18. Cal Walker
“ J esus fuck, Cal. You have to stop doing this!” I held my phone away from my ear to protect my eardrums from Cassandra’s shrill tone.
“What was I supposed to do, Cass? Just leave her down there?”
“Why were you there in the first place?”
“Just working, you know how it is.”
“Don’t pull that shit with me; you wouldn’t be calling me if this was one of those fucked up jobs you do for that twat waffle. You were hunting. Did you drag Naomi into this? I fucking told you if you used her as bait again, I was going to saw your balls off!”
Jesus… saw ? She couldn’t just cut them off like a normal sociopath? I cupped my dick over my jeans, soothing it gently as my balls tried to crawl up into my body and away from my scary sister’s voice.
“She’s not bait. She’s a scout. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. What’s done is done. I have to take out the trash, and my car needs a detail.” My not-so-subtle code for ‘I need to dispose of a body and swap out cars.’ The Bentley was hot now. I hadn’t been the most careful with this one, and I needed to cover my tracks.
“Can you please dig deep to find that dead, shriveled thing you call a heart and squeeze one tiny drop of empathy out of it? She’s a fucking sex slave, and he’s just a little kid, Cassandra. This asshole had her locked in the fucking basement. There were cages. ”
The line went quiet, and I knew I had her.
I wasn’t the only one with triggers.
“Fine. Bring her to my place, and I’ll get her cleaned up. Don’t you bring this shit anywhere near Naomi, Cal. I’m fucking serious.”
“Okay, okay. Fine. I’ll send her to you with Vox. I need to take the trash out so I can’t come with him. Can she stay the night? We can reunite her with the kid in the morning.”
“Why can’t you bring the kid here now? She’s going to want to be with him. Besides, the faster I can get these two into a shelter and out of my hair, the fucking better.”
I tongued my lip ring anxiously, thinking about how unlikely it was Ryan was going to let me take the kid anywhere without kicking up a fuss.
“It’s complicated; you just have to trust me,” I said, wondering how I could convince Ryan that the kid was safe now. Suddenly, I had an idea. Ryan didn’t trust me at all, but that was because I was a 6’4” mercenary who looked like he belonged in a 90s punk band.
He would likely trust an Ivy League lawyer in a pencil skirt with a no-nonsense attitude.
“Let her stay the night. I’m going to text you an address… Can you bring her to this spot tomorrow morning?”
“What time? I have court at two.”
“I don’t know. Early. Whenever is good for you.”
“Fine.”
“Loveee youuuuu!” I chirped, but I was already speaking to a dead line. She had hung up on me, which was typical. No one ever said it back.
Amanda was watching me from where she was perched on the dead bastard’s couch. She had changed into a pair of sweats and a hoodie while I cleaned up the mess that was Kyle. I had him neatly rolled in the thick painter’s plastic and duct taped up.
Amanda explained that she and Caleb had been more or less allowed free range of the house as long as they obeyed the rules. She had belonged to Kyle for ten fucking years. At first, she lived in the room I had saved her from, but as time went on, he had given her more and more freedom.
After she had Caleb, Kyle had even begun to take her to work events and press conferences, dressing her up and keeping her on his arm. It was easier to control her with the threat of her son’s safety on the line.
Apparently, Caleb had been sneaking out of the house to play at the park for a while now. He was too young to understand that his situation wasn’t normal, which is why he hadn’t raised any sort of alarm. Amanda said she had been trying to stop Caleb from sneaking out for months, but he always seemed to slip away. When she couldn’t find him the night before, Kyle finally found out, and he had been furious. He locked her back up in the room and went on a rampage trying to hunt the kid down.
“I’m sorry if I’m causing you trouble,” she whispered, and I gave her one of my most charming smiles.
“Not at all. My sister’s just grumpy. She needs to get laid,” I muttered, glancing down at my phone to find a text from Vox.
Vox:
*waving emoji*.
Cal:
Cool. You good to take the vic to Cassandra’s?
Vox:
*Thumbs up emoji*
I turned to Amanda. “My friend is going to drive you to my sisters. I need to get rid of Kyle.”
Amanda looked nervous. “Your friend?”
I could see the apprehension in her eyes. She didn’t trust men, and I didn’t blame her.
“He’s cool, I promise. No one is going to hurt you, Amanda. I’m not going to make you do anything you don’t want to do. If you wanted to leave right now and never see me again, I would say see you later and wish you luck. It’s just complicated because Caleb is at a safe house of sorts, and it’s going to take me some time to get him back to you.”
“When can I see him?” she asked, her blue eyes swimming with apprehension.
“First thing in the morning. I promise,” I assured her. She didn’t look convinced, but she pursed her lips and nodded.
I gestured to the front door. “After you.”
Bending down, I scooped up the plastic-wrapped asshole and followed Amanda out of the house.
Kyle was heavy, but it was nothing I couldn’t manage. Cleaning up was my least favorite part of the gig, but it was hella necessary to make sure your ass stayed out of jail.
At least I wasn’t going to have to chop this guy up or dig a grave.
My new best friend Ryan would be helping me with this one. I grinned to myself at the thought.
He was gonna be so mad. I snickered at the thought.
Vox was already kneeling in front of my Bentley with a lit cigarette hanging from his lips and a screwdriver in his hands, working on swapping out my plates.
I dropped Kyle’s corpse unceremoniously down in front of the Mercedes Brabus G Wagon that Vox had brought over for me. It was one of several cars I had in my collection at Apex, and since I was going to need to retire the Bentley, I figured I would opt for something roomier for my main ride. It didn’t have anything to do with the tall, cranky, and broad-shouldered ginger man that I couldn’t stop thinking about. Nope. Had nothing to do with him at all.
Okay. Maybe it had a little bit to do with making sure he was comfy when I inevitably convinced him to give me road-head. But it also had tons of room to cart around dead bodies, so it was a win-win all around.
“Keys?” I said, turning to face Vox and holding out my hands to catch. Vox stopped what he was doing and took a deep haul on his dart before reaching into his back pocket to grab the keys. He tossed them to me, and I sent him the Bentley set.
Vox was leaner than me, with deep olive skin and dark brown hair that he often bleached unicorn white.
He looked like a young Billy Idol on a good day and a sun-bronzed Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer on a bad day.
Where I was always in some kind of band T-shirt, Vox was usually in plain black. Black cotton T-shirts and close-fit leather pants tucked into combat boots were his uniform. Today, he had on a studded leather jacket, which hid the two full sleeves of tattoos I knew he had on his arms.
Without looking at Amanda, he clicked the unlock button for the doors to the Bentley and got back to work on the plates.
“Um…” Amanda hovered, clearly not knowing what to do, and I gave her what I hoped was a kind, reassuring smile.
“He doesn’t speak. Don’t take it personally. Hop in the back seat. He’s going to drop you off at my sister’s; she doesn’t live far from here.” Amanda nodded, wringing her hands together nervously. Then, without warning, she threw her arms around my waist and hugged me. She shook slightly and buried her face in my chest, and I stood frozen, unsure what I was supposed to do. After a long, tense moment, she whispered a gentle ‘thank you’ before tearing away and scurrying into the back seat of the Bentley.
“Anytime… I guess,” I said, scratching the back of my neck awkwardly. That was the first time a vic had hugged me. Sometimes it was easy to forget that I was actually making a difference with my deranged little hobby. It felt strange accepting her thanks. I wasn’t doing it for her. I was doing it for the tiny version of myself who had spent the first ten years of his life locked in a cage. Helping people like Amanda and Caleb was just a nice bonus.
Vox smirked at my dumbfounded expression as he finished up with my front plate. He moved to get in the driver’s seat, but I stopped him.
“Hey, after you drop off the car, can you swing by my place and check on Naomi?”
He scowled at me, flipping me the bird.
“What! Come on, man, please? I’m not gonna be home for ages, and Cass said she was going to murder me if I brought my bullshit anywhere near her.”
Vox’s liquid grey eyes simmered with annoyance, and he shook his head.
“Dude, what’s the big deal? We both know you don’t have any plans. I’m like… your only friend.”
He rolled his eyes and flipped me off again before climbing into the driver’s seat.
Leaning my hands on the door, I forced my head in through the open window as he punched the ignition.
“Just chill in the house until I get home. You can work from the kitchen, no? I’ll owe you.” This made him pause. He raised those silver eyes up at me, and a dangerous smile cocked on his perfect lips.
Vox was hot as fuck. It was a literal crime that he was straight. And I don’t mean like, ‘I’m straight, but I still get a boner while wrestling with my sexy home invader’ straight. He was straight, straight. Like, dude didn’t even like seeing my weiner, and my dick was a thing of fucking beauty if I did say so myself.
He raised an eyebrow at me and waited for me to read his mind, as usual.
“What are you going to give me if I watch over your little sister for you, Cal?” I quipped out loud in the voice I used whenever I was pretending to be him. His grin spread wider, and his eyes sparkled.
Little fucker.
“Hmm. I’ll make you dinner for a week.”
He wrinkled his nose and released the brake, allowing the car to roll back.
“Ok, ok, ok, bigger than that… ummmmm. I’ll give you one of my cars? The Aston Martin. I see you checking that one out all the time.”
An Aston Martin felt a little steep for spending a few hours with my insanely charming younger sister, but I didn’t say that out loud. I was pretty desperate for him to check on her. I hadn’t been home in over 24 hours, and I had no idea how long I would be dealing with this body. Outside of Cass, Vox was the only other person I would trust with Naomi’s safety. I needed this favor.
He rocked his head back and forth as if he wasn’t sure.
I sighed. “Fine. The Aston Martin and one no-strings-attached I.O.U.”
That won him over. He shot me a devilish smirk and ran a hand through his bleached hair before nodding.
“You’re a bastard, you know that? You couldn’t just help me out of the goodness of your heart?”
He rolled his eyes again and gestured to his general surroundings, clearly pointing out that he had already derailed his entire day to help clean up my mess. Without waiting for me to respond, he hit the button to roll up the window, forcing me away from the car.
“You win this round, Voxy!” I called after him as he reversed expertly down the long, winding driveway.
I turned around to eye up my plastic-wrapped corpse with a sigh.
“Alright, Kyle. Let’s go,” I said to the corpse, popping open the trunk of the all-black G-Wagon. “Killing you was fun and all, but honestly, I’m more looking forward to getting rid of you.” I grinned to myself as I hauled him into the trunk.
I couldn’t wait to see the look on Ryan’s face when I showed back up at his house with his first delivery.
I could see him now, with his sexy scowl and his hot red cheeks. My dick twitched in my pants as I jumped up into the driver’s seat of the G-Wagon. He was going to be just as annoyed with me as Vox was… The only difference was that I would be more than happy to trade favors with Ryan Fairview.