Page 19 of Ricochet

“Tell Jax he can kick my ass later,” Jared offered by way of announcing himself on the call. “We’ll try to be done in under an hour.”

“Will do.” Colin mouthed to the group he had to take the call and cast a quick glance for Adelia.

“You’ll see her at the wedding,” Winters chuckled.

Colin shook his head, ignoring Sophia’s question, and hustled back to his rental car. It didn’t matter if he’d see Adelia at the wedding or not. Colin shouldn’t have paused. He’d have time to check out women later. There was always time. It was a commodity. There were seconds, minutes, hours—hell, there were years to use how and when he wantedto, and right now, Colin wanted to advance his career.

Boss Man told Colin he had to take his new role seriously, not just to officially land the position, but also because people would die if he didn’t. Colin turned on mental blinders, placed his friends and family on hold, pushed Adelia to the back of his mind, and opened the driver’s door of his rental. “Another minute.” He hooked in his phone’sear buds and settled back for a long strategy session. “I’m good if you are.”

The night went dark around him. An hour ticked by as they planned jobs and talked shop, and finally, Colin ended the call and checked his mirrors as he pulled out he ear buds. Except for a few cars and motorcycles, the dimly lit parking lot was empty. His gut tickled. Maybe he should call Dad, or maybe he should’vefound time to talk to Adelia. “Talk about two opposites,” he muttered. Maybe he didn’t know what his priorities were.

Or maybe he did.

Hours had passed, and he’d spent his time with Delta.

Colin ignored the empty tickle plaguing his chest and recalled the directions back to his hotel. He flipped on the radio so he couldn’t wonder why exhaustion gnawed when he’d done nothing more than sitand think.

---