The Colton Marine

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“I’m not talking about that,” Edith said. “I just want to know that he’s a man I can trust. We’ll be working alone together in this house.”

“Of course,” Thorne said. “River’s a man of honor. A hero.”

“Thanks for being my hero right now,” Edith told him with a hug. But she pulled away from him and headed back toward the house.

Knowing he was being dismissed, Thorne headed toward his truck. As he drove away, he wondered about what he’d told her. He wondered if River could be trusted. His brother had been gone ten years. How well did any of them really know him?

After whatever he’d been through, how well did River even know himself?

Chapter 6 (#uc4f71e6a-1e93-580d-849c-83f28c2e0100)

Her hands trembled as she reached for the stallion’s reins. River wasn’t sure which one of them was more skittish, the woman or the horse. Jade expelled a shaky breath and smoothed her hand over the mane. It wasn’t Shadow making his younger sister nervous.

Jade was an expert horsewoman. Hell, she’d been born riding. And she’d trained horses far more temperamental than Shadow.

“What’s wrong?” he asked her as she began to lead the stallion around the pasture outside Mac’s barn. He’d offered to bring the horse to her, but she’d wanted to work with it here. Trailering him was too traumatic, probably bringing up all those times he had been trailered from racetrack to racetrack.

River was able to relate to the traumatic memories. At least his only came back in dreams—when his guard was down and he couldn’t fight them. Edith had helped him fight that morning, when she’d held him. He couldn’t forget the feeling of her bare arms wrapped around him.

But when she’d needed him, after all those reporters had stormed the property, he hadn’t been there for her. He shuddered at the memory of the camera bulbs flashing through the ivy-covered window, of the voices raised with questions. He would rather have faced a firing squad than that. But he hadn’t left until Thorne had shown up to help her.

And she’d had her can of pepper spray for protection. Edith Beaulieu was tougher than her slim build and beauty suggested.

“Where are you?” Jade called out to him, concern in her soft voice and eyes.

“What?” he asked as he blinked his one good eye to focus on his sister’s tense face. She looked thinner since he’d first returned and more haunted than he did.

“You looked like you were a million miles away,” she said. And she was obviously thinking he’d been back there—to the scene of that last explosion.

He shook his head. “Not nearly that far,” he assured her. “Just next door.”

She tensed even more and all the color drained from her face. It was acres away but she glanced in the direction of the estate and asked, “To La Bonne Vie?”

He nodded now.

She shuddered. “What the hell were you doing there?”

“That’s what I’d like to know,” a husky female voice remarked with that sexy Louisiana drawl that had River’s stomach muscles and other parts of his body tensing.

He turned toward Edith where she stood on the other side of the corral fence. “I told you—I was making sure the place was safe.”

“There’s nothing safe about that place,” Jade remarked, and as her nerves increased, the horse reared up. “Shh...” she told him. But her usual skills had no effect on the scared animal.

Dodging the raised hooves, River ducked in and grabbed the reins from his sister. Using all his strength, he tugged the horse down and led it back into the barn. When he returned after putting the stallion into his stall, he found Jade and Edith deep in conversation.

His sister seemed even more agitated. “What have you said to her?” River asked Edith, as he hurried to Jade’s side and wrapped his arm around her trembling shoulders. Since Jade had never left Shadow Creek, she had probably met Edith several times before Thorne’s wedding, so the women knew each other. Did they not like each other?

“It’s what she hasn’t said,” Jade replied. “She won’t answer me about what the new owner’s plans are for La Bonne Vie.”

“She can’t,” River said.

Jade snorted, much like one of her horses might. “Yeah, right...”

“It’s true,” he insisted.

And Edith turned toward him, her brown eyes wide with obvious surprise over his defense of her.

“She has a confidentiality agreement,” he explained. “She could risk losing her job.”

“She’s risking a hell of a lot more by spending time in that house,” Jade ominously warned him.

“What do you mean?” Edith asked her.

Jade trembled. “Nothing good ever happened in that house.”

River could remember some good times—with his siblings, with Mac, with some of the nannies and tutors Livia had hired for them. He could even remember a few good times with their mother—when she’d paid them attention.

“Come on, Jade,” he admonished his sister. “You know that’s not completely true—”

“Maybe not for you,” she said. “But it’s true for me. I hate that house. I hope the new owner burns down the entire place!”

“Jade!” River exclaimed, shocked at his sister’s outburst.

She tugged free of his arm around her shoulders and stepped out the gate. A pang struck his heart as he was torn between chasing after his sister and staying to talk to Edith.

River had been gone so long that he barely knew Jade. She’d been a child when he’d joined the Marines. But if Jade was anything like him, she would prefer to be alone to get herself back under control. At least River had always preferred to be alone—until that morning, when he’d surfaced from the nightmare to find Edith holding him.