Guarding Colton’s Witness (Coltons of North Dakotaz #2)

Chapter 1

Matti Colton tailed the ambulance all the way to Red Grove Hospital, hands locked on the steering wheel, heart still hammering from the chaos she’d just crawled out of.

After parking, she stayed in the driver’s seat for a full minute, forcing slow, even breaths.

When she walked inside, a terrified six-year-old was going to look to her for steadiness. She needed to have some to give.

A shaky laugh escaped anyway. Calm? Sure.

Easier said than done after flattening herself on the floor of a police station while bullets sliced the air overhead.

She’d seen plenty in her years as a social worker—neglect, abuse, the kind of heartbreak no child should have to endure—but gunfire hadn’t exactly been in her job description.

And Sam, the little boy she’d come to the station to pick up? He’d been hit by a stray bullet.

God. She hoped to never live through anything like that again.

Enough, Matti. Sam needs you. A child abandoned by his parents was supposed to be safe at a police station, not shot because someone decided to bring a war zone to the front desk.

She didn’t know the full story. Cal and Wyatt—her law-enforcement brothers—had arrested a man tied to their ongoing case, a man who’d apparently agreed to sing loud enough to topple someone powerful.

But someone had made sure he never got the chance.

She’d seen his body on the floor as she sprinted after the paramedics. She’d be having nightmares about that.

She took one last deep breath. She’d had her moment to fall apart. Now Sam needed her to be the adult in the room.

Matti pushed out of the car and jogged to the ER entrance, reaching the gurney just as they wheeled the little boy inside.

There were tears falling down his cheeks, and his eyes darted around in fear. She wrapped her hand around his little one. “Hi, Sam, remember me from the police station? I’m Matti. Everything’s going to be okay.”

“Am…” A sob escaped him. “I go…gonna die?”

“Oh, no, honey. You’re not going to die. I promise. We just need to make sure you’re okay.” She tried to pull her hand away when they reached one of the emergency room beds, but he held on to her.

“Don’t leave me.”

“I’m right here.” She held his hand as the EMTs transferred him from the gurney to the bed.

Once he was settled and the EMTs were gone, she perched on the edge of the bed, careful not to bump his bandaged leg.

He looked so scared and lost that she wanted to gather him up and hold him in her arms. But she wouldn’t. She’d learned her lesson the hard way.

Her first case had been a little boy Sam’s age.

Mikey’s mother had been arrested on a drug charge, and his father was nowhere to be found.

Matilda’s heart had hurt for the boy, and after placing him with foster parents, she couldn’t stop thinking about him.

Although she knew better, she made herself a place in his life, spending a few hours a week at his foster parents so she could see him.

The foster parents were great, and Mikey was happy there.

The couple even talked of adopting him if the mother would agree.

A wonderful year passed with Matilda feeling a part of Mikey’s new family.

He even called her Aunt Matti. Then the mother, who’d only served a few months in jail, cleaned up her act and decided she wanted Mikey back.

Child Protective Services agreed Mikey should be with his mother, and that was that.

Seven months later, Mikey, his mother, and her boyfriend were killed in a drug deal gone bad.

The day she learned Mikey died was the day she closed her heart to loving another child under her care. She still gave her all to the children…all except for her heart. That organ was now staunchly guarded against lost little boys and girls.

“Am I gonna die?” he asked again.

She brushed his bangs out of his eyes. The boy needed a haircut. “No, you’re not going to die. You just have a little boo-boo in your leg. A nice doctor—”

The curtain was pushed aside and a man in blue scrubs walked in.

Matti lifted her eyes, then lifted them some more before meeting his gaze.

She blinked. Whoever this man was, he was gorgeous.

And the smile he gave Sam… Would she sound ridiculous if she asked him to smile at her like that?

Then he did turn his attention to her and smiled.

It was a nice smile, but not as bright as the one he gave Sam.

“I’m Dr. Palmer. What do we have here?” He picked up the chart hanging from a hook on the wall, and as he read, his lips thinned and his eyes slitted.

Matti didn’t know what he was reading on that chart, but he glanced up and scowled at her. What the heck was that nasty look about? She couldn’t imagine what she’d done that so displeased him, but whatever. Her only concern was Sam.

He leaned over Sam and there was that beautiful smile again. “We’ll have you fixed up good as new, Sam.”

“Are you going to hurt me?” Not waiting for the doctor to answer, Sam turned to her. “Is the man going to hurt me?”

“Sam,” Dr. Palmer said, getting the boy’s attention back to him. “I’m going to try my best not to hurt you, okay? If I do, it will only be a little bit, but you look like a strong boy. Are you?”

“I don’t know,” Sam said.

“Well, I think you are. What’s your favorite toy?” Dr. Palmer asked Sam as he gently peeled away the bandage on Sam’s thigh.

Matti was impressed with how Dr. Palmer had diverted Sam’s attention from the possibility of being hurt.

“I used to have a fire truck, but it got lost when we moved to a different motel.” Sam’s eyes were locked on Dr. Palmer’s face. “I wish I knew where it was.”

“What other toys do you have?”

“That was my only one,” Sam whispered, sounding ashamed of that fact.

Dr. Palmer gave her a cold, accusing glare, and she glared back. What the hell was his problem?

“I rode on a fire truck once,” Dr. Palmer said, smiling at Sam’s wide eyes on hearing that. “You won’t even need stitches, buddy. We just need to clean this little wound up and put a new bandage on you.”

He explained to Sam each step of what he was doing in a way that made the whole experience seem less intimidating, and although Matti had taken a dislike to the man, she couldn’t deny that he was a good doctor, especially with children.

As he worked, he kept giving her dirty looks.

As if that wasn’t enough to make her feel twitchy, Sam had apparently forgotten all about her as he hung on Dr. Palmer’s every word.

It was as if he had a magical touch with the boy, able to turn fear into trust with just a few words, a warm smile, and a shared love of fire trucks.

Dr. Palmer left the room without a word, and she stared at the space he’d been standing in. Was that it? Should she just gather up Sam and leave? Shouldn’t there be instructions of some sort for caring for Sam’s wound? Before she could decide what to do, the doctor returned, holding a teddy bear.

“Got a buddy for you, Sam.” Dr. Palmer handed Sam the bear.

“For me?” Sam said, his eyes so lit up, you’d think it was Christmas.

Matti was conflicted. She wanted to cry because it was obvious that Sam wasn’t used to that kind of thoughtfulness. She wanted to rail at the doctor for his meanness toward her for no reason, wanted to ask just what he expected from her.

Wasn’t it enough that she’d gotten up in the middle of the night, that she was tired but still had to find Sam a place to stay tonight? Then there was the simmering resentment that the good doctor just breezed in and turned Sam into his best bud without even trying.

“Ma’am, please step out with me for a minute,” Dr. Palmer said. He put his hand on Sam’s shoulder. “Be right back, buddy.”

Ma’am? Ice dripped from his voice when talking to her.

Again, what had she done to make him not like her?

It felt beyond not liking her, actually, more like she disgusted him.

She followed him out of the room, and he stopped far enough away to where Sam wouldn’t be able to hear them.

She stayed silent as he turned to face her, but she was ready to ask him what his problem was.

“That boy in there has a gunshot wound,” he said. “I can have you charged with child neglect, and I will unless you can give me an acceptable reason why you let your son anywhere near a weapon.”

Ah, she got it now. She almost smiled, but he’d assumed the worst of her before getting his facts straight. Instead of setting him straight, she’d let him dig his hole deeper than it already was before telling him who she was. She stayed silent.

“Guns must be kept in a locked safe when there are children in the home. Well?” he said when she didn’t respond. “Nothing to say for yourself?”

She agreed with him wholeheartedly about guns being kept away from children, so if she was Sam’s mother, she’d deserve everything he was saying. But she wasn’t, and it was time to enlighten him.

“Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Matilda Colton, Sam’s social worker.”