Chapter 16
Denver
COLT: I can’t believe you ditched me for takeout.
ME: Really? It surprises you that food comes before my mortal enemy?
COLT: Keep telling yourself we’re enemies, Del. Maybe you’ll start to believe it.
I smile at my phone and snap a photo of my meal, my tongue between my lips as I concentrate on a good shot. I make sure that the toy panda is in the shot, too.
It’s Halloween. Officially four weeks since I left San Francisco.
I thought I’d be here for a week, maybe two, but the more time I spend here, the more I dread going home.
I have no idea what I’m doing to fix this.
Ranger isn’t doing much except constantly telling me I need to come back, and the kindest thing he’s said is that we can’t fix anything if we’re on opposite sides of the country.
He’s right, but I know Ranger’s pull, how he makes me feel, how he weakens me—if I’m in the same room as him now, I’ll be so overwhelmed by how much I’ve missed him that I’ll force myself to forgive.
If he drags me under, I’m worried I’ll revert to who I was and won’t fight hard enough for what I want.
My freedom. My job. My choices.
“Who are you texting?”
I lower my phone and look at Lewis. “I’m sending photos to Holly.”
“Holly or Colt?”
“Same thing. She doesn’t have a phone yet.” My phone vibrates, and I snatch it up. Colt has sent a photo of Holly with her panda costume on, and I grin, showing Lewis. “See? Holly.”
I knew she was dressing up as a panda, so when I saw the panda plushie, I had to buy it.
I was hoping to give it to her today, but I chickened out.
She probably has a dozen of them anyway, and she only really met me once.
I mean, she does send me photos of her outfits daily, along with voice notes telling me about her day, so that’s nice.
I feel like my day lights up when I get an update from her.
She’s fun, and it’s strange to think I only met her one time two weeks ago.
ME: She looks adorable. Save some candy for me!
COLT: My mortal enemy? Absolutely not.
I grin.
ME: Fair enough. Have a good night!
When I look up from my phone, Lewis is smiling at me.
“What?”
“Nothing, I just … don’t think I’ve seen you smile as much as you have these last few weeks.”
My phone vibrates with a call, and I answer it quickly. “Yes?” No response. My shoulders slump and I point aggressively at my phone so Lewis knows who it is. The silent caller.
“Is this Denver?” a woman asks quietly.
I blink, taken aback by finally hearing her voice. “Yes. Who is this?”
“I—” She pauses.
The line goes dead.
“No!” I squeak, dialing back. “Please pick up, please pick up.” I bounce my foot, but the phone goes to a voicemail that’s full. “She spoke. It is a woman.”
“I’m getting it traced. This is too much,” he says.
My phone vibrates.
COLT: Do you want to come with us?
As soon as I read the text, Colt calls me.
“Denver Luxe speaking.” I hop to my feet, wandering away from the small table in the hotel room where Lewis and I are having our meal.
“Colt Harland calling,” Colt says, and I grin. “So, what do you say? Are you up for a little trick or treating?”
“I can’t do that. It’s your time with her,” I say, knowing from Holly’s voice notes that Wilder isn’t taking her tonight.
Colt says, “She’s asked me to ask you. It’s my job to pass on the request.”
I smile. “Your job? Does that mean she’ll fire you if I don’t go?”
“Probably. She’s ruthless.”
It’s tempting. So tempting. The only times I’ve laughed this week are because of messages from Holly and Helena.
The latter has sent me some photographs of her and my mom from years ago and is constantly begging me to come to family dinner.
Apparently, it’s a big deal in the McEwan household, and I have a standing invitation.
I glance at Lewis eating, at the quiet hotel room where I know I’ll have fun but … not as much fun as I would with Holly.
“Does Wilder know I’m talking to his daughter?”
Colt sighs softly. “Yes. She told him about her new redheaded friend.”
“And?”
“And … he’s hardly in a position to consider you a threat,” he says, but my lack of response is all he needs to keep going. “Are we enemies, Denver?”
I stare at the floor, kicking imaginary rocks in my hotel room. “We’re not.”
“Do I have anything to worry about when it comes to my family?”
“No … of course not. Especially with Holly.”
“Then why shouldn’t we spend time together? Wilder trusts my judgement, and I trust you.” The words have my lips tilting into a small smile, but still, I say nothing. I certainly don’t tell him that I think I might trust him, too. “Come trick or treating with us. Please.”
Please. Colt Harland is asking me politely to spend an evening with him, and neither of us has murder on our mind. What a difference a few days makes.
“Okay, text me the address.”
I quickly change into thick leggings, a sweatshirt and fur-lined boots. I snatch open the hotel room door. “Charlie, can we go out?”
Charlie turns to me, almost having to duck his head to see past the doorframe. He’s six foot eight, bald, a mountain of a man. His biceps are bigger than my head, and when I called him after Colt gave me his number, he came over the same day. I almost didn’t let him in.
After I’d discussed my issue with Ranger, he laid out a plan of hotels he knew were safer than the one we were in, named several men he trusted to watch me, and backup plans for every possible scenario. It all sounded so serious. So overwhelming.
And then he’d taken out a red lollipop, and it was hard to take him seriously after that. But Lewis likes him. I like him.
He’s eating a lollipop right now, which makes him far less threatening. “Where?”
“Trick or treating.”
His eyes light up. “Yes. Give me details.”
I forward him Colt’s text, and twenty minutes later, we’re on the move. Once we approach the residential buildings, Halloween is everywhere. Decorations, children dressed up, doors thrown open to makeshift haunted houses. When we pull up outside a row of townhouses, I spot Holly immediately.
She bounces over to the car in her panda costume, plastic pumpkin in hand.
“Look! I’m extinct!” she says, grinning.
Colt is close behind, wearing a dark knee-length coat over jeans and a knitted jumper.
Several women eyeball him as he passes, but he’s focused entirely on Holly, only looking at me once he has a hand on his niece’s shoulder.
“She just learned that pandas are close to extinction. You’re not extinct. ”
She shrugs and reaches her hand out to Charlie. Colt told me that before Holly moved into his house, Charlie was her security. He took her to school, to playdates, to anywhere she needed to go.
“Little Holly,” he says.
“Big Charlie!” She seizes his hand, dragging him toward the houses.
Colt faces me, tucking his hands into his pockets. He has a bright pink backpack on his shoulder. “You didn’t wear a costume.”
“Neither did you,” I point out.
“I’m a ghost,” he whispers, and I laugh. He searches through Holly’s backpack, producing a headband with cat ears on. He slides it onto my head. “Now you’re a cat.”
I adjust the ears. “Excellent. I have nine lives.”
“Don’t waste them.”
With Lewis not far behind, and I’m sure other men lining the block for both Holly and me, we follow her from house to house. She leaps up steps and knocks on doors with total confidence, twirling in her outfit, growling on demand and just being adorable.
“How’ve you been?” Colt asks, his attention on his niece. He rarely takes his eyes off her, despite the protection. I wonder how that must feel. It was one of my constant worries when I was pregnant with Theo—would I be able to keep him safe?
“You’re tense,” I say.
Colt hums his agreement. “I can’t keep her from doing things like this, no matter how much I want to.”
I watch Holly in a gaggle of other kids her age as they wait patiently with bags open. “The older I get, the more I feel sorry for my dad. I used to fight so hard against my protection, especially when I was a teenager. I thought he was the most overbearing dad in the world. Now, I get it.”
Colt says, “It never stops. It’s like a buzzing in your brain. And the moment you get a sense of relief, you know there’s something you should be worrying about. And it’s them. It’s always them.”
I note the use of the word “them” and not “her.” Holly rejoins Charlie, and we go to the next house.
“You didn’t answer my question, by the way,” Colt says.
I sigh and stare at the sky. “I’m … fine. Navigating a strange situation by looking great on the outside while slowly shriveling up on the inside.”
He laughs. “Your hair does look good.”
“Good?” I gasp. “Only good? This took three hours, I’ll have you know.”
“I’m sorry. You’re radiant. Outstanding. You outshine every other woman here.”
I nod, satisfied. “Thank you. The ears help.” I adjust them. “But I guess I’m okay. How are you? Tell me about Colt Harland.”
“Me? There’s nothing to tell. I work, I uncle, I sleep.”
I smile. “Is uncle a verb now?”
“Big time. It’s a huge responsibility.”
“You do it well,” I say, and he looks away. “Oh my God, Ghost is blushing.”
He tuts. “I am not.”
“I just made you feel good. That’s disgusting.”
He laughs loudly and I grin. It’s been impossible to avoid moments like this with Colt. We don’t exactly see each other, but he’s my way to contact Holly and for Holly to contact me. But when she’s with her tutor or out, Colt and I just … talk.