A laugh that was half shock and half denial burst from her. “There’s nothing he wouldn’t forgive you.”
“I have to go.” I pried her hands off me then bent to kiss Nettie’s baby-soft forehead. “I’m sorry I can’t be there for you, Nettie, but your mom and dad love you more than enough to make up the difference.”
I turned on my heel and exited the shop before she could think to come after me.
Cole was waiting by the door, and I read his sorrow. I was grateful he didn’t try to tell me it was for the best, or that it would get easier. I expected him to give it to me straight, even when it hurt. Much like Santiago. Except Cole bit his lip to avoid hurting me whenever possible whereas Santiago couldn’t flap his fast enough.
Since I rode a dragon here, I would have to ride a dragon back.
The wind would explain away the tears already stinging my eyes, and the trip would give me a moment to pack away what just happened among all the other things I wasn’t dealing with because there was no time for me to break down the way I wanted, the way I needed, and keep functioning.
CHAPTER FOUR
About to hop aboard Air Cole for the return trip, a text chime had me digging out my phone.
As much as I wanted to ignore it, I couldn’t afford not to check with the coterie scattered all over the place.
And sure enough, the message plummeted my gut into my toes.
Heard you were in town.
Crap. Crap. Crap.
Sherry must have called Rixton the second I bolted from the coffee shop.
Just a quick visit.
Sherry bumped into you. By
accident or design?
That he would question my integrity stung. I had brought us here, but it was still so bizarre having him lash out at me, hurt me.
I left when she arrived. What
does that tell you?
She misses you.
I miss her too.
Come clean, and I’ll consider
visitation.
Yearning to go back to the way things had been, I was tempted. But I couldn’t risk them. I wouldn’t risk them.
I have to go.
Damn it, Luce. What
have you gotten yourself
into? Tell me.
I can’t.
I saw the cat.
Pulse throbbing in my ears, I swallowed hard and attempted damage control.
What cat? There must be
hundreds in Canton.
It had wings. Goddamn
wings. It flew. Right off
your shoulder.
Why didn’t you say anything?
I could ask you the same
thing. We’re partners — were
partners — and you lied to
me. You cut me out of your
life. You backed me into a
corner I couldn’t escape
without going through you.
Do you know how much that
hurt? You made my wife
cry. You know I hate it when
women leak.
A watery laugh clogged my throat, and that drew Cole’s attention.
“Rixton is texting me,” I explained. “He saw Thom, as a cat. Looks like there’s more damage control waiting for us in Canton.”
But damn if I didn’t smile the whole way back into town.
After touching base with the coterie, Cole and I went to meet Rixton on a bench in the square across from Hannigan’s. While I couldn’t blame Rixton for wanting a public spot, this put all eyes on us. And it hurt that he thought — even for a second — that I would harm him, that he needed insulation to protect himself from me.
“Bou-Bou,” Rixton said when he spotted me. “It’s good to see you.”
The endearment sparked dangerous hope, but he knew how much it annoyed me. There was just as much chance, perhaps more, that he was being petty instead of familiar.
“Good to see you too.” I measured him, top to bottom, and frowned. “You’ve lost weight.” A lump got stuck in my throat. “So help me, if you brought me here to say you’re dying, I’ll kill you.”
“That would defeat the purpose.” He slid his gaze toward Cole. “Heaton.” He stuck out his arm, shook hands with him. “I can’t say I’m glad to see you since life went to hell in a handbasket the second you set foot in this town, but Luce looks happy enough. That still counts for something in my book.”
“Does it?” It didn’t escape my notice he hadn’t touched me. It’s not like I had been all that welcoming of physical contact in the past, so I tried not to take it personally. That, or the firearm visible at his hip.
“You’re family.” He knocked on my forehead like it was wood, like I was a blockhead. “We fight, we make up.”
“You made it clear you wanted me out of your life.” I heard the bite of accusation, reminded myself I had earned it, then held up my hands. “I don’t blame you. At all. I understand what I did put you in a tight spot, and I never would have done that if I’d had another option.”
“That’s just it. I should have seen through it. You’re a good cop, Luce. A damn fine cop. Just like your dad. You don’t break rules. You barely bend them. What you did makes no damn sense unless there was a damn good reason.”
“That’s a whole lot of damns,” I pointed out, and he almost smiled.
“I missed you.” His voice broke. “Sherry’s been telling everyone my work wife broke my heart, but it’s not that. Well, okay, it might be that. Heartbreak. It’s like having a little sister and witnessing her get snatched off the sidewalk right in front of you. It happens so fast, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it. That’s how it felt. Like we were rocking along, business as usual, and poof. You’re gone. I can’t make it make sense. It’s been driving me insane. And when I finally broke down and went to talk to you about it, to let you explain, I saw you with that damn cat and knew I had a decision to make.”
“Before or after I made Sherry cry?”
“Let’s not split hairs … ” His cheek twitched, another smile attempting to break free. “The point is, I want you to tell me the truth. All of it.”
“Rixton … ” I started, hating I couldn’t confess all. “It’s not that simple.”
“You have a pet cat with wings.” He swept his gaze over Cole. “Are you a kitty too?”
Cole’s answering smile was toothy and sharp and made me worry about what he thought about all this.
“The more you know,” I warned him, “the more dangerous it gets for you and your family.”
“What about your family? Your dad is MIA, Harry was shot and killed during a home invasion, according to the report, and Aunt Nancy followed him.” He exhaled through pursed lips. “You lost too much, too fast, and then you shoved me away too.”
The mulish glare I turned on him was learned at his knee.
“I’m a cop. Dare I say, a detective. I’ve been at this a while, and I can smell a coverup from a mile away. How long do you see this working? How well did it go for Nancy? Harold?”
“That’s a low blow,” I said, shaken. “But you’re not wrong.” Cancer might have killed Nancy, but the bargain Harold struck to save her had killed him just as well. That was on me. “I kept them out of it. I thought ignorance would protect them. It didn’t.”
“So turn on a light.” Rixton let his smile come, and its edge was honed by shared grief. “I’m tired of sitting in the dark.”
One look at Cole confirmed he trusted me to make the right call. I wish I had that much faith in anything, let alone myself.
“I’m not human,” I said with a hitch in my voice.
Without missing a beat, he dipped his gaze to my arms, where the rose gold bands of the rukav curled over my skin.
“I’m charun.” I kept going, pushing out the admission. “What you would consider a demon.”
“You’re not evil.” A hard glint came into his eyes. “Tell me that’s not why you broke things off.”
“How c
an you be sure?” I blurted out. “Most days I’m not certain who I am anymore, let alone what.”
“You’re a cop to the bone, Luce.” He made it sound so plain, so obvious. “Evil wears many faces, but it doesn’t wear yours.”
Tears blurred my vision, and hiccupping sobs wracked my shoulders. The words cleansed me, absolved me in a way I hadn’t known I needed to be forgiven, to be judged and found innocent by someone from my old life.
“Aww, hell. Not you too.” Rixton waved his arms at Cole. “Don’t just stand there. Do something. Make it stop.”
Before Cole reached me to offer comfort, I flung myself at Rixton. Eyes wide, he caught me in his arms and squeezed hard enough to make up for all the years I never let him this close. The otherness of his touch prickled across my skin, but I fought through it. It was worth it to have this, to have him back.
“Let’s go somewhere more private,” he said when I calmed. “It was a dick move forcing you to meet me in public like some rat with a hot tip.”
Wiping my face dry with the backs of my hands, I sniffled. “I would invite you to the farmhouse but … ”
Maggie was holed up with Miller there, and Rixton didn’t exactly know she was still alive … or acting as a charun host. Or even what a charun or a host was, let alone how she ended up that way.
God forbid anything in my life be simple or easy to explain.
“I saw the realtor’s sign.” Rixton pushed out a sigh. “How about my place then?”
Heart smashing against my ribs, I growled, “You can’t — ”
“ — tell my wife?” He snorted. “The secret to a good marriage is never lying to your partner. I never have, and I’m not about to start. She gets a say.”
“Stop doing that.” He knew me so well, he could have held this conversation with himself. “A say in what?”
“I’m going to help you.” He looked at me like I was crazy. “Whatever trouble you’re in, I’m going to get you out of it.”
“This isn’t human trouble,” I started. “It’s dangerous.”
“I’m a cop. I understand dangerous.”
“Trust me on this. You don’t. I’m barely holding myself together here.”
“Which is why you need your friends now more than ever.”
“I wish you hadn’t seen that cat,” I muttered.
Rixton cocked his head, and apprehension darkened his eyes. “Doesn’t matter.” Regret thickened his voice. “I did.”
“You can pretend this conversation never happened,” I offered. “You don’t have to get involved.”
“Explain what this is,” he bargained, “and we’ll take it from there. Deal?”
“I’ll take that deal.” I slanted my eyes toward Cole. “Do you think we should show him?”
The dragon was in his smile when he chuckled. “It might help put things into perspective.”
“Meet us on Dale Moody Drive, and we’ll give you a taste of what you’re letting yourself in for.”
“Done.” He backed away, pointing a finger at me. “You better show, Boudreau. Don’t make me hunt your ass down.”
“Oh, I’ll be there.” I smiled a little myself. “Count on it.”
*
Dale Moody Drive was a dirt track leading nowhere, an access road to various pasturelands that dead-ended in a massive turnabout large enough for the semis hauling combines and other heavy-duty farming equipment to turn around in. Teenagers liked to drive to the end and neck during the summer. I don’t know what they found romantic about the surrounding cow pastures, or the fact the road was named after a football player turned roadkill when his cheerleader girlfriend caught him making out with a tuba player and backed over him, but whatever. Young love.
“Don’t eat the cows.” I elbowed Cole when I caught him watching a wrinkly Brahma bull plod past. “All we need is to revive the belief aliens are real by slaughtering fields of cattle across the southeast.”
“I don’t leave evidence behind,” he argued, but there was no heat in it. “Even if I did, the teeth marks on the bone would prove an animal was responsible, not a man. Not even a green one.”
When he wrapped his arms around me, I let him. When he dipped his head to mine, I let him do that too. When he pressed his warm lips to mine, I sighed into his mouth.
“I’m going to pretend my stomach’s not growling,” I said against his lips. “It’s just too damn weird to know you’ve eaten entire cows, and I let you kiss me with murder breath.”
“You’re charun.” He kissed me again, longer. “On some level, you like it.”
“I’m also human on some level. I shouldn’t like it at all.”
We broke apart when Rixton’s truck came into view. He pulled in beside us, searching for a second vehicle he wouldn’t find, and got out.
“Do your worst.” He flung his arms open wide. “As long as your worst doesn’t include Heaton dancing around in red tights with a trident and horns. I respect a man confident enough to wear spandex, but that would require a lot of spandex.”
“Oh, I don’t know.” I fluttered my lashes at Cole. “I wouldn’t mind seeing you prance around in tights.”
The rumbling growl of his response earned him a cocked eyebrow from Rixton. “Be horny on your own time, Luce. I’m a delicate flower. I can’t handle the mental pictures you’re flinging at me.”
With no small amount of glee, I stepped away from Cole. “Would you like to do the honors?”
The transformation was seamless. One minute, Cole stood there. The next, a dragon loomed over us.
“What the actual fuck, Boudreau?” Rixton backed up, trying to take it all in, but his legs failed him, and he fell on his butt. “That’s a dragon. You didn’t say anything about dragons. You said demon. I was ready for — I don’t know. Not this.”
Smug, the dragon rumbled, snaking his tail over to me where he wrapped it three times around my ankle.
“Is Heaton still in there?” Rixton gave up on standing and crossed his legs in front of him like a kid ready for story time. “Or is he … ?”
“He’s himself, more himself, actually, when he’s like this.” When Cole bent his head, I reached up to scratch behind his tab ears. “He’s not human, remember? He just uses that form to blend in. This is who Cole really is.”
“You’re banging a dragon.” Rixton’s eyes widened. “Tell me you two don’t experiment when he’s like this.”
“Damnit, Rixton.” Heat, fast and damning, ignited in my cheeks. “Pull your mind out of the gutter.”
“Is that a yes or a no?” He leaned forward. “How can you tell if a dragon is a boy or a girl? Lift their tail?”
Puffs of hot breath hit my nape as the dragon laughed … right up to the point Rixton looked ready to take on the job for himself.
“Cole is not showing you his dragon penis.” And before he could ask — “I haven’t seen it, I don’t plan on seeing it, and neither will you. Ever.”
The tip of the dragon’s tail caressed the length of my calf, a thoughtful gesture that made me blanch. “Do not encourage him, Cole.”
Damn dragon. Always making mischief.
“Encourage me, Cole.” Rixton bounced in place, clapping his hands. “Encourage me.”
“I liked it better when you hated him,” I muttered.
“It’s my job to hate anyone who wants to date you. It was nothing personal. I would have been hostile and suspicious toward any guy who thought he was good enough for you.”
“You’re a good friend,” I told him, rubbing the dragon’s chin. The wing he flicked in invitation I thought might be in response to the sweet spot I hit beneath his jaw, but no such luck. “No.”
The dragon rumbled in Rixton’s direction and flexed his wings until he stirred a breeze.
“What is he doing?” Rixton pushed to a standing position. “Wait a minute. Is he — Can he fly?”
Rolling my eyes at his wonder, knowing once I had been just as gobsmacked, I snorted. “What was your first clu
e?”
“That’s how you got here.” Rixton wiped a hand over his mouth. “You rode on a dragon?”
“Yes.”
“You rode … on a dragon.” He slapped his thigh. “That dragon.”
The dragon in question flapped his wings again, leaning down to put his belly closer to the ground.
“Is he … ?” Rixton linked his hands at his chest. “He’s inviting me to climb on?” He bit his bottom lip. “I get to ride the dragon?”
“Oh God.” I dropped my head into my hands. “Why did you do this?” I shoved the beast. “Why?”
He peered at me through crimson eyes that glimmered with amusement.
“Come on.” Giving up on talking either of them out of this, I swung onto Cole’s back. “Get on behind me.”
I barely got the words out before Rixton sat flush against my spine, his hands on my hips, his knees tucked into the backs of mine.
Looping my fingers through the dragon’s mane, I tried for a scolding tone. “I know how much you like showing off, but Rixton is human and — ”
Wings out, Cole leapt for the sky and rocketed into the sun. That’s how it felt. I was ready to cry uncle before the first barrel roll — sure, now he wanted to show off! — but the loop-de-loops, that’s what had me purging over his shoulder. Bile splattered his wing, and I didn’t feel bad about it at all.
“Woohoo!” Rixton crowed behind me. “Do it again. No. Wait. Can you fly upside down?”
A thoughtful sound vibrated between my legs, and I reached up to grasp Cole’s antlers before he got any ideas. “Cole Heaton, you set your butt down now. No more flips, no more turns, no more dives. Bring us down gently, or I will let Rixton lift your tail so I can plant my boot up your dragon ass.”
“Kinky. I knew you were having dragon sex,” Rixton cackled in my ear. “I had no idea you were so depraved, Boudreau. All those gossip rags had it right. You’re a creature of the night, a wild swamp female who — Hey.”
The tail so often wrapped around my ankle slid around Rixton’s waist and yanked him right off.
Rise Against: A Foundling novel (The Foundling Series) Page 4
