Marie Ferrarella - Colton Baby Rescue

Instead, Finn had actually treated them like he would anyone else, rousing them out of their beds just because he felt it was his duty to go over the entire grounds, looking for a woman her parents felt had no business being on the family ranch in the first place.

Serena let them go on venting, having absolutely no desire to get involved by sticking up for Finn. Her parents were going to carry on like this no matter what she said.

Besides, right now her main duty was to her daughter. The ongoing commotion had eventually agitated Lora, and she wanted to get the baby to fall back to sleep.

The corners of her mouth curved in an ironic smile as she looked down at the infant in her arms. Funny how a little being who hadn’t even existed a short three months ago had so quickly become the very center of her universe. The very center of her heart.

Since the very first moment Lora had drawn breath, Serena felt obliged to protect the baby and care for her, doing everything in her power to make the world around Lora as safe and inviting for the infant as was humanly possible.

These last few months, her focus had been strictly and entirely on Lora. She had long since divorced her mind from any and all thoughts that even remotely had anything to do with Lora’s conception or the man who had so cavalierly—and unwittingly—fathered her.

It had all been one huge mistake.

She had met Mark, whose last name she never learned, at a horse auction. The atmosphere at the auction had been fast paced and extremely charged thanks to all the large amounts of money that were changing hands.

Representing the Double C Ranch and caught up in the excitement, Serena had broken all her own rules that day—and that night. She had allowed the devastatingly handsome, charming stranger bidding next to her to wine and dine her and somewhere amid the champagne-filled evening, they had wound up going back to her sinfully overpriced hotel room where they had made extremely passionate love. Exhausted from the activity and the alcohol, she had fallen asleep after that.

She had woken up suddenly in the middle of the night. When she did, Serena found herself alone, a broken condom on the floor bearing testimony to her drastically out-of-character misstep. Managing to pull herself together and taking stock of the situation, she discovered that the money in her wallet as well as her credit cards were gone, along with her lover.

Canceling the cards immediately, she still wasn’t fast enough to get ahead of the damage. Her one-night stand had cost her several thousand dollars, racked up in the space of what she found out was an hour. The man worked fast.

It was a very bitter pill for her to swallow, but she felt that there was an upside to it. She’d learned a valuable lesson from that one night and swore never to put herself in that sort of stupid situation again. Never to blindly trust anyone again.

Moreover, she made herself a promise that she was through with men and that she was going to devote herself strictly to raising horses, something she was good at and understood.

That was what she planned.

Life, however, she discovered, had other plans for her. Her first and only one-night stand had yielded a completely unplanned by-product.

She’d got pregnant.

That had thrown her entire world out of kilter. It took Serena a while to gather her courage together to break the news to her parents. That turned out to be one of the worst experiences of her life. They reacted exactly as she had feared that they would. Her father had railed at her, absolutely furious that she had got herself in this sort of “situation,” while her mother, an incredible snob from the day she was born, carried on about the shame she had brought on the family.

Joanelle accused her of being no better than her trashy relatives who hailed from the two lesser branches of the family. The only ones in the family who were there for her and gave her their support were her brothers, Finn and Anders.

She also received support from a very unlikely quarter. Her cousin Demi Colton. She and Demi had never been really friendly, given the branches of the family they came from. But Demi had done her a favor involving one of the ranch hands about a year ago. That had earned her cousin a soft spot in Serena’s heart.

And then, when she found herself pregnant, with her parents pushing for her to “eliminate” her “shame,” it was Demi, surprisingly enough, who had come out on her side. Demi told her that she should do whatever she felt she should as long as that decision ultimately meant that she was being true to herself.

At that point, Serena did some very deep soul-searching. Ultimately, she had decided to have her baby. Seeing that her mind was made up, her brothers gave her their full support. However, it was Demi she found herself turning toward and talking with when times got rough.

She wasn’t ordinarily the type who needed constant bolstering and reinforcement, but having Demi to talk to, however sporadically, wound up making a world of difference to her. Serena truly believed that it was what had kept her sane during the low points of this new experience she found herself going through.

Because Demi had been good to her when she didn’t need to be, Serena wasn’t about to turn her back on her cousin just because a tall, good-looking detective wanted to play judge, jury and executioner when it came to her cousin. Demi had obviously fled the area without ever coming to her, but if she had, if Demi had come to her and asked for money or a place to hide, she would have never hesitated in either case.

She believed that Demi was entitled to a fair shake. Most of all, she believed in Demi.

“I wish you would have come to me,” she whispered into the darkness. “I wish you would have let me help you. You shouldn’t be alone like this. Not now. Especially with the police department after you.”

Serena sighed, feeling helpless and desperately wanting to do something to negate that.

Lora began making a noise, her little lips suddenly moving against her shoulder. She was clearly hunting for something.

Three months “on the job” as a mother had taught Serena exactly what her daughter was after.

“You want to eat, don’t you?” she said.

Walking over to the rocking chair that Anders had made for her with his own hands, she sat down. Holding Lora against her with one arm, she shrugged out of the top of her nightclothes and pressed the infant to her breast. Lora began feeding instantly.

“Last time, little one,” Serena promised, stroking the infant’s silky hair. “I’m starting you on a bottle first thing tomorrow morning. Mama’s got to get back to doing her job, sweetheart. Nobody’s going to do it for her,” she told the little person in her arms.

Rocking slowly, Serena smiled to herself. She was looking forward to tomorrow, to getting back to feeling productive. But for now, she savored this very possibly last intimate moment of bonding with her infant daughter.

Chapter 5

As he’d predicted, Carson didn’t get very much sleep that night. His brain was too wired, too consumed with reviewing all the details surrounding his brother’s murder. There was more than a little bit of guilt involved, as well. He hadn’t wanted to go to Bo’s bachelor party to begin with, but he still couldn’t shake the feeling that if he had only got to it a little earlier, he might have been there in time to prevent his brother’s murder from ever happening.

Carson finally wound up dozing off somewhere between two thirty and three in the morning. At least he assumed he’d dozed off because the next thing he knew, he felt hot air on his face. The sensation blended in with a fragment of a dream he was having, something to do with walking through the desert, trying to make his way home with the hot sun beating down on him. Except that he’d lost his way and didn’t know just where home actually was.