For You

Chapter Six Marie

“Yeah?” I heard and my eyes blinked open.

When they did I could swear I saw the line of Colt’s back, sloped because he was up on a forearm the covers down to his waist. He had his phone to his ear.

I stared as he said, “Right, be there as soon as I can. Maybe an hour.”

He flipped the phone shut and threw it on the nightstand.

Groggy, still partly asleep and fighting it, I got up on a forearm too.

“What are you doin’ here?” I asked, though I kind of wondered what I was doing there too. I’d fallen asleep on the couch even though Dad tried to get me to go to bed. But I was spooked and regardless of the fact I was old enough to take care of myself and had been doing so with questionable success for a long time, I still didn’t want to be far from my Dad.

Colt turned to me and I noticed he looked wiped, his eyes shadowed and tired. I noticed this but I had bigger things on my fuzzy mind.

“Go back to sleep, baby,” he said softly.

“What are you doin’ here?” I asked again.

Wilson, realizing we were awake, decided it was breakfast time and we should be informed of that. He started up the bed toward me meowing.

“Feb, go back to sleep. I’ll get Jack to come in.”

Wilson made it to me and head butted my hand. I automatically started giving him scratches and the meowing mixed with loud purring.

But my mind was still on Colt who was still in bed with me.

“What are you doin’ in this bed?”

He gave me a look before he threw the covers back and got out.

“I got work,” he said, not answering my question. “I’ll feed the cat.”

He started to the door but I threw the covers back too and got quickly to my feet.

“You can’t crawl into bed with me,” I informed him.

He turned in the door. “February, we’re not fightin’ about this, not only do I not have the time, I also don’t have the energy or the inclination.”

I was a dog with a bone. “You carried me to bed and got in it with me!”

My voice was rising. Colt ignored it and walked out the door.

Wilson, feeling this was a healthy indication he’d be getting breakfast soon, jumped off the bed I left him in and pranced out after him.

For my part, I stomped.

“Colt!” I snapped when I hit the hall.

He didn’t reply.

By the time I hit the kitchen he was reaching into the dish drainer to get the kitty bowl I’d washed last night.

“We need to talk about that kiss yesterday,” I announced, not really wanting to talk about it but feeling, considering this morning’s circumstances, that we needed to get things straight.

“We will,” Colt agreed. “Not now,” Colt evaded.

“Now.”

He pulled open the top of the cat food tin but speared me with a glance. “Not now.”

“Now.”

He turned fully to me; Wilson noticed this delay and started meowing again.

“I got work,” he repeated.

“You already said that.”

“This conversation’s gonna take time. I’m tellin’ you I don’t have that.”

“Well, make it!”

He took one step to me and had his hand wrapped around the back of my neck so fast I didn’t even get a breath in while he was doing it. It was then I felt a little bit of Lore’s pain. I’d seen Colt move fast yesterday when he took Lore down, I’d even seen him do it before he kissed me but I still wasn’t prepared for it.

He yanked me close and I almost didn’t get my hands up to break my fall, but I did and they landed on his chest.

“I got home at dawn. I was in that bed with you for half an hour. I was in it because I’m not takin’ any fuckin’ chances. Someone who can get through a door can get through a window. They get through the window, they get me first. Now, do you get me?”

My mind blanked, my stomach curled sickeningly and I stared at him.

“You found something last night,” I whispered.

He let me go and turned back to the cat food.

“Colt.”

Colt forked the food into the bowl. “We found something. When he visited, he spent time there.”

“Oh my God.”

I didn’t know what this meant but the escalation in Colt’s protection said it was no good. This wasn’t about a madman invading my mind by stealing my thoughts written on a page. This was something that freaked him out and he was a cop, I didn’t suspect much freaked him out.

He moved to put the food down for Wilson and Wilson settled down belly to the floor on all fours and stuck his face in it.

“What’d you find?”

He straightened and looked at me. “I’ll know more this mornin’. They were still working when I left.”

“What’d you find?”

“I gotta shower.”

“Colt –” I started but he was moving away.

I stared at the hall he disappeared into long after he disappeared. Even after I heard the shower go on in the master bath.

After awhile it hit me that he was protecting me with more than him keeping close, close enough to sleep in his huge bed with me. He was protecting me by not sharing and I decided to wipe my mind clean.

Some folk, I suspected, would want to know.

I didn’t want to know.

I knew enough and it was tearing at my insides. I could use a break.

By the time he came back out, hair wet, slicked back but still curling around his neck, dressed in jeans, boots, shirt, badge clipped to his belt, shoulder holster on, gun clipped in place, blazer bunched in his hand, I’d made coffee and toast. I’d also poured him some coffee and it was keeping warm in a travel mug.

He hit the kitchen, shrugging on his blazer and I was turned to him, one hand wrapped around his mug, the other hand holding up a plate with four slices of buttered toast.

“I made toast and coffee,” I said.

He was looking at my hands but when I spoke his eyes came to my face. Something in them struck me funny, not in a bad way, in a good way. That look settled in beside his smile from yesterday, the one that was still lodged in that private place deep inside.

When I thought he’d stop moving toward me, he didn’t and I had to jerk my arms to the sides to give him space and he took it. His hand came up and around the back of my head, fingers in my hair, fisting and tugging down. I made a surprised noise that came from deep in my throat when I had no choice but to tilt my head back before his mouth came down on mine.

This kiss wasn’t hungry, wet and desperate. No tongues. It was hard, closed-mouthed and swift.

It still did a number on me and I felt a curl that I liked a lot between my legs.

He let me go, grabbed the mug and took the slice of toast off the top of the stack.

“We’ll talk about that kiss later too,” he said, turned and walked away. At the door he turned again and ordered, “Lock this after me. I’ll send Jack in. You’re not alone, Feb, ever. Not even in the storeroom at J&J’s. Not even to walk down to Meems’s. You move; you make sure you have a shadow. Yeah?”

I stood there still holding up the plate and nodded.

“Stay safe, baby,” he said, the cop authority gone from his voice, this statement was quiet and sweet and it strolled right into that private place inside me, took its seat and sat back, intending like the others to stay awhile.

“You too,” I replied and he left.

It took awhile for me to pull myself together. The only reason I did was because the door was unlocked and I hated it but that scared the shit out of me.

I put down the plate, walked into the living room and locked the door. On the way back to the kitchen, the phone rang.

I hit the kitchen and reached out to the phone. It was an old fashioned kitchen wall phone, yellow, boxy, with push buttons and a long, curly cord so you could wander the kitchen with it held in the crook of your neck while you were doing shit. I liked it mostly because I could imagine wandering Colt’s kitchen with it held in the crook of my neck.

I put it to my ear and said, “Hello?”

No one spoke.

I felt a curl again, it was north, in my belly, and it wasn’t pleasant.

“Hello?” I repeated, tentative this time.

“Um… hello, is Colt there?”

Oh shit, it was Melanie.

“Melanie?” I asked, though I didn’t want to.

“February?” she asked back and I knew she didn’t want to either.

Oh shit, shitshitshitshitshit.

“Uh… yeah. How’s it going?” Oh my God, I hated this.

“Um… it’s good. How’re you?” She hated it too.

All I could think about was Romeo and Juliet and Nancy and I was going to give Dee what for the next time I saw her for putting that crap in my head.

“Things aren’t great. You maybe didn’t hear but I found Angie –” I was going into explanation mode; I didn’t want her to get the wrong idea.

“I heard,” Melanie cut me off then paused before she went on. “Poor Angie.”

“Yeah.”

“Is Colt there?” she repeated.

“No, he, um… left. You just missed him.”

“I’ll call his cell.”

“Melanie –”

“It’s not important anyway.”

“Mel –”

“You take care, Feb.”

“Mel –”

“See you.”

Then she hung up. I closed my eyes tight and put the phone back in the receiver. I heard the key scrape the side door and Dad walked in.

“’Mornin’ darlin’.”

It worked for me that Dad didn’t put the “good” in that greeting. It was not a good morning, it was just morning or to be precise, it was a shit morning.

“’Mornin’ Dad,” I replied.

My cell rang about five minutes after Morrie, Dad and I opened J&J’s. The display said “Colt calling.”

I flipped it open and put it to my ear, “Hello?”

“Hey.”

“Everything okay?”

“You know what I told you about last night?” he asked, “before I wiped the floor with your ass at pool.”

I was a good pool player. I’d worked in bars all my life, I had lots of practice. Still, Colt wasn’t lying when he said he wiped my ass. It pissed me off but he did. It was embarrassing.

“You didn’t wipe the floor with my ass,” I lied.

“Honey, I so wiped the floor with your ass.”

I rolled my eyes and said, “Whatever.”

I heard his soft laughter and it struck me he was laughing and these days there wasn’t much to laugh about.

“I remember about last night,” I said.

“We got him.”

I felt a weird sense of elation hit my gut and slither around in a happy way. It wasn’t me working the case, it wasn’t me going out and seeing dead bodies. But it was me hearing Colt’s relief mixed with a hint of triumph. He’d got the bad guy and he was pleased.

“Who was it?”

“Calvin Johnson.”

I could believe that though I was still surprised. I knew Cal Johnson, had known him forever. He was opinionated and shared those opinions often and loudly. He also had a short fuse. He was a nice guy and I could say this because he’d always been nice to me, considering I wasn’t a gang banger. But he had a definite sense of right and wrong and I didn’t think it would take much to tip him over the edge of making something right even if he went about it wrong.

“I can see that,” I told Colt.

“IMPD caught him last night. Fluke. Saw him loitering, older, white guy, rough, black neighborhood, he stood out. He was probably out hunting. They stopped for a chat, saw the gun on his belt, hauled him in. They found out he was from town and started questioning. He was uncooperative but he flipped for me.”

“You got him to confess?”

“Yeah, started as a rage. His brother lives in LA, his great-niece was picked up by a gang for an initiation and they did a number on her. So much anger, didn’t know what to do with it so he found a way to release it. But then he found he liked the way it felt, cleaning up the streets, so he kept doin’ it.”

Poor Cal. I’d heard about gang initiations. At his age, his great-niece must be in her early teens, if that. I was surprised I didn’t know about his niece though. News travelled fast, bad news faster. Cal had kept it to himself which wasn’t smart. Meant he needed to get it out someway and he picked the wrong way.

“Still,” Colt continued, “I think he was glad he was caught. He liked it and was starting to get off on it but he’s got enough good in him to know it was wrong and the dark path he was on was gettin’ darker. That’s probably why he dumped the bodies so they could be found.”

Catching Cal, Colt and the IMPD had saved the lives of some gang members which I supposed was a good thing. He also stopped bodies being dumped in the town limits which was definitely a good thing. He’d also stopped Cal turning his soul any blacker which was also a good thing. Colt had scored and it was huge.

Because of that I couldn’t stop myself from saying quietly, “Good job, babe.”

He was silent a moment then he asked, “You at J&J’s?”

“Yeah.”

“Don’t work tonight. We’ll get Reggie’s, take it home, drink beer and I’ll give you a chance to salvage your pool reputation.”

I knew he said this because he wanted to celebrate, what freaked me out was that he wanted to celebrate with me. Worse, that sounded like a kind of date except the “take it home” part which made it sound like something else entirely.

“Colt –”

“I’ll talk to Jack, he or Jackie can cover if you’re on.”

“Colt –”

“I’ll pick you up at six.”

Definitely a date-ish type statement.

“Listen to me, Colt –”

“Later, baby.”

Then he hung up.

I was finding it hard to breathe. This wasn’t because I was angry, this was because I wanted to eat pizza, drink beer and play pool in Colt’s den with Colt. I also wanted other things too, if I was honest. I wanted them so much it was too much.

That wasn’t what was making it hard to breathe.

What was making it hard to breathe was that I knew I could have them if I just reached out and took hold. And the excitement and anticipation of knowing that was unbelievably thrilling.

Letting go of the pain and deciding to live my life before it was too late meant something else was happening too. I was letting Colt back in, or he was pushing his way in, probably both. Golden Sundays and fucking fantastic kisses and a man going all out to protect you had a way of making that kind of shit happen. I didn’t know if I was ready to take Dee’s advice, forgive him, forget and move on. Even after all of these years, even learning moment to moment these last few days what kind of man he’d turned out to be, I had to admit, I was still shit scared.

By three thirty I knew the news had broken or some of it anyway.

I knew this because for a Monday afternoon we had way more people in the bar than usual.

I knew it too because Morrie finally told me after I cornered him because he and Dad were getting called aside to have private conversations with patrons.

Firstly, everyone knew Colt and I had had scenes in this bar and at the Station.

Secondly, everyone knew that one second, Colt and I were circling each other and barely speaking, the next second we were having scenes in this bar and at the Station and more, I was living with him.

Thirdly, not only had half my neighbors watched Colt and the boys going in and out of my apartment in the wee hours of the morning but also Chris and Marty had canvassed, knocking on my neighbors’ doors asking them if they saw anyone going into my house. They’d undoubtedly had their chats with Chris and Marty, gone back into their apartments and got right on the phone. Most of my neighbors were retired and this was gossip too juicy not to share.

Not to mention, Lore came in and did his thing, exposing me as someone who was assisting the investigation which didn’t help matters.

Lastly, my cell never quit ringing. I’d never been more popular. Some, my closer friends, I picked up and gave them a kind of “I’m busy”/“No Comment”/“I’ll call you later” malarkey. Others I didn’t pick up at all.

The good news was no one was shying away from me or sending daggers at me with their eyes. They were coming into the bar and having drinks not avoiding it. I felt mostly curiosity and some concern coming at me and I could handle that.

So the afternoon was crawling on and my drama was taking a new turn. I wondered if it lasted much longer if I’d eventually get used to it. I doubted it.

Morrie walked in with Palmer and Tuesday in tow. They raced to the office shouting, “Hey Granddad! Hey Auntie Feb,” and disappeared behind the office door.

I’d been in the office that day and the kids had done a number on it. Nothing on the desk was where it’d been before and the computer was totally fucked up and had about fifty more applications than it had when they walked in yesterday. Still, I liked them being in the bar which was where Morrie and I spent a lot of our childhood and seeing as loved ones were close, it was a good place to be.

Morrie had his cell to his ear as he made his way behind the bar. “Yeah, Dee, I picked ‘em up from school. Things are busy here. You mind comin’ ‘round after work to pick them up?”

He was close so, at his words, I punched him in the arm hard.

“Yow!” he shouted and I bugged my eyes out at him. “Nothin’ Dee, darlin’, just that Feb’s in a mood.” He chuckled and said, “That’s it, babe. Later.”

I was still glaring at him when he flipped his phone shut.

“What was that for?” he asked me.

“It was for tellin’ Dee to come get the kids. She’s tired, it’s Monday, Mondays suck. She doesn’t want to go out of her way to get the kids. And anyway, Dad’s here, we’re busy but he’d cover for you.”

“Well, she’ll want to come out of her way today,” he replied.

“Yeah, why? Because your natural charisma will brighten her day?”

“No,” he shot back. “Because I got reservations at Costa’s tonight and she loves that place. We’re gonna have a family dinner. It’s a surprise.”

I snapped my mouth shut, surprised and impressed. Morrie spoke the truth, Dee loved Costa’s like crazy, the kids did too. Hell, I did too. Everyone loved Costa’s. It was a great Greek restaurant one town over. It was where you went to celebrate things, birthdays, getting into the university you wanted, shit like that. Not just Monday night family night.

Morrie was going to score huge on this.

“Got anything else to say?” Morrie asked and I didn’t so I didn’t say anything.

All of a sudden I heard Dad laugh and just as sudden his arms were around me and he was giving me a big hug. I hugged him back automatically. Then when I got over my surprise that I was all of a sudden being hugged by my Dad in the bar for no reason, I felt his hug and the feel of it almost made me cry.

Dad was a hugger, he was affectionate like Morrie, but I hadn’t had a hug like that from my Dad in a long… fucking… time.

That was when I really hugged him back.

“I love my girl,” he whispered in my ear before he let me go.

I had tears in my eyes when I said to his back, “Love you too, Dad.”

Morrie put his big mitt on the side of my head and gave it a shove.

I took a deep breath to control the tears and gave my brother a smile because with his head shove, he was saying he loved me too.

And somehow I felt like I’d come home. Not like when I got home two years ago to stay for good or any of the times I’d come home to visit, but like I’d really, finally, come home.

The Terrible Trio showed up at quarter passed five.

For me this meant Jessie, Meems and Dee.

They ambled in, eyes on me and I knew I was in trouble.

Dee, I was expecting. The three of them together meant they’d planned this and it sent bad tidings.

“Hey babe,” Morrie called to Dee.

“Hey, hon,” Dee replied, “be with you in a sec. Gotta have a word with Feb before I take the kids home.”

There it was. Trouble.

Morrie read Dee’s tone. He read it and it made him do two things: grin and skedaddle.

Jessie, Meems and Dee bellied up to Colt’s end of the bar and I approached.

“Get you gals a drink?” I asked.

“Not here for libations, girlie,” Jessie answered.

I knew that. Shit.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“Lindy who heard it from Bobbie who heard it from Lisa who heard it from Ellie who got it straight from the horse’s mouth says you talked to Melanie this mornin’,” Jessie told me.

My mind flew through the strategies available to deal with this situation.

I settled on nonchalance. “Yeah, sure, she called this morning.”

“And?” Meems prompted.

“And nothing, Colt was gone. He had work,” I answered.

“And?” Jessie said this time.

“Nothin’,” I replied.

“Girlie, your whatever-he-is’s ex phones you, findin’ you at his house first thing in the mornin’, you call your girlfriends so we can peck it over and so, when other people call us about it, we don’t look like assholes because we’re surprised,” Jessie informed me.

“It wasn’t a big deal,” I informed her right back.

“It was, seein’ as she was callin’ Colt to ask him to dinner so she could see if he wanted to have another go,” Dee told me.

“Another go at what?” I asked then it hit me and I knew. I knew. Shit, I knew. I actually felt the blood draining out of my face before I whispered, “She said it wasn’t important.”

“She lied,” Meems said.

“She ain’t exactly gonna let you in on that,” Jessie noted.

“Oh crap,” I said and then I leaned forward, putting my elbows on the bar and my forehead in my hands.

I didn’t need this shit, not for a variety of reasons. The obvious one being I had enough shit to deal with. The one that somehow seemed more pressing was that I didn’t want Melanie to want Colt back because I didn’t want to find out that Colt wanted Melanie back.

“February,” Dee called.

“Give me a minute to think,” I said to the bar.

“Well, let us in on this thinkin’ ‘cause maybe we can help,” Jessie offered and I straightened.

“How’re you gonna do that?” I asked.

“Well, firstly, by telling you to pull your finger out about Colt and show him you’re ready to try again,” Meems stated.

“Actually, that’s most of how we were gonna help,” Dee put in.

“Great. That works. Thanks.” My tone was pure sarcasm.

“Has he kissed you again?” Dee asked and I pressed my lips together.

“He kissed her,” Meems muttered.

“They played pool too. Colt wiped the floor with her ass.”

This came from my mother who had planted herself by Dee and I hadn’t even noticed.

Mom had, that day, been given free rein to clean out Colt’s second bedroom. She called me at ten o’clock to inform me she’d talked Bud Anderson into delivering a brand new queen-sized mattress and box springs with a standard frame to Colt’s house by three o’clock. She bragged to me for ten minutes about the bargain she got. I didn’t dwell on why Mom was suddenly cleaning out and furnishing Colt’s second bedroom. As I mentioned before, I had enough to deal with.

“How did you know about the pool?” I asked my mother.

“Colt told Morrie, Morrie told Jack, Jack told me,” Mom answered.

Next time I ran away from home, I was going to a big city. The biggest. In China. Where not only were there billions of people, I didn’t speak their language and they had good food.

“Colt wiped the floor with your ass?” Jessie was astounded. “You rock at pool.”

“Maybe she was havin’ trouble concentrating,” Meems suggested.

“Colt leaning over a pool table, I’d have trouble concentrating,” Dee remarked and they all dissolved into loud, girlie cackles.

I took this moment to pry my eyes off them and look around the bar.

Yep, just as I suspected, everyone was watching us.

Time to put things straight.

I leaned in and said low, “This is the deal. I got some whack job murdering people because he thinks he’s doin’ me a favor. He stole my journals, which means he knows everything about me, all my private thoughts.” They gasped through this new news, I ignored it and carried on. “Colt is being cool, way cool, cooler than he needs to be. I’m grateful. I don’t know what that means and I don’t know if I’m ready to explore it. I’m just takin’ this one second at a time because that’s all the strength I got left in me with this shit which is relentless. I try to do more, I’ll unravel.”

They were all staring at me but I kept right on going.

“I need you all to help me keep it together. That means if there comes a time I want to share, I reserve the right to share even though I’m tellin’ you right now, back, the fuck, off.”

They all looked properly chastised, except Mom who looked weirdly proud. But I wasn’t done so I kept talking.

“As for Melanie, she’s a good woman. She doesn’t deserve the shock she had this morning and she doesn’t deserve us chewin’ her up just about now. It’ll play out as it plays out. This isn’t ‘may the best woman win’ because neither of us deserves that and Colt doesn’t either. These are lives were talkin’ about, the lives of decent people and that means Melanie too. Yeah?”

They all looked at each other then they nodded to me.

I looked at Jessie. “And you can tell Ellie, Lisa, Bobbie and Lindy the same thing. Serious shit’s at stake here and Colt needs to stay on target. He doesn’t need more crap to deal with.”

“All right, girlie,” Jessie whispered.

“We were only tryin’ to help,” Meems said.

“I know you were,” I told them, “and I appreciate that. But now you know how it is.”

Before anyone could say anything else, Morrie came up to the girl posse.

“Hate to break this up, girls, but Delilah and me got a dinner reservation,” Morrie announced.

Dee’s face grew slack as she turned to him and asked, “We do?”

“Costa’s, table for four and we better get our asses in gear. We’re late, they won’t save the table.”

“Costa’s,” Dee whispered, her face no longer slack but brilliant and alive and I felt her look in my gut like a happy tickle.

Morrie slung his arm around her shoulders and scooted her off her stool. “My baby’s favorite,” he said. “Let’s get the kids.”

They wandered to the office and I smiled at Mom. Mom smiled back.

“Costa’s. Yowza. Morrie’s pullin’ out the big guns,” Meems commented.

“Sometimes, it’s rare, but sometimes… men learn,” Mom’s voice was heavy with wisdom and experience as she slid off her own stool and made her way round to the back of the bar.

“I think I’ll take a drink now,” Jessie said to me.

“Not me, kids to feed,” Meems told us, “later lovelies.” She blew kisses and then, ten seconds later, blew out the door.

I made Jessie’s drink and was sitting it in front of her when my cell rang. I yanked it out and the display said “Colt calling.” I flipped it open and put it to my ear.

“Hello?”

“Feb, honey, I’ll be late but be there as soon as I can,” Colt said.

“Colt –”

“Soon as I can. Later.”

Then he hung up.

“Colt?” Jessie asked once I’d flipped my phone closed and slid it back in my jeans.

I sighed then said, “Yeah, he caught a bad guy and he wanted to celebrate with Reggie’s, beer and pool at his house.”

Jessie’s lips compressed then slid to the side and stayed there. I watched her as seconds passed and her lips stayed put.

“Hurts, doesn’t it?” I asked.

“What?”

“Keepin’ your mouth shut for once.”

Jessie grinned.

“Bitch,” she whispered and didn’t mean it.

“You’re the bitch,” I whispered back and didn’t mean it.

Then I scanned the bar and saw I had customers who needed drinks.

At five to six, Colt met Sully on the lawn of Denny Lowe’s house.

“Well, good news is, we know who’s hacking people up in three different states. Bad news is, we got another body,” Sully told Colt and Colt closed his eyes.

When he opened them, he said, “Talk to me.”

“Marie Lowe, Denny’s wife. Found by the cleaner this afternoon. Cleaner’s Mexican and speaks about four words of English. Doesn’t help matters that she’s freaked.”

“How bad is it?”

“Seein’ as we reckon this was the first one and it started all this shit, he hadn’t decided on his MO. Just hacked her to shit with an axe.”

“Christ.”

“Not much left to her. She didn’t have some hair left and the wedding rings on her finger that you can see her wearin’ in pictures around her house, wouldn’t know it was her. He went at it. Kept hacking long after she was gone. Looks rage-driven.”

“We know why?”

“Nope. We’ll start diggin’.”

“We find out she’s the first, whatever caused him to do her could be what sent him on this path.”

Sully nodded.

“How long’s she been dead?” Colt asked.

“Looks like awhile, smells like awhile, don’t know for certain.”

“How often does the cleaner come?”

“Don’t know that either seein’ as I don’t speak Spanish and neither does anyone else.”

“You got an interpreter coming?”

“Yeah, ETA,” he looked at his watch, “maybe five, ten minutes.”

Colt looked away, tearing his fingers through his hair and swore, “Fucking hell.”

“Yeah, you’re sayin’ that now, wait until you get a look at the body.”

Colt turned back to Sully and gave the front door a lift of his chin. Sully nodded and led the way. They grabbed cotton covers for their boots and plastic gloves and pulled them on before they went in.

Colt saw immediately that the place screamed money. He knew Denny was a computer programmer, designed some software that hospitals all over the country used and he made good money but this place said more than that. Marie Lowe had good taste. It was sheer elegance.

Except, of course, the path of blood that stained the foyer and all the way up the wide, curling staircase that was accompanied by the sick smell of death.

Sully led Colt up the stairs while he talked. “Did her in the bedroom in bed, at least that fits the MO. Though he dragged her there, it started in the kitchen, blood all over the place.”

“No one reported her missing?”

“While investigating him we found out she doesn’t work. Don’t know if she missed a nail appointment,” Sully said. “She’s not a local, no family close we know of but haven’t looked into her much. Know she was forty years old. They been married a good long while, no kids. Maybe she met him at Northwestern.”

They hit the bedroom but Colt saw it before he got there because the blood was all over the walls.

Definitely rage-driven.

“Holy fuck,” he whispered when he saw what was left of Marie Lowe’s body.

The Mexican cleaner was going to have nightmares for years.

He turned to Sully. “Get the interpreter to call the cleaner’s family here. Talk to them about assistance. This is gonna fuck with her head for awhile.”

“Got it,” Sully replied and Colt walked fully into the room.

The boys were working the bed still taking photos. Andy Milligan, the coroner, already had the body bag spread out on the floor. How Andy was going to scoop up that mess and get it into a bag was beyond Colt but he was fucking glad that wasn’t his job.

Colt skirted the bed and saw a big, elaborately framed photograph on a bureau and he got close. Wedding picture. Denny and Marie, Marie smiling like it was the happiest day of her life. She looked young in the photo, maybe early twenties. She was pretty, blonde, dark brown eyes, tall, good figure that Colt could see even trussed up with all the material of her dress. Someone had spent some cake on the wedding if that dress and her flowers were anything to go by. Far’s Colt knew Denny didn’t come from money though his Dad didn’t do bad as he was the local pharmacist, which meant probably Marie’s family was loaded.

Colt’s eyes moved to Denny in the photo.

Denny looked like he had a secret. He wasn’t smiling near as wide, he didn’t look relaxed and happy; he looked formal and stiff.

He’d settled for second best.

Colt hadn’t noticed it when he’d seen them around in town because he didn’t pay much mind to Marie Lowe but she looked a fuck of a lot like Feb.

“I know,” Sully muttered from beside him, reading his mind.

Colt turned to Sully keeping his body aimed away from the mess on the bed.

“Chris and Marty got witnesses at Feb’s place,” Colt stated because he knew this to be true, Chris had called him.

“Yeah, another fuck up,” Sully replied. “I don’t know, maybe he thought senior citizens take naps all the time instead of being nosy as shit, but got four folks who saw a man of his description go into Feb’s house. One lady, name is June Wright, says she saw him twice and once, she reports, it looked like he was having trouble with his key. Or at least she thought so at the time. She thought he was Feb’s boyfriend.”

That comment made Colt’s stomach give a sick churn.

“Picking the lock?” Colt asked.

“Probably. Don’t know if you looked, her lock isn’t great.”

“Yeah, it isn’t because she lives in a small town where this shit isn’t supposed to happen. Most the population have locks like that.”

“We better call Skipp, his hardware store is gonna get overrun.”

“Already is,” Chris said, getting close, “day Angie died.”

“Chris,” Colt greeted him.

“Heya, Colt,” Chris replied and looked at Sully. “Got somethin’ interesting.”

“That is?” Sully asked.

“This place has five frickin’ fireplaces. All of them burn wood, not gas, not fake, real wood fire places.”

Colt knew where this was going.

Chris continued. “They all got stacks of wood beside them, all of them, and a big row of wood down the back of the house, three rows deep. So much wood, shit, they’d need five years to get through it all. There’s also a stump for choppin’. Looks like Denny Lowe chopped his own wood and it looks like he did it like a freakin’ hobby. A hobby he liked, like, a lot.”

“This guy is whacked,” Sully muttered.

“Yeah, choppin’ wood as a hobby puts the icing on the cake of this guy bein’ whacked,” Chris said and jerked his head toward the bed.

Colt was thinking of a man who earned a better than modest living but chopped his own wood. He could have had the wood delivered but instead he had to have to have full logs delivered. This neighborhood, the cops would have heard about some fanatical log-chopping neighbor who was cutting down all the trees. Folks in this neighborhood didn’t mind complaining. They paid big taxes and they felt they should get their money’s worth. They called the cops if a neighbor’s kid was playing his stereo too loud at three o’clock on a Saturday afternoon. Hell, it was a miracle they hadn’t received a complaint about the noise made by Denny chopping wood all the time.

Most men chopped wood because they had to, not because they wanted to. Seemed to Colt, Denny Lowe had a lot of rage he’d been workin’ out for some time.

“We need this place combed, someone needs to talk to the neighbors,” Sully said to Chris. “You need reinforcements, let me know, we’ll call ‘em in. The Feds are heading back here and I’ve no doubt they’ll get men on it too.”

“Gotcha,” Chris said on a nod and took off.

“Strainin’ our resources, you on ‘consultative capacity’, Marty havin’ half a brain and needin’ to pull the boys from the task force in every few hours. No cops on the street, we’re gonna miss our quota this month of speedin’ tickets,” Sully joked.

Colt smiled at him. “This guy’s gonna hit the history books, Sully, you’ll have your own page on online encyclopedias.”

Sully smiled back. “Better get Lorraine to take a decent picture of me.”

Colt slapped him on the shoulder and gave it a squeeze. Then they walked out of the bedroom and made their way down the hall, avoiding the path of blood, and Sully stopped at the top of the stairs.

“How’s Feb doin’?” he asked when Colt turned to him.

“She’s holdin’ it together.”

“She’s surprisin’ me, and everyone, thought she’d flip and take off.” He paused. “It’s a good surprise.”

“Yeah.”

“She gonna be able to see it through?”

“She’s got help.”

Sully looked closely at him. “Yeah. She does.” He took in a breath and said, “Listen, man, rumor is all over about this shit and you and Feb and now I heard from Lorraine that Melanie –”

“She called this morning.”

Sully swayed back in surprise. “Fuck, really?”

Colt nodded.

“Colt… man, you should know the rumor –”

“Rumor’s true. She called, wanted to have dinner, talk about things.”

“You havin’ dinner?” Sully asked quietly.

“Nope.”

Sully’s eyebrows went skyward. “That’s it? ‘Nope’?”

“That’s it.”

“Jesus.”

“She shoulda called three years ago, Sully,” Colt told him.

Sully gave him a look then grinned and said, “Feb.”

Colt saw no reason to deny it and confirmed, “Feb.”

Sully rocked back on his heels, still grinning but now grinning like a crazy fuck, he was so happy. “What chance you think you got?”

“Don’t know. You’ll have to wait and find out, just like me.”

Colt wasted no more time, he was late as it was. He gave Sully a “Later,” turned and jogged down the stairs.

Sully called after him, ribbing in his voice, “Spendin’ the evening at your spot at J&J’s?”

“Spendin’ it at my house with Reggie’s, beer, a pool cue and Feb,” Colt called back not looking up as he spoke, not giving a shit who heard. He hit the bottom, strode through the elegant foyer and right out the door.

Colt carried the six-pack to the front door, Feb carried Reggie’s pizza box.

The minute they hit the room, they were assaulted by paint fumes.

“Oh shit,” Feb muttered and Colt smiled.

He closed and locked the door behind them and when he turned she was already headed toward the kitchen. He got there as she dropped the box on the counter. He put the beer in the fridge, grabbed her hand in his and tugged her out of the kitchen.

She tugged back while she said, “Colt.”

Wilson hit the living room and let out a loud meow.

“Quiet pookie,” Feb said to her cat.

“Pookie?” Colt asked over his shoulder, dragging her into the hall.

She gave him a look and asked, “You wanna tell me why –”

She stopped talking when he halted at the door of the second bedroom and pulled her beside him. Then he reached in and turned on the light.

In the middle of the room was a mattress and box springs on a basic steel bed frame. The mattress and box springs had plastic on them. There was nothing else in the room and the walls had been given a basecoat.

“Guess you’re getting a guest room,” Feb noted.

Colt stared. The place had been chock full of stuff, most of it he didn’t even remember what it was. To have it cleared, a basecoat and new furniture, all in one day, was a miracle.

“Your mother doesn’t fuck around,” Colt remarked.

“I hope you didn’t have anything in there that was precious.”

Colt looked at her and said, “The only things precious in life breathe.”

Colt watched as she stopped breathing and stared at him direct in the eye in that way she’d been doing lately. Her gaze filled with surprise and something more, something welcoming, something he hoped to hell was the invitation it seemed to be.

He still had her hand in his and he reached back into the room with his other one, turned out the light then guided her back to the kitchen where he let her go.

She went to the pizza box, he went to the beer.

“You got a choice, Feb, you can eat some Reggie’s and then I can give you some shit news or I can give you some shit news and then you can eat some Reggie’s.”

He turned from the fridge with two bottles in one hand and saw her drop the lid of the box back on the pizza, her neck twisted, eyes on him.

“Shit news, then Reggie’s,” she answered, her voice quiet but shaky. She was preparing.

He used the heel of his hand and the lip of the counter to snap off the caps on the beers and, when he turned to hand her hers, she was still staring at the counter.

“I wondered what all those marks were.” She looked at Colt. “You need a bottle opener.”

“Got one. It’s over there,” he pointed to a drawer across the kitchen. “Fridge is over here,” he jerked a thumb to the fridge and he felt his words were all that needed to be said.

She walked to him, took her beer from his hand then walked to the drawer, rifled through it, pulled out a bottle opener and walked back to him. Reaching around him and up, she put the bottle opener on the top of the fridge and stepped away.

“Now it’s up there,” she said.

Colt did two things. He threw out an arm to hook around her waist, pulling her body to his and he burst out laughing.

Feb’s body jerked against his arm and he tightened it. She went still and looked up at him. He quit laughing, gave her a look and then took a tug off his beer.

“Shit news,” he said when he dropped his beer hand.

She took a tug off her beer, not taking her eyes from him.

“Marie Lowe, Denny’s wife, was found murdered in her bed today.” Feb closed her eyes but Colt kept talking, the faster he got this shit out the better. “She’d been dead awhile, days, maybe longer. She was probably his first.”

Feb opened her eyes and said, “I had nothing against her. I didn’t even know her.”

“I reckon this was all his.”

She nodded and asked, “Is there more?”

“Don’t know a lot. They were just starting to investigate the scene when I got there. I went, I left, I came and got you. Nothin’ I could do.”

Her gaze drifted over his shoulder and she whispered, “Four.”

“Feb?”

Her gaze came back and she said, “Four people and a dog.”

Colt’s arm grew tight again and he nodded.

“How long were they married?” she asked.

“Awhile,” he answered.

“Why her?”

“Don’t know. We’ll know more tomorrow.”

Her gaze drifted back over his shoulder.

“Marie Lowe,” she said softly, trying the name out on her tongue and he didn’t figure she liked how it tasted.

“Reggie’s, baby,” he said just as softly and her eyes came back to his again.

“Reggie’s,” she replied.

That night Colt, who thought he knew most everything, learned a few things about February Owens.

For starters, first chance she got she took off her jewelry. She stood at his kitchen counter, her plate on the counter filled with Reggie slices, and lifted her hands, taking off the choker which Colt saw fastened with a snap. Then went the earrings. Then the bracelets. Last, the rings.

She set them on his kitchen counter, grabbed her plate and beer and wandered into the den. But Colt stood there for several beats staring at her tangle of jewelry sitting on his counter, laid there by Feb like she’d done it every night for years and a feeling swirled around his chest. He didn’t get it just then, it would take him to later that night, all he knew was, it was far from cold.

Then he found out during their four games that she could play pool when she was concentrating. She beat him once, the other three games he took but he didn’t whip her ass.

They were games that went slow because they were eating, drinking, talking and Feb was wandering around his house looking at the photos he had, some of them Melanie framed for him and left behind, none of them had Melanie in the picture but some of them had Feb. It was Melanie’s way of saying she didn’t feel Feb was a threat but Colt knew, deep down, she did. Others were from Delilah who took photos all the time, on special occasions, during times at the lake or even when they weren’t doing anything at all, just jacking around at her and Morrie’s house, Colt’s, Jack and Jackie’s, at the park. Every birthday and Christmas, Dee’d have the best of them framed and she’d give them to him, always telling him she never knew how to shop for him, Colt always telling her the truth, she gave him what he wanted. Others were from Jackie, not many. They were older photos when times were good between them all but there were only a few. He knew Jackie wanted him to remember the good times with Feb but she didn’t want to cause him pain.

Feb surprised Colt by grabbing the frames or looking at them on the wall and reminiscing, sometimes she’d do it with a smile, sometimes she’d laugh. She didn’t hold herself guarded. She acted like there was nothing to fear and nothing to hide.

It was her laugh that started him understanding what it was about her jewelry on his counter that made that feeling steal through his chest. It wasn’t Feb’s laughter from days gone by. It was coming more frequent now, it was different and Colt understood the change. It was a new kind of laughter because it was more experienced, worldly, husky, deeper, womanly. It wasn’t the laughter of a girl who took a life filled with laughter for granted. It was the laughter of a woman who knew any laughter at all was a gift.

But it was their conversation about Darryl that made him finally comprehend his feelings about the jewelry.

He’d commented she should let Darryl go, saying straight out the man was a liability.

Feb lined up a shot, her torso bent over the table, her fine ass on display in her jeans. “Can’t do that,” she said and pocketed the three.

“Feb, I see him fuck up all the time. Folks even talk about it. You and Morrie gotta see it more than me.”

She was roaming the table, eyes scanning for her next shot and she said, “Sure. Still, can’t do it.”

Colt saw her shot the minute she honed in on it and prepared to line it up.

“February,” he said before her full concentration needed to be at the table, “he’s an ex-con and a –”

She straightened, put the bottom of her cue to the floor, her fist wrapped around it. She tucked it to her front and looked him direct in the eye.

“Yeah, Colt, he’s an ex-con and sometimes idiot. Dad brought him in when no one else would take him.” Colt started to speak but Feb kept going. “He’s also an ex-con with a family he’s tryin’ to keep fed, a wife he’s tryin’ to keep from leavin’. He’s an ex-con wouldn’t find a job with anyone else, he didn’t have us. If he found it, they wouldn’t keep him. He’s an ex-con tryin’ to keep on the straight and narrow, somethin’ would be difficult for him to do if we let him go and his life fell apart. He forgets to take out the trash, forgets orders halfway through, misplaces delivery notices he’s signed for. But none of that’s as important as a man who loves his family and wants a decent life.”

Colt couldn’t argue with that and he didn’t. Feb knew the conversation was over, took her shot and didn’t miss.

When she circled the table looking for her next one was when it hit him and he knew.

The kiss on Sunday morning he gave her wasn’t about her rolling her eyes at him, reminding him how she used to be. The kiss that morning was the same. Colt climbing into bed with her last night and having pizza and beer with her now, the same.

He’d avoided the conversation they needed to have because he had no fucking clue why one day he’d known in a dark place in his soul there would be no February and Colt and he wasn’t going to go back there and the next day he was kissing her, flirting with her, giving her the family day she needed to keep her shit together.

Now he knew that feeling that stole around his chest at looking at her jewelry wasn’t about going back to the February and Colt there used to be.

It was about finding the February and Colt there could be.

It was about that jewelry being there when he got up in the morning because she laid it there when she got home at night. It was about the woman she was now, not the girl she used to be. It was about a woman who’d make him toast and pour coffee in a travel mug when he needed to get to work; a woman who’d listen to his day and take his mind off it with a hand on his neck, a bourbon on ice, a constitution that could take the shit he saw everyday and, after, challenging him to a game of pool; a woman who’d pay a man to work in her bar who fucked up just because she knew his life wouldn’t be what he needed it to be if she didn’t; and a woman whose best day was a day with her family and friends around her doing nothing but talking, laughing and being together.

He knew it was also about their history, the fact that the girl he once knew was in there, buried, maybe never to come out again but that didn’t erase the history they shared and the fact that she was Feb.

But it was more about what was happening in the right here and now, who he was and who she’d become and the fact that he liked it.

And he knew, he played it right, he could take the advantage Jack said there was to be taken.

And he was going to take it.

After he beat her game four, she saw him stifle a yawn and her eyes got as soft as her voice when she asked, “How much sleep you get last night?”

He didn’t lie. “‘Bout three hours.”

She took her cue to the rack on the wall and stowed it, saying, “You need your rest.”

She wasn’t wrong but he wanted that rest to come with her in his bed, those two silver necklaces she didn’t take off jingling as she moved. The ones he suspected she never took off. They had delicate chains and from one dangled a chunky, oblong charm proclaiming her a “party doll”, the other one a disc, not chunky, with a heart made out of hammered copper on it, a flower etched around the edges of the heart, the word on it contradicting her other charm, announcing the complexity of the woman wearing them. It said “peace” at the top of the heart.

Colt, however, suspected she let him get away with climbing into bed with her after she fell asleep when she had another load of shit dumped on her finding out Denny Lowe had been in her house but she wouldn’t allow it again when she was awake and had her faculties about her. And in order to play it right, he wasn’t going to push it.

“You goin’ to bed?” he asked and she eyed him, dubious about where he was going with his question.

“Gonna clean up the pizza and yeah, me and Wilson could use an early night.”

“I’ll change while you clean up,” he told her and he felt her eyes on him as he walked away.

He saw the bed made when he hit his bedroom. His clothes from last night, which he’d thrown on the floor, had disappeared. His shorts were in the laundry hamper. He got another pair and noticed her journal, pen beside it, on the nightstand. A book, the title he couldn’t see, on top. Some tub of something next to it. He smiled to himself as that warm feeling swirled deeper through his chest.

She was in the kitchen when he walked out carrying the blanket and pillow that either Feb or Jackie put away in the hall closet.

She eyed the blanket and then her gaze came to him. He didn’t see relief. He saw something else, not disappointment exactly, but close.

She’d turned out the lights in the den and now she left the kitchen, flipping that switch too.

“‘Night, Colt,” she murmured as he flicked the blanket over the couch. She didn’t quite meet his eyes but she wasn’t avoiding them for the same reasons she used to and he smiled to himself again.

“Nice night, Feb,” he replied and her eyes jerked to his, a small movement indicating either embarrassment or the depth of some unknown emotion but it was there. It was solidified when she lifted her hand and tucked her hair behind her ear, self-conscious definitely and maybe even shy. It made the woman Feb was seem almost girlish and Colt liked that too.

She nodded. “Yeah, it was good,” she looked away and finished, “sleep well.”

Colt settled in and Feb closed the door behind her. He listened to her going about her business but even when the noises stopped, the light didn’t go out. Either she was reading or writing in her journal. He doubted it was the journal. She’d think twice about sharing her thoughts with the page now thanks to Denny Lowe, the sick fuck.

Colt’s mind went from Denny to Amy.

Instinct told Colt they were both caught up in this shit with Feb. How Amy factored into it, Colt didn’t know and he couldn’t imagine knowing the little he knew about her. But both Denny and Amy had disappeared, Denny for a murder spree, Amy into thin air.

That morning on his way to Indy, Colt had called Dave Connolly at the bank. Dave said Amy called in sick again and she sounded it. But, Dave told him, she did it through voicemail, left a message on Sunday, saying she was real bad and was going to see Doc on Monday. Colt had asked Dave if Amy had any particular friend at the bank, a customer she seemed to chat with more than others, a colleague she seemed partial to, even if it was just a might.

Dave’s answer was chilling. He said she talked with Angie when she was in sometimes they’d chat for a good long while if they weren’t busy.

Other than that, if Amy was close to anyone, it was Julie McCall.

Colt hadn’t had time that day to stop by Amy’s place, call Doc’s to see if Amy came in or go to the bank to talk to Julie McCall, but he scratched it on his mental schedule to do first thing tomorrow.

On that thought, the light switched out in his bedroom.

Ten minutes later, he was still awake when his phone rang.

He picked it up, glanced at the display, flipped it open and put it to his ear. “Sully.”

“Got the stressor,” Sully said.

“What?”

“Marie Lowe’s next door neighbor is also a close friend. She was freaked when she found out Marie was dead but, even freaked, Chris thought she acted like she wasn’t really surprised. Chris called me in and it took awhile, she waited for her husband to come home from the gym, he wasn’t happy we were there. There were words, they had a private chat, but finally we convinced her to spill.”

“What’d she spill?”

“Part of it we know, Denny Lowe’s a sick fuck in the sex department. Couldn’t get it up when they first got married, honeymoon was a disaster, by the way. She didn’t fuck him before they got married. Makes a case for trying out the goods before you buy.”

Colt clenched his teeth at Sully’s innocent comment.

He’d never had sex with Feb even after all those years together. They’d done everything but the deed and he didn’t let her take him in her mouth and he never took her with his. They slept together and screwed around all the time. He made her come with his fingers, she’d made him come with her hand. He’d had his mouth nearly everywhere on her, same with Feb on him. But Colt had made the decision, a stupid one he thought after she broke it off, that he respected Jack too much to fuck his daughter before he put a ring on her finger. Feb was a hot little piece even back then, she didn’t like his decision but she respected it and gave into it. This left him, essentially, a virgin at age twenty-two, something he didn’t mind in the slightest when Feb was in his life, something that pissed him off royally when she waltzed out of it, went wild and started screwing everything that moved.

Sully took him from his thoughts by saying in his ear, “It came out later when Denny suggested they try things.”

Sully stopped talking and Colt’s body grew tight. “What things?”

“Marie didn’t get it, not at the time, since they were livin’ in Chicago. She wouldn’t get it until about two years ago.”

The warm feeling at his chest evaporated and that weight in his gut got heavier.

“What was it?”

“Role play, Colt. Prepare, my man…” Sully paused, giving Colt time, “he made her call him Alec and he called her February.”

“Holy fuck,” Colt whispered, forgetting the weight in his gut as he felt a shiver creep along his skin.

“Gets worse, man,” Sully said quietly.

“Give it to me.”

“Role play changed, got kinky, rough. Marie didn’t like it but she did it because she loved him. Role play leaked out into life. There was a reason no one knows Marie Lowe and her best friend is her neighbor. He got to the point where he barely let her go out, not without him. Thinkin’ about it, man, I’d see them around, but I never saw her by herself. Not even at the store.”

Colt hadn’t either.

“The neighbor, name’s Carly,” Sully went on, “said that Marie finally figured it out. Marie came over one day, an absolute mess, cryin’ and carryin’ on. Carly calmed her down and Marie said she had an appointment at the hair dresser but popped into Meems’s to get a coffee. It was morning, Feb was there. You came in and before you left, you said something like, ‘Hey February, tell Morrie so and so,’ and Feb said, ‘Sure, Alec.’ It freaked Carly out so much, because it freaked Marie out so much, she remembered what Marie told her, word for word.”

“That’s because it’s freaky, Sully,” Colt spoke the truth.

“Well, yeah,” Sully agreed, “this is where it gets scary, though these two couldn’t have known it would.”

“Go on.”

“They decided to find out what the deal was with Denny, Feb and you. Carly said Marie was allowed to go out, get her hair done, manicures, stuff like that, shit Denny wouldn’t want to do with her. Marie asked questions, so did Carly, they found out a lot about you two.”

Colt wasn’t surprised. Townsfolk talked, Colt knew that and no matter how many years slid by, Feb and Colt were always a favorite topic of conversation.

Sully continued. “They never understood it, or at least not what it had to do with Denny. Marie got fed up playing sleuth and told Carly she was gonna confront Denny with it. Find out. She was getting ready to leave. She was done with the rough sex, the games, him only gettin’ hard if she called him your name. Him never saying hers when he was doin’ her.”

“So she confronted him and he went into a rage.”

“That’s what I figure.”

“You find anything in the house?”

“Big house, lots to go through. No shrines to Feb, no pictures of her, nothin’ that would link him to her, though they’re still at it. And we don’t know why he was withdrawing money which started awhile ago, before he killed Marie. Andy thinks Marie’s been dead over a week. We found out their cleaner was in Texas last week, visiting family. Denny must’ve forgot about her Monday visits.”

“Denny probably didn’t hire her or think about the house gettin’ cleaned,” Colt noted.

“Yeah,” Sully said.

“That all you got?”

“Bit more, nothin’ big. Marie was liked in the ‘hood. Neighbors were upset, said she was sweet. Made good cookies. Always remembered their kids’ birthdays and would get them cards and generous gift certificates. She went visiting a lot, considerin’ her whole world was mostly that street. Denny, not so much. He’d attend a dinner party but mostly they said he was quiet and he wasn’t popular, always choppin’ wood.”

Colt could imagine.

“Anything else?” Colt asked.

“Her parents are comin’ down, spendin’ the night at the Holiday Inn by the highway,” Sully answered. “We got an interview set up first thing tomorrow. And Feds are at Denny’s office as we speak. Took the head man away from his dinner table to go open up the offices. I’ll know more tomorrow.”

“What’re they doin’ about findin’ this guy?”

“APB. Got his picture circulating, description, info about his car, had agents all over stop by different places Feb worked, asking questions, flashing his picture, leaving warnings. So far, nothin’. Nowakowski called, said it wouldn’t hurt if Feb made another list.”

Colt clenched his teeth again, not looking forward to asking Feb to do that.

“Got anything else for me tonight?”

“Nope, but I’ll call you when I know more tomorrow.”

“Thanks.”

“How was Reggie’s, beer and Feb?” Sully asked, his tone deceptively casual, sharing serious information work voice gone, he now sounded nosy.

“You turn into a woman since I last saw you?” Colt asked back.

He heard Sully’s chuckle before he said, “Just curious.”

“Like I said, you’ll know when I know.”

“Shit, Lorraine’s gonna be pissed. She told me to get something meaty.”

“Tell Raine she’s goin’ empty-handed to the coffee klatch tomorrow.”

“Like I said, she’s gonna be pissed.”

Colt didn’t try to stop his smile.

“Later.”

“Later.”

Colt looked to the hall before he dropped his phone on the table and settled back, half expecting to see Feb standing there. But she wasn’t probably because she took one of Doc’s pills.

Therefore it was a surprise when, not a minute later, the door opened and he heard Feb’s soft footfalls on the carpet in the dark.

He expected she was going to the kitchen for a glass of water or coming out to find out about the phone call.

She didn’t do either.

She stopped, he reckoned, at the doorway to the hall and didn’t move further.

He got up on both his elbows. “Feb?”

“Colt.”

He waited. He didn’t intend to share with her any of the shit Sully shared with him. And her new list could wait for the morning.

“Everything okay?” he asked.

“No.”

“Trouble sleeping?”

She moved; he saw her silhouette come forward. She stopped by the side of the couch and he felt her eyes as she looked down at him.

“The phone call –”

“It’s all good, February,” he lied before he told the truth. “They’re makin’ progress.”

She pulled in breath. Then she let it out.

Then she suddenly sat down on the couch by his hip.

“Feb –”

He saw her arm move and then he felt her hand land dead center on his chest.

“Colt,” she said, her voice a voice he never heard from her before. Lower, so husky it was almost scratchy, communicating need.

He didn’t know if he was reading her right and he didn’t care. He’d deal with the consequences later if they were bad. If they were good, he wasn’t missing the opportunity.

He pushed up to sitting, her hand sliding up his chest and he wrapped a hand around the back of her head. He pulled her mouth to his and felt her head tilt in his hand, preparing, ready.

Fucking brilliant.

The instant her lips hit his, they opened and he slid his tongue inside. As he felt his cock start to get hard at the mere taste of her, he felt her fingers curl around his neck, tight, holding on, just as she pressed her chest against his.

She wanted it, she’d come looking for it and she was going to get it.

He’d take her mouth on the couch but he was going to fuck her in his bed.

He broke free of her mouth and tossed back the blanket, throwing his legs over the side of the couch, straightening. She came up with him, turning toward him.

“Colt –” she started.

But he yanked her into his arms, his mouth came back down, hers opened back up and there it was. The need in her kiss, the same he expected she felt in his, so much, she moaned in his mouth and just like the first time she did it, it felt fucking unbelievable.

His hands slid over her sweet ass then down. She knew what he wanted and put her hands on his shoulders, using them to deepen the momentum when she hopped up. He caught her ass in his hands and she circled his hips with her legs, his shoulders with her arms, both tight, holding on.

All of this happened without them breaking the kiss.

He turned and carried her to his bedroom and he wished the lights were on. He wanted to see her when he fucked her. But he wasn’t going to waste the time to do it.

She was in just as much of a hurry. When they hit the room, she lifted her head, breaking contact with his mouth and took her arms from around his shoulders. Her hands going to her shirt, she yanked it over her head and tossed it aside.

Good Christ, she did something else like that, he was going to come like he did when he was eighteen and she jacked him off the first time, an endeavor that took her about sixty seconds.

He planted a knee in the bed then he planted her ass in it then he pulled away, hooking his fingers in her panties as he went. He yanked them down her legs and tossed them aside, again wishing he could see more than her dark form but he’d go with touch and taste, for now.

He didn’t bother with his shorts and he didn’t bother with kissing her again. He was impatient, he wanted a taste of her, he’d waited a long fucking time and that wait was finally over. Colt spread her legs with his hands at her inner thighs and put his mouth to her. She bucked against him and he heard her moan then he heard her necklaces jingle and he liked it so much, he growled against her.

Feb moaned again.

He wasn’t gentle, he sucked her clit hard, buried his tongue in deep. He pulled her legs over his shoulders and she dug her heels in, using his back as leverage to rock herself against his mouth, her hands in his hair, holding him to her. So hot, so sweet, that need, it was fucking fantastic.

He was pleased to find she was just as desperate for it as he was. She came against his mouth within minutes and when she did he sucked her clit harder and her moans turned to gasps.

Colt disengaged, yanked off his shorts and came up over her, grabbing her by her pits and hauling her up the bed until her head hit the pillows. Feb was still climaxing when he took his cock in his hand and guided the tip inside. Then he surged forward and buried himself deep.

Yep.

Absolutely… fucking… fantastic.

“Alec,” she breathed.

That was it. If he had any control, it was gone when she said his name. He fucked her as hard as he’d sucked her and she wrapped her legs around his hips, her arms around his back, one hand sliding up and into his hair, those fucking necklaces clinking, a little gasp coming every time he drove in deep.

He wrapped one arm around her head to hold her still so he could go deeper, put his other hand between them and found her again with his finger.

“No, too much,” she whispered, her hips rearing.

“Fuck that, baby, you’re coming with me.”

“Alec, I’ve already –”

“Come with me, Feb,” he coaxed, “hurry baby.”

Her breath caught, her hips moved with his and she let go.

“Too much,” she whispered again, but she meant something different this time.

“That’s it, honey, you’re findin’ it.”

“Oh my God, Alec.” Shock stark in her voice, shock mixed with hunger. She’d never had this before. “It’s happening again. I’m gonna –”

She convulsed around his cock and it felt so fucking great he nearly forgot everything just feeling it. But he had the presence of mind to slam his mouth down on hers to capture the moans, doing so sending him over the edge and his world exploded.

When he came down he felt her clutching his cock inside her, the sweet ripple of it just as beautiful as her long legs still locked tight around him, her arms holding him, her fingers now sifting through his hair like she was memorizing the feel.

His fingers slid deeper between them and she made a low noise in his ear as they went. He was gliding, gently now, in and out of her. He slid his fingers around the root of his cock then against her, feeling her wetness, their connection, liking it, actually fucking loving it, before he pulled his hand away.

His face was in her neck, he moved and kissed the hinge of her jaw then moved again and he touched his lips to hers.

He looked at the angles of her shadowed face in the dark.

She kept him locked in her arms and legs.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Mm hmm,” she answered, her hand smoothing through his hair and around, her fingertips gliding across his jaw. “I’m sorry I called you Alec.”

Colt gave a short laugh, pulled out and rolled, his arms going around her, bringing her with him. The covers were mussed from her being in bed, he moved his body and Feb’s until he had the covers out from under and pulled them over, settling on his back, tucking her into his side.

She rested her head on his shoulder and her arm around his stomach.

“Don’t be.”

“What?”

“Don’t be sorry you called me Alec.”

“You don’t like it.”

“I’m findin’ I don’t mind.”

He felt her muscles tighten and she said slowly, “Things have changed.”

Damn straight they had.

His arm, wrapped around her waist, hand at the small of her back, dipped down so her ass was in his hand and he squeezed.

“You’re Colt now,” she whispered.

“Feb –”

“And um…” she started hurriedly, in a rush to get it out because he knew, if she didn’t share now, she never would, “I like Colt.”

Colt closed his eyes tight.

When he opened them and stared blindly into the dark, he said, “Make you a deal, honey.”

“What’s that?”

“You can call me Colt but, when I’m fuckin’ you, you call me Alec.”

He heard and felt her draw in breath. She held it a long time. Then she let it go and her body relaxed against his.

“In fact, any time you’re in this bed, baby, you can call me Alec. I’m fuckin’ you or not.”

She settled deeper into him, murmuring, “Don’t be an asshole…” she paused then finished, “Alec.”

He laughed and her arm tightened around his stomach.

“Go to sleep, baby,” he urged.

“Okay.”

He listened to her breathe and he felt Wilson, who had wisely kept away for the last twenty minutes, jumped on the bed and settled. Colt felt the cat’s weight against his foot, the one that Feb’s feet were tangled with.

Wilson started purring.

February, surprisingly for an insomniac, became a dead weight against his side within minutes.

And Colt thought it had been a fuckuva long time, waiting for Feb to let him back in but he decided it was well worth the wait because being in Feb was fucking spectacular.