this now.”
“I can call my brother if it would help,” Isabella offered.
Mike nodded.
“Tell him to bring Erin and I’ll tell Jonah to bring his family—we’ll throw steaks on and have a party. You can tell them I want to celebrate an investigation that I just closed.”
“Did you close one?” Colin asked.
“Yep. I did, so if anyone checks out my story, it’ll hold.”
Isabella left the room to get her cell phone to call Boone. She went back to thrust her head into the family room. Mike and Colin were talking in low voices. “Boone and Erin are coming,” she said and left to find Savannah who was in the kitchen, feeding Jessie.
“Did they run you off?” Savannah asked.
“No. I just thought they ought to be alone. Do you know you’re going to have a houseful of company soon?”
“I’m not surprised. I’m sure the guys want to get together.
“Right,” Isabella replied. “Mike said to ask the families, so Erin and Kate and Henry are coming.”
“Great! That’ll be fun,” Savannah said. “I’ll get Jessie fed and cleaned up and then I can enjoy everyone.”
“I can feed her if you want to do anything else.”
“Sure. If you don’t mind,” Savannah said, giving the small spoon to Isabella who took Savannah’s seat.
Over two hours later, after they had finished eating, they all sat in the family room while Henry played a game and Jessie dozed in Mike’s arms. All through dinner the men had reminisced about good times. While most events they discussed had been comical, Isabella knew they were avoiding the scary and painful memories.
Mike stood. “We enjoy the wonderful company, I think it’s time that Jonah, Boone and I have a chat with Colin. So if y’all will excuse us, we’ll adjourn to the library.”
With jokes about happy to be rid of the men, the four friends left. At the door Colin glanced over his shoulder to meet Isabella’s gaze. Taking a deep breath, he turned and followed Mike to the library.
As soon as all four men entered the room, Mike closed the door. Colin looked at titles of books on the shelves, seeing many familiar ones, having buried himself in books and reading a lot of the time when he had been recuperating from his wounds.
They sat and Mike gazed expectantly at him. “Okay, Colin, level with us. What’s up and what kind of danger are we in?”
Colin spent the next thirty minutes covering the time since the blast during the aborted mission until the current moment. When he finished, he looked somberly at his friends.
“I hope none of you is in any danger. I had also hoped seeing you might trigger my memory, but so far, it hasn’t. That doesn’t mean it won’t.”
“So you’re leaving here to go to some remote spot and stay in isolation?” Boone asked with a frown.
“Don’t tell me it’s no way to live. I’ve heard that enough from your sister. I can slip out of here in the dark and be far away before dawn. You guys, just take care of yourselves and be aware there may be danger.”
“I have a better idea,” Mike said and all turned to him. “Stay here. Let’s see if your presence draws our enemy to Texas. There are four—”
“No way!” Colin exclaimed. “I won’t deliberately put y’all in danger.”
“We may be in a lot of danger anyway whether you go and we never see you again or if you remain in Texas. Just listen, Colin,” Mike urged. “You may draw your enemy here. None of us will be absolutely safe until he’s caught, so let’s flush him out. If we do, you won’t have to turn into a hermit and never see any of us again or any of us ever see you.”
“Yeah, that’s a hell of a lot better,” Jonah said.
“I agree,” Boone added quickly. “I’m all for drawing him into the open.”
“No damn way!” Colin snapped, standing and glaring at his friends. “You have a baby,” he said to Mike. “You have Henry and another one on the way,” he reminded Jonah. “Erin is expecting. No, no and double-damn no! I’m not putting little babies and kids into any extra jeopardy.”
“Calm down. You can stay with Izzie,” Boone suggested.
“And put her in danger?” Colin snapped, jamming his hands into his pockets.
Mike and Boone laughed. “Look at you!” Boone exclaimed. “Izzie isn’t afraid, and she can take care of herself. She’ll agree with our plan to use you as bait.”
“Izzie’ll protect you,” Mike said with laughter in his voice.
“You won’t have to be scared of a thing with her around,” Boone added quickly, his eyes twinkling with amusement that Colin couldn’t share.
“Y’all are hopeless! Listen, she can protect herself fairly well, but you know and I know that this is someone deadly and in earnest. And if I hadn’t minded hurting a woman, you also know that I would have won the fight with Isabella.”
“Well, you did a damn poor job of protecting yourself,” Boone teased. “Why didn’t you just draw your gun and stop her before she made hamburger of you?”
Colin glared at Boone. “You guys get on out of here.”
“Why didn’t you draw your gun?” Mike asked, studying Colin as he slapped his knee and guffawed. “She got your pistol, didn’t she?”
“Go to hell, Mike,” Colin said, shaking his head while Mike and Boone laughed. Sitting down again, Colin looked at Jonah, who was staring solemnly at him. “You’re not laughing with them. You think I should go, don’t you?”
“Not at all,” Jonah answered quietly and the laughter died. “I think Mike’s right. You should stay. Hopefully, we can entice our enemy to Texas and end this. I’m just thinking about the danger. In all fairness to Isabella, I think we should get her in here and ask her. She may not want him to be with her,” Jonah said to the others.
“You’re right,” Mike said. “Boone, get your sister in here.”
“I can answer for her—”
“No, you can’t,” Colin insisted, crossing the room and yanking open the door to the hall.
The moment he was gone Jonah crossed the room in long strides and closed the door. “I don’t think she’ll want him.”
“She’s not going to be afraid,” Boone said. “But Izzie is full of life. She may not want to put up with Colin’s gloom. He’s pretty down right now, although she’s a sucker for lost kittens and stray dogs.”
“Look again,” Jonah remarked dryly. “She’s your sister and you probably can’t
