Colton 911: Temptation Undercover Read online

  He put two fingers under her chin, seeing her eyes flare with surprise and heat.

  “There’s only one thing that will finish this day to perfection,” he said.

  “What’s that?” She played along. She must know what he intended and wasn’t resisting.

  “This,” he murmured, leaning in for a brief, soft kiss. But what he meant to be brief lasted many seconds. The world around him dropped away. All he felt were Ruby’s warm, soft lips against his.

  When he would have probed for more, he drew back. Baby steps with this one, he reminded himself.

  She stared up at him for a timeless moment before she seemed to drift back down to earth.

  She patted his chest once, lightly, nervously. “I wasn’t sure I was going to do this today, but now I think I will.”

  “Do what?” he asked. “Kiss again?” He grinned.

  “No.” She didn’t smile. “I want you to meet Maya.”

  Now, that was progress. “I’d love that.”

  “I should warn you...she’s an excellent judge of character,” Ruby said.

  “I should pass the test, no problem,” he said.

  “I hope so.” She briefly bit her lower lip. “Why don’t you come over to my house for dinner tomorrow night?”

  “What time?”

  “Five? Are you working?”

  “Not tomorrow. Five it is. What should I bring?”

  “Nothing. Just an appetite.”

  “You’re a very demanding woman,” he said, letting his arm drop to make room for her to get in the Jeep.

  “Just wait till you meet my daughter.”

  Chuckling, he closed the door and walked around to the driver’s side. Maybe, just maybe, he’d get her talking. Once she trusted him completely, she would feel safer. As those thoughts came to him, the guilt set in again. What if she didn’t know anything as he suspected much of the time? She would be hurt when she found out who he really was.

  * * *

  Ruby wasn’t sure what troubled her more: her inability to talk about Kid, or Damon’s persistent interest in the topic. He said he was concerned about her. She believed that. She was concerned about herself and Maya. But she just didn’t feel comfortable talking about Kid. First, she was embarrassed at having gotten involved with a man like that. Second, getting pregnant had been an accident. She had used birth control but still got pregnant. Third, he was a scary, dangerous man with lots of men who followed him and thought she knew more than she did.

  Leaving the state had been an option, but Ruby had refused to run. She liked Chicago. Maya was settled here and safe. Ruby’s mother liked it here. They were close to Wisconsin and could visit family often, but she would not run.

  Her mother knew all about Kid and agreed with her. Bethany, or Bette as those close to her called her, had the stamina and strength of a mama grizzly. Something Ruby had inherited—despite her inherent transparency—and Maya had as well. A tiny mite, Maya showed signs of that spirit even at her young age. Ruby was so proud.

  “What’s got you all smiles?”

  Ruby stopped chopping vegetables for the salad to see her mother walk into the kitchen. The house was actually rented in her mother’s name, a tactic to protect Ruby and Maya. So far, they had not had any uninvited visitors.

  Bette always wore colorful clothes, flowing and figure-slimming. Her dark hair was cut short. She had dark eyes and smooth, olive skin. Ruby had gotten her hair and skin from her mother and her light brown eyes from her father.

  “Hi, Mom.” Ruby leaned over and kissed her mother on the cheek.

  “Can I help?”

  Ruby had a big cutting board on the kitchen island and a bowl she was gradually filling with vegetables.

  “The grill needs to be lit and the ribs seasoned,” Ruby said. “I have water warming for the corn. Baked beans and a salad, and we are ready for an all-American dinner.”

  “Sounds lovely. Where is Maya?”

  “Your cute little granddaughter is in her room playing with her dolls.”

  “I’ll start the grill and go get her.”

  Just then, the doorbell rang. Ruby stopped chopping carrots.

  “I’ll get that first,” Bette said.

  Ruby resumed chopping, but her heart skipped a few beats. This evening would change the course of her future. She just knew it. Having a man she trusted meet her precious daughter was no small event. Damon didn’t know how important this was to her, how much of a privilege Ruby considered this to be. Maybe after tonight, he would.

  * * *

  Not many things made Damon nervous, but he was right now. This evening could take his relationship with Ruby into much deeper intimacy. Meeting her daughter meant a lot. He was going to get to know her family. Would this entwine him more than he was prepared for?

  When the door opened and he saw a woman who must be Ruby’s mother, his foreboding flared to life. He should have remembered her mother would be here. He felt as though he was intruding where he didn’t belong. He wasn’t who either of these people thought.

  “Mr. Jones?”

  “Damon. You’re Ruby’s mother?” he said.

  “Yes. I’m Bette. Come on in.”

  He entered their home. It wasn’t a large house. It was older, probably built in the fifties. Stairs led up to a covered porch, and now he stood in a small entry off the living room. Wood floors throughout, ahead was the dining room and to his left double French doors led to a sitting room with a bookshelf.

  Damon followed Bette through a wide archway into the dining room. That opened to a remodeled kitchen with wooden stools before an island. The house was small but charming, which suited Ruby.

  She turned from chopping a tomato and said with a smile, “Hi.”

  She was so beautiful. “Hi.”

  “I see you met my mother,” she said.

  “Yes.”

  Bette had left the kitchen.

  “Would you like anything to drink?” Ruby asked.

  Damon looked around for Maya and didn’t see her. “What are you having?” he pointed to her glass of dark liquid.

  “Iced tea.”

  “I’ll have a glass of that.” He stepped into the kitchen. “I’ll get it.”

  “Glasses are up in there.” She gestured with her knife to a cabinet. “Pitcher of tea is in the fridge.”

  He got a glass and put some ice in it from the dispenser on the refrigerator door. Then he poured himself some tea.

  Hearing the sound of Maya bounding down the stairs and feet pattering on the floor, Damon turned in time to see her enter the dining room and kitchen. Tall for a five-year-old, she was slender and would surely grow into a beauty like her mother. It made him wonder what his own children would look like. What would Maya look like had he been her father? He hadn’t thought much about starting a family, but seeing Ruby’s daughter seemed to light something in him, possibilities. Curly brown hair up in a high ponytail that swayed as she moved, her adorable light brown eyes found him. She stopped short, looking suddenly shy. She went to her mother as Bette appeared around the wall. Maya peered around the back of her mother at Damon, who found the whole display utterly charming.

  “She was full of energy today,” Bette said. “Until now.”

  “She’s always wary when she meets new people.” Ruby signed, It’s okay. He’s a friend, then put the bowl of salad in the refrigerator.

  Damon knew a little sign language. He hadn’t told Ruby that yet.

  “I had to ask her to put her toys away. She’s hungry and looking forward to ribs,” Bette said.

  “She’ll eat anything.”

  Maya signed, Can I have a soda?

  “Sure,” Ruby said, signing at the same time, but Damon caught on that Maya could read lips. Ruby took out a soda and gave Maya the can. Then she crouched and signed, Thi
s is my friend Damon.

  Maya looked up at him and signed, Hello.

  He signed, Nice to meet you.

  Ruby stood. “You know sign language?”

  Seeing her pleasantly surprised look, he said, “Enough to get by.”

  “Why did you learn?” she asked.

  “That’s impressive,” Bette said. “Ruby’s never met a man who can sign.”

  Ruby sent her a warning look, as though her mother had just given her nod of approval for her to have Damon as her new boyfriend.

  “I knew someone who was deaf, a long time ago,” he said, hoping she wouldn’t ask further. He had learned because he found it useful when he encountered deaf people in his line of work as a DEA agent, whether they be criminals or witnesses.

  “A friend?” she asked.

  “Yes,” he said, again hating that he had to lie.

  “Are you still in touch with him? Or her?”

  “Him. And no, we drifted apart.” The man had been a witness. Not being able to communicate with him had cost him too much time. That’s why he had learned sign. “I also happen to have an interest in languages.” That was true. “I speak Spanish and a few other languages.”

  “Wow. Impressive,” Ruby said.

  Her mother raised her eyebrows and smiled at Ruby.

  “So you do have aspirations in life,” Ruby said, teasing.

  What are asps? Maya signed.

  Damon chuckled with Ruby and Bette.

  Ruby signed, Aspirations. They’re like wishes.

  I wish I had a daddy, Maya signed to the room at large.

  The innocence in her quick glance at Damon cut through him. He had no illusions over what the young girl must have gone through when her father kept her from seeing her mother. Not to mention the line of work he did. The bad people he associated with. A child that age would not have the mental capacity to know it was wrong. She had probably been confused. To her, her father loved her, and she had likely worshiped him. The parent–child relationship was all unconditional until the kids reached an age where they became aware of their individuality. Maya also loved her mother and must have missed her intensely. But being just five, she had no defenses. She hadn’t understood the awfulness of being taken from her mother, and now she had no father. Damon wished she had never gone through this. But of course, when she grew up she would realize.

  Damon signed, I’m sure your mother will meet someone nice someday.

  Are you nice?

  I like to think so.

  Her sweet eyes studied him a while. Do you like my mommy?

  Yes, I do. He looked up at Ruby with a grin.

  “Come on, Maya.” Ruby sent Damon a flirtatiously warning look and then took her daughter to the table, where she had a coloring book.

  After grappling with guilt over what could be construed as using a five-year-old to get information, Damon grilled the ribs. The activity and the festiveness of it helped take his mind off the true purpose of his presence here. He caught Ruby eyeing him every once in a while, as though reading his mood. Did she know he had tried to get information about Maya’s father, or did she wonder how he felt about being involved with a woman who had a child? He suspected it was a little of both. Clearly the subject of her ex was totally and completely off-limits, but why was she so adamant about it? Was she embarrassed? Scared, for sure, and Damon didn’t blame her. Mercer and his gang of criminals were dangerous people.

  “She’s a cute kid,” Damon said as he helped her prepare the back patio table.

  “I like her just a little,” Ruby said with a smile.

  Bette had gone inside to get the salad and Maya.

  When everything was ready and Maya plopped down on a chair at the table, Damon sat across from her, leaving the chairs beside her for Ruby and Bette. Seeing she had brought her coloring book, Damon leaned forward a bit.

  What did you draw? he signed.

  Maya signed back, A horse.

  Damon looked at the black horse and noticed how Maya had stayed inside all the lines. That’s very good. You could be an artist someday.

  Maya smiled big. My mommy was an artist when she was a kid.

  “Wow.” Damon turned to her. “Why did you give it up?”

  “It was just something I did growing up. A hobby. I guess you just get busy as an adult.” She turned to her daughter. “And then you have children of your own.” Ruby ran her forefinger down Maya’s tiny nose, and the girl looked at her mother with love in her eyes.

  Damon envied the bond they must have, one that must have grown stronger after being separated for so long. He wanted to know that kind of feeling and to be a part of a family. He had always known he would start a family some day but had never made any concrete plans. Meeting the right woman was the most important element, and he had not met anyone who had made him start to think seriously about that.

  Until now, maybe. He looked at Ruby, who caught his gaze.

  Ruby blinked as though sensing the somberness of his thoughts. The moment warmed, and Damon had to turn away. Bette saw them and had that approving glint in her eyes.

  Unabashedly biting into a rib, Maya watched Damon as she messed up her face and fingers with barbecue sauce.

  Damon dug in right along with her, deliberately getting sauce on his face and hands. That made Maya laugh. She bit into the rib again, smearing more sauce. Damon chuckled. The kid was absolutely adorable. What impressed him the most was her deafness didn’t seem to deter her at all. At such a young age, her future dawned before her.

  “Your daughter is quite intelligent,” he said to Ruby.

  Ruby beamed with the compliment. “She is. She learns fast. She is going to be a smart girl. She’s already smart.”

  He imagined people who were deaf had to adapt, be more alert than most. “It’s nice to see a kid adjust so quickly to being deaf,” he said.

  “We don’t think of it as a disability, and I work hard at guiding her to keep thinking that way.”

  “You must be such a good mom,” he said, meaning every word. “There are moms, and then there are exceptional moms. I think you are one of the latter.”

  “She is a great mom,” Bette said. “She learned from the best.”

  Ruby smiled at her mother, while Maya spooned some baked beans and shoved them into her mouth, giggling and watching Damon. She must have caught at least some of what he and her mother talked about. He played along, taking a huge bite of beans.

  Beans make you fart, she signed.

  Ruby put her hand on Maya’s arm. Maya looked at her, and Ruby shook her head. Then Ruby signed, Manners.

  Maya calmed and resumed eating without fooling around. When she looked at Damon, he winked, for which he was rewarded a cute and secretive smile.

  The warm and loving connection he felt just then made him check himself. He didn’t want to lead these two remarkable people into a false reality, but at the same time this felt so personal and...right. What a tragedy that he should meet this nice family and begin to have thoughts of joining them when there was no possible way that could ever happen. When Ruby found out who he really was, she would not forgive him. He would never see any of them again. Best not to get too attached. Maybe that was easier said than done, especially now, after Maya had wormed her way into his heart just by meeting him.

  He saw that Ruby had caught the exchange, and she smiled in a way that told him without a doubt how much she liked the way he got along with her daughter. Oh boy, was he ever going to be in trouble.

  Chapter 3

  Two men sat at the bar drinking the beers Damon had served them. As he worked, Damon could not stop thinking about Ruby and Maya. Bette, too. She would probably make a great mother-in-law. Maya was a special kid. And Ruby...

  She was beautiful inside and out. She raised Maya with loving discipline. Damon couldn’t stop h
is feelings from intensifying. He wanted things he had never wanted this much before. He wanted to be with Ruby. He wanted to be a part of Maya’s life. This all seemed so absurd, since he had only spent one evening with Maya. Maybe it had more to do with Ruby and the strong attraction he had for her. He had to stop that. He had a job to do. The sooner he wrapped up the undercover case, the less damage he’d do to everyone, himself included.

  Frustrated and troubled over the way Ruby refused to talk about Mercer, however, Damon wondered if he should just listen to his gut and ask his boss if he could be removed from the case. It wasn’t the first time he’d had this thought. After meeting Maya and seeing how much it meant to Ruby, he contemplated it more seriously. He could quit the bar and tell Ruby everything. Maybe he’d have a chance at earning her forgiveness by withdrawing from the case. Then he could explore their relationship for real. He hadn’t seen her in a few days and had had plenty of time to think things over.

  The only problem was Ted Reyes had been killed by Mercer’s gang, and Damon had personal reasons for going after them. Ted had been a close friend and colleague. He had had a confidential informant, and the two of them had been caught together. It had been assumed that the informant had been discovered by Mercer’s other associates and followed. Both of them had been killed, and the shooter had gotten away. Damon hadn’t been there but wished he had been, even though there had been no reason for him to be. He had been freshly assigned to this undercover case. He couldn’t give up now. He had to bring down the one who’d murdered Ted and the criminals who had ordered the hits.

  Damon wiped down the bar after a customer had left, glancing over at a table of three men having beer late in the afternoon. They were Mercer’s men, and they had been watching Damon. Word had spread that he was interested in making extra money. The owner of the Foxhole tolerated them and maybe even supported their cause. Damon hadn’t witnessed him taking kickbacks, but he had good rapport with most of the members.

  The three over there frequented the pub the most. After Kid was killed, Damon had overheard them talking about a man named Santiago. Just that. Santiago. He didn’t go by any last name. Apparently he had taken over control of the syndicate. They all called themselves the Nightcrawlers. Worms as far as Damon was concerned. A bunch of reprobates.