Page 34 of Torment

Colton pulled his lips in a straight line after he tossed back the last bit of whiskey in his glass. It was a few seconds before he finally answered, “I told him that if he ever hurt you again…I’d kill him.”

Wow. Okay.

“That’s quite a heavy threat, trying to protect someone you hardly know.”

He just kept staring at her with those chocolaty eyes like he knew something she didn’t—which he probably did. Judging by everything that had gone down the last few weeks, it would be safe to assume there were a lot of secrets going around.

Clearly Colton wasn’t going to say anything, so Scarlet continued. “So, tell me your story.”

“My story?” He reached for the bottle of Jack and refilled both their glasses.

“Yeah. Everyone has a story. God knows you know mine after yesterday. So it’s only fair that I should know yours.”

“Who’s to say I have a story?”

Scarlet snorted. “Oh, come on. You’re, what, twenty-eight?”

“Thirty.”

“Thirty, then. And you’ve been doing this search and rescue gig with mydadfor what?”

“Eight years.”

Scarlet lifted her eyebrows to her hairline. “Wow. So you were twenty-two when you started, huh?”

“Wow, you can do math?” He shot her a smug grin.

“Smart-assery isn’t sexy, you know that, right?”

He snickered. “Yes, I was twenty-two when I asked your father for a job.”

“Why?” Scarlet started to turn her glass around and around on the table, happy to be thinking of something else other than her shit-fest of a life.

He shrugged. “I had nothing better to do.”

“Now that’s a bullshit answer.”

Colton got up from his seat and walked over to the jukebox. Throwing in a coin, Scarlet watched as he flipped through the music cards, waiting patiently for him to answer her question. He stretched out his arm, placing his hand on the top of the jukebox, and Scarlet saw the tattoo on his forearm.Hope.

Midnight Oil’s “Beds Are Burning” started to play, and Colton walked back over to the bar.

Scarlet eyed him curiously.

After downing his entire glass, he cringed before turning his attention to her. “So I’m guessing your dad hasn’t told you yet?”

“Told me what?”

“Who I am.”

“Should he have?”

Colton’s brown-eyed gaze remained locked on hers, and it almost felt like he was staring right through her. “When your father gave me a job,youwere my first job.”

Scarlet balked. “Me?”

He nodded. “Yup. I had to keep an eye on you. You were sixteen at the time.”

Scarlet placed her glass back down on the bar, afraid she might drop it. “Continue.”

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