now. Here’s a fire hose. Help me get it out of the wall.”
Even though they were both working at a frantic pace, it seemed to Kerry that it took the two of them forever to get the glass door open and pull out the canvas hose. But in actuality only two or three minutes had passed by the time they got the equipment pulled down the corridor and a stream of water flowing onto the flames.
Gray smoke had begun to filter down the darkened corridor, making it difficult to breathe. Kerry wasn’t sure if the sweat pouring down her face was from fear or simply caused by the skyrocketing heat of the spreading flames.
Standing close behind Jared, she watched as he aimed the blast of water on the fresh flames crawling along the floor to the records room where the two of them had been working.
“Where is the fire department?”
Kerry’s frantic question was answered by a loud crash that reverberated the floor beneath their feet and had them both glancing anxiously upward.
“The ceiling in the next room has crashed in!” Jared shouted. “I think we’d better get out of here.”
He was about to toss down the hose and reach for Kerry when loud voices could be heard approaching from a nearby annex. Both Jared and Kerry whirled around to see a group of firefighters descending on them with hoses, axes, and other fire-fighting equipment.
“We’ll take over now,” the one who appeared to be in charge said to Jared, “you two go on outside where it’s safe.”
Wanting to get Kerry to safety, Jared grabbed her arm and ushered her away from the flames and out the back entrance.
As they stepped out into the warm night, Kerry wailed, “Oh Jared, we left your family’s documents out on the table! If that room doesn’t burn, they’ll know we were going through records.”
“It’ll be a miracle if the room doesn’t burn. And anyway, I doubt that will interest the firefighters right at this moment. Look,” he urged, pointing toward the roof of the building. “The flames have eaten through the roof.”
The ominous sight had Kerry instinctively reaching for Jared’s arm. Her fingers tightened against his flesh as she cuddled as close to him as she could get. “Jared, it’s terrifying to think we might not have found the fire until we were boxed in. What do you think caused it?”
Jared had already taken his gaze off the burning roof and was now searching the grounds around them. Unlike last night, the area was now jammed with fire and rescue vehicles. Orbs of emergency lights were flashing, illuminating the firemen who were hooking up hoses and hurrying to tug them inside the building.
“The electrical wiring probably.”
Something in his voice brought Kerry’s gaze around to his stern profile. “You don’t really think that, do you? You think—” she stopped and swallowed as the fearful image washed over her. “Someone set the fire on purpose!”
“Sssh,” he said under his breath. “Don’t let anyone hear you say that. At least not until Bram gets here.”
Kerry’s eyes widened with another horrifying thought. “Jared! You don’t—we aren’t going to be suspects! Dear Lord, we could have been killed!”
In an effort to soothe her, Jared pulled her into his arms and stroked the back of her head. “I’m sorry I scared you, sweetheart. Don’t worry. It’s going to be all right. We’ll find out what really happened.”
She lifted her head from his chest to gaze up at him. “Jared, when I first told you about the stranger here at the courthouse, I didn’t know it was going to cause all of this trouble. I shouldn’t have said anything,” she said miserably.
He continued to stroke her hair and the slender slope of her shoulders while thinking he’d never known a woman like this, one who considered others before herself. Except for his mother. And she’d been taken from him so long ago.
The thought caused him to tighten his hold and pull her even deeper into the circle of his arms. “Don’t say that, Kerry. You didn’t cause any of this to happen. I’m glad you did tell me. If you hadn’t we might not have known something sinister was among us.”
Shivering at his suggestion, Kerry clung to the hard muscles of his chest. “But to burn us—”
“We don’t know if the fire was meant to hurt us, Kerry. It could have been to cover up or destroy those records we were going through.”
Among the chaotic noise of idling pumper trucks and shouts of nearby firemen, Jared sensed someone had approached him from behind. With Kerry still tucked safely in the circle of his arm, he turned to see his brother Bram and from his grim expression he wasn’t the least bit happy to find his town in turmoil.
“Jared, are you two okay?”
The question prompted Jared to look down at Kerry. The two of them were both marked from head to toe with dirt and black soot, along with having their clothes soaked from wrestling the fire hose down the corridor. And they were both still dazed and shaken. But as he gently cupped his hand around her face, he realized the only thing that mattered was having Kerry safe and by his side.
“Yeah. We’re both fine. Just a little wet. And shook up.”
Bram lifted his hat from his head and ran a hand through his hair. “Well, thank God for that. But I’d like to know what in hell is going on, Jared? I was worried about you leaving stray papers laying around. I never dreamed you two would set the damn building on fire!”
Jared threw his palm up. “Whoa now, Bram. We didn’t have anything to do with the fire. If Kerry hadn’t walked down to the rest room, we might have been burning ourselves!”
Bram directed his gaze on Kerry. “What did you see?”
Kerry wiped at the wet, tangled hair falling into her face. “Actually, I didn’t see anything. I walked to the rest room and was there for only a few minutes. Then on my way back to the records room, I smelled smoke and heard a strange crackling noise, like logs burning in a fireplace. So I ran to get Jared. He knocked down the door to the tax assessor records.”
Bram turned his attention back to Jared. “I take it the fire was already out of control by then?”
Jared nodded ruefully. “Pretty much. I soaked what I could with an extinguisher, but it didn’t do much good.”
After assembling all the facts they’d given him, Bram heaved out a heavy sigh. “Do you still have the key I gave you?” he asked his brother.
Jared took his hands off Kerry long enough to fish the key from his pocket, then hand it to his brother.
“I know this looks bad, Bram, but we just happened to be in the building,” Jared told him. “If you ask me, some maniac was trying to kill us. Or at the least, destroy information.”
Bram glanced furtively over his shoulder to make sure no one was overhearing their conversation. “We’ll have to see what the fire inspector turns up. But I’m inclined to agree with you, Jared. This whole thing is just too coincidental to me.”
“So what do you want me and Kerry to do now? She made the 9-1-1 call and the firemen found us in the building trying to save what we could. We’re bound to be questioned.”
Bram rubbed a thoughtful finger against his jaw. “Just say you two happened to be driving by and you saw the flames through the window. Kerry called 911 and you tried the back door and found it open. Naturally, you two felt it your civic duty to try to put out the flames before the fire department arrived. Got it?”
Jared turned a cheeky grin on Kerry. “My brother, the sheriff. He never breaks a rule.”
“Damn it, Jared, I’m not breaking anything!” Bram growled. “Maybe bending. When the fire inspector gets here, I’ll give him the full story. I just don’t want the general public of Black Arrow knowing my brother was snooping through county courthouse records after working hours!”
Jared affectionately swatted his brother’s shoulder. “I was only kidding, Bram. And don’t worry. Kerry and I know what to do.”
“Good,” he countered. “Now you two go ahead and get out of here. I’ll explain to the fire marshal and answer any questions for you.”
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