The Mercenary and the Mortician (The Silent Hollow #1)

80. Ryan Fairview

Alexa, Play: Wicked Games - Lusiant

I was a fucking nervous wreck .

Cal fucking lied to me.

He hadn’t gone for a nap. I couldn’t find him anywhere. After spending a few hours in the attic, I went to check on him and found our room empty.

After hunting through the entire house with no luck, I began to panic. I called his phone, but of course, he hadn’t taken it with him wherever he’d gone. It was lying on his desk, unplugged from the charger for the first time in weeks.

I tried a few different number combos, trying to get through his passcode, but after a few incorrect tries, his phone locked me out from trying.

I was nearly in frantic, angry tears when Vox strolled in through the front door, clutching his rifle and looking pissed off.

He took one look at my face, and his expression darkened further.

“Cal’s missing!” I gasped, and Vox’s face drained of all color. His lip curled in agitation, and he stalked past me, making a beeline for the living room where all his tech was set up.

I followed him like a lost puppy and stood next to him as he threw himself on the couch and started tapping away on his laptop.

He clicked an app, and suddenly, all his monitors were full of what looked like camera feeds.

I blinked, completely taken aback.

This was… my house! There were cameras filming everything that happened in almost every room of the entire funeral home!

Including my bedroom and bathroom!

What the fuck!?

Vox hit a button, and the feeds rewound. I watched in complete astonishment as Cal walked up to his phone, read some messages, and then beelined for the living room.

He dug through Vox’s duffle, stuffed a gun in his waistband, and four black objects into a backpack. Then he stalked out of the house. I followed his dark figure from feed to feed as he exited the house, disarmed a motion detector on his way, then hopped into his car and sped away.

“What the fuck! Where the fuck is he going!?” I exclaimed out loud. My voice was embarrassingly high, and Vox shot me an annoyed look before pulling a pad of paper over to himself and scribbling a note.

‘Obviously Apex. I ran into some of Damian’s guys while on patrol. They’ve been eliminated, but I’m sure they were sent because Damian knew Cal wasn’t going to be here.’

“Why the fuck would he go to Apex?! After everything we’ve done to keep him safe! Why would he go back to that man?!”

I was completely gutted.

Was he going to be tortured again? Killed? Would I ever even see him again?

How could he leave like that without even saying goodbye?

Vox gave me a somewhat awkward yet sympathetic look. Like he knew I was about to cry but didn’t really know what to do about it.

I was spiraling and literally shaking as my heart shattered into what felt like a million pieces in my chest when I heard the front door open.

Everyone should have been home except Cal, so both Vox and I nearly sprinted out of the living room to see who it was.

Vox cocked his rifle as we went, and panic coursed through me.

What if Vox missed some of Damian’s men!? What if we were under attack!?

My fears died the moment my eyes fell on the cause of my mental fucking breakdown.

“Hey, ginger snap.” Cal beamed at me as he stepped through the door.

He was backlit by a purple and orange sunset, his almost black hair glowing chestnut brown where the light hit it.

My eyes flew over his body from head to toe, frantically looking for any sign of injury or distress.

His usual all-black clothes were covered in fine grey dust, and he had a smear of blood on his cheek and on his fingers.

In one hand, he was clutching a very large, scary-looking gun. In his other hand, he had a bouquet of lilies.

He kicked the door shut behind him, giving Vox and me an easy grin as he stepped forward.

The initial shock of seeing him back and in one piece wore off, and I was suddenly pissed.

“Where the fuck have you been!” I barked, rushing forward and shoving him roughly with both hands.

He cocked his head to the side, frowning at me.

“I was just?—”

“How dare you scare me like that!” I was shouting now, and I shoved him again, angry tears burning in my eyes.

Cal glanced at Vox, but Vox crossed his arms and scowled at Cal, clearly just as pissed off as I was.

“Awh, come on, baby, I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said, pouting. “I knew you might be upset with me… Look, I brought you flowers.”

He tried to hand me the bouquet, but I snatched them up and tossed them onto one of the antique tables that garnished the front foyer.

“Don’t you baby me!” I snarled, trying to shove him again but failing. He stepped easily out of the way, handing the large gun to Vox, who begrudgingly took it from him. Next, he shrugged out of his backpack and handed that to Vox as well.

“Saved you one.” He winked. Vox just narrowed his eyes at Cal before shoving his finger in his face angrily.

‘ We’re not done here’ was the overall tone of Vox’s expression. For a minute, I thought they were going to get into it, but Vox just shot me a ‘ he’s your problem now’ shrug and stalked back into the living room.

Great. No friends among thieves… or mercenaries, I guess.

“Ryan, baby, come here,” Cal said, turning to face me, but I was still furious.

I threw a punch at him, and he barked out a laugh, catching it easily in his bloody hand. He wrapped his fingers around my fist and jerked me into him.

“I’m sorry, okay? I couldn’t tell you where I was going. You thought I was going to overt-exert myself by giving you a blowjob. There’s no way you would have let me go back to kill him. I had to sneak away.”

“If you have to lie to me to get your way, then that should be a pretty good indicator that your idea is fucking stupid!”

“I didn’t lie! I just… left.”

“You said you were going to rest!”

He rolled his eyes, though he was smiling at me in the most endearing way. My resolve was already fading.

He slid his hands around my hips and thumbed up the hemline of my T-shirt, brushing his fingers over the sensitive skin of my abdomen.

“Baby… when have I ever voluntarily gone to rest? Come on, that wasn’t even believable.”

I snorted, my face burning from both my raging emotions and the light circles he was now tracing beneath my T-shirt. The blood that had been pumping my heart full of anxiety and anger was now shooting directly toward my dick, and I was having a hard time staying angry.

“Besides…” He leaned forward and brushed a soft kiss on my lips. Even covered in debris and blood, he smelled like Cal, and I couldn’t help but wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him back. He grinned against me and pulled away just enough that our noses were touching.

“It was worth it. He’s dead, Ryan. I killed him. You can open back up whenever you’re ready.”

“Wh-what?” I gasped. But instead of answering me, he took my open mouth as an invitation to slip his tongue past my lips, closing his mouth over mine.

He dug his fingers into the skin on my waist, and I groaned into him as he kissed me painfully slowly… like we had all the time in the world.

He slid his hands over my ass and down my thighs, and before I knew what was happening, he hiked me up off the ground and forced me to wrap my legs around his waist. He didn’t even break our kiss.

I pulled away from him in shock, gasping for air.

“Callum! Put me down! This definitely counts as strenuous activity!”

My voice sounded just as panicked as I felt, but he just chuckled and began to make his way to the stairs.

I was not a short man. Carrying me like this was definitely not easy, even though Cal had several inches on me. However, he barely seemed winded as he held me up, kissing me over and over again on the way to our room.

“Baby, I just killed like fifty mercenaries and the leader of an underground trafficking ring. If I can survive all that, then I’m more than healthy enough to carry my man to bed.”

Kicking the door to the bedroom closed behind us, he sat me down on the edge of the bed in question.

My heart was suddenly pounding again, but this time for a different reason.

The amusement was gone from Cal’s face, and his eyes were now dark with lust and a primal sort of need.

My cock swelled between my legs as he peeled my T-shirt off without asking permission.

“You did all that?” I whispered, absolutely amazed that he was capable of such a thing while also somehow so fucking turned on.

He nodded, brushing his thumb over my lips, before sliding his hand around my nape and resting his forehead against mine.

“Yes, Ryan.” He closed his eyes and inhaled as if he were breathing me in. “And I would do it again. I couldn’t allow you to keep putting Fairview at risk because of me and all my baggage.” Opening his eyes, he pinned me with an intense look full of so much emotion that I found myself swallowing back what felt like another rush of tears. “I want to be the person you count on to help you achieve your dreams, not the reason they go up in flames.”

I choked, and he made a soothing ‘ shhh’ noise, dropping a damp kiss on my lips.

“I’m sorry it took me so long to get here, baby,” he whispered, ghosting his thumb over my mouth again. I knew he wasn’t talking about coming back from his mission.

“You got here as fast as you could.” I hummed as his warm, minty breath mingled with mine. My whole body was buzzing with his proximity, and my skin erupted in gooseflesh in anticipation of his touch.

He nodded. “I did. But now that I’m here, I’ll never allow anyone to threaten you again. You’re not alone anymore, Ryan. You have me now. Do you hear me?”

I met his warm brown eyes head-on and nodded, feeling too overcome with emotion to speak.

“Good.”He kissed me again, holding my head steady in his large hands so I couldn’t get away while he devoured my mouth.

I could taste the mint on his breath, and I whimpered as he rubbed his tongue possessively against mine.

“I don’t want to wait anymore, Ryan. Will you let me have you? Please, baby?”

I nodded again, completely unable to deny him anything at this moment.

“I’m already yours, Callum,” I whispered, and he gave me a slow, gorgeous smile before sealing his lips to mine.