Chapter 26 Colt
Colt
Shit, this day was dragging. I just wanted to be home with Violet.
I miss you.
Violet:
Miss you, too. Hayes is being a pain in my ass. Won’t even let me stand up without hovering because I told him I needed a nap after our trip to the bookstore.
I laughed, knowing damn well my brother was just listening to my orders.
Good. I told him if you broke a nail today, I’d bury him out back.
What! You’re being ridiculous. I’m fine. Just trying to busy myself with work now until you’re back.
Worried about me?
Of course I am.
There’s nothing to worry about. I just got back to Bell Ridge, and I’m bringing home half a dozen cupcakes. Figure we can enjoy them in bed later.
Omg! Please tell me they had chocolate and chocolate! I’ll swoon right now.
Like I’d pick up anything else. No swooning though. Are you feeling light headed?
Stop it. I’m literally fine! But we’ll have to eat those over the sink before we go to bed. I’ve been dropping all my food on my belly lately and I don’t want to make a mess.
Suddenly, my mind was filled with the image of licking frosting off of Vi’s belly. Yeah. That was definitely happening.
We’re taking them to bed, Vi. I’ll lick you clean myself.
Three dots appeared…and disappeared. Then they popped up again, only to vanish a second later.
Flustered, baby?
Colt! Hayes just asked me if I was okay because “your face is really red and you’re breathing weird”. So yeah. And now I need you to hurry up and come home.
Just wrapping things up. I’ll see you at supper time.
Can’t wait.
And just so we’re clear, I want to lick you clean, too.
I had never once in my life thought about shoving my dick into a cupcake, but I wasn’t about to disappoint my wife.
The radio spiked, my mind immediately leaving Vi to focus on the call coming in.
“Unit 20 be advised, there’s an unknown trouble at 2216 West Lake Lane, Bell Ridge, at The Broken Spoke Bar, for reports of a physical fight in progress. Two males fighting in front of the bar. Weapons unknown. Time out is 16:18.”
It wasn’t my unit, but I was close enough to respond and provide backup if necessary. I picked up the radio and followed Unit 20’s call back with my own.
It took two minutes, sirens and lights on, to make it down the road from Sprinkles to The Broken Spoke.
I slammed my SUV into park and jumped out onto the gravel parking lot.
The door to the Broken Spoke swung open like some old time western movie, and as I stormed towards what I already heard was a large disturbance, I clocked several people rushing out of the place.
Two deputy vehicles were already there. Once I stepped inside, I clocked Johnathan Boone and Mikey Dixon doing their best to get the situation under control.
John had one guy pinned to the ground, while Mikey held back another guy who looked like he’s ready to kill someone. Probably the guy under John.
“What’s going on here?”
“That fucking animal put something in my girl’s drink!” The guy lunged, but Mikey still had a good hold on him.
“Calm the fuck down,” I instructed. “John, take him outside. Cuff him.”
Deputy Boone nodded as he locked his cuffs around the guy’s hands who was on the floor, and jerked him up off the floor.
“Paramedics?” I asked, looking at the woman who was holding her head in her hands, her body swaying a bit in her seat. “Shit. How much did she drink?” I asked the guy.
“Let me go!” he yelled at Mikey.
“You gotta calm down like a hundred notches, man.”
“I’m calm. I’m fucking calm. Just let me be with my girl! She’s fucking sick.”
I turned to the guy standing behind the bar. My eyes drifted to the camera mounted on the wall behind him.
“Gonna need to see the footage that system captured.”
“Yeah. One sec.” He looked down the bar at the other server. “Sydney, I gotta show this deputy to the office. You good to cover for a minute?”
The tall brunette nodded as she filled a glass with an amber liquid that was on tap. “I’m fine. You remember how to make a copy if they need it for evidence?”
“I think so. I’ll holler if I don’t.”
She nodded, and the guy started walking out from behind the bar. I followed him down a hallway and into what was clearly a very disheveled office.
“Sorry. Our boss is like the most unorganized person in the world. Sydney tries to pick up the slack where she can, but it’s…a lot.”
“No worries,” I answered. “Sorry, I didn’t catch your name?”
“Anderson. But my friends call me Andy.”
“Okay, Andy. Did you pour the drinks for that woman?”
“Nope. I was restocking when I heard Syd shout for help. I saw what was happening, called for you guys, and it felt like maybe a minute later the first deputy was here. I didn’t see anything except the aftermath.”
“Right.”
“Anyway, here’s where you can see the security footage.
” Andy pointed to a secondary laptop on a small table in the corner of the office.
“I’ll just click into the folder for today.
They are broken down into hours, and there will only be a file up until ten minutes ago. The system rights new files—”
“Every ten minutes.”
“You got it. I’m just going to head back out to help Syd. We’re short staffed today. Let me know if you need anything else.”
“Thanks,” I replied, sitting in the small fold out chair next to the table.
Fifteen minutes later, I’d called back the bartender to email me a copy of the file and headed out to find Deputy Boone standing by his SUV.
“Hey, Johnathan!” I called, raising my hand in a wave as he turned to face me.
“Colt. Thanks for stepping in to help.”
“Didn’t think my day in Bell Ridge was going to be quite so exciting.”
“What’d you find?”
“Video evidence of our friend there placing his hand over the woman’s drink, stirring it with his finger, then sliding it back over to her before getting her attention that it was ready to drink.”
“Okay. I’ll take him over to the jail and start booking him in. The ambulance just took the woman to St. Clare’s. I don’t think anyone managed to get a statement out of her yet.”
I looked down at my watch. Damn. Two in the afternoon…
It was a gamble on how long it would take for her to be coherent enough that we could get a statement from her that would hold up.
I guess it really boiled down to what the hell the guy slipped in her drink, and if the hospital could flush it out of her system.
“I’ll head over to the hospital, see if I can’t get a statement from the boyfriend first, then her.”
“Thanks, man. Owe you one.”
“Yeah, I’ll put it on your tab.”
John laughed. “You do that.”
I nodded as I turned, walking across the lot to my vehicle.
I hoped the DA brought every charge possible against his sorry ass.
He deserved to get the max sentence for the shit he pulled and the harm he inflicted.
My patrol vehicle sat parked on the edge of the lot, right where I left it.
I’d hopefully be able to grab the victim’s statement and head home to Vi without too much of a delay.
Leaves from the tree next to my cruiser had landed all over the windshield, and I took a second to clear them.
The crunching of the leaves had to have masked the sound of someone walking up behind me, because one second I was thinking of Vi and our cupcakes, and the next, I was falling to the ground.