Going to her knees, Hailey brushed back his hair to study his features. He really was a good man, but still a man. Pressing a kiss to his cheek, she whispered her goodbye into the afternoon air and then left, never once daring to look back.
* * * *
Cole lifted his lids barely a fraction to watch Hailey strut off down the field. He stayed perfectly still until she disappeared behind the tree line, but she never once looked back. That didn’t dampen his mood as he hopped up to start dressing.
I do love you, Cole Jackson. I am the king.
Too bad Kyle wasn’t around for Cole to gloat to. Nobody but him got to enjoy his grin, and he did enjoy wearing it. All the hoo-ha aside, he’d gotten just what he came for.
Cole had gotten Hailey’s confession, really more like a permission. Permission for him to do what he wanted because now he knew he owned her heart and soon enough her body as well.
It didn’t phase Cole’s ego a bit that she kept the rest of her secrets to herself. Truthfully, he hadn’t wanted to hear her confessions. Not when his revenge would be so much sweeter to enjoy.
Enjoy, indulge, devour, he’d be getting to all those notes come tomorrow morning. That was a whole week earlier than their agreement, and that just went to prove he really was the king.
His princess. Cole flipped the gate of his truck down to pack everything back in it. He’d known Hailey wouldn’t confess, and not because he bought into Kyle’s theory that she had daddy issues. Maybe her father leaving might have left her a little nervous about trusting a man, but the Hailey he knew didn’t live her life in fear.
She lived it free, not bound, and Cole bet that’s what really had her walking away. Popping the gate back up, Cole paused to glance back at where Hailey had disappeared. Behind the long line of pines was the Davis land.
They bought up almost all of the Graveys' old land, and Cole knew there was a dirt track back there that connected the old house with the ranch. About an hour’s walk and Cole suspected it would be well traveled over the years. Not just but Hailey, but their kids as well.
Their kids…and Patton’s spawns…it’ll be like Lord of the Flies. It would probably be a damn good thing that there were five fathers to mind over the entire brood. Of course that would mean making peace with the Davis boys.
A treaty had already been signed the other night when Devin agreed they’d handle Patton and Hailey would be left to Cole and Kyle. Then again, that might be a death sentence because Devin warned Hailey’s brothers would be arriving at the end of the week.
If Cole didn’t want to die, he better make Brett and Mike Mathews’ little sister a very happy woman. Fortunately, Cole knew just how to make women very happy. Unfortunately, Hailey wouldn’t let him use any of his best tricks, but that would change tomorrow morning.
Checking his watch, Cole got his ass into gear. He had three hours before show time and a whole bunch of things to get done before then.
* * * *
Patton glared at the phone in her hand as she hung the receiver back onto the base unit suspended on the wall. The aroma coming from the oven actually smelled tempting, not that Chase believed her. The damn man knew she’d gone to the effort to have Heather come over and teach her how to cook just so he’d stop grumbling about his empty stomach. Then what did he do? Called and said he and the rest of her men would be eating out tonight, the night she’d gone through all this effort to surprise them with a good dinner. Patton could have just told him, but she didn’t see any fun in that. Instead, she decided to put out the whole dinner and let it sit.
When they walked in, they’d know.
The ratta-tat-tat at the front door drew Patton from her planning to find Hailey, looking pretty raw, standing on the other side.
“Well, check you out.” Patton stepped back, opening the door to let Hailey through. As her friend passed, she peeked out to look for the car she hadn’t heard pulling into the yard. “Where did you come from?”
“Over by the Graveys' place,” Hailey answered, heading straight on to the kitchen. “Wow. Something smells good.”
“Dinner,” Patton explained, shutting the door to follow in Hailey’s wake. “Where’s your car? It break down at the old house?”
“No.” Hailey rounded the kitchen counters to take a pointed whiff of the oven door. “Smells romantic. Am I interrupting something?”
“You would be if Chase hadn’t just called and ditched me.” Patton paused in the doorway to watch Hailey. Despite the roughed over look, her friend appeared a little lost. A highly unusual state for Hailey. “So where is your car?”
“At home.” Hailey straightened up to turn and look straight at Patton. “Cole took me out to the Gravey place. I left him there.”
Patton waited, but Hailey just stared. “Is he dead?”
Hailey shook her head. “No. In fact I heard his truck start up, so I imagine he’s on his way to see Kitty or getting ready to go see her.”
“Oh?” It clicked then, just what had Hailey acting like her dog had died. “You know, there is still time to call everything off.”
Not a lot of time, but enough if Hailey finally felt like owning up to a few honest emotions.
“No.” Hailey’s head just kept on shaking. “You know he confessed.”
“What?” Uncertainty on what Hailey meant pulled Patton into the room. “Confessed to what?”
“To everything.” Hailey turned, keeping her wide-eyed gaze locked on Patton as she slid into one of the island stools. “He told me all about the deal Bavis offered him and about meeting Kitty Anne and why he wanted the fast back, everything. He told me everything.”
“Well, shit.”
Patton didn’t know what else to say about that. In all the possible moves she’d run through her mind, Cole confessing hadn’t been on the list. He really didn’t come off as the type to rat himself out. It just went to show, in Patton’s mind, how much he must really care about Hailey.
Patton could tell how much Hailey cared back, but that left a very big question in her mind. “So, what are you doing here?”
“He asked me decide,” Hailey answered but not the question Patton had asked. “He basically gave me an ultimatum. Agree to be with him on his terms or he’d go after the car.”
Wincing, Patton knew how she’d take an ultimatum like that. “And you said?”
“Fuck me, Cole.” Patton blinked at Hailey’s shrug. “What else was I supposed to say?”
Patton knew a whole bunch better answers than that one, but she kept them to herself. “So, now what?”
“I don’t know.” Hailey looked around the room before settling her gaze on to the counter. “I guess it’s over.”
Patton gave her a moment to really think that answer through before responding. “That’s it. It’s just over?”
“Well, I figure by tomorrow, Cole with be both so pissed and so hurt that he won’t have anything left to say to me. I mean, even if he does, it’ll be nasty and I’ll deserve it, but then I figure it will be over. I mean, he won’t plan revenge. We’ve kind of moved beyond that.”
Hailey explained it all to the counter. Patton figured the counter probably understood better than she did because Patton didn’t think Hailey had a clue. Cole not respond? Not seek revenge?
“You’re delusional.” The second the words popped out of her mouth, Patton’s hands went up in surrender at the look Hailey pinned her with. “Okay, maybe it’s me, but I think tomorrow it’s going to be Hailey Hunting Season for Cole and Kyle. I’m going to ask you again. This is the last chance. Do you want me to call this off?”
“No. I want you to be a good best friend and help me watch the clock.”
Patton nodded, knowing just what Hailey meant. Sighing, she shoved off her stool. “You know, you really making me regret helping you out with this in the first place. I get the distinct feeling when this all goes down, I’m going to get blamed.”
“Why?” Hailey scowled. “It wasn’t your idea.”
“And I’m sure Cole and Kyle will buy that, but Chase, Slade and Devin think you’re just all that’s pure, and I’m the one always corrupting you,” Patton retorted as she came around the counter. Her comment actually drew a laugh from Hailey.
“You know Bret and Mike share that opinion. In fact, I’d say they encourage it.”
“Great, and they’re due home when?”
“Depends on how long they stall out in Vegas.” Hailey accepted the plates Patton pulled out from the cupboard. “I talked to them two nights ago, and they’d hit it big so they were going to hang over until the end of the week, but you know them. They change their minds about as many hours as there are in a day.”
“Either way,” Patton dumped silverware for five on the plates Hailey still held, “they’ll be here in time to make everything interesting.”
“I don’t even want to think about what they’ll say over all the gossip.” Hailey’s nose wrinkled before she cocked a smirk at Patton. “Hell, it would probably be easiest for me to just blame it all on you.”
Patton paused with the napkins in her hands. “I didn’t make you sleep with Cole or Kyle.” Taking the plates from Hailey, she started for the table. “And I’ll thank you to thank me for not nagging you about the fact that you’ve been lying to me all these weeks.”
“Lying?”
“Yes, lying,” Patton shot back without even looking in the direction of Hailey’s insulted tone. “You’ve been sleeping with Cole all this time, and I warned you not to do that.”
“Yes, you did, and for once, I wish I had listened to you.”
That complaint brought a grin to Patton’s lips, and she cast Hailey a curious glance. “That good, is he?”
“Patton.”
Despite Hailey’s blush, or perhaps because of it, Patton pressed. “You let him tie you up?”
“Patton.”
“That’s a no,” Patton sighed. Turning her attention back to setting the table, she expected the conversation to be over. Mostly because she didn’t intend to needle Hailey further.
“I can’t.”
The soft admission caught Patton off guard. She paused to turn and find Hailey scowling at the counter again.
“I just can’t. What if he does something I don’t like? Or what if he does something I don’t want but do like, and I have live with that knowledge? Hell, how am I ever supposed to let Cole Jackson treat me like a sex toy and then be able to look him in the eye next day with any sense of dignity or self-respect?”
Patton understood. She didn’t agree, but she got Hailey’s point. She just hoped Hailey could get hers. Stepping up to the other side of the island, she drew Hailey’s gaze to hers with the boldness of her question.
“You ever pick your nose, Hailey?”
“What?”
“Ever pick your nose? Bite your finger nails off and spit them across the room? Maybe you have places you don’t want nobody to know you grow hair there, so you shave, but never admit to it.”
Hailey blinked once, and only once, as she stared at Patton. “That’s disgusting.”
“Yeah and we all have some disgusting habits we hide from the world, private things, things we’d be horrified for others to know much less imagine us doing. It doesn’t stop anybody else from waking up every day and going around being who they are. It’s not going to stop you, trust me.”
“It’s not the same.”
Patton lifted her shoulders in disagreement. “You know maybe you should just try—”
“Maybe I should just go home,” Hailey snapped. “I didn’t come here to feel worse, Patton. I just came here, because…”
Hailey’s voice faded off, but Patton understood. Coming around the counter with a groan, she looped an arm around Hailey’s shoulder. “Ah, I’m sorry. Say, why don’t I make a batch of cookie dough and we can veg out in front of the TV?”
After a second, Hailey relaxed with a nod of her head. “That sounds good, but what about the roast?”
“Oh, that? That’s not to be eaten.”
Chapter 38
Cole whistled as he stepped up on the curb and pulled open the office door. The little run-down motel had a distinctively dirty feel to it just by the age and weather on the building. Stepping into the stale smelling little room crowded in by wood paneling didn’t help the impression.
It didn’t stop him from whistling. Blood pumping, outfitted with two tiny, wireless cameras, he felt like he was enacting some boyhood game of good guy versus bad guy. The best part was he got to play bad while being good.
That’s what brought his grin up to the little brunette sitting behind the counter. Busy with her emery board, she looked up through a forest of fake lashes to cock a brow at him.
“You have a reservation?”
“Yes, ma’am, I do.”
That had her wrist going limp as her gaze dropped over her fingers to scan the ledger open in front of her. “And what’s your name?”
“Cole Jackson.”
“Oh, yeah.” She nodded. “I got you right here. That’s going to be two hundred dollars.”
He noted she didn’t say for the night, but he didn’t press the point as he dug out his wallet. Instead, he held on to his card even after she took the end he extended to her. Giving her a curious look, he widened his grin. “You know, I only reserved the one room, but I was kind of feeling like I might need more space.”
A little scrapper, the way the brunette snatched his card from between his fingers warned him she probably had a knife or a gun on the other side of that counter. “Is that right?”
“You wouldn’t happen to have any extra vacancies, would you?”
“We might. I guess that depends on what kind of room you’re looking for.”
“I was thinking something with a red rug and maybe a set of queen sized beds.” Cole waggled his eyebrows. “Hell, if you have the room, I’d even take a third one because I do like diversity, and I certainly love a dark, mocha kind of setting to help me relax.”
“You want three rooms?” That got him a look over followed by a smirk. “And just how long were you planning to stay with us, Mr. Jackson?”
“However long a thousand dollars last?”
“Make it two and you can have all three rooms for the night.” The girl smiled, tacking on, “The whole night.”
“Sounds like a deal to me. Go on and charge it up, darlin’.”
A business woman at heart, the little brunette didn’t waste a second to burn up his credit card. Cole just hoped getting the money back would be as easy as Killian promised. He didn’t need to waste two thousand on any whore, even three of them.
Passing the card back along with a key, she offered him another smile. “That key opens up all three rooms, Mr. Jackson, though it might take a few minutes for the second and third room to be ready.”
“Not a problem.” Cole slid the credit card back into his wallet and pocketed it before nodding to the woman. “Thanks.”
“Certainly, and have a nice night.”
Whistling his way down the breezeway, Cole found the habit kept him from laughing. He really wanted to laugh. Just the idea of what Kitty Anne had coming to her in the next few minutes made him want to howl, but if he did, then he wouldn’t get to enjoy the joke. Not that the cops all waiting for their moment thought this was a joke.
Glancing over the packed motel lot, everything seemed silent and still except for the noises coming from the windows he passed by. Even though he knew he was surrounded, watched, Cole couldn’t spot a single man as he pulled up to the door number matching his key number.
Not bothering to look for what he couldn’t find, Cole slid the key in the little gold knob and looked forward to seeing just what a dominatrix’s den looked like. A little cheesy and kind of tacky. Cole’s nose wrinkled as he stepped into the overly perfumed air of Kitty Anne’s room.
Pulling the key free and letting the door slam closed behind him, Cole took in the motel room’s shag carpeting and velve
t covered walls. It really tried too hard in his opinion. Stepping up to admire the leather whips and bondage garment hanging from the walls, Cole couldn’t help compare the quality and quantity to what the Cattleman’s Club offered.
It was like comparing a Motel 6 to a five star resort. One got what one paid for. Eyeing the long line of candles thickening the air with the overly sweet floral scent, Cole wondered if they kept the room basked in candle light to hide the dirt that he felt sure lingered in the corners.
Hell, he’d want a black light before he’d even sit his ass down on that bed. When it came to running a reputable sex club, everybody knew linens were everything. They could only be washed so long before they had to be replaced, and Cole figured the sheets on the queen sized bed dominating the room should have been tossed years ago.
“Is the room up to your standards, Mr. Jackson?” The low-toned, husky question drew his gaze to the blonde bombshell filling out the door to the bathroom. He had to give Kitty Anne one for knowing how to make an entrance.
The see-through lace robe floated open as she strutted forward. Thigh highs, a garter, and a teeny-tiny thong, Kitty Anne obviously wasn’t shy about showing off her body, but Cole wondered how she’d feel when she realized more than half the Dothan police department got to enjoy the show.
Just because he was the kind of bastard who enjoyed that thought, he met her right in front of the bed, giving her a once over and his patented grin. “It leaves more than a little to be desired, but this outfit surely doesn’t.”
Kitty Anne struck a pose, breasts out and hips in. “So you approve of this at least.”
“I’d approve more without the bra,” Cole growled, reaching for the front snap just before him. He knew she’d stop him, but he figured the boys outside were probably wishing she wouldn’t.
A little hand settled over his wrist. “Lest you forget, Mr. Jackson, I’m in charge here.”
Catching the steel in her gaze, Cole shrugged back with a smile. “Naw, I didn’t forget, darlin’. In fact, I’ve been thinking about nothing but your particular interest.”
Hailey's Game Page 39
