Chapter 4
Cole stared at his computer screen, tapping his fingers over the keys without pushing any of them.
His mind wasn’t on his work. There was plenty to do.
Even in a small town, the position of police chief carried a lot of responsibility.
He knew he should be performing his duty, honoring all of those who’d come before him and served Red Lodge.
His eyes drifted out through the window of his office and into the bullpen.
A couple of his detectives were out, and the others were working away diligently at their desks.
Closer to the lobby, the officers filed their paperwork after shifts on patrol or readied themselves to begin.
It was a small force, but it was one Cole knew he could be proud of.
They worked well together. They respected each other. They wanted Red Lodge to be safe.
On most days, his great team was enough to keep him going. Today, it just wasn’t working. With every case that he looked over and every promotion he considered, he could only think about Nia.
He forced his eyes back to the computer, but his vision blurred. His wolf was restless. How long had he been sitting there, pretending to work? It was useless, and it was starting to piss him off.
Melissa, his secretary, looked up as he came out of his office. “I was just about to come in and tell you that your interview is canceled.”
“Interview?”
“For the dispatch position,” Melissa clarified. She straightened a file on her desk, although everything there was already neat as a pin. She would’ve had a fit if someone so much as borrowed her pen and didn’t put it back exactly the way they found it.
“Right. Yeah. Okay, that’s fine. We’ll just move on to the next one, if you’ll give them a call and schedule it for me. I’m going out on patrol for a bit.” He checked that he had his keys and phone, feeling distinctly as though he’d forgotten something, but couldn’t remember what.
“You know you have uniforms to do that, right?” Melissa told him.
She was an excellent secretary, but sometimes, she seemed to think she knew how to run the place better than he did.
“That doesn’t mean you can lock me up in here like I’m in jail.
I need some fresh air for a while, that’s all.
Might as well get an extra set of feet patrolling the sidewalk while I’m doing it. ”
Melissa narrowed her eyes. She leaned forward and tapped her pen against her jaw. “Something is different about you.”
“No, there isn’t,” he said a little too quickly.
“There is.” She pointed the pen at him now. “You forgot about your interview. I had to say your name three times earlier today when I was trying to see if you wanted to go in with everyone else for lunch from Bogart’s.”
“I’m just having one of those days, Melissa. Everyone does sometimes, even the chief.”
She squinted her eyes, flared her nostrils, and puckered up her mouth. “Maybe other chiefs, but not you. You don’t get distracted like that. No one could so much as flush a toilet without you knowing. Do you need me to schedule a doctor’s appointment for you or anything?”
“Definitely not. I’m fine, Melissa. I appreciate that you care, but there’s nothing to worry about.
I’ll be out for a couple of hours, but you know how to reach me.
” Cole turned and walked quickly through the bullpen, past the evidence locker, and out the back sallyport before anyone else could question him about what he was doing or thinking.
His last secretary had barely paid enough attention to write down his phone messages. Cole never thought he’d miss that.
It felt good to get behind the wheel and feel the sun on his face.
It didn’t bring him as much relief as a hard, fast sprint through the woods, but it was the best he could do while he was at work.
Cole wove through the gridded streets of Red Lodge, nodding or giving a wave to folks who looked his way as they went in and out of restaurants and shops or walked their dogs.
He admired the new flowers that’d bloomed in front of Mrs. Harvey’s little blue house, and he noticed that the Palmers had gotten a new puppy after losing their family dog a few months ago.
The chatter on the police radio was like familiar music, voices he knew and understood, a song he could listen to but only really pay attention when needed.
At a stop sign, he purposely turned left instead of right.
Left would lead to The Cozy Crumb, where Brianna and Nia were surely working.
He’d already broken his promise to himself and gone in there the previous day.
There was really nothing wrong with what he’d done.
He truly did like to stop in and welcome any new business owners when he had the opportunity, but he could’ve just left well enough alone and waited until Brianna needed him for something.
Nothing had happened, though. He’d merely fixed a shelf and some blinds, sampled the menu, and left.
He’d also felt his wolf lunging furiously inside him, wondering how the hell he could deny such a strong pull.
He’d stayed longer than he’d meant to, and he’d wound up being alone with Nia, even if it was only for a couple of minutes.
Any more time alone with her could make him do something foolish.
Cole just needed to keep his distance as much as possible in the vain hope that their fated pull would settle down.
But, as if fate itself was throwing his ridiculous hopes right back in his face, Nia was there, walking down the sidewalk, her chin tipped up and her hands swinging at her sides. Her hair had been pulled back into a ponytail, and it swung slightly with her movement.
Cole couldn’t pretend he hadn’t seen her. The moment he noticed her, Nia’s eyes locked with his. She smiled and lifted her hand, and the next thing he knew, he was pulling over to the curb and rolling down the window.
“Walking alone could be dangerous, you know,” he told her, immediately annoyed with himself for his lack of self-control. “Even more so for a tourist, when you don’t know the areas you ought to stay away from.”
Nia leaned down, bracing her body against his squad car. The scents of her lynx and cinnamon rolls taunted his wolf. “Is that so? That’s funny. The chief of police should’ve told me about that when I had dinner with him the other night or when he stopped in at my place of business.”
Cole clenched his jaw. “It didn’t exactly come up.” He wanted to tell her to get in the passenger seat so he could drive her to wherever she was going, but that would be a step too far past simple friendliness and looking out for all the people of Red Lodge.
“I can’t say it really crossed my mind to worry too much,” she told him. “I was by myself all the time back in Boston and Salem, and I didn’t have any problems. You would know better than I do, but I think the crime rates are much worse back there.”
“Just because it hasn’t happened before doesn’t mean it won’t,” he replied gruffly.
His wolf wanted to protect her, although he couldn’t even be sure from what.
Cole just knew that he wanted—no, needed—her to be safe.
“Red Lodge is a pretty quiet place, yes, but there are people with ill intentions everywhere. Otherwise, they wouldn’t need me. ”
She rolled her hand, palm up. “I suppose that’s true, but I take precautions. Look, all my friends have my location.” Nia pulled her phone out of her pocket, tapped the screen, and turned it around to show him. A little blue dot sat on a map in their precise spot.
“Hm. You don’t let just anyone have your location, do you?
” Cole stopped himself from giving her a lecture on information sharing and the inherent dangers of letting too many people know too many things.
If the wrong person knew where she was, they could break into her place when she wasn’t home.
Or if she was working late, alone and vulnerable, then…
“No, just a very select few,” she told him. “You don’t know about this app?”
“I’ve never liked the idea of carrying a whole computer in my pocket.” He reached into his cup holder and pulled out his flip phone. “No annoying notifications, no social media to use up all my dopamine, just a phone.”
“That’s ancient. Are you sure you shouldn’t be donating that piece of history to the Smithsonian or something? It’s really not so bad in the twenty-first century, if you’d like to join the rest of us sometime.”
“Yeah, yeah. Make fun of the old guy.” He cringed inwardly.
Cole hadn’t ever minded referring to himself that way before, but now, it highlighted the years between the two of them.
Some couples out there had bigger age gaps than Cole and Nia, but the world had changed much more for people in her generation than for his.
“Just remember that I’m the one they all call when something goes wrong. ”
“That’s true,” she acquiesced. “Even with my fancy phone, I’ve got something that no one else here does.”
Oh, he could agree with that, all right. She had a line directly into his soul, a string she could merely yank on if she wanted to pull him closer. Nia was different from everyone else in town, and even the world, as far as he was concerned.
But she didn’t mean that. After briefly checking over her shoulder, Nia pointed her finger.
A tiny spark appeared on the tip of it, which grew and expanded until it was the size of a golf ball.
It was lighter than the one she’d used at The Cozy Crumb to hold up the shelf, as translucent and iridescent as a soap bubble.
With a gentle flick of her finger, she sent the bubble floating into his car.
Cole watched the sphere, transfixed. He reached up and touched it with his finger.
It exploded in a sparkle of white light, sending a shiver of energy up his hand.
They both laughed, and for a brief moment, it felt like everything was right in the world.
There were no concerns or worries. He was just there with his mate.
But just like the little bubble of energy, that feeling had to end at some point. “I’m not sure a mugger would be intimidated by soap bubbles, but you let me know how that goes.”
“Oh, I can do much more than that,” she assured him. “Hey, since you’re here, I’ve got a question for you.”
His heart jumped into his throat. “What’s that?”
“I need a mechanic.” She was on her phone again.
Cole waited impatiently for the shot of adrenaline to subside. Why did his body have to act like every question, every possibility, had the chance of being something huge? He knew the town, and she wanted his opinion. That was all.
“I found this guy online, and the reviews were good, but I figured you’d know better than some randoms online.” Nia handed him her phone.
“Oh, Gary’s.” Cole might not know how to handle his personal life at the moment, but at least this question had a solid answer. “That’s actually who we use for all of our squad cars, so I definitely recommend them. They’re pretty quick, and they won’t overcharge you.”
“Even if I’m a woman?” she asked.
“Yup.” He handed the phone back to her.
When she grabbed it, their fingers touched.
It wasn’t the first time it’d happened, but the energy he felt was far stronger than it’d been before.
They both pulled back hard. Nia nearly dropped her phone, juggling it between her hands a couple of times before she finally caught it.
Her knuckles were white where she’d gripped it.
Cole sighed. “What are we doing?” The question was for him, but she was seeking the same answer.
“I don’t know,” she said softly. “This is a lot harder than I ever thought it’d be.”
“Yeah.” It was the first time they’d acknowledged their bond, yet they hadn’t actually named it. They didn’t need to. They just knew. “We’re very different people.”
Nia shook her head slightly, her face pinched. “I’m really just worried about Brianna.”
“Me, too.” Cole realized that by avoiding their bond as much as possible, he’d failed to take any responsibility for it.
He was older, and his personal and professional life put him in a position that meant he needed to be the responsible party.
“Let’s just downplay this as much as possible,” he suggested.
“I was thinking the same thing. It’s going to get really awkward if we don’t figure out how to act normal around each other,” she replied.
“Good. Then it’s decided.” He put one hand on the wheel and the other on his gearshift. “I’ll see you around, then?”
“Yeah. See ya.” Nia stepped back from his car and walked deliberately down the sidewalk.
He pulled out into traffic, still trying to convince himself that their plan could work.