Page 35 of Cole

Maddox watched me fiddle with the bandage before swiftly changing the subject. “So did you talk to the seller?”

“Yeah, I talked to him. Told him we were done doing business with him if he’s going to disrespect us like that. Told him that if he can’t control his people, then working with him isn’t worth the risk. He says the guy who got trigger-happy has been dealt with. He’s giving us a discount on the rest of the deal.”

“That sounds fair to me. But that isn’t what's really eating at you, is it?” Maddox asked.

“Just juggling everything,” I responded, fully aware I was evading his question. “Everyone has been feeling it. Even Finn is on edge. I can’t pretend I haven’t noticed that you’re on the edge of your seat at all times.”

“I’m just focused,” I said. “All of this is important. I can’t take my eye off it, even for a second.”

I let silence fall between us as we sat in the heavy weight of our conversation. Everything we weren’t saying.

“Maybe you should get out of here for the night,” Maddox finally broke the silence. “Go home, sleep… fucking take some magnesium, I don’t know. Or let’s go down to that pool bar in Lowell we used to hang around. Get into a fistfight or something. I don’t know, just go do something normal.”

I laughed and realized how good it felt to let it out.

“Are you going to stay here and babysit this circus?” I asked. The Hounds were celebrating the deal going down, feeling flush with cash and general merriment.

“Hell, no. I’ll come with you. We can leave the circus to Gage while he flirts with my sister.”

“Do you remember that brawl you started in Lowell?” I asked. “All over a game of nine-ball.”

“Hey, I won that game. That little punk just didn’t want to look like a dumbass in front of his girlfriend.”

“You started taunting him when you sank the winning shot,” I said with a chuckle.

“That was a great shot and deserved the admiration,” he said, smiling. “You nearly got us thrown in jail after you punched the guy.”

“Oh, yeah! I almost forgot about that. How did you get us out of that one?”

“I told the bartender that we were Marines with PTSD just trying to get back into civilian life. He let us out the back before the guy could shake off his concussion,” I recounted, fully laughing at the memory.

“I’ve got to be honest, that does sound pretty damn good,” I continued. “That was the last normal summer we had. Back before dad got pinched. What was that? Nearly a decade ago?”

“Back before you got the crown,” Maddox added. “Do you think about that time much?”

“Probably more than I should. We were just dumb kids back then. Our whole world was about riding hard and drinking for cheap. No deals, no shipments, and no blood on our hands.” No fucking interests on loans that would outlive my entire bloodline.

“You don’t have to hold it all up by yourself. You can take a break sometimes,” Maddox muttered.

A break? It sounded like a pipe dream. There were no breaks when I had deals that could end in fatalities, people I was responsible for, and Finn… I had to make sure Finn didn’t end up like me.

“Sure, I can,” I mumbled, though we both knew it was a lie.

Strangely, I did feel like I’d had a break tonight, for that blissful half hour in my office. With Goldilocks. A break, after so long. It was invigorating.

Maddox stared at me for a long moment, not arguing but also not agreeing with me. In the end, he just nodded before heading out of the shop.

eleven

ISABELLE

A hot, liquid feeling built in my chest, and I pushed it down as far as I could as I drove away from The Clutch. It was guilt, and want, and shame and… delicious, needy desire, all at once. That had been, hands down, the wildest thing I’d ever done. I’d stopped being Isabelle Lancaster for one blisteringly hot moment, and become someone else. Someone wild and spontaneous. Someone free.

I parked and sat in the dim parking lot outside my dorm building, letting my mind go over every detail of the night while the engine cooled.

A flicker of the streetlight in my rearview mirror caught my attention. A dark figure sat at the edge of the lot, just beyond the streetlight’s reach. I let my eyes adjust until I recognized the figure’s shape. A lone person sitting on a motorcycle. The headlight was turned off, but in the silence, now that I was paying attention, I could hear the low growl of the engine.

Cole? Had he followed me? A pleasant heat snuck through me at the idea. Did he want to go home together? I squirmed at the thought. It was flattering as hell, hot beyond words. Before I could lose myself in the fantasy of being irresistible to a man like him, the figure moved, and then it was like a bucket of ice water tipped over my head.