59. Vox Moretti
I was surrounded by fucking idiots.
Keeping Ryan and Cal’s sisters all in one place was a full-time fucking job. So much so that I barely had a chance to get to my real work… which was figuring out how I was going to take down Apex the second I had Cal back by my side.
However, Cassandra, Naomi, and Ryan thought they knew better than me and were constantly trying to convince me to break into Apex to save Cal. When they weren’t up my ass demanding why I wasn’t doing anything to get him back, they were attempting to sneak out to do it on their own.
Which was fucking ridiculous.
Cassandra, predictably, was the worst for this. She was constantly trying to rebel against my one rule, which really wasn’t fucking complicated.
The rule was: no one left Fairview without me. I thought it was pretty obvious that this rule was in place for their own goddamn safety.
Apparently not.
The only person who appeared to truly be on my side was Theo, but it definitely wasn’t due to some misguided sense of loyalty to me. She just seemed to be enjoying her self-assigned role as Cassandra’s bodyguard. Throughout the course of a week, the two of them had gotten into multiple screaming matches over Cass trying to escape to go hunt down her brother.
Well, Cass was the only one screaming. Theo was usually just quietly manhandling her back into the guest house with an amused smirk on her face.
Naomi was just as bad, if not worse.
Worse, because, unlike Cass, she wasn’t trying to go on a rescue mission alone. She was trying to recruit Ryan to help her.
I was constantly catching the two of them conspiring to escape my watchful eye, which was impossible considering the fact that Cal had installed cameras in the entire house, and I knew where they were and what they were doing at all times.
Neither of them knew about the cameras; thank fuck. It gave me a much-needed edge since keeping the three of them under control was a non-stop pain in my ass.
Ryan had shut down his business temporarily, which was both a blessing and a curse.
It was a blessing because it made it possible for me to booby-trap the entire perimeter of his house without worrying about accidentally icing random civilians.
It was a curse because now he had nothing better to do than plot misguided rescue attempts with a nineteen-year-old who had zero combat training.
When Cal was out of recalibration, he was going to owe me another damn car for dealing with this shit… which he could definitely afford since I moved all his money out of his Apex accounts into my own off-shore accounts. I opened these accounts years ago for this exact reason when Gavin first planted the idea of rebellion in my head. I was glad I had because we were going to need all the money we could get our hands on.
It was one of the few things I had actually managed to get done while babysitting these morons for the last week.
Ryan hadn’t let me sleep in the G-Wagon like I originally planned, so I was set up in his living room with my laptop and several monitors I had purchased to make my life easier.
I was supposed to be digging into the dark web and finding any contracts Damian had out on Cal’s family.
If I was going to kill him, I would need to make sure any hits he had set up to launch in the event of his death were uncovered and dealt with.
The good thing about dealing with mercenaries was most of us were pretty monetarily motivated. Loyalty was bought. Very few of us were committed to our employers outside of a paycheck. So, if I could find the contracts Damian had out as a security measure, all I had to do was promise more money not to take the hit.
The only issue was it was like finding a needle in a proverbial haystack, and it would take me some time to unearth all the offers he might have on the market.
However, I checked the camera feeds for what felt like the zillionth time that week to find Naomi and Ryan in the office with their heads together.
For fuck’s sake.
Slamming my laptop shut, I stalked out of the living room and made my way back into the office.
Both of them looked up as I entered, and the look on Ryan’s face told me he was at his wit’s end.
I’d given him a Beretta and had been working on teaching him to use it at the gun range each morning, but it wasn’t exactly a skill that came naturally to him. He still barely knew how to turn the safety on and off, so when he snatched the gun up off his desk and pointed it at me, I almost laughed out loud.
“Listen, Vox. I’m sorry, but I’ve had enough. Cal’s been gone for days, and we’re just sitting here doing fucking nothing!” He snarled. I glanced at the gun he had trained on me with shaking hands and then over at Naomi.
She crossed her arms over her chest and pegged me with one of her more stubborn looks.
“Yeah, Vox. We’re going to get Cal. You can either come with us or stay out of our way.”
Oh yeah?
In one smooth motion, I knocked Ryan’s hand to the side and twisted his wrist, forcing him to drop the firearm. I caught it and flipped it so it was pointed at him.
His mouth fell open in shock, and his eyes widened at how quickly I had managed to disarm him.
I raised a condescending eyebrow.
You were fucking saying?
Ryan’s entire face went red with a mix of rage and humiliation, but I just stared at him.
If he couldn’t even get a drop on me, how did this guy think he was going to break into a fucking mercenary base and extract a prisoner?
Besides, Damian would let Cal out on his own soon enough. Recalibration usually lasted about a week, and we were six days in. He was probably already in recovery.
It sucked, and I knew he was hurting, but I couldn’t break in there on my own and keep his people safe at the same time. Not without careful planning.
What they wanted to do was fucking suicide, and Cal wouldn’t want me to pull him out of a temporary situation at the risk of leaving his people unguarded.
He had told me to protect these morons, so that was what I was going to do. When I had him back, we could take down Apex together, but for now, I needed to fucking plan and work on covering our goddamn bases in anticipation of his release.
I was fuming and completely at the end of my rope when my phone buzzed in my pocket. Shooting Naomi and Ryan a warning glare, I slid the device out to find there was a notification from one of the apps that handled the motion detectors I installed outside at the beginning of the week.
My eyes widened when I saw a red Aston Martin parked in front of the house.
My red Aston Martin.
My heart leapt to my throat just as a familiar tall, dark-haired man stepped out of the driver’s seat. He looked directly at the camera, and rage curled deep in my gut at the dead look in his eyes.
Cal was back, and he looked like he’d been through hell.
I glanced up at Naomi and Ryan and held up both hands in a ‘stay here’ motion.
Ryan frowned. “What? What’s happening? Was that Cal? Did he text you?”
Ignoring him, I repeated the ‘stay here’ motion and turned on my heel to go to my friend, shoving Ryan’s gun into the waistband of my jeans.
I didn’t think Ryan would listen to me; he never did. But fucking whatever. I had done my job and kept him alive up until this point. If he followed me, I wasn’t going to stop him.
From the look on Cal’s face, I had a feeling Ryan was going to get a fucking reality check, anyway.