Page 92 of All the Missing Pieces

The coach’s head lifted. “You won’t tell, right? Promise me you won’t tell. My wife?—”

Colt scoffed. “You’re disgusting. She was your student, your athlete. Not only were you twenty-five years her senior, but you were in a position of power over her. Your wife is the least of your worries.”

“Colt—”

He shoved back his chair and stood. “Stay there.”

“Where are you going?” Kerr’s eyes were wild now as his gaze jumped around the room.

“To verify your fucked-up story,” Colt snapped, stalking out of the room.

I was already moving for the door, Ryan on my heels. I felt Colt before I saw him, the furious energy charging through the hallway.

The moment our eyes locked, I felt his pain. Those dark orbs were now swirling pools of black, nothing but agony in their depths.

I could feel Ryan at my back, the other officers spilling into the hall behind us. But all I could see was Colt. His pain and fury. Emotions I knew all too well.

I was moving before I could think, getting right up into his space before I could stop myself. I wanted to throw my arms around him and tell him it would be okay. But I wasn’t sure if that was true.

Colt’s head dipped, those pools of shadow searching, desperate for something to hold on to.

So I gave it to him.

Being a rule breaker wasn’t anything new for me. So I ignored that we were in Colt’s place of work. That his subordinates were behind me.

I slid my fingers through his, linking us together. I squeezed with everything I had. Because I wanted to tell him one thing. The only thing I’d never truly had but wanted so damn badly.

That he wasn’t alone.

37

COLT

Fire blazed through me,an inferno of pain, fury, and failure. So much of it I could barely draw a full breath. My vision blurred, the hallway going in and out of focus.

But there she was.

Storming toward me like true chaos in human form. And the moment her hand slid into mine, I could breathe again. It shouldn’t have been possible for chaos to be so calming, but it was. She was.

Ridley.

The last woman in the world that should’ve been my comfort in all this. The one who was ripping all the wounds open again. But I was starting to see it was so she could heal the infection that had taken root there—one that had spread. One it felt like she’d gotten to just in time.

A throat cleared behind Ridley, and I forced my gaze away from her face, from her comfort. But she didn’t let go of my hand.

Ryan stood there; the mask she had become so good at wearing had cracks in places, and anger seeped through. If there was one thing she hated, it was men abusing their power. “Letme talk to Tara. I think that’s a conversation that might be easier with me.”

Ryan rarely made a case for using her status as a woman. It wasn’t something she liked to point out, probably because being a woman in law enforcement came with its own sets of challenges. But she was right to use it here.

I nodded quickly. “Okay. You call me the minute you’re done. And I want this prick held until then.”

“On it, Sheriff,” Marshall called, moving to interrogation.

He’d sit with the asshole, give Kerr a call to his lawyer if he asked for it. And he should’ve asked. My stomach roiled as a fresh wave of fury pulsed through me.

Ridley’s grip on my hand tightened as she pitched her voice low. “Let’s go outside and get some air.”

She knew I was a second away from losing it. From tearing every photo and award off the walls and smashing them to pieces. From going into that room and pummeling Kerr because hewasa monster. Just not the one I was looking for.

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