Colton Christmas Protector (The Coltons of Texas #12)(57)

She nodded her agreement, and while Reid was deciding whether to turn around on the driveway or make a loop by following the highway to the next street, he spotted a pair of headlights coming down the drive from the house. He squinted to see who was leaving the house at this late hour. Evenings out drinking or partying weren’t uncommon for any of his siblings in the past, but the Colton clan as a whole had become much more the homebodies in recent months, now that his brothers and sisters had someone to stay home with.

So who...? A prickle of suspicion nipped at his spine. Thinking quickly, he pulled onto a rutted lane that the ranch hands used as access to the farthest pastures and turned off his headlights and engine. “Get down.”

“What?” Pen’s tone held a note of panic, as she clearly remembered the last time he’d instructed her to duck in a front seat.

“I don’t know yet who that is.” He nodded toward the vehicle that was turning from the drive onto the highway, aiming in their direction. “And I don’t want the wrong person to see you with me.”

She unfastened her seat belt quickly and slid low on the seat, just before the dark Mercedes rolled past. Though Reid recognized Aaron Manfred’s car, he squinted to verify that the driver, his angular face illuminated by his dashboard lights, was, in fact, his father’s longtime butler. The older man didn’t so much as glance at Reid’s darkened vehicle sitting just outside the range of his headlights.

“I’ll be damned,” he muttered.

“What? Can I get up now?”

“Yeah.” He waited until Aaron was well down the highway before starting the Range Rover again and turning on his headlights. “Where does he keep going at this hour?” he mumbled to himself.

“Who was it?” Pen rebuckled her seat belt and cast a curious gaze down the dark highway.

“Aaron Manfred.” Reid pulled onto the road and set out after Aaron.

“Your father’s butler? Why is it a big deal that he’s going out somewhere?”

“It’s not, in and of itself. But this isn’t the first mysterious nighttime trip he’s made. He’s actually making it something of a habit lately.” He shot her a lopsided grin. “You up for a little spy work?”

“Spy work?” she wrinkled her nose. “What, are you going to follow him?”

“Damn right. I don’t have a problem with him leaving in the evenings, but the sneaky way he’s done it raises questions for me. He’s been having his wife tell us he can’t fill his duties in the evening because he doesn’t feel well. That he’s tiring easily these days. That little lie, his leaving without telling the family where he’s going, has me curious.”

Pen pivoted on the seat and checked on Nicholas. “He’s still asleep, so... I guess there’s no harm.”

She barely had the words out before she was lost to a jaw-cracking yawn.

Reid gave her a small grin. “Put the seat back and catch some z’s yourself. You don’t have to stay awake on my account.”

“You sure? I can help you spy if you want?”

Aaron turned at a crossroad, and keeping a manageable distance between them, Reid followed. “I’m good. If I need you, I’ll give you a nudge.”

She nodded, reaching below the seat to push the button that angled her seat back. She turned toward him, tucking a foot under her, and her eyes closed before she’d even settled her head. Reid couldn’t resist stroking a hand along her cheek, which looked especially pale and smooth in the bluish glow of his dash lights.

“G’night.” She gave a soft, sleepy hum as he tucked her hair behind her ear and gave her chin a final caress. The murmur of tired satisfaction rippled through him, a more potent intoxicant than a shot of the best whiskey he had at his lake house.

Giving his head a small shake, he gripped the steering wheel harder. Focus. He needed to keep Aaron in his sights without letting their butler know he was being followed. He doubted Aaron would recognize the Range Rover, especially at night, but he didn’t need to take the chance that the older man would realize someone was tailing him.

Pen drew a deep breath in her sleep that was just shy of a snore, and Reid smiled. She’d be horrified to think she’d snored in front of him. She may have rejected her father and his upper-class lifestyle, but she was still, at heart, the lady her mother had raised her to be.

Aaron entered the on-ramp of the interstate headed into Dallas, and Reid twisted his mouth. “Where are you going, old man?”

If Aaron were just out on a quick errand, he’d already passed any number of grocery stores, bank ATMs, all-night drug stores, fast-food restaurants and liquor stores.

He tailed the butler into downtown Dallas and off the interstate, onto the streets of a low-income part of town. He hung back a bit as Aaron took one turn after another until finally slowing to a stop in front of a multi-story older brick building in a low-rent neighborhood. He stopped a block back, but near enough to watch what transpired. “What the hell?”

Reid knew his family paid Aaron well. If he was renting a place in this neighborhood, it was not for lack of funds. A woman bundled up against the cold in a long coat and hat stepped out of the high-rise building where Aaron had stopped, and Reid goggled. Was the family’s trusted butler having an affair?

Reid squinted as the woman turned and tossed a bundle of what looked like laundry into the backseat of the Mercedes before climbing in the front seat. He caught a good view of her face and grunted his surprise. “Moira?”