Lisa Childs - Colton's Cinderella Bride

She’d been wearing a uniform. She worked there. He shouldn’t have left the building. He should have talked to his cousin Finn, but not about what was going on in Red Ridge. He should have asked him about Juliette and about what the hell crime her— their —daughter had witnessed.

How much danger were she and her mother in? Was that why Juliette hadn’t shown up yet? Had something happened?

Too anxious for answers, Blake turned away from the windows and headed toward the door. When he jerked it open, he found her standing in the hall—as if she’d been trying to work up her nerve or her courage to face him.

He glanced around her, but she was alone. She hadn’t brought the little girl or her dog. She wasn’t wearing her uniform anymore, either. She’d changed into a khaki skirt and a loose blouse. It didn’t matter what she wore—that glittery gown from years ago, the uniform or casual clothes—like a blonde doll getting dressed up in different outfits, she looked beautiful in anything.

But she was the most beautiful in nothing at all...

“You’re here,” he murmured, and instinctively he reached out to touch her, to see if she was real. Because when he’d thought about that night for the past five years, he’d always wondered if it had really happened or if it had just been some fantasy he’d conjured up.

Before he could brush his hand across her cheek, she flinched and stepped back. “That’s not why I came here.”

She must have thought he was making a pass. And he hadn’t been—at least, not consciously.

“That’s not why I asked you here,” he said. He stepped back so she could enter the suite.

But she hesitated, as if she didn’t believe him.

“Seriously,” he said. “All I want from you is the truth. You damn well owe me that.” She’d owed him that for the past five years.

She drew in a deep breath and stepped across the threshold, which reminded him of that night, of how he’d carried her across it and freaked out. She glanced up, met his gaze and nodded, as if she remembered it, too. “That’s why,” she said. “Even if I could have found you after you left town, I didn’t think you’d want to know. You’d made it clear that you didn’t want to be a father—ever.”

He still didn’t. But he didn’t have a choice now. He was one. Wasn’t he?

“So she is mine?”

She hesitated a moment, as if debating whether she could get away with lying about it.

“I’ll ask for a paternity test,” he warned her. No matter what she told him, he should do that anyway. But he didn’t need one. That little girl looked like him—down to the dimple in her left cheek.

Color rushed to her pale skin as her face flushed. “She’s yours.”

He hadn’t shut the door yet, so he looked into the hall again. Empty. “Why didn’t you bring her?” he asked as he closed the door.

He hadn’t chosen to be a father, but now that he was one, he wanted to know about his child. He wanted to see her, to talk to her, to hold her...especially when he remembered how upset she’d been at the police department. The tears, the fear...

Juliette’s teeth sank into her bottom lip and she shook her head. And in her eyes were the same tears and fear that had been in her daughter’s.

“What happened today?” he asked. “What crime did she witness?” He should have asked that earlier—should have demanded his answers then. But he’d been too stunned to think, to feel anything but shock.

“Murder,” Juliette replied.

And that shock struck him again. He shook his head. “No...” He’d known there had been some murders in Red Ridge, but those had involved grooms. “Were you two at a wedding?”

Juliette shook her head. “We were at the park. She was sitting on top of the tall slide, and she saw a man and woman in the parking lot.” She shivered. “She told me and the detective later what happened—that the woman opened a suitcase full of bags of sand and the man pulled out a gun and shot her. Then he threw the suitcase in the car and came after us.” Her voice cracked with that fear.

And Blake instinctively reached for her again. But this time she didn’t pull away. Instead she let him tug her into his arms and hold her as she trembled against him.

“What happened then?” he asked.

Obviously, she and the little girl had gotten away from the killer. But he wanted the details, needing to know how close he had come to losing them before he’d even known they were here.

“I hid Pandora in the tunnel under the slide...”

Pandora. That was the little girl’s name.

“He didn’t find her?”

“He found us,” Juliette said. “But before he could shoot us, I shot him.”

He shuddered now. He hadn’t known her at all five years ago. She’d seemed so refined—so delicate—but she was much stronger than he’d known.

“I just grazed his shoulder, and he got away before I could arrest him,” she said, her voice heavy with regret. “He told me that he’d get her, though. And I know that he will try. She saw him kill that woman.”

That poor little girl. Nobody should have to witness something so horrific, let alone a child.

He pulled Juliette’s trembling body even closer to his. But he wasn’t sure whom he was trying to comfort now—her or himself. “Where is she?”

“The woman died.”

“No,” he said. “Your—our—” His voice cracked as he corrected himself, and he felt a rush of his own fear. “Our daughter,” he continued. “Where is she?”

Juliette’s breath shuddered out, brushing softly across his throat. Then she stepped back, out of his embrace, and wrapped her arms around herself. “I talked the chief into putting her in a safe house. The killer saw my uniform, so I’m sure he will be able to figure out who I am easily enough and where we live.”

“You’re in danger, too, then,” he said, and he fought the urge to reach for her again, to hold her in his arms and keep her safe. “If he got close enough for you to shoot him, you saw him.”

She nodded. “He was wearing sunglasses and a hood. But the hood blew back, and the glasses slipped down...” She shuddered again. “And I’ll never forget that face, those eyes...”

He’d once said the same thing about her—that he would never forget her. And that had scared him, too, but no way near to the extent that she was afraid. She feared for her life. He’d feared only for his heart.

“So you can identify him,” he said. Hopefully the Red Ridge Police Department could find the guy and put him behind bars for life for the life he’d taken.

“I looked through all the mug shots and—” she shook her head “—nothing. I thought he looked familiar, but I couldn’t find any arrest or outstanding warrant for him.” Her brow furrowed with frustration.

That same frustration coursed through him. Now there was more than one killer on the loose in Red Ridge. But this killer wasn’t after just grooms. He was after Juliette and Blake’s daughter.

“I’m going to hire private guards to watch that safe house,” he said. He’d heard of a reputable security firm out of River City, Michigan. He would hire the Payne Protection Agency to guard his little girl. He hadn’t known he was a father until now—but now that he knew, he was going to do the best he could by his daughter.

Juliette shook her head. “That’s not necessary. Red Ridge PD will protect her. She has an officer staying with her inside the house and another one patrolling outside it. She has police protection 24-7.”

And what about Juliette? Who was protecting her? Nobody had been in the hall with her when she’d arrived. Was there anyone waiting outside to protect her? Or had she come alone?