One Night Standoff by Fossen Delores

Author:Fossen, Delores [Fossen, Delores]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance, ROMANCE - - SUSPENSE, Contemporary, Contemporary Romance
ISBN: 9781460313800
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2012-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

The anger slammed like a fist into Clayton’s chest, and after seeing the look on Lenora’s face, he knew that Quentin wasn’t lying. Not about this, anyway.

“Get him out of here,” Clayton told Cutter and the other ranch hand, Ray. “And make sure he’s off the ranch and doesn’t come back.”

Clayton caught one last glimpse of Quentin’s smile. A smile he wanted to dissolve to dust, but he forced himself to remember that Quentin was just the messenger. Yeah, he could still be guilty all the way up to his eyeballs, but he wasn’t lying now.

He waited until Cutter and Ray had the man out of his sight, and Clayton yanked out his phone so he could call Harlan at the marshals’ office.

“I don’t want to answer a lot of questions about what I’m about to ask you to do,” Clayton said the moment his brother answered. “But I need you to find my birth father right away and bring him in for questioning.”

“All right,” Harlan said without hesitation. “And if he resists?”

“I hope to hell he does,” Clayton mumbled, and he ended the call.

“Let’s go,” Clayton said to Lenora. But he didn’t just say it. He snapped it and got them moving.

“I’m sorry,” Lenora repeated.

Clayton wanted to assure her that he didn’t blame her for what’d just happened, but his throat clamped shut, and he couldn’t speak. It didn’t help that the sun broke through the clouds at that exact moment and the pain stabbed through his head.

“Come on,” Lenora insisted, and she reversed the grip and took hold of him. “Let’s get inside.”

He did. They hurried across the narrow strip of yard and driveway and back into the house. Thankfully no one was in the kitchen or other rooms that they went through, because Clayton didn’t want to explain what he was still having trouble dealing with.

Melvin might have been behind these attacks.

The SOB could have killed not just him, but Lenora and the baby.

With Lenora right behind him, he stormed up the stairs to the ranch office where he’d had the earlier computer interview with Riggs. At the time, Clayton had thought that was enough hard news to swallow, but here he’d been given another jolt.

“I honestly didn’t remember your father until Quentin said those things,” Lenora told him. Her voice was frantic now, and she moved in front of him to force eye contact.

Every nerve in his body felt raw, and the emotion was at a rolling boil inside him. It didn’t help that Lenora looked as if she was ready for him to toss her out the door. Clayton was ready to do something, but he wasn’t sure what.

Before he could think—which should have been a big red flag that anything he was about to do would likely be a mistake—he moved toward her. And he made that mistake anyway. He latched on to Lenora, dragged her against him and kissed her.

With the rage burning him, he forced himself to stay gentle. Not just with his mouth, but with his embrace.

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