Lisa Childs - Colton's Cinderella Bride

“I had to,” she said, and her voice was sharp with resentment. Patience didn’t understand business like Layla did. Like Blake did...

“He’s not going to help,” Fenwick said. It wasn’t a question. He knew that with just as much certainty as he knew that Blake had returned to Red Ridge.

Patience looked up from her desk now. “He might. He will,” she persisted, but she sounded more like she was trying to convince herself than she was him. “Why else did he come home?”

That was what worried Fenwick. If Blake hadn’t come back to help his family, then he probably had another reason—a personal reason—for returning to Red Ridge.

“You shouldn’t have called him,” Fenwick admonished her.

“He’s your son,” she said. “My brother. He deserved to hear what’s going on with the family from one of us.”

Fenwick suspected the media had probably beaten Patience to the punch, though. Coltons were news. And a Colton scandal was even bigger news.

Damn his reprobate cousin Rusty and his equally disreputable kids for causing such a scandal. But it went beyond a scandal. Rusty’s daughter Demi was a murderer. Evidence and witnesses proved—to him, at least—that she was the psycho killing grooms-to-be because she’d been dumped by her own one-week fiancé. Of course a Colton being a killer wasn’t news. Other Colton family members—very distant family members out of state—had committed murder, as well.

Fenwick didn’t know what he might be forced to do if Layla wasn’t able to carry out their plan of marrying to save the company. This damn Groom Killer nonsense was threatening their livelihood. But now that might not be all that was threatened.

“You shouldn’t have called him,” Fenwick repeated, “because you might have put him in danger.”

Patience’s dark eyes narrowed. “What are you talking about?”

“This maniac,” Fenwick said, “is killing grooms. Men. ” He was a little scared for himself—not that he had any intention of getting married again. Three times was more than enough. And he had more fun dating than he’d ever had being married.

“Blake isn’t engaged,” Patience said. “He’s not marrying anyone. He didn’t even have a serious girlfriend when he did live at home. So I doubt there’s anyone in Red Ridge he would be tempted to propose to.”

Fenwick wished he could trust that. “Couples are afraid to go public. Engagements have been canceled. Everyone is afraid of the Groom Killer. But that hasn’t stopped anyone from coupling up in private.”

He could think of at least six new couples in Red Ridge—some damn unlikely couples.

“And you know your brother,” Fenwick continued. “If anyone tells that stubborn kid not to do something, he’s twice as determined to do it.”

Like build his own damn company. Fenwick had told the boy not to do it, that he didn’t have what it took. Hell, he’d been fresh out of graduate school with his MBA and had no real business experience when he’d begun his “start-up.” But Blake had had to go out and prove him wrong.

He was so damn stubborn it would be just like him to try to prove Fenwick wrong now about getting engaged. But then he wouldn’t be risking just some money.

He would be risking his life.

Chapter 3

Juliette sat on one of the chairs in the row outside the chief’s office. She’d given her report and she had helped Pandora give hers as well as a description of the shooter to Detective Carson Gage who would be working the murder case.

The last thing the Red Ridge Police Department could handle right now was another murder investigation. They were already spread so thin with the Groom Killer murders and the suspected criminal activities of the Larson twins. Did the RRPD have enough resources left to protect Pandora? That was what Juliette wanted to know, what she waited outside the chief’s office to discuss with him.

But of course, Finn Colton was busy. So busy that she had to wait. The receptionist was busy, as well, taking one call after another. Usually they would have had time to talk while Juliette waited to see the chief. She would have asked Lorelei about her teenage kids, and Lorelei would have asked about Pandora.

Elle was with Pandora, coloring pictures in the conference room and trying to get her to eat the pizza she’d ordered for them. Elle was a good friend.

The only person Juliette had told about that night nearly five years ago. The night she’d felt like Cinderella being invited to the ball.

The invitation she’d received had come in the form of a tip from a hotel guest. Juliette had been cleaning the woman’s room all week. She’d sought Juliette out a couple of times for more towels, to restock the minibar, and she’d talked to her like Juliette was a person and not just a maid. The woman had compelled Juliette to confide in her about working two jobs to pay off her late mother’s medical bills and tuition for community college.

So later that week Juliette was disappointed that the woman had checked out before her business conference ended. She was even more surprised that instead of finding money as a tip, she found a note lying atop a glittering mound of a gown and some sky-high heels and long, dangling glittery earrings. The note read:

No cash for a tip, but take these as thanks. Had my heart broken in them and will never wear again.

Juliette wasn’t so sure that was the case. The woman she’d met had seemed too strong and self-reliant to care much if her heart had been broken. She’d probably left her the items instead of cash because she’d known the cash would have just gone toward those medical bills. The shoes and earrings and that glittery gown were something Juliette never would have bought for herself. One, she couldn’t have afforded them. And two, she wouldn’t have needed them since she had no place to wear them. But lying beneath the note was a ticket granting her entry to the conference awards black tie dinner.

Because of her mom’s long illness, Juliette had skipped her high school prom a couple of years ago. It hadn’t mattered much to her then—not as much as it had meant to her mother, who’d felt so bad that Juliette hadn’t attended it. But it wasn’t as if Juliette had had a date anyway. And even if she had, she wouldn’t have wanted to miss a minute left of her mother’s limited time.

Juliette had already forgotten her father because he had died when she was very young. At least now her parents, who’d been high school sweethearts, were together again.

And Juliette was alone. Should she dress up and give herself the prom she’d missed? But instead of goofing around with high school kids who didn’t understand how precious life was, she would be socializing with adults, with accomplished businesspeople.

The idea thrilled her too much for her to resist. The guest had been like a fairy godmother leaving behind that dress and heels and earrings. All that was missing were the carriage and the horses. But Juliette didn’t need a pumpkin and some mice. She had her own vehicle.

When her shift ended, she left the hotel in her maid’s drab uniform with her tips tucked inside her backpack. Her friend, who was going to cosmetology school, was thrilled to do her hair and makeup, so just a few short hours later, Juliette returned to the hotel where she worked. But not even her coworkers recognized her as she swept into the ballroom wearing those impossibly high and dainty heels as well as the long, nude-colored glittery gown. Her hair was half up and half down in some complicated style that defied gravity. And when she moved, the long dangling earrings brushed against her neck. For the first time in her life, Juliette felt like a princess. Even then she’d suspected it would be the last time she would ever feel like this.