“Got that out of your system, bro?”
Maddox shot his middle finger in the air.
Colt guessed that was a yes.
“You make it seem like I’m looking forward to working with that guy. I know you two have got some bad blood between you, but the guy was a huge prick anytime I went down to visit you. He wasn’t my first choice of a partner, but the detective who came to the Bumptown made it clear that it was a done deal. I’m stuck with Wright.”
“I still can’t believe they sent a human cop into your territory,” grumbled Maddox. “You sure it was just that one guy?”
“He came alone. Even Dodge confirmed it. They must’ve been really desperate.”
Maddox cocked his head, his brow furrowed in sudden thought. “Wait a sec… it was a Grayson cop who came to you with this plan, right?”
“Yeah.”
“You remember his name?”
Colt nodded. “Diaz. Detective Diaz.”
Maddox rattled off a description. “That the guy you mean?”
“Uh, yeah.” Colt felt like he was missing something. Add that to how he was almost sure that Diaz had tricked him into agreeing to join the task force... “What’s up? I mean, I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen him before, but he said he was a liaison to the Cage. Why? You know him?”
“You could say that. I met him once, but it wasn’t in the Cage.”
His eyes slid over to Evangeline again. He could never look away from her for long—no bonded shifter could with their mate—but Colt picked up on his brother’s anxiousness. He got like that when he was thinking about how close he came to losing her. Wright might have brought back a lot of Mad’s bad memorie
s, but what about Diaz?
Fucking hell. He didn’t like this.
“Where then?”
“Remember when I first brought Angie back home… back to Wolf’s Creek? And I had that visit from the two cops?”
“Yeah. One was Wright. And the other was…” It came back to him with a jolt. His jaw clenched. “The other was a witch.”
Maddox had told him all about that over the phone. How, right after he kidnapped Evangeline—though Colt would go to his grave supporting Maddox’s right to make his wife remember him any way he could—he was confronted by a pair of Grayson police officers.
No. Wait.
That wasn’t right.
It was Diaz who came to Maddox’s home in Wolf’s Creek on a tip from a busybody neighbor who must’ve seen Maddox return to the house for the first time in three years. He’d been sent to see if there was any sign of Evangeline, doing due diligence as a police officer following up on a report about a missing person.
Of course, then Wright had burst out of the cruiser, making wild threats, acting as if he had some right to Evangeline because he’d convinced her to date him while Cilla’s spell kept her from remembering Maddox.
The two had been sworn rivals from that point on. Even after Evangeline made her choice, choosing to fully bond herself to Maddox, Wright still tried to win her to his side. It hadn’t worked then. It wouldn’t work now, either.
But, hell. Diaz was a witch.
Damn it, he should’ve known.
No wonder he had walked around the Bumptown like he had every right to be there.
So what if the guy had dark eyes? When Shea had her glamour on, she could hide her purple eyes, too. He learned that one the hard way. And his muted scent? That should’ve been the biggest clue that the detective might not be what he seemed.
It was Shea’s fault, he decided. She was making him soft. Before her, Colt could’ve sworn he’d be able to spot a witch from more than a mile away. Since meeting her at her apothecary back in June, he was now 0-for-2.