AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He held his hand out to Hope, who shook it gingerly. “Colton Hayes,” he said. “Hope, was it?”
She nodded. The poor girl was ridiculously freaked out that a man had been shot in her front yard, and the fact that Colton Hayes was being all sweet and charming as he told her it wasnice to meet her before moving on to shake my hand likely didn’t settle her much.
Did he really think I wouldn’t notice he’d completely ignored my question?
Well, if so, tough luck, Chuck.
“So, tell us the deal. What were y’all doin’ in front of Hope’s house?” I pressed.
“You’re a nosy little thing, aren’t you?” Tucker asked.
I stiffened. “Maybe. But I wasn’t the one who took a bullet while nosin’ around someone else’s property.”
Tucker shared a look with Colton before turning back to me, then he straightened to his full height, and yep, apparently, six-foot-five is quite a bit taller than my five-foot-three.
He used every inch of our height difference to color his next words. “I already spoke to Officer Wilson, and other than him and the handful of officers working in this tiny town, no one else needs to be part of what went down last night.”
Undeterred, I looked at Hope. “He’s right.”
“He is?” She asked, her words overlapping Tucker’s as he asked, “I am?”
I waved a hand. “Oh, not about us not bein’ part of it, just that we have other resources. Sorry for the confusion. Y’all have a nice day!”
I took Hope’s arm in mine and turned, ready to badger Adam until he filled us in. I couldn’t let my friend stay in the dark. She was terrified. Someone had been shot on her property, and since we were talking about a hundred-year-old custom-built cabin on three acres of land, this wasn’t a random drive-by or a stray bullet from a terrible hunter.
If Tucker Black was too secretive to tell us what he was doing at her family’s home, why someone had shot at him even if he didn’t know who, and for Pete’s sake, who the teenager from thephoto was to him because I was way too curious, we’d find all of that out on our own.
Unfortunately for me, we didn’t get far.
“Hey!” I yelped, coming to an abrupt halt as a fist closed around the hood of my jacket.
Tucker released me immediately, and I spun on my heel.
He peered down at me, and even with the beard, I could see his jaw jumping slightly as he clenched his teeth.
Finally, he sighed. “What do you mean by other resources?”
“Well, other than how close I am with Adam—that’s the officer you spoke with, by the way—Hope is a Charlotte Oaks PD dispatcher. We have plenty of resources. Not to mention the fact that the whole town has heard about this by now, and when I tell you they are bloodhounds when there’s somethin’ juicy we all wanna know about, I’m not exaggeratin’.”
Tucker did not look pleased by any of this, but he didn’t speak.
I swung my attention away from his gaze to look at Hope. “We can always have a lil look-see when we get back home, right, roomie?”
I turned back to Tucker just in time to watch the color drain from his face. “What did you say?”
I blinked, thrown off by the sudden edge in his voice. “Which part? I said a lot.”
“Yeah, you did, but I’m talking about the part where it sounds like you live there.”
His words were measured, but there was something underneath them—a tightness in his tone. His eyes had darkened, too, and that calm, stoic expression he’d been wearing started to crack. Whatever he’d imagined about Hope’s safety, it clearly didn’t involve me living under the same roof.
I also didn’t miss the way Tucker and his partner, who was also over six feet tall, shared a look over the top of our heads.
“Hope was scared last night,” I explained, as if it should be obvious. “Ya know, on account of you gettin’ shot right outside her bedroom window.”
“I wasn’t right outside her bedroom window,” he argued.
“Whatever. She asked me to stay with her, and I am, for as long as she wants me to.”
