href="#uc8e04e0d-8af8-5bc6-97fa-4ef811540fbd">Copyright
Shadow Creek, Texas, held nothing but broken dreams, betrayal and heartache for Knox Colton. He had thought he’d never return to the small town where he’d grown up, but here he was again after a ten-year absence.
Forced to take a sabbatical from his job as a Texas Ranger, embarrassed and humiliated by his mother’s crimes, he’d really had no other place to go.
He now clenched his fingers around the steering wheel as a whisper of heated anger burned in the pit of his stomach. Nothing like being a Texas Ranger and having one of the FBI’s most wanted as a mother.
Livia Colton had created plenty of chaos and damage in his childhood, and now she was affecting her grown children’s lives once again.
He rolled down his window to allow in the sweet-scented early March air and drew in a deep breath. The last thing he wanted to do was to carry his simmering anger into the peaceful sanctuary his younger sister called home.
His anger eased at thoughts of his youngest sister, Jade. Despite the nine years difference in their ages, he’d always been particularly close to her.
A smile curved his lips as he turned into Hill Country Farm, Jade’s home. Ahead of him was her house, but around the house were her passions. Vegetable gardens were just beginning to awaken with what would be summer bounty. Stables and a riding arena were on the right, and a barn with chickens, goats and pigs was on the left.
The house itself was small, but exuded a sense of stability and welcome. Pots of purple pansies sat on the porch, dipping and waving their heads in the light spring breeze.
Before he’d stopped his car, Jade stepped out on the porch, a wide smile of greeting on her pretty face. He parked and got out of the car and she raced toward him, her dark brown ponytail bouncing as her sweet laughter filled the air.
She jumped into his arms and he picked her up and spun her around. His cowboy hat flew off his head before he deposited her back on the ground and gave her a firm kiss on the forehead.
“Oh, Knox, I’ve missed you so much,” she said.
“And I’ve missed you,” he replied as he picked up his hat and plopped it back on his head. “You look terrific, Jade.”
She stepped back from him and eyed him. “You don’t look half-bad yourself, big brother.” She gave him a playful punch in the stomach. “At least you haven’t gone to seed in your old age.”
“Hey, I’m only thirty-three. I’m still in my prime,” he retorted.
She linked her arm with his. “Come on inside. I’ve got the coffee on and I made a batch of homemade cinnamon rolls.”
“Hmm, nothing better on a Saturday morning than cinnamon rolls and time with you,” he replied.
Minutes later the two siblings sat across from each other at the round oak table in the kitchen that smelled of spices and sunshine. Yellow curtains fluttered at the open windows as the sweet scent of new grass and budding flowers drifted in.
“So, how’s Ranger life?” Jade asked as she set a small plate with a cinnamon roll the size of the palm of his hand before him.
“It was great until two weeks ago.” He frowned down into his coffee cup and then looked up and met his sister’s gaze. “And then day before yesterday I was told rather forcefully that a sabbatical might be a good idea right now.”
Jade’s brown eyes darkened. “Because of Mother’s escape from prison.” Knox gave a curt nod of his head. “How long are you on sabbatical for?”
“An undetermined amount of time,” he replied. “I have become somewhat of an embarrassment with a mother who plotted and succeeded with an elaborate escape from Red Peak Maximum Security Prison. I was told to lie low until she was no longer a hot news item and was caught.” The burn of anger was back in his stomach.
“I can’t believe she managed to pay off so many guards and got into the infirmary and through two more security checks before cutting a hole in the floor and slithering down into the sewer system.”
“A new sewer system that she somehow arranged to be built,” he added drily. “And you’ve probably heard that in the construction site she was picked up by a white van outside the prison walls.”
“And the van had no plates or distinguishing marks when it was found abandoned near the Mexican border,” Jade added. “I watch the news, too.”
What had been kept out of the news was that there had been blood found on the side of the van, blood that hadn’t belonged to Livia Colton, but Knox wasn’t telling that to Jade or anyone else. Knox had been told this by his boss before the upper brass cut him out of the information chain.
The information was being intentionally held back by the authorities. Someone had been at the scene at the Mexican border with Livia and that someone had apparently been hurt. Knox had a feeling the identity of that person was already known to somebody in law enforcement, but it was a piece of information that hadn’t been told or leaked. By now, the blood left behind at the van would have been analyzed and he couldn’t help but believe DNA had been matched to somebody.
“Then you know the latest is that she was spotted in Mexico, and that’s where I hope she stays until she burns in hell,” Knox said forcefully.
Jade reached across the table and grabbed his hand with her much smaller one. “Knox, you need to release some of that anger. It knots up in your veins and makes me believe the Hulk could pop out of you at any time.”
A wry grin curved his mouth. “Maybe what I need to keep the Hulk inside is a couple of bites of this magnificent cinnamon roll.”
She flashed him a beautiful smile. “Dig in.”
As he enjoyed not one, but two of the breakfast treats, Jade caught him up on her business. She ran a rehab center for off-track Thoroughbred horses, hoping to give them second careers as pleasure riding mounts or hunter-jumpers.
It was obvious she loved what she did; it shone from the happiness in her eyes, in the flush of her cheeks as she spoke about the horses. Knox had loved being a Texas Ranger, but his mother had stolen that from him, at least for now.
At least Jade seemed to be thriving, despite the fact that their mother had been in prison for drug charges and murder.
“So, where are you staying while you’re in town?” Jade asked.
“I was going to see about staying in the apartment at Mac’s, but Thorne insisted I bunk with him, so I’m at his place.” Mac Mackenzie was the closest thing to a father figure that Knox knew; Thorne was his son with Livia, although all of Livia’s children shared the Colton last name. Thorne had a ranch not too far away from Jade’s. “Wht’s new with everyone else?” he asked, wondering about the rest of their Colton siblings.
Jade shrugged. “Nobody has heard anything from River lately, so we’re all assuming he’s still a marine and someplace overseas. Claudia is apparently living her dream in New York and Leonor is still
