19. Colton

Chapter 19

Colton

Sophia looks so much like Leslie. You can easily tell they're related, but instead of Leslie's dark brown hair and golden-brown eyes, Sophia has bright blue eyes and chocolate hair. Sophia's cute, but way too young for my liking. I can see the mischief in her eyes and I'm sure she's a handful to deal with when she wants to be.

"Hey, Colt. Thanks for inviting me." Pecker shakes my hand and steps into the living room.

The second his gaze falls on Sophia, he freezes mid step and stares at her. The attention doesn't upset her one bit, if anything I think she's enjoying it. She doesn't hide the slow once over she gives him. She sinks her pearly white teeth into her bottom lip as she watches him with a devilish grin.

"Sohpia, this is Pecker, one of my deputies. Pecker, this is Leslie's cousin, Sophia." I motion between the two of them, barely holding in a groan when Pecker trips over his own feet trying to close the distance between them.

"That's a beautiful name for a beautiful woman."

"And Pecker? Is that a nickname because…" she lets her words trail off and drops her attention to his crotch.

"It's his last name," I groan. "How old are you? Do I need to worry about jailbait?"

"Oh stop it!" Leslie giggles from next to me. "She's twenty. No one is going to jail."

"That's good to know." Pecker grins.

"Are you that sure you can convince me to give you a shot? You did just trip over yourself to shake my hand, Pecker ." Sophia arches a brow, teasing Pecker.

"Brad. Uh, my first name is Brad, but everyone calls me Peck or Pecker."

"Sophia, come help me in the kitchen and leave Pecker alone." Leslie practically drags Sophia out of the room. I know she said the girl was boy crazy, but I didn't expect this.

"She's…"

"A handful? Going to be the death of me? Give this town something to talk about?" I supply a few answers for him, but he just shakes his head.

"Nah, she's beautiful. "

"You keep saying that." I chuckle as I settle back into the couch.

Pecker follows my lead and takes a seat on the other end of the couch. I swear his eyes haven't left Sophia since he walked in this house.

"You know, if you want her attention, you can't keep tripping all over yourself."

"I know," he groans. "I don't know what's wrong with me. I'm never nervous around women."

"Pretend she's someone else." I shrug, wishing I could be more helpful to him. "And if that doesn't work, show up in your uniform next time. That always has women melting into your arms." I smirk.

"What are you majoring in?" Pecker takes a bite of his chicken, never taking his attention off of Sophia.

"Business. I want to own my own bakery when I grow up." She grins. She isn't embarrassed to be younger than us, she doesn't care at all. Though I guess Pecker isn't that much older than her.

"That's awesome. What's your favorite thing to bake?"

"Baklava or carrot cake. Baklava takes so long to make, but it's relaxing for me. Plus, it tastes amazing. And the carrot cake… I just love the icing."

"I've never had baklava, but carrot cake is my favorite. Maybe you can make some for me some time." Pecker aims a sweet smile in her direction and I watch Sophia melt the smallest amount.

I know she has twin brothers who are a bit of a handful according to Leslie, and she grew up around a lot of boys. I have a feeling a lot of her ‘in your face' personality is her trying to act tougher than she is. She's trying to protect herself, just like Skylar always did.

"Maybe I can," she says softly.

I groan as my ringer fills the air. The last thing I want to deal with is getting a call right now. I don't want to leave dinner or miss spending my night with Leslie and Sophia.

"Hello?" I ask, trying to keep my annoyance out of my tone.

"Hey, Colt. This is Jerry. Pecker told me to be on the lookout for any strangers in town. Some guy just stopped to get gas. I don't recognize him. He didn't do anything shady, but Pecker said to let you know about anyone. "

"Did you get a good look at him?" I push away from the dining room table and start pacing the length of the living room.

"Nah, he paid for his gas with a credit card. He never came inside the store. It's too dark to see that far away, but I know every car in town, Colt."

"It's ok. Thanks for letting me know, Jerry. Let me know if he stops by again."

"I will. He was probably around six foot three inches. He could've just been passing through the town though."

"Yeah, he could be," I say, but I don't believe the words coming out of my mouth. "Do you know the make and model of the car?"

Maple Springs is off the beaten path. Rarely does anyone find themselves in our town unless they meant to.

"It was a black Ford Explorer. I can text you the license plate number. I wrote it down since I didn't recognize him."

"That would be great. Thanks. Have a good night, Jerry."

"You too, Colt."

I hang up and blow out a long breath as a scrub a hand over my face. Mason told me Jimmy's over six foot tall. His car was left at his house which means he has a rental or borrowed a car from someone else. It's going to be a lot harder to track him when we don't know what he could be driving.

"Colt?" Leslie's watching me from the table. There's so much fear and anxiety in her gaze. It's breaking my heart.

"We don't know it's him, Les." I close the distance between us and drop down to my knees in front of Leslie. I wish I could take away her fear and make her feel safe.

"But we don't know it's not."

"Jerry's sending me his license plate number. I can run it and give Mason a call. We're going to figure this out and I'm not going to let anyone near you."

"You have winter break this week, right?" Pecker speaks up.

"Yes."

"Well, then we don't have to worry about you going to and from school."

I didn't tell him Leslie was the abused ex, but he clearly put two and two together with how upset Leslie is right now. I'm so happy to have him on my force. He pays attention and doesn't ask questions that will make things worse.

"Wouldn't the school be safer though? It's kept locked during school hours." Sophia's brows furrow .

"This house is the safest place for Leslie," I growl, knowing I'm right. "Even if he's found you, he won't know to look for you here. You just moved in yesterday and no one knows we're dating or that you live here. I didn't say a word to Tucker or Skylar, the only people who know are Pecker and Sophia."

Without another word, I bring up Mason's contact information and wait for him to pick up. I place the call on speaker, knowing everyone in this room should know what to expect.

"Bennett," he says instead of hello.

"Hey, it's Colt."

"Yup, I have caller ID. What's going on?"

"Jimmy might be here," Leslie says loud enough for him to hear.

"Why do you think that?" There's movement on the other side of the line and Mason murmurs something to someone. I can tell he's walking away, then a door shuts and he's typing on a keyboard.

"My deputy spread the word around town. We wanted to know if any strangers step foot in Maple Springs. A man stopped to get gas. We don't get people just passing through this town. "

"I know. That's why I set Zoey up with Ollie. He always told me no one visited Maple Springs by accident. I figured she'd be safer there."

I internally wince at his use of Zoey's real name. I didn't think to tell Mason about Sophia and Pecker being here.

"What if he followed me here?" Sophia asks quietly. She drops her gaze to her hands. They're folded in her lap and shaking slightly.

"I don't think he's paying attention to you, Soph. I highly doubt the idiot even realizes you're a grown woman now. When he and Zoey dated, you were still in middle school. Did you tell anyone where you were going?"

"I said I was going to visit a friend, but I didn't say who or where I was going."

"Then I don't think this has anything to do with you, sweetheart. If Jimmy found Zoey, it's a coincidence… but I think I'm going to have to fly to Maple Springs," he sighs.

"Why?" Zoey and Sophia ask at the same time with frowns pinching both of their brows.

"Sophia, have you met your father? If he finds out you could be in danger, he'll kill me. Hell, he'll make me look like a teddy bear. Plus, let's not even start on how pissed my wife will be. Aunt Kelsey is cute and sweet, until she thinks someone in this family is in danger, then she's a mama bear and she'll rip out your jugular. I'm not trying to be on the receiving side of either one of their anger. And I don't even know what your parents would do, Zoey. They do share DNA with Wes and Kelsey. They're wild cards and I don't want to find out how they'll respond."

"I have a license plate. I can ask Jerry for any credit card information and we can go from there. Are you capable of running license plates? I could run into the office and do it, but I don't want to leave the girls alone." I run a hand through my hair and let out a long sigh.

"Nah, I can run it."

I pull up the text from Jerry and read off the letters and numbers. I don't think I've ever been this anxious in my entire life. I don't want Jimmy to be here. I want Leslie to be safe.

"It's a rental car."

Squeezing my eyes shut, I give myself a second to try to reign in my frustration and focus on what I need to do next.

Quickly texting Jerry, I tell him to give me the credit card information of the man he saw. He gets back to me much faster than I anticipate and soon I'm giving Mason that information too .

"It's not Jimmy's credit card," Mason murmurs more to himself than to us.

"That's good, right?" Sophia glances around the room with a soft smile.

"Sort of. It means that guy isn't Jimmy, but we still don't know where Jimmy is. In a way it would be nicer to know where the asshole is," I growl, growing more frustrated by the second.

"Uncle Mason, don't come yet. If we see any sign of him, I'll call you right away, but I don't want you to come here for nothing," Leslie says quietly.

I can tell this is really hard for her and she just wants to not have to worry about this anymore. She wants to feel safe and free to do whatever she wants without looking over her shoulder constantly.

"I'll stay here for now, but I want to know if anything happens. Anything at all."

"I'll call you every time I need to pee," Sophia grins.

"And every time you sneeze," Mason doesn't skip a beat, he teases her right back. "I love you, Soph and Zoey. Listen to Colt and do what he says… especially you, Sophia."

"Hey! Why am I being called out?" She frowns at the phone like Mason can see her .

"Because you're a handful and don't like to be told what to do."

"I take offense to that!" She folds her arms over her chest and a little pout settles on her lips.

"Good. Learn to listen and I won't have to call you out anymore." He chuckles. "What happened when you thought someone was following you home from the Pit Bulls game a few weeks ago?"

"I didn't listen and drove straight home," she grumbles under her breath.

"And what did I tell you to do?"

"Drive straight to the police station and if the person followed, I should lay on my horn until a cop came out to see what was going on." She rolls her eyes like the teenager she is. She might be twenty, but that doesn't make her an adult. Not in my book at least.

"I rest my case. Listen to Colt or come home."

"Fine!" She huffs, standing to her full height and moves over to one of the bay windows looking out at the backyard. She has her arms folded tightly around her waist and she doesn't look happy.

"I'll call you in the morning, Colt. I'm going to do a little more digging and see if I can figure out who rented this car. I don't think it's Jimmy, but I want to make sure. He isn 't a smart man. I doubt he'd think to use someone else's credit card to avoid being tracked. Honestly, I still don't think he knows where Zoey is."

"Sounds good. Thanks, Mason."

"Always. Take care of my girls."

"Always."