Julie must not have known about the accident that had taken out an eye and scarred his handsome face, but the black patch he wore did nothing to destroy his good looks—or the danger the man exuded. She could only catch a few muffled words, but there was no mistaking the hostile stance or the fury that oozed from every pore.
Gripping the semiauto in both hands, she stepped into the kitchen doorway, her legs braced slightly apart. “Raise your hands above your head! Do it now!”
Julie jumped to her feet. “Lissa, no! This isn’t Ray! It’s my friend, Colt Wheeler!”
With her adrenaline pumping, it took a moment for the words to sink in. Lissa waited to be sure Julie wasn’t being coerced, then holstered her weapon. She noticed Wheeler had raised his big hands only as high as his shoulders. His good eye, a striking shade of blue, crinkled at the corner, and his lips curved in what could only be amusement.
“Okay to put my hands down now?” he asked, clearly enjoying himself. She wanted to walk over and wipe the smirk off his sexy face.
Instead, she ignored him. “Where’s Ray?”
“He was here,” Julie said. “But he didn’t stay long. When he found out the kids weren’t home, he went ballistic.” She glanced pointedly at the pottery lamp that had been sitting on the table in the corner, now smashed to bits and pieces on the hardwood floor. “He left just a few minutes before Colt arrived.”
Her gaze focused on Wheeler. At least six-two, two hundred plus pounds of solid male muscle. A mustache curved down from his hard mouth to a scarred jaw. With the black patch over one eye, he looked like a total badass. She couldn’t imagine her man-shy friend having anything to do with a guy like him.
Julie made the introductions. “Colt, this is my best friend, Lissa Blayne.”
“Nice to meet you,” Colt drawled, his amused smile back in place, making her temper inch up all over again.
“Lissa’s a private detective,” Julie hurried to explain, knowing Lissa well enough to recognize her growing irritation. “I called her before Ray got here and asked her to come over.”
Colt’s amusement faded. He focused on Julie. “Any idea where I can find this guy?”
“No. But I know he’ll be back.” She sank down on the sofa. “Oh God, what am I going to do?”
“You got a restraining order on him once,” Lissa reminded her. “You can do it again.”
Julie shook her head. “It took me weeks and cost me a bundle in attorney’s fees. And the truth is, it won’t keep him away—not if coming here is what he plans to do. Oh God,” she said again.
“You don’t have to be afraid.” Colt remained standing. “I’ll stay here a few days, make sure he doesn’t give you any trouble.” He turned to Lissa. “In the meantime, you’re a detective, maybe you can track him down.”
“I’ll try to find him, but you don’t have to stay,” Lissa said, thinking the last thing her friend needed in her life right now was a hard-ass like Wheeler. “I can stay with Julie, make sure she and the kids are safe.”
“Colt’s just visiting on his way to Denver,” Julie said. “He needs a place to stay, and the kids and I love having him here.”
Somewhere in the back of her mind, Lissa remembered Julie mentioning her late husband’s friend, that he was a ranger like Liam. Julie hadn’t said their relationship was sexual. But looking at him, Lissa had no trouble believing the man could seduce a somewhat-naive, far-too-trusting woman like Julie.
“Fine,” Lissa said. “I’ll see if I can track down your ex. Any idea how long he’s been back in Dallas?”
“From what he told me, not very long.”
“What’s he look like?” she asked. “I need a description, something more than an ex-football jock with blond hair.”
“He doesn’t look anything like he used to. I almost didn’t recognize him. His hair’s darker and buzzed very short. He’s got tats on his neck and arms. I couldn’t believe it. He looks more like a criminal than the captain of the football team he was when we were dating.”
“Maybe that’s where he’s been,” Colt said. “Maybe the guy’s been in prison for the last eight years.”
Lissa flashed Colt a look, giving him silent kudos for a good idea. “I’ll check it out. Julie, I need you to think back, try to remember everything Ray said. Anything he mentioned might be helpful.”
Julie raked back her heavy auburn hair. “Why don’t we all sit down in the kitchen? I’ve got a cold pitcher of iced tea in the fridge. That’ll give me some time to think.”
“Sounds good,” Colt said.
Once they were seated at the table in Julie’s sunny yellow kitchen, a glass of iced tea in front of them, Julie went back over the conversation she’d had with her ex.
“I swear, I barely recognized him. Even his voice sounded different, harder, not smooth and coaxing like it was before. I didn’t want to let him in, but I was afraid if I didn’t it would only make things worse.”
“Did he say why he hasn’t tried to contact you until now?” Colt asked.
“We didn’t talk about it. He just said he’d made mistakes, but he was older now. He’d come to realize a man needed a son to pass down his legacy. He was particularly interested in seeing Timmy.”
“He didn’t care about Megan?” Lissa asked.
“He said he trusted me to raise her right.”
“What legacy?” Colt asked. “Did he mention anything in particular?”
“That was about the time he started to realize the kids weren’t in the house. When I told him they went over to a friend’s after school, he got so mad he smashed the lamp and stormed out of the house. He said he’d be back and Tim had better be here when he showed up.”
Silence fell. Lissa slanted a glance at Colt, whose features
