Chapter Seven
Walking into the precinct the next day, Colby could only think of John Travolta strutting down the street to Staying Alive. Elias saw him coming and groaned so loudly that everyone in the room looked up. So Colby put a little more swagger into his step.
“Somebody got laid last night,” Elias said in a morose tone despite his own liberal amounts of laying that he was undoubtedly getting now that he was engaged to Vicki.
Rather than sitting down at his desk that faced his partner’s, Colby plopped down on the corner of Elias’s desk and snagged half of a sandwich.
“Hey, I was eating that!”
He grinned and took another bite. “Vicki’s been feeding you really well.”
“Yeah, I know. That was leftover from yesterday and was supposed to be my breakfast.”
Colby winced and made a mental note to be sure and pick up the tab while they were out. Elias hadn’t given him shit about his eating habits, other than a casual, damn, son, why are you dieting so hard? Which he hadn’t been dieting. He just couldn’t eat much. Until Mal set him straight last night.
“So I see you survived unscathed.”
Grateful Elias changed the subject, even to something that could get personal real quick, Colby shoved the rest of the sandwich in his mouth and moved over to his chair to sort through the waiting stacks of paperwork. “More or less.”
He didn’t look up at his partner, but he could almost see Elias’s eyebrows rising with curiosity and speculation. “I figured you’d come in limping not strutting like a cocky rooster.”
“She’s a…” Colby glanced over to the nearest person and while Brown wasn’t looking at him, the guy was listening very hard. Elias knew what he would have said anyway. Mistress. I’m dating a Mistress. Domme. Dominatrix. What the fuck are you doing? “Not a prize fighter.”
“You look good considering you went toe-to-toe for twelve rounds.”
He hadn’t felt this good in… He couldn’t even remember. He’d slept. Actually fucking slept. For almost five hours.
He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt this rested. He was ravenous… and he’d been able to eat the sandwich. Even leftover chicken salad with soggy bread tasted like ambrosia.
His analytical side remained skeptical. Surely one night with a Mistress couldn’t have changed so much. Mal shouldn’t have had such an impact on him. Yet he felt like he’d crashed their police cruiser so hard that it’d flipped half a dozen times. In fact, he could easily imagine hanging upside, trapped in the seatbelt, with the car upside down in the ditch.
And he felt great anyway. Relaxed. Hungry and rested and ready to go again. Not miserable, injured, or worried about being trapped.
Elias stood and waved a file at him. “Let’s go. We should’ve left thirty minutes ago.”
Nodding, Colby opened the bottom drawer of his desk and pulled out one of his spare ties. He’d barely had time to get home and shower this morning. At least he’d still had a clean shirt in the closet. He grabbed the suit jacket draped over the back of his chair and followed his partner outside.
It wasn’t even April yet and it was fucking hot. He wouldn’t last more than hour before he had to strip the jacket off. Brass really preferred all the detectives to look the part, but most days it was too damned hot in Dallas to wear a suit and a tie all fucking day. He followed Elias into the convenience store next door instead of waiting outside like usual. A super large coffee with cream and sugar, and a giant bear claw would tie him over a bit. Cop jokes about the donut shop aside, he’d really missed the shot of caffeine and sugar that helped with those long hours and little sleep. He waited at the register for Elias to come up with his hot dog loaded with onions and relish and an energy drink. The lady ringing them up didn’t bat an eye at a hot dog for breakfast. She’d been working here next door to the precinct longer than Colby had been in Dallas and already seen it all. Colby paid for everything and they headed down the side road to the parking lot in the rear.
Elias waited until both car doors were shut and they’d both snapped their seat belts before beginning the interrogation. “What the hell did she do to you?”
Colby paused with half the donut already shoved in his mouth. “What?”
Eyes narrowed, Elias watched him eat the rest of the bear claw in a matter of bites. “You heard me.”
“Nothing, why?”
“Don’t give me that shit. I haven’t seen you eat in months, and you just demolished a donut the size of a dinner platter in three bites.”
Colby shrugged, but Elias wasn’t buying it. Unfortunately, his partner had the instincts of a pit bull crossed with a piranha. He smelled blood in the water, and wasn’t letting go.
“So Mal waved a magic wand and all your issues suddenly disappeared?”
Colby narrowed a hard gaze on him. “What the hell do you mean by issues?”
Elias’s eyes widened for a split second and then he laughed like Colby had just told him the dirtiest joke he’d ever heard. He started up the car and drove off the rear lot, merging into light traffic. “Yeah, right. You don’t have issues. My bad.”
“No, really. I…” Colby started to say, “I’ve been hiding them—pretty damned well, if I do say so myself.” Hadn’t he?
Elias cast a quick side glance at him. “After riding with me over a year, do you honestly think I’m that blind? You don’t eat. You don’t sleep. You exercise like a mad person. Some of the guys have even muttered about steroids for you to bulk up so much. Doesn’t help that you’re… twitchy. Like you’re on something. And your temper isn’t the best. That’s why you get to play bad cop all the time.”
Fuck. He’d never done drugs in his life. Never suspected that the people he worked with day in and day out had the slightest suspicion. “Who started that kind of rumor? Rodgers? I’ll fucking kill that bastard.”
“Oh, yeah, because talk like that helps so much. Look, don’t worry about it. I’ve had your back and always will, but you’ve got to be careful. One bad report from an eye witness, or a roughed up suspect, and both our asses will be on the line. The LT has already told me to keep you on a tight leash.”
And here he’d thought he’d been doing so great. No one had as many collars as him and Elias. Not even close. Until recently, when his partner had hooked back up with his woman, they’d both worked nonstop. He’d been going places. Elias was going to sit for his lieutenant test soon, and Colby would move up to senior detective in a couple of years. Moving on up in the world, or so he’d thought. Maybe the senseless grind of fighting to keep drugs off the streets would finally lighten up a bit. Or better yet, he’d move on to some new position entirely.
Only to realize his entire reputation was tarnished by gossip and his very character in doubt.
“I get it,” Elias said in a low, grim voice. “I’ve seen soldiers with it way worse than you. You’ve been holding it together fine, but I see you all the time. I know how tight a wire you’re walking. Until today. And I want to know what happened last night to snap that wire, so I can be on the look out for any new issues that might crop up.”
Colby turned his head and stared out the side window to be sure and not meet his partner’s gaze. “I had some… bedroom issues. For a couple of years now.”
“Ah.” Thank God Elias didn’t ask for all the gruesome details. “And Mal got around those issues?”
“Piece of cake.”
“What’d she have to do to eat that cake?”
Colby choked back a sudden wave of desperate laughter. It was actually a piece of pie, and I ate the whole fucking thing. Instead of trying to explain anything, he simply pulled up his sleeve enough to bare one of the bite marks on his forearm. It’d been the first bite, and arguably the least painful. Yet he had a brilliant bruise of green and purple around still-red marks in his flesh.
“Fucking hell. Yeah, that’d do it. Vic knows a thing or two about that. She bites like a fucking crocodile.”
“TMI, dude. I so do not want to know about your habits in the bedroom. Baring my soul is bad enough.”
Elias drove for a few moments before continuing. “So you’re feeling better now, right? I mean, if she got around the other issue, you won’t be wound so tightly.”
Colby shrugged, still staring out the window. “Don’t know how long it’ll last though.”
Elias grunted softly. “So you’ll see her again, then.”
“Fuck, yeah.” Colby was able to say it without hesitation. Even if his bedroom issues started to come back, he still wanted to see her. He still hoped she’d come up with a new way of helping him battle those demons.
“She’s that good? Not that I’m interested in details,” Elias said hurriedly with a threatening scowl as he pulled off to park in an nondescript alley. “But I’ve seen enough to know she’s…” He hesitated, as if he didn’t want to insult the woman if Colby liked her. “Dangerous.”
Colby pushed open the door, swung out, and leaned against the top of the car, waiting for Elias to get out and face him. Then he flashed a huge grin at his partner. “Damn straight she’s dangerous. That’s what makes her so appealing. She’s also sexy as hell.”
“TMI, TMI,” Elias rolled his eyes. “Just be careful, and keep her on the down low as long as you can. Some asshole still thinks it’s funny to leave spare handcuffs on my desk after that commercial.”
Colby didn’t say anything, because that asshole was him. If Elias found out…
He’ll probably start leaving whips and chains for me in our car.
That made him remember the hank of rope that Mal had laid out last night. His stomach quivered, uneasy, unsettled, but intrigued. He couldn’t lie. Not with a hardening dick.
Maybe I’ll ask her about that sometime.