Carpathian 15 - Dark Secret

shocked. She looked almost ethereal, hauntingly sexy and a little mysterious.
    He had considered her a younger sister almost all of his life. Ben's feelings about Colby were very mixed, and he didn't want to see her in this light. They weren't suited at all. He had never noticed her looking alluring and sexy before, not once in all their years together.
    Ben glanced over at the dark stranger and caught the man looking at him. Rafael didn't look away, his smoldering eyes odd in the waning light. They reminded Ben of a cat's eyes, more suited to night vision than day. The eyes didn't blink and Ben looked away, not liking that intent, hair-raising stare. Rafael De La Cruz was making it perfectly clear that Colby was off-limits to any other man. Ben didn't trust him, sensing something violent and dangerous seething below that calm exterior. And De La Cruz seemed a playboy type, easily acquiring women and just as fast tossing them aside. Colby was not made for a one-night stand. She was a woman who would give herself completely to someone she loved. Ben didn't want it to be a man like De La Cruz.
    He shoved his hat on his head. "I'll find Paul and talk with Chevez, but, Colby, you keep the kids close and don't go wandering off by yourself."
    "I have a ranch to run, Ben," she said quietly. "I'm not going to let someone scare me off."
    "You said Juan Chevez found the steer. What was he doing riding your ranch?" Ben sounded casual, but Colby wasn't in the least bit fooled, she had known him far too long.
    "After the fire, Rafael didn't want us to be alone here. He couldn't stay with us so he asked Juan and Julio to help us out." She looked down at her hands, ashamed to admit her weakness to him. "It was a good thing they stayed. I was sick this afternoon and slept most of the day away."
    "So De La Cruz ordered them to stay"
    "They wanted to stay, Ben. They are Paul and Ginny's uncles, after all. They are concerned for their welfare."
    He turned his faded blue eyes on her. "Are you trying to make me believe that Colby Jansen is not in the least suspicious about this setup? That these people show up out of the blue claiming your brother and sister and wanting the ranch to hold for them? That they just happen to be business associates and are staying with your neighbor Sean Everett whose entire crew just happens to be ex-cons? And that just Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    about the same time they arrive, all kinds of àccidents' begin happening on your ranch? This is all coincidence, Colby? And now Juan Chevez finds a dead steer mutilated while he is 'watching over you'
    on De La Cruz's orders. It seems a bit far-fetched to me."
    "Didn't we have this conversation before, and I was the one saying these things to you? You told me I was stubborn and to get over it. You told me I was talking through my hat when I tried to point out to you that the things going wrong on the ranch weren't accidents."
    "Yeah, well, Pete's death was no accident, Colby, and it was no accident that Chevez and Everett's riders were up on the bluff. Or that Clinton Daniels and that scum Harris were out there either, along with that new hand of his, Ernie Carter. Now that's a real winner there. What the hell were you doing riding out there alone?"
    "Ben"—she laid a placating hand on his arm—"you aren't suggesting everyone is conspiring against me, are you?"
    Ben felt the weight of those peculiar eyes staring at him malevolently. He didn't look up to see; he knew instinctively they had De La Cruz's full attention and he knew it was because he had raised his voice to Colby and she was touching him. "I think you're in great danger, Colby, and not just of losing the ranch.
    That's what I think and you'd better take me damn seriously."
    "I will, Ben," Colby conceded with a little sigh. "I'm worried too. I don't know what to think, but I don't want anything to happen to Paul or Ginny. I promise to be careful." When he continued looking at her she sighed again. "Very, very careful."
    "And not trust anybody too much," he prompted.
    "And I won't trust anybody too much," she added obediently.
    Ben walked off toward the hay field, and she watched him until his large frame disappeared around the side of the large barn. She stared at the barn, puzzled. It would have made more sense for the arsonist to burn down the barn. It was located farther away from the house and it didn't have built-in sprinklers. The barn would