Colton Family Bodyguard, page 17
“What do you think we were going through?” Loretta asked. “We lost our daughter and our grandchild. When you vanished we lost a son-in-law.”
Callum hadn’t married Annabel, but they must have thought of him as part of the family.
“He didn’t tell anyone in his family Annabel died,” Hazel said.
“No one?” Loretta asked, incredulous.
“I couldn’t.”
Loretta stepped forward then. “Oh, you poor man.” She touched his face. “You should have come to see us. You could have talked to us about it. We needed that with you.”
“I know that now. I’m sorry.”
“This doesn’t make things all right with us,” Mark said. “You caused our grief to be worse by not being with us.”
Hazel thought that was a little over-the-top. Mark must not be a very forgiving man, but his wife was.
“I know it’s taken me too long to come and see you. If there’s anything you want to talk about, I’m here now.”
Loretta stepped back. “There is something I have wondered all this time.” She folded her arms. “Annabel told us about the baby the day after she found out, the day after you both found out. But I didn’t get to talk to her much before she died. She came to see me once and we talked about how good things were going between you two. She didn’t know at that time whether you were having a boy or a girl, but I know she had an ultrasound scheduled.”
Hazel wished she could give the three some privacy. She felt this was a very personal moment.
“She was at twenty weeks,” Callum said. “There was no sign of a penis and the doctor said we were having a girl.”
Loretta covered her mouth with her hand as a sob wrenched her.
Hazel lowered her gaze, feeling she intruded too much.
“She was thrilled,” Callum said. “So was I.”
Hazel looked at him and became captivated by the light in his eyes, the slight curve of his lips the memory brought. That had been a magical moment for him. Hazel remembered when that day had come for her. Magical didn’t come close to describing what seeing the miracle of life could do to a person.
As she realized the depth of his emotional injury, the weight of the risk to her heart settled in. His journey to healing wasn’t over. And she had been instrumental in guiding him onto this path. She might be the rebound woman.
The image of Evie’s gap-toothed smile pierced her. Her innocent eyes. Her tiny, soft-skinned fingers. The way she sometimes skipped instead of walking. When she talked to bumblebees and ladybugs. Not spiders. Although she did respect the aphid eaters... She didn’t want to involve her child in a tenuous relationship with a hopeful father figure who had so much weight to bear. But the more time she spent with Callum, the more she felt like it was out of her control.
Chapter 12
Callum knew Hazel had suffered at least some tension during that visit.
He might be a brawny workingman, but he did have a sensitive side. He was grateful for her support despite how she must have felt like an intruder. And hearing about his and Annabel’s special moment could not have been easy.
She had been quiet all the way to the hotel near the airport and now surfed channels on the television. Their flight back to Arizona was in the morning. Callum couldn’t explain his need to make it up to her, to tell her that Annabel’s memory didn’t loom large as much as it used to. A voice said Hazel mattered more but that scared him, so he didn’t give it any credence.
Going to the suite phone, he called room service and ordered champagne with strawberries and requested a delayed dinner of steak and crab. When he hung up and turned to Hazel, he saw her looking at him peculiarly.
“I figured we could use a nice dinner tonight,” he said.
Her eyes narrowed.
“Okay, I figure I owe you at least that, if not more, for what you did for me today.”
“Me? I didn’t do anything.”
“You were there for me.” He walked over to where she sat on the sofa and took a seat right next to her. Taking the remote, he searched for a classical music station and found one playing a piano dominant tune.
After a few minutes, she said, “I know what you meant about seeing the sex of the baby for the first time.”
“Were you alone when you saw it?” he asked.
“Yes. My family was in Colorado. But I sent them copies of the sonogram.”
“That kind of thing bonds the parents together,” he said.
“So I gathered.” She inched away from him on the sofa. “You and Annabel had a special thing going.”
He had brought up the bonding on purpose. He intended to lead into what he really needed to say.
“We did bond over the baby, but that didn’t change the way either one of us felt about each other. I told you I would like to believe I loved her, but after all this time and much reflection, I know I didn’t love her as much as I could love a woman.” He wouldn’t say how he knew that. He knew because he could love Hazel ten times more. “I loved her enough to marry her and have a family, but at some point, it would have become clear that she wasn’t the one for me, and I would always have wondered who the right woman would have been.”
“Would you have stayed in the marriage?”
“With children involved? Yes. Annabel was a good person. Honest, full of integrity. There would have been no good reason to leave her.”
“Other than not being happy,” Hazel said.
“I would have been happy enough with her. It’s not like she made me miserable, nor do I think she ever would have.” There were different degrees of happiness. People could find great joy even if they married someone they weren’t madly in love with. As long as there was loyal companionship and friendship, marriage could work.
“I would have had plenty of good reasons to leave Ed, had he stayed and married me,” Hazel said. “I’m not even sure I would have agreed to marry him.”
Room service knocked and Callum let them in. The champagne was in an ice bucket and the strawberries in a bowl. The room service attendant put the tray on the coffee table. Callum tipped him and he left.
Going back to Hazel, he sat beside her. Leaning forward, he removed the bottle of champagne and easily and gently popped the cork, which didn’t go flying. Setting that aside, he poured Hazel, then himself, some. Handing her a glass, he clinked his to hers.
“Here’s to you being the amazing woman you are.”
She smiled softly. “Thank you.”
As she sipped, her golden-green eyes looked up at him suggestively, heatedly. When she lowered her glass, she said, “If you aren’t careful, you might end up liking me too much to leave me when this is all over.”
He’d rather not go there yet. “Maybe. I prefer to take it one day at a time.”
“Me as well.” She took a strawberry from the bowl and put it to his mouth.
He ate it and then took one for her, feeding her a strawberry.
“Mmm, there is something about strawberries and champagne,” she said.
“It’s the pairing of the sweetness in both.” He sipped some champagne.
“What were you like before Annabel?” Hazel asked.
He wasn’t sure what she wanted to know. “With women? The same.”
“No, did you date a lot? My guess is you had girls crawling all over you in high school. After that you must have dated a lot.”
He hadn’t thought of that since Annabel was killed. He had been very different. “I did date a lot.”
“Were you popular in high school?”
“I was a quarterback. I wouldn’t say I was the most popular. I didn’t get into school politics. That crowd seemed more popular.”
She breathed a laugh, clearly disagreeing.
“What about you?” he asked.
“I was popular. I was a cheerleader and I dated the quarterback. He and I were king and queen at our senior prom.”
“Do they still do that in school? Kings and queens.” He grunted in humor. “Seems like another lifetime ago.” He set aside his glass.
“Yes, and I’m only twenty-five.”
More memories from that time came to him. He hadn’t been popular with the good kids. He had run with a more rugged crowd.
“Back then I had more of a reputation as a bad boy,” he said.
She nodded thoughtfully. “I can see that.” She put her glass on the side table.
This conversation was far more interesting than sharing champagne and strawberries. “I started rebelling against my dad my sophomore year. That’s when he began prepping me for joining the Colton Oil executives.” He had not been executive material. Even as a kid he had always sought danger. Climbing trees. Riding motorcycles and mountain bikes. Rock climbing. Skiing. Anything exciting.
“I got into a lot of fights. Some of the other kids tried teasing me about being a Colton, a spoiled rich kid. Those kids usually got nosebleeds after I punched them. I almost was expelled. I think only my father’s connections prevented that. He grounded me and tried reasoning with me, but I never listened. He never laid a hand on me but I bet he wanted to more than once.”
“A bad boy. All because your dad wanted you to join Colton Oil?”
“Not just that. I aspired to a different existence. Something more earthy and adventurous.”
“Hence the military and then personal protection.”
Earthy and adventurous.
He had never conveyed his life journey to anyone in that way. He left his thoughts to look at her, this magnificent woman. “I loved the navy, but not the discipline. Being a bodyguard suits me perfectly.”
Hazel sat back and sipped her champagne, crossing one slender leg over the other. In admittedly selfish pleasure, he covertly took in the shape of her knee and the lines of her fit thighs and the side view of the curves of her butt.
“Mr. Callum Colton,” she said, turning her head with just the right angle to give her eyes a sultry slant. “You are one sexy, successful man.”
Her relaxed pose and flirtatious words and tone threw him. “And...you are...” What could he say? She had already trumped him. She was one sexy, successful woman. Taking a chance, he moved in, touching her cheek and kissing her.
He would have encouraged her for more but she drew back, almost flinching.
Opening his eyes, he searched hers.
After several seconds, she asked, “Would you ever be able to try having a family again?”
Her catching, whispered question speared him.
This conflict would not go away. She had been abandoned, pregnant with Evie, and he had lost the mother of his unborn child, and with her a baby girl he would never know.
He and Hazel had issues that meant they might never be able to work together to form a healthy, new relationship. Everything felt so good with her. Everything felt right and safe. But was it?
Callum could never go through what he’d gone through with Annabel ever again. He had to be honest here. People died. Hazel could die. Something could happen to both her and Evie. What if they had a child of their own? Something could happen to that child.
He imagined living with Hazel and Evie, having a blended family and living an everyday life together. Spending time in the evenings with them. Doing schoolwork. Going to bed every night with Hazel. He would fall in love with that life. He could already feel it to his core. And then, after growing more attached than he had ever been to Annabel, what if something tragic happened? Nothing and no one could predict life or what awaited everyone as time marched on.
“I don’t know if I’m ready for that.” Would he ever be?
His spirit plummeted as he saw Hazel’s reaction. Her face hardened to disappointed stone and she lowered her eyes in sadness before getting up from the sofa.
“Good night,” she said.
The urge to go after her nearly brought him to his feet. That urge, foreign in its powerful, primal need. Go after her. Take her. Never let her out of his bed. Ever.
But therein lay the problem.
He’d only just begun to confront the tragedy of his past. If not for Hazel, he would not have gone to see Annabel’s parents. He had blocked all emotion where his ex-girlfriend was concerned. Nearly five years later he still wasn’t over his loss. It was unfair to lead Hazel on, to let her believe he was ready for a future with her and Evie.
Evie.
Oh.
He could not, he would not, hurt that wonderful child—or her amazing mother.
* * *
Hazel hadn’t liked Callum’s answer yesterday, but there was little she could do about it. There was even less she could do about how she was beginning to feel about him. Conversation had been limited on the way back from San Francisco. Now they were back at the inn and Patsy arrived with another food delivery. With the help of two hotel staff members, the goods were unloaded on the kitchen island counter.
“Thank you, Patsy. You sure are indispensable for Executive Protection...and now me.” She smiled.
Patsy gave a quick, “No problem,” and turned to leave.
Odd, the woman seemed to be behaving differently than usual. She seemed awkward, as though something troubled her.
“Is everything all right, Patsy?”
“Yes, fine.” She offered a half-hearted smile and left.
Hazel watched her go behind the hotel staffers and then turned to Callum, who sat at the dining room table in front of his laptop, digging up what he could on Nan, all the places she had lived, places she had worked, people she knew from her Facebook page and other social media sites.
“Patsy seems out of sorts today,” she said.
He looked up. “How so?”
“I don’t know. Does she have a happy home life?”
“As far as I know. She always seems happy to me.”
“Hmm.” She began putting food away, starting with the produce and perishables like milk. Next came the canned goods and other pantry items.
Lifting the jar of olive oil, her fingers came in contact with something grainy. Inspecting the jar, she saw traces of a white substance, a powdery film. And then she saw what appeared to be a fingerprint on the glass. Holding the jar closer to her eyes, she spotted undissolved white particles inside, floating in the olive oil. Twisting the cap, she found the seal had already been broken.
“Callum?”
He looked up again and then stood to come to her.
“This doesn’t look good,” she said.
He took the jar and placed it on the counter, then bent to examine it. “It looks like it might be poisonous.”
Patsy’s edgy demeanor came back to her. No. One of Callum’s agency’s assistants?
“You said Patsy was acting strange?” Callum asked.
“Yes.”
“Someone could have paid her to try and poison us.”
“Not me, my clients,” she said. “I would have used this oil for recipes to be delivered.”
His mouth flattened in consternation. “That doesn’t sound like something the killer would do. He’d want you dead. You and Evie. Evie isn’t here and he can’t find her. While he must be getting impatient, I doubt he’d go after your clients.”
Well, Hazel could think of only one other person who had a motive to see Hazel’s clients die. Carolyn.
* * *
The next day Kerry reported the jar of olive oil had been tested. The liquid had been poisoned. Kerry also let them know she’d picked up Patsy and now had her in custody. Callum took Hazel to the police station. She entered the observation room with Callum and watched Kerry interrogate the nervous woman.
“This will go much easier for you if you cooperate,” Kerry said. “Now, I’ll ask you again. Why did you put poison in the olive oil that was delivered to Callum Colton and Hazel Hart’s room at the Dales Inn?”
“I didn’t put poison in it,” Patsy said, wringing her hands.
“Then you must know who did, because you were the one who purchased the oil and helped deliver it.”
“I don’t.”
Kerry sighed. “I know you do. I have enough to arrest you right now. We have a fingerprint on the jar. My guess is, it’s yours. Do you really want to take that chance?”
“It’s not mine,” Patsy said. “I just made the delivery.”
“How can you be so sure?”
Patsy continued to wring her hands and now added chewing her lower lip to her edgy movements.
“Whose fingerprint could it be?”
“If I tell you, are you going to arrest me?”
“I can’t guarantee anything, but maybe I can ask our DA, Karly Fitzpatrick, to see if we can work out a deal with you. We might be able to get you probation instead of prison time, especially since this is your first offense.”
Chewing on her lip, Patsy flattened her hands on the table as she mulled over her options and the consequences of whatever decision she made.
“All right. It was Carolyn Johnson. She said she saw me make other deliveries to Hazel and offered to pay me to deliver the olive oil. She didn’t say she was going to poison it, but I’d suspected she did something to it. I didn’t think she’d actually try and murder anyone.”
Hazel glanced at Callum. Surely Patsy would have known Carolyn had intended something terrible.
“How did she come in contact with you?”
“She saw me going in and out of the inn and approached me one day. She asked if I was close to Hazel and I said I didn’t know her, I was an assistant, who brought them things they needed. She then asked if I could use a little extra cash to deliver something to her.”
“How much did she pay you?” Kerry asked.
“Five hundred.”
