Page 91

Full enough that I couldn’t ponder or further research Dante’s access to spells no one—especially a man, since women hated men on principle—should have access to.

“I’ve been angry with you,” I told Colton honestly. “Mean.” I shrugged. “And the other night…” I gulped down more coffee. “It was a mistake. I wanted to clarify that. I wanted to mend fences a little before I left. We had drinks. Talked. I left, you presumably passed out on the couch.” I narrowed my eyes. “You can tell your fiancée that nothing untoward happened.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about her.” Colton turned with his mug, swallowing visibly.

I shook my head, hating the sound of his apology, which felt like a lead blanket, hanging in the air. If things were as they appeared, I might’ve deserved it. As it were, with the lies and deception I was thrusting upon him? Him apologizing to me was sickening, even to my warped conscience. “You don’t owe me anything. I’m not here to steal you away from your life, Colton. I’m not here to ruin anything.”

His eyes penetrated all of my defenses. “Well, then why are you here, Hadley?” He looked down at the counter, his voice faint. “And don’t give me any of that bullshit about tying up loose ends. Why are you here? Why did you break into Angela’s house?”

His tone was mild, carefully so. The man had a pretty good grip on his temper, and I suspected all the times he’d blown up at me were decidedly out of character for him.

Fuck. He knew I’d broken into his fiancée’s house. And he’d kept it under wraps until now. I wondered how he’d found out. I was sure I’d covered my tracks well.

“That’s out of your jurisdiction, Deputy.” I looked down into my mug.

“Not if my old girlfriend gets in a fight with my fiancée, then proceeds to break into her house two days later,” he countered, his elbows settling on the surface of the island.

He didn’t even seem overly angry. Confused, yes. Curious, maybe. And worse, maybe a little hopeful. Like it was some kind of sign that I still liked him. Which I supposed wasn’t completely off base. Beating up a current fiancée and breaking into her house was exactly the kind of crazy bitch behavior of an ex who wasn’t over their old flame.

Breaking into her house had been uneventful, though I’m sure I lost a few brain cells just by combing through the expensive, candle-scented, overly beige condo. Her fridge was meticulously organized, all surfaces clean to a point I had to watch what I touched lest I get Cheeto dust on anything.

The only things I learned were that she had a credit card bill that made me sick and OCD tendencies. Or a really good housekeeper. No way that bitch was scrubbing toilets.

No way she was a demon-blessed witch either. They were good at hiding their tracks. I was better. It was impossible to hide the evidence of the things you had to do, who you had to become. You could mask those things from civilians, sloppy hunters, even, but that blackness leaked out. And there wasn’t so much as a smudge of magic in that place anywhere.

I’d been impressed at how smoothly the whole thing had gone, considering I’d had piss-poor luck since stepping foot in that town.

Apparently, I hadn’t been as smooth as I should’ve been. Or Colton was watching me too closely. My web of lies was getting more complicated with him, as were his suspicions.

And telling him I’d suspected she was a demon-blessed witch controlling a rogue werewolf wouldn’t exactly help the case of my sanity. Especially because Colton and his father had already proved they weren’t above having me committed.

Though I wasn’t a scared, helpless teenage girl anymore.

“I didn’t like her energy.” I blew into my steaming mug. “Her spouting off about founding families, legacies.” I waved my hand. “I thought she might be using you for your money.”

“I don’t have money.” Colton gripped his coffee cup, not taking his eyes off me.

I rolled my eyes. “You have a seven-figure trust fund, Colton. Don’t try that fake modest, down-home cop thing with me. I know you, remember?”

Colton’s gaze hardened. “You used to. We’re not the same people we used to be, remember?” He had a bite to his tone, but it wasn’t entirely bitter. It was almost … playful.

“You’re not going to arrest me for breaking and entering?” I skirted over the lightness in my stomach at his teasing tone. Ignoring the curl of my bare toes as I briefly recalled his lips, his body against mine.

“Not my jurisdiction.” He drank some of his coffee.

I swallowed my questions about how he knew in the first place, in case it made him think he could ask all of his own burning questions, of which I knew there were many.

“What did we talk about last night?” Colton rubbed his head.

I felt a twinge of guilt about my deception, but there was no getting around it. Lying and deceiving Colton was the only way.

“This and that,” I muttered. “Nothing special.”

He narrowed his eyes, obviously not buying a thing I said. He was barely buying the ruse of getting blackout drunk with me.

The opening and closing of the front door caught Colton’s attention, and I frowned in the direction of the hall, having a sinking feeling as to who it was as I heard the loud thump of boots against the hardwood.

“Well, isn’t this cozy.” Dante grinned at Colton and me.