He had no idea how he’d get past that with Cher and her son. If the worst happened to him on the job or just because life sucked, she deserved it even less if she got in deep with him and shit went down.
He just knew now that poison was in his system, and the woman Mia was, she didn’t have it in her to help him work it out.
The woman Cher was, she did.
He’d sorted that in his mind, but that was the least of his baggage.
He not only needed to start conversations with Cher about what was happening, he needed to have a conversation with Mia.
She’d fucked things up since he left.
But he’d fucked things up, leaving her. She’d loved him. It was clear she still felt that. And bottom line, back then, he’d hurt her and he’d played his own part in continuing to do it.
He had to explain and apologize so they could both move on.
Mike came back, they went through their cases, decided where they were going to start their work that day, and they were getting ready to head out the door when Sully and Colt hit the top of the back stairs.
“Merry,” Colt bit out the minute he made the room. “Interrogation.”
Without another word, Colt stalked toward the side hall where the interrogation rooms were.
Garrett felt his jaw set and looked to his partner.
Mike’s eyes were aimed at where Colt was disappearing. He felt Garrett’s gaze and looked to him.
“Think he’s heard about Swank’s,” Mike noted, mouth twitching.
“I see that didn’t sit real good with you,” Sully called to Merry. “But my advice, get in there or you’re both gonna get suspended for brawling in the bullpen.”
Not happy about it but knowing Sully wasn’t wrong, Garrett got up and walked to the hall.
He found the door open to interrogation room one, Colt waiting inside, ass leaned to the table, palms pressed to the top beside his hips. Garrett made his statement by not entering the room but instead stopping in the doorway and leaning a shoulder against the jamb.
He further made his statement verbally.
“Not a big fan of being summoned, brother,” he said quietly.
“Cher’s made the calls,” Colt clipped. “All hands on deck with her girls bringin’ dresses to J&J’s she can look over tonight and pick one for her date with you tomorrow at Swank’s.”
Fuck, he needed to call to get a reservation.
He made note of that even as he felt his lips curve at Cher doing what Cher did.
“I see that pleases you,” Colt remarked, not sounding pleased, and Garrett focused on him again. “Probably please you more she made a date for a weekday sleepover for her boy at Meems’s. So rest up ’cause you got all night to tap that real good, brother.”
His tone was cutting.
His words were incendiary.
Garrett battled the burn as he pushed away from the door. “Watch yourself, Colt.”
Colt’s brows went up. “You’re playin’ with my girl and you’re tellin’ me to watch myself?”
“No, I’m takin’ my girl out to dinner and I’m tellin’ you, even though I know you’re makin’ a point, you need to watch your mouth when you’re talkin’ about her.”
Colt’s eyes went intense.
“Your girl?” he asked.
“Learned from her, not your business until she makes it. You two are tight. You and me are tight. For her, what she’s got with you, that wins out. So she makes this your business, that’s hers. What you need from me, respect to you as my brother, respect to you as the man who gives a shit about her, I’m havin’ a care. You got my promise on that, Colt. Now, the rest of it, you need to have a care.”
“I told you—”
“Her son’s daddy and his bitch are thinkin’ of makin’ a play for her boy,” Garrett cut him off to say. “I found that shit out for her so she could shut it down.”
“She told me that, but—”
“This mornin’, a man walked up to her door and offered her a thousand dollars to talk about Lowe.”
That made Colt push up from the table.
“I shut that down too,” Garrett told him. “This is not play. This is not a hookup. This is not about Mia. This is not dick but me and a woman I have feelin’s for, explorin’ what’s goin’ on between us. It’s time she started her life again after Lowe interrupted it. She’s doin’ that with me.”
He crossed his arms on his chest, held Colt’s gaze, and kept going.
“I have no clue how this is gonna roll. I got shit I gotta deal with. She does too. But right now, we’re lookin’ at doin’ it together. We can tough it out, I see good things. We can’t, we can’t. But that’s ours. Not yours because you want to cushion her from any hits life might land. Not anyone’s. I gave it time because I needed that time to know exactly where I was before I took it further. I gave it time because she needed to know I gave it that time for her and her kid. I’m all about doin’ this right and that’s also for Cher and for Ethan. That’s said, so now you need to stand down, Colt. If not for me, wantin’ me to have good in my life, then for her.”
“You better—” Colt kept trying.
But Garrett was done with this shit.
“Don’t say more. Don’t threaten me. Don’t warn me. Don’t do shit, Colt,” Garrett interrupted him again. “Not shit you can’t come back from. You know I’m only givin’ you what I just gave you because of what she means to you. You don’t cut me some slack, we got problems, and straight up, man, I do not want problems with you when my attention needs to be on sortin’ my shit so I can bust my ass to make a good woman happy.”