I’m holding my sides and trying to catch my breath as he tells me about the time he dared Dylan to run naked across the football field during their homecoming game halftime show. Imagining a younger version of Dylan streaking through their high school football stadium has me in stitches. I’m not the least bit surprised by most of the things he and Cole got into before they both grew up – Cole going off to join the Marines while Dylan joined the police academy.
As tight as Rhys and Dylan are, the way they have to be to do their jobs; there seems to be an even greater relationship between Dylan and Cole. The way he talks about growing up with Dylan, I can see their bond and why they trust each other in the intimate way you’d need to in order to be able to share all that they have.
“Listen, Zoey, this thing the three of us had going?” Cole nervously rubs the back of his neck. “It’s time for me to walk away.”
I can’t say I’m surprised, but his words stun me, they’re one more kick in the gut after Dylan’s verbal lashing earlier. That’s the whole reason why I showed up here in the first place, to prove that I wouldn’t be controlled by someone. Someone who isn’t ready to give me all of what I need…sexual desires aside.
“Christ, I should have known he’d get to you too.” My resolve cracks and a single tear rolls down my face. “It’s clear I don’t get a say in the matter. Dylan’s made his mind up, so it’s settled. I’m beginning to wonder if it was ever about what I wanted to begin with or if it was merely a way for the two of you to get your rocks off.” I jump from the couch and pace the room, hurt and anger coursing through my body.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Chill out for a minute. I haven’t talked to Smitty since I left his place last night. I’m the one calling it quits, Zoey. I told you, I’ve known him since we were kids. He may be too stubborn to see it right now, but the man is crazy about you. Keeping this thing going is only going to hurt you two in the long run, if it hasn’t already. This is me walking away because I know a good thing when I see it. I’m looking out for both of you here.”
Cole’s words are like a cold bucket of ice on my skin. He thinks Dylan is crazy about me? He must not know his friend as well as he thinks. If he were so damn crazy about me, he wouldn’t keep pushing me away.
“Ending things between the three of us won’t change things for Dylan and me. I’m pretty sure we’re over. Either way, I was wrong to come here. You’re right about one thing. No matter what I thought I wanted, I knew walking through that door, nothing would happen. Deep down, I came here because I trusted you to keep me from doing something I wouldn’t be able to live with later on. Dylan can tell me he doesn’t care, but if I’d crossed a line with you tonight, it would destroy him. In a way, that’s what I wanted. Until I realized something…” my voice trails off.
“You realized you love him too,” Cole finishes. When I look at him in shock, he shakes his head again. “I told you, even a fool could see the feelings you two have for each other. Anything Smitty said that upset you? It was fear talking. You’ve hit something deep inside him that’s brought him back to life. I’m sure he doesn’t open up a whole lot, but give the guy a chance. It’s not every day that a woman gets to him the way you have. Hell, no one has broken down that barrier since, shit.” Coles' lips form a hard line, and he pinches the bridge of his nose. “Nevermind. It’s not my story to tell.”
“Way to leave me hanging.” I give him a sad laugh and check the time on my phone. If I don’t leave soon, I won’t make it back before KJ’s whole house is awake. I’d rather they not know I went anywhere. “I should get going. I’ve already kept you up all night as it is.”
“It wasn’t exactly a hardship,” Cole says as he stands to walk me to the door. “Don’t beat yourself up about coming here tonight, okay? Nothing happened, nothing would have happened. We both know that I’m not the one you want.”
I can’t fight the frown on my face. Were Dylan and I too caught up in our own desires to see Cole hurting?
“Hey, none of that.” Cole tilts my head up. “I’m good, Zoey. You’re Smitty’s and always have been. I know it. He knows it, and you know it too. You’re an amazing woman, but you’re not it for me.” Opening his arms wide he asks, “Friends?”
Leaning in, I give him a gentle hug before pulling away. “Friends.”
“Now get out of here before you get caught.” Cole holds open the door for me, the same way he did when I arrived, and I walk away.
The gaslight dings on my dashboard as I take the exit to KJ’s place. At this point, pumping gas is the last thing I want to do, but if I don’t, I’ll only have to do it later.
The gas station is empty when I pull up to the pump. Cash in hand I head inside to pay the attendant. I make it halfway through the parking lot when out of nowhere a hand slips around my mouth, and I’m pulled tightly against a hard body.
Panic rises in my throat, my screams of protest muffled by the flesh covering my face.
“Shh, shh shh. Stop screaming. You’re mine now. You’re safe.”
No. I’m not safe. Something isn’t right. I’m pulled around the corner and into the shadows thanks to an overcast sunrise.
“I’m going to uncover that pretty mouth of yours. When I do, you’re not going to make a sound. Nod if you understand.”
Taking a deep breath, I try to remember what we were taught in the self-defense classes KJ and I took together. I don’t get a chance to answer before my attacker slaps me across the face then wraps his hands tightly around my neck.
“Please, let me go,” I gasp.
“You stupid bitch. I tried to play nice. I saw you around and thought it was too good to be true. I thought you came back here for me. Then I saw you with them.” The creep’s grip tightens, and I know if I don’t act quickly I’m going to blackout. “Did you enjoy fucking them both, you dirty whore?”
Think. I urge myself. When he moves one hand to reach for his belt buckle, I act. Raising my knee swiftly, connecting with his nuts. He stumbles back, and I land another hard punch to his face, taking pleasure as his nose cracks. Then I run like hell to my car, locking myself inside and peeling out of the gas station.
I’m on autopilot as I drive back to KJ’s. Terrified as his words circle through my head. Whoever that guy was, he knows about me… about Cole and Dylan.
Chapter Thirteen
Smitty
There is a jackhammer thumping in my head, and the bed beside me is cold where Zoey should be.
Reality rushes back in. I let her walk out my door thinking that I was pissed off about her and Cole. Okay, maybe I was pissed off about that. But, more at myself than the two of them.
Water and aspirin, first I tell myself as I slip on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. Then I’m getting in my truck and going to find out where the hell Zoey’s at. She’s talking to me. Today. One way or another, I’m going to fix this, and she’s going to come to her senses about us.
I’ve swallowed down the aspirin, a whole bottle of water and grabbed a Gatorade for the road. When I reach for my keys off the hook by the garage door, I realize they’re missing. I check the garage just to be sure, but yep, my truck is gone.
I dial Rhys’ number on my cell, not even waiting for him to say hello before I jump his shit, “Where is my motherfucking truck?”
“In my driveway.” The motherfucker yawns.
“Son of a bitch. You stole my fucking truck?”
“Borrowed. Calm down. I didn’t want to spend the night with your drunk ass, and I needed a way home after Kelsey and Reid left.”
“If you put a single scratch on her…”
“Well, I mean I did go four-wheeling with her. She’ll need a good bath when you get her back.”
“I’m going to punch you in that pretty face of yours when I see you. Bring my truck back, asshole.”
“Later, I was sleeping until your grumpy ass woke me up.”
I’ll walk to his house, I’ll do it. I’ll walk over there and drag him outside by his hair
and beat him in an old school wrestling match. “Goddamn it, Rhys. I need my truck to go find Zoey and make up for being a dick last night.”
“Zoey’s fine. She’s here with….Whoa,” There’s a muffled noise like he almost dropped the phone. “What the fuck happened, Zoey?”
Son of a bitch. I can tell by the change in Rhys’ voice, something is wrong. “What the fuck do you mean, ‘What happened?’” I bark. “Is Zoey okay?”
“Gotta go, Smitty.”
“Don’t you fucking….”
The line clicks. Rhys fucking hung up on me. Completely ignoring me. He better hope like hell nothing is wrong with Zoey or he’s dead too.
I give it five minutes which takes a whole hell of a lot, trust me, and then I dial Rhys back. No answer. Zoey’s number goes straight to voicemail. Shit, Kelsey isn’t picking up her phone either. Calling Rhys back I leave a grumpy message and let him know I’m on my way to them.
My girl better be there, in one piece, or someone’s going to have a lot of explaining to do.
Pulling my Harley Superflow out into the rain, I curse. Guess my ass is getting wet today. And Rhys is gonna pay for taking my damn truck.
~*~
Zoey
I shouldn’t have come back here.
“Zoey, wait,” Kelsey calls after me, but I ignore her and get back in my car, ready to drive away.
I should go back home to Mobile and stay there. Then I won’t mess up things here. Kelsey can go on living her happy little life with Rhys. And Dylan can find someone else to fuck for a while. Who knows, maybe he’ll eventually settle down and find someone who can make him happy too. Someone who isn’t me.
I’ve got the key in the ignition and Kelsey banging on my window.
The passenger side door opens. “Zoey,” Rhys’ voice is calm.
Kelsey, who is still banging on the window like a lunatic, with Reid in her arms, is not.
“Open the door and tell her to give you a minute. She’ll chill if she knows you’re not running off,” Rhys orders softly.
“Oh, I’m running off. As soon as you get out of the car and she moves.”
He gives me a weak smile and shakes his head. “We both know, she’s not moving.”
“Whatever.” He’s got a point. So, I try things his way, opening the door slightly and saying, “Give me a minute. I won’t leave. I just need a minute.”
“You have exactly five minutes, and then you have a whole lot of explaining to do. And, so help me God if Smitty did this to you…fuck that, whoever did this to you…”
“Kels, go inside, I’ve got it from here,” Rhys tells her firmly.
She’s upset, but she listens. He stays quiet for a few minutes before looking at me again.
“Do you want to tell me who did this to you?”
“Not really.”
“I can’t help you if you don’t.”
I let out a sick laugh as tears fall. “I don’t need your help. Christ. What is it with you and Dylan always trying to save the day? Can’t you both accept that not everyone needs rescuing?”
“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. But you should file a report against whoever did this. I won’t ask you any more questions. And I’ll keep Kelsey off your back too. If, and only if, you come back inside with me. Let me throw on some clothes and take you down to the station to file a report.”
“No.”
“I’ll sit here all day. I’ve got nothing but time. You should know though, Smitty is probably already con the way, and if we don’t move quickly, he’ll be here before we have a chance to leave. I need exactly two minutes to pull on a pair of jeans and shirt, then I’ll drive you myself.”
Rhys is sitting in my car in a pair of boxer shorts. It would be pretty funny in any other situation.
“I’m not going to the police station to file a report. I want to leave.” I do. I want to floor it out of the driveway and go back home. To my home. Away from everything here.
Pressing charges, filling a report? It won’t do any good. I don’t know who my attacker was. The only thing I know is that for the split second before fight or flight kicked in I pictured Dylan’s face and feared that if my attacker got the best of me, I’d never see him again.
“If you get out of the car, I’m gunning it.”
“You can’t.” He smiles confidently.
“Oh, I can,” I snort. I’m not in the mood for Rhys’ bullshit.
“Not if I have the keys.” He holds them up proudly.
I look down at the ignition in disbelief. Yep, those are definitely my keys…in his hand. Fuck.
“Times ticking,” Rhys reminds me.
“Goddamnit.” The tears fall harder now. I should have known better. Rhys, Dylan, they’re both trained for this kind of shit. They know how to talk down hostage situations. I didn’t stand a chance. I should have known if I came back to Kelsey’s house, there would be no escaping, I would have to face this head on. “Rhys, please let me go,” I beg.
“Zoey, even if you were not tied to my partner and my girl, I wouldn’t let you go anywhere right now. You’re upset. You’re hurt. If you’re not going to press charges or file a report, you should at least go to the hospital and get checked out.”
“No, damn it. The answer is no.”
“Fine. I’m going inside. With your keys,” Rhys says coolly as he opens the door. He hesitates for a split second before climbing out, and then he’s gone.
In the car alone, I let it all out as rain starts to fall from the sky.
When I finally look up, Kelsey is standing at the front door, and I know she’s ready to come after me again, so I give in. It’s raining now, and if I sit out here much longer, I’m going to melt from the heat.
Chapter Fourteen
Smitty
It takes me twice as long to finally pull into Rhys’ driveway thanks to the rain-slicked roads. And because I wasn’t thinking clearly, I’m soaked from head to toe. None of that matters at this point though as I rush to the front door and step inside without knocking. Manners go out the window when they all want to try and ignore me.
“Told ya.” Rhys gives a nervous laugh as I trudge up the five steps in their split foyer.
The first thing I see is Zoey at the kitchen table with her head in her hands. Her long blond hair nearly hiding her from view.
When I hit my knees beside her and brush her hair back, I’m nearly knocked on my ass.
Rage boils inside me automatically, and it takes every ounce of restraint I have to speak calmly. “Who did it? Who did this to you?”
There’s no denying the handprints around her neck. And the bruise on her face.
“Zoey, talk to me, baby.” My voice cracks as I plead with her.
She looks up, and I can see her red-rimmed eyes and the tear stains on her cheeks.
“We’ll leave you two alone,” Kelsey whispers, making her way out of the room. “Zoey, we’ll be downstairs if you need us.”
Zoey doesn’t acknowledge KJ, but her body falls into me as she buries her face in my chest. Her grip on my body is nearly suffocating, but I welcome it.
“Please tell me what happened, Zo.”
She doesn’t answer me. Instead, we stay wrapped up in each other as my clothes drip onto the kitchen floor, the only sound echoing around us are her hiccups and sobs. When my thighs begin screaming at me in protest, I fall back onto the floor and pull her body with me, silently pleading for her to tell me something…anything.
Silence. As her body trembles against mine.
Every goddamn second that passes by I’m second guessing what I’m doing. Seventeen years of law enforcement training screams at me that I shouldn’t be sitting here now. We should be at the station doing…something.
Hiccup. “I want to leave,” she finally whispers.
I kiss her forehead, and she flinches, squeezing my heart like a vice. “We need to go down to the station and file a report.”
Zoey quickly pulls away from me
and crawls out of my reach. The minute she stands, I’m on my feet next to her, ready for a fight.
“Goddamnit! I’m not going to the fucking police station. I don’t know who the fuck did this to me. Filing a report won’t make any difference. I want to get the fuck out of here and go home. I want to get away from all of you!” There’s a small hitch in her voice that tells me she may not be telling the truth and it kills me inside.
“You’re not leaving until you tell me what happened and where it happened.” I can hear the rage boiling in my voice as I struggle to stay calm with her.
“Why do you even care? You’re the one who said you didn’t give a damn. Suddenly you want to play hero?”
“Zoey Daniels, I give a damn because I’m fucking madly in love with you. So much that I’m two seconds from doing something incredibly stupid and risking my badge to find out who did this to you. Do you understand that?” The words tumble from my lips in a fury of truth.
“No.” She shakes her head and swats at the tears rolling down her cheeks. “You’re just saying that. You can’t. You don’t love me.”
“Yes, yes I do. It’s why I acted like a jerk yesterday. Piss poor excuse. But it’s the truth. There’s a whole lot more I want to say to you too, but now isn’t the time for that. Right now, you need to let me help you. Start by telling me where the hell you were at.”
Zoey crosses her arms defiantly over her chest and gives me a hard glare. “I was with Cole.”
There’s no way. I had to have heard her wrong. I’ve known that bastard for nearly thirty-eight years. If she was with him…if he did this to her, he’ll be a dead man walking.
“He was the only one…”
“The only one what,” I cut her off before she can say anything else. I’m about to grab the keys to my truck that are taunting me from the kitchen table and hauling ass to Cole’s place to beat the shit out of him.
“He was the only one that I felt like I could talk to.”
I’ll have to deal with that statement later, right now, there’s one thing I need to know. “Did. He. Do. This. To. You?”
Cop Tease (Too Hot To Handle Series Book 2) Page 6