Wild Trail (Clean Slate Ranch #1)(70)

“Hey, pal, what’s up?” Colt said.

“Where are you?”

“Uh, barn. Why?”

“Stay there, I need to talk to you about something.”

“Okay. I’m fixing the hinge on Blizzard’s stall.”

Mack hung up, his nerves buzzing, no clue what he was even asking Colt about, and kind of wishing Avery had never said anything. But Colt would have come up eventually, so better to see what this was now, instead of waiting for later. He found Colt exactly where he said he’d be, and Colt seemed to be finishing up the fix job, putting his tools back in the precise ways he preferred. Colt had been the same way when handling his SWAT equipment, careful to return it to his locker in a specific, controlled way.

Reyes stood a few feet from Colt, feeding an apple to Hot Coffee, and the pair stopped whatever conversation they were having when Mack walked into the barn. Reyes nodded in his direction. Colt froze in place, his expression mild but wary.

“Hey, man,” Colt said as he stood. “How’d the inspection go?”

“It went great,” Mack replied. “I officially hired Avery today.”

“Good. He’ll be a great asset to the project.”

“I know. He’s all-in with doing it as historically accurate as possible.” Mack wasn’t much for casual segues. “I bet you aren’t surprised that you came up in conversation.”

Colt’s eyes narrowed. “Oh? He ask about me?”

“Not directly. He was curious how it was you’d given me his contact info. When I told him you worked here, he seemed...surprised. And he also implied you’d left Los Angeles for a different reason than you’d told me. Which was burnout. When I pressed, he said I should ask you about it, so here’s me. Asking.”

“What are you asking exactly?”

Mack couldn’t tell if Colt was playing dumb, or genuinely unsure what Mack was referring to. “When you were with Avery, did you ever mention our friendship?”

“Yes.”

“So why on God’s green earth would Avery be so surprised we’re still friends?”

Colt, for all of his high energy and excitability, suddenly looked a bit like a corpse—still, pale, barely breathing. His wide eyes held an emotion that scared Mack on a cellular level. Mack wasn’t going to like whatever Colt had to say. Even Reyes was watching Colt with steady curiosity.

Eventually, Colt sucked in a ragged breath. “Fuck, I never should have given you Avery’s number.”

Those words sent Mack’s anxiety over this conversation to nuclear levels. “Why not?”

“Part of the reason I was with Avery was because of the stress of SWAT. I needed what he had to offer, and at first it was totally platonic, but after that last mission that went FUBAR and got Geoff killed it changed. Got sexual, and our relationship grew from there.”

Mack didn’t have to ask to know that whatever Colt had gone out looking for, it had something to do with BDSM. Colt had never suggested he was into that sort of thing, but he also didn’t tell explicit stories about his hookups, either. Just mentioned he’d had them. This wasn’t about Colt’s sexual history, but it did have to do with the bank robbery from hell, which only amped Mack’s anxiety.

“So Avery went from sex to a boyfriend?” Mack asked. Off Colt’s nod, he said, “And he knew about Geoff being killed, knew you and I were friends.”

“Yes.” Colt took in a shaky breath, looking like a guy two seconds away from upchucking on the barn floor. “You’d already left the city when the ballistics report from the robbery finally came down. I wanted to find out, so you’d know. I figured I could do that for you, even though it wouldn’t bring Geoff back or ease your pain. I called in some favors, got someone to get me the intel.”

Mack’s heart nearly stopped at the implication of Colt’s words. Out of their five-man squad, three of them had actually shot their weapons, including Colt. Mack hadn’t fired a shot, he never had a clean sight on any of the suspects. There was only one reason Colt wouldn’t have told Mack the truth about the shooter whose bullet struck and killed Mack’s boyfriend...

A slow roar in his head grew into a thundering train of rage, hurt and betrayal. Colt didn’t have to say it. The misery dripped off him and thickened the air between them. Time seemed to stop as the last five years of their friendship dissolved into bitter ash that left a putrid taste in Mack’s mouth.

“You fired the shot?” Reyes asked, his own voice strangled and unsteady.

Colt didn’t finish his nod before Mack’s fist connected solidly with the man’s mouth. The blow sent Colt backward into the stall door, and then onto his ass. Mack wound up again, but a strong arm snared his and kept him from throwing a second punch. Reyes held him firm, his expression grim, but determined. Mack wanted to hit Reyes, too, so his friend would set him free to give Colt the ass-beating he deserved.

But in Reyes’s dark eyes, Mack saw a warning. Don’t be that guy. You aren’t a violent man.

Fury swam in Mack’s gut, a burning thing that wanted to be expunged through a brawl. But more than anger, his heart ached with an overwhelming sense of betrayal. Not because one of his best friends had been the one to fire that devastating bullet, but because Colt had lied by keeping the truth from him all these years. For supporting Mack in his grief, while knowing the whole time he was responsible for it. For never telling anyone—no, scratch that.