Chapter 13 - Emmett
“My ass is numb,” Colt grumbled, munching on chips while he stared out of his windshield. “I can’t believe you convinced me to do this.”
“If I remember correctly, it didn’t take much convincing,” I murmured between bites of my sandwich Brittany made.
She had packed us paper bag lunches as if we were first graders going on a field trip.
Apparently, she did it every time Colt went on a stakeout, which was rare.
She drew smiley faces and stars on my bag and hearts all over Colt’s.
I was half-tempted to send a picture of it to Delilah, but she’d been a little distant the last two days. I just chalked it up to her period. I had to, or I’d read into it too much.
And I hadn’t told her we were doing this.
We were two hours away from Wild Creek…in Dallas…
a few houses down from Ethan Carmichael’s house.
Naturally, he lived in a swanky millionaire’s neighborhood.
We’d already been sitting here for an hour and a half, and I was starting to worry that Colt had been right and that this was a waste of time.
My phone lit up, and I sucked an Oreo crumb straight into my throat at the image of Delilah in her shower. She was looking into the camera with the most hypnotic look I’d ever seen, her plump bottom lip between her teeth, and those piercings glinting in the low light.
“Come clean me up?” she’d written.
I locked my phone between coughs, trying not to die by way of cookie. It’d be too ironic and honestly embarrassing if that’s what took me out after the shit I’d lived through overseas.
“Shit, dude, are you okay?” I nodded, chugging water. “What the hell was that on your phone?”
I ran a hand over my mouth, looking out my window. “Nothing.” Just the hottest picture I’d ever gotten in my life. I hadn’t gotten a nude in ages, so naturally, Delilah would send one when I was hours away on a stakeout for her.
“Yeah, because nothing makes you nearly choke on a cookie.”
I rolled my eyes. But I was reaching the point of needing someone to talk to about what was happening to me because something was, I just couldn’t figure out what. But it wasn’t just about sex anymore. I genuinely enjoyed being around Delilah, which is something I never expected.
“I got a nude,” I admitted quietly.
There was silence for a moment. “I’m sorry, did you just say you got a nude?”
Heat crept up my neck. I cleared my throat. “Yes.” This vaguely felt the same as getting the sex talk from Dad when I was eleven.
“An image of a naked woman is on your phone.” He pointed to it as if it were radioactive. “Right now. Freshly delivered.”
I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose. “Yes, Colton, that’s what a nude is.”
“What happened to ‘I don’t date’?” he asked, mocking me with a whiny voice.
“I don’t sound like that.” I shifted in my seat. “And we’re not dating, just hooking up.”
He whistled low. “Hot. Anyone I know?”
I finally looked at him. “You’re the sheriff, Colt, you know everyone.”
He grinned like the cat that ate the canary, a playful glint in his eyes. “So who is she then?”
“I don’t kiss and tell.” Not until Delilah said it was okay anyway. After that, I’d happily tell anyone who would listen how amazing she was. How she just might’ve saved me from myself in a matter of weeks.
Hell, she did it in one day.
He pressed a hand to his heart, pretending to swoon. “Such a gentleman.”
“Dick,” I grumbled between his laughter. “Just forget I said anything.” I glanced at Ethan’s driveway, and there still hadn’t been any movement. “If he doesn’t come out in thirty minutes, let’s go.”
Colt waggled his dark brows, smirking. “So you can go see your nudie girl?”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Fuck you.”
“How long has this been going on?” he asked in his fading laughter.
“Just a few weeks.” I reached for my last Oreo only to find that I had eaten them all already. “Fuck, I’m still hungry.”
He snorted. “Are you ever not hungry?”
“No, and it’s terrible,” I groaned. I scrubbed a hand over my face, leaning back in my seat. “I don’t know what to do,” I admitted.
“Don’t be a baby. We can just grab a burger or something. Not the end of the world.”
“No, about…her.”
Her. It sounded so mysterious. Like Delilah was some code that had yet to be cracked.
But that’s how it felt with her sometimes.
Sometimes I thought maybe there was something more for her.
But then other times, she made it perfectly clear this was just sex for her.
Like in her office two days ago, when I told her that her hair was beautiful, and she shot off the couch like a rocket.
It was confusing as fuck, and I wasn’t about to tell her I had feelings for her unless I knew where she stood.
“I hadn’t been with anyone in years until her,” I continued. “And it was supposed to just be a one-night thing, but that obviously didn’t last, and now…”
“Now you want more,” he finished for me.
“I think so.” I swallowed roughly, fighting the urge to shut down and stop talking. I hated talks like this, the baring your soul ones. “But a part of me wonders if it’s just because there hasn’t been anyone else in so long or if it’s just her.”
“It’s her,” Colt said. “Trust me.” My brows furrowed at him, confused.
“Britt and I started out like that—fuck buddies. I’d just gotten elected sheriff, and she’d just opened her salon.
Neither one of us had time for more. That lasted for about three months until I’d had enough and told her I was in love with her. ”
I had no idea that’s how they started out. “When did you know that’s what you felt?”
“Oh, after the first time,” he said point-blank with a dopey smile. “I wasn’t in love with her, but I knew I would be and that it wouldn’t take long for me to get there.”
Fuck me, that sounded way too close to what I’d felt.
“I’m guessing by your silence that you might be in the same boat.”
I sucked my teeth, letting out a heavy breath. “Something like that.” I ran my hands down my thighs, my palms clammy. “I don’t want to tell her I have feelings for her and then she not and ruin it. I’d rather have this than nothing, you know?”
“Yeah, man, I know. But if you really like her—” An engine humming to life had us both looking out the windshield.
Ethan was pulling out of his driveway in his McLaren.
He was already on my shit list for upsetting Delilah, but now I really didn’t like him, considering he drove a car worth more than my fucking house.
“What a douchebag,” Colt scoffed, turning his car on.
We followed him to downtown Dallas to some swanky steakhouse.
I looked out the window at all the skyscrapers and office buildings, trying to imagine Savannah here.
It wasn’t that hard. She was more city than any of us.
I pictured her in her tailored suits and high heels, talking in all that lawyer lingo I didn’t understand.
“What the fuck?”
I glanced at the restaurant and almost laughed because I couldn't believe it. But I also should’ve known. “Please tell me I’m hallucinating.”
Preston goddamn Hollis was standing at the valet with a shit-eating grin on his smug face, shaking hands with Ethan.
I still couldn’t comprehend how Levi was related to him, even if it was just through their father.
He just looked evil. Like he was always scheming, and my brother-in-law was the exact opposite.
“Well, now it all makes sense,” Colt murmured and took pictures of the two men.
I couldn’t help but feel a little justified for trusting my gut.
I’d almost expected tonight to be a bust with how long we had waited, but at least now we knew who was really pulling the strings here.
“They really don’t know how to let shit go. ”
“Beau did not beat that prick up enough in high school,” I added, watching as Preston and Levi’s grandfather, Sterling, came down the stairs of the entrance in his usual cream colored suit. He grinned at Ethan like they were old friends.
Colt snorted. “No, he didn’t.”
My phone dinged, and I was a little scared to look at it, thinking it was Delilah with another picture, but it was Colt in our group text with the pictures.
Colt: Looks like we found the reason why Ethan pulled his sponsorship…
Lilah: WHAT THE FUCK
Anna: Oh my God!! What the hell is wrong with them?!
Claire: You can’t be serious
Levi: Jesus Christ.
Tess: I can’t believe them
Beau: Do you know anything about this Levi?
Levi: No. I haven’t spoken to them in months.
Weston: Fucking unreal
Lilah: those motherfuckers
Lilah: im gonna blow their houses up
Lilah: levi what are their addresses
Colt chuckled, and I smirked. “She’s something else,” he murmured.
“Yeah,” was all I said. If he only knew the half of it.
Colt: Gonna pretend I didn’t see that.
Me: We’re on the way back from Dallas now. Probably need to come up with some kind of game plan to deal with this.
Beau: Come to my place. We’ll come up with a plan.
Separately from the group text, Delilah messaged me. I tilted my screen away from Colt so he couldn’t see her picture. That’s the last thing I needed right now.
Lilah: you went to dallas?
Me: Yeah. Told you I would find out what was going on with Ethan.
Me: I don’t make empty promises sugar. You should know that by now.
Lilah: that explains why you didn’t respond to my picture…
Lilah: i’ll let it slide just this once
I couldn’t help but grin at my phone. She was so…everything. That was the only word I could think of to describe her. Bratty, sweet, beautiful, smart, funny, strong—the perfect package.
Me: I’ve been kicking myself since you sent it that I’m so far away.
Me: It made me choke. Literally.
Lilah: good
Me: You look so damn hot in it.
Lilah: yeah?
Me: Yeah. You all nice and clean now?
Lilah: yes
Me: I want you to get dirty again.
Me: Slip your hand between those legs and get yourself ready for me when I come home.
Lilah: what should i think about?
Me: How good it feels to be stuffed full of me.