The Obsessed With Him Series: Complete Box Set (A Bad Boy Romance) (18 page)

When we left, his hand was intertwined with mine, strong and secure. The sun was out now and I raised my face to it, feeling the warmth, closing my eyes as a breeze blew by. I wrapped my arms around Colt’s bicep, feeling a rush of happiness. But the happiness was short-lived. Because Colt and I weren’t just a normal couple. We weren’t just a boyfriend and a girlfriend enjoying their time out after breakfast.

There were big things going on, complicated things.

When we got into his car, Colt reached over and put my seatbelt on me, clicking it around my waist, his hand brushing the side of my breast as he did. My pulse pounded. It was so strange – I’d always thought that once you’d had sex with someone, it would take some of the edge off your attraction to them, but the fact that we’d just fucked a few minutes ago did nothing to diminish the intense want I was feeling, the urge to have his hands on my body so strong it blotted out all reason.

He reached over into the glove compartment, pulled out a tiny black box and handed it to me.

I frowned. “What’s this?”

“Open it.”

I opened it, and as soon as I did, I gasped. Nestled inside on a delicate silver chain was a beautiful star pendant made of white gold.

“Do you like it?” Colt asked.

“It’s beautiful.”

He pulled it out of the box and fastened it around my neck. “It’s supposed to symbolize protection,” he said, his hand brushing against the back of my neck “I wanted you to have something to let you know everything’s going to be okay.”

I felt the color rising high on my cheeks, the warm happiness I felt at him giving me a gift like this, something so romantic, so thoughtful taking over my body. I loved it. But at the same time, I was conflicted. How could I work with the FBI, tell them things that might get Colt in trouble? It was confusing, what he was asking me to do, and even though I’d already agreed to it, I was already having doubts.

“Colt,” I said. “I love it. But I can’t just –”

“Yes, Olivia,” he said. “You can.”

His eyes blazed, and I reached up and touched the necklace, the cool metal against my skin.

I nodded.

He shifted back in his seat, started the car and pulled out of the restaurant parking lot.

We drove to Loose Cannons, and as we got closer to the club, I could feel Colt’s tension coming back.

When we pulled in, he cut the engine and stared out the window.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“I’m fine.”

“Okay.” We sat there in silence for a few more minutes. “You seem edgy.”

“No,” he said. “I’m not edgy. I’m looking forward to this.” His eyes were steely and determined, his gaze focused.

“Looking forward to what?” I asked carefully, trying to ignore the feeling of trepidation that had begun to bloom in my stomach.

“To cleaning this place the fuck out.”

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I knew what he was talking about, and it wasn’t cleaning the floors or making sure the glasses behind the bar were all sparkly and shiny. He was talking about getting
people
out.

He cut the engine. “You stay here.”

“What?” I shook my head. “No way. I’m coming.” I went to unbuckle my seatbelt, but he reached over and buckled me back in.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t know what the reaction in there is going to be.”

“The reaction?”

“Yes.”

I frowned, confused, and then I got it. He meant the reaction to what he was about to tell them - that his uncle had been bought out, that there wasn’t going to be any more shady stuff, no drugs, no “favors” in the back room. He thought it might get rough.

But I didn’t care. I wasn’t going to sit in the car while he went in there and dealt with this all by himself.

“Colt,” I said. “You can’t protect me from everything.”

“I can protect you from this.”

“I’m coming inside.” I went for the car door, but he reached over and hit the lock before I could get out.

When I turned to look at him, he was grinning, which was infuriating.

“What’s so funny?” I demanded.

“This is exactly what happened the first day I met you. Remember? You kept insisting you wanted to get out of the car, and I wouldn’t let you.”

“Of course I remember. You took my purse.”

The cocky look slowly left his face. “I knew,” he said gruffly. “I somehow knew, even then, that I needed to protect you.”
I waited a beat and then unbuckled my seatbelt, slid closer to him on the seat and wrapped my arms around his neck. “Let me be there for you,” I breathed. “You don’t have to do this alone.”

He shook his head and turned away from me, trying to disentangle himself from my grasp, but I could tell he really didn’t want to move away. He
did
want to protect me, I knew that, but that wasn’t why he was pushing me away. He was pushing me away because I was getting too close.

“Colt.”

He turned his head toward me slightly. “No. It’s too dangerous.”

“Look, you want me to work with the FBI, right? With Caleb? If that’s going to happen, you’re going to have to let me in on some things. They’re going to have to believe that I know some things. And if I’m going to be working here anyway, I’m going to see things Colt.” I took his hand, rubbing my thumb over his knuckles. “You can’t keep me away from everything.”

He looked at me and sighed, considering. His hand cupped my chin and he leaned his forehead against mine. “If anything ever happened to you...” he murmured. “Jesus, Olivia, I couldn’t…”

“Nothing is going to happen to me. You have to let me in, Colt. Please, if we’re ever…” I wanted to say that if we were ever going to be together, if we were ever going to be a real couple, in a real relationship, he was going to have to let go of some of his defenses, to let some of his walls crumble. But I was too scared to say any of that out loud. I was already playing with fire, pushing him to get close to his emotions. The last thing I wanted was for him to shut down completely. “Please,” I whispered.

“Fine.” And then he was straightening up, that look of determination back on his face, his strong jaw molded into a firm line. “But you stay behind the bar, and if I tell you to go outside, you go outside.”

“Colt –”

“It’s not up for negotiation, Olivia.”

“Okay.” I nodded. “Okay.”

I started to unbuckle my seatbelt, but he stopped me.

“Wait,” he said.

“What?”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. “Call him.”

“Who?”

“Caleb. Call him and tell him you’re on board.”

I shook my head. “No. Not right now.”

“Call him, Olivia.” He was staring at me coolly, and I knew there was no way he was going to back down.

I sighed and took the phone, then accepted the wrinkled business card that Colt had taken from his wallet. I dialed the number.

“Caleb Smythe,” the voice on the other end barked.

“Um, hi,” I said, swallowing nervously, completely out of my element when it came to business cards.

“Yeah, who is this?” Caleb asked, sounding impatient. In the background, I could hear the rush of the wind, like he was outside. I imagined him being at some kind of crime scene, that I was interrupting him while he was in the middle a murder investigation. The thought should have been disturbing, but it actually comforted me somehow, as if me calling him was very run of the mill.

“This is Olivia,” I said.

“Olivia,” he said, and his tone changed instantly. “I was hoping you’d call me.”

“Yes, well, I did. Um, I was wondering if we could set up a time to meet.”

“How about now?”

“Now?”
I started to protest, but Colt nodded his head at me from the passenger seat and gave me a look. A
don’t fuck with me
look.

I sighed. I didn’t want to meet with Caleb at all, much less right now. But I had no choice – and if I had to do it anyway, then I guess it would be best to get it over with. “Where do you want to meet?”

“I’m on the East Side,” he said. “Park and Royal Street, there’s a coffee shop on the corner called Molly’s. Meet me there in half an hour?”

“Half an hour?” I glanced over at Colt and he nodded. I sighed again. “Okay.”

“Sounds good.” Caleb’s tone softened. “And Olivia?”

“Yes?”

“You made the right choice.”

“Bye,” I said quickly and hung up.

Colt reached for my hand and pulled me back toward him, his hands moving in slow circles against the back of my neck.

“I don’t want to do this,” I said.

“I know. But it’s going to be okay. I would never let anything bad happen to you.” He kissed me softly, then handed me the keys. “Take my car,” he said. “If you crash it, I’ll take it out on your body.”

“Promise?” I teased.

“Promise.”

He kissed me again and as his lips pressed against mine, the sun shone through the window and warmed my skin. And for one second, just one, I let myself believe him, let myself believe that he wouldn’t let anything bad happen to me, that nothing could touch us, that we were free.

M
olly’s Coffee Shop
was almost more of a shack – it was housed in a tiny building on the corner that looked like it had previously been a house. The exterior was covered in peeling blue paint, and the inside had creaky wooden floors and booths with cracking fabric.

Caleb could have picked anywhere in the city to take me, and yet he’d chosen this place? I spotted him in the back, looking completely out of place in his pressed grey suit. The place was pretty empty – only a couple of guys sitting at the counter, nursing cups of coffee and eating greasy breakfast sandwiches – but Caleb still stuck out like a sore thumb.

“Interesting choice,” I said as I slid into the booth across from him.

“I wanted to pick somewhere close to you,” he said, not unkindly.

“This place isn’t close to me,” I said.

It was true. This place was on the other side of the city, in an equally rundown area than the one I’d just come from, and it struck me again how out of touch this guy was. He obviously thought that I would be comfortable any place that wasn’t nice or fancy. It was all the same to him.

“Are you hungry?” he asked.

“No.” I pushed the menu that had been set in front of me away. If he thought we were going to be having a friendly interaction where we chatted over food and coffee, then he was wrong.

“Are you sure? My treat.”

“Just tell me what you want from me.”

Caleb sighed and shifted in his seat, and I saw his face change, just like I’d thought it would. He wasn’t interested in being nice to me, he was interested in trying to get me to trust him.

“Information.”

“What kind of information?”

“Anything that will help us.”

I shifted on my chair and shrugged. “Okay.”

He eyed me suspiciously, then leaned back in his chair and took a sip of coffee. He put it down on the table and ran his finger around the handle of his cup. “Why the sudden change of heart?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean why are you suddenly willing to help us?”

“Colt has nothing to hide. So why wouldn’t I?” It was half bluff, half truth. There were things going on at Loose Cannons that were illegal, but there wouldn’t be anymore. So therefore, technically, Colt didn’t have anything to hide. At least not anymore.

“He told you that?”

I nodded.

“And you believed him?”

“Of course.”

Caleb bit the inside of his cheek and closed his eyes. “Are you sleeping with him?”

“That’s none of your business.”

“Jesus Christ, Olivia,” he said and his hands tightened around his cup as he shifted in his seat. “Are you
insane?”

“No.” My palms were sweaty and I wiped them on my jeans. I wished I’d ordered something, anything, even a glass of water so I’d have something to do with my hands. My mouth was dry and I licked my bottom lip.

“Does he know you’re here?”

“No, of course not.” The lie slipped from my mouth easily, but there was on way around it. If I told Caleb that Colt knew I was here, he would immediately discount whatever information it was I was going to tell them.

“Good. You can’t tell him, Olivia. Do you understand?”

“I’m not an idiot.” I rolled my eyes, like I thought it was completely absurd.

Caleb stared at me, his eyes searching mine, as if he were trying to figure out if he should believe me or not. I kept his gaze, refusing to look away.

“He’s a bad person, Olivia,” he said. “He won’t change.”

He’s not a bad person,
I wanted to protest. But I couldn’t. So I bit the inside of my cheek and tried to quell the rage that was building inside of me. Even so, I was doubting myself, just a tiny bit, the seeds of discontent being planted in my heart. How could I really be
sure
about Colt? How could I ever trust myself again when it came to knowing who was good for me and who wasn’t? I’d been wrong about Declan, maybe I was wrong about Colt.

Caleb sighed and pressed his fingers to his nose, and I realized he didn’t like this situation any more than I did. He needed my help, but when it came down to it, I wasn’t his ideal choice for an informant.

I wiped my palms on my jeans. “So what do I have to do?”

“You’ll use a listening device,” Caleb said. “You’re to have it switched on whenever you’re at Loose Cannons.”

“So it’s like a wire?”

“Sort of.” He looked at me, and his eyes fell on my star necklace. “Give me your necklace.”

“What?” My hands flew to my neck instantly, my fingers tightening around the metal protectively. “No.”

“We’ll take it, put a listening device in it. You can have it back tomorrow morning.”

My eyes filled with tears. I’d just gotten this, and now they were asking me to give it up, to take the present Colt had given me and turn it around and use it against him.

But I had no choice.

My fingers fumbled as I undid the clasp and handed it to Caleb.

“When can I have it back?” I asked as he shoved it into his pocket carelessly.