“You deserve a stable, loving husband. Your children, as much or more so.”

  When he finally spoke, the words carried calmness. Truth. “As you witnessed for yourself earlier tonight, I can’t provide that. Not because I don’t want to or because I’m not willing to. Not because I wouldn’t give my all to try, but my PTSD is out of my control.”

  “It’s okay,” she told him. “I don’t want a husband, Sebastian. I’ve never had a long-term relationship because I didn’t want one. I’m thirty and single by choice.” The words came easily. There was a new catch in her heart as she said them though.

  How did a strong-minded, independent woman like herself accept the fact that she’d had no choice in the biggest matter in her life? Keeping the baby was a choice.

  But getting pregnant? She’d taken precautions and...

  “That night...” Sebastian said. “If it hadn’t been for my panic attack, we’d never have...”

  No, they wouldn’t have. But... “I wanted to.”

  Then he sobered. “That panic attack is precisely why I can’t offer you...”

  “I wouldn’t accept it if you did.”

  Dear Reader,

  Welcome to The Coltons of Owl Creek! We’ve got family saga galore as the small, close-knit town of Owl Creek is besieged by a danger with no name. The one constant? The Coltons, of course. These brothers and sisters and cousins are there for each other without fail. Questions are asked, they bicker some, but they lay down their lives for each other. Every single time.

  In Colton Threat Unleashed, book one, we’ve got the whole family together as the oldest Colton sister, Ruby, a veterinarian, finds out she’s pregnant at the same time someone seems to be stalking her. Her sisters think the stalker is the father of her baby. Ruby knows differently, but can’t say. The father is her older brother’s friend, Sebastian, a war vet whose dogs are his life. They had a one-night stand after one of Sebastian’s dogs almost died. And, well, the saga begins...

  Please, turn the page and jump in with both feet. Twelve seasoned authors have poured their hearts into these books. Each one has its own complete story, suspense and romance. And together they make an emotionally intense, compelling experience that will keep you hooked all year!

  TTQ

  COLTON THREAT UNLEASHED

  Tara Taylor Quinn

  A USA TODAY bestselling author of over one hundred novels in twenty languages, Tara Taylor Quinn has sold more than seven million copies. Known for her intense emotional fiction, Ms. Quinn’s novels have received critical acclaim in the UK and most recently from Harvard. She is the recipient of the Readers’ Choice Award and has appeared often on local and national TV, including CBS Sunday Morning.

  For TTQ offers, news and contests, visit www.tarataylorquinn.com!

  Books by Tara Taylor Quinn

  Harlequin Romantic Suspense

  The Coltons of Owl Creek

  Colton Threat Unleashed

  Sierra’s Web

  Tracking His Secret Child

  Cold Case Sheriff

  The Bounty Hunter’s Baby Search

  On the Run with His Bodyguard

  Not Without Her Child

  A Firefighter’s Hidden Truth

  Last Chance Investigation

  Danger on the River

  The Coltons of New York

  Protecting Colton’s Baby

  Visit the Author Profile page at

  Harlequin.com for more titles.

  To the Colton readers, who are the most important and cherished members of the family.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Excerpt from Cavanaugh Justice: Cold Case Squad by Marie Ferrarella

  Chapter 1

  He’d had sex with her. What in the hell had he been thinking?

  Clearly, he hadn’t been thinking. Sitting in his office, Sebastian watched her through his window. Weeks had passed and still he watched with too much interest as the beautiful veterinarian left the kennel where she’d been seeing to a pregnant dog after her regular office hours at her clinic in town and headed toward his house. That messy bun—did she always have to wear it looking so bedroom-like?

  The long blond hair had been down by the time she’d left his bed. Had she loosened it? Had he? Things had been so intense that night, with Oscar being injured by shrapnel from gunfire. Him calling Ruby in the middle of the night, afraid the heavily bleeding canine was going to die on him.

  As if sensing his current unrest, the golden retriever mix—and Sebastian Cross’s personal canine companion—grabbed a stuffed octopus and brought it over to shove it in Sebastian’s hand. He and Oscar had started Crosswinds together, training search-and-rescue dogs, like Oscar, for people all over the country.

  Oscar didn’t seem at all fazed by that night two months before. But Sebastian, thinking he’d lost his only family member—pacing in his home while Dr. Ruby Colton worked on Oscar—had been thrown back a few years. He’d thought he’d left the panic behind. And the vet—she’d finished with Oscar that night and had come upon Sebastian in a particularly low moment.

  One no other human had witnessed before.

  How it had gone from there to...sex...

  Wiping a hand down his face, he turned from the window in his office—chosen because of the view of his property—and headed toward the back door off the kitchen. The door Ruby used every time she came to check on Oscar.

  He grabbed another quick glance out the kitchen window. When it was light outside, the vastness of his land, the lake at the edge of it, soothed him.

  Anytime of the day or night, sight of the kennels did the same.

  Neither was enough that evening as he heard the knock on his door.

  In the two months since “the night,” as he’d come to think of it, neither he nor Ruby had mentioned what had happened. They’d both pretended nothing had. They had to, right? Owl Creek was a small town. And she not only tended to the search-and-rescue animals that he trained, but she also gave free medical treatment to the PTSD dogs he provided to veterans who needed them.

  Still...if nothing else, he had to apologize.

  To her. To someone.

  She was his best friend’s little sister, for God’s sake.

  Wade Colton was the closest thing he’d ever had to a brother. And he’d gone and...

  The knock came a second time.

  He hadn’t been himself that night. A reminder to never, for any reason, allow himself to be around another human being when he was sinking.

  Oscar stood at the door, staring at him. With a nod, Sebastian opened it.

  And, while the dog gave his doctor an enthusiastic greeting, Sebastian took the few seconds that Oscar gave him to find an easy smile and paste it on.

  * * *

  Shamelessly using Oscar as a distraction, Ruby spoke with real joy to the boy wagging his tail and licking her chin, avoiding the big mountain man with his shaggy dark blond hair and beard. She related to animals so much better than she did to people. Understood them. Fully accepted and embraced their unconditional love as her top need in life.

  Steadying the dog with her tone of voice as she told him, “Good boy, stay,” she checked his left hindquarter and left shoulder—both areas from which she’d had to remove shrapnel that fateful night two months before. Thankfully, neither had suffered muscle damage.

  “He’s healed nicely,” she said to Sebastian, still running her fingers lightly over the dog’s fur. “You’re such a good boy,” she told Oscar. “No bad guy’s going to slow you down, huh?”

  She stood then. The next thing on her agenda not quite as easy as telling the man his dog was well. It had to happen eventually. The longer she put it off, the less chance she’d seem at all natural as she met the blue eyes of the man she’d known most of her life as her older brother’s friend.

  A boy they’d seen only during the summers he’d spent at his family’s cabin in Owl Creek—the home in which he now lived.

  She remembered quite clearly how he’d left one year in August as a boy and had returned the following June as a man. He’d grown what had seemed like a foot, had a mustache and shoulders that blocked out the sunlight when he’d stood in front of her, teasing her about her crooked pigtails. She’d developed a bit of a crush on him.

  Something that had faded as she, too, had changed, grown, become a woman.

  So why had she, how could she have...?

  Her gaze met his. Neither said a word.

  They had to talk about it, didn’t they?

  At some point?

 
If for no other reason than to verify that they weren’t telling another soul, ever, what had happened. Most particularly not Wade.

  Big-brother hassles, she did not need.

  Sebastian’s smile wobbled a little. She opened her mouth...

  And jumped, clutching Sebastian as a painfully loud crack sounded, followed immediately by a crash, and then a squeal and deep growl from Oscar. The canine was on point, staring at the door.

  “Was that a gunshot?” The words burst out of Ruby, followed by a frantic “I’m calling 911.”

  Sebastian was already at the door.

  “Wait, Sebastian! Are you kidding? Don’t go alone. Wait for the—”

  He was out the door before she’d finished her sentence.

  * * *

  With Ruby and Oscar in the house, and all the dogs on the premises at risk, no way Sebastian could wait the ten minutes it would take the police to get from town to his five acres on the lake. He had a woman—and dogs—to protect. Grabbing his gun from the metal cabinet on his way out, he kept his back to the cabin as he rounded the corner.

  The unsolved shooting in the middle of the night two months before still weighed heavily on his mind. He was in full United States Marine Corps mode as he moved with supreme precision, darting his head out for only a second, focusing in that second and pulling back as the second came to a close.

  With the sun starting to set, his vision was somewhat compromised, but he got the job done.

  As soon as he knew all four sides of the house were secure, he darted behind the small medical building to get closer to the kennel. His biggest concerns were the outside stalls and large, fenced-in, play-and-training area. His four employees—a full-time trainer and three part-time assistants who cared for and cleaned up after the dogs—were gone for the day. But a dozen dogs were there. One pregnant and another with a litter of new puppies.

  At the back corner of the medical building, he repeated his earlier process, shot his head out, pulled it back.

  And, adrenaline pumping with a dose of anger, he flattened himself against the wall. Someone had completely shot out Ruby’s windshield. A red glare blinked on and off in the glistening mess and Sebastian turned to see flashing lights coming up Cross Road—the private drive leading to his cabin. He wasn’t fool enough to go after a shooter on his own with the professionals arriving. He just kept watch over the kennels until several officers spread out around the entire training facility, and then, with his same military precision, made it back into the house with his bad news.

  * * *

  “You had no business going out there alone!” Ruby’s tone was sharp, instigated by the fear raging through her, as Sebastian came back inside the house.

  Sitting on the floor with an arm around Oscar, who was half in her lap, she flushed as she saw the displeased expression on the man’s face. “I’m sorry. I have no business speaking to you like that,” she amended, embarrassed.

  And scared.

  And so thankful that he was standing, unharmed, in front of her.

  His shrug made her want to hug him. “You’re probably right,” he said. “Military training doesn’t preclude sitting around and waiting for others to save you.” He was still frowning, though.

  “What?” she asked, standing, fear returning in full force.

  “Your windshield’s been shot out.”

  Hers? But...

  Brow creased in a hard line, she stared at him. The shots two months before—she hadn’t been anywhere near the place. She’d assumed whoever had been responsible then was attacking again...

  “My windshield?” she asked.

  Even if the shooter wasn’t one of Owl Creek’s citizens, who all pretty much knew her SUV, both front doors had been painted with the emblem and name of her veterinary clinic.

  Did someone have a problem with Colton Veterinary Clinic?

  Or with her personally?

  Mind spinning, she couldn’t come up with any viable explanation.

  It’s not like she had any exes. There was no one whose heart she’d broken who could want revenge. No new girlfriend who could be jealous.

  And at the clinic?

  She drew a total blank.

  Shivered.

  Sebastian, hands in his pockets, was squirming a bit on his feet, as though he was having a hard time keeping his distance.

  At least, that’s the way her mind was currently translating his actions.

  Because she was afraid, she knew. Felt uncharacteristically vulnerable.

  “I’ll need to have it towed,” she said then, unnerved by her unusual reaction to the burly man as well. They’d had sex. She didn’t want, or need, any complications from the one-night mistake.

  Of that, she was certain.

  She was a doctor. Had built a hugely successful practice and was only thirty.

  No room in her life for the prepubescent girl who’d once had a crush on the kid Sebastian had been back then—in spite of the fact that as a grown woman, she noticed that the inches and muscles and facial hair he’d sprouted were attention getting.

  No room, ever, for any full-time romantic relationship. It just wasn’t what she wanted.

  “As soon as we get the all-clear from the police, I’ll help you clean out any personal stuff and drive you back to town.” The man had found his voice.

  She nodded. Smiled at him. “Thank you.”

  And felt a niggle in her lower belly when he smiled back.

  * * *

  As it turned out, Sebastian didn’t get a chance to assist Ruby with her vehicle clean-out, or to drive her back to town. As soon as word got out that Ruby Colton had called the police after being present at Crosswinds Training when there’d been gunfire—and, of course, it had gotten out, since she was daughter to the man who owned half the town—her brothers had shown up in full protective mode.

  Chase and Wade were at Sebastian’s door within half an hour of the police showing up. Fletcher, the middle of her three older brothers, a detective with the Salt Lake City police force, seven hours away, was on the phone, demanding answers.

  Chase, the oldest at thirty-six and vice president of Colton Properties, went straight to Ruby. Within seconds, while Wade still had Fletcher on the phone, Chase had her on his cell with their mom and dad, assuring Jenny and Robert that she was absolutely fine. She’d heard a shot was all.

  She’d been safe inside the house, checking over Oscar, the entire time.

  Sebastian heard it all peripherally. Wade, the youngest brother, fellow marine and as a kid, best friend to Sebastian, made a very determined beeline for Sebastian, demanding to know every detail of what had happened. And when the police came in, saying there was no sign of a shooter anywhere on Crosswinds’ five acres, all three men had been ready with questions.

  It turned out there was a fresh set of what appeared to be male shoe prints, size ten to eleven, out by the main road. It was likely the shooter used a scope, and never actually set foot on Sebastian’s land.

  Which set off more conversations between those in the room and those still on the phone. Did that mean Ruby had been targeted?

  Or was this more seemingly random violence aimed at Crosswinds? And hitting Ruby’s car would be more impactful than the previous shot into brick that had sent shrapnel into Oscar, who’d woken up Sebastian in the middle of the night to go out.

  Oscar had heard someone outside that night. Sebastian couldn’t prove it but was certain of the fact. And he told Wade so when his friend asked again about the previous shooting event.

  The February ground had been clear at that time, but with the wind chill, they’d been looking at below-zero temperatures and everything had been too hard for footprints. By morning, the land had been covered with a couple inches of snow. Investigators had never found a shell casing.

  And they hadn’t yet in this instance, but they intended to keep looking.

  While Sebastian was still answering Wade’s questions, in between Wade talking to Fletcher, Chase was escorting Ruby out of the cabin. Wanting her off the property as soon as possible.

  Sebastian watched her go, saw her look back at him, or at least at Wade and him, with something like regret in her eyes. He felt it, too. Had wanted to be the one to help her. Since the damage had happened on his land.