27. Caleb
C uddling was nice.
I’d forgotten how lovely it was to curl up with someone I trusted, to have her enveloped in my scent and she in mine.
I let myself relish the moments as Emily and I drifted in and out of a light sleep. It wasn’t anything hugely restorative, just cat naps, but still so incredibly perfect. After a couple of hours, though, I noticed some of the bliss had faded, and Emily was moving back and forth.
“Are you alright?” I asked, rolling over to give her a more solid look. She didn’t seem too pale. If anything, the opposite—still quite flushed from our coupling. But her face shouldn’t have been so red still. I reached over and felt her temperature.
“I might be warm,” she said, blinking slowly at me.
Damn, her shift really was close. I’d known the entire time, of course, but it still felt like too soon. I still had so much to teach her.
“I’ll get you a glass of water and an ice pack,” I said. “You wait right here, okay?”
She nodded, giving me a lazy, contented look. “Okay. Thank you.”
I got out of bed, struggled into my discarded sweatpants, and headed towards my kitchen. I was barely outside the bedroom door when my phone rang, but as I pulled it out of my pocket to check who’d bothered to call me at night, Emily gently said my name.
“Yes, baby girl?” I asked, the term of endearment slipping out without a second thought.
“Do you have any crackers? I’m a little nauseous, I think.”
“I’ve got a pack somewhere,” I said while answering my phone. I didn’t quite realize what I did until I put it to my ear and heard just about the last voice I ever wanted to hear.
“Good afternoon, Caleb. You’re a difficult man to track down.”
I froze mid-step as I recognized the voice I’d been dodging for so long. Fuck, fuck ! I’d really messed up.
“Gray,” I said. I didn’t want to give him an inkling of what was going on with me. A difficult thing to do, given how perceptive he was.
“Succinct as always. I’m sure you realized I’ve been trying to contact you, but I’ll assume you’ve just been occupied.”
“I have,” I said flatly. Not wanting Emily to hear, I hurried all the way into the kitchen. Inside, I was panicking and fuming.
Of course I couldn’t have anything nice for too long. Anytime things were remotely going well for me, life would swing a machete at my legs.
“Perhaps occupied with that lovely young lady you were out with a couple days ago?”
At that, my blood ran cold in my veins, my stomach twisting so tight, it felt like it could pop.
Gray knew about Emily.
It took every single ounce of self-control not to freak out in any audible way. I didn’t want to let Gray know how much he’d rattled me. He was far too dangerous.
“Who?”
“Oh, come now, let’s not play coy. A couple of my boys happened to spot you at the local mall. I thought you were too old to be just wasting your time there, so I figured whoever you were with must be worth the risk of entering Black Hawk territory.”
Shit. I was screwed. So screwed. I thought I’d been careful enough, but I’d clearly underestimated just how much Gray was paying attention. At least he had no way of knowing who or what Emily was. If he had any idea she was the long-missing Kaia, all hell would break loose.
“So I took the liberty of digging into who the pretty young thing could be. Turns out that she’s a lovely college student who happens to smell remarkably interesting. Don’t you agree?”
My ears rushed with noise. I wanted to puke, just straight-up puke.
He knew Emily was a shifter. He knew Emily was a shifter!!!
“What do you want?” I managed to grind out.
“I don’t think I’ve been subtle about it, my friend. You need to pay me what you owe, and I’m tired of waiting. You have twenty-four hours, and that’s being generous.”
“A day?” I hissed as a little bit of my anger slipped. “Come on, even if I somehow had the money, I wouldn’t be able to withdraw that much at the bank in a single day.” I knew I needed to buy more time, but I didn’t quite know how. I felt myself reaching for straws, for anything that’d convince him to give me a break. “Come on, Gray. I’ve been on time with all of my payments until recently. You know I’m good for it. Why the rush now?”
“The rush now is that you’re sitting on a gold mine with that girl.”
“What do you mean?”
“According to her social media and what info we could find, her long-term beau is quite wealthy. So, instead of waiting, I figured it’d behoove you to take advantage of the opportunity that’s fallen into your lap.”
Was he really talking about ransoming Emily? “You’re kidding.”
“I assure you I’m not. Either bring me the money or the girl. You don’t need to worry about her. I’ll make sure she ends up nice and safe and back with her family.”
“You’re insane if you think I’m going to trust you with?—”
“No, Caleb. You’re insane if you think you have a say in this. You’re my bitch as long as you’re in my debt. I own you. It’s not like you have a pack to back you up.”
“Fuck you, Gray,” I snarled. “I’ll get you the money, but you won’t touch a hair on her head.”
“Oh, please. It’s not like I’m going to lose my mind over some pre-shift pussy. Get me my money, and no one will bother her one lick. You have your choice.”
With that, he hung up, and I was left standing in my kitchen, my mind whirling. What was I supposed to do? What could I even do?
I couldn’t turn Emily over to them. I couldn’t. Not only would it be the worst betrayal, but I knew they’d hurt her, and I was physically incapable of doing something I knew would bring Emily harm. I’d rather swallow a silver bullet.
Okay, so I needed to make money and fast. But where could I make that much in just a single day? Twenty-four hours was nothing.
I couldn’t think of anything, and it wasn’t like I owned much. Even if I sold my bike and found a buyer within a day, the amount they paid wouldn’t quite match what I owed.
So what, then?
Steal a car? That was just robbing Peter to pay Paul, and how I’d gotten into this mess in the first place.
I could break into a pawn shop for some jewels?
God, I’d fought so hard to get away from that life, and now I was looking at dropping right back into it. I didn’t want that, but I had to do whatever was necessary to keep Emily safe.
What to do? I asked myself, pacing back and forth. I was so fucked, and I’d pulled Emily into it. I really was poison to everything I touched.
Part of me just wanted to talk to her. She’d been so accepting of my past, and it’d be a relief to open up about the further mess I’d inadvertently gotten into.
If I wanted to be her guardian, I needed to prove she could trust me. She couldn’t if I wasn’t honest. Even if she wanted nothing to do with me, it’d be the right thing to do.
Emily always deserved that.
Straightening my shoulders, I turned, already sorting out the words in my mind.
Then I found myself stuttering to a stop again when I saw Emily standing in my bedroom doorway, leaning lazily against the frame. The expression on her face was so contented, so open , everything I was thinking of saying dried up.
“Hey there,” she said, crossing the space before pressing a light kiss to my cheek. “You were taking a minute, and I realized I was both thirsty and needed to pee.”
“Ah, sorry. Had a phone call,” I said without thinking.
“Anything important?”
“Nah,” I said. Fuck, deception was such a slippery slope, and I could already feel myself starting to topple down it. How pathetic was I, in my thirties and lying to my twenty-something charge so she didn’t know what a colossal fuckup I was? “Just spam calls.”
“Damn. So shifters don’t have a natural immunity to telemarketers?”
“Afraid not.”
I normally loved to banter back and forth with Emily, but I felt nauseous. I needed some distance between Emily and me, if only to try to shake Gray from her scent.
But it was too late for that, wasn’t it? She was already in their sights.
“Once you’re done with that, do you wanna get ready to go?” I asked, doing my best to send her a charming smile. No clue if I’d managed, as I barely felt my face through the rush of emotions I was busy beating down.
“Yeah, almost. Thank you for an amazing couple of days. They’re just about the last thing I expected.”
“No problem. Whenever you need anything, I’ll be there. You can count on me.”
Her smile was so soft and adorable as she looked up at me through her lashes. “Thank you, Caleb.”
She finished her water and headed back to my room.
My words echoed in my head as I suddenly looked at her bag. One I knew held a few high-ticket items that could buy me some time, especially if I pawned them.
You can count on me.
Could she?