Chapter 4
I drank him in as if I’d been wandering the desert for a week with no water. No one called me LeeLee but Colt. No one had that unique lilt to their voice when they said my name. Though that voice was deeper now.
His voice wasn’t the only thing that had changed.
I was pretty tall, but Colt towered over me, having to be at least four inches over six feet.
His shoulders were broad and encased in muscle.
But that hair was the same. A mix of an infinite number of colors.
Blonds and browns and even a hint of red in there.
But it only made his eyes pop more. Eyes that had always hypnotized me.
“How?” I whispered.
Colt took a step closer. The movement was slow, as if he might be approaching an injured animal. “I guess with the internet, you can find just about anyone these days.”
I wasn’t sure how true that was. I’d never been able to find Colt. There were no social media profiles or news articles with his name. I’d so badly wanted a piece of my old life to hold on to. Something that reminded me that I had the ability to be happy.
“Missed you, LeeLee.”
Those words almost broke me. I bit the inside of my cheek to keep the tears at bay. “I missed you, too.”
As Colt moved closer, his nostrils flared, and he froze. The gold in his hazel eyes seemed to glow in the low light, and Briar let out a loud hiss.
“Hey,” I scolded her. “It’s okay. He’s a friend.”
Or he had been.
Colt grinned. It was that same lopsided curve of his lips that I remembered, only now, it hit me somewhere different. “Good to see you have a protector.”
I glanced down at my cat. “She doesn’t like many people.” Not that she’d had the chance to meet that many after I’d rescued her, but she hadn’t shown any interest either. She was happy in our little junkyard haven.
Colt surveyed the space around us, and my cheeks heated as I imagined it through his eyes. For me, it was my safe place, but to him, it was probably a sty. His throat worked as he swallowed. “This is where you live?”
I bent, setting Briar on the ground. She scampered onto our bed. “It gives me more privacy than the house.”
Colt’s swirling hazel eyes came back to me. But it wasn’t a simple glance. That gaze probed, feeling as though it could see things I didn’t want anyone to know. “Your mom lives in the house?”
Something about the way he asked it told me he already knew. “With her boyfriend.”
Colt’s jaw worked back and forth. “You don’t want to stay with them?”
I’d rather jab a hot poker in my eye, but Colt didn’t need to know that. “What teenager wants to hang out with her parent?”
Those hazel eyes kept studying me, and I swore he knew I was lying. “You shouldn’t be living like this.”
I stiffened at that. “Not all of us have a choice. I’m doing the best I can with what I have.”
“Shit. I’m not judging you, I just—” He ran a hand through his hair as he started to pace.
“Dial it back a notch,” a low voice said as a figure stepped from the shadows.
I scrambled backward as someone stepped into the light. But then I couldn’t move. It was as if he had some sort of power that held me captive.
“You,” I whispered. My mysterious stranger from table five.
Colt shoved the guy. “What the hell, man? I told you to stay in the car.”
He barely moved with Colt’s shove. “You were taking too long.”
“You know him?” I squeaked.
Colt’s gaze cut to me, and he winced. “Sorry, LeeLee. This is one of my best friends, Ronan. He has no manners.”
Ronan scoffed. “We need to move. It’ll be dark in a few hours, and we need to be gone by then.”
Colt shot him a look I couldn’t decipher.
“We don’t have allies here,” Ronan gritted out.
“You’re leaving tonight?” The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them. If Colt had come all this way from wherever he lived now, wouldn’t he want to stay for longer than five minutes?
Colt’s expression softened as he turned to me. “We have to.”
Ronan stepped forward. “And you’re coming with us.”