The Colton Marine

A troubled hero returns home to a family nightmare in this thrilling Coltons of Shadow Creek tale!

Hired to renovate his family’s former mansion, River Colton hopes to find answers to his deepest questions. Plagued by memories of his fugitive mother, the ex-marine finds danger to his life in the estate’s secret chambers—and danger to his heart in Edith Beaulieu, its beautiful new guardian.

But someone doesn’t want Edith or River in the seemingly haunted house. When Edith falls victim to too many “accidents”—and falls hard for River—the Texas loner risks everything to protect her. If the ghosts of Coltons past lurk in the shadows, it’s up to Edith and River to hunt them down...

River’s broad shoulders moved up and down in a quick shrug. “It’s fine. I get it. You’re not interested.”

But Edith was. She was more interested than she’d ever been before. But she couldn’t admit that now. He might reach for her again. He might kiss her.

Then she opened her mouth because she wanted him to touch her, to kiss her...

But he reached for a broom instead and began sweeping up the shards of the vase she’d dropped. “You seem a little rattled,” he remarked. “Had you been hearing anything else before I showed up?”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“Any of those weird noises again?” he asked. “Like the clanging or the footsteps on the stairs?”

She shook her head. She almost wished she would have; it would have distracted her from thinking about him, from obsessing about him, about how passionately he’d kissed her, about how he’d carried her up those stairs...

* * *

The Coltons of Shadow Creek: Only family can keep you safe...

The Colton Marine

Lisa Childs

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Ever since LISA CHILDS read her first romance novel (a Mills & Boon story, of course) at age eleven, all she wanted was to be a romance writer. With over forty novels published with Mills & Boon, Lisa is living her dream. She is an award-winning, bestselling romance author. Lisa loves to hear from readers, who can contact her on Facebook, through her website, www.lisachilds.com, or her snail-mail address, PO Box 139, Marne, MI 49435, USA.

A special thank-you to Melissa Jeglinski

for being a fabulous agent and friend.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

About the Author

Title Page

Dedication

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Extract

Copyright

Chapter 1

The darkness was all-encompassing. All-concealing. Night was the only time River liked to come out now—like the other nocturnal creatures that rustled around in the brush. The noises made his horse uneasy, and it shifted beneath him.

“It’s okay, Shadow.” He soothed the skittish stallion with a pat along his silky mane.

Maybe he should have chosen another horse from Mac’s barn—one less temperamental. But there was something about the formerly mistreated horse with which River identified. Not that he had been mistreated. Physically. His mother wouldn’t have wanted to leave any signs of abuse on him or his siblings; then she might have missed a photo op. Because she’d been busy with ventures other than parenting, she had missed pretty much everything else, though.

Of course she hadn’t had a choice the past ten years; until her recent breakout, she’d been in prison. For—among those other ventures—murder. The man he’d believed was his father would have been a killer, too, had any of his attempts proved successful. He had just pled guilty to several counts of attempted murder and assault.

River should have been relieved the DNA test had confirmed that Wes Kingston wasn’t actually his father. He’d never had much of a relationship with the man, anyway. Just like all his other half siblings, River used his mother’s maiden name: Colton.

But even though he had never used it, there had been some comfort in knowing he was a Kingston. Now he didn’t know who his father was or who he was, either.

But that wasn’t just because of his paternity.

Despite the warm July night, he shivered and tugged his hat down lower over his face. Hopefully nobody else was out this late. But since his mother’s prison break, there was always someone watching him and his siblings. The FBI, the police and of course the damn reporters—the ones from the national tabloids and that relentless website, Everything’s Blogger in Texas.

River shouldn’t have come back to Shadow Creek. Hell, he wouldn’t have—had he had any other choice. As his fingers slid away from the brim of his Stetson, they brushed down the right side of his face over the strings holding the patch in place over his eye—his empty eye socket, actually—and along the ridge of the not-quite-healed scar on his cheek and jaw.

Now he couldn’t leave Shadow Creek, and not just because he was still healing but also because of his siblings. He’d already been gone for most of the past ten years—leaving them alone to deal with the fallout of their mother’s trial. Since he’d joined the Marines, no one else had accused him of being a coward.