mustache. He still maintained that same look, like a man who hadn’t shaved in three days. But where she’d loved and adored the boy, she didn’t know what to make of the man. He was a stranger, with the power to destroy the fragile new world she’d created. And she couldn’t even give him a reason not to.
He nodded at something one of the men said, then strode back to the desk. “Get up.”
Her face flushed hot with embarrassment. She stood and smoothed her jeans and blouse into place before holding her wrists out in front of her.
He frowned. “What are you doing?”
“Hoping you won’t make me put my hands behind my back to put the handcuffs on. This is humiliating enough as it is.” When he only stared at her, she lowered her arms. “Aren’t you arresting me?”
“That depends on whether you’ll give me what I want.”
She drew in a sharp breath, his words awakening memories of the two of them together. His mouth, hot against her neck. His tongue tracing the valley between her breasts. His teasing smile as he slid down her body and hooked his fingers into the top of her jeans.
His breath hitched. “Don’t look at me that way, Peyton.”
She shivered and ruthlessly fought back the erotic images that had goose bumps breaking out all over her suddenly hypersensitive skin. Trying to pretend ignorance, she asked, “What do you mean?”
His eyes narrowed. “Like you’re remembering how good it was between us.”
She swallowed, remembering exactly how good it had been.
His blue eyes darkened, but not with passion. “The past, what you and I shared, died the day you left Gatlinburg without so much as a goodbye. A lifetime of growing up together, four years of dating, of sharing everything two people supposedly in love can share, and you couldn’t bring yourself to answer any of my calls, respond to even one of my texts. Well I got the message from you, loud and clear. And nothing could ever make me go down that road again.”
Her face flamed at his cruel, unnecessary rejection. She cast a surreptitious glance around the room before sinking back down into the chair so she could put some space between the two of them. Thankfully, no one seemed to be paying any attention to her and Colin at the moment. They were all too busy making plans to go after her only sibling.
Wait. Phone calls? Texts? What was he talking about? He’d never called her, not once. “Colin, I don’t understand. What are you—”
“What I want is to make a deal with you. Your cooperation in exchange for your brother’s life.”
She pressed a hand against her throat, unable to reconcile his shocking words with the man standing before her. This wasn’t the Colin she remembered, not even close. Had she ever really known him at all? Or was this hard, unyielding man the result of what she’d done?
“You’re seriously threatening to kill him if I don’t cooperate? How could you be so heartless and cruel?”
His eyes narrowed again, his brow wrinkling with anger. “Don’t accuse me of contemplating murder as if you have some moral high ground to stand on.”
She gasped with outrage. But before she could respond, he leaned toward her, arms braced on the desk, crowding her back against her chair.
“Unlike your cop-killing brother,” he said in a furious whisper, “I’m not a murderer. I wasn’t saying that I was going to harm Brian. Look around you, Peyton. I’m not the threat. Everyone else is. They’re all fired up to hunt him down. Once the trackers get here, his chances plummet to near zero.”
Alarm skittered up her spine. “Trackers? Chances? What are you saying?”
“Your brother murdered a law-enforcement officer. He—”
“No. He didn’t. He wouldn’t.”
Colin made a frustrated sound in his throat before grabbing a chair from beside a nearby desk and rolling it in front of her. He plopped down and moved close, his knees almost touching hers.
“They’re bringing in bloodhounds to hunt down your brother and the other escapees.” He kept his voice low, barely above a whisper. “Police officers and federal agents are lining up in neighboring counties, demanding a chance to help with the search. They’re going to find them, Peyton. A cop killer isn’t going to escape, not around here.”
“Stop saying that. My brother’s not a killer.” She let out a ragged breath. “Please, Colin. Stop.”
Something shifted behind his eyes, like clouds tumbling through a darkening sky. He drew a slow, deep breath and glanced around the room as if to get himself under control. When he looked at her again, some of the anger seemed to have drained out of him. In its place was a sense of urgency and frustration, visible in the tense set of his shoulders, the firm line of his jaw.
“What I’m trying to tell you is that Brian’s life is in danger. Not because anyone is going to purposely try to kill him. But because everyone is hyperaware that someone who’s shot one police officer won’t hesitate to pull the trigger on another.”
“But—”
He held a hand up to stop her. “What you don’t seem to understand is that whether or not Brian’s the one who pulled the trigger doesn’t matter. The officer was killed when Brian and three other criminals escaped. Under the law, all four of them are guilty of felony murder.”
Muscle memory had her reaching for his hand before she even thought about what she was doing. To her surprise, he took it, and entwined their fingers together. In spite of his anger, in spite of everything that had happened, or maybe because of it, Colin McKenzie was holding her hand. And just like that, she was able to pick up the pieces of her crumbling world and glue them back together.
It had always been that way between them. A simple look, or the warmth of his touch, grounded her, calmed her when things were going wrong. How odd that it would work today when he was part of the reason that her world was falling apart.
“What does felony murder mean exactly?” she whispered, barely able to force the words past her tight throat. “Does it mean...does it mean Brian could face the death penalty?”
He nodded, his hand tightening around hers.
“Oh, dear Lord. What am I going to do?”
“All you can do for now is help me try to save his life. Worry about the trial, about possible penalties, later. The entire law-enforcement community is on edge. They feel like their uniforms make them a target for a man who’s already killed one of their own. They’ll be quicker than normal to pull the trigger, out of self-preservation. That makes for an exceedingly dangerous situation, all the way around.”
His words rang true. The room was bursting with anger, nervous energy. Soon they’d be searching for her brother with that dangerous mix of emotions fueled by fear and adrenaline, while heavily armed. Brian was in a world of trouble, even worse than she’d realized.
“What kind of a deal are you offering?”
“I won’t lie and pretend that I can guarantee your brother’s safety. But he has a better chance of
