Colton Christmas Protector

Reid shrugged. “I don’t know, Pen. Andrew was a good cop. If he suspected foul play—”

“What is the meaning of this?”

Reid and Pen turned quickly toward the office door, where an older gentleman in a suit and dark tie scowled at them from the hall. Beside him, Pen gave a soft, guilty-sounding gasp.

“Who let you—” The older man paused, his expression growing more startled and confused than hostile. “Oh, Ms. Penelope. I wasn’t told to expect you.”

“Stanley!” She fixed a stiff grin on her face and moved to block the butler’s view of the bank books and cash still sitting on a lower shelf. “Gracious! You nearly gave me a heart attack!”

“I apologize, ma’am.” The butler’s face remained stern and suspicious. “But I’m equally surprised to see you in your father’s office.” His tone was heavy with judgment and castigation. “Is there something I can do for you?” He raised his chin and narrowed his eyes. “Or would you like me to call your father for his assistance with something?”

The threat was clear, though delivered in a thinly ingratiating manner.

Reid tensed, mentally searching for a way to defend their presence when Pen said, “Not necessary, Stanley. I’ve simply come to retrieve my mother’s necklace.”

She reached behind her without turning and groped for the black velvet jewelry box. Reid surreptitiously nudged it toward her fingers. She grasped it and held it out for Stanley to see.

With a calmness in her tone that Reid would bet belied butterflies in her gut, she explained, “Daddy has been keeping these here for me, but Mama left it to me. I was thinking I’d wear it next week to a fundraiser for the Fallen Law Enforcement Officers Memorial ball.”

A muscle in the butler’s jaw twitched, and his suspicious gaze shifted from Penelope to Reid. “And he is with you, because...?”

Penelope jerked her chin higher and gave a delicate grunt of disgust. “Stanley, really!”

“I insisted on coming with Penelope for her security. The necklace is clearly quite valuable, and I didn’t want anything to happen to her or the jewels as she took them to her bank lockbox.” Reid ad-libbed, giving a deferential smile. “Can’t be too careful these days. Right?”

“Stanley, you’ve met Reid Colton, haven’t you? He was Andrew’s partner.” She paused, then added as she tipped her head, “And the son of one of father’s best clients. Don’t be so inhospitable.”

The man’s face hardened for having been chastened. “My apologies, Ms. Penelope, Mr. Colton. I simply meant to look out for your father’s interests. You are in his private office, after all. I believe he’d consider this an invasion of his privacy.”

“Understood.” Reid gave a brief nod of agreement and put the other jewel boxes back in the safe. “We have what we came for, so...we’ll be off. Pen?”

“Right.” Penelope clutched the jewelry box to her chest and moved toward the door.

Reid restored the safe and bookshelf to order as best he could and took several large strides to catch up with her. As he passed the desk and computer, he pretended to hit his leg on the desk chair. Grunting, he bent to rub his knee and stealthily unplugged the flash drive and hit the power button on the desktop tower on the floor. Palming the flash drive, he winced as if in pain as he hobbled to catch up with Penelope in the hall. He’d have loved to get a peek in that locked desk drawer but clearly that wasn’t going to happen. Today.

If only he could come back without Pen and get in that drawer. If he were still a cop, he could get a warrant. He had cause based on the documents Andrew had left hidden in his wall. But unless he wanted to be nabbed for breaking and entering or turn the case over to the authorities before he knew what was truly going on with Pen’s father—which he didn’t—he’d have to sit tight. For now.

In the meantime, he had a flash drive full of files and browsing history to review, and that could prove quite interesting.

* * *

As Reid drove away from her father’s mansion, Penelope stroked the velvet-covered jewelry box in her lap and exhaled the stress knotted in her chest. “Well, that didn’t go so well.”

He rolled his shoulders and cocked his head side to side, stretching his neck. “I don’t know. We found some evidence that backs up what Andrew seems to have been onto, and I copied a lot of his computer files to look into.”

She leaned back against the headrest and closed her eyes. “Maybe. But...isn’t it possible the money and bank accounts are legit? I mean, there’s nothing illegal about keeping money in your safe or having offshore accounts.”

“Not in theory. But it is illegal to fake a passport. In my experience, if it hides in an office safe like a duck and supports a reasonable suspicion like a duck, it’s not an innocent puppy.”

She angled her head to stare at him and frowned. “That is...the most tortured and convoluted analogy I’ve heard in...ever.”

“But you get my point.”

She sighed. “I do.”

“And there is no good explanation for the fake passport.”

“No.” Turning to gaze at the frozen north Texas landscape that flew by, she acknowledged the hollowness, the sinking sensation that gnawed inside her.

“Please tell me that your mother really did leave those jewels to you and that we didn’t just steal a necklace worth thousands of dollars.”

She cracked open the box and peeked at the shimmering stones. She’d have to take the jewels to her bank lockbox on the way to pick up Nicholas today. “She really did. I just never had a reason to wear it, so I left it in my father’s keeping.” She huffed a sigh. “Guess I should be glad he hadn’t sold it for getaway cash, huh?”

Reid didn’t bother to answer, but he sent her a sympathetic glance.

“So now what do we do? Call the police? Turn him in to the IRS?”

Reid didn’t answer, and she shifted on the seat to study his profile. Truth be told, she’d always considered him an unfairly handsome guy. While Andrew had been her first love—a sweet, honest, loyal man—he’d been only average in looks. Her husband had started putting on a bit of a belly when he hit thirty and she’d gotten better at cooking and baking. But along with his family’s wealth and power, Reid Colton had inherited uncommonly good looks. From his square-cut jaw and straight nose to his thick sandy-brown hair and deep blue eyes, he had turned her head from day one.

She recalled that first day she’d met Reid Colton at the exclusive private school they’d both attended as preteens. He’d had little more than a cursory glance and polite smile for the daughter of his family’s lawyer, who was not only too tall for her age, but also cursed with both freckles and braces. Her mother had barely finished the introduction on the front steps of the school that first day of sixth grade before Reid had been trotting away to join the cool kids across the crowded lawn. She’d never entirely shaken the crush she had on him in junior high. Even after she met Andrew and had been charmed by his boyish grin and gentlemanly ways.

“Reid?” she repeated when he remained silent. “What are you thinking? What do I do with this information?”

He cut a quick side glance to her and flexed his hands against the steering wheel. “Nothing.”

“What!”

“You will do nothing. Let me handle this. I’ll do some more digging, see what I captured on the flash drive, go over the files Andrew kept more closely and maybe make a few quiet inquiries to see if I can put together a case that will stand up.”

“You? By yourself?” She sent him a dark look.

“Yeah.” He scratched his slightly stubbled chin as he nodded. “I think that’s the best move. If we make accusations too early, show our hand before we have hard proof, your dad could get rid of evidence, cover his tracks...” He paused to send her a meaningful glance. “Leave the country...and we’d never make a case. An important part of managing a case is to not tip off your suspect to what you’re doing too soon.”

Penelope tightened her mouth and shook her head in disbelief. Was he deliberately ignoring her disgruntled tone or was he that obtuse?

“I don’t think so.”

“Hmm?” He sent her a frown with his puzzled look.

“One, I won’t be shut out.” She bent to stash the jewelry box in the main compartment of her purse. “I didn’t call you today to have you bulldoze in and take over. I get a say in how we handle this.”

“Pen—”

“Two,” she continued, poking his shoulder with her finger and cutting him off. “You are not on the force anymore. You don’t have the authority to investigate this and arrest my father if he is, in fact, breaking the law. Remember? You were dismissed for killing my husband.”

And yeah, she allowed her tone to reflect the bitterness she’d been nursing toward Reid for months. She felt tears rise and wondered why she’d brought him into this mess. She really didn’t want to be involved with him in any way, shape or form.

He didn’t respond for several tense seconds. His expression said her comments had hit their mark. “I may not be on the force anymore, but I haven’t forgotten how to investigate a crime,” he said in a low tone. “And until I have a more complete picture of what’s going on, what Andrew was thinking, I’m not going to involve the authorities. As far as you being involved...”