29. Fable

Chapter 29

Fable

A few days later, I find myself sitting with Colt again out in the kennels. The puppies have grown so much just in the few weeks I've been at Circle Bee, including little Rugby. Jethro sits at my feet, playing gently with the puppies while Colt goes over all the training levels they go through. He's been a little more reserved today, but he's taken every opportunity to touch me he can.

If I reach for a puppy, our hands brush together as he pushes the puppy toward me. When I take the clipboard he gives me, his fingers touch my hand and slide down my arm as he releases it. I move left, he moves left with me, as if he's looking for an excuse to bump into me. With each small touch, the tension between us only grows until I'm panting a little under my breath in frustration. Honestly, I'm not sure what's happening. I decide at first not to mention it, but he's always there, ready to brush against me. It shouldn't bother me. It certainly shouldn't be affecting me the way it is.

"So, I know you said you were a cop," I try as a distraction. "Why did you quit?"

He glances at me as we let the puppies out in the big yard to play with the bigger dogs. "It's not exactly a nice story."

"I can handle it," I say.

"You're too sweet for such dirty stories," he replies.

I scowl at him. "Y'all keep calling me sweet like I'm some porcelain doll in need of protection. I grew up in a house filled with drugs, expecting every day I saw my mother passed out on the couch for it to be the day I'd have to call the cops because she'd overdosed. Don't tell me I'm too sweet for shit," I growl.

I hadn't meant to drop that fact in such a way. My mother is another topic I barely talk about, mostly because even if she's still alive, she's been dead to me for years. I used to think I could save her, that if I loved her enough and forgave her every time, she'd eventually be a better mother. I was wrong. Once I became an adult, all she ever came around for was money. If it wasn't for Jinx, I'd have been in a much darker place after school. She kept me sane. My mother didn't do shit.

Colt blinks at me, his expression turning hard. "She still alive?"

I shrug. "Last I heard, yeah. She hasn't contacted me since I told her how I felt about her when she asked me to borrow a couple thousand dollars for the hundredth time."

He blows out a breath and touches my cheek. "There are so many things I couldn't protect you from before you ever got here. If I could go back and do so, I would."

I blink at him. "You barely know me, Colt."

His eyes glitter dangerously. "I know everything about you, Fable Everhart." He trails his hand down my shoulder, down my arm, and takes my hand. "But truthfully, I was a shit cop."

"I find that hard to believe," I say. Honestly, Colt seems like the perfect man to be a cop now that I know him better. His emotions are always in check. He holds himself to a standard most men don't. The way he interacts with Dolly tells me he's capable of empathy. So what could possibly make him think he was a bad cop?

His lips quirk up. "At first, it was easy, sure. I enjoyed the job, enjoyed helping people, but. . . there's a side to being a cop people who aren't one never see." His smile falls. "Out here, in small towns, police forces are different. Steele, we have a good one, but up in Pinedale, in many places, the cops are as corrupt as the politicians. They accept bribes. They let dangerous people go. And they don't punish the rich when they get in trouble." He shakes his head. "The justice system is for the poor. The rich get away with everything."

"So you saw that and left?" I ask, watching him carefully.

He laughs and avoids my gaze. "No. I didn't leave. In fact, I reveled in it." His thumb traces a pattern on my hand that I don't recognize. "I grew up with a strict dad and an absent mother. My dad was a cop, and it was his entire identity. It made sense that I would follow in his footsteps. When I got a taste of the power, it went to my head." He finally looks back at me and there's a hollowness in his eyes I've never seen before. "But I have a problem you see." He steps closer. "I carry the same anger my dad did." He taps his chest. "Right here."

I tilt my head. "I've never seen you angry."

He grabs my hand and presses it against his chest. "Because I keep it caged, Annie Oakley. I'm grown enough to keep it under control. But it took me nearly killing a guy to realize it needed to be."

"You left the police force after almost killing someone?" I ask with wide eyes.

He laughs. "No. I left the police force when I finally did."

I gasp and move to take a step back, but his hands latch onto my waist and jerk me to him.

"Don't worry, Annie Oakley," he breathes. "He deserved it. I didn't kill an innocent man."

"What did he do?" I croak.

"Serial rapist," he answers without hesitation. "He kept getting away with it because he was a state trooper." His face hardens. "The good ole boy system is alive and well, and no one was snitching on him. But I found out, and I tried to do something about it. When my sergeant refused to do anything, I took matters into my own hands." He strokes his fingers down my cheek. "I shot him right between the eyes. Turned in my badge and gun right after."

"You didn't get in trouble?" I whisper.

He shakes his head. "Hard to prosecute when there was a woman chained up in his basement. I never entered his house. And for once, the good ole boy system worked in my favor. They didn't want it to get out just how long that guy had been up to his shit. So they let me go." He grins. "So I'm a bad cop, but I really liked pulling that trigger."

I wince. "That may be a red flag."

He chuckles. "Oh, Annie Oakley. There are no green flags here."

He bends down, his lips suddenly against mine, his teeth nibbling on my bottom lip. I gasp against his mouth, tipping my head back so he can better kiss me. His hand drops down to my ass and jerks me tighter against him, until I can feel his hardness pressing against my lower stomach. When he leans back, his hair hangs around his face, and I realize that Jinx was never the only one into bad boys.

Apparently, I'm into them a little, too.

"What is it with you cowboys?" I ask breathlessly. "First Gunnar. Then Rhett said he doesn't care if I date everyone. You gonna tell me the same?"

I really don't know why I'm asking. I'm confused sure, and I'm gonna have to talk to Gunnar about this. I genuinely like him, but. . . I also like the others, too.

"Of course not," Colt says, shrugging, but before I can breathe a sigh of relief that there's some normalcy here, he ruins it. "I want you to date all of us."

"What?" I croak.

His hand clenches on my hip. "If you're fucking all of us, that means I may get to watch you fuck my best friends." He tightens his hold on me. "That means I can watch you sink down on one of their cocks, watch another feel your pretty ass, and another fuck your throat. That means I can stroke myself to the sight of it," he says, his own breath hitching at his words.

I flush, my core clenching tightly. This shouldn't be turning me on. He'd literally told me he'd killed a man while he was a cop a minute ago, and here I am lusting over the way he describes me fucking him and his best friends. Fuck. I'm in trouble.

"That means I can watch this flush spread along your whole body as you lose yourself in the pleasure," he purrs, stroking a finger across my heated cheeks. I swallow and he only presses me tighter against him. "I'm going to kiss you again, Fable."

"That doesn't sound like you're asking for permission," I rasp.

"I wasn't," he growls, before grabbing me by the back of my neck and kissing the ever-loving shit out of me. Seriously, this might be the best kiss I've ever had in my life. It's equal parts angry and desperate, like he's marking me for his friends, like he's preparing me for what's to come, and damn if I don't soak through my panties with the thought of it. I never thought I'd be that girl, that I'd be into four guys at once, but here I am, making out with one while planning on a date with another in a few days. When he pulls his lips from mine, I'm panting, my fingers clenched tightly in his button-down shirt. I've wrinkled it, but he doesn't seem to care as he strokes his rough fingers down my cheek before wrapping his hand around the front of my throat.

"I know you've got a date with Gunnar day after tomorrow," he growls. "If you fuck him, I expect you to come find me and describe it in detail so I can stroke myself to the thought of it before bed." His eyes dip down to where his fingers wrap around my neck. "You have the perfect neck for a collar."

And then he takes a step back.

I sway, surprised by the sudden cool air stroking me where his warmth had been only seconds before. My body revolts against the loss, but he only grins and pats me on the ass.

"It's almost time for dinner, Annie Oakley. Go on up and get ready for it." He presses a kiss against the top of my hair. "Maybe touch yourself as you think about the words I said to you."

I stumble toward the door. I can't stop myself from glancing over my shoulder at him. He stands with his hands in his pockets, his eyes on fire and hooded with desire, his pants tight.

It's only once I'm back in the cabin that I realize what he'd meant when he said he knew everything about me.

A cop would know exactly where to dig to find out everything possible. Even an ex-cop would know. Especially one who didn't like the rules and enjoyed the power.

" Shew ," Jinx says as I lock the door behind me. " That one's a little more dangerous than you usually go for, Everhart, but I approve! " She wiggles her eyebrows. " Wear the hat. Ride the cowboy. Am I right, or am I right ?"

I blow out a puff of air. This isn't good. This isn't good at all.

I frown at the single perfect apple sitting on the table, wondering when someone had come in and put it there.

"Who keeps bringing all this food, Jethro?" I ask, but then I shake my head. It doesn't matter. It's just an apple.