Page 2 of The Acquisition

"Why are you here?" I'd have yelled at him, but I was too damn cold.

He didn't answer me. Instead, he pulled me up by my elbows. Without warning he scooped me up into his arms and started walking down the street. "What the hell are you doing?" I demanded.

"I'm sorry, did you want to continue this asinine conversation sitting in the rain, or do you really object to sitting somewhere warmer?"

"Why do we have to talk at all?" I asked. I tried to sound strong, but that pretense was obliterated by the chattering of my teeth.

"I'm not going to argue with you when you look like a drowned clown."

I started to protest against his assessment of how I looked, until I caught sight of myself in the window of a parked car. A drowned clown might have been a little generous.

When we got to his car, he opened the passenger door and dumped me onto the seat. He reached into the back and pulled out a backpack sitting on the floor and extracted a pack of wet wipes. He pulled one free and held it out to me. Normally, I'd turn down anything he tried to give me, but I didn't put up a fight this time.

I pulled down the visor to access the vanity mirror and wiped as much of my makeup off that I could. He went around to the driver's side and started the car. Within a couple minutes heat was blasting from the vents, and my shivering started to slow. Once my teeth stopped chattering, he cleared his throat.

"Why were you sitting outside in the rain?"

"Why were you outside my apartment?" I could ask a question for every one he asked and tell him nothing. He deserved nothing from me.

He sighed. "Can't we be adults? I came to talk to you. I tried to talk to you when you came with Sabrina to my club opening, but you avoided me all night."

"And yet you didn't take the hint and thought dropping by my apartment was the way to go?" I asked, turning to look out the window.

"You're friends with Sabrina, so I thought it would be a good idea for us to try and put the past behind us. It's been ten years, can't we move past it and try to be friendly?"

Looking back away from the window, I made eye contact with him. "I don't think I'll ever move past it enough to be anything close to friends with you."

Malcolm's Adam's apple bobbed up and down. After several uncomfortable seconds of us looking at each other, he nodded. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry."

"It's worth nothing." I pulled on the door handle, but it wouldn't budge. "Malcolm, let me out, now."

"I answered your question, now tell me why you were sitting outside in the rain."

If I had a superpower, it would be laser vision. "You and I haven't been anything for a very long time. Just because you answered my question doesn't mean I owe you shit. Let. Me. Out."

"Not until you tell me why you were sitting in the rain."

Malcolm Graham was a shit boyfriend when I was sixteen. He was eighteen and had one foot out the door before he and I were ever a thing. Too bad I didn't know that. Even worse that he chose to let me know by hooking up with Matilda Forsythe and making sure I was the one to catch them.

I dealt with the fallout from our breakup, and he moved on without a single consequence. In many ways, I was still damaged by the stupid decisions I made as a teenager. The one thing I would not do is let him continue to impact my present. He had my past and wouldn't get anything else from me.

Calling Evie was still not something I wanted to do. Malcolm obviously had a history with Sabrina, and that made me not want to turn to her. I couldn't call my mother, because whether she knew what my father was going to do or not, she never took my side. I wouldn't give her a chance to make me feel worse tonight.

I groaned. There was only one person I could call, and surprisingly he was a better solution than the one facing me. As horrible of a boyfriend as Malcolm was, I had no doubt he'd try and come to my rescue if he thought I needed him. He was always a sucker for a girl in distress. Except, I'd never be at his mercy again.

"I can see the wheels turning over there, but I'm not going to give up until you tell me what is going on."

Thankfully, I had Colter's number stored in my phone from when Evie went missing when she ran out of Malcolm's opening and got lost. I never thought I'd use it again.

Colter and I had a tense sort of friendship. I respected him to an extent. We ran in the same social circles, even if he was twelve years my senior. He was a handsome man who I might have enjoyed a fling with if he wasn’t so aware of his appeal.

Over six feet tall and built in a way no businessman had a need to be, he knew women's heads turned in his direction. His thick, wavy, dark hair was enhanced by the small amount of silver only starting to appear by his temples. Hazel eyes assessed everything he saw. Those honey and green orbs drew me in, and I was constantly being forced to erect walls of steel to keep them from seeing how vulnerable I really was.

It seemed I'd sunk to my lowest point if I had no one else to turn to, but looking at Malcolm from the corner of my eye, I had to admit it could be worse. I opened my texts and pulled up Colter Greyson's contact info.

Me: Hey, gramps, I know it's past your bedtime, but can you come and get me?

Colter: I thought Beckett was giving you a ride home?

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