Page 77 of The Chase

Carmelo pursed his lips, drew himself up to his full height, all business again. “Well if you do, don’t fuck around with my town, okay?”

“Oh, your town?” Colt countered.

“Yes, my town.”

Colt set his jaw, they could bicker but not be enemies, right? “From where I’m sitting, if I did start up the MC again, it would be my town.” Colt laid down the gauntlet.

“Don’t go pissing in my pool, Colt…”

“Oh, you fresh out of chlorine?” Colt jumped in again.

Carmelo stopped in his tracks.

Colt smiled. “You quoting Die Hard 2 now? You may be a fucking pig but your taste in classic movies isn’t too terrible.”

Carmelo shrugged. “It’s a good sequel to a great Christmas movie.”

“You think Die Hard is a Christmas movie? Controversial.” Colt grunted. “Now, Die Hard 3…”

“Not even worth talking about. Not even worth the title Die Hard.” Carmelo shook his head.

Colt couldn’t help but grin. “I agree.”

They both looked at each other. Colt felt the warm rivalry, the start of a solid friendship.

“Well, if you did start up the MC again, I’d be your liaison point, with the local PD. Our captain and chief want to keep their hands clean, I’ve been given full latitude to collaborate with you as I see fit.” Carmelo gave Colt a playful flash of his eyebrows.

A nurse came in at that moment. She was curvy, blonde, chatted sweetly with a bubbly little laugh as she took Colt’s blood pressure and temperature. Colt smiled politely and chatted back and watched Carmelo. He smiled at her with what Colt was learning was his signature smirk, and eyed her up, from the top of her head to her feet, his gaze devouring her. The nurse bustled out and Colt waited to speak again.

“You’re not getting any then.”

Carmelo blinked. “Any what?”

“Sex,” Colt replied bluntly.

“I-” Carmelo’s eyes widened. “Not recently, how did you guess that?”

“The way you were eye fucking that lil miss blonde and curvy-“

“I wasn’t eye fucking-”

“Yep.” Colt cut off any further argument.

Carmelo arched an eyebrow but smirked and looked down. Colt smiled at him. But before he could reply, Carmelo’s phone rang.

He sighed and answered it, without his smirk, back in business mode.

“Yeah... kids trespassing at the Creekdale Hotel? Again?... Third time in as many days... okay, okay... Yes, alright... and what else? A cat? A... disabled cat? How...? Back legs fucked up... okay... well can you get the fire department in... Yeah you’re right, fuck them, they’ll shove our noses in it... we’ll get it... okay, let me... give me a minute. I’ll call back, hang on...”

“The Creekdale hotel?” Colt asked when Carmelo had ended the call.

“Yeah,” Carmelo said, “An absolute shit show that’s been... there was a fire... in fact the rumor is that the MC started it somehow... then it turned out the insurance wasn’t valid so the fire damage was too extensive… then half the staff were illegals... now it’s condemned and uninsurable, owner is trying to sell it but no one wants to buy it... kids keep trespassing...”

“And to top it off someone has found a disabled cat?” Colt summarized.

Carmelo sighed and rubbed a palm across his forehead. “Yeah, out on the highway, back legs are all fucked up but it’s causing a traffic jam, now we have to take it to the pound but they’ll put it down...”

“I’ll take it,” Colt found himself saying. Carmelo opened his mouth and gaped at him. Colt reeled himself. What the fuck was he doing? But he felt it. In his gut. Colt shrugged, styling it out. “Get well soon present, for April.”

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