Robert had set up Jessie and his secret children well and Markus already had designs on that money, but there was always a need for more. He wouldn’t rest until Jessie had squeezed every last drop out of the rest of the family.

  They’d already discussed their approach and how she needed to position her abandoned family to maximize their sympathy and, therefore, her children’s inheritance.

  Taking a deep breath, he prepared himself for the evening. At first, she’d amused him, but things had grown tiresome of late. Especially with the constant requests to marry. What had started as a murmur had moved to a fevered crescendo in the months since Robert had died and he hadn’t fully settled on a dismissal that would work.

  The jealousy from the rest of the flock had worked for a while, but he knew that excuse was wearing thin.

  He rapped lightly before opening the door. Even with the fact that several women had been found dead in the area, Jessie was oblivious to any risk to herself.

  She almost flouted it, truth be told. Walking around the compound and trying to meet him in the more deserted areas of the property as if nothing amiss had happened to other women out alone.

  “Darling!”

  Jessie flung herself at him and he braced for impact as he suddenly had his arms full of woman. Ensuring his next eye roll was a mental one only, he cooed back at her, “Darling, how I’ve missed you.”

  “It’s been forever.” She practically mewled the words against his chest and Markus held her in place there, his chin propped against the top of her head.

  He’d just left her this morning, but he could play the besotted swain with the best of them. It was one of many in his bag of tricks.

  “It’s felt like ages, my darling.”

  She sighed against his chest before staring up at him. “It’s agony. I can’t wait until the day when we don’t have to live in secret any longer. When the whole world will know I’m Mrs. Markus Acker.”

  “I wait with bated breath.”

  “Can we do it soon? I’ve been thinking, and really, my love, there’s nothing to be done for those selfish, silly leeches who will be jealous of me. Of our love.”

  It was further reinforcement that the jealousy-of-the-flock argument was losing its power.

  He cycled through any number of responses, initially floundering before the perfect one filled his mind.

  “I know, darling, and I feel the same. The women who will be jealous are going to be no matter what. But there is another issue. One that worries me even more.”

  Jessie’s gaze narrowed, her clear irritation at being put off once more filling eyes that had grown far less adoring. “Now what?”

  “It’s Nathan and Sarah.”

  That gaze brightened right up. “Well, that’s no problem. They won’t be jealous.”

  “Of course not. They love you. I’m more concerned with pushing one more layer of upheaval into their lives. They’re still grieving their father and meeting all those new brothers and sisters.” He waved a hand. “I’d hate to give them any more emotional pain. I want them to celebrate our love right along with us and I fear that won’t happen if we try to marry now.”

  He mentally applauded himself for the quick thinking and had to admit the point had merit. Even if he had been wildly interested in marrying their mother, her children were grieving the loss of their father and adjusting to a new family, all at once. A marriage at this time was hardly ideal.

  He pressed a kiss to her forehead, keeping her close and practically willing her to his way of thinking. But as he pulled back, determined to keep his visage calm, his attitude easy and serene, he saw her start to wear down.

  A sort of acceptance seemed to fill her eyes before she nodded.

  “You’re right, my darling. A little while longer. Nathan and Sarah have been through so much.”

  So very much, Markus thought as he pulled Jessie against him once more, his hands drifting down over her spine before settling low on her back.

  He was still determined to use the way Jessie and Robert had brought their two youngest children into the world to his advantage.

  Because there was no one serene enough or centered enough to overlook the slight of being excluded from an inheritance when the rest of their siblings got something.

  He’d spent a lifetime reading human behavior.

  And he’d bet his life he could work those two to his advantage.

  * * *

  I’d really appreciate it if you’d do it again.

  Her own words ran over and over in her head as the kiss with Chase spun out and Sloan wondered how quickly she’d changed in so short a time.

  When had she become so brazen?

  And why did it seem so natural to kiss him beneath a rainbow-laden sky?

  She should pull away.

  There was no way she could get used to this. She was so close to uncovering the answers at Colton Properties. And once she did, she’d be gone.

  But it was because of that very fact she stayed where she was.

  She’d have to leave soon, and she needed to soak up every single moment of this. Wrapped up in Chase’s arms, kissing him and exploring this magic between them.

  Chase nuzzled her lips before gently lifting his head. “Does that mean you liked the double rainbow?”

  “I like the man under the double rainbow. The beautiful sky was just a side benefit.”

  They stood there for several heartbeats, their gazes locked before Chase seemed to come to some decision.

  “I can’t say I’m sorry, but we shouldn’t be doing this. Your work’s impeccable and much as I hate the outcome, I know you’ll have my problem fixed in a matter of days and be headed back to Chicago.”

  He was right.

  Every single bit of it was fact. And yet...

  Why did the thought of leaving make her sad?

  Yes, she was attracted to Chase, but they’d only formally met less than a week ago. Even if she added the few weeks they’d spoken on the phone, Chase Colton had been part of her life for less than a month.

  So why would completing a job and going home be something to be upset about?

  “I will be.”

  “I—” Chase’s hesitance was something of a surprise, especially when it was matched by him stepping back. “I can’t thank you enough for all your help.”

  Those small embers that had sparked to life in the past, when he’d firmly put her in the professional box, were nowhere in evidence this time. Instead, she saw the cracks around the frayed edges of his control.

  And with it, she laid a hand on his shoulder, willing him to understand that the challenges he faced now weren’t permanent. They were earth-shattering, but they would pass.

  “You and your family are going to get through this, you know.” She held his gaze steady. “All of you. Together.”

  “There are some days I believe that. Like last night.” His whole demeanor relaxed a bit, some of that tension that had lit him up as he’d stepped away fading. “When we’re together I do believe we’ll get through it.”

  “That’s what you need to focus on, then. That there is a future for all of you and it’s a good one. And it’s built on a solid foundation.”

  “Oh, sure, rock-solid.”

  It was meant as a joke and she knew that. But as Chase said the words, she realized that there was something there worth digging underneath.

  “There is, Chase. Think about it. Your mom and your Uncle Buck were there. Always there, for all of you.”

  As Sloan considered it, she realized there really was something there.

  Something well worth celebrating.

  “I haven’t met either of them, but their presence was clearly felt last night at the barbecue. The way everyone spoke of them and whenever anyone shared a funny story, the names Jenny and Buck were at the center of it.”

  “They’re good people. We’ve often joked quietly among all us kids that those two should have been the ones who got married.”

  “They built your foundation.”

  “I guess they did.”

  “They gave you the tools to get through this. The depth of your relationships with your siblings and your cousins. The understanding of the importance of family.”

  “It’s a wonder how Nate and Sarah got that at all,” Chase said on a sigh. “Especially seeing as who they got as parents.”

  “You’ll see to it that they get the full benefit of being Coltons from here on out.”

  “You make it sound so simple.”

  “Maybe it is. Maybe for all the complications in all your lives, what your mom and what your Uncle Buck gave you is solid. Unshakable.”

  “I want to believe that, Sloan. You have no idea how badly I want to.”

  “Why can’t you?”

  “What if I’m wrong?”

  * * *

  His question sort of lingered there between them. One more sign the man he believed himself to be had somehow vanished in the events of the past few months.

  Those unassailable qualities about himself he’d have said were unbreakable had, in fact, broken.

  “Maybe it isn’t about being right or wrong, in this case.”

  Sloan’s words had been spoken in a low, soft tone and Chase found himself caught up in that quiet, lilting quality.

  Moreover, he was snared in the promise she offered.

  “How can it be about anything else?”

  “You have to find a way forward for yourself. Based on what I’ve observed, I believe your family will, too, but in the end it’s their journey.”

  He’d bet on every one of his brothers and sisters and cousins in a heartbeat.

  Why was he having such a hard time betting on himself?

  Sloan glanced toward the fading rainbow before her gaze resettled on him. “Take me for a drive.”

  “Where?”

  “Here. Around Owl Creek. A bit beyond if you’d like. I want to see what you do.”

  “You want to see real estate?”

  “I want to see the home you love and the land you love. Show it to me.” She spread a hand outward. “Whatever else has shaken your foundation, this is yours.”

  It was a unique sort of encouragement but as they exited her apartment complex grounds fifteen minutes later, Chase had to admit it was the perfect balm for all that had been bothering him.

  Crisscrossing through Owl Creek, he pointed out various landmarks, silly things he’d done as a kid down at the town lake and even a piece of land on the edge of town that was his dream property.

  “What’s so important about it?” Sloan asked.

  “I’ve believed for years we could sustain a resort here. A real one, that people plan trips around. We’d bring a significant amount of tourism along with a heck of a lot of industry and jobs.”

  “What’s stopping you?”

  “The land’s the easy part on this one. Getting the right backers. Working with the right company. It’s far more complex than a typical build and I haven’t quite found the right promise to investors.”

  Chase pulled into a small gravel lot near the largest lake in Owl Creek. He put the car in Park and cut the engine, about to get out when Sloan put a hand on his arm. “You’ll get there. I know you will.”

  “I’d always believed it.”

  “Then keep believing it.”

  Old habits died hard, and Chase knew more than a decade of choices couldn’t be undone in a matter of days. But Sloan had changed something.

  He didn’t want a relationship. He’d been so firm on that count, quite sure heading down that path again would destroy him.

  It was a mistake he had no interest in making again.

  And even with all that certainty, Sloan had snuck through his defenses.

  He kept fighting it but his reaction to Greg’s interest in her had been a flag. The special combination of excitement and ease he always felt in her presence was another. And the fact that he wanted to share this dream with her was yet another.

  In what felt like much too short a time, she’d come to matter.

  And he wasn’t quite sure what to do about it.

  Which made the frown that subtly marred her lips a surprise he keyed in on immediately.

  “What is it?”

  “I have no way of making this sound better than I mean it, but I was sitting here looking at all this beauty and couldn’t help but question those dead women discovered last month.” A small shiver rippled through her shoulders. “It’s terrible.”

  It had been horrific, and Chase knew the case had shaken a lot of people in Wake County. The brutality of it all and the sheer number of women who’d been killed had been staggering.

  That another young woman had then been killed in the hospital, after seemingly escaping from captors, had only added to that underlying sense of unease folks had been feeling.

  Although they’d spoken briefly about the Ever After Church before, Chase elaborated on what he knew.

  “Max worked that case. It’s where he met Della.”

  “I got the sense something dark had drawn them together based on a few things that had been said at the barbecue,” Sloan said. “But I didn’t feel last night was the right time to ask.”

  Chase caught her up quickly. He told Sloan how Della had been training her K-9, Charlie, in a new-to-him mountainous area, and while tracking, had found a dead body. Max had been called in as the FBI lead to work the case.

  “Horrifically, they found seven bodies in total and then another woman who’d been badly hurt who died later. One of the seven was Della’s cousin, Angela Baxter.”

  “That’s awful.”

  “It really shook Della up, as you’d imagine. But she was committed to seeing it all through.”

  “Those articles I read? One reporter seems determined to link it to that local church we talked about.”

  It was Chase’s turn to frown at that description. “Ever After?” When she only nodded, he added, “You hear things, working in real estate. They seem to move from place to place and have laid claim to a property a few towns over in Conners.”

  “Laid claim? Don’t churches have actual structures? Buildings they use? A place they actually settle and develop?”

  “My thoughts exactly. I’ve always been one to let people live their lives because you see a lot in real estate that’s not really your business. Who wants to build a survival camp, or who’s decided they need to carve out a ditch in the woods for a fallout shelter.”

  “People still do that?”

  “They most certainly do.” Chase shook his head. “But there’s something about that church that isn’t right. Max’s mother has dabbled in that group and it’s worried him.”

  “Jessie Colton’s a part of that?”

  “Appears so. My cousins all think it’s a bad idea, but she’s not exactly been a part of their lives and I don’t think they know how to engage her on the topic.” Chase shrugged, recognizing a deeper truth. “I don’t think they know how to engage her on anything.”

  “What do Nate and Sarah think?”

  “I’m not entirely sure but I don’t get the sense they put too much stock in their mother’s choices.”

  “One more choice in a long line of poor ones,” Sloan murmured.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Leaving her children and her husband. Putting on a married facade with a new man who also happens to be her sister’s husband. Now she’s caught up in an entity that is under a cloud of suspicion. Those are some seriously questionable decisions.”

  Chase had never put much stock in the stories of his Aunt Jessie. Any woman who’d run off on her children—his cousins, who had become, through a lifetime together, some of his best friends—had never seemed worth his time or attention.

  The fact that his cousins had gone out of their way to avoid speaking about her—a point his mother mimicked—had made Jessie a sort of ghost in his life. Someone who hovered on the periphery but wasn’t really visible from day to day.

  “It does make you wonder.”

  And now that Sloan had made the point, it actually had him wondering quite a bit. He had the details on the property in Conners the Ever After Church was purported to live on.

  Maybe he’d do a bit of discreet digging.

  It really had nothing to do with him, and yet...it had everything to do with him because it was about his family. Max, Greg, Malcolm and Lizzy were as close to him as his siblings.

  He’d spent enough time wallowing in the things he hadn’t considered or had the foresight to recognize, Chase realized.

  But this he could look into.

  This he could understand better.

  If his Aunt Jessie really was making yet another poor decision in a long line of them, wasn’t it important to understand that?

  Because maybe if they did, they’d all take a big step forward in putting the past firmly behind them.

  * * *

  Sloan wasn’t sure what had prompted her suggestion to drive around Owl Creek but was glad for whatever impulse had struck. Their afternoon had been...restorative.

  And it had given her yet another glimpse into the fascinating man Chase Colton was.

  His love of this deeply beautiful part of Idaho was evident, as was his knowledge of real estate and the business of making a property a successful enterprise.

  Even their discussion of the dead women had been laced with his knowledge and understanding of real estate, property management and the basic requirements to use the land.

  And how odd to know that his Aunt Jessie—already suspect to Sloan’s way of thinking—was part of that creepy group.

  Although it was a distraction that she didn’t really need to indulge, she knew herself well enough to know that she’d be doing a bit more digging later into the Ever After Church.