I clear my throat, holding his stare.
“What did I fucking tell you, Colin?”
“Captain—”
He slams his fist against the mahogany desk, everything around his heavy hand shaking with the force, indicating to me that the question was rhetorical.
“Did you learnnothingin your time away? You were supposed to clear your head. Clear your head of Caroline Stark. OfChloeStark. Get it out of your stubborn fucking brain that she’s hiding something. Do you realize her mother threatened to file harassment charges against the department? Caroline Stark threatened tofile chargesagainst us, againstyou. And shehas the money and the influence to take us down, even from behind bars. Do you not realize that?”
I swallow, my throat feeling like sandpaper. I had no idea Caroline had done that.
Would it have made a difference? I have no idea about that, either.
Chloe blinds me. I can’t think clearly with her around, and yet, I can’t stay away.
“I saved your ass by sending you away. I won’t do it again.” The silence stretches between us in a tense pause until he finally asks, “Where did you go?”
I clear my throat again, shifting in my seat. “Hussey Ridge.”
“For what, Colin? Spit it out.”
I suddenly realize this is going to sound so fucking bizarre, and I have no idea how to say it. “She…was going for a hike.”
“A hike.”
“She collects…animal skulls.”
“Do you think this is a joke?”
“No, sir. She pulled up outside the department, and said she needed a favor.”
“And you, her number one fan, offered to help her?”
A knock sounds on the door behind me, relieving me of the need to continue this word vomit explanation that includes cutting the head off a deer in a field, taking it back to Chloe’s basement, and letting her suck me off in her garage.
Alex pokes his head through the door, eyeing both of us cautiously.
“What is it?” Captain Barrett asks him gruffly, holding my stare in a silent demand to keep my ass planted where it’s at.
“You’re going to want to see this.” Alex comes all the way into the room, holding a manilla folder in the air before extending it in Barrett’s direction. “Grayson Tyler’s body was just found an hour away in the Cedar Creek BLM area. It looks like an animal attack.”
“What the fuck is going on around here?” the captain mutters under his breath, flipping through the folder.
“His wife and kids are safe. Their neighbor called and said she’d seen them come home early this morning.” That loosens a breath of relief in my chest. I’d been particularly worried about the missing wife and children, but I’d still like to lay eyes on them myself. To confirm their safety as well as see if Grayson’s wife might be hiding some sort of involvement in her husband’s death.
I lean forward to get a look at the papers my captain’s looking at, though I can’t tell what they are. “Witnesses near both Richard’s and Grayson’s scenes report seeing a black Suburban around the time they were last seen,” Alex explains.
Chills crawl up my spine as my head whips in Alex’s direction so fast it feels like it disconnects from my body. “Caroline Stark drove a black Suburban.”
“Mills,” my captain growls, glaring at me.
“I’m serious,” I say. “Chloe has it parked in her garage right now. I saw it last night.”
The folder drops from the captain’s hand and onto his desk as he raises his gaze to look at me incredulously. “You were at herhouse?”
“She needed my help getting the…” I side eye Alex, who has no idea what the fuck he just walked into, “…deer head back to her house.”
“Thedeer head?”Alex whispers, a quizzical look on his face.
