Kaleidoscope (Colorado Mountain #6)(110)

Deck’s blood turned cold right before it ran hot.

Not hot the way Emme made him feel.

Hot the way he felt that night Chace had told him Faye was buried alive.

“Why?” he asked back.

“Just tell me, Deck.”

“My nightstand,” Deck answered tersely and again got silence. He moved to the garage door button, hit it, the door started sliding down and he and Buford moved into the house as he pressed, “Chace. Talk to me.”

“I’m gonna preface this by sayin’, we’re on this. I’m callin’ it in to Mick and—”

“Stop f**kin’ with me. Say it,” Deck growled.

He heard a sigh then, “Three prints you lifted and gave me to run. Yours. Those belonging to Emme, probably in the system because they were put there sometime after she was kidnapped. And Dane McFarland’s.”

Deck instantly turned on his boot and started back toward his garage.

“Deck, listen to me—” Chace began.

“Jerkoff’s been in my house,” Deck bit out.

“Man, seriously. Listen.”

He kept Buford back with a foot, entered the garage, closed the door and hit the button again for the door to go up.

“Emme was pissed, went off on one, took her shit, left,” Deck shared. “He was following her, Chace. She asked Donna to look after Buford. Donna told me the security system had not been engaged the first time she came in after Emme. He got in,” Deck told him.

He yanked the door of his truck open and swung in.

“Do not lose your cool,” Chace warned.

“There is no cool in this, Chace. That ass**le has been in my house. He took my f**kin’ kaleidoscope.”

Chace sounded confused when he asked, “Your what?”

“My kaleidoscope. That box I kept on the mantel?” Deck asked, shoving his key in the ignition.

“Sorry, Deck, I don’t—”

“There’s a kaleidoscope in it. Emme gave it to me.”

Just turn the dial.

Deck closed his eyes.

McFarland had a piece of his Emme.

That f**king ass**le.

He clenched his jaw and opened his eyes.

“How would McFarland know that?” Chace asked.

“How the f**k do I know?” Deck shot back.

Truck running, he threw it in reverse, looked over his shoulder and started backing out.

“Let Mick handle this,” Chace stated.

“I will. Then I’ll handle it,” Deck returned.

“Deck—”

He hit the brakes before his truck hit the street and he focused on his steering wheel but his mind was focused somewhere else.

“He’s followin’ her.”

“You don’t know that,” Chace replied. “He could have followed you there. Stewed on it, got a wild hair, thought to f**k with you, came back, found the security system disengaged and didn’t waste an opportunity. Then he took something that looked like it meant something to you.”

“Either way is uncool,” Deck noted.

“It is, but stand down and let Mick deal with it.”

“He gets him first. I get him after.”

“Is anything else missing?” Chace asked.

“Nothin’. Looked, that’s it,” Deck answered shortly.

“Fuckin’ with you,” Chace stated.

“So I f**k back,” Deck returned.

“Deck, we got a case against this ass**le, do not f**k it up for a kaleidoscope.”

Just turn the dial.

He didn’t turn the f**king dial.

Not for a long time.

Then he did. He’d turned the dial.

You’re everything to me.

And found beauty.

“I won’t f**k up the case,” Deck assured Chace, hitting the garage door remote, he reversed into the street.

“You’re pissed and even you pissed, your judgment can be impaired.”

“I won’t f**k up the case,” Deck repeated, disconnected, tossed his phone on the seat beside him and hit the gas.

* * *

Five and a half hours later…

Sitting in the middle of the couch, Deck heard the door open.

He didn’t move.

Seconds later, he watched him round the corner from the entry hall into the living space of the condo.

Deck knew he’d been picked up and interviewed while the Gnaw Bone PD searched his house for a kaleidoscope they did not find. During his interview, he likely gave bullshit excuses, and with no material evidence, he was set loose.

Now he was Deck’s.

Rounding the corner, impossible to miss, Dane McFarland saw him.

“Jesus, what the f**k?” McFarland hissed.

“Your life right now is shit,” Deck started. “Your sentence will be a nickel, you’ll do two years.”

“You can’t be in my house,” McFarland declared, taking two steps toward Deck.

Deck straightened from the couch, McFarland’s head tipped back as he did, and he stopped moving toward Deck.

“You give me back what you took from me, we’ll leave it at that,” Deck stated. “You play games with me, that time when you get out and set about puttin’ your life back together will be the time when you really begin to feel the pain.”