Colton's Lethal Reunion (Coltons of Mustang Valley)

“I’m saying it’s something we haven’t considered. Maybe they’re using more than one. There were hundreds of guys out here in the gold rush days, covering these mountains and the desert. Think about it...we’re looking for caves, aboveground structures, because there’s no digging going on, no indication of fresh ground breaking, but what if the opening is overgrown with tall, dense vegetation? What if Odin just ha

ppened to be messing around up there when he was just a two-bit punk, not a rich two-bit punk, and he stumbled upon one of these shafts, and what if he grew a business from there?”

Or someone else did. She was shaking in her seat. Literally. Staring wide-eyed at Rafe.

“That’s it!” she said. And then, “Oh my God, Rafe! That’s it!” She was so excited she didn’t know what to do with herself. Two years of trying to figure out what she was missing and there it was. She’d been looking in the wrong place. Proof of Odin Rogers’s wrongdoing wasn’t on the mountain; it was in it!

* * *

Half expecting Kerry to launch herself across the table to hug him, Rafe watched the expressions cross her face and knew that in all his travels he’d never seen art as exquisite as her face in those seconds. Sappy, maybe. Also true.

And he’d provided the current supplies to the artist. There was something so humbling, and so powerful in that, a sense of success he’d never known. All the numbers he’d crunched, the investments he’d spearheaded, the deals he’d closed, and nothing had felt as great as helping Kerry reach her goal.

Not that he didn’t love his work—he most definitely did. He thoroughly enjoyed fine art, too. Still, it was eye-opening to find that there were things in life he’d yet to experience. New opportunities to be had, rather than just enjoying more of the same.

She was busy riffling through Mustang Mountain photos, both aerial and otherwise, and marking the spots they were familiar with. The mesa from which Tyler had gone to his death. And the one from which the ranger had, per the autopsy, been pushed. The lay-by where she’d been hit, and the mesa above it where he’d taken the goon down.

Temporarily.

She marked the trail she’d climbed to get to where she’d been hurt. The place where the old black car had been parked.

“We can cross-reference this with what claims records exist from back then,” she said. “I know there were a lot of squatters, and chances are Odin’s using a mine that doesn’t have an official claim on it so it’s not known to anyone, which makes it more valuable to whoever he moves goods for...”

She broke off, looked at him, and then said, “If it’s Odin, and if it’s a mine, and if there’s illegal drug or gunrunning,” she said.

Rafe smiled, shook his head, “I wasn’t questioning your theory,” he said.

“You had a funny look on your face. Like you thought I was getting ahead of myself. Like you had doubts...”

“I’m doubting the wisdom of telling you something,” he said.

Her frown was instant and he accepted the physical manifestation of her confusion, knowing he was going in, that he’d just opened a door that he wasn’t about to close again.

“What?” she asked. “You know something about Odin you aren’t telling me?”

The question was fair. Her lack of trust was fair. He’d hired a private investigator behind her back.

And he’d broken every promise they’d ever made each other when he followed Payne’s orders and broke off all communication with her.

With no explanation.

And no attempt to ever make it right—other than the little bit he’d done for Tyler while she was away at college.

“It doesn’t have anything to do with Odin,” he told her. “Or murders and attempted murders or babies being switched at birth.” He wanted to hold her in his arms, to be able to kiss those soft lips. The table between them was a symbol of the chasm that would allow them to see each other, but would also always hold them apart.

In the same sphere, but not together.

Chapter 17

“What’s going on, Rafe?” With him, the sky was the limit. He’d blown her world to bits in the past. She didn’t put anything past him.

“Whatever it is you have to say, just tell me. Wisdom is kind of moot at this point.” She could handle whatever it was as long as she knew about it.

His struggle seemed to be honest. Something was really bothering him.

“I didn’t just cut things off with you because Payne ordered me to do so.”

Her jaw dropped. She felt it go. Couldn’t pick it back up for a second or two. Her gaze studied every inch of his face, stared into his eyes, looking for some kind of port on which to land.