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I motioned for him to take a seat at the bench I’d been working at. I’d spent all morning experimenting with a new tonic, trying different combinations, but the blend of ingredients wasn’t working out the way I wanted. I sighed, setting the cuttings aside. I needed to come back to it when my mind was fresh.

Colt dragged over a stool, sitting on it.

I frowned, taking in his unnaturally rigid posture. “What’s up?”

He clenched his hands in front of him so tightly that his knuckles formed white peaks. “Did Reid stay with you last night?”

I didn’t miss the way his tone lifted at his final word. Like he was hoping my answer would be yes. Clearing the area between us, I leaned against the edge of the bench. “He worked late and was gone before I woke this morning,” I answered.

Colt’s sandy blues locked with mine. “Are you certain he came home?”

That made me question myself. Come to think of it, I didn’t recall hearing him come home. I’d merely assumed it. On days he had shifts at the bar, he was always out the door and gone before I even woke up.

I frowned. “Where are you going with this?”

“Just answer the question, please.”

It wasn’t like Colt to be so direct. He was normally quite a serious guy, but his current tone rang alarm bells in my head.

“Now I think about it, I’m uncertain.”

A beat of silence.

“Colt?”

He let out a long breath, running his hand through his sandy blond hair. “He knows you tripped the mains. He saw the footage.” Darting a finger in the air, it followed each point he made next. “Hair, boots, nails.”

Oh fuck.

I stammered for words, feeling like a deer caught in headlights. “Colt, I’m, gods, I’m so sorry,” I whispered, barely able to find my voice. Tears burned my eyes, threatening to soak my cheeks. I’d never felt so humiliated in my life.

The sheer disappointment in his eyes reminded me of the time my mother gave me one chance to walk home from school alone. Acting young and stupid, I did the exact opposite and went to my best friend’s house instead. She had grounded me for a month, and I could never walk home on my own again until years later. One chance, and I’d broken her trust completely. I hoped I hadn’t burned my bridges with Colt, too.

He shook his head before it fell into his hands. For a while, he didn’t speak, as if what he had to say next was just too hard.

Dread barreled through me, adding to the alarm bells already sounding in my head.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

More silence.

When he finally spoke, his tone filled with dismay. “Reid needed that botanical.”

“Why?”

He looked me square in the eyes.

“He mixed it with your sleeping tonic. But you knew that, didn’t you.” A statement, not a question.

I didn’t know how to say it. Yes, I knew. Because I noticed things most people didn’t. Especially when things didn’t add up. Like when Colt delivered a tray of botanicals to my apothecary but left one in his pickup repeatedly. I’d noticed the pattern, the same botanical with the purple flower, time and time again. So, one time I followed him. Then a second time, then a third. Each time, he drove straight to Reid. And, every time, he would walk out empty-handed, prompting me to find out what was so special about that specific botanical.

“I did my research,” I said, unwilling to offer just how stalker-ish my actions were to get the information I needed. That damned botanical had been hard to find details on.

I took a deep breath before I spoke, gathering the courage to be honest with Colt. “I learned that one of the side effects of taking that botanical for a witch is the suppression of the mate bond.”

He didn’t speak, so I continued.

“There’s always been this thing between us, like something was there, but not. I wondered if he stopped taking the tonic…”