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Anders Colton jerked awake, his heart racing and every muscle in his body tensed with fight-or-flight adrenaline. From the nearby open window a cool night breeze drifted in, and crickets and other insects clicked and whirred with their usual night songs. They were familiar sounds and wouldn’t have awakened him. So what had?
He remained perfectly still, and then he heard it...a faint shuffle of feet against wood. In one quick movement he slid out of bed and grabbed the nearby rifle that rested against the bedroom wall. He stalked out of his bedroom clad only in a pair of navy boxers.
Tonight he was going to catch the culprit who had been stealing from him for the past couple of weeks. He’d dubbed the person the “Needy Thief” because of the strange things that had come up missing.
Last night it had been fruit from the bowl on the kitchen counter and a jar of peanut butter and a loaf of bread from the pantry. A week before that it was a mattress from the bunk barn and an old baby cradle from the barn.
Anders didn’t mind the loss of the food, and he’d already replaced the mattress, but one of his grandmother’s quilts had also been taken and he definitely wanted that back. His heart now beat with the sweet anticipation of finally catching the culprit.
Was the person a runaway in trouble? A criminal hiding out on the property? Was it possible it was his cousin Demi, who had been on the run from the law and had a newborn baby?
Tonight he hoped to nab the thief red-handed and find out exactly who he or she was and what in the hell was going on.
The kitchen was in complete darkness except for the shaft of moonlight that danced in through the window above the sink. It was just enough illumination to see that nobody was there.
The cabin was fairly small and it took him only seconds to check in the guest bedroom and bath and realize the thief wasn’t anywhere inside. Then he heard it...retreating footsteps outside. The porch!
He threw open the front door, expecting to see a person running away. Instead he nearly stumbled over a pale yellow tote bag and the stolen wicker baby cradle. He stared at the cradle in stunned surprise. Had the thief suffered a twinge of guilt and returned it? A faint noise sounded, and he leaned over the basket and then straightened up with a new shock. Nestled in a pink blanket was a sleeping baby. What the hell?
The moonlight overhead was bright. He gazed around the area and then looked a quarter of a mile in the distance toward the main house where his parents and his kid sister, Valeria, lived. He could barely see the huge place through a thick stand of trees. There didn’t appear to be any lights shining from the mansion and there was nobody lurking around his cabin. It was just him and a baby.
Why on earth would anyone leave a baby with him? He picked up the tote bag and the cradle and carried them into the living room. He placed the cradle on his sofa and then turned on the lamp on the end table.
A tuft of strawberry blonde hair topped rosy, chubby cheeks. The baby was very small and he would guess she wasn’t more than a couple weeks old. He couldn’t tell the baby’s eye color because she was sound asleep. Then he noticed a note pinned to the pink blanket. He carefully plucked it off and opened it.
She’s a Colton.
His heart stutter-stepped. If she was a Colton, then who did she belong to? Was it possible she was his? He sank down on the sofa next to the sleeping baby.
Yes, he supposed it was possible she was his child. There had been a few women in his recent past, but nothing deep or meaningful. He didn’t do deep and meaningful since he’d been betrayed two years ago. What he had now were occasional hookups. Had one of those hookups created this baby?
He stared at her little rosebud lips and tiny features and then looked away. He couldn’t do this again. He couldn’t get emotionally involved with a baby. The last one he’d loved so desperately had been cruelly snatched away from him and his heart had never quite healed.
Still, if she really was a Colton, he also wasn’t overly eager to hand her over to social services until he knew who she was. So, what should he do with her? Should he call somebody now? In the middle of the night? Where would she be placed if he did call social services? He didn’t even know if there were any foster parents in town.
Somebody had left her here with him for a reason. But he was torn. He didn’t really know anything about taking care of a baby and she’d be better off with somebody who had more experience than he did.
He opened the tote bag to find formula, bottles, diapers, toys, clothing and several other items. There was everything he needed to take care of her. He could smell the sweetness of her, that baby-powder-fresh scent that was so achingly familiar.
Who would have left her here and why? Was it possible the Needy Thief was her mother? Now the theft of the food items and the cradle and quilt all made sense. But why hadn’t the mother just come to him and asked for his help? Damn, he wished he would have caught whomever it had been.
Why leave the baby here? He was a bachelor, a workaholic who spent hours out working on the ranch and chose to live in a small cabin rather than in the family mansion. He’d made the old foreman’s cabin his home. He’d made the decision first of all because he was the ranch foreman, and secondly because his parents drove him crazy.
Of all the places and with all the people in the entire town of Red Ridge, South Dakota, the baby could have been left with, why him?
He found it hard to believe that it had anything to do with somebody who worked for him. All his ranch hands lived in the bunk barn in small apartments. He supplied the men who lived there not only everything they needed but also some extras to keep them happy. Besides, the note said she was a Colton.
He needed to call the Red Ridge Police Department and get somebody out here. He didn’t know why the baby had been left on his doorstep, but she couldn’t stay indefinitely and in any case he needed to make some kind of a report.
Was it possible her mother would return later tonight? Maybe sometime tomorrow? He couldn’t take the chance of waiting around for her to come back to retrieve the baby. Eventually the baby would wake up and need something and he wouldn’t know what to do.
He made the call and when he finished, the baby opened her slate blue eyes and gazed at him. Her rosebud lips curled upward and she released a soft coo. He closed his eyes and steeled his heart. No matter how cute she was, he absolutely refused to care about her.
* * *
Rookie K9 Officer Elle Gage hunkered down behind the back of a pickup truck in the warehouse parking lot. Next to her was her partner, her bulldog named Merlin, who was trained in protection.
Merlin had entered her life eight months before, after going through an intense ten weeks of training at the Red Ridge K9 Training Center. He was not only her partner, but also her best friend and companion. As far as she was concerned he was the best dog in the whole entire world.
The pavement smelled of grease and oil baked under the June sun that day. Her heart beat quickly in anticipation and her blood sizzled through her veins as she stared at the warehouse in the distance.
Tonight she was hoping to finally prove herself, not only to her chief, but also to her brother and fellow officer, Carson. She also wanted to prove herself to her brother Lucas, who was a bounty hunter.
In her mind she always thought of her brothers as South Dakota’s Most Overly Protective Brothers. She was more than