Page 17 of Colt

Because of her.

The words sat on the tip of my tongue, but instead, I told him the other reason. “I want to be a trauma surgeon. I don’t want to train at a large hospital with fifty other interns all vying to assist with the same surgeries. I want a small teaching hospital or at least to work alongside a good surgeon who’s willing to share their knowledge and expertise.”

“Where ya lookin’?” he gritted out.

I sighed. “Oregon, Cali, Virginia, and Maine.”

Colt’s fingers gripped the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles turned white. “No.”

“Not your choice,” I said quietly. “My other option is to enlist.”

He banged the steering wheel with his palm. “No!”

My jaw dropped, eyes widening with confusion at his outburst. “It’s not your business!”

“You’re not fuckin’ enlisting, Freya,” he snapped. “Get that idea outta your head. Your dad would flip, and so would your brothers. Jesus, look what it did to Kit.”

“I wouldn’t be taking lives,” I retorted. “I’d be saving them. It’s hardly the same. And anyway, enlisting would be a last resort. I’d only do it if I didn’t get into a training program I wanted.”

Colt glanced at me before indicating to turn into the parking lot of my apartment block. “Your dad won’t have it. He’d cut you off.”

I skewered him with a look. “Do you think Dad cutting me off scares me? I’ve still got my inheritance from Bandit. You’re as bad as him trying to control everything I do. You’ve got a lot of opinions for someone who dropped me like a hot fucking potato as soon as his little girlfriend arrived on the scene.”

“Already told ya, she’s not my girlfriend,” he bit out, pulling into a parking space. “And I’m aware you don’t like her. You’ve made that obvious.”

Colt was right. I didn’t like Lucy; she had everything I wanted. But the reason for my dislike wasn’t that. “She’s a bitch, Colt. She’s jealous of our friendship,” I told him, unclipping my seat belt.

He barked a laugh. “Shouldn’t be a problem seein’ as she’s got no say in who I’m friends with. Can’t you come up with somethin’ better? That’s weak, even for you.”

My throat heated.

“What do you mean, even for me?” I demanded. “You think I’m weak?”

“I didn’t mean it like that—”

“Save it,” I snapped. “Should’ve known you’d screw me over for easy pussy. Why change the habit of a lifetime?” I swung the door open and jumped out. “Fuck you, Colter.” I slammed the door closed, lip curling as I stomped for the apartment entrance.

What an asshole.

His fucking girlfriend looked down her snooty nose at me at every opportunity she got. She was the most condescending bitch I’d ever met, apart from Sydney Barrington, which wasn’t surprising, seeing as they were friends.

Jamming my key in the lock, I opened the door to my apartment block and stepped inside just as Colt started the engine. Then, I waited until he drove past me before raising my arm and giving him the finger.

Fucking asshole.

Chapter Three

Colt

I woke at five, unable to fall back to sleep. My mind was full of Freya Stone and not just our argument. The memory of the way she kissed me on the dance floor at Below Zero kept floating through my head, and every time, I had to will my half-chub to go down.

Eventually, I gave up. Staying busy was the key, so I cracked open the laptop and started digging. Anything to stop thinking about our dance and how her body fit mine so perfectly. The feel of her had become imprinted on my mind.

Eventually, I’d managed to push all thoughts of Freya to one side. By eight o’clock, I’d exhausted all the databases I could think of trying to find the car that chased Atlas, Bowie, and Breaker. The next step was tricky, so I waited until eight-thirty before I dialed Prez’s number. With a grimace, I clicked my cell onto speaker mode and laid back on the hotel bed.

“Yo, Colt,” he barked. “Got anythin’ for me?”

“Sorry, Prez. The license plate doesn’t exist according to all the legal sources. Usually, I wouldn’t risk hacking into places we shouldn’t, but even they didn’t throw anything up this time.”

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