“We’ll take it, put a listening device in it. You can have it back tomorrow morning.”
My eyes filled with tears. I’d just gotten this, and now they were asking me to give it up, to take the present Colt had given me and turn it around and use it against him.
But I had no choice.
My fingers fumbled as I undid the clasp and handed it to Caleb.
“When can I have it back?” I asked as he shoved it into his pocket carelessly.
“I told you, tomorrow morning. I’ll meet you at nine o’clock, at the drugstore by Loose Cannons, the one I saw you at the other day. I’ll give it back to you then.”
“And what? It will pick up all the conversations around me?”
“Yes. You are to wear it at all times, and ask Colt questions about his business.”
“’Cause that’s not going to seem obvious,” I said sarcastically.
“I’m not asking you to be obvious about it. Look for openings. Talk to other people if you have to.”
“Colt’s not… I mean, even if there was anything going on, he’s not going to tell me anything.”
“Maybe, maybe not.” Caleb leaned back in the booth. “But let me make myself perfectly clear. If this is a rouse, if you do not provide us with the information we’re looking for, or if I find out that you’ve been dishonest in any way, you will go down with Colt Cannon. You will be arrested.”
“And charged with what?”
He shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. Obstruction of justice, drug trafficking, interfering with a federal investigation…” He ticked them off one by one on his fingers. “Those are just the felonies, shall I list the misdemeanors?”
“No,” I said. “I got it.” My heart was pounding deep in my chest as I realized just how fucked I was. Caleb and his team were not messing around. They weren’t going to stop until they got something, or until they were convinced nothing was going on.
And if Colt couldn’t be trusted – if what he’d told me about how he wanted to change Loose Cannons wasn’t true – then I was going to go down with him.
When I got back to the Loose Cannons, the back door was open, and I pulled Colt’s car into the parking lot and cut the engine.
The conversation with Caleb had left me reeling. Of course it was going to be unsettling, having a conversation with a freakin’ FBI agent. But it wasn’t just that. It was the things he’d said about Colt.
It felt like a knife was twisting in my stomach when I thought about how it would feel if I were wrong about him.
I took a deep breath and got out of the car.
As I got closer to the back door, I could hear voices coming from the back hallway, and I slowed down.
A second later, Colt’s Uncle Mick came waltzing out, holding a cardboard box loosely under one arm. He was wearing jeans and a black plaid shirt, and he was smoking a cigarette. When he saw me, he grinned.
“Olivia, right?” he asked. He pulled his cigarette out of his mouth and then spit onto the ground, something brown and thick. The scent of tobacco filled the air, and I realized he was smoking and chewing dip at the same time.
The thought of it made me want to hurl.
“Yeah,” I said. “I’m Olivia.”
He nodded, not showing a trace of emotion on his face, and then his eyes snaked up and down my body, so slow, so gross, that I had to resist the urge to cover myself. “You behind this bullshit?” he asked, and spit again. “Colt buying me out, trying to go legit?”
“Colt makes his own decisions.” I meant it to come out strong, hard, but my voice sounded meek.
“Don’t act innocent, bitch.” He spit again, and his spittle hit the pavement, thick and dark.
“I’m… Colt’s waiting for me.” Adrenaline pulsed through my veins, followed by strong hard panic. I started to walk by him and into the building, but Mick took a step toward me, fast, like he was going to try to grab me or even worse, hurt me.
I flinched and he started laughing. “Scared little bitch, aren’t you?” He smiled again. “Colt always did like them innocent.”
I took in a deep breath and rushed past him, my heart pounding out of my chest as I walked quickly down the back hallway. The afternoon service was starting, and I could hear the sexy bass line pounding through the club, so loud I could feel it in my ribs.
I snaked through the back toward the office, but before I could get there, I heard voices coming from the other side of the corridor, down by the private rooms, the ones Jessa had sent me to the other night, the night those guys at the bachelor party had messed with me, the night I’d cut myself so deep I’d almost passed out, the night Colt had saved me from myself.
“Get the fuck out,” someone was saying loudly, their tone commanding.
I stopped in my tracks.
Colt.
“Hey, hey, hey,” a girl’s voice shouted next, and I followed the sounds, rushing down the hallway toward the voices.