24. Bonus Scene
Bad Boy I Shouldn't Want
Colt
I don't miss things.
That's the problem.
Someone has been using my dock.
Someone has been using my name.
And I didn't see it.
I stare across the river as fog crawls over the water, swallowing the opposite shoreline. The dock feels wrong tonight. Too quiet. Too clean.
My phone vibrates.
Rafe.
"I've got something."
"What?"
"We just spotted a boat running dark upriver."
Every muscle in my body locks.
Nobody runs these waters without lights unless they're hiding something.
"Keep eyes on it."
"You already know I will."
The line dies.
I slip my phone into my pocket.
Then headlights sweep across the dock.
A rental car.
It stops just short of the gate.
Not nervous.
Calculated.
The driver's door opens.
A woman steps out.
Tall.
Curvy.
Field jacket.
Hair pulled back.
Every movement measured.
She's assessing exits before she ever looks at me.
Interesting.
I lean against the piling.
"Private property."
She doesn't stop.
I grin.
"A woman like you has no business wandering onto my dock at three in the morning."
Her expression never changes.
That alone makes me like her.
She reaches into her jacket.
Not for a weapon.
A badge.
She lays it on the dock railing between us.
TABC.
Special Agent Sierra Cross.
Well...
Hell.
"My dock keeping you busy?" I ask.
"Actually," she says evenly, "your dock has been keeping me busy for six months."
The grin leaves my face.
"Three people are in the hospital."
She never blinks.
"Contaminated bourbon."
She slides a file toward me.
"Every trail ends here."
At my name.
My dock.
My operation.
Impossible.
My phone buzzes.
Rafe.
I glance down.
South dock. NOW.
Sierra sees it.
So do I.
She doesn't hesitate.
She runs.
"Dammit."
I take off after her.
Because for the first time in eight years...
I'm already too late.
END OF BONUS SCENE