Colton's Lethal Reunion (Coltons of Mustang Valley)

On an adrenaline high, Kerry managed to stay focused on work the rest of that morning. Two years’ worth of investigating—of sometimes being the only one believing there might be a case in her brother’s death, of pressing forward when everything pointed against her success, of spending evenings and weekends sticking things to her dining room wall and staring at them—had finally come to fruition. Everyone, from the mayor who stopped in, the chief and all of her coworkers, congratulated her. Invited her out for drinks. People in town who’d lived under the shadow of Odin Rogers, whose kids had been sucked in by the drugs he peddled, and those who’d feared their kids would be sucked in—including the high school principal—stopped in or called as the news quickly spread about the police action out on Mustang Mountain early that morning.

She sat and listened as Odin Rogers was questioned, and tried to make a deal in exchange for turning in his suppliers. And she nodded as the chief got names out of him, without any deal on the table. Rogers had been a menace to their small town for too long to be allowed to walk free.

She’d seen Rafe in with Dane. And she’d seen him leave.

And she discovered that Grayson Colton had a rock-solid alibi for the night of Payne’s shooting. The first responder Colton had been on a call—a car wreck with a fatality involved. The report was already in the police database and came up as soon as she typed in his name.

At lunchtime, after Lizzie took her to get her car, she went to the cemetery with a take-out piece of carrot cake and a chocolate chip cookie from the diner. She set the first on Tyler Sr.’s grave and the second on Tyler Jr.’s.

Yeah, wildlife would eat them, sooner rather than later, but she delivered anyway. Whispered her love. And went back to her Jeep.

That was when she fell apart. Sobbing, aching all over, inside and out, she cried. For her father’s broken heart, her mother’s broken dreams, her brother’s broken life. She cried because she hadn’t been able to save any of them.

And she cried because it was over. She’d gotten what she so badly needed, what she’d spent two years of her life to get, and in so doing, had just lost the last reason for Rafe to be in her life. He’d atoned for any wrong he’d done Tyler

Atoned and then some.

Thinking of his last act on the mountaintop that morning, she smiled through her tears. The man was one hell of a shot. A hotshot, too. Dane had been about to deliver the bullet that would have disarmed Odin, but it probably wouldn’t have been so impressive.

The Colton heir had also been there for her, risking his life to see that she got the justice she needed. How did a girl walk away from that?

She’d have to be pretty dumb to do so, wouldn’t she?

He’d said they weren’t done yet.

She’d wanted to say, “Yes, we are,” that morning in his truck, but the words wouldn’t come.

He wanted to be friends. To stay in touch.

He was offering her what he had to give now. So how would she be any different than he’d been twenty-three years before, or when they both returned from college and he never got in touch, if she ignored his efforts to find a way to make them work?

So they wouldn’t be married and live together for happily-ever-after. They could still have each other’s backs. Fight injustices.

Maybe they could even make love once in a while. Unless that got too complicated.

Or she could go back to just being a cop. It would hurt a lot less.

The idea wasn’t all bad.

Was actually kind of tempting.

Wiping her tears away, Kerry blew her nose and started the Jeep. She had a good life. A stable one, which was something she hadn’t known growing up.

She didn’t live with insecurity anymore. Or with anyone who worshipped substances more than the people they loved.

And she didn’t live with the fear or worry of ever losing a loved one again. She just wasn’t sure she could do that again.

It had taken twenty-three years for her to be in a place where she was content. Where pain and loss weren’t constant companions.

She’d been grieving since she was a little kid. Ever since she could remember.

She’d lost everyone. First her mom, right after Tyler was born. Rafe, at thirteen. Then her dad. And, two years before, Tyler. Add to that dealing with her Dad’s drinking and Tyler’s drugs in between—it was enough agony for a lifetime.

Chapter 25

As soon as he’d finished with Dane, Rafe phoned Genevieve to say he’d be late for his shift and went home to shower again. His five-hundred-dollar pants went in the trash. The cheap tennis shoes, he tucked away on the top shelf in a corner of his walk-in closet.

He had some coffee, made a couple of business calls and then headed back into town. To the hospital, first. Up to Payne’s room.