Rocky Mountain Miracle (13 page)

She turned her head so that her mouth was brushing against his cheek. “Really? I didn't realize I had such an impact.”

Her voice vibrated down his spine. He could have sworn her finger stroked his wrist but when he looked down, her hand was lying there motionless. Innocent. Her lips were feather-light, soft and full. Cole felt the burn right through his skin. He jerked away from her. She was reducing him to a smitten teenager. Jase could fall under her spell, but he was damned if he would. It was supposed to work the other way around. He certainly wasn't mesmerizing her. And she sure wasn't falling into his bed. Maia looked up at him, her eyes wide and beautiful, and the breath left his lungs in a rush.

Cole backed away from the couch. “I think you'll be fine. Jase, get the doc an aspirin and stay with her while I get the chores done.”

“And you're really fine with decorating the house, or maybe even getting a Christmas tree?” There was a note of fear in Jase's voice.

Cole felt the echo of fear in his gut. “Sure. Sounds like a plan.” He turned away from them. A woman who appeared soft and gentle but had a core of steel. A boy, lost in his past and trying desperately to find security and a home. Cole shook his head. How the hell had he gotten into such a mess? He needed familiar ground. He was never afraid. He had nothing to lose, and when a man had nothing to lose, he didn't experience fear. He was letting some little slip of a woman scare the holy hell out of him.

Outside, he examined the ice-coated walkway. Someone had poured water over the snow to form the icy surface. The hose was buried in the large snowbank on the outside of the walkway, but he could see the hose had been stuck in one of the latticework holes and sprayed onto the surface. Small droplets of water had frozen on the lattice.

Was it Jase? It didn't feel right to him. Jase seemed to be genuine. A nice kid who needed a family. Could he be as sick and disturbed as their father? They were in the middle of particularly harsh blizzard. No one else was in the house or around the ranch that Cole was aware of. He studied the ground near the hose. The boot impressions in the snow were large—too large to be Jase's—and led back toward a door that opened into the barn. Someone had opened that door and spied on Maia while she worked on the horse. Jase hadn't been wet or covered in snow when he'd come running in.

If Maia had gone out early to tend the horse and the walkway had been fine, then only Jase had gone after her. It was possible Jase had shot the old man. He'd never been ruled out as a suspect. He didn't want Jase to be guilty, but the evidence wasn't stacking up in the boy's favor.

Brett Steele had been found in his office, dead from a single bullet smack in the middle of his forehead. Cole shook his head. Jase had found the injured horse. He could have easily driven the horse into the fence and then gone to get Al, making a show of being upset and blaming Cole. Jase claimed he found Cole's glove in the fence.

Cole straightened and took a cautious look around. His alarms were shrieking at him. Something was terribly wrong, and he knew he was in danger. Maia Armstrong could very well be too. And Jase.

He shook his head, vowing to find out who was sneaking around the ranch and why as he trudged through the snow to the stables to feed the horses.

He patted an outstretched neck as one of the horses greeted him, then tossed a flake of hay into the last feeding bin.

He ran his hand along one of the horses' backs, bent closer, and noticed a girth mark near the horse's belly. It could only mean the horse had been ridden recently, within the last couple of days. Cole leaned down to pick up a foot, examining the hoof. Dirt and debris were caked in the shoe. Very slowly he lowered the hoof to the stable floor, a slight frown on his face. Al hadn't said anything about taking the horses out.

Cole closed the door to the stall and went to examine the saddles and bridles. A large saddle was set to one side, slightly off kilter, but it didn't mean anything. A rifle scabbard was hooked to the saddle, and it had a mud pattern splattered across it.

A muffled footfall alerted him. Cole eased back into the shadows of the tack room and drew the gun from the holster strapped to his calf. Only the munching of the horses
as they chewed hay and the sound of their continual restless movements in the stalls broke the silence. Cole didn't make the mistake of moving. He had endless patience when needed. A shadow stretched across the wall, a man holding a pitchfork out in front of him. Cole stepped out into the open, his gun rock steady, an extension of his arm.

Every vestige of color drained from Jase's face. He dropped the pitchfork and backed against the stall. “Don't shoot me.”

Cole swore savagely. “What the hell is the matter with you? I
could have
shot you. What were you thinking?” He shoved the gun out of sight.

“I came out to help you,” Jase defended, his face tight with fear and growing anger. “What are you doing with a gun?”

“None of your damned business,” Cole snapped. Jase turned and ran out of the stable, disappearing from Cole's line of vision.

Cole crushed down the need to throw something. He should have identified the intruder before coming out of hiding with his gun. He knew better than to let his highly tuned instincts take over completely. Dammit. He was going to have to explain the gun. How did you tell a teenager your entire world was made up of conspiracies, and you siphoned through them one at a time to get to the truth?

C
OLE ENTERED THE LIVING ROOM
to find Jase pacing furiously back and forth across the room. The boy cast a dark, furious look at his brother. Maia looked up and met Cole's gaze, lifting her hands palm up in inquiry. Jase stopped pacing abruptly and stood breathing heavily, his hands on his hips.

“You could have killed me! Maybe you want to kill me just like everyone says,” Jase burst out. He glared at Cole. “Maybe you tried to kill the doc just so she wouldn't find out about you.”

“Jase!” Maia said firmly. “That's enough. You're afraid and angry, but don't say things you can't take back.”

“He didn't put a gun in your face. He's been in jail. Everyone knows he's been there,” Jase continued, breathing hard, his young face twisted with fear and hurt.

“Come sit down over here,” Maia patted the couch beside her. “I can tell you whatever Cole may have done or not done in his life, he wouldn't do anything to hurt you. Someone is trying to drive a wedge between the two of you.” She didn't look at Cole. She couldn't bear to see the hurt in his eyes she knew would be there. He stood
motionless, a man apart, isolated, hurt beyond reason and unwilling to risk himself further.

Jase flung himself onto the couch beside Maia, tears glittering in his eyes. “I hate this. I hate my life.” He included Maia in his glare. “I hate that you stick up for him. You don't even know him. You don't know whether he killed our father, or whether he hurt Wally and tried to hurt me. You don't even know whether or not he covered that walkway with ice in order to hurt you. Everyone says he's after my share of the money, and maybe he is.” A sob escaped, and his chest heaved as he tried to hold the emotion in.

“That's enough,” Cole's tone was low, but it was a whiplash.

“That doesn't even make sense, Jase,” Maia said softly. “I knew about the gun. If you went into the stable and startled Cole, of course he pulled the gun. Someone hurt your horse. Naturally Cole would be worried about all of our safety.”

Jase rubbed at his eyes with his knuckles, looking four instead of fourteen. Cole let out his breath slowly as his younger brother's expression became somewhat mollified.

“Cole, you need to talk to Jase. I can leave the room if you want me to, but he needs you to share your life with him. You're helping whoever is persisting in these rumors about you trying to kill Jase. You're enabling whoever is attempting to keep you from trusting one another by remaining silent about your past. If you want this to work between you, you have to trust one another, and the only way to do that is to get to know each other.” Maia held her breath, waiting for Cole to tell her to go to hell.

There was a long silence. She stole a quick glance at his face. His rugged features were very still, expressionless. He stared over her head at the wall behind them. A muscle jerked in his jaw, the only sign that he'd heard her. She could feel Jase trembling, could feel the tension in his body winding tighter and tighter. With a small sigh, she twisted her fingers together. What could she say to convince them?

“I saw the shadow of a man holding a pitchfork and thought someone was stalking me. I didn't know it was you. I yelled at you because I was afraid I could have hurt you accidentally. I didn't hurt the horse, and I sure don't want your money.”

Jase looked a little embarrassed. “Maybe I didn't mean everything I said. It just reminded me of . . . things.”

“I know what you mean,” Cole said. “He shoved a gun in my face more than once too. I'm sorry I scared you.”

“That's all right.” Some of the tension began to drain from the boy's body.

“I was in jail, Jase.” Cole took a deep breath, let it out. His fingers curled involuntarily into a fist. “I work for the DEA. I went into prison undercover to stop a very large drug ring involving guards, inmates, and the supply trucks. I've worked undercover most of my life. It's an isolating job and makes you very distrustful of everything and everyone around you.” He made the confession in a rush, wanting to get it over with, half-horrified that he was letting them both into his life. “I don't tell people what I do. It's habit, and it's kept me alive over the years.”

Maia kept her lips firmly pressed together, astonished, not by what he'd said, but that he'd admitted it. Cole Steele was not a man who'd easily reveal the details of his
life. She wanted to console him, put her arms around him and hold him close, but neither Jase nor Cole could allow a show of compassion. Beside her, Jase was trembling, uncertain how to react to his brother's revelation. Tension coiled around Cole, his face a mask without expression. Only his eyes were alive, turbulent and raw with pain.

“You're some kind of a cop?” Jase asked. His voice cracked, making him sound younger and even less sure of himself.

Cole nodded. “I have a small apartment in San Francisco that I rarely use. Most of the time I'm on the road, sent undercover to various countries. Sometimes it's here in the U.S. We carefully cultivated my reputation and network in the drug world. When the old man was investigating me, the P.I. raised a red flag, and we fed him the details of my life just the way we do everyone who investigates me. I was using a different name, and the private investigators just assumed I'd covered my tracks to be rid of the old man. They bought my undercover role and took it at face value. So now Cole Steele has the same background as my persona at work.”

“And you didn't want me to know?”

Cole flinched inwardly at the hurt in the boy's voice. “I wanted to wait until we knew each other better, Jase. Things have been so bad for you. I'm not used to being around anyone for an extended period of time. I had to know if I could be someone you could count on.”

“But you let all those people say that you were here to kill me.”

Cole nodded. “And I'll continue to let them say it. I don't care what people say or think about me. I'm only concerned with what you say and think.”

“I tried not to think they might be right, but I found your glove by the fence. And sometimes, when you look really mean, you look a little bit . . .” Jase trailed off.

The knot in his gut tightened. Cole refused to look at Maia. “I've seen the resemblance. I always carry a gun, Jase.”

“I guess I'm not supposed to tell anyone.”

“I'd rather you didn't,” Cole said.

“Are you going to go away again?”

Maia felt the boy beside her, stiff and awkward. She could feel fear rolling off him and immediately locked her gaze with Cole's. Pleading with him. Hurting for him. Did he realize how important that single question was? The relationship between the two brothers was so fragile.

Cole felt the impact of Maia's eyes. He swallowed his first careful answer. He had promised himself he would change the boy's life. He couldn't very well do it from a distance. His leave of absence might turn out to be far longer than he'd anticipated. “I'll stay as long as you need me, Jase. Or want me. It's up to you.”

Jase jumped to his feet. “All right then. I won't say anything.” His voice was gruff, covering his emotions. “I'm sorry I believed those people, even for a minute.”

“I think you were smart to be careful, Jase. After what we've been through, we need to build our relationship on solid ground.”

Jase nodded and practically ran from the room.

Maia guessed he was close to tears. “I'm sorry,” she said. “I didn't mean to intrude on such a personal moment with Jase. I couldn't figure out a way to leave gracefully in the middle of it all. I won't say anything about your life to anyone.”