The park had looked deserted. He hadn’t noticed anyone else around—until he’d heard the dog bark. Then he’d seen the little girl—but not before she had watched him fire those shots into that thieving dealer’s chest. Did she understand what she’d witnessed?
She was old enough that she probably did. And because he hadn’t known anyone else was around, he hadn’t had his hood up or glasses on then. So she would be able to identify and testify against him. And so would her damn cop mama.
But that wasn’t going to happen.
She and her mother were not going to live long enough to bring him down.
Noooo...
Not now. Not ever...
Juliette had determined long ago that she would never see Blake Colton again. Even though she had heard that he’d recently returned to Red Ridge, she hadn’t thought that she would actually run into him. It wasn’t as if she worked at the Colton Plaza Hotel anymore.
And she hadn’t expected him to show up at the Red Ridge Police Department.
What was he doing here—now?
She froze as their gazes locked. She should have been running instead—running away from him with Pandora. But she hesitated too long before stepping through that door. And his gaze went from her face to her daughter’s.
While there was no mistaking that Pandora was her biological child, the little girl’s blond hair was darker than Juliette’s—more a dark gold like Blake’s. Pandora’s eyes were green instead of blue. Green like her father’s eyes that stared at her now, widening with shock. She also had the same dimple in her left cheek that he had, but since neither was smiling now, it was just a small dimple and not the deep dent it became when they grinned.
Pandora wasn’t grinning, though. She was sobbing; she hadn’t stopped since the man had come after them despite Juliette’s assurances that they were safe now. Juliette didn’t feel safe, though.
Pandora must not have, either, because she buried her face in Juliette’s neck, hiding from the handsome stranger who held the door for them. But she’d done that too late. He’d already seen the little girl just like he’d seen Juliette.
And from the expression crossing his handsome face, Juliette could tell that he’d recognized her despite the nearly five years that had passed. From the way he was staring at Pandora, with his brow furrowed as if he was doing math in his head, he might have also realized that the child in her arms could be his.
No. They were not safe.
He turned back to Juliette, and the look in his green eyes chilled her nearly as much as the look in the killer’s dark eyes had. She shivered.
“It’s you—” he murmured “—isn’t it?”
She shook her head in denial. “I—I don’t know what you’re talking about...”
His eyes narrowed with skepticism and suspicion. “It is you. And she...” He raised his hand as if to reach for Pandora.
But Juliette spun around, keeping her child away from him. “She’s just witnessed a crime,” she said, her voice cracking with regret and fear that her poor little girl had had to see what she had. A murder...
“I can’t do this now,” she told him. But before she could rush through those doors and get away from him, someone rushed out.
Like Juliette, the woman was clad in a RRPD uniform, her brown eyes dark with concern.
“Oh, my God,” Elle Gage exclaimed. “I just heard what happened. Are you all right?” She focused on the little girl. “Is Pandora?”
“Pandora...” Blake murmured the name, drawing Elle’s attention to him.
She gasped. “You—you’re Blake Colton,” she said. Then she glanced at Juliette. She was the only one who knew—the only one Juliette had trusted with the truth. “Were you at the park, too?” she asked him.
Blake’s brow furrowed. “Park?” He turned toward Juliette. “Is that where the crime happened?”
She nodded. “I need to complete the report.” But that wasn’t all she wanted to do. She wanted to make sure she had a safe place for her daughter. Pandora needed protection from at least one man—the one who’d sworn she would die. She might need protecting from this one, too, if he had realized that he was Pandora’s father.
“But I need to talk to you,” he said through teeth gritted with frustration and anger.
* * *
Elle reached for Pandora, extricating the little girl from Juliette’s arms. “Come here, sweetheart,” she said. “Let you, me, and Sasha get something to eat and drink...” She took the beagle’s leash from Juliette’s hand, too, and with a crook of her neck gestured at Blake. Since she’d learned he’d returned to town a couple of days ago, she’d been urging Juliette to talk to him.
But there really was no time. Not now...
Fear pounded in her heart as she watched her friend walk away with her daughter. She’d nearly lost her just a short time ago—at the park. If Juliette hadn’t shot the man in the shoulder...
If she hadn’t wounded him, he would have killed them both. She just had to convince her boss of the same. She had no time to deal with Blake Colton. But when she moved to follow Elle and Pandora, he caught her. Wrapping his big hand around her arm, he held her back.
Her skin tingled from his touch. It had been so long. But she could still remember how it felt...how he’d touched her that night...
She jerked her arm from his grasp. Just as he’d spoken through gritted teeth, she did the same. “I. Cannot. Do. This. Now.”
“We need to talk,” he insisted.
She knew it was true and not just because Elle had been badgering her to seek him out. She knew it was the right thing to do. But at the moment she needed to be with her daughter—needed to see for herself that her child stayed safe.
“She’s mine, isn’t she?” he asked, and his voice cracked slightly with the emotions making his green eyes dark.
Her reply stuck in her throat, choking her.
“She’s the right age,” he continued as if he was trying to convince himself. “And she looks like me...”
Juliette felt like she had when she’d stared into the barrel of the killer’s gun. Trapped. Terrified. Desperate...
* * *
Frustration gripped Blake, twisting his gut into tight knots. He wanted to shake her, but when he reached for her again, she flinched as if she expected him to hurt her. He wouldn’t have, of course—despite his feelings. But he dropped his hand back to his side.
“Tell me,” he said, badgering her like she was a reluctant witness on the stand. “Tell me if she’s mine.”
“Yes!” she exclaimed, as if her patience had snapped. Or perhaps it was her conscience. “She’s yours.”
He expelled a sharp breath, like she’d punched him in the gut. All these years he’d spent thinking about her and about that night, he had never once considered that she might have gotten pregnant—that they might have made a child together. He was a father.
Anger coursed through him now, replacing the shock. “How—how could...”
Her lips curved into a slight smile. “The usual way...”
He glared at her. “How could you keep her from me?”
Her face flushed now,