“Well, why don’t we start with this,” Adam shifted forward. “Kitty Anne is a good friend of Rachel’s, who is a good friend of—”
“Hailey.” Any conversation starting off this way guaranteed Cole couldn’t relax now.
“Yep.” Adam nodded.
Cole could do the math, but what he couldn’t do was see where it added. The problem being he got stuck on the obvious fact. “Hailey knows Kitty.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that.” Adam shifted forward, pulling his little notebook off the desk. Nose in it, he talked more to the paper than Cole as he shifted through the pages. “I do know that Kitty Anne is helping Rachel investigate a prostitution ring. They were working on getting Kitty Anne set up to play the role as whore and wanted to find a “friendly” male to help them in their charade and then…”
Adam’s voice faded off as his fingers flipped faster through the pages, but Cole knew what came after. Then somehow Rachel, Kitty and Hailey came together, but with Bavis? They had to be working with the old man. Hailey working with Bavis to set Cole up. He just sat there stunned and somewhat numb.
“Ah, here.” Adam held the page up as if Cole would actually read it. Pointing to a cluster of writing, Adam smiled. “This it. Wednesday, April thirtieth Rachel made notes about some kind of meeting involving Patton, Hailey and her with old man Bavis.”
“Remember that day, Cole?” Kyle nearly sang out from the other side of the desk.
His best friend’s good humor polished Cole’s shock into annoyance. “Should I?”
“It’s the day you humiliated Hailey at the Bread Box when you told the whole world she’d fucked me. Remember now?” Kyle drawled. “It’s the same day—”
“She made the deal with me.” Damn! She’d set him up from both ends and he’d never seen it coming. A bolt of pure, heated aggression sizzled through Cole, snapping him to his feet as the need to hunt down one feisty, little red head flooded him.
“He’s on his feet, Kyle.” Adam’s warning came nearly a second after Kyle rushed to block the exit. The deputy helped, putting one hand on Cole’s shoulder to bring him to a temporary stop.
Glancing up at Adam, Cole lifted a brow. “I don’t want to waste any of this on you, man. Let me go give to the woman who earned it.”
“Cole—”
“And she did earn it,” Cole snapped at Kyle before he could find some reasonable, sensitive explanation for waiting. “Damnit! I have every right to deliver. Every right! That woman set me up to what?” Cole turned to Adam. “Be a headline in her friend’s story?”
“Um,” Adam swallowed. Cole really hadn’t been expecting an answer, but by the way Adam’s eyes darted to Kyle’s he knew. The story was only half done.
“What?” He had to know now. Releasing Cole, Adam took a healthy step back, which only made Cole turn on him as he waited. “Come on, man, what?”
“From the notes I read, I’d say it was they expected you to be the headline.”
“Rachel’s been leaking information to the Dothan police,” Kyle filled out for Cole, sounding all too happy about everything. “See they know about the game, but because the women rent the rooms, they could never get to the actual motel’s owner. Rachel’s been helping them build their case.”
“I’m going to kill her.” Cole meant as in now, as in Hailey. He could see where that train led.
“It gets even better. Tell him, Adam.”
“Tell me what?”
“I’m not sure of this, Cole, but,” Adam shifted another few inches back. “From what I can tell of Rachel’s notes, Bavis sold Hailey the Fastback. He delivers the car when she delivers, well, you.”
Son of a bitch. Cole stared at Adam trying to digest everything he’d been told with everything Hailey had put him through. It didn’t matter. It didn’t change anything. Not a one of his feelings. He still loved the damn woman and Cole knew for a fact she loved him back.
“Cole?”
He must have been silent for too long, because Adam sounded a little worried as he prodded Cole. Smiling from the deputy to Kyle, Cole straightened up. “If you’ll excuse me gentlemen, I have to go talk to a lady about a car.”
Talk as in tying Hailey’s ass to his bed and torturing the truth out of her. Maybe if she caved early, he’d find some mercy and release her in a day or two. Otherwise, Cole would keep her there as long as he wanted. Hailey had just volunteered to be his slave for life.
“Now, Cole.” Kyle didn’t budge from where he guarded the door. Only it wasn’t Kyle leaning there, arms crossed over his chest, smirking. The Trojan, master of deception, straightened up and finally stepped into the game. “There are many better things than punishment, like revenge.”
Chapter 29
“They look like they’re planning a war, don’t they.” Rachel made that remark over the rim of her coffee cup. Her gaze stuck on the table across the packed dining room of the little deli. The ominous observation had Hailey glancing in the same direction, fearing Rachel had it right.
Kyle and Cole announced they needed a “guys’ night out” when she showed up at the shop not a half hour before. The declaration wouldn’t have unnerved Hailey half as much if Kyle would have appeared himself just once or if Cole would have stopped smiling.
Between the two of them they were acting really odd. Always quick with a grin, Cole had twisted into a near giddy state. It wouldn’t have shocked her in the least if the man actually giggled. Giggled over her, because both of them were acting like it was Christmas morning and she was the last present under the tree.
Not that Kyle giggled or even truly smiled. His grin always so full of humor and happiness had settled into a twist hinting at mind more intent then distracted. The predatory confidence of a hunter who’d cornered his prey gleamed with mirth in Kyle’s gaze, making Hailey pretty damn nervous.
“Something is up. That’s for sure.” Hailey sighed, glancing over at where the horde of Cattlemen had pushed a whole bunch of tables together. The gathered around, leaning secretively in as they whispered amongst themselves. “No good comes from a pile like that.”
“Look at them.” Rachel shook her head. “There are eight of them. It makes me almost itchy to call Patton and warn her.”
“I don’t think we’re there yet.” Hailey tasted her tea and purposefully ignored the huddle of men. “In fact, they’re just trying to screw with us. They don’t know anything, or they’d be over here accusing us. They probably just sense something amiss and are trying to rattle us, Rachel. Stay firm.”
“I don’t know,” Rachel muttered. Setting her cup down, she leaned in to whisper. “I’m telling you something bad is coming.”
“Why you giving me that look?” Hailey leaned back in the booth, not at all appreciating that look.
“Because, honey, I think you are stuck in the middle of this.” Rachel glanced back at the men. “I mean, look at them. You think they’re talking about sports?”
Hailey hated to glance back over at that table but couldn’t seem to help herself. This time Kyle caught her gaze. He didn’t look half as happy as Cole. In fact, he looked a little pissed.
“Don’t be dramatic,” Hailey snorted, breaking Kyle’s glare. “You’re just all antsy because you guys just got back together.”
“No. I’m antsy because of Kitty’s call, and you should be, too,” Rachel shot back. “Or aren’t you the least bit concerned that Cole made a lunch date with her tomorrow?”
Hailey was more than concerned, but she wouldn’t let that faze her. Not now when her fears appeared perfectly justified. “It’s his decision to make.”
“Oh, spare me.” Rachel rolled her eyes. “Fine, you want to pretend like it doesn’t matter, go ahead, but I know the truth. I can see it in your eyes. You care about that man.”
“I do not.” The denial came out instantly as always, but this time a blush heated her cheeks, making a liar out of her.
A fact that didn’t go unnoticed by Rachel. “No?”
<
br /> Sighing out the weight of her objection, Hailey’s shoulders dipped under the press of the truth. “It doesn’t matter. I mean, if he cares more about a car than me. Why should I care about him at all? It’s his decision to make.”
“He’s a man, Hailey,” Rachel groaned with obvious impatience. “They don’t think like that. You if know you put a chunk of chocolate cake and a slab of lemon pie in front of a man, he doesn’t choose between them. He eats both!”
“Then how am I supposed to ever trust him? How the hell do you trust Killian? Or Adam?”
“Well, it certainly isn’t conspiring with another woman to seduce one of my men,” Rachel snorted.
“And is it by telling them all your secrets?” Hailey asked. “Maybe that’s what all the hubbub is about.”
Rachel went still enough for Hailey to regret her flippant response. “Are you accusing me of betraying you? Because despite the fact that I think this whole thing has gotten completely out of hand, I still wouldn’t rat you out, even if that does mean lying to Killian and Adam.”
Hailey helped by keeping her mouth shut. Yes, she knew. This whole plan had gotten out of hand. The whole ball of yarn started to unravel, but that didn’t mean Hailey had a clue about how to stop it.
“I’m sorry, Rachel,” Hailey finally sighed. “I know you’re in a hard spot right now. I know what you’re saying. I just have to make sure I know who Cole and Kyle want to be sleeping with.”
“That would be you.” Rachel waved a hand over Hailey’s objection. “Please, don’t feed me any of that crap about you sleeping only with Kyle. I don’t buy it, nobody else does. We can all see quite clearly that Cole is a well laid man, and there isn’t any other woman he’s been rubbing up against. So that just leaves you.”
Hailey licked her lips and broke Rachel’s stare. She’d been denying it for weeks now, and people had been asking. Patton, Heather, Rachel, they all pressed, worrying her with concerns about how sleeping with Cole changed the whole game. Hailey didn’t want it changed. She wanted her damn answer.
“Listen to me, Rachel, and listen good. I am not now, nor have I ever, slept with Cole Jackson.”
“You are a liar!”
Hailey’s head hit the table as much to hide the blush flaming over her face as in defeat to Rachel’s barked accusation.
“I know you been sleeping with that man, and now he’s going to go rub all up against Kitty Anne. In the short order, you are going to be sobbing your heart out. What I don’t know is why? This game was supposed to get Cole, not you.”
“So? So what?” Hailey gave up arguing the lie to argue the truth. “So we call off the game, and it’s what? A month, two, maybe five, but somewhere down the road, Cole will rub up against some woman if that’s what he wants. I’ll be crying then but probably a whole lot harder. So why not know now?”
Typical Rachel, she ignored that argument in its entirety. “You tell Patton you slept with Cole?”
“Are you insane?” Hailey snorted. “No.”
“You do realize that even if he gets caught, Cole isn’t going to be repentant once he finds out your hand in all of this,” Rachel warned her. “If you’re already sleeping with him, he’s going to take this as a full-on betrayal, and his response won’t be pretty.”
Hailey knew, but her gut told her she could outdo Cole’s outrage. Hers would be motivated by true emotion, not just injured pride. “He won’t have any right.”
“That isn’t going to change anything.” Rachel shook her head before pinning Hailey with her look. “Now I’m asking. This is the last chance, Hailey. You really want to go through with this?”
“I just need to know, Rachel.”
They shared a moment of understanding. It ended with Rachel glancing back over at the table their men were sharing. “I wonder why Devin is with them? I thought the Davis boys kind of considered Cole and Kyle punching bags.”
* * * *
That question stuck with Hailey a half hour later as they watched the huddle of men break up. Cole split from the group to come swaggering over, still wearing that cocky grin. With every step he came closer, Hailey could feel the knot tightening down in her stomach.
Rachel excused herself, leaving Hailey completely undefended. Not that her friend’s presence would have changed Cole’s behavior. As if the whole world knew they were a couple, he pushed up along her side and looped an arm over.
“Hey, princess.” Just like that, he kissed her, a quick brush of their lips. “How was your dinner?”
“I get a feeling not as entertaining as yours,” Hailey retorted before pointedly looking at the hand he folded over her shoulder. “Uh, Cole? You trying to make a statement here?”
“Yes, I am.” Instead of trying to charm her around his possessive contact, Cole acted more drunk than sober when he pushed back out of the booth to declare to the whole damn dining room. “I just want everybody here to know that I love this woman.”
He pointed at her. Like he aimed an invisible gun and pulled the trigger, Hailey could feel the impact of his gesture and it about killed her. Her body certainly flooded with enough heat to scorch her very skin as he went on.
“Hailey Mathews,” he went down onto his knees to ask her, “will you wear my collar?”
The crowd went wild behind him, egged on by the overwhelming number of Cattlemen hooting and hollering. One voice separated itself from the mob as it lobbied for Cole’s plight.
“Ah, come on, Hailey, don’t leave the man on his knees.”
“Shut up, Aaron!” Hailey shouted back, finally finding her voice and her ability to move. Snatching Cole’s earlobe between her fingers, she pulled him unkindly back onto the seat. “And you, I don’t know what it is about this place, but behave yourself!”
The cheers ballooned into a raucous roar of laughter that pitched up as Cole pulled his head to the side, freeing his ear to rub the sting from it. Giving her a pouty look as if she’d been the one to do wrong, he griped at her.
“You know you just killed my reputation.”
“You killed your own reputation,” Hailey shot back. “And I don’t particularly appreciate the joke.”
Cole’s grin flattened out, and his gaze locked on her with a certain stillness that changed the tension in her stomach back into butterflies. “I wasn’t joking, Hailey. I was asking, but I guess I got my answer now.”
“Everybody heard that answer,” Kyle slid into Rachel’s abandoned seat. “I’d say you just got dethroned, sire.”
That brought the laughter back to Cole’s features, and even Hailey shared his smile this time. She didn’t even object when he put that possessive arm back around her shoulders. For some reason, he’d gotten into a touchy-feely mood this evening. It went well with his grin, making it even harder to be mad at him despite all the reasons she had.
Cole really was a goober underneath all that arrogance. It played out as smug assurance too often, but Hailey learned to see beneath the surface. He didn’t take life half as seriously as Kyle did, evident by the sour look he still wore.
“I take it your dinner wasn’t as good.”
“What?” Kyle brow furled into a full scowl.
“Kyle’s constipated,” Cole declared with such grandness it earned him a dirty look from his partner.
“I am not.”
“He certainly looks it,” Hailey agreed over Kyle’s objection. “But I have a feeling you have more to do with that than a lack of fiber.”
“Me?” Cole laughed. “Oh, princess, you got that wrong.”
“That’s my seat.” Before Hailey could press either man on Kyle’s dour attitude, Rachel reappeared. She didn’t appear appeased when Kyle simply scooted over to give her a little room on the wooden bench. “Let me rephrase that. Get out of my seat.”
“Oh, come on, darlin’,” Cole cajoled her. “Just smile and join the party.”
Not the least bit amused, Rachel turned a hard look on Cole. “What did you call me?”
“He
y, Killian, your woman’s about to get mean over here,” Cole called that out across the room, sending Rachel into a fit.
Hailey might have joined her, but her gaze caught on Devin shoving out the door. He’d been there when Cole made his scene, and Cole certainly did seem intent on making as many scenes as he could.
Devin didn’t hit Cole, and Kyle’s glaring at us like we killed his dog.
Something was definitely up.
“Shut up, Cole,” Adam’s annoyed snap had her glancing back to the sight of the big deputy shielding Cole from a flushed and obviously irate Rachel.
Kyle held out her purse to her, and with a knowing look in Hailey’s direction, she snatched it up before storming off. With a dirty comment in Cole’s direction, Adam trailed off after his woman looking like a man who knew he was about to get chewed out.
“You’re welcome!” Cole called out at the couple, drawing Hailey’s attention back to his smirk. This time she didn’t share his good humor.
“What did you say to her?”
“What? Me?” Cole actually managed to look confused. “I just offered to pay for your ladies’ dinner, and your friend just took it the wrong way.”
“I’m sure it had nothing to do with the way you said it,” Hailey snorted.
“Nothing at all.”
She could almost envy the way he lied with such ease. A bad trait, lying, but she couldn’t hold it against him, not with that grin. Rolling her eyes, she looked back over at Kyle, who still studied her with a brooding gaze.
“I take it your boys’ night is over?”
“Nah,” Cole shook his head. “We’re all headed out to the club to have a little fun.”
“The club?” His grin belied his intent. He wanted to prick her jealousy. Knowing his game didn’t make her immune from the effects. “I thought you two didn’t belong to the club anymore?”
“And how would you know that?” Kyle perked up, asking his question with the speed of an investigator lunging in on a suspect who just slipped up.
Hailey didn’t appreciate being accused, especially on this subject. “You told me.”
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