“I believe that you’ve only ever cared about one person—you. So if you’re here, that means you want something. Tell me what it is so I can say no and you can fuck off back to wherever the hell you’ve been the last twenty-six years.”
“Jesus. You’re a different person than the kid I left.”
“Than the eight-year-old you tried to control with fear? Yeah, I am. And I will knock you to the fucking ground if I have to. You won’t even see it coming.”
Indie touched his back, and he pushed her farther behind him. Even with him in between them, she was too damn close to the asshole.
Gordon’s eyes narrowed, then he made a mistake…he looked behind Colt at Indie.Again. “I might have better luck talking to your pretty lady than you. What do you think, honey?”
Colt moved so fast, the asshole didn’t see him coming. He grabbed Gordon by the collar of his shirt and shoved him hard against the wall. Then he got close—really fucking close. “You talk to her again, and I willkillyou. Do you understand?”
“Colt! Don’t.”
Indie’s startled voice was loud behind him, but he barely heard it, all his focus on his father. On the cascade of memories of the things this man did to his mother. Of him not giving a shit about anyone but himself.
“You belong in prison,” Colt growled.
“And yet, here I am.”
Indie touched his arm this time. “Colt…don’t do anything you’ll regret.”
He’d regret doing nothing even more.
“Colt.” A new voice sounded. Jesse’s. “Everything okay?”
“Not even close,” Colt said quietly.
His father lifted a brow. He almost looked amused. “What’re you gonna do, son? Hit me in front of the sheriff? Do it. It might make you feel better.”
That was the thing. It wouldn’t.
“Colt.” This time,Jessetouched his arm. “Step back, man.”
Colt lowered his head and got so close he could see every fucking pore on his father’s face. “Leave Amber Ridge. You don’t want to stick around and see what I’ll do.”
His father’s lips twitched. “Is that a threat?”
“It’s a warning.”
CHAPTER 8
Anger still coiled in Colt’s gut, trying to consume him. Heating the air he breathed. Making him want to simultaneously hit something and yell.
His father washere, in Amber Ridge, after over twenty-six years away.
Why?
Memories of the worst moments of his life flashed in his head. Of his father’s violence when he’d been high on whatever drug he was taking. Toward him. Toward his mother. But also the danger his father had put them in when he pissed off the wrong people. When he took money that wasn’t his.
He tightened his fingers around the wheel and drove faster.
Jesse and Indie had wanted answers. He hadn’t been able to give them any. Not right then. He’d barely been able to talk. Instead, he’d watched his father walk away while using every scrap of self-restraint he had to not go after him. Then apologized to Indie before leaving her with Jesse.
His father was the one secret he’d kept from Indie. She knew the basics—that he’d left when Colt was eight. That he hadn’t kept in touch.
She didn’t knowwhyhe’d left. That his mother had changed the locks. Cut him off from any family money. Hired Ben.
Why he hadn’t told her, he wasn’t sure. Maybe because after his father left, he and his motherneverspoke about the man, not even to each other. Or maybe a part of him was ashamed of the scum he’d come from.
