Canyon

He didn’t say anything, but went back to playing with his toy. When they got home she would feed him dinner, give him a bath and then let him have a little playtime before putting him in bed. When it came to bedtime, she was lucky. Beau didn’t have the issues some other kids did with fighting sleep. He eagerly went to bed each night as if it was his God-given right to get eight hours or more of sleep.

She glanced back into her rearview mirror at the car still following closely behind her. Her gaze connected with Canyon’s once again.

She no longer loved him, she was sure of it. Her love hadn’t dissipated immediately but in slow degrees. And just to think—she had planned to tell him about her pregnancy when she had returned home early and found him with Bonita.

She broke eye contact to face the road ahead, which is what she’d been doing since that night. And she didn’t intend to look back again.

Moments later she was pulling into the driveway of the home she considered hers. The community was a new one, and most of the families were progressive couples or singles with small children. She’d already joined the homeowners association and knew several of her neighbors. It was a friendly neighborhood and she enjoyed living here.

She brought the car to a stop and then got out. She had moved around to the side of the car by the time Canyon got out of his. She glanced over at him and said, “I really wish you’d wait and talk to me at another time.”

“We don’t always get what we want, Keisha.”

Feeling frustrated and annoyed, she narrowed her eyes at him and opened the door to get Beau out of his seat.

“I’ll do that,” Canyon said.

She stepped aside to let him, not wanting to make a scene in front of Beau. However, the main thing she intended to do when they talked was to make it absolutely clear that while he might be Beau’s father, she would not allow him to bulldoze his way into their lives.

Pulling her keys from her purse, she moved up the walkway to her front door. Canyon followed with Beau in his arms. She was tempted to remind Canyon once again that Beau could walk, but decided to keep quiet for now.

The moment she opened the door, Keisha knew something was wrong. For starters, the chime from her security alarm didn’t sound. And when she took a step inside and glanced around, she gasped in horror.

Someone had broken into her home.

Three

Canyon quickly went into action and handed Beau to Keisha. “Take Beau and get back in the car.”

Already he was on the phone calling Pete. “This is Canyon. The woman who was being followed earlier today had her home broken into.”

“What’s the address? I’m still in the area. Don’t mess with anything.”

Canyon turned around, not surprised that Keisha hadn’t gone back to the car like he’d told her to do. “What’s the address?” He could tell from her dazed look that she was still in shock at what she’d found when she’d opened her door.

“Keisha?”

She looked at him. “Yes?”

“What’s this address?”

She rattled a number off to him which he gave to Pete.

“Home messy, Mommy.”

Their son’s words made Keisha suck in a deep breath and Canyon saw how Beau’s innocent words had crushed her. This was the home she had made for her and their son and someone had invaded her sanctuary. They had violated it.

“Come on, let’s step outside, Keisha. The police are on the way,” he said softly. When she opened her mouth to protest, he added, “We can’t touch anything until they get here.”

Keisha closed her mouth and drew in a deep breath, feeling the pain in her chest when she did so. Canyon, she knew, was intentionally blocking her view but she’d already seen her living room and could just imagine how the rest of her house looked. Had the intruder gone into her bedroom? Beau’s room? What had been stolen?

“Keisha?”

“Yes?” The single word had been hard to get past her lungs.

“Come on, let’s sit in the car.”

She hesitated but knew what he was suggesting was reasonable. There was nothing they could do until the police arrived and Beau could tell she was troubled. She didn’t want to upset him.

“Play, Mommy,” Beau said when they reached her car. She placed him back in his car seat and gave him his favorite toy. When she went around to get into her seat, she noticed Canyon talking on his cell phone. Was he talking to the police again?

* * *

“Yes, Keisha’s okay, Dil,” Canyon told his oldest brother. He’d given Dillon a quick rundown on what had transpired over the past hour, including the fact that he had a son.

“Everyone is here for dinner, so how do you want me to handle things?” Dillon asked. “I’m sure you’ll want to be the one to tell them about Beau.”

Canyon drew in a deep breath. “Yes, I want to be the one. Pete is on the way. When we finish here, Keisha and Beau are coming with me until we figure out who did this and why. I’m leaving my car here so I’ll need someone to pick it up and drive it to my place later.”

“I can do that. But will Keisha agree to go anywhere with you, Canyon?”

Canyon rubbed a frustrated hand down his face. He was more than certain she wouldn’t. At least not at first. Keisha had an independent streak that she’d inherited from the single mother who had raised her. He’d always admired her ability to stand her ground and not depend on anyone for anything. But in this case things were different. She didn’t have just herself to think about. She had their son.

Their son.

The thought sent an unexplainable thrill through his veins. “No, Dil, she’s not going to go along with it, at least not easily. But I’m convinced what happened to her house and that car following her today are connected. My only ace is that she has Beau to think about. If it was just her she would dig in her heels.”

At that moment three police cruisers pulled up and the one leading the pack was driven by Pete. “Pete’s here now, Dil. I’ll call you back later.”

* * *

Keisha stared at the policeman in confusion. “What do you mean I was targeted personally?”

Pete leaned against the kitchen counter as he stood beside Canyon. “You’ve verified that nothing of value was taken, not even that container filled with gold coins sitting in plain view on the dresser in your bedroom. My only conclusion is that the person who did this didn’t take anything because this is about you personally. It seems to be more or less a scare tactic.”

None of this made sense. She had been grateful that her next-door neighbors, a couple with a set of twins a few months older than Beau, had come over and offered to take him to their place, feed him dinner and keep him entertained while she handled the break-in.

With Canyon and Pete by her side, she had gone from room to room taking in the devastation. Her sofa and chairs had been turned over, pillow cushions thrown about along with her magazines. In her kitchen, the person had opened a canister and floured her counters to the point where it looked like snow in August. Not one bedroom had been left untouched...not even Beau’s room. Some of his favorite toys had been broken. And in her bedroom, in addition to her clothes, which had been pulled out of the drawers and strewn about, the intruder had left water running in the bathtub to flood the floors.

What Pete said was right. Nothing of value had been taken. Not the coin collection her mother had started for Beau, not the set of expensive purses in her closet or any of her big screen televisions. The only thing the person had done was trash every part of her home as if he’d been trying to make a statement. However, she was clueless as to what statement that could be.

“Think hard, Ms. Ashford. Are there any cases you’re working on that someone would want to scare you away from?” Pete asked.

For the life of her she couldn’t think of one case, past or present, where anyone could want to extract some kind of revenge. She had won all her cases lately, except for one, and none of the cases were such that either party would encounter any financial hardship.

“I honestly can’t think of any case like that, Deputy Higgins.”

Pete nodded and shoved his notepad into his pocket. “If you think of anything later, let me know. I’m turning this over to a detective who will contact you. There is also the issue of the car that was following you earlier today, the one Canyon reported.”