Page 30 of Colton’s Mate

As Colt looked through yet another pile of papers, he said to Callie, “Rohene didn’t say anything specific about these alleged heirlooms?”

Callie shook her head. “Only that Caleb would have inherited them, as leader. Which I know he didn’t. He murdered Kirk and Tex. Nobody in the crew would have given anything like that to a leader who didn’t take the crew by legitimate challenge.”

Colt wasn’t so sure about that. Half the crew had been willing to follow him, so why not give him the special leader mojo artifact? “Well, maybe Caleb stole it.”

“Or maybe he didn’t. Maybe he didn’t even know about it. Maybe the damn McGuffin is with Kirk’s things, somewhere. Or maybe it never existed.”

He could tell she was getting frustrated. He hoped they could find something that would help.

Colt turned over another piece of paper—a drawing of a labyrinth pattern made in colored pencil.

“What’s this?”

Callie leaned over and looked. “Oh. That’s just a tattoo Tex had. He must have designed it himself.”

Colt frowned. It teased something in the back of his mind, but he couldn’t remember what.

“Could I hang onto this?” he said. “It reminds me of something.”

“If you want. I don’t see how they could be looking for a tattoo, though. You can’t pass one of those down from leader to leader.”

“Actually you can,” Colt said. His parents knew someone—a witch—who’d once had a magical artifact embedded into her body, looking like a tattoo. “It takes powerful magic, though, and if the tattoo was the McGuffin, Kirk would have had it, not Tex. But we might as well run it down. We don’t have anything else.”

“Dammit,” she said. “How do you prove you don’t have something?”

“You can’t.” Which worried him. It meant the Corsairs might keep coming for her.

At that moment, Colt’s phone rang. Remy.

Callie’s phone pinged the next second, with a text from Kitty. He could see the screen from where he was sitting: What happened to you? Are you okay? Have you seen Colt?

They were worried about him, which meant Remy would keep calling until Colt answered, or else he’d track Colt’s phone and fly here.

He picked up.

“Hey, bro.”

“Where the fuck are you? We thought the Talons took you out and dismembered you or some shit.”

“Please. It would take more than the Talons to dismember me. I’m at Callie’s.”

There was a silence. “Please don’t tell me you went off for some post-fight boinking and left me alone with the lovebirds and Jason, and nothing but quiet time with Mr. Hand to comfort me. Because I’d have to put shaving cream in your pillowcase. And your work boots.”

“Don’t be a douche,” Colt said. “Callie’s house was broken into.”

Callie stopped the text she was writing to Kitty and glared at him.

Remy said, “And you knew that before you got there? Because otherwise, I’m still thinking you were hoping for the boink.”

“It’s a long story. That doesn’t involve boinking.”

Callie said, “Did you have to tell him that?”

“That we’re not boinking?”

She rolled her eyes. “That my house was broken into.”

“Oops,” he said. “Sorry.” To Remy he added, “I wasn’t supposed to tell you that.”