Page 34 of California Wild

Inside, something twisted.

The rest of the guys finished up, Micah giving him a brief glance before filing out, leaving just him, Colson, and Heath.

Jesse rolled his shoulders back. “Something wrong?”

Colson tilted his head. “Yeah. You’re not going.”

Jesse’s gut fucking dropped.

His fingers twitched at his sides, but he kept his stance rigid, controlled. “Come again?”

Colson’s expression didn’t shift. Didn’t give him a goddamn inch.

“I’m not putting you in the field. Not yet.”

Jesse clenched his jaw. “That’s bullshit.”

Colson didn’t flinch. Didn’t move.

“You’re not ready.”

“Like hell I’m not.” Jesse’s voice was steel, but inside? Inside, everything was boiling. “I’ve done the work. I’ve been cleared. My record’s clean.”

Colson exhaled sharply, shaking his head. “Your record might be clean, but you’ve got more to prove than that.”

Jesse’s heart pounded. More to prove.

It wasn’t just about paperwork.

It was about trust.

About the fact that Colson still didn’t trust him.

“I haven’t touched a damn drink in over a year.” Jesse’s voice was low, biting. “You think I don’t take this seriously?”

Colson stepped forward, shoulders squared. “I think you lost control once, and I won’t risk it happening again when it could get someone killed.”

Jesse’s pulse hammered. “That was two years ago.”

“And some mistakes don’t fade that fast.”

The words landed like a punch to the ribs.

Jesse felt them crack something inside him, something he had spent months patching together.

Colson’s eyes were sharp, cutting, the weight of command behind them. “You think this is personal? That I enjoy sidelining one of my best guys? Because I don’t.”

Jesse’s jaw tightened.

Colson exhaled, shifting his stance. “You want back in? You prove you can be the guy I can count on. You show me, day in and day out, that you’re the man I knew before you started spiraling.”

Jesse’s chest felt too tight.

Because that was the problem, wasn’t it?

He wasn’t the guy Colson used to know.

He was someone new. Someone who had crawled out of his own grave, someone who had fought for his place back in this life.

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