Samuel stood twenty feet away, three armed men beside him.
Colton looked at Lila.
Then at Darren.
There was nowhere to run.
Samuel held out his hand.
“The drive.”
Colton slowly stood.
“What happens if I give it to you?”
“You get to leave.”
“And Lila?”
Samuel smiled faintly.
“She comes with me.”
Colton shook his head.
“No.”
His father sighed.
“You always did make things difficult.”
“You spent eleven years pretending to be dead. I think you can tolerate a little inconvenience.”
Samuel's expression hardened.
“Give me the drive.”
Colton looked at the flash drive.
Then toward the ruined porch.
Then back at his father.
And smiled.
“You really don't remember Grandma's place.”
Samuel frowned.
“What?”
Colton threw the drive onto the porch roof.
Every head turned.
Darren moved first.
Colton tackled Samuel.
The world erupted into chaos.
A man shouted.
Someone fired a shot into the air.
Darren disarmed one of the guards and shoved him against the stone foundation.
Colton and Samuel crashed through the remains of the porch railing.
His father was old, but he was still vicious. He struck Colton across the face, then drove a knee into his ribs.
Colton tasted blood.
“You always were a disappointment,” Samuel snarled.
Colton shoved him backward.
“And you always talked too much.”
A siren sounded in the distance.
Then another.
Samuel froze.
Police vehicles appeared along the eastern ranch road, their lights flashing through the dust.
Darren grinned.
“I sent the location to Carla.”
Colton stared at him.
“The waitress?”
“She called state police after we left the diner. I gave her enough information to make sure they took it seriously.”
Samuel looked toward the field.
There was no escape.
Officers surrounded the property, ordering the armed men to drop their weapons.
For the first time in Colton's life, his father looked afraid.
But Samuel had one final weapon.
As officers moved toward him, he shouted across the ruined yard.
“You still don't understand!”
Colton stared at him.
Samuel pointed toward Lila.
“That child isn't Mara's daughter!”
The world seemed to stop.
Lila looked at Colton.
Darren closed his eyes.
And Colton knew, from the expression on the former marshal's face, that Samuel had just told the truth.
The officers arrested Samuel at 6:41 that evening.
His men were taken into custody separately. The flash drive was recovered from the porch roof, and the property was secured while investigators searched the remains of the house.
Colton barely noticed any of it.
He stood beside the ruined porch, staring at Darren.
“You knew.”
Darren nodded.
“Who is she?”
Lila was sitting several yards away with a female deputy, holding her stuffed rabbit in her lap.
She was watching them.
Darren lowered his voice.
“Mara made me promise not to tell you unless she could explain it herself.”
Colton stepped forward.
“I'm done with promises.”
“I know.”
“Who is Lila?”
Darren took an old photograph from his wallet.
A young woman stood beside a motorcycle, her dark red hair falling across one shoulder. She had green eyes and a crooked smile that Colton remembered better than he remembered some of his own birthdays.
His heart stopped.
“Nora.”
Darren nodded.
Nora Bennett.
The woman Colton had once planned to marry.
They had been together for four years. They had lived in a small apartment above a motorcycle shop, argued about money, laughed over burned dinners, and spent long nights talking about the future.
Then, ten years earlier, Nora had left.
She told him she needed a clean start.
He believed she had moved to California.
Three years later, he heard from an old friend that she had died in a car accident.
He had never seen a death certificate.
He had never attended a funeral.
He had accepted the story because grief had become so familiar that he no longer knew how to question it.
Now Darren was showing him a photograph of Nora and telling him that Lila was connected to her.
“What does Nora have to do with this?” Colton asked.
“Everything.”
Colton shook his head.
“No.”
“She never moved to California.”
“No.”
“She was pregnant when she left you.”
Colton stepped backward.
The words were impossible.
Darren continued.
“She found out shortly after your last argument. She tried to tell you, but she was afraid.”
“Afraid of what?”
“Your father.”
Colton stared at him.
“Nora knew Samuel was alive?”
“She found documents among Samuel's belongings. She realized the man everyone believed dead was still working with Victor Saye.”
Colton remembered the boxes he had stored in his garage after the funeral.
He had never opened most of them.
“Nora realized that if Samuel discovered she was pregnant, he might use the child to control you,” Darren said. “She went to Mara because she believed your sister could help her disappear.”
“And then?”
“Nora gave birth under another name.”
Colton looked toward Lila.
Her pale blue eyes.