Unauthorized Affair (Unauthorized #1)(36)

He knew his father could send his uncles to get him from school or out of his bed while he was asleep, but he took pains to stay alert and he barricaded himself into his room at night. Finally, it seemed like his father had given up. Until he turned 18. Then his father had started sending him gifts. Money. A car. Phones. Computers. And letters. Coleton had returned them all.

And he’d started to realize that what he’d been taught about cops was wrong. He’d thought many times about turning his father into the police. He’d even called in an anonymous tip from a pay phone once, about the guy he’d seen in the trunk. He didn’t know what had come of it, if anything. And Coleton knew how much he didn’t know. He didn’t know the man’s name and couldn’t remember what he looked like. And he hadn’t actually seen the man get shot. But still the man haunted his dreams occasionally. He had spent afternoons at the library during his teenage years, poring over old newspapers, trying to figure out just who his father really was. There wasn’t much about him on the Internet. His heyday had come and gone before Wikipedia existed apparently.


And now at 28, he had his own life that had nothing to do with his father. His father hadn’t sent him a gift in two or three years now. He frequently wished his father would just go away, leave him alone. Many times, he’d considered changing his name. Especially after he’d been harassed a few times by the police.

Since he’d been an adult though, he’d watched the way his mother and sisters and almost everyone related to the family participated in the criminal activities or benefited from in some way. He was the sole holdout. Well, maybe not the only one. Some cousin or nephew who had also escaped and joined the army. He forgot the cousin or nephew’s name, but he heard about him every once in a while. When a family member cornered him in public somewhere. There were underground rumors that a few distant family members were cops in town, but the rumors never agreed on if the cops were still loyal to the family or not.

You done with your trip down memory lane? Because Jen could have been shot 150 times by now. His mind rounded on him and again demanded he do something. But what? Text Jen? And tell her to get out of town for a bit? Would she listen? Would she even answer?

Parts of a plan formed in his mind. He wasn’t sure how it would all come together yet, but he decided to get started. He ran across one final street, ignoring the crosswalk and the blaring of car horns, pulled his car door open and climbed in. He pulled out his phone and dialed a number he had on speed dial.

“Keene.”

“Jackson, it’s Cole.”

“Coleton Savoy! It’s been too damn long!” Jackson Keene, his friend and a local private investigator sounded pleased to hear from him.

“Sorry man. I need help, and I need it quick.”

“Shoot.” He was all business that fast. Coleton was grateful. In his mind, Jen could be facing trouble already.

“I need to know if I’m being followed. And I need a woman’s address. And I need to know how easy it was for you to find that address.”

“Where are you?”

“I’m in my car near the corner of 22nd and Ballard.”

“Where are you headed?”

“Nowhere in particular. Until you get an address for me.”

“Hold on.”

Jackson clicked off the line. He came back a few minutes later. “I’ve got someone heading out. A new guy. He’ll be in a red Firebird. He’ll honk as he drives past your car. Give him 10 minutes. Now give me the woman’s name.”

“Jen—” Coleton blanked for a moment. Did he know her last name? Shit. “I don’t know her last name.”

“License plate number? Place of business?”

Coleton's heart sank. Jackson was his friend. Jackson had done a lot of work for him a few years back when his father had really been putting on the pressure for him to return to the family, but would Jackson balk if he told him she was an undercover cop? Maybe. Then a light went off in his head. “Hold on.”

He flipped through the pictures on his phone till he found the ones he’d taken the day before at the park. There was a picture of the ocean, another of seagulls fighting over some crackers, Jen smiling at him - and her in front of her car! He zoomed in and read off the license plate number to Jackson, fighting the sick feeling in his gut that told him if his father knew she had pink hair, his father probably also had her license plate number.

“I’ll call you back when I’ve got something.” Jackson clicked off and Coleton was left staring at his phone, knowing he had one more phone call to make. Possibly the hardest one of his life.





Chapter 19





Coleton texted his mother, not wanting to talk to her on the phone again. Give me dad’s phone number.

When the number came through, he dialed it, dread making his fingers shake.

He heard a ringing in his ear and then silence. “Dad?”

“Coleton.” Pleasure rang through his father’s voice. With an undercurrent of shrewdness? Of course. And something more. Age. A weakening that hadn’t been there before. He did the math quickly. His father was 65 years old.

“Leave her alone, Dad.”

“Of course I will. Don’t even worry about it. It’s done.” Coleton waited, knowing there would be more. “And maybe dear son, you could come and do something for me.” Coleton shook his head. This had been a mistake. He shouldn’t have called. He should have just … what? Warned Jen and left town for good. But what if she got hurt? It would be all his fault. Because he’d thought she was pretty.