Page 21 of The Spice Is Nice

“Are you okay?” I shouted, coming to his side.

He straightened his shirt with the practiced composure of a young man trying to look like he hadn’t just been manhandled by a convicted criminal. He startled when he saw us.

“Tanner, what was that about?”

He looked at the ground, picked his hat up and brushed the dust off it in his hands. “It’s nothing, Ivy. Family business.”

“No, Seth was threatening you. I need to know why.”

He regarded us for a beat. “Dad got a loan from the Congressman. Things have been rough since, well, since my brother died. I only recently found out that Dad let their debt spiral, and now the loan’s come due. We either pay or the Congressman takes our property. Our home.”

“Tanner, you cannot let your father sign those papers.”

“With respect, Ivy, leave it alone.” His voice was thin but firm. “Wouldn’t want you to get hurt.”

Colt stepped forward. The way he moved had an urgency that went beyond one cowboy crew looking out foranother. “If you and your dad need help fighting these guys, the Off-Duty men will back you up. You hear me? Whatever you need.”

Tanner looked at Colt for a long moment. Something passed between them I couldn’t read. He shook his head. “Thanks. But I need to catch up with my dad and figure things out.” He put his hat back on and ran out of the alley, boots echoing until he rounded the corner of the building. I turned to Colt.

“Not sure I like that look in your eye. Are you okay?” I asked. His jaw was clenched tight, and his gaze was still fixed where Tanner had disappeared, and whatever the Hollis name had done to him, he was carrying it below the surface.

I filed it away. I would ask him about it. Later. When I’d handled what I needed to handle first.

“I had a feeling Seth wasn’t here just for family support during the sheriff election.” I paced several steps away and back again. “Sage had told me she overheard someone at the Copper Cup say that Seth’s been staying out at the Gruff Bear Motel outside of town. His motorcycle’s there every night. Which means… when he rides into town, his room sits empty.”

“Wylde? What are you thinking?”

“I could get into his room and see if there’s anything that might suggest what he’s really here to do. Documents, a map, anything that ties him to the Congressman’s schemes. If I could go to the sheriff armed with evidence, and then I told him what Seth used to make me do, he might lock him up and my family would be safe.”

“No way are you going into his hotel room,” he ordered through clenched teeth.

“I can handle it.”

“Not alone, you can’t.”

“I’ll be fine,” I clipped.

“Oh, really?” He crossed his arms, stepping closer. The alley felt very small. “Like how you don’t want to face Seth alone and need me to hang onto and kiss? Seems to me youdowant someone watching over you. You just don’t want to admit it.”

The words hit exactly where he’d aimed them. He wasn’t wrong. I straightened my spine.

“Seth has left. No one’s watching. Your job as protective boyfriend is done for the night.”

I stomped away down the alley to re-enter the saloon by the front.

“That’s not how this works, Wylde. You don’t get to turn this on or off with a switch when it’s convenient for you,” he called after me, following. “Don’t you dare go near that motel, and if you do, you’d better do it when I’m by your side.”

The music hit me like a wall, the crowd and the lights and the noise swallowing me whole, and I moved through it all with my shoulders back and my chin up, my hands shaking inside my pockets.

My mind raced, mapping the route to the Gruff Bear Motel in my head—and thinking about the way Colt’s body had gone rigid when Seth said the name Hollis.

Whatever that was, it ran deep. And Colt was carrying it alone. I knew plenty about carrying things alone.

Chapter 9

Room 14

Ivy