Don't Close Your Eyes. Sara Orwig

and be aware there may be danger.”

      “I have a better idea,” Mike said and all turned to him. “Stay here. Let’s see if your presence draws our enemy to Texas. There are four—”

      “No way!” Colin exclaimed. “I won’t deliberately put y’all in danger.”

      “We may be in a lot of danger anyway whether you go and we never see you again or if you remain in Texas. Just listen, Colin,” Mike urged. “You may draw your enemy here. None of us will be absolutely safe until he’s caught, so let’s flush him out. If we do, you won’t have to turn into a hermit and never see any of us again or any of us ever see you.”

      “Yeah, that’s a hell of a lot better,” Jonah said.

      “I agree,” Boone added quickly. “I’m all for drawing him into the open.”

      “No damn way!” Colin snapped, standing and glaring at his friends. “You have a baby,” he said to Mike. “You have Henry and another one on the way,” he reminded Jonah. “Erin is expecting. No, no and double-damn no! I’m not putting little babies and kids into any extra jeopardy.”

      “Calm down. You can stay with Izzie,” Boone suggested.

      “And put her in danger?” Colin snapped, jamming his hands into his pockets.

      Mike and Boone laughed. “Look at you!” Boone exclaimed. “Izzie isn’t afraid, and she can take care of herself. She’ll agree with our plan to use you as bait.”

      “Izzie’ll protect you,” Mike said with laughter in his voice.

      “You won’t have to be scared of a thing with her around,” Boone added quickly, his eyes twinkling with amusement that Colin couldn’t share.

      “Y’all are hopeless! Listen, she can protect herself fairly well, but you know and I know that this is someone deadly and in earnest. And if I hadn’t minded hurting a woman, you also know that I would have won the fight with Isabella.”

      “Well, you did a damn poor job of protecting yourself,” Boone teased. “Why didn’t you just draw your gun and stop her before she made hamburger of you?”

      Colin glared at Boone. “You guys get on out of here.”

      “Why didn’t you draw your gun?” Mike asked, studying Colin as he slapped his knee and guffawed. “She got your pistol, didn’t she?”

      “Go to hell, Mike,” Colin said, shaking his head while Mike and Boone laughed. Sitting down again, Colin looked at Jonah, who was staring solemnly at him. “You’re not laughing with them. You think I should go, don’t you?”

      “Not at all,” Jonah answered quietly and the laughter died. “I think Mike’s right. You should stay. Hopefully, we can entice our enemy to Texas and end this. I’m just thinking about the danger. In all fairness to Isabella, I think we should get her in here and ask her. She may not want him to be with her,” Jonah said to the others.

      “You’re right,” Mike said. “Boone, get your sister in here.”

      “I can answer for her—”

      “No, you can’t,” Colin insisted, crossing the room and yanking open the door to the hall.

      The moment he was gone Jonah crossed the room in long strides and closed the door. “I don’t think she’ll want him.”

      “She’s not going to be afraid,” Boone said. “But Izzie is full of life. She may not want to put up with Colin’s gloom. He’s pretty down right now, although she’s a sucker for lost kittens and stray dogs.”

      “Look again,” Jonah remarked dryly. “She’s your sister and you probably can’t see anything, but sparks fly every time they look at each other.”

      Boone’s eyebrows arched. “Izzie? I don’t think so.”

      While the men talked, Colin strode down the hall to the family room and paused in the doorway. Isabella and the other women were laughing at something Jessie was doing. His heart clenched at the sight of Isabella. Her joy was infectious.

      “Isabella, will you please join us for a few minutes?”

      She stood and Colin forced himself to turn away instead of watching her and waiting to walk with her. In long strides, he went back to the library. When he entered the room, everyone turned to look quizzically at him.