Free Branded as Trouble by Lorelei James

faced Colby again. “That ‘you don’t have a family’ comment is the single shittiest thing I’ve ever heard anyone say. Ever. You’re supposed to be his family. So are you.” He pointed to Cord. “And you,” he said to Carson. “And me. But when Colt really needed his family to support him and help him? Were any of you there? No. The only person who gave a shit about him…was Kade.”
    “That’s enough,” Carson said.
    “How could you all rally around me, offering me support, when you didn’t do the same thing for Colt? When he was hurting just as bad? When he’s the one who’s always deserved it way more than I ever did. Because he had no choice but to stick around and live this life, when I had the luxury of leaving it behind.”
    Colt’s eyes burned. Leave it to the one-legged man to make a stand for him when no one else in his family ever did.
    Ugly, thick silence lingered.
    “I’m not surprised you’ve got nothin’ to say. You oughta be hanging your heads in shame. I’m outta here.” Fabric snapped as www.samhainpublishing.com 81

    Lorelei James
    Cam jerked his coat off the fence. He limped to his truck. After he opened the door he looked at Colt. “Sorry, bro, I know you didn’t ask for this, but it needed to be said. It needed to come from someone with an outsider’s perspective.”
    “You’re not an outsider, Cameron. You might’ve been gone for a few years, but you’ve always been part of this family.”
    All eyes turned to Carolyn McKay. No one had heard her come out onto the porch.
    Cam shook his head. “Thanks for the invite to supper, Ma, but I’ve lost my appetite.”
    She twisted a dishtowel in her hands, tears streaming down her face as she watched Cam drive away.
    Great, his mother would probably blame him too.
    Colt didn’t make eye contact with anyone as he climbed in his pickup and started the long, lonely drive home.
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Chapter Eight
    He’d hit the outskirts of Sundance, when his cell phone vibrated. He had half a mind to let it go to voice mail. Another confrontation today would do him in but he checked the caller ID
    anyway. Kade and Skylar’s home number. “Hello?”
    “Colt? Omigod, I’m so glad you answered. I was afraid you were still avoiding me, and—Eliza Belle! Get down right now!”
    “Indy? Why are you callin’ from Kade’s house?”
    “Sky and Kade planned a romantic getaway and Grama Kimi caught the flu. And rather than let them cancel their first trip alone since the twins were born, I said I’d watch the girls. Only they’re screaming, all three at the same time—” an ear-piercing shriek echoed in the background, “—and I can’t do this by myself! This is insane. How can anyone take care of a two and a half year old and six-month-old twins? Can you please please please come and help me? I’ll pay you, I promise I’ll do anything—”
    “Anything?”
    “Yes—No! Eliza, do not put that in your mouth!”
    Colt grinned for the first time in hours. “Take a deep breath, sugar, I’ll be there in thirty minutes.”
    “Oh. Thank you, thank you, thank you, I owe you. Big time.”
    Dial tone.

    Lorelei James
    “Yes, Miz India Blue, you surely do owe me.”
    He spent the remainder of the drive figuring out all sorts of inventive ways India could pay off her debt.

    ***
    “I wanna cookie.”
    “No.”
    “I wanna cookie…please?”
    “No way, Eliza, the last thing you need is more sugar.” India had Shannie cocked on her left hip and Peyton screamed from her high chair.
    A mulish look settled on Eliza’s face. “Mama—”
    “Mama is not here.” Please, Colt, hurry. Surely it’d been longer than a half hour. She had no idea why her sweet nieces had morphed into monsters.
    “I gonna call her,” Eliza announced.
    “No!” India snatched the cordless receiver and put it on top of the refrigerator next to the other cordless receivers she’d confiscated. Eliza had already tried to throw India’s