he was finally fed up with the cold, he drew his Colt and moved away from the barn door so he could follow those footprints. From the looks of it, the prints started at the back of his barn, and that meant somebody had probably walked in from the pasture and checked out the barn itself.
Maybe looking for him.
Or looking to make sure he’d indeed gone on his daily ride.
And then the trespasser had made her way to the back of his house. Declan went in that direction now, using the trees for cover.
Finally, he saw something.
Or rather someone.
There was a person dressed in dark clothes and equally dark sunglasses peering around the edge of his back porch. Judging from her size, it was probably a woman, though he couldn’t be positive since his visitor was wearing a black baseball cap slung low on her head, and the brim covered most of her face. Declan expected her to duck out of sight when she spotted him.
She didn’t.
She put her index finger to her mouth in a keep-quiet gesture.
What the hell?
And just to confuse things even more, she motioned for him to come closer.
Declan debated it. He debated calling out to her, too, but she frantically shook her head and made that keep-quiet gesture again.
He looked to see if she was armed. Couldn’t tell. But since she’d had ample opportunity to shoot at him and hadn’t, Declan decided to take his chances. He didn’t put his gun away, but he went closer.
Yeah, it was a woman all right. About five-six, with an average build. Judging from the strands of hair that had slipped out from the back of the baseball cap, she was a brunette.
“Inside,” she whispered and tipped her head to his back door. “Please,” she added.
Well, if she was a criminal, she was a polite one, that was for sure. The please didn’t sway Declan one bit, but her shaky voice did. There was fear in it. Or something. Something that told him she wasn’t a killer.
Well, probably not.
He’d been wrong before. And he had the scar on his chest to prove it.
But did that stop him?
Much to his disgust, nope, it didn’t. He’d never been a cautious man, and while this seemed like a really good time to start, Declan went even closer, still looking for any sign that she was armed.
Okay, she was.
Without any prompting, his mysterious visitor opened the side of her jacket to show him the gun—a Glock—that she had tucked in a shoulder holster. Since she made no attempt to draw it, Declan walked even closer, up the side steps. He also tapped the badge he had pinned to his holster, just in case she didn’t know she was dealing with a deputy U.S. marshal.
She kept her head down so he still didn’t have a good look at her face. “I know exactly who you are, Declan O’Malley,” she whispered.
Well, that wasn’t much of a stretch. Everyone in Maverick Springs knew who he was. He and his five foster brothers, who were all marshals, too. Anyone could have found out his name and where he lived within minutes after arriving in town. Heck, he didn’t even have a burglar alarm because he figured no one would be stupid enough to do what this woman was apparently trying to do.
“Inside,” she repeated.
It wasn’t caution but rather common sense that had him staying put when she turned toward his door. “I want answers first,” he insisted.
“Shh.” The fear in her body language went up a significant notch, and she fired a few nervous glances around his yard.
Confused and now somewhat riled at, well, whatever the heck this was, Declan followed her glances but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Only the woman.
He cupped her chin, lifted it.
And groaned.
Yeah. He recognized her all right, and it wasn’t a good kind of recognition, either.
Eden Gray.
What in the Sam Hill was she doing here at his house?
He opened his mouth to demand some answers but her hand flew up, and she pressed her fingers to his mouth. Cold fingers at that.
But soft.
And she smelled like some kind of girlie hand lotion. It definitely didn’t go with that Glock she was carrying or the fact that she was trespassing.
“They might hear you,” she whispered. “Inside,” she insisted again.
“They?”
She eased down her fingers, stepped back and yanked off her glasses. Those eyes caught him off guard for just a moment. Ice blue but somehow without a hint of cold in them. Definitely memorable, but he hadn’t needed to see her eyes to know this was a blast from his past that he didn’t want or need.
Well, a blast he didn’t need anyway.
For a split second, his body overrode his brain, and that whole want thing came into play. In those brief moments, he didn’t see Eden Gray, a person who despised him, but rather a hot woman. One who just happened to be armed and acting crazy.
She swallowed hard.
Something different went through her eyes. Not fear, but Declan recognized the look. It was the quick glance that a woman gave a man when she was interested but didn’t want to be.
Declan was afraid he was giving her the same look right back. Oh, man. One day he was going to learn to think with his head only and not some other body part that often got him into trouble.
She swallowed hard again. Turned. And she eased open the door. Sorry, she mouthed.
Declan didn’t ask for what. He didn’t want to know. He only wanted answers, and that was why he followed her inside to his kitchen.
“Why are you here?” he demanded.
But she still didn’t answer. She hurried to the window over his sink and looked out. She did another of those shifty glances that he often did when he was doing surveillance or in the presence of danger.
“You obviously remember me,” she finally said.
He gave her a flat look. “Obviously.”
“This way,” Eden added. “I have to show you something.” And she headed toward his living room that was only a few yards away.
She would have made it there, too, but Declan snagged her by the arm and whirled her back around to face him. “Remembering you doesn’t tell me why you’re here. Now spill it, or I’m tossing you out.”
“You can’t.” Eden was breathing through her mouth now, and her pulse was jumping in her throat. But that didn’t stop
