Page 43 of Shattered Veil

“Not to interrupt the whole fam-damily,” Colton interjected, slowly moving to stand, “but this was not what I intended.”

“Was there something that you did intend?” Luke sneered from behind Liam, and Liam held out a hand as if to warn him not to move.

“Ah, Luke,” Liam spoke to him in a murmur that was all too clear within the quiet of the bar, “I thought you wanted him out of the bar. May not want to open a can of worms on this one—we’re kinda-fuckin’-busy.”

“Are you?” Colton returned with high eyebrows.

“Yeah, I’m not enjoying the worlds colliding here, either, Liam,” Luke hissed, ignoring Colton’s remark. “Five minutes.”

Claire spoke, “Why are you here, Colton?”

“Here, here?” he asked. “To drink. I had a long night, and—for the record—I didn’t realize it was past two in the morning. That was my bad.”

“Why the hell are you in Salem?” Claire returned with more bite.

The initial shock that was painted on her face had washed away, and it was now replaced with something far beyond mere frustration.

Colton glanced to the front door and back, looked at all of us with a rather contemplative expression, and began to ask, “Are…are y’all good?”

“Nope,” Zoey spoke this time. “As far as I’m concerned, you can go buy yourself a one-way ticket deep into hell’s asshole.”

“We’ve never been on the best of terms, have we?” Colton returned, an odd, Cheshire-like grin growing on his face.

“Colton,” Claire stated his name quietly, but it was as if it rang through the air.

Colton held up a hand in Claire’s direction. “Uh-bup-bup,” he voiced. “Give me a quick l’il minute here. I haven’t had the chance to absorb all this.” I was priming myself to say that he didn’t need to absorb anything when he cocked his head at the table we were once all sitting at and continued with, “Y’all are tense…past close at a bar,” he gestured at Luke without turning toward him, “your bar…but not a drop of alcohol on the table between the six of you…and when I first walked in, it did not seem like you were leavin’ any time soon.” He squinted at Claire. “You’re nervous…really nervous…and it’s not because of me.” His eyes narrowed even further as he murmured, “What did you do?”

“No.” Liam said, “I’m not having you up in Zoey’s business—”

Colton gasped dramatically, whipping his focus to her. “Zoey! You?! What’d you do?!”

His candor that had morphed from initial shock to confident, cocky, and questioning shot directly under my skin, and I yelled:

“For the love of God—we need to know that you aren’t here to fuck any of us over. Just tell us why you’re fucking HERE, Colton!”

Colton looked at me with eyelids halfway over his gaze. “If it makes ya feel any better, it has absolutely nothing to do with any of you.”

I muttered, “Why do I have a hard time believing that?”

I had meant my question to be rhetorical, but he murmured in return, “You may be right,” in a way that came across as mystified. Colton glanced around the room, asking, “I’m assuming that y’all live nearby?” None of us answered, and he seemed to take our nonresponse as a confirmation. “’Kay…anyway—this cute, sleepy li’l town has women going missing out the wazoo. Cue my arrival.”

Wait, what?

Cassie spoke my exact thoughts aloud, “Wait…what?”

Colton looked at her with an interest that was piqued to the point that it unsettled me, and he inquired, “Are y’all really not in the loop on this?”

Cassie’s question and my internal concern were sidestepped as Luke sharply spoke, “No, we’re not in the loop on that. What, are you looking for more women to trick into being rescued?”

He used his fingers as quotation marks on the last word, and Colton’s eyes hardened ever-so-slightly.

“Luke,” Claire warned him with a pointed gaze.

“I’m feelin’ some tension from ya,” Colton retorted back to Luke. “Do we need to clear up that I never tricked Claire into any of the shit we did?”

“Yeah, until you fucking blackmailed her!” Zoey exclaimed disbelievingly.

“Hey, my life was on the line.” Colton looked to Claire and said seriously, “You know that. I would’ve never—”

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