33. Colt

33

COLT

I slammed the door to my SUV a little harder than necessary. Okay, maybe more than a little, based on the way the vehicle rocked with the force of it. But I had to get the tension out somehow.

Runs weren’t doing it. Hitting the heavy bag at the station gym wasn’t helping. Not even ice-cold showers every night.

Ridley had been living with me for two weeks now. Two weeks of that burnt-orange scent bleeding into my space. Two weeks of her tilted smiles and amazing meals. Two weeks of seeing her put her all into this case.

A case that should’ve had my full attention but didn’t. Because I was too distracted by tracing those damned tank tops she wore with my eyes. The countless straps that crisscrossed in designs I could never figure out but sure as hell lost hours trying to. The same way I lost hours trying to figure out how she twisted those tanned legs into a pretzel as she perched on a chair at my dining table.

My thoughts were so full of Ridley and her beautiful chaos that I couldn’t get my head where it needed to be. So today, I’d walked away. Taken a break from hours at that dining room table just breathing Ridley in. I’d gone to the one place that would remind me where my focus should be.

I headed up the porch steps, taking in all the new flowers in bloom. I didn’t know their names, but I could appreciate their color and beauty just the same. Before I could knock, the door to the house opened and Emerson filled the entryway. She beamed at me. “Where the heck have you been hiding?”

Guilt swept through me like a flash flood. I was one of two people Emerson let into her space with ease, and I hadn’t seen her in over a week. I was a dick. “Sorry, Em. Things have been…” My words trailed off, but my sister stepped in.

“Interesting?”

My lips twitched. “That’s one word for it.”

Bear pushed past his owner to greet me. I gave him a good scratch and then moved toward the door, Emerson welcoming me in. There was a new art piece decorating a hallway wall. Oil paint, if I wasn’t mistaken. A sunset over the mountains. Something Em hadn’t seen in person in years. But she’d painted it as if she’d just laid eyes on it yesterday.

“Impressive,” I said, nodding my head toward the work of art.

Emerson just shrugged and kept walking toward the kitchen as two smaller dogs ran out of the living room to follow her. Cheddar was a pug-chihuahua mix that looked like he needed his daily food intake cut in half. Saber was the tiniest Yorkie I’d ever seen. He had a single snaggletooth, which Em said reminded her of a saber-toothed tiger.

The moment we reached the kitchen, Emerson opened the fridge. “I’ve got lemonade, soda, sparkling water. I’d offer something harder, but it seems a little early for that.”

“I’m good,” I said, settling into a chair at her kitchen table. The same table we’d grown up around. It'd made all the sense in the world for Em to get the house after Mom died. It was the only place in the world she’d ever felt safe. But some small piece of me wondered if her staying here was part of what hindered her.

Emerson grabbed a sparkling water and sat opposite me. She looked like she was fighting a smile, her eyes glittering with amusement.

“What?” I asked. “Why do you look so weird?”

Em rolled her eyes. “Gee, thanks.”

“You know what I mean. You’re all smiley.”

She laughed, twisting the top off her water. “I’m just wondering how things are going with your houseguest.”

I stiffened. “Fucking Trey.”

I hadn’t told Emerson that Ridley was staying with me because I hadn’t wanted her to feel pressured to talk to Ridley. Hadn’t wanted her to know just how deep I’d gotten into the cases Ridley had pulled together.

Em only laughed harder. “I need to be up-to-date on town gossip somehow.”

I cursed. “Thanks to Trey the town crier.”

She leaned back in her chair and took me in. “So? How is it? What’s she like?”

I worried the inside of my cheek with my molars, trying to think of the best way to describe all that Ridley was. “She’s not what I thought she was,” I admitted.

“Shocking,” Em said playfully. “You mean she’s not a con artist out to ruin everyone in Shady Cove?”

My eyes narrowed on my sister. “Don’t be a dick.”

She only grinned. “I think this is good for you. An exercise in learning and growing. My big brother finally admitting he was wrong.”

I shifted in my chair. I had been wrong. So incredibly wrong. And I’d hurt a good woman in the process. A woman I was coming to respect more than anyone I’d ever met.

The smile slipped from Emerson’s face. “What is it?”

I swallowed, my throat sticking on the action. “She’s been through a lot. I didn’t see that at first.”

Em’s form stiffened, her hand tightening around the glass bottle. “What happened to her?”

I mulled over whether it was my place to tell Emerson or not, but finally decided Ridley wouldn’t mind. Because Emerson was a part of it all. A thread in the woven fabric. “Her sister went missing the night before their college graduation.” My mouth went dry, and I wished I’d asked Em for something to drink when she’d offered. “Ridley thinks the man who took her is the same one who abducted you.”

Emerson gripped her bottle as if it was the only thing keeping her in the here and now. And maybe it was. Because she stared across the table, but it wasn’t like she was seeing what was actually in front of her. She was somewhere else entirely.

“She thinks I was the first attempt,” Emerson said, her voice almost robotic.

“Yeah. She does.”

“Ridley’s sister. Did they find her?”

I swallowed acid climbing up my throat, all those could’ve beens . “No. They haven’t.”

Emerson kept staring at nothing, her gaze unfocused. “You think he’s killed people.”

I wanted to lie to her, to shield her from this, but I knew I couldn’t. “We do.”

“I was the lucky one,” Emerson whispered. “I got away. Nothing really bad even happened.”

“Em—”

Her gaze cut to me. “So why can’t I just get over it?”

Pain swept through me, waves of icy shards. “Because it was a trauma. It takes time to process.”

“It’s been ten years!” Emerson shoved her chair back, releasing the bottle to rattle against the table. “Ten years, and my life just gets smaller and smaller. And here Ridley is, having gone through something horrible, and she’s turned it into a mission. Why can’t I be like that?”

I pushed to my feet. “Hey, now. Don’t you talk about my sister like that. She’s one of the strongest people I know.”

“Colt…”

“It’s true.” I dipped my head so she was forced to meet my eyes. “Everyone’s path is different. Takes different routes. You’ll get to where you’re meant to go.”

Emerson’s shoulders slumped. “I’d like to get there before I’m eighty.”

I pulled my sister into a hug. “You will. I promise.”

But my heart broke for all she’d already lost. All she’d missed out on. And I was going to make the bastard who’d stolen it all from her pay.

I pulled to a stop in front of my cabin but didn’t turn off the engine. I simply stared at the structure. I’d been so damned proud of it when I’d had it built, but Emerson had never seen it outside of pictures. Never felt safe enough to come visit, even if Trey and I were both with her. That ache in my chest only intensified as my brain made a laundry list of all the things she’d missed.

I couldn’t fix that for her. Couldn’t erase it. But maybe if we found the monster from her nightmares, she’d be able to start living again.

Shutting off the engine, I climbed out of my SUV and headed for the house. I needed to go for a run. Burn off some of the anger coursing through me. Or maybe I should’ve gone to the station to work out the aggression on the bag.

But I hadn’t. I’d come home. Because some part of me needed to see Ridley. Just lay eyes on her to make sure she was okay.

I unlocked the door and stepped inside, slipping off my boots as I quickly keyed in the code on the alarm panel. I’d insisted we both start using it from the moment Ridley had laid out those twenty-three cases. And the more I learned about each one, the more I didn’t think an alarm was nearly enough.

As I walked deeper into the house, all thoughts of alarms and cases fled from my brain. My steps slowed and then stopped altogether. There was Ridley, her palms on the floor, one leg in the air, resembling some sort of weird-ass triangle.

She wore another of those damn tank tops, and it was worse because it was paired with those tiny shorts she always wore when she went paddleboarding. The outfit was golden peach, the sort of hue that melded with her tan skin. It made it almost feel like she wasn’t wearing anything at all.

My gaze skimmed over her limbs, tracing the lines and curves, memorizing every detail, details I would torture myself with later in those nightly cold showers. Her perfect ass and hips dipped into a waist that would be just right for my hands to hold on to as I pounded into her. Waves of sun-kissed hair I could fist as she took me. Even the ridges of her spine somehow managed to be sexy.

Ridley’s body twisted again, her other leg going up as she turned toward me. A smile pulled at her lips, twisting like her curves did. “Hey, Law Man.”

Fuck me.

I thought it was bad seeing her from behind. That had nothing on those baby blues searing me to the spot. The way her tank dipped just enough for me to get a hint of the swells that would fit in my hands perfectly.

But Ridley was oblivious to my train of thought. “Just needed a little something to get my blood moving. I was sitting for too long.” She effortlessly pushed to standing. “I think it’s time for me to hit the interview circuit again.”

All that fire blazing through me froze. “What?”

Ridley nodded, grabbing a notebook. “People are intimidated by a badge. But not usually by me. They’ll open up more readily. I want to start with another visit with Coach Kerr and maybe Grady.”

“No.” The single word was out before I could stop it. But the moment it left my lips, I knew I’d made a colossal mistake.

Those blue eyes flashed as Ridley dropped the notebook to the table with a smack. “No?”

Hell.

“I just meant it’s not smart. Not right now. We need to play this careful.”

Her gaze narrowed on me. “It doesn’t seem like you’re playing it careful. You’ve talked to almost everyone on this list.”

Ridley gestured to the wall of windows behind her that was now mostly covered in white butcher paper. It had become our de facto murder board. On one side was a timeline of all the cases. On the other was a list of every possible suspect.

“I have a gun and a badge,” I argued.

“So what? That doesn’t make it safe. Plenty of police officers are hurt in the line of duty.”

“I’m prepared,” I pushed back. “Ready for things to go sideways.”

Ridley glared as she took three long strides into my personal space. “So am I. Public places, plenty of witnesses. I’m not an idiot, remember?”

“I know that, but?—”

“But what?” she demanded.

She was close now. Too close. The heat from her body hit me in waves, right along with that damned burnt-orange scent. That smell was going to haunt me for the rest of my days.

“It’s too risky.” My voice had dropped, the rasp deepening. I knew it was a tell but there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to stop it.

Ridley’s gaze dropped to my mouth, holding there for a beat as if memorizing the shape. Then those blues lifted again, locking with my own eyes. “I know what I can handle.”

There was only one thing I could do. Call that beautiful bluff.

I raised the stakes, closing the distance and pressing my body against hers. I could feel every rise and fall of her chest, the way those breaths came quicker now as her pupils dilated. Those perfectly pink lips parted.

“You don’t know what you’re playing at, Chaos.”

Mischief flashed, but beneath it I could see her want, her need. “Don’t I?”

She didn’t wait then, just smashed through my wager with a royal flush. Her arms looped around my neck as her legs encircled my waist. Then her mouth was on mine.

Ridley took with wild abandon. There was no shy uncertainty with her. There was only need. A need I met with my own. And the moment her tongue stroked past my lips, I was gone.

She didn’t just smell like oranges—she somehow tasted like them too. The kind fresh from the trees on the best orchard in the world. The bright, tangy flavor was one I could drown in for the rest of my days.

My tongue stroked hers, needing more, craving every last drop of her. My hips flexed against her, dick hardening to the point of pain. I could feel those perfect nipples pebble against my chest. But I wanted to taste them, to see if they were as golden as the rest of her.

Ridley moaned into my mouth and almost made me come in my pants like a goddamn horny teenager.

Fuck.

I tore my mouth away from hers, taking in those wild blue eyes.

“Don’t,” she whispered.

“It’s a bad idea,” I rasped. “We’d be playing with fire.”

Those ocean eyes sparked. “Then let’s watch it burn.”