Page 119 of Call Back

“Anthony—Lopez’s boyfriend—had a wife and kids before he came out as gay. There’s a dispute between Anthony’s kids over who gets the house. If someone sees us, we can play it a number of ways—but my favorite is that we’re appraisers from the bank. But I doubt anyone will care.”

“I say go with appraisers.”

He grinned. “Appraisers it is.”

* * *

We decidedto take my car to Chattanooga since it got better gas mileage. We finished breakfast; then Colt followed me in his truck to the Embassy Suites parking lot in Franklin. After he parked, he slid into the passenger seat, carrying a small package in his hand. He tucked it under the seat, then caught me by surprise when he leaned over and kissed me.

“That’s going to take some getting used to,” I said as I started to drive.

He grinned. “I’ll give you plenty of chances.”

While I had gotten a good night’s sleep the night before, Colt looked utterly exhausted. After he gave me the address of Anthony’s house to plug into my phone, I encouraged him to take a nap. When I pulled into the neighborhood two hours later, I shook Colt’s arm.

“Colt, we’re here.”

He came awake instantly and bolted upright, a much different reaction than I’d gotten from Belinda the night before. He glanced at the clock on my dashboard. 12:12.

“That’s still Central time, right?”

“Yeah,” I said absently, remembering Chattanooga was in the Eastern zone.

He frowned. “We should have gotten an earlier start, but there’s no helping that now.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Mags.” He grabbed my hand and squeezed it. “It’s good. I had a late night, so I decided to catch up on some sleep. But I need to be back by eight for a gig in Nashville. Depending on how sneaky Lopez was, we may find ourselves wishing we had more time. But I wanted to be done before it got dark anyway. No need to have neighbors wondering why lights are on.”

“True.”

The map told me to turn, and I pulled into the driveway of a small house that looked like it had seen better days.

“Small is good,” Colt said. “Less surface area for us to search.”

I stared at the house, gripping the steering wheel.

Colt’s hand lifted to the back of my neck, and he massaged my tense muscles. “Mags. This will go faster if I do it myself. Drop me off and I’ll look for it.”

“That’s a lie, and we both know it. I can’t let you do this by yourself. Part of the reason you’re here is for me.”

“Not entirely, and you know it,” he said, his hand still working its magic. “I’ve never made any secret about the fact that I want part of the gold. I need you to know that hasn’t changed.”

I turned to face him. “And if you suddenly said it wasn’t your goal, I wouldn’t trust you at all. The fact you’ve made no secret of wanting a stake makes everything you say more real. You know?”

He grinned. “So you’re saying that you trust me more because I’m a greedy bastard?”

I laughed in spite of my nervousness. “Exactly.”

He leaned forward and kissed me slow and lazy. His hand rested on the base of my neck while his thumb lightly caressed my skin, sending shivers of pleasure down my spine.

“If you’re trying to seduce me,” I said against his lips, “it’s working.”

He pulled back and smiled. “And to think—I’m only just getting started.” He reached for the door handle. “Go to the mall or even a movie and wait for me to call. This will probably take a few hours.”

I stared at the house, ashamed to admit that part of me wanted to let him deal with this on his own. Not only did I dread spending hours looking for a needle in a haystack, but I was also scared to death of getting arrested for breaking and entering. But how could I live with myself if Colt got busted without me? He had a record, so his fate would be much worse. “How sure are we the gold’s in that house?”

“Ninety percent.”

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