“No, that’s not fair. It’s wrong to lay it at Nathan and Sarah’s feet. I didn’t want to tell the family because problems at Colton Properties are on me. And I’m embarrassed that I’ve got a potential financial problem and have been oblivious to it for who knows how long.”

  There.

  It was out.

  The real reason he wanted to hide Sloan’s investigation.

  “This isn’t on you, Chase.”

  “How can you say that? It’s entirely on me. I’m the head of CP and what happens there happens on my watch.”

  “People are capable of some pretty bad stuff. That doesn’t rest on you.”

  Once again, there it was. It was that same push Max made last night. But how did he explain this?

  Even if he could see his way to the point that he didn’t own every action of the people around him, he was still the leader of the company. He’d made it his life, damn it, and shouldn’t there be some benefit to that?

  Some proof that all his time, effort and energy had created a company that was more than the sum of its parts?

  Only he didn’t say that.

  He went with the easier truth. The one that demonstrated responsibility and accountability.

  Not one more oblivious failure in what was shaping up to be a list of them.

  “I’m the head of the company. If it doesn’t rest on me, Greg, who does it rest on?”

  Greg remained quiet, obviously thinking. For all his earlier teasing, the only thing that remained in the man’s dark brown eyes was concern.

  And the clear traces of stubbornness Chase recognized lived in his own eyes.

  “I think you’re confusing responsibility with deliberate action.”

  “Hardly.”

  “Hear me out. Then you can go back to being a stubborn ass. But seriously...” Greg paused. “Will you promise to listen for a minute?”

  “Alright. I will.”

  “I’ve been thinking about it all a lot lately. We can thank our parents for that.”

  That same wry smile was there, but it was tinged with something decidedly more sober.

  Grief.

  “And I can’t say I have it figured out, but I do think there’s a space there.”

  “A space where?”

  “Between responsibility and action. I might take responsibility for my own actions, but I can’t own others’. And it’s a tougher pill to swallow than it initially seems.”

  Chase wasn’t entirely sure he understood where Greg was going but he knew the man sitting opposite him.

  He was like a brother.

  They’d spent their whole lives together and Chase knew Greg wasn’t prone to fits of deep thoughts. He wasn’t a callous man, or a superficial one, but his sense of himself was innately tied to the land he worked, each and every day. With that came a certain sort of centeredness that didn’t depend on the opinions of others, or much worry or bother about what they thought.

  So when the man spoke of those deep thoughts and the things he’d spent time working through in his mind, Chase recognized a kindred spirit.

  He’d believed work—hard work—was the key to getting through it all. Hadn’t he done the same to get through his marriage? And then to get through life postdivorce?

  Work and effort and focus had seemed like the only answers he’d needed.

  So how jarring to realize that doing those things—using work as the balm—was one more way of just running away.

  And the things that hunted him always found a way to keep up.

  “So what you’re saying is I need to cut myself a break?”

  “Yeah, you do. But more than that, you need to find a way to separate that innate sense of responsibility from feeling that you need to own every problem. They might rest heavy, but you didn’t make the mess, Chase. You’re just stuck cleaning it up.”

  They sat there quietly, drinking their coffee, Greg’s words of wisdom filling the air between them.

  Chase might not be fully ready to accept his circumstances, but perhaps he could see his way toward loosening the tight grip he had on that sense of responsibility as the oldest Colton. Maybe he could even relax a bit further and accept that for all the pain in their lives, they were forging a path to something new, too.

  Something that included a new brother and a new sister, two completely awesome people in their own right.

  And when the smile returned to his cousin’s face, Chase realized they’d come to some sort of an unspoken agreement.

  “Now we move to the most important part of our discussion. The beautiful woman you’re parading around town as your girlfriend.”

  “Watch it, cuz.”

  “You see—that right there.” Greg’s smile only grew wider and far more mischievous. “That tells me she means something to you.”

  “Sloan’s an amazing woman and an incredible professional. She’s damn near solved my problem at Colton Properties and did it in less than a week.”

  Greg only smiled more broadly.

  “What?” Chase pressed. “What are you trying to say through that stupid grin?”

  “Your obsession with being the de facto head of the family and taking care of everyone. It’s an admirable trait most of the time, even if you can’t take us in your confidence and trust we can support you.” Greg’s smile faded, his tone laced with more heat and frustration than the man normally worked up in a year. “But right now? You’re confusing responsibility with shortsighted idiocy.”

  “Gee, thanks.” Chase fought the urge to get up and pace the room, Greg’s words settling over him like an ill-fitting jacket. “What am I being an idiot about?”

  “You’re talking like you’re going to let that woman walk away without a fight.”

  “She’s got two legs and a mind of her own. She can walk wherever she’d like.” Even with each word of that statement being totally true, Chase felt heat creep up his neck at being read so easily.

  “Yeah, nice try, but I’m not buying the crap you’re peddling here.”

  “She’s a contractor, doing a job for Colton Properties.”

  “Yeah, and she’s amazing to boot. And you look at her like you can’t stop looking at her.”

  Chase realized he hadn’t taken his gaze off his coffee mug, so he looked up to face his cousin.

  Because there it was.

  The truth he couldn’t run from or hide from his loved ones.

  Sloan Presley was under his skin and had been from the moment she’d barreled into his office.

  And it didn’t seem to matter that he didn’t want a relationship. Nor did it seem to matter she was only there in a professional sense.

  “If you let a woman like that just walk away without even trying to get her to stay?” Greg shook his head. “That’s major-league stupid and I’ve never taken you for that. Ever.”

  Chase hadn’t taken himself for major-league stupid, either.

  But lately his life had been bound and determined to convince him otherwise.

  * * *

  Sloan had thought about calling Chase about a half-dozen times, but firmly tamped down on each wave. Calling led to talking, and talking could lead to seeing each other, and she needed distance.

  Desperately.

  Especially because that kiss they’d shared hadn’t left her thoughts for longer than about eighty-three seconds at a time.

  “Pathetic much, Presley?”

  Sighing, she pushed back from the kitchen table and crossed to the fridge to root around for a midmorning snack. The rain hadn’t let up and there was a gloomy feeling to the dark light seeping into the kitchen that made her think of something rich and decadent.

  Which had then made her think of the leftover piece of Frannie’s pound cake she’d stashed in the fridge last night.

  Each time she’d been victorious against one of those urges to communicate, she’d forced herself instead to work through the irregularities she’d found in both the books as well as the record-keeping systems at Colton Properties.

  This go-round she’d assuage it with some delicious butter and sugar.

  With the cake and a fresh cup of coffee, she returned to her computer and figured it was worth trying a new tack on the hunt into Colton Properties. There were some particular irregularities, and she was curious if she could tie them by date to any specific happenings in town.

  Sloan took another bite of cake, closing her eyes briefly in bliss at the perfect blend of sweet and buttery, before typing in the most recent date of the anomalies she’d uncovered from the prior month.

  And she leaned in toward the screen at the page full of articles.

  While each was written slightly differently, the headlines all said much of the same thing and she clicked into the one that was the most succinct.

  Seven Women Found Dead in Wake County

  How had she overlooked this?

  It wasn’t directly tied to the situation at Colton Properties, but it was pretty gruesome news.

  Leaning forward, she read through the article and remembered she had gotten a few of these details before coming to Owl Creek, the biggest of which she’d forgotten. Max had worked this case. He hadn’t spoken of it, but Chase had referenced it very briefly on their first call when he’d given her the information that his cousin had been the one to recommend her firm.

  Goodness, how did a person live with doing that work?

  She admired Max, his skills and his willingness to do the very hard work, but she couldn’t imagine the toll it would take, day in and day out.

  Her work brought her close to crimes, but she still had the safety of a computer screen and the distance of reading about something, not actually being there when a body was found or a killer’s most depraved acts were discovered.

  She scanned the article quickly, as was her habit, and read about the initial search-and-rescue and the discovery of the bodies over a period of days. But it was the link at the bottom of the article that caught her attention.

  Law Enforcement Seeking Connection Between Serial Killer’s Victims

  “I guess I’m in now,” she muttered to herself, following through to the linked article.

  This one was full of speculation, she thought. There simply didn’t appear to be any concrete facts for them to follow, but the enterprising reporter who’d written the story focused on the comparable ages of the women, their general similarity in appearance and the time period of their expected deaths.

  “Just over two years.” The shiver that skated down her spine was impossible to ignore. “What senseless deaths.”

  She was about to click on another link at the bottom of this article, leading her to the latest details, when her phone lit up with a text from Chase.

  Come outside.

  She smiled in spite of herself as three dots appeared on the screen, followed by another message.

  It’ll be worth it.

  It was ridiculous to feel this shot of joy at the texts, but they did make her happy, the grisly articles quickly forgotten in favor of the man waiting outside.

  And if that was a problem?

  Well, she’d deal with it later.

  Whatever had happened last night—and she’d tossed and turned endlessly trying to figure it out—was last night.

  It was time to see what he had up his sleeve right now.

  She slipped into a pair of sneakers she’d left by the couch and was almost to the door when an impish impulse hit her. Opening up the text string, she shot a quick text of her own.

  Who is this?

  The text went winging away as she opened her front door and she was just in time to see his reaction as she looked over the second-floor railing. His hair was tousled and his head was bent, but even from above she could see the way his mouth thinned into a straight line as he stared at his phone screen.

  “Serves you right!” she hollered down, unable to fight the bubble of happiness that welled in her chest.

  He glanced up then and Sloan had the wildest impulse to race down the stairs and into his arms.

  “What serves me right?”

  “Summoning a woman out into the rain!”

  He smiled up at her before extending his arms. “Am I wet?”

  Sometime between her last look out the window and now, the rain must have let up, even though it was still pretty gloomy.

  “Come on down. I want to show you something.”

  She didn’t skip, but Sloan figured she could have moved a bit more sedately down the concrete steps that led to the first floor. It was only as she got close that Chase reached out, snagging her hand and pulling her up close to him.

  “There. Look.”

  She followed the extension of his hand as he pointed to something up over the roof of her building, a small gasp spilling from her throat as she took it all in.

  “It’s a double rainbow!”

  “I had to show you.”

  “It’s gorgeous.”

  She followed the distinct lines of the rainbow, each color coming to life in the sky in vivid relief. The second rainbow, a short distance from the first, had the expected fading, more pastel-hued in each color than the first rainbow, but equally beautiful.

  And, in that moment, it was like a small piece of magic just for them to share.

  “You really didn’t know it was me texting?”

  Sloan hadn’t believed that bubble of happiness could grow bigger, but at the anxious expression on his face, she realized that it had.

  “I was teasing you. We’ve been texting for three weeks now.”

  “Right.”

  “Chase.” She poked him in the chest before putting her palm against those firm lines. “It was a joke.”

  “Sure. Of course.”

  It was one of those small moments of vulnerability that simply melted her.

  Did he realize how adorable he was?

  And how hard he made it for her to keep her distance?

  Here was a formidable businessman and yet he could still be stymied by a silly text.

  It was...oddly sweet.

  And one more chink in the armor she was desperately trying to protect herself with.

  “I’m sorry.”

  The apology was out of place, especially seeing as he’d called her out here to see something so spectacular. “For what? The double rainbow is amazing.”

  “For last night. I was out of line, and I am sorry.”

  Sloan weighed her thoughts and realized there were two ways to play this. She could play dumb and pretend last night hadn’t happened and that she hadn’t actually spent most of the time since thinking about it, or she could push for what she wanted and stress her interest in having it happen again.

  “You weren’t out of line.” She lifted up on her toes to press a kiss to his jaw. “And I don’t need an apology.” She shifted to kiss his chin. “But I really would appreciate it if you’d do it again.”

  This time, she pressed her lips to his.

  For a fraction of a second, she thought she’d overstepped and misread the cues, his lips firmly closed and his jaw still unmoving.

  But then he opened his mouth, their lips suddenly locked in a delicious battle of wills.

  And it was the moment his arms came around her, pulling her tight against his chest, that Sloan realized she’d won the battle.

  Chapter 9

  Markus Acker stared at the text from his second-in-command, Winston Kraft, and felt a shot of pure satisfaction light him up from the center of his chest straight out to the very tips of his fingers.

  Their latest scheme and tentative partnership with a new launderer had gone off without a hitch and their money was clean.

  That quick hit of endorphins was short-lived since it hardly solved all their problems. Still, it was a step in the right direction.

  He’d managed to grow his flock considerably in the past few years, and with their devotion came their money. He had to find ways to funnel it into the Ever After Church without all those dirty strings attached.

  Speaking of attached...

  He rolled his eyes as he thought of Jessie Colton. Easily manipulated, yes, but she had a certain streak of determination he was finding increasingly annoying. She wasn’t nearly the subservient lamb he’d initially thought and her attitude of late had become downright demanding.

  And, damn, the woman had quite a life story.

  He’d believed he’d done a fairly decent job playing on her latent guilt. Since she’d left her four children to run off with her husband’s brother and have two more in secret, it had been easy to subtly shame her, especially when she first came into his flock. But of late, he’d questioned just how effective he’d been.

  His lamb had sprouted a few fangs.

  The death of Robert Colton was tricky. She’d loved the man, well enough to leave her first marriage and her young children to take up with him. But Robert’s subsequent leaving a decade later to go back full-time to his first family had left some wounds that most definitely hadn’t scarred over.

  No, Markus thought as he headed for the cabin they used in the woods outside the Ever After compound in Conners. That wound still had a lot of raw, seething pain in it.

  Which still left him with a tool to manage her, but he did have to be careful. Overchanneling that anger in the wrong direction could backfire if she erupted like a loose cannon.

  Up to now he’d focused on the two biological children she’d had with Robert.

  Nathan and Sarah.

  Both seemed rather oblivious to the benefits to be gained from their newfound family. But Markus innately knew that was the right button to push.

  They were abandoned children.

  Another family had received the majority of Robert’s love and affection in life.

  And now, most pressing of all, if they didn’t act, those other children would receive Robert’s wealth after his death.