Colton Cowboy Hideout

Closing her eyes, she became aware of the high-pitched giggles of the little girls and Tanner’s deeper, intensely pleasurable voice drifting back from the living room.

A nanny. Never in her wildest dreams had she ever considered a job taking care of children. The truth was she hadn’t thought much about what kind of a job she wanted to get, although she needed to get one pretty quick.

Her nanny job was temporary, she reminded herself. Hopefully this new reality would exist for only a couple of days or so. She’d get the watch and then go back to Granite Gulch and figure out what she intended to do for the rest of her life.

* * *

Blood. There was so much blood. Mommy? Mommy, why is your dress so bloody? The shovel made funny noises as it bit into the hard Texas ground and Josie’s mother stared up unseeing into the late afternoon sun.

Mommy? Mommy, wake up. Look, Mommy, there’s a blue sky on the fence. Why is that funny writing on your forehead? Mommy? Please wake up and smile at me...

Josie came awake with a sharp gasp, for a moment disoriented as to where she was and what was happening. Her breath hitched in her chest as the horror of the nightmare completed its hold on her.

She remained still, allowing the gruesome visions from her sleep to fade as her breathing finally returned to normal. It hadn’t been a crazy nightmare of strange images that made no sense, but it had been memories of the day her mother had been killed and buried by her father.

He’d shot her in the chest and then marked her forehead with a red bull’s-eye. Josie had been with her father when he’d buried her next to a fence near the barn on the old family homestead.

Josie had often played by the old fence, and one day her mother had given her some paint. Josie had splashed blue color on it to make a pretty sky, and it had been that particular reclaimed memory that had solved the mystery as to where her father had buried her mother.

Matthew Colton had played a game with his children, forcing each one of them to visit him in prison, where he gave them clues as to where he’d buried his wife. His final clue had been “blue,” and that had finally jolted loose the old memory in Josie.

It had taken her twenty years to access the memories and now they wouldn’t leave her alone. She was haunted far too often by a three-year-old’s perspective of that terrible day, when her father had dug a shallow grave for her mother near a fence with a splash of blue paint.

Her stomach growled and she sat up and looked at her watch. Almost five. Her catnap had been far longer than she had intended. Her tummy growled again to remind her that she’d missed lunch and had eaten only half an apple that morning for breakfast before she’d hit the road.

She got up from the bed and grabbed her toiletries and her purse, then headed out of the bedroom. She heard no noise from anyplace else in the suite as she went into the guest bathroom and closed the door behind her.

Her upper arm held a dull ache she hoped would be gone by morning. She didn’t even want to think about the close call they’d had.

Sluicing cool water on her face in an effort to fully awaken and leave the dreams behind, she hoped the staff didn’t dress up for dinner. She’d packed only a couple pairs of shorts and a few T-shirts along with a short, sleeveless nightgown.

“It is what it is,” she muttered to her reflection in the mirror. A quick brush through her hair and a dab of lip gloss later, she left the bathroom and frowned at the silence. Had Tanner and the girls left?

She tossed her purse on her bed, then went back through the nursery, walked up the short hall and stepped into the living room. Tanner sat on the sofa thumbing through a magazine. He looked up at her.

“It’s so quiet I thought maybe I was here by myself,” she said and sat in the chair opposite him. “Where are the girls?”

“Peggy, one of the maids, is doing me a favor. She took them for a walk and then she’ll bring them back here and feed them dinner,” he replied. “By that time we should be back from eating.”

“Is she walking them outside?” Josie asked with a touch of alarm.

“No, she’s just taking them down some hallways to give them a little bit of time out of the nursery.”

“Do the girls eat dinner here rather than in the staff dining area?” she asked. “If I’m going on duty tomorrow, then I need to know what their usual schedule is.”

He nodded, his blond hair glinting attractively in a shaft of sunlight that danced through the nearby window. “They get up in the mornings around six thirty and eat breakfast here in the suite. They usually go down for a short morning nap around ten or so. Brianna always took them to the staff dining room for lunch and then they go down for an afternoon nap around two thirty. They eat dinner here in the suite and then it’s bath-and bedtime around seven thirty.”

“And what about your schedule as ranch foreman?” she asked.

“Up and out by six thirty or seven in the mornings and I’m usually back here in time to play with the girls for a little while before their bedtime. On Saturday and Sundays my days are considerably shorter.” He cocked his head, his gaze curious. “What about you? What kind of work do you do back in Granite Gulch?”

“I’m between jobs at the moment,” she replied. She wasn’t prepared to tell him that she’d been out of witness protection for only a month and had yet to figure out what she wanted to do with the rest of her life. She’d worked as a waitress in Missouri while she’d finished up high school and then taken some college courses, but waitressing wasn’t something she wanted to go back to. “Has there been any word on Eldridge while I was napping?”

“No, nothing that I’ve heard. If there is anything new we’ll probably hear it at dinner.” He glanced at his watch and stood. “We can head for the staff dining room. I know you didn’t have a chance to eat lunch. You must be starving.”

As she stood her stomach growled loud enough for him to hear. He grinned, a wonderful flash of straight white teeth and warmth. “Ah, yes. You are starving.”

“Excuse me.” She placed a hand over her rumbling belly as a wave of heat filled her cheeks.

“Come on. Let’s get that noisy animal fed.”

They exited the suite and once again wound through a labyrinth of hallways. “I don’t suppose you want to leave bread crumbs for me so that I can find the staff dining room again,” she asked ruefully. “This place is huge.”

“All you have to remember is to take two rights and two lefts and you’ll wind up in the kitchen area, where the staff dining room is located,” he explained.

Josie’s stomach rumbled yet again as the scent of tangy barbecue filled the air. “At least you won’t starve while you’re here,” Tanner continued. “Bettina Morely, the head cook, makes magic when it comes to all kinds of food.”

Tanner led her through double doors into a room with two long tables. There were already three women and two men seated at one of the tables and they were helping themselves to fill plates from the platters and bowls of food in the center of the table.

Their conversation halted at the sight of Josie and they all stared at her with unabashed curiosity. Tanner made the introductions and then he and Josie sat side by side.

“You picked a fine time to show up here,” Linda, one of the maids, said to Josie. “The whole house is in an uproar.”

“So, I’m assuming there’s no news about Eldridge’s disappearance?” Tanner handed Josie a basket of large sandwich rolls.

“Oh, there’s news and plenty of talk,” Linda replied. She was a slightly plump middle-aged woman. Her brown eyes glittered brightly.

“Ms. Marceline came waltzing in while Sheriff Watkins was here and she refused to answer any of his questions. I heard she even told the sheriff to mind his own business. Nobody knows where she was all night. You know she’s always hated her stepdaddy.”

Becky, another maid with strawberry blond hair, leaned back in her chair and shook her head. “And then there’s the fact that Mr. Fowler had that big fight with Mr. Eldridge last night. It was definitely heated. Most of the staff and the family heard them yelling at each other.”

“What was the fight about?” Tanner asked.

“The usual. He wanted his daddy to retire and name him CEO. They both screamed at each other. I’m surprised you didn’t hear them all the way in your suite,” Becky said.

“And don’t forget Mrs. Whitney,” Linda added. “I heard her alibi was she went into her private media room and watched a TV show and fell asleep with her earbuds in so she didn’t hear anything.” Linda rolled her eyes. “A little convenient, don’t you think?”

“Sheriff Watkins is going to have his hands full with this investigation,” Jeb, one of the ranch hands, replied.

Josie added pulled pork to her bun and it felt as if her brain crashed around in her head. She had a gunshot wound in her arm and a mission to accomplish. However, as she listened to the gossip shooting around the table, she realized this Colton clan was a pit of vipers, one of whom very possibly committed murder.

* * *

Tanner didn’t approve of gossip, but he knew there was nothing he could do to halt the wild speculation that was like an extra side dish served up with the evening meal.

“Everyone knows Mr. Fowler wants his daddy to retire and name him CEO and chairman of the board of Colton Incorporated,” Linda continued. “Last night wasn’t the first time the two had fought about it.” She looked at Tanner. “But that’s not the biggest news of all. Did you hear Mitchell Flunt was taken into custody for more questioning?”

Tanner sat up straighter in his chair in stunned surprise. Mitchell Flunt was a groundskeeper who had been working for the Coltons for years. “Why?”