Mike raised an eyebrow. “You are one stupid fuck. Almost as dumb as I was,” he said, laughing.
“What’s so funny over there?” Cara called out.
“Mind your own business, baby.”
“You’ll pay for that later,” she promised, blowing him a kiss.
Erin let out a gleeful laugh, obviously appreciating her brother being put in his place by his wife.
Cole merely rolled his eyes.
“Hey, don’t knock it till you’ve tried it,” Mike told him. “So what happened between you two? Why aren’t you still behaving more like a couple?”
Cole adjusted the frames of his sunglasses and looked over the freshly manicured lawn. “There’s nothing going on between us anymore.”
Mike rocked forward in his chair, resting his elbows on his knees, staring at Cole like he could see inside his skin. “When my sister’s happy, that makes me happy. So when she convinced me she could get that from you, I backed off. What’s changed?”
Cole didn’t do the buddy-buddy talk thing, but with Mike pressing him, he had no choice. “Once she’s safe, I’m back to work. You tell me if it makes any sense to keep up something that has to end. Especially when she’s admitted she wants more than I can give her. Being with her only hurts her and that’s not something I ever wanted to do, no matter what you might think.”
Mike studied him, assessing him in silence. “How about this,” he finally said. “You play things your way . . . for now. But when you’re losing your mind over losing her and you don’t know which end is up? Call me. I’ll kick your ass the way Sam kicked mine.”
Cole didn’t know what Mike meant, and before he had a chance to ask, both his and Mike’s cell phones rang.
His gut screaming, he answered. Mike did the same. Both men had brief conversations, then, hanging up at the same time, met each other’s gaze.
Mike merely nodded, giving Cole permission, not that he needed it.
Cole turned to the women. “Erin?”
Mid-laughter over something Cara said, Erin turned, her beautiful face void of expression when she looked at him. Intentional, no doubt, he thought, his heart lurching. He ignored the sensation.
“What is it?” she asked.
Though he wished he could handle this without involving her, he knew she’d never forgive him for keeping her in the dark. “Enforced confinement has just come to an end. Sam just arrested a woman lurking outside your back windows.”
Fourteen
Cole and Mike headed to the precinct, leaving an angry Erin behind with Cara. Although she wanted to be there, and Cole respected the desire, both he, Mike, and Cara thought it was a bad idea to put her in the same vicinity as the woman stalking her.
Now, at the precinct and knowing Victoria was a room away, Cole wanted to burst in and question her himself, but Mike refused. “Let us do our jobs. Sam’s in with her now.”
“Then let me watch.”
Silence settled around them in Mike’s office as the other man studied Cole. “You look ready to explode.”
“You’re damn right. But I know how to keep it together.”
Mike inclined his head. “Let’s go, but don’t make me regret this.”
A few minutes later, Cole found himself on the opposite side of the glass, watching Sam and Victoria, knowing she couldn’t see him.
He shoved his hands in the back pockets of his jeans and studied the scene in front of him.
Sam sat with his back to the mirrored window. Victoria stared at him, while Mike studied her. Granted, it had been a while since he’d seen her last, but she looked . . . different.
He braced his arm on the wall and leaned in closer, trying to figure out what was off. “I want to hear.”
“You promise to stay calm?” Mike asked.