COMANCHE BLOOD

Welcome to Black Arrow, Oklahoma—the birthplace of a proud, passionate clan who would risk everything for love, family and honor.

Jared Colton:

He never hung around one place for too long, but the new town hero had gained the attention of the only woman who could tempt him to stay…at least a little while longer.

Kerry WindWalker:

She’d steered clear of Jared Colton because of his bad-boy reputation, but his heroic gesture had her wondering if the avowed bachelor could become a true family man.

Gloria WhiteBear:

Would the secret past of the Oklahoma Coltons’ matriarch come back to haunt her grandchildren?

Bram Colton:

A man of honor and Comanche pride, the revered sheriff of Black Arrow had been kept busy since strange happenings started occurring in town….

Dear Reader,

There’s more than one way to enjoy the summer. By picking up this month’s Silhouette Special Edition romances, you will find an emotional escape that is sure to touch your heart and leave you believing in happily-ever-after!

I am pleased to introduce a gripping tale of true love and family from celebrated author Stella Bagwell. In White Dove’s Promise, which launches a six-book spin-off—plus a Christmas story collection—of the popular COLTONS series, a dashing Native American hero has trouble staying in one place, until he finds himself entangled in a soul-searing embrace with a beautiful single mother, who teaches him about roots…and lifelong passion.

No “keeper” shelf is complete without a gem from Joan Elliott Pickart. In The Royal MacAllister, a woman seeks her true identity and falls madly in love with a true royal! In The Best Man’s Plan, bestselling and award-winning author Gina Wilkins delights us with a darling love story between a lovely shop owner and a wealthy businessman, who set up a fake romance to trick the tabloids…and wind up falling in love for real!

Lisa Jackson’s The McCaffertys: Slade features a lady lawyer who comes home and faces a heartbreaker hero, who desperately wants a chance to prove his love to her. In Mad Enough To Marry, Christie Ridgway entertains us with an adorable tale of that maddening love that happens only when two kindred spirits must share the same space. Be sure to pick up Arlene James’s His Private Nurse, where a single father falls for the feisty nurse hired to watch over him after a suspicious accident. You won’t want to miss it!

Each month, Silhouette Special Edition delivers compelling stories of life, love and family. I wish you a relaxing summer and happy reading.

Sincerely,

Karen Taylor Richman

Senior Editor

White Dove’s Promise
Stella Bagwell

www.millsandboon.co.uk

To the two men in my life.

My husband, Harrell, and our son, Jason.

STELLA BAGWELL

Recently Stella and her husband of thirty years moved from the hills of Oklahoma to Seadrift, Texas, a sleepy little fishing town located on the coastal bend. Stella says the water, the tropical climate and the seabirds make it a lovely place to let her imagination soar and to put the stories in her head down on paper.

She and her husband have one son, Jason, who lives and teaches high school math in nearby Port Lavaca.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter One

“Lunch at your desk. At this rate, you’re going to have burnout before you reach the age of thirty.”

Unaware that anyone else had entered her small office, Kerry WindWalker jerked her head up from the promissory note she’d been typing to see one of Liberty National Bank’s loan officers standing at the corner of her desk.

Smiling at the tall, gray-haired man, she said, “I’m behind, Clarence. It’s Monday. Everyone seems to be broke on Mondays.”

With a rueful grin, he placed more work on the corner of her already loaded desk. “Reality hits when the weekend is over. But it doesn’t mean you need to work through your lunch hour. Have you eaten anything with that?” he asked, inclining his head toward the half-empty soda bottle sitting near her typewriter.

Kerry shook her head. “Not yet. But I will. I have a sandwich waiting for me back in the break room.”

Clarence glanced at his wristwatch. “It’s almost two,” he gently scolded. “Turn that machine off and go eat. Now.”

Three years ago, Kerry had returned to Black Arrow, Oklahoma, and, shortly after, landed a position there in the loan department at Liberty National. Back then Clarence had been the first to welcome her into the fold and make her feel at ease. It was her first important job after acquiring her business degree and his kind support had meant a lot to a young girl fresh out of college and desperately needing a paycheck. Since then the older man had become someone she could truly call a friend. For that reason she always took extra time to see that his loans were processed before anyone else’s. “But Mr.—”

He waved a dismissive hand at her protests. “Mr. Whoever can wait. Including me.”

With a shrug of surrender, she switched off the power on the typewriter, then rose from her chair. “Okay, I’m on my way,” she told him as she absently brushed at the wrinkles in her slim, beige skirt.

The loan officer paused at the door to make sure she was following him out of the small office. Kerry was about to ask him if he’d stopped to have his own lunch when the phone on her desk rang.

“Forget it,” Clarence prompted. “It’s probably Landers wanting to know if you’ve finished the papers on the Crawford loan. He can wait, too.”

The fact that Clarence considered her break more important than the wishes of the bank’s vice president put a smile on Kerry’s face. Since she’d started the job she’d oftentimes worked through breaks and beyond office hours to make sure her work was completed punctually. It was nice to know someone appreciated her dedication, especially someone like Clarence who’d been with the bank for more than twenty years and pulled a considerable amount of weight with the president.

“I’d better get it anyway,” she told him. “After all, it’s past my lunch break. I’m supposed to be at my desk at this time of the day.”

Tucking her short black bob behind her ears, she hurried back to the L-shaped desk and plucked up the ringing phone.

“Kerry WindWalker speaking.”

“Kerry! Thank God you finally answered! I thought you might be out and I don’t know what to do!”

For a second, the frantic sound of Enola WindWalker’s voice didn’t quite register with Kerry. Her mother never called the bank and interrupted her work.

Kerry’s smooth brow was suddenly furrowed as she anxiously gripped the receiver. “Mom? Is that you? Is something wrong?”

“Oh—Kerry—I don’t know how to tell you this but—I can’t find Peggy.”

Kerry’s blood suddenly turned to ice water. Peggy was her three-year-old daughter, the very existence of her being.

Trying not to go into instant panic, she said, “Mom, take a deep breath and calm down. Surely, she’s around there somewhere. Have you looked under the beds? In all the closets? You know how your granddaughter likes to play hide-and-seek.”

Kerry could hear Enola struggling to stifle a sob and the sound shot shards of fear straight through her. At fifty-six, Enola was a strong, steadfast woman. In fact, Kerry couldn’t ever remember seeing her mother rattled, even years ago, when she’d been dealing with an alcoholic husband. For her to be so close to breaking now was enough to tell Kerry that something was terribly wrong.

“I’ve searched the house,” Enola told her. “I’ve searched the yard. I walked down the road as far as I thought her little legs might be able to go and called to her. If she’s hiding, she won’t answer. It’s been nearly an hour now since I missed her!”

Fear wadding in her throat, Kerry glanced up to see Clarence was still waiting in the doorway. From the anxious expression on his face, the older man had already sensed that something was wrong. “Peggy—my daughter—is missing,” she explained to him.

Grim-faced, the loan officer strode quickly over to Kerry’s desk. “Have the sheriff’s office or city police been notified?” he asked briskly.

Kerry directed her attention back to her mother on the other end of the telephone line. “Mom, have you called any sort of law officials?”

“Yes, I’ve called Bram Colton—he’s not here yet. But most of the neighbors are already out hunting for her. I think—”

Enola continued talking, but Kerry ignored the rest of her words as she shook her head at Clarence and managed to choke out, “She’s called the sheriff, but he hasn’t arrived at my mother’s house yet. Peggy’s been missing for nearly an hour.”

“Get over there. I’ll explain things here for you,” he said definitively.

As she watched Clarence hurrying out of the room, she said to her mother as calmly as possible, “I’m leaving the bank now, Mom. Just hang on and I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

Outside in the parking lot, Kerry jumped in her car and headed home, to the west outskirts of Black Arrow. Shaded by two huge cottonwoods, the house was old, built in shotgun fashion with a wide porch running the entire width of the front. Throughout the years, the lapped wooden siding had been painted first one color and then another. Presently, it was a bleached-out yellow with equally faded brown trim. The shingles needed replacing, the front screen door was warped and one end of the porch floor sagged. But to Kerry the old place had always been home and so far it was the only home that little Peggy had known.

Even though the WindWalker property wasn’t far from the city limits, the road running in front of the house had never been paved. Gravel spewed from Kerry’s tires as she brought her compact car to a stop in the short driveway.

Watching from the porch, a petite woman dressed in jeans and a blue T-shirt with a single black braid lying against her back raced out to meet her daughter. Tears had dried on her cheeks, but were threatening to spill from her eyes once again as she grabbed onto Kerry’s shoulders and hugged her fiercely.

“Oh Mom, what happened? Where do you think she is?”

Releasing her hold on Kerry, Enola wiped her eyes and began in a broken, trembling voice, “I’m so sorry, honey, it’s all my fault. Peggy and I were outside—in the back at the vegetable garden. I heard the phone ringing and ran into the kitchen to get it. I told her to wait for me there—that I’d be right back. She seemed to be happy and preoccupied with pulling radishes and I was only gone a minute. Two at the most. But as soon as I stepped into the backyard again, she was nowhere to be seen.”

Kerry momentarily closed her brown eyes and sent up yet another silent prayer for her daughter to be found safe and sound. “Don’t blame yourself, Mom. We both know how adventurous Peggy is and you can’t keep your eyes on her every second of the day.”

“Yes, but I should have made her come with me—”

Determined to hold herself and her mother together, Kerry took Enola firmly by the arm and led her toward the house. “Right now it won’t do anyone any good for you to be worrying about ifs or should haves, Mom. Let’s just try to figure out where she might have gone. Was Fred with her?”

The spotted bird dog was only twelve weeks old, but already he acted as if he were grown and would run off and hunt whenever the urge struck him. Peggy was infatuated with the little guy and Kerry had the sinking feeling her daughter had followed the pup away from the house.

“He was there with us when I went to answer the phone. Do you think she’s wandered off with him?”

Kerry nodded, then drew in a shaky breath as another, more frightening thought entered her mind. “Unless, God forbid—you didn’t see a car or anyone walking past here when you went to answer the phone?”

Enola shook her head emphatically. “No. There was no one. I would have heard a car and if anyone had walked near the house, Fred would have been barking up a storm.”

That much was true, Kerry thought with relief, then turned toward the sound of an approaching vehicle just in time to see a white pickup truck with the sheriff’s logo emblazoned on the side door wheeling into the driveway then halting beside her car. Immediately she recognized Bram Colton behind the wheel. The young Comanche County sheriff had already built a reputation for getting the job done. Kerry only hoped it held true in this case.

“There’s the sheriff,” she said to her mother. “Let’s go tell him everything you just told me.”

A quarter of a mile away from the WindWalker residence, Jared Colton studied the blueprints he’d rolled out on the hood of his truck. He’d been a petroleum engineer for close to ten years now and he’d encountered a few strange jobs now and then, but he’d never seen such a damn mess as this one.

Down through the years most townships had written laws into their civil codes forbidding oil or gas drilling to take place inside city limits. But in the case of Black Arrow, the ordinance hadn’t come into being until after the town had grown around several already producing gas wells. A few weeks ago, a gas company had come in to lay new pipe to an old well, but shortly into the job something had gone wrong and the crew had somehow managed to cave in part of the city’s drainage system along with blocking the flow of natural gas. Jared’s job was to figure out how to get everything open and running as it should be without causing any more loss to city property.

So far he and his crew had slowly uncovered part of the damaged drainage pipes which would eventually be rerouted to miss the gas line. As for the natural gas well itself, it would have to be capped off, then re-drilled from a different direction.

Jared rubbed a thoughtful forefinger against one jaw as he lifted his head and surveyed the mess in front of him. Normally at this time of the day, the place would have been buzzing with workers and machinery, but yesterday’s rain showers had made the ground too muddy to work. And even though it was a sunny afternoon today, he still wasn’t all that certain the ground would be dry enough to work with any sort of heavy equipment tomorrow. Plus the fact that early May in Oklahoma was apt to produce thunderstorms at the drop of a hat. He’d be lucky if it wasn’t raining again tomorrow.

Sighing, he lifted the hard hat from his head and ran a hand through his thick black hair. Being down a day or two wouldn’t prevent him from finishing the job in the amount of time allotted in his contract and he’d already put in a hell of a week. Some rest would be good for him and the crew. He might even call Bram and Logan to see if his brothers wanted to have dinner with him tonight.

A fond smile teased the corners of his mouth. The two of them would probably think he was ill. It wasn’t often he chose to spend the evening with his brothers rather than a female companion. Both Bram and Logan would find it hard to believe their skirt-chasing brother couldn’t think of even one woman in the whole town of Black Arrow that he wanted to spend more than five minutes with.

Jared’s thoughts about juicy steaks and brotherly companionship were suddenly interrupted when he felt something tugging on the hem of his jean leg.

Glancing down, he saw a red speckled pup chewing with delight on his leather workboot. “Well, where did you come from, little guy?”

The sound of Jared’s voice distracted the pup from his chewing. The dog looked up at him, then backed away and let out a croaky bark. Jared squatted on his heels and with an outstretched hand invited the pup to come closer. “Come here, fella. Let’s see if you have a name tag on your collar.”

Wary, but overcome with curiosity, the pup sidled closer, then wiggled with delight the moment Jared ran a friendly hand over his sleek head. Fastened to a black leather collar, a metal disc dangled at the front of the dog’s throat. Jared angled the silver gray disc so that he could read the letters. Fred was written on one side. A local phone number was on the other.

Rising to his full height, which was just shy of six feet, Jared’s gray eyes scanned the open fields around him. The nearest house was at least a quarter mile away. A long distance for a little guy like Fred to travel, he pondered. No doubt someone would be missing the dog soon and be out searching for him.

Jared’s cell phone was lying on the truck seat. The least he could do was call the number on the pup’s collar and inform the owner that the dog was safe.

He opened the truck door to retrieve the telephone, then realized he’d have to look at Fred’s collar again to get the number. Slipping the fliptop phone in his shirt pocket, he turned back to grab the dog, only to find the animal scampering off toward the maze of open trenches.

“Fred! Come back here,” he called.

The dog ignored him, so Jared tried whistling. The sound produced a bark, but the dog still refused to return.

Muttering a curse under his breath and wondering why he was taking the time to bother with the animal, Jared started after him. As soon as Fred spotted his approach, he began to bark with loud enthusiasm into the open trench as though he’d just treed a coon in a hollow log. Only this time the log was a smashed drainpipe.

“Okay, fella, I know you think you’re out on a hunt, but you’ve got to go home, wherever that is,” he said to the dog.

Ignoring him, Fred continued to bark and whine, forcing Jared to jump into the ditch to go after him. It was then he saw the little footprints in the damp earth. Tiny human imprints leading up to the drainage pipe.

If there had been a set of adult tracks alongside, Jared wouldn’t have thought too much about the fact that someone had been out here looking over the excavation site. Working this close to town, he was surprised there hadn’t been more people snooping around the diggings than the two teenage boys he’d chased away last week.

Uneasy at this sudden discovery of another type of visitor, he bent down and peered into the pipe. Nothing but a little mud and water settled at the bottom. He glanced behind him, hoping that the tracks would tell him that the little feet had turned back around and headed away from the work site. They didn’t.

Grim-faced, he jumped out of the ditch and followed the pipe until it ended and the ditch opened up again. The footprints reappeared in the mud, along with the pup’s.

Quickly, Jared followed the tracks until they disappeared into a slim cavity created between a slab of earth and another damaged drainpipe.

Oh no, he thought sickly. Surely the child hadn’t squeezed into such a dark, narrow opening. But from the looks of the tracks in the bottom of the ditch that was exactly what he’d done.

Sensing that Jared was finally on the right track and getting the message, Fred barked excitedly into the small opening while clawing at the damp earth. The dog’s actions said as much or more to Jared than the footprints. His little buddy had disappeared and he’d been waiting around for someone to help him find him.

Not bothering with the telephone number on Fred’s collar, Jared pulled out the cell phone and dialed the sheriff’s office.

“I need to speak to the sheriff,” he quickly told the female dispatcher, adding, “This is his brother, Jared Colton.”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Colton, but the sheriff is out on an emergency right now. Would you like to leave a message?”

Jared silently cursed at the rotten timing. “No. I want you to radio him right this minute and tell him I think I have an emergency on my hands. A child has gone into a drainage system west of town.”

“A child? Oh. Okay, give me your location and I’ll radio him at once.”

Jared told her the location of the work site and also supplied her with the number to his cell phone. In just a matter of moments the telephone rang and his brother was on the end of the line.

“Jared, I just got your message. I have half my force out looking for a three-year-old girl right now. She’s been missing for nearly two hours. You think you’ve found her?”

A three-year-old girl! Somehow Jared had expected Fred’s young buddy to be a boy. The idea of a soft, sweet little girl exploring a muddy ditch with an adventurous bird dog had never entered his mind.

“I’m out here at the work site now, Bram, and I’ve found her dog and where she’s been, but not the child. I think you’d better get over here pronto.”

“I’ll be there in five minutes,” he assured him.

“Uh, Bram,” he said, before his brother had a chance to hang up, “does the little girl belong to someone we know?”

“Yeah. You probably remember the WindWalkers. It’s Kerry’s daughter.”

Surprise jolted him. The last thing Jared had heard about Kerry WindWalker was that she’d gone to Charlottesville to attend the University of Virginia. No one had told him she’d married or that she’d returned to Black Arrow. But then he’d not asked anyone about the young Comanche girl who’d once snubbed her nose at him. Proud, prim and very beautiful. That’s the way he remembered Kerry WindWalker. He wondered if marriage and motherhood had changed her.

The persistent buzz in his ear finally made Jared realize his brother had hung up the phone. Disgusted with himself for letting his thoughts stray, he snapped the instrument shut and slipped it back into his pocket. Now wasn’t the time to be thinking about the one woman in Black Arrow who’d resisted his charms. At the moment, he had a smaller female to worry about.

Three minutes later, Bram’s pickup truck arrived, followed by several deputies in squad cars. Immediately behind the lawmen, local residents began to pour onto the scene in cars and on foot.

Jared climbed out of the ditch and hurried to meet his brother, but halfway there a petite woman dressed in a slim beige skirt, black blouse and black high heels raced up to him and frantically grabbed his arm.

“Where is she? Where is my baby?”

Jared stared down at Kerry WindWalker’s desperate face and wondered how the added years had somehow made her even more beautiful than he remembered. Shiny crow-black hair, high molded cheekbones, honey-brown skin, and eyes the color of sweet chocolate suggested she was half Comanche like himself. While her dusky pink lips reminded him she’d been the one girl he’d always wanted to kiss, but had never been given the chance.

“Kerry—” For a moment her name was all he could manage to say until the fear widening her brown eyes forced him to continue. “I’m not sure where your daughter is. I’ve followed her tracks and from the looks of things she’s entered one of the drainage ditches and hasn’t come out.”

Jared watched her mouth fall open. At the same time he could feel her small fingers tightening in a death grip around his forearm. She was terrified and rightly so. Yet she was holding herself together with the courage of a Comanche warrior. Admiration flowed through him, along with the desperate urge to help her.

“What do you mean? Hasn’t come out of what?” she flung the questions at him.

Before Jared could explain, Bram, dressed in a tan uniform and sheriff’s badge, joined them. The oldest of the five Colton siblings, Bram was only an inch taller than Jared and shared the same athletic build and black hair. Yet the similarities stopped there. Where Jared’s eyes were gray and usually full of playful mischief, Bram’s were black and serious. At the moment, the two brothers were both tight-lipped with anxiety.

“You’d better show me where she went in, Jared,” Bram said, then to Kerry he added, “You can come with us. But tell your mother and the rest that they must stay back and out of the way.”

Nodding, Kerry left them momentarily and hurried over to briefly explain the situation to her mother. As the two men waited for her, Jared said, “I don’t like the looks of this, Bram. The girl has ventured into a spot where we haven’t started working yet. It’s a safe bet to say that the drainpipes have probably broken and shifted into all sorts of directions and turned the whole thing into a treacherous maze. She’s probably crawled inside one of them and can’t find her way out.”

“Damn it, why wasn’t someone out here? Where’s your work crew anyway?”

Jared didn’t allow Bram’s sharp questions to get under his skin. His older brother took the responsibility of his sheriff’s position very seriously and he was committed to keeping everyone in Comanche County safe.

“It rained yesterday, remember? I let the crew off,” Jared explained. “As for someone guarding the place, that responsibility lies with the gas company and they apparently didn’t want to be out the extra expense. The yellow tape is supposed to keep people away from the danger.”

Bram’s lips twisted with disapproval as he eyed the yellow caution tape that roped the perimeter of the well site. “Yeah,” he said with sarcasm. “That’s sure going to keep the kids out of this accident waiting to happen.”

“Believe me, Bram, I tried to warn the gas company. Right after we started digging up the place I asked them to supply a night watchman at the very least, but they refused. His salary would have been a hell of a lot cheaper than the lawsuit that might come out of this.”

Kerry rejoined them just as Jared finished speaking. Her expression was grave, but hopeful as her gaze encompassed both men.

“Mother will keep the friends and relatives back,” she assured Bram.

The sheriff nodded at her, then motioned for Jared to lead them to the spot where the child had entered the drainage pipe.

Instinctively, Jared took Kerry by the arm. “The ground is rough and slippery,” he gently warned her. “So watch your step.”

Kerry realized she must appear ridiculous in her skirt and high heels, but she couldn’t help it. Ever since she’d raced home from the bank, she’d not had time to draw a deep breath, much less change her clothes. Already her panty hose were lined with runners from searching through a clump of blackberry vines. Coppery-colored stains smeared the front of her shirt and skirt from leaning over the rusty pieces of an old car that had been junked not far from here. But what she looked like to this man or anyone else didn’t matter one iota. Getting her daughter back safely in her arms was all she cared about. And she had to believe that was going to happen. She had to. Otherwise, she would simply break apart.

“How long has it been since you found the dog and the tracks, Jared?” Bram asked.

“Not long. Ten minutes, maybe. Couldn’t be much more than that.”

The three of them had reached the point where the footsteps had finally disappeared. Fred was still there in the bottom of the ditch. Apparently the pup had worn himself out and was now stretched out on his belly, his muzzle resting on his paws as he diligently watched the small crevice for a sign of Peggy.

The moment Kerry spotted the dog, her composure cracked. Her hand flew to her mouth to stifle the sob that was burning her throat.

“Oh God—is she—is she down there? In that?”

The agony in her voice tore a hole right through Jared. The need to comfort her crowded everything else from his mind, making him instinctively reach for her shoulders and pull her lightly against his chest. “She’ll be all right, Kerry. We’ll get her out. I’ll get her out. I promise.”

Above her head, Jared met Bram’s bleak gaze and he knew they were both thinking he’d just made a promise he might not be able to keep.

More than an hour later, the excavation site was littered with fire trucks, emergency vehicles, rescue crews and paramedics. Generators and bright outdoor lights had been set up in preparation for the night to come. The fact that the emergency people anticipated it might take that long to recover Peggy from the pipe tunnel only added to Kerry’s worry.

For the umpteenth time, Enola turned a helpless look of frustration on her daughter. “They’re wasting time! There’s a backhoe sitting right over there. Why don’t they start digging her out?”

The two women were standing about thirty feet away from the ditch where Peggy had disappeared. Around them, firemen and other rescue people were discussing ways to bring her daughter out to safety. But Kerry’s attention was focused on one lone man rather than the group of professionals. And that one man was Jared Colton.

If anyone could find her daughter and bring her safely out of that mess, it was Jared. She wasn’t sure why she’d placed her confidence in him, of all people. She’d never really liked the man. He’d always been a playboy and considered himself God’s gift to women. Especially all the sexy sirens around Black Arrow.

It had surprised her enormously to learn he was the man who’d discovered Peggy’s whereabouts. She hadn’t even known he was still living in Black Arrow. She’d thought he’d moved out years ago and was now making a fortune for some large petroleum company down in Houston.

With unshed tears stinging the back of her eyes, she said quietly, “They have to locate exactly where she is first, Mom. Then maybe they can do something about getting her out.”

“Well, I don’t know why that Colton boy had to be the one who crawled into the pipe to go searching for her,” Enola commented. “He’s not a rescue person. He should have let one of the firemen go. Like Tommy Grimes. You remember, he’s the one that saved the Wilsons from being blown to smithereens.”

Kerry groaned inwardly. Ever since she’d returned to Black Arrow, Tommy had pestered her for a date and she knew her mother had encouraged him simply because he was divorced with a small daughter around Peggy’s age.

“If I remember right, the Wilsons’ neighbor is the one who discovered propane was leaking inside their house. All Tommy did was turn off the valve at the tank. And as for Jared Colton, he’s an engineer, Mom. He’s been working on these pipes and he knows all about which way they run and how deep they’re buried. I trust him. More than anyone down there.”

Surprised by Kerry’s remark, Enola studied her daughter. “I don’t have to tell you he’s a rounder, Kerry. The man is in his thirties and he’s never been married or had a child of his own. He couldn’t know what Peggy means to you or what you’re going through right now.”

Normally Enola was an open-minded woman. Kerry couldn’t see any reason for her mother to be saying such nasty things about a man who was risking his own life to save her granddaughter’s. Unless Enola was simply too upset to know what she was actually saying.

“You’re wrong. He does understand. A person doesn’t have to be a parent to value a child’s life.” Besides, Kerry thought, she’d heard the caring in his voice when he’d promised her to get Peggy out, felt it for those brief moments when he’d held her against his hard chest. It didn’t matter if he was a still a playboy or married with three kids. He was the man she was counting on to save her daughter.

Enola was about to make a reply when a flurry of activity caught Kerry’s eye. A mixture of hope and relief flooded through her as she spotted Jared standing at the mouth of the pipe. Although the late afternoon sun was casting long shadows over the group, she could easily see that he was covered with mud. Streaks of it slashed at an angle across his cheek while parts of his short black hair were splotched with brown. In spite of his bedraggled condition, he was wasting no time in relaying information to Bram, and from the quick hand gestures he made back toward the drainpipe, he was a man just starting a mission rather than ending it.

“There’s Jared,” Kerry said to her mother with a breathless rush. “Maybe he’s found Peggy!”

Not waiting to see if her mom was following, Kerry pushed her way through the crowd until she was standing next to Jared and Bram, who’d now been joined by their younger sister, Willow, who ran the Black Arrow Feed and Grain store. There was also Gray, a tall, dark-haired Colton cousin, who was a local judge. Apparently the Colton family believed in banding together in times of crisis, she thought, and in this case she was deeply grateful that their help was being extended to her and Peggy.

Focusing her attention on Jared, she begged, “Tell me. What did you find?”

Jared’s gray eyes locked with Kerry’s pleading brown gaze. All the while he’d been crawling his way through the maze of drainpipes, his mind had been consumed with thoughts of the agony he knew this woman was going through and of the little girl who must surely be feeling trapped and terrified by now.

Stepping forward, he took her hand and gently folded it between his. “I’ve located her, Kerry. As I worked my way deeper into the pipe, I kept calling her name. She didn’t answer me directly, but I picked up on the sound of her crying.”

The relief of hearing that her daughter was alive flooded through Kerry and in the process nearly buckled her knees. If Jared hadn’t been holding onto her hand, she would have crumpled right there in the mud.

“Then she must be okay! But—” she stopped abruptly as another thought struck her. “If you could hear her, why didn’t you go after her and bring her out?”

He shook his head. “I’m afraid it’s not going to be that simple, Kerry. Your daughter, Peggy—or Bram told me you sometimes call her Chenoa. Which name does she usually go by?”

“Chenoa is her Comanche name which means—”

“Little dove,” Jared finished for her. One corner of his mouth lifted wryly. “You must have forgotten that us Coltons are Comanche, too.”

She hadn’t forgotten the Coltons, Kerry thought, especially this one. By the time she’d been a senior in high school, he’d had women running out his ears, but for some reason he’d wanted to date her. Back then the idea of going out with a rogue like him was indecent, not to mention unsettling. Even though he’d been incredibly handsome and too sexy for his own good. A fact that hadn’t changed as far as she could see.

Flustered that she’d allowed her thoughts to wander, she said, “My daughter normally goes by Peggy.”

Jared nodded at Kerry while from the corner of his eye he could see that Bram was already talking over a course of action with the rescue people. “Peggy has wormed her way back into a shaft of pipe that I can’t reach,” he explained to her.

Sick with fear, she gripped his fingers. “Someone else—someone smaller—” she began, only to have him dash away her hopeful suggestions with a shake of his head.

“It would take someone smaller than Peggy even. I’ve found where she’d crawled through to another section of pipe, but her movements disturbed the surrounding ground, causing some of it to cave in behind her. Even if she was smart enough to turn around and find her way back, she couldn’t get past the dirt and rocks that are blocking the end of the pipe.”

“Oh God! Oh please tell me you can get her out! Please!”

One of Jared’s hands lifted to her shoulder. He gripped it firmly as he looked directly into her eyes. “Kerry, I promise you I’ll get her out. I’m not sure exactly how to do it yet, but I’ll get her.”

Kerry desperately wanted to believe him, but the whole situation sounded so awful. Her baby was in a deep dark hole with no way out. “But she might not have enough air! If it takes a long time to get her out—”

“Now, Kerry, don’t panic. If you collapse you won’t be much good to Peggy once we do bring her up.”

Tears were blurring her eyes and she blinked furiously to prevent them from spilling onto her cheeks. God knew she had a good reason to fall apart, but over the past few years, she’d had to battle her way through tough times. The experiences had taught her to steel herself against personal pain and anguish, to show a brave face even though her heart was breaking. That was the strong, Comanche way, and she wanted Jared Colton to see that she was no weaker than he.

“You’re right, Jared,” She drew in a bracing breath and squared her shoulders. “What can I do to help?”

Jared glanced up the sloping ground to where Kerry’s mother was waiting with a group of people that had grown to large proportions in the past hour. “Just go back to your family and wait. We’ll take care of everything.” He looked down at her as another notion suddenly struck him. “Wait—there is something. If your husband is here, he could be a help. If he’d be willing to crawl down into the pipe and call to Peggy, she might respond to him. That would help us pinpoint her exact location.”

Bitter regret twisted deep in Kerry’s stomach. Damon wouldn’t be willing to send Peggy a birthday card, much less risk his life to save hers. She tried to swallow away the guilt and sorrow that she felt, not for herself, but for her innocent daughter.

“Uh, he’s…not around. But I could crawl into the pipe and call to Peggy,” she quickly suggested.

Jared shook his head. “It’s too deep and dangerous, Kerry. I don’t want to put you at risk.”

Her heart sank. “Oh well,” she said huskily. “Then I’m—uh, sorry, Jared. Because Peggy doesn’t have a father.”

Chapter Two

The next few hours were some of the hardest Jared had ever endured. For the sake of the little dove trapped beneath the ground, he was trying to focus all his mental ability on the rescue operation. Yet there was a small part of his thoughts that continually strayed to Kerry.

To learn that she was a single mother had knocked him for a loop. The Kerry WindWalker he remembered was the quiet, reserved waitress who’d worked seven or eight years ago at Woody’s Café. At that time he’d tried to get to know her personally, but she’d stubbornly kept the conversation between them to the same light exchange she used for all the customers in the homey little eating place. She’d had a reputation for being prim and proper and, in spite of Jared’s best efforts, she’d left Black Arrow with that same squeaky-clean standing.

Jared could only suppose that the years away from Black Arrow had changed her. Although there was one thing that remained the same, he thought ruefully. She had no man in her life. The fact that she’d been raising her daughter alone saddened him. Yet he had to confess there was a selfish part of him that was glad she wasn’t attached to some other man.

“Okay, Jared, that’s ten feet. Want me to go any deeper?”

Shaking away his thoughts, Jared looked up at Newt, a burly oilfield worker who was operating a large auger. This was the second hole that had been drilled into the ground near to the spot where Peggy was trapped. The first had failed to give Jared an entrance to reach her. After a long, careful study from inside the ground, coupled with the engineering blueprints he had of the original layout of the drainage pipes, he’d finally decided to try another, at a closer angle.

“No. That’s good. Hop out, Newt, and I’ll go down. Maybe this one will get me all the way back to her.”

Someone caught him by the arm and Jared glanced around to find Bram at his side. Having his brother here for support, even in the capacity of sheriff, helped him forget that he’d been at this for hours and that his body was now running on sheer adrenaline.

“Newt has reached the right depth,” he quickly explained to Bram. “I’m going down again.”

“What if you can’t get through this time, Jared?”

“I’ve got to,” Jared said grimly. “I’m afraid to drill any closer. From what I know about this network of pipes, Peggy probably has some space to crawl back and forth. I can’t risk drilling into an area where she might be.”

Bram let out a weary breath. “I know you’re right. But she’s been down there for hours now. The tunnel you’ve just now bored may not be any better than the last one.”

The desperation in Bram’s voice matched the feelings that Jared had been dealing with from the moment he’d spotted Peggy’s little footprints. He wouldn’t rest until that child was placed safely in her mother’s arms.

Jared lifted the hard hat from his sweaty head and shoved a weary hand through his damp hair. “Believe me, brother, I want to get her out just as badly as you do. So have a little confidence in me, will you? This time I’ll get in. I have to,” he said with steely determination. Glancing back over his shoulder, he scanned the crowd that had continued to grow throughout the evening. “Have you seen Kerry?”

“I talked to her about ten minutes ago. I explained that you were drilling again at another angle.”

“How was she doing?”

Bram’s tight grimace spoke volumes. “She’s holding herself together, but it’s pretty obvious she’s not far from collapsing. Her mother tells me that no one has been able to make her eat or drink anything since we’ve been out here.”

Just the thought of what she must be going through was enough to make Jared sick. “See what you and Gray can do with her,” Jared told him. “I’m going down. And I’m not coming up until I have Peggy with me. Even if it means I have to dig her out by hand!”

By now Newt had removed the steel auger from the newly drilled hole. Jared hurried toward the open cavity. Bram followed to snatch a hold on Jared’s shoulder before he could lower himself into the newly bored hole.

“Jared, you’re exhausted,” he pointed out. “You’ve already worked for hours. Let someone else go down. Let me. Or Gray.”

Shaking his head at his older brother’s plea, Jared said, “You’re the sheriff. You need to be out here where you can make sure everyone is safe and doing what they’re supposed to be doing. This town would be in chaos if it lost you.”

Jared’s offhand compliment put a twisted smile on Bram’s face. “This town survived a long time before I became sheriff and it’ll go on surviving once I’m no longer in office. But that’s not the issue. You’re about to fall over and Gray—”

“Doesn’t like to get his hands dirty,” Jared joked and winked. Then before Bram could try to dissuade him any further, he lowered himself into the ground.

Kerry was trying her best not to keep glancing at the small watch on her wrist, but each minute seemed to be crawling by as she and the rest of the hundred or more people around the excavation site waited for Jared to reappear and prayed that Peggy would be in his arms.

“Kerry, is there anything I can get for you? A sandwich? Or cold drink?”

Kerry looked around to see Christa, a co-worker at Liberty Bank, who’d also become a good friend. The tall, curvaceous blonde was two years younger than Kerry and had already gone through a traumatic divorce. Over the past months Kerry had been trying to help her young friend get through the trying ordeal. Now the tables were turned and Christa was here to lend Kerry what support she could.

Trying to smile, Kerry passed trembling fingers across her forehead. “No thanks, Christa. I tried to eat earlier, but everything just stuck in my throat.”

With a worried frown, Christa grabbed a folding portable stool that one of the local churches had distributed for the crowd. Once she was sitting next to her friend, she said, “Clarence told me that you worked through lunch. It’s nearly eight o’clock now. You have to be starving.”

Kerry placed a reassuring hand over Christa’s. “I’m fine. Or at least I will be once they get Peggy out of there.” Closing her eyes, she swallowed at the knot of fear that had lodged in her throat and refused to go away.

“I noticed the sheriff was talking to you a few minutes ago,” Christa remarked. “What was he saying? Does he know anything yet?”

“He said that the phone Jared had taken with him had apparently quit working. They haven’t been able to make any contact with him in the past twenty minutes.”

Christa shook her head. “Well, that doesn’t necessarily mean that something has gone wrong. The battery could have gone dead on the phone or the signal may not be getting out.”

Opening her eyes, Kerry focused a desperate look on her friend. “I hope you’re right, Christa. I can’t—I have to think that things are going to be okay. Otherwise—” She couldn’t go on as tears trickled onto her cheeks. Moments later, she felt Christa’s hand gently patting her back. Sniffing, she wiped at her tears and tried again, “Oh Christa—I don’t know what I’d do if I lost my daughter.”

“You’re not going to lose her,” Christa said with firm resolution. “The Coltons will see to that. They’re a smart, diligent family. And they care about people. If Jared can’t get her out, he and his brother will call in some expert who can.”

Kerry glanced around her to make sure her mother wasn’t within earshot. “I’m glad to hear you say that,” she said in a voice only Christa could hear. “Mom keeps preaching that they’re making a mess out of things and just wanting to big-shot around and take over the situation.”

A puzzled expression came over Christa’s face. “I can’t understand that. Let’s face it, the fire and rescue people in this town mean well and they do a good job most of the time, but they’re not that highly trained. They have no idea what’s under this ground or how to get into it without tearing everything apart and endangering Peggy even more. Jared’s an engineer. He knows what he’s dealing with.”

Kerry let out a long, shaky breath. “That’s what I was thinking, but Mom seems to have something against Jared in particular.”

Christa shrugged. “Well, from what I’ve heard, he used to have quite a reputation with the ladies. Your mom probably holds that against him.”

Shaking her head with weary disbelief, Kerry said, “That has nothing to do with him getting my daughter out of the ground! I don’t understand her—”

“Kerry! Look!”

Christa’s abrupt cry was coupled with a ripple of excitement passing through the people gathered around the site. And then Kerry saw the reason for all the commotion. It was Jared! He was climbing out of the deep ditch and Peggy was nestled safely in his arms!

Choking back a sob of sheer relief, Kerry jumped to her feet and stumbled across the rough ground to meet them.

“Peggy! Oh baby!” she cried, not bothering to hide the tears of joy that were beginning to stream down her face.

Jared grinned down at her. “Your daughter is a little muddy and dirty, but other than that she seems to be okay,” he said.

From the moment he’d reached Peggy back in the narrow cavern of pipe, she’d had a death grip on his neck. Even now, with her mother near, she was reluctant to loosen her hold and allow him to place her in Kerry’s arms.

Gently, Jared patted the child’s back, then carefully pushed the long tangle of black hair from the side of her face. “It’s all right, Chenoa,” he murmured to the frightened little girl. “Your mommy is right here. She’s been waiting for you. Just like I promised.”

Kerry swallowed down her tears in an effort to make her voice sound as calm and normal as possible to her daughter. “Peggy, it’s all right, honey. You can come to mama now and we’ll go get Fred.”

Lifting her face from Jared’s wide shoulder, Peggy looked warily around her, then down at Kerry’s outstretched arms.

“Mama,” she said through sniffles and hiccups, then reached for her mother.

Jared had accomplished a few difficult jobs down through the years, jobs that had left him feeling proud, maybe even a little smug. But he could truthfully say nothing he’d ever done felt as wonderful or satisfying as being able to place Peggy into her mother’s arms. And the elated smile that was now spreading across Kerry’s face was worth every minute he’d spent crawling through that muddy underground maze.

Hugging her daughter fiercely to her breast, Kerry looked up at Jared. She was unaware of the crowd surging around them, nor did she hear their cheers of joy. There was only him and her and the precious feeling of her daughter’s arms clinging tightly to her neck.

“Thank you, Jared. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

The raw emotion in her trembling words humbled him, touched him in a spot he hadn’t known he possessed.

“There’s no need for you to thank me, Kerry. I wanted to get Peggy out of there as much as you wanted to have her back.”

Shifting Peggy’s weight to one arm, Kerry extended her hand to Jared. He folded his fingers around hers with a firm reassuring grip. As their hands warmed together, he realized the past horrific hours had connected him to this woman in an oddly intimate way. Even now he could feel her relief and joy in the same way he’d felt her earlier desperation and fear.

“I’ll never forget what you’ve done for me,” she said to him. “And when Peggy gets old enough to understand, I’ll explain to her that a very brave man saved her life.”

Jared was like most any red-blooded male from eighteen months old to eighty. He liked to show off for any appreciative female, maybe even preen a little bit if the occasion warranted. But tonight was a different situation. And he didn’t want this woman to get the impression that he was hero material. He wasn’t. He was just a man who wouldn’t give up until the job was done.

“Not brave, Kerry. Just stubborn,” he corrected.

Her eyes still wet with grateful tears, she raised up on tiptoe and kissed his dirty cheek. “Then thank you for being a stubborn man, Jared Colton.”

“Kerry! Is Peggy all right? Is there anything broken?”

Stunned by the brief, intimate contact, Jared watched Kerry turn away to answer Enola’s frantic question. Moments later, he felt a nudge in his rib cage and looked around to see that he was now bracketed by a grinning brother and cousin.

Gray, who was only a year younger than Jared, said, “Well old cousin, looks like you’re certainly the hero at this little gathering.”

His description of the crowd around them as “a little gathering” was quite an understatement. It seemed like half the townsfolk were swarming around them like bees.

Jared slipped off his hard hat. The night breeze felt cool against his sweating head. Pushing his fingers through his wet hair, he said to Gray, “Hell, I didn’t do anything but crawl into a hole.”

Bram punched him affectionately in the shoulder and chuckled. “Looks to me like Kerry WindWalker thought you did more than that.”

Jared glanced back around to see that she and her young daughter had been swallowed up by the crowd. It was just as well, he thought.

“The only thing you saw was a woman grateful to get her daughter back,” Jared said, aiming the statement at both his brother and cousin.

Bram was about to make another comment on the subject when one of his deputies approached with a question for his boss. The moment Bram turned his attention to the deputy, Jared used the opportunity to make his own escape.

“I’m going home,” he told Gray. “Tell Bram I’ll deal with getting some of this heavy equipment back to its rightful owners.”

Gray slung his arm around Jared’s shoulders. “Will do,” he assured him. “You go get some rest.”

“Yeah. I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” Jared told him.

As Jared slipped through the crowd, several people called out to him, a few even stopped him to shake his hand, pat his back and offer him congratulations on a job well done.

Normally, Jared would have hung around and lapped up all the attention and praise. It wasn’t often a man was handed the chance to do something as meaningful and worthwhile as saving a child’s life. And it warmed him that people appreciated his efforts. Yet he didn’t linger in the crowd. Instead he continued toward the quiet, dark spot where his truck was parked.

By the time Jared climbed into the vehicle, bone-weary exhaustion had overtaken him. He drew in a string of long breaths, then rested his forehead against the steering wheel for several moments before he finally started the motor.

As he pulled away from the scene, he glanced toward the activity still going on around the excavation site. Rescue workers were already starting to move away the fire trucks and other recovery vehicles which had been needed during the long hours. Some yards away from the commotion, he spotted Kerry at the back of an ambulance with Peggy in her arms and talking happily to Jenna Elliot.

Thirty minutes later as Jared fell into bed, he was still holding that happy image in his mind.

Kerry waited patiently at the back of an ambulance while a petite, blond-haired, blue-eyed nurse named Jenna Elliot checked Peggy over for any sign of injuries.

Kerry had never met Jenna before, but she knew of her family. Her father was a powerful businessman and politician in Black Arrow, and though corruption had been linked to his name, he was still an influential man. However, from the moment Kerry had walked up to the ambulance with Peggy, Jenna had seemed sincerely compassionate and caring. She also seemed to be casting more than a few furtive glances at Sheriff Bram Colton, too.

“Your daughter seems to be perfectly fine,” Jenna said to Kerry as she handed Peggy back to her. “However, if it would make you feel at ease you could have her pediatrician check her over, too. But I’m sure you don’t have any worries. She seems like a very healthy little girl.”

“And very adventurous,” Kerry added jokingly. And she could joke now, thanks to Jared Colton, she thought as she turned to go home, clutching a sleepy Peggy in her arms.

Jared Colton. Of all the men in Black Arrow, Kerry wouldn’t have thought of him as a hero. Eight years ago, before she’d left for Virginia, he’d been a frequent diner at Woody’s Café where she’d worked as a waitress on the evening shift. For a man that was part Comanche, he’d done a lot of talking. Most of it directed at the adoring females who’d always seemed to flock around him. But Kerry hadn’t forgotten the small part of his glib tongue that had been aimed at her.

For the most part, Kerry had tried to keep the conversation between them cool and impersonal, but there had been times she’d felt him looking at her in the same way a red-tailed hawk would look at a juicy little field mouse. On those occasions she’d always scurried back to the kitchen, her head down so that no one might see the scarlet color stinging her cheeks. No man had ever made her feel so naked and vulnerable. And eight years later she could safely say that hadn’t changed. He still left her breathless and rattled.

“Kerry? Are you listening?”

At the sound of Enola’s voice, Kerry pulled her eyes away from a nearby open window and looked up to see her mother standing at the entryway to the small living room of the WindWalker home.

“Sorry, Mom. I was—lost in thought. Were you asking me something?”

Her forehead furrowed with a frown, Enola stepped into the room. A dishtowel was twisted between her hardworking hands.

“I was wondering if we should wake Peggy for supper. She hasn’t eaten hardly anything today. With everything that happened yesterday, she should get something in her tummy.”

“I know. But I think she needs to rest more.”

Enola moved closer to her daughter. “She’s been like a different little girl today. I doubt she’s said twenty words altogether. I couldn’t even get her to help me dig in the garden.”

Kerry didn’t need to be reminded that Peggy was still suffering emotionally from the horrible experience she’d gone through. Her daughter had hardly left her side all day. And though the paramedics had found her physically unharmed, Kerry realized her daughter had been traumatized.

“She just needs time to get over this, Mom. We all do.”

Enola briefly closed her eyes and Kerry realized her mother was still trying to deal with the guilt she felt over allowing Peggy to slip away unnoticed.

Rising from her chair, Kerry patted her mother’s shoulder. “I wish you would quit blaming yourself, Mom. None of this is your fault. Peggy has pulled disappearing acts on me before. It just so happened that this time she wandered farther off than she’d intended.”

Enola sighed. “She’s only three, Kerry. She doesn’t understand the dangers. She wants to see everything. Learn about everything. I should have known not to turn my back. Even for a second.”

Kerry shook her head. “Mom, that’s ridiculous. No child can be watched that closely. And maybe in the long run, this horrible experience has taught her not to stray from the house or yard.”

“I hope you’re right. But it’s heartbreaking to see my granddaughter so quiet and withdrawn.”

Looping her arm through her mother’s, she urged her toward the kitchen. “Peggy is brave. Like her grandmother and great-grandmother Crow. She’ll get through this. Now come on and let’s eat.”

The two women made their way back to the small kitchen where Enola had prepared pinto beans, corn bread and wilted salad. Inside the room, they were greeted with the aroma of cooked food joined by the scents of cut grass and sweet lilac wafting through the open screen door.

While her mother took a seat at the dining table, Kerry went to the cabinet to fill two tall glasses with iced tea. When a knock sounded at the front of the house, the two women exchanged glances.

“I’ll go see who it is,” Kerry said to Enola. “You go ahead and eat. It’s probably just another neighbor wanting to make sure Peggy is okay.”

Not bothering to hunt for her shoes, Kerry padded barefoot over the cool linoleum until she reached the front screen door. Since no one was standing directly in view, she pushed it open and stepped onto the porch.

“Hello Kerry.”

The deep voice hit her before she spotted him standing at the south end of the porch. Slowly she turned to see the man who had continued to linger in her thoughts today.

“Hello,” she said quietly as he walked toward her.

Although he was dressed casually in jeans and boots and a pale blue polo shirt, she felt sloppy in comparison. Her white shorts were stained with tiny splotches of blue paint and the red T-shirt topping them had been washed so many times it had turned the color of a half-ripe watermelon. Greeting her neighbors in such a getup was one thing, but letting Jared Colton catch her like this was quite another.

“I hope I’m not interrupting anything,” he said as his eyes roamed appreciatively over her face, then lowered to her bare brown legs. “I just happened to be in the neighborhood this evening and I thought I’d check to see how Peggy is doing.”

There it was again, Kerry thought, that strange feeling of being exposed in front of this man. What was it about him, she wondered. She’d been around nice-looking men before. But none of them had affected her like this one. Not even Peggy’s father.

His dark bronze features were rough-hewn, but classic male. The strong, hawkish nose, carved cheekbones and black hair edging over the back of his collar were distinctly Native American. Only his gray eyes and the faint shadow of a beard hinted that there might be white blood flowing through his veins.

She tried not to stare at his striking face or the long, strong body attached to it as she replied, “We were about to eat supper. Peggy is asleep right now. But you’re welcome to join us.”

Kerry was trying to be polite, but Jared could see that the last thing she wanted him to do was join her and her mother for supper. The fact left him feeling vaguely hollow. Though he didn’t understand why. There were plenty of women in town that would be thrilled to find him on their front steps. Once he left here all he had to do was pick up his cell phone and make a call to one of them. And maybe he’d do that, he promised himself. It was foolish to let this single mother change his normal behavior.

Giving her his best smile, he shook his head. “Thank you, Kerry, but I wouldn’t want to impose.”

Disappointment flashed through her, catching her completely off guard. She didn’t want to entertain this man, she silently argued with herself. It would be like inviting a stick of dynamite into the house. And she’d already had too many explosions in her life to risk another one.

Feeling incredibly awkward, she tucked her bobbed hair behind her ears and darted a glance toward his face. “I hope you’ve had a chance to get rested up from yesterday’s ordeal,” she said.

He shrugged as though the part he’d played in Peggy’s rescue had been superfluous. Kerry could only wonder if the gesture was an attempt to appear humble or if these past years had honestly changed him into a more modest man than the Jared Colton she remembered.

“I’m fine,” he said with a quick grin. “What about you? How are you holding up?”

It was a beautiful spring evening. The sun had dipped below the bare hills that skirted the edge of town and a warm breeze was blowing the scent of honeysuckle across the porch. If this man had been anyone except Jared Colton she might have enjoyed having male company for a change. She might have invited him to take a seat and drink a glass of tea with her. Instead, she was afraid to trust him and afraid to trust herself.

“I’m okay. It’s Peggy and Mom that worry me. Peggy is—well, she’s hardly spoken to anyone today. And she’s eaten even less than she’s talked. Mother blames herself, of course. I’m not sure how to help either one of them.”

“I hate to hear that. I was hoping Peggy would be the sort of child that would bounce right back.” A rueful grin suddenly twisted his lips. “I mean, there’s not many little girls her age that would have enough courage to go exploring a deep dark place like she went into. Especially without another child with her.”

His remarks surprised Kerry. She’d not expected him to understand anything about the way a child’s mind worked. Especially a little female mind. But then females were his specialty; he ought to know how their minds worked, she quickly reminded herself.

“Peggy is very adventurous. I used to be proud of the fact that she was so curious about the world around her. But now I’m wondering if that curiosity is a curse. When I asked her why she left the yard, she told me that she went hunting birds with Fred. I don’t even know if she understands what the term hunting means. No one that I know of has talked about hunting birds or anything else to her.”

She looked weary, Jared thought. The harrowing hours she’d gone through yesterday and last night would have been enough to break any young mother. Much less one without the support of a husband. And suddenly he wished he had the right to try to comfort her with touches and whispered words.

“She’s probably heard someone refer to Fred as a hunting dog,” Jared suggested. “Or it could have come from television.”

Kerry nodded. “You could be right. Either way, I’m wondering now how to keep this from happening again. I don’t want to get rid of the dog. Losing her buddy would only make matters worse.”

His black brows pulled together in a thoughtful frown. “I don’t have any kids, Kerry, so I’m the last person to give you advice. But I used to be a kid with a dog and I know losing him would have broken my heart.”

Hearing one of Black Arrow’s most prominent playboys discuss children and dogs and broken hearts was as unsettling to Kerry as the potent sensuality that swirled around him. Because it made him more of a man somehow. A man that she could care about.

Alarmed by the soft thoughts running through her head, she glanced away from him and breathed deeply. “I’m—uh—I’ve been thinking I’ll go by the animal shelter and adopt a kitty for her, too. That way if Fred decides to take off again, she might decide it’s more important for her to stay behind and take care of her new friend.”

A grin lifted the corner of his lips, giving her a glimpse of snow-white teeth. “That sounds like a great idea. As long as Fred doesn’t decide he wants to make a meal out of the cat.”

Kerry actually laughed and the unexpected sound darted through Jared like a ray of golden sunshine. Of all the times he’d been in her presence he’d never heard her laugh before. It made him wonder if the years had loosened her rigid personality or if she was just now allowing him to see the woman she’d always been.

“I’m not too worried about that,” she said. “He loves all of our neighboring felines.”

Enola’s voice suddenly carried through the screen door. “Kerry? Who is it?”

Both Kerry and Jared turned to see Enola stepping onto the porch with a sleepy-eyed Peggy in her arms.

“Jared has stopped by to check on Peggy,” Kerry quickly explained to her mother. “I asked him to join us for supper—but he has other plans.”

“Good evening, Mrs. WindWalker,” Jared greeted the older woman.

She inclined her head in his direction but didn’t grant him any sort of semblance of a smile. Jared couldn’t help notice the woman’s eagle-eyed gaze was encompassing both him and her daughter as though she was trying to gauge the sort of conversation that had been going on before she’d arrived. Her attitude was faintly insulting, but Jared tried his best to ignore it. From what he knew of Marvin WindWalker, it wouldn’t surprise him if Enola despised all men.

“Evening,” she stiffly replied.

Jared’s attention zeroed in on Peggy, who was chewing on one finger while studying him with guarded interest.

Stepping closer, he smiled at the little girl. “Hello Peggy. Do you remember me?”

Peggy squirmed in Enola’s arms and demanded to be put down. Then to her mother and grandmother’s total surprise, she scurried across the wooden porch straight to Jared.

“You’re Jared,” she said, then held up her arms to him in a totally trustful gesture.

A rush of tender emotions filled his chest as Jared bent down and scooped up the child. After carefully balancing her with one arm against his chest, he touched a forefinger to her cheek.

“That’s right, little dove. I’m Jared.”

Peggy’s tiny fingers reached out and played with his shirt collar, a signal, Jared realized, that she felt comfortable with him.

“You got me out of that hole,” she said to him.

Jared was surprised at her clearly pronounced words. Last night she’d refused to say anything to him except that she wanted her mama. And those words had been muffled with tears.

“That’s right, sweetheart. And I’m glad I did. You’re just about the prettiest little girl I’ve ever seen.”

For a moment her lips twitched as though she might give him a smile. Then all of a sudden she threw her arms around his neck and held on tight. Since fathering skills were something Jared knew precious little about, all he could do was follow his instincts and pat Peggy’s back with gentle reassurance.

A few steps away, Kerry tried to swallow away the tightness in her throat as she watched her daughter’s reaction to Jared. Even though Peggy was usually a tiny tornado, she’d always been slow to warm up to the male gender. To see her clinging so trustingly to Jared, a man she’d only seen once, was somewhat of a phenomenon.

Across the porch, Enola cleared her throat loudly. “Peggy, it’s time for you to eat supper,” she said firmly. “Tell Mr. Colton goodbye.”

Peggy ignored her grandmother and continued to bury her face against Jared’s neck. At the same time, Kerry stared with an open mouth at her mother.

She gathered her wits and said, “Mom, I’ll handle this. Why don’t you go finish eating. We’ll join you in a few minutes.”

The surprise that registered on Enola’s face told Jared the older woman wasn’t accustomed to having Kerry intercede with her own wishes. Especially in such a blunt way. Enola opened her mouth to say something else. But instead, she threw Jared a withering look, then turned and headed into the house.

Once the woman was out of sight, Jared joked in an effort to lighten the moment, “I don’t think she likes me.”

Kerry sighed. “Her behavior embarrasses me. I don’t know what’s making her this way.”

Jared did. There weren’t many mothers in Black Arrow that welcomed the sight of him on the doorstep. He knew he had a reputation for dallying with women’s hearts, maybe even crushing a few. If that was true, he’d not done it intentionally. Of all the women he’d dated in the past, he’d never once led them to believe he was a serious suitor with marriage on his mind. They’d gone into a relationship with him knowing it would only be fun and games. But convincing Enola WindWalker of that would be as fruitless as talking to the wall.

“Forget it,” he told Kerry with a rueful grin. “I take no offense. Especially since I got such a nice greeting from my little dove here.” Placing his forefinger under Peggy’s chin, he lifted the angelic face up to his. “Are you going to be a good girl for your mother and stay in the yard from now on?”

Peggy nodded emphatically and Jared stroked the shiny black waves tumbling about her shoulders. He could see touches of Kerry in the girl’s proud thin nose, high cheekbones and faintly pointed chin. Yet her café au lait complexion made Jared suspect her father had been a white man. His own father had been half-white.

“That’s just what I wanted to hear,” he told her proudly.

“I have a dog,” Peggy said to him. “Do you have a dog?”

Jared chuckled as he found himself charmed by a set of big brown eyes and twin dimples. “No. But I met your Mr. Fred yesterday. And you know what, I think he’s almost as smart as you are.”

Peggy gave him another emphatic nod of agreement, then to Kerry and Jared’s amazement, she leaned forward and smacked a kiss on his cheek.

“I gotta go feed Fred,” she said suddenly, then squirmed, signaling that she wanted to be put back on her feet.

Jared complied, and smiled as he watched her scurry into the house.

“Looks like I need to be thanking you again,” Kerry said.

He turned his head in her direction and was instantly taken with the natural beauty of her face, the sensual curves, partially camouflaged by her loose clothing. She was not a glamour girl. So why did he wonder, as he had so many years ago, what she would look like in his arms with nothing on but a smile just for him?

“For what?” he asked, forcing his mind off the tempting thought.

“That’s the most Peggy has said to anyone today. She’s obviously taken with you.”

Jared was glad the child had warmed up to him. Yet it was her mother that he really wanted to charm.

Shrugging, he glanced down at the toe of his boot and wondered why this woman made him feel like a shy teenager wanting to steal a kiss. “Well, I’m kinda taken with her, too. That’s why I wanted to stop by and check on her.”

Kerry folded her hands primly in front of her. “Thank you. It was kind of you.”

No, it was selfish, Jared thought. Sure, he’d wanted to see little Peggy and make sure she was okay. But even more he’d wanted to see this woman. Yet he wasn’t going to confess such a thing to her. Right now she saw him as a gallant knight and he didn’t want to spoil it.

With a sudden grin, he lifted a hand in farewell. “You’d better go get your supper, Kerry. Before your mama comes after you.”

Kerry watched him walk to his truck. As he pulled away from the house, she wondered if this was the last time she would ever see him. Or if Jared Colton was going to try to make her one more notch on the foot of his bed.

Chapter Three

The kitten’s meow was more like a squall of protest. Jared glanced down at the small animal carrier sitting on the truck seat beside him. The yellow tabby had caught his eye the first moment the volunteer worker at the shelter had shown him into the room of orphaned cats. His broad nose, proud tail and coarse voice had convinced Jared he would be the perfect companion to frisky Fred and Peggy.

“Just hold on and I’ll let you out of that cage,” he told the cat as he turned off the main highway and onto a graveled dirt road.

At the end of the dusty, quarter-mile drive, stood an old square ranch house with a hip roof and a porch bordering three sides. The house and two acres had come up for rent five years ago when a local farmer had sold off the surrounding crop land and moved into town. Jared had taken it on a long-term lease, mainly to have a place to hang his hat when work brought him back to the Black Arrow vicinity.

There were times the old house stood empty for months running. But Jared had never had a problem with stealing or vandalism. There were benefits to having the county sheriff as your brother, he thought with great affection. Also to having a sister who was kind enough to keep the dust from piling up inside. And from the looks of the pickup truck parked to one side of the driveway, Willow must have taken pity on him and stopped by today to do a little cleaning.

After parking the truck in front of a faded wooden fence that separated the yard from weedy pasture, Jared climbed out and carefully carried the caged cat into the house. The moment he closed the door behind him, he was hit by the smell of fresh-baked cookies and the sound of his sister’s voice. He followed the sound into the kitchen to see her sitting on the tall barstool he kept beneath the wall phone.

“Here he is now,” she said to the caller. “So I’ll let you ask him.”

Jared cocked a questioning brow at her. She mouthed the word “newspaper” as she handed him the phone.

Two minutes later, Jared hung up.

“That was quick,” Willow remarked.

“I’m sure he’d already told you that he wanted to do an interview with me, Kerry and Peggy. I told him we’d meet him here tomorrow night.” He made a general wave in the direction of the sink full of dirty dishes. “Do you think you could clean the place up a bit?”

Willow shook her head in amazement. “Listen, little brother, you might not even need this place cleaned up when Kerry hears that you didn’t bother to consult her about this meeting. Sounds to me like you’re asking for big trouble.”

He probably was asking for trouble, Jared thought, but not the sort his sister had in mind. “I’ll get her to agree,” he told her with a confident grin, then motioned for her to follow him out to the living room. “Come here and look what I’ve got.”

“What is this?” Willow exclaimed as soon as she spotted the animal cage sitting in the middle of the floor. “You found a snake at the work site?”

He chuckled. “I’m not into reptiles. I like soft, cuddly things.”

“Hmm, don’t I know it,” she said dryly.

Jared bent down and unlatched the cage. The tabby pranced out as if he was ready to take possession of the place.

Willow squealed with pleasure, then quickly knelt down and stroked the cat’s arched back. “Oh, how adorable! Where did he come from?”

“I stopped by the animal shelter on my way home.”

His black-haired, gray-eyed sister looked up at him with disbelief. “Am I hearing this right? My playboy brother actually adopted a kitten? What are you going to do with him when your job here is finished? Take him with you?”

Jared laughed at her flurry of questions. “He’s not for me. He’s a gift to Peggy WindWalker. Her mother thought it would be a good idea to get her a kitten, so that she wouldn’t be tempted to follow her dog away from the house.”

Willow smiled at the kitten as he batted at a piece of fuzz he’d discovered under the edge of an armchair. “So you took it upon yourself to get the kitten for her,” she said with sudden understanding.

Grinning, Jared bent down and picked up the kitten. “The last time I looked it wasn’t against the law to give someone a gift.”

Willow laughed again. “Little Peggy must have made quite an impression on you. I can’t ever remember you taking such an interest in a child.” She slanted him a knowing look. “Or is it her mother that’s the real appeal here?”

Jared chuckled as he rubbed the yellow tom between the ears. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”

Willow clucked her tongue in disapproval. “Jared, I can tell you right now that you’re headed in the wrong direction. Kerry WindWalker is not your style.”

Nestling the cat against his chest, Jared headed out of the room. “And how would you know my style?” he tossed over his shoulder.

Willow followed her brother into the kitchen. “Probably because I’ve watched you go from one pretty face to another these past ten years. You like easy, fun-loving women who have reputations for being just as reckless as yourself. Kerry seems like she’s the complete opposite. As far as I know she’s a nice girl. You’d be bored to death.”

He poured a small amount of milk onto a saucer then placed it and the cat on the floor. “Maybe I’m getting tired of reckless, fun-loving girls.”

Willow rolled her eyes. “That’ll be the day.”

Jared feigned an offended look. “I do have my serious moments, sis. Besides, I’m only asking her to do an interview, not spend the rest of her life with me.”

An hour later, Jared parked in front of the WindWalker house and carried the cat, cage and all to the front porch. A tight-lipped Enola met him at the door and Jared decided a door-to-door salesman would have probably been greeted with more enthusiasm.

“Hello Mrs. WindWalker. Is Kerry home?”

“She’s eating supper right now. Maybe you’d better come back some other time.”

Clearly the woman didn’t want him around. But Kerry was a grown woman with a child of her own. If Jared was going to be kicked off the place, he wanted Kerry to do it herself. Not her smothering mother.

“I’ll just wait out here until she finishes,” Jared told her.

Not bothering to wait for the woman’s reply, he took a seat on the end of the porch and placed the cat cage beside him. After a few moments he heard the low murmur of voices, then the sound of the front screen opening and closing.

Glancing over his shoulder, he saw Kerry bearing down on him and she wasn’t exactly smiling.

“What are you doing here?” she asked without preamble.

Jared stood and gave her a wide grin. “I brought Peggy a gift. Is she here?”

Kerry’s eyes darted to the animal cage. Before she could ask, Jared said, “It’s a kitty. Come look.”

Kerry couldn’t believe he was here. Again. And she certainly couldn’t believe he’d brought a kitten with him. The whole picture was sending up warning flags right and left.

“Jared, when I tossed the idea to you about Peggy having a cat, it wasn’t my intention for you to bring her one.”

“Yeah, I know. But I wanted to do this for Peggy.” He opened the cage and allowed the little yellow tomcat to venture onto the porch.

Rather than squeal with delight like his sister had done, Kerry stared stonily down at the cat as he rubbed himself against her bare legs.

“Don’t you think he’s cute?” Jared prompted.

“All kittens are cute,” she said, trying her best not to be sucked into his playful attitude. Perhaps he had truly wanted to give Peggy a gift, she thought. But something was warning her that this man would use any and every means available to get what he wanted. If his wants included her, then Kerry was going to have to set him straight. She wasn’t available to him.

Jared picked up the kitten and scratched him behind the ears. “Kerry, loosen up. There’s no strings attached to this little animal.”

The idea that he’d read her thoughts flooded Kerry’s face with embarrassed heat. Jared Colton could have most any woman he set his steel-gray eyes on. She was putting herself on a pedestal to think he was interested in her.

“I wasn’t thinking that,” she quickly denied. “It’s just that I wanted to choose the pet I thought would fit my daughter.”

Pleased that she was softening, he said, “Well, just look at this little guy. He’s perfect.”

Kerry pretended to study the cat’s autocratic face, but in actuality her eyes were begging to slip up to Jared’s strong, sensual features. Like yesterday, she’d spent most of her time today trying not to think about this man. So far she’d failed and his showing up on the doorstep once again had literally been like a cherry topping off a sinful ice cream sundae.

“I think Peggy—”

Her words were suddenly interrupted by the slam of the screen door. Both Kerry and Jared turned to see Peggy standing on the porch, studying the two of them with quiet interest. She was dressed in sturdy striped overalls and a red T-shirt. Her shiny black hair was fastened in ponytails behind each ear and Jared couldn’t help thinking that next to her mother, she was the most adorable little thing he’d ever seen.

Just looking at the child made Jared wonder, as he had many times these past few days, how any man could have given up his own child. Or maybe he was jumping to conclusions about things he didn’t know about, Jared thought. It could be that Peggy’s father was still somewhere in the background. Perhaps seeing her on an odd weekend or taking her for a couple of weeks in the summer, sending her birthday cards and telephone calls. Yet Jared seriously doubted that was the case. If a man cared enough about his child to do that much, then he surely would have shown up when she was trapped beneath the ground.

Peggy doesn’t have a daddy. Kerry’s words had pretty much said it all.

“Hi Peggy,” he said, then, not waiting for her to come to him, he went over and knelt down to her height. “Did you finish eating your supper?”

She nodded as her fascinated gaze vacillated between his face and the kitten he was holding. “You have a kitty,” she finally spoke.

Jared smiled at her. “That’s right. I have a kitty for you.”

He placed the animal at Peggy’s feet and her eyes slowly lit up like a candle on Christmas Eve.

“Do you like him?”

The answer was a squeal of excitement as she made a dive for the animal. Before she could put a choke hold on the cat’s neck, Jared quickly took control and showed her how to hold him gently and carefully. The child listened intently to his instructions and after a few minutes, she was carrying the kitten with the same care as her baby dolls.

“That’s my girl,” Jared praised her, “now go show your mother.”

Peggy raced across the porch to where Kerry had been watching the scene taking place between her daughter and Jared. For years now, she’d longed to give Peggy some sort of male contact to make up for the absence of a father. Yet she’d never found a man she trusted enough to allow him into Peggy’s sheltered life. And though she might not trust Jared Colton, it appeared her daughter had already decided to make him her trusty friend.

“Look Mama, Jared brought me a cat,” she said proudly. “I’m gonna name him Claws. See, he has claws on his toes. But they don’t scratch.”

Kerry bent over her daughter and made a show of inspecting the kitten. “He can scratch, Peggy. Just like the neighbor’s cat,” she warned her. “That’s why you must handle him like Jared taught you.”

At that moment Fred came bounding around the side of the house. Sensing that something interesting was going on, the dog leaped onto the porch and for the next few minutes, the scene was comical as the dog and cat greeted each other, then decided to be buddies.

When Peggy and the animals finally quieted down and left the porch to play out on the clipped grass, Jared sidled up to Kerry.

“I think she likes him,” he said, unable to keep a bit of smugness from his voice. He’d never realized that pleasing a child could make him feel so good.

“Oh, she likes him all right,” Kerry said with a sigh of resignation.

Jared darted her a look. “Why do you say it like that? Are you still mad at me?”

The wounded, incredulous tone in his voice made it impossible for Kerry to prevent a grin from spreading across her lips. “Yes, I am. I should make you take that kitten back home with you.”

The smile on his face practically oozed confidence. “You couldn’t do that to Peggy or to Claws. They’ve already become fast friends.”

He was right and he knew it. Kerry had no choice but to let her daughter keep the kitten.

“It is nice to hear her laugh again,” Kerry admitted. “I think that’s the first I’ve heard her laugh since she was lost in the pipe.”

“I’m glad,” he said, then taking her by the shoulder he urged her to take a seat on the edge of the porch. “Sit down here beside me. I have something to ask you.”

Kerry was instantly on guard as she kept her bare thigh a respectable distance from his. “Couldn’t this question have been asked standing up?” she replied.

He grinned. “Sure. But this is much nicer like this.”

For him maybe. For her it was more than a little disconcerting. Her heart was a quick drum beat in her chest. Her breathing seemed to be going in and out too quickly to satisfy her lungs.

“Okay,” she said, hoping she sounded normal. “What is this question?”

Her hands were folded together atop her lap. As Jared angled his body around to hers, his first instinct was to reach for one of them. But he quickly decided not to push his luck. Two nights ago while Peggy had been trapped in the drainpipe, he’d had a good excuse to touch her in a comforting way. But this evening they were simply a man and a woman.

“Well, I—when I got home this evening from work, the local newspaper was on the phone with my sister. Seems like they want to do a story about Peggy’s rescue.”

Kerry shrugged. “That’s all right with me. There’s been so many townspeople who’ve expressed their interest and concern in my daughter. It would give me a chance to let them know how grateful I am.” She settled her gaze on his face. “To them and to you.”

Being grateful to him wasn’t exactly what Jared wanted from Kerry, but if it would help to give him a chance to get to know her better, he’d have to play upon it. At least, for the time being.

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