Page 42 of Colton's Last Resort

Joshua nodded. “He’s going to get that money somehow. And we know he plays dirty when he has to. Roland’s been informed not to let him on the property without notifying one of us first.”

“That’s good, I suppose,” Laura conceded. She watched Noah pet one filly who had come to the corral fence. The horse nickered as she nudged her muzzle against his chest. Noah’s hands roamed into her mane before teasing her forelock and stroking her ears.

“Does he make you happy, ace?” Joshua asked.

Laura watched Noah and the horse, and something somewhere softened. It was difficult to associate the gentle horseman with the bullheaded one she knew. “Yes.”

“Then I don’t care who he is,” Joshua explained. “I don’t care where he comes from or what he does for a living. You deserve to be happy.”

She looked back at her brother. “Thank you.”

She would have hugged him again, but Knox hailed him. Joshua tossed her a wink and roamed back into the stable.

Laura crossed to the fence where Noah stood. “Penny has a taste for rebels.”

“She’s got spunk,” he said, patting the horse’s flank when she sidestepped for him to do so. “I like that in a filly.”

She tried not to watch his hands. She couldn’t miss how Penny nodded her head, as if agreeing with his every touch. “Do you ride?”

“I used to take Allison horseback riding on her birthday,” he said.

“That’s sweet,” she said, trying to align him with Allison’s indulgent brother. The pieces wouldn’t have fit together so well if he wasn’t giving Penny everything she wanted, including a treat he’d nabbed from the feed room.

Noah’s head turned her way. “Do you ride?”

“I did,” she replied. “My horse, Bingley, died last fall. I bought him when I moved to Arizona. He colicked overnight and...that was it.”

“And you haven’t ridden since?”

She shrugged. “I haven’t had the heart to.”

“You know what they say,” he suggested.

“What?” she asked when he left the words hanging.

“To get back on the horse.”

Her lips parted in surprise. “Allison said the same thing.”

He stilled. “Did she?”

“Yes.”

He looked away quickly. “If I’m going to stay on-site, I need to go back to my place to pack some clothes. I also need to go by Allison’s.”

“Why?”

“To look for anything that may point to her killer,” he said. “She might have written something down. She could have received a note or a gift from someone. Since I don’t have CCTV footage to fall back on, I thought that would be the best place to start.”

“Let me come with you,” she blurted.

He lifted his shoulders. “What good would that do?”

“Her killer is linked to the resort, and apart from my brothers, no one knows the resort like I do,” she explained. “You could miss something I won’t.”

He shook his head. “I don’t know...”

“I won’t get in your way,” she pledged. “If you need to take a minute when we get there, I can walk outside.” She wrapped her hand around the spider etched on his forearm. “Please, Noah. This is something I need to do as much as you do.”

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