Colton 911: Family Under Fire

She’d only known the Dodds through their friendship with Everett, which had gone sour years before. She certainly hadn’t enjoyed their company, finding Sean arrogant and Delilah demanding and superior. Now the couple had died in tragic circumstances, and Alyssa had no idea what, if anything, their will could mean to her.

Private. That had been the key word in that letter. I thought it meant just me.

All thoughts of Sean and Delilah were driven out of her head as Everett took the seat next to her. Breaking up with him had almost destroyed her, and she knew it had been equally hard on him. Under the pretense of checking her cell for damage, she risked a few sidelong glances in his direction. He was still the hottest man she’d ever seen.

With his crystal-blue eyes, tousled sandy hair and square chin, he gave off an air of brooding intensity. That was until he smiled—then he could light up a room. One of Alyssa’s favorite hobbies during their time together had been making him smile.

Because his looks are the most important thing about this whole situation, right? But her reaction to him wasn’t trivial. It summed up the power he still had over her. And the danger of being near him.

Although seeing him again had thrown her completely off balance, she experienced a moment of relief. After everything that had happened between them, she had never imagined Everett would speak to her again. Okay, so a curt demand to know what she was doing there was hardly friendly conversation, but at least he hadn’t ignored her and walked out.

“So…” he began. Her phone was in danger of flying out of her grasp again as he turned her way, his light blue eyes catching hers. “How’s the pool playing going? Did you turn professional yet?”

Alyssa made a sound midway between a gasp and a laugh. It was so like him to take her by surprise with humor when she was expecting anger, and he’d done it with a reference to their first meeting.

Her heart was in turmoil, but she figured if he could keep it light, she could, too. “No, but the Pocket Rockets have my number anytime they need a substitute.”

He nodded. “I can see why Phoenix’s premier women’s pool team would have a recruitment drive among elementary-school teachers.”

“If I remember rightly, this third-grade teacher has whipped your ass on more than one occasion—”

He checked his watch. “Less than two minutes.”

The way they had slipped so easily back into a familiar, teasing rhythm was almost scary. She should stop it now. Distant and aloof, that would be the best approach… “Okay, Colton. I’ll take this bait. What are you talking about?”

“Four years apart, and two minutes is all it took for your obsession with my ass to resurface.” He grinned at her. It wasn’t just any grin. It was the grin. The one that weakened her knees a little.

And that was it. All those times she’d told herself he couldn’t flip her heart over with a look? Lies. Every last one.

“Sorry about the delay. That coffee machine is so slow,” the receptionist said as she scooted quickly past Everett and placed a tray on the desk.

“My visitors don’t need that sort of information, Brenda.” The man who entered the room dabbed at his brow with a large handkerchief.

“I don’t know. Sometimes it’s good to know why you’ve been kept waiting.” Alyssa regarded Everett in surprise. He was no diplomat, but he usually managed a basic level of politeness.

The other man’s face reddened. “I apologize for my lateness. I was unavoidably delayed.” He took a seat on the other side of the desk and gave Alyssa a tight-lipped smile. “I’m Raymond Torrington. Thank you for coming, Miss Bartholomew.” The smile disappeared as he nodded in Everett’s direction. “We’ve met before, Agent Colton.

“I’ll get straight to the point.” He opened a drawer in his desk, withdrew a folder and placed it in front of him. “Since their marriage, I’ve been Sean Dodd and Delilah Kennedy Dodd’s lawyer. I am also executor of their will. Following their tragic deaths, it now falls to me to ensure that their estate is disposed of according to their wishes.” He withdrew a single sheet of paper from the folder. “The will is very straightforward. There is one beneficiary who will inherit all property and investments.”

“If that’s the case, why are the two of us here?” Even if she hadn’t known him as well as she knew herself, Everett’s body language would have been easy to interpret—arms folded across his muscular chest, jaw clenched, one foot tapping out a restless beat.

“My clients wrote this will just over four years ago, not long after their marriage.” Raymond scanned the sheet of paper as he spoke.

Four years. Alyssa looked at Everett, wondering if the significance of the time frame had registered with him.

Clearly it had. “That was around the time Georgia Dodd, Sean’s younger sister, left my brother, Casey, at the altar.” His voice was tight with remembered anger. “Sean masterminded the incident because he thought that a deputy sheriff wasn’t good enough for his kid sister. Or possibly he didn’t want a law-enforcement officer in the family taking a closer look at what he was getting up to. The reason doesn’t matter. It was the end of our friendship.”

He flicked a look Alyssa’s way to let her know he hadn’t forgotten the rest. Soon after that incident, but for unrelated reasons, they had broken up.

“I’m assuming that Georgia, whom I recently had the pleasure of arresting at gunpoint, is the beneficiary.” Alyssa jumped slightly at Everett’s words. It wasn’t just the fact that he’d been involved in apprehending Georgia. They were a stark reminder of the dangers he faced every day.

“Although Georgia was released on bail, she broke the terms of her bail by attempting to leave town. She’s now back behind bars but that won’t affect her inheritance. So can we cut to the part where you tell us what our role is? Did Sean name us as trustees four years ago and forget to change it?”

“Georgia Dodd is not named in her brother’s will. The circumstances are…unusual. There is a section in the document that involves the two of you. Twelve months ago, Sean and Delilah came to see me to check it was still legal.” Raymond dabbed at his upper lip with his handkerchief. “This will be easier to explain if I invite my other guests to join us.” He pressed a button on his desktop phone.

“Other guests?” Alyssa looked around as the door opened and a middle-aged woman entered the room. She leaned to one side under the weight of a large bag shaped like a pink elephant; in her other arm, she carried a sleeping baby.

“This is Patty Griffiths of the Arizona Department of Child Safety.” Raymond indicated the child. “Kennedy is Sean and Delilah’s six-month-old daughter, and she has been left in your joint custody.”

Everett’s brain was spinning like a top. As he was trying to get his thoughts under control, the baby woke up and started to cry.

Alyssa was out of her seat in a heartbeat. Children had always drawn her in like a magnet. “Hey, honey. What’s wrong? Are you hungry?”

Patty Griffiths handed Kennedy over to her with a look of relief. “She probably is. When she came to us, she’d recently started on solid food, but she still has at least one bottle of formula a day.”

“Have you been caring for her?” Everett watched as Kennedy hitched in a sob and gazed up at Alyssa through tear-filled eyes. He’d had no time to come to terms with the bombshell Ray had delivered, yet he was getting the impression that events were already spiraling out of his control.

“She’s been staying in one of our facilities since her parents died.” Patty reached into the bag and withdrew a baby bottle in an insulated carrier. When she handed it to Alyssa, Kennedy made a cooing noise and reached out chubby hands for it. “There are some basics here in this bag, and her car seat is in the front office. Once I have your address, I can arrange to have her other belongings delivered within a few hours.”

“Wait.” The spell that had been holding him silent snapped and Everett finally found his voice. “We’re not together, and neither of us even lives here in town. This is all moving way too fast. We can’t be expected to put our lives on hold and go along with a plan we knew nothing about.”

He was conscious of Alyssa watching him as she resumed her seat, Kennedy tucked into the crook of her arm. The baby grasped the bottle, making contented noises as she suckled greedily.

“If you could leave us alone while we continue this discussion?” Ray waved a hand in the direction of the door and Patty went out. He tapped a pen on the top of his desk and shuffled his papers before continuing. “This is exactly what I said would happen when Sean and Delilah came to me with this plan. They had named you as guardians while you were still friends and had never gotten around to making the necessary changes. When Delilah found out she was pregnant, they wanted to know if they could leave things as they were. I told them that, if they left the custody details in the will without consulting you, there was every chance you would just walk away without agreeing to it.”

“If it was against your advice, why did they go ahead with it?” Everett asked.

“Sean’s reasoning was that although you had drifted apart, he couldn’t imagine anyone who would be better parents to his daughter.”

“The guy always was a piece of work.” Everett shook his head, his emotions ranging between exasperation and a reluctant, lingering fondness for the man who had once been a good friend. “But we can say no to this, right?”

“Let’s be clear.” It was Alyssa’s don’t-mess-with-me voice. The one she used with her students. “We aren’t saying no. We’re not saying anything. Not yet. We’re gathering information. You said Kennedy had been left in our joint custody. If one of us is unwilling to be involved, can the other take sole responsibility for her?”

Raymond shook his head. “The will clearly states that she is to be cared for by both of you.”

Alyssa’s indrawn breath touched a point at the center of Everett’s heart. “What will happen to Kennedy if we don’t do this?”

“If you choose not to accept custody, Kennedy will be placed back into the care of the Department of Child Safety, where she will enter the foster system,” Raymond said.

Everett knew what those words would do to Alyssa. When he turned his head to look at her, he could see her own past in the depths of her eyes. There was also a plea for help there. And it was aimed at him.

She was an only child, traumatized when and her father was killed by a drunk in a random knife attack when she was ten. After that, her mom had wasted away, and her death, when Alyssa was eighteen, brought an end to years of misery. The scars of growing up without any real parental presence in her life ran deep. He knew there was no way she would walk away from this child who, like her, was the innocent victim of abandonment.

But was she seriously asking him to do this? Did she believe that, after everything that had happened between them, they would somehow put the past behind them and together raise a child? And did he have to make a decision right now?

Four years ago, he’d have done anything for this woman. She knew that because he’d told her. But it hadn’t been enough. Alyssa had needed assurances he couldn’t give. At the same time, Everett had his own reasons for shying away from responsibility. It was hardly a match made in heaven.

Nothing in either of their lives had changed since, apparently. Being close to her again would mean handing her his well-being, his dreams and his life in a way that meant she could break his heart all over again. It had hurt enough the first time. Was he willing to go through all that pain again? And this time they would be adding a baby into the mix.