Page 50 of Right Number, Wrong Man

COLT

“ You are Jax?” Hailey asks, tears turning her eyes glassy.

For a moment, I swear I see myself in them like a mirror. I’m a cruel, bloody monster. Not for the lives I’ve taken, but because I hurt her, even if I never meant to.

I clutch my side, wincing. Red soaks my shirt, dripping through my fingers. “It was a misunderstanding at first! Please, Spitfire, let me explain?—”

“I’m so stupid!” Hailey shouts. She jumps up, wiping over her eyes, smearing dirt and my blood across her flushed face.

“I guess that saying is true: Everything is bigger in Texas. Especially the liars, and you’re the biggest fucking liar of all!

Why did you do this to me? How could you be such a heartless bastard? ”

“Because you stole my heart sixteen years ago.” A boulder of emotions closes my throat, but I force my voice past it. “Cause it’s always been you.”

She blinks, sparkling tears clinging to her long lashes. “What?”

“Because I fell for you when you showed up at our doorstep with a plate of cookies and introduced yourself as the new neighbors’ daughter.”

Her jaw slackens. “You were in love with me when we were kids?”

“I never stopped being in love with you. Not when you fell for my brother. Not when you hated me. Not when I left with a broken heart so you could live your life happily without me. I still loved you. Silently. Hopelessly. Unconditionally. No matter how often I’ve tried to shut the door on this love, a crimson thread connects our souls.

Call it fate, call it chance, call it whatever you want, but it always pulls me back to you—bloodied and bruised, but yours. Cause I’m always, eternally yours.”

Hailey presses a hand to her trembling lips, staring at me while I push to my feet. The bullet wound hurts like shit. So does my heart. I want to hold her, but she’d probably be disgusted if I touched her now.

Instead, I spill my guts cause it might be my only chance.

“The night Jax—the night I got the first text from you, I was checking Mike’s phone for Christmas pictures. Momma asked me to. I canceled his contract right after the funeral, but the company made a mistake. They added his number to my account and put me on some stupid family plan.”

She shakes her head. “I can’t believe this! Why didn’t you tell me instead of making up a fake identity?”

“For a lifetime of lonely nights, I dreamed of touching you in the ways I never could. But Jax could. Every time you called me by his name, it ripped my heart to pieces. Still, the pain was better than not having you at all.”

Hailey hides her face behind her hands, shoulders trembling as she cries.

“When you married my brother I lost you the first time, and I couldn’t lose you again. It would’ve killed me. I love you too much to risk what I had with you as Jax. You make me weak. You tempt me. You make me selfish.”

She scoffs, lowering her hands, a storm of emotions raging in her eyes. “Are you saying this is my fault?”

“No, but I need you to understand why I fucked up like this. Why I lied. All I wanted was to have you to myself for a while and I’d wait another sixteen years for a single day with you. For a single touch.”

“Was any part of Jax real or did you play a role to trick me?” she asks, voice quivering.

“It was all real, Spitfire. Every moment. Every touch. Only one thing wasn’t true: this between us was never casual for me. It never could be.”

Hailey’s palm meets my chest in a slap. “You’re the dumbest piece of shit I’ve ever met!”

“You can call me whatever you want. I deserve it.” A wry smile tugs on my lips. “I should’ve?—”

“Because I love you too!” she shouts in my face.

My ears ring. Am I hallucinating from blood loss?

I point at her. “You? Love?” I point at myself. “ Me ?” I blink, my brain function suddenly reduced to caveman level intelligence. “You love me?”

“You really don’t get it, do you?” She runs her hands through her hair, tugging at the roots as she groans. “I broke up with your alter ego Jax because I started having feelings for you , you bull-headed idiot!”

My knees sag and I choke on ragged breaths.

Hailey didn’t meet somebody else.

She fell for me .

I was jealous of… myself ?

“Jax is like a wet dream come true. He’s this-this… perfect lover! And then when you and I buried our grudges, I realized you were sweeter than I ever knew. You are everything I ever wanted Mike to be. Caring, protective, attentive. Hell, you’re even funny when you let your guard down.”

I put my bloody hand to my chest like that’s gonna hold it together.

She wants me ?

“I overlooked the right man in front of me because of a stupid prank and a lie when you took the blame for your brother.” Hailey shakes her head. “And now you’re ruining everything again with more lies!”

My thoughts whirl. I can barely form a sentence.

“Give me another chance, please. I’m still Colt, but I’m Jax, too. All those things he did to you—the things I did to you—it felt so right. I want that for the rest of my days, but not just the sex. I want to make a life with you.”

Fresh tears shimmer in her eyes. “I don’t know if I can trust you again.”

My heart dips.

I had one real shot with the love of my life and I blew it.

I reach for Hailey. She flinches as my bloody fingers twine with hers, but she doesn’t pull away.

“I’ll do anything to make it up to you,” I plead. “If you want me to grovel, I’ll grovel. If you want me to die for what I’ve done, I’ll die. Just talk to me. Tell me what you want.”

“I want you to leave Sunridge Hollow. Re-enlist, move, go to hell. I don’t care. Just leave.”

It feels like she reached into my chest and tore my heart clean out. “Please, don’t do this. There must be another way?—”

A shrill scream comes from along the path.

The old lady from the reception stands there, an ancient brick-style cell in hand. “I heard a gunshot and—Oh my good Lord, you’re bleeding! I’ll call the police!” Shaking, she presses the keys.

“Nah, it’s alright,” I say, forcing myself to smile. “We don’t need the cops cause there ain’t no crime. My revolver accidentally went off when I was showing it to my friend here. It was my own fault.”

My eyes meet Hailey’s and I see a glimmer of relief in them. I’d never tell anybody what really happened and get her in trouble.

The old lady’s thin brows rise. “An ambulance then?”

I nod reluctantly. “Guess so.”

Hailey uses the interruption to pull her hand from mine. Before I can react, she grabs her clutch and sprints down the trail toward the hotel. I try to run after her, but the world spins. Fast.

My knees buckle and I’m on the ground again.

The receptionist leans over me, panic deepening her wrinkles. She says something, but I don’t listen. I don’t care. My eyes close and I surrender to the cold exhaustion settling in my bones.

I hope the ambulance gets here too late so I can bleed out in peace.

What’s the point of being alive if Hailey hates me again?