The Deputy's Redemption. Delores Fossen

onto the weathered wood porch. Colt reached for them at the same time she did, and their heads ended up colliding.

      Right on her stitches.

      The pain shot through her, and even though Elise tried to choke back the groan, she didn’t quite succeed.

      “Sorry.” Colt cursed and snatched the keys from her to unlock the door. His hands definitely weren’t shaking.

      “Wait here,” he ordered the moment they stepped into the living room. He shut the door, gave her a stay-put warning glance and drew his gun before he started looking around.

      Only then did Elise realize that someone—another hit man maybe—could already be hiding inside. Waiting to kill her.

      Sweet heaven.

      When was this going to end?

      And better yet, why was it happening in the first place?

      Elise glanced around at the living and dining rooms. The house wasn’t big, so she had no trouble seeing directly into the kitchen. Colt checked it out and then headed to the back hall where there were three small bedrooms and a bath. She’d always felt so safe here. But at the moment, every shadow looked like someone lurking and ready to jump out and attack.

      She held her breath, waiting, trying not to panic. The pain certainly didn’t help, and even though she wanted to keep a clear head, she might have to resort to the meds that the medic had brought to her at the sheriff’s office.

      “Keep the curtains closed and stay away from the windows,” Colt insisted. He reholstered his gun as he made his way back toward her. “You got a security system?”

      She shook her head. Her grandparents would have found it laughable that she needed such measures since there was usually no crime out here to speak of, but first thing in the morning Elise would definitely look into getting one.

      “Do you have any friends from Dallas you can stay with for a while?” he asked.

      Elise was about to assure him that she did, but she heard the judgmental tone in his voice. Or maybe that was her imagination working overtime, but she figured the tone was there. In Colt’s mind, and likely everyone else’s in town, she wasn’t part of Sweetwater Springs anymore. She had chosen the city life, and while that didn’t exactly make her an outcast, it didn’t make her welcome, either.

      “I have someplace I could stay,” she answered, but then had another look around the house. No, correction.

      Her home.

      For two years she’d been making plans to come back here, and she’d finally gotten the chance. Not only because of Jewell’s trial but because she finally had scraped together enough money to try to make the place into a working ranch again. It’d been her grandmother’s dream.

      Elise’s, too.

      And now someone was trying to snatch that away from her.

      Yes, she could go running back to Dallas, to her friends and her job, but there was no guarantee that the danger wouldn’t just follow her there. Maybe her best bet was to make a stand here. Of course, that might not turn out to be the safest way to go, and she’d be betting her life on it.

      “You okay?” Colt walked back toward her, and he was sporting a concerned look on his face.

      That’s when Elise realized she was massaging the side of her head just above those stitches. She wasn’t anywhere near okay, but saying it would only confirm what Colt already knew.

      “Swear to me that your family didn’t have anything to do with what happened tonight,” she said.

      Colt’s eyes narrowed, clearly insulted. “I swear,” he snarled. Then, he cursed. “And you’d better not accuse me of hiring that hit man to murder you.”

      No, she wouldn’t accuse him of that. But it didn’t mean the hit man hadn’t been connected to Jewell’s upcoming trial. The problem with that was figuring out who exactly involved with that trial would want her out of the picture.

      They stood there. Gazes held. A little too close for comfort in the small living room. Of course, miles might be too close, considering how he felt about her. And how she felt about him.

      Except her feelings were all over the place right now.

      Elise blamed that on the pain and spent adrenaline—and the fact that Colt had saved her life—but her body wasn’t going to let her forget that her childhood flame was just inches away. There’d always been an attraction between them, and she’d had that attraction verified on multiple occasions over the past decade when she’d been visiting her grandmother and had run into Colt.

      Of course, the timing had always been wrong for her to act on that attraction.

      He’d either been involved with someone or vice versa. Plus, there was him resenting her running off to another life. Which she had indeed done. Chasing that greener grass that hadn’t turned out to be so green, after all.

      Elise had always figured the attraction would just fade away. But she was rethinking that now.

      Nope, it was still there. On her part, anyway.

      Colt reached out, and for one heart-slamming moment, Elise thought he was reaching for her. Her stomach did a little flip-flop, and she felt something else.

      That trickle of heat.

      A trickle that she tried to cool down fast. But Colt cooled it for her when he didn’t touch her but instead reached around her and locked the door.

      “What?” he questioned, doing a double take when he looked at her face.

      She saw the exact moment when it registered that it was not a question that he wanted answered aloud, and he didn’t want her feeling anything for him. Didn’t want to feel anything but contempt for her, either.

      Elise was pretty sure they both failed at that.

      It didn’t mean anything would happen between them. It wouldn’t. No way would Colt let something like an old attraction play into this when his father’s life was essentially at stake. However, even that didn’t cool the old fire that’d started to simmer again.

      His mouth tightened, and he tipped his head to the sofa. “I’ll need a blanket and a pillow.”

      “I have a guest room,” she offered.

      He shook his head, fast. “The sofa’s fine.”

      Maybe because the guest room was right next to hers. Or maybe because he wanted to keep an eye on the front door in case another would-be killer showed up. That reminder didn’t help with the fear or the throbbing in her head.

      “It’s just a precaution,” Colt added, as if he’d read her mind. “Since you don’t have a security system or a dog, I’d rather be out here where I can hear if anyone drives up.”

      She nodded, forced her feet to get moving to the linen closet in the hall, but Elise had only made it a few steps when Colt’s phone buzzed. Just like that, her heart went to her throat again, and she pulled in her breath, praying that nothing else had gone wrong.

      “Reed,” Colt said, answering the call.

      He didn’t put it on speaker, and Elise figured it wasn’t a good idea for her to get close enough to him to hear what his fellow deputy was saying. However, judging from the way Colt’s jaw tightened again, this wasn’t good news.

      “He did what?” Colt answered in response to whatever Reed had said. “No, I’ll call Cooper,” he added and then ended the call.

      “What happened now?” she asked when Colt just stood there, glaring at the phone.

      “It’s Joplin. He’s claiming that the attack on you is grounds for a mistrial, and he wants the charges against Jewell dismissed.”

      It wasn’t totally unexpected news, but clearly Colt blamed her