Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
ATLAS
“…authorities weren’t able to make those charges stick. Mitchell is considered armed and dangerous, so if you see him, do not approach. Call law enforcement and clear the area.”
I’m only half listening to the news as I sip my coffee. It’s not like prison breaks are all that uncommon, though most of the time people are more discreet about it than some big to-do that ends up on the news. That’s the exact kind of person I’d been paid to kill in the past…
Hm.
I switch off the television and flick my eyes down to my phone.
It’s been days and I still haven’t heard anything from Calvin.
I’ve kept my eye on him from a distance, and when I spoke to Wylder before, he told me he might have convinced one of his connections to keep an eye on who Calvin was and wasn’t calling, what he was searching on the internet…
And there was nothing.
Silence.
It made me anxious, because I wanted to speak to him…
but in a way, he was giving me exactly what I wanted, whether he realized it or not.
Calvin wasn’t turning me in. The police hadn’t come to my house to look for evidence that I was a killer, though in between torturing Keegan’s man, I’d done a sweep of the property to clean up any evidence that might have been lying around to implicate me.
I’d been prepared for the worst, but instead I’d been greeted with…
Nothing.
Silence.
Calvin wasn’t betraying me. I understood his need to take time, the need to make sure he was sure before he committed to a second date with a killer. I got that.
But he could have called the cops.
Trust.
It was such a small word, one that people threw around constantly without really understanding the weight of it and what it meant. It could be the difference between life and death, between freedom and prison. It could be the difference between love and loneliness.
And…
Calvin’s silence was reinforcing what my instincts had told me earlier.
I could trust him.
Which was why my eyes kept glancing at my phone screen. I wanted to talk to him. I wanted to know what he was thinking, how he was feeling.
I wanted to touch him.
I wanted…
A knock on my door interrupts my thoughts, and I throw one last look at my phone before standing.
By the time I get to the door, there’s no one there. I don’t see a car pulling out of my driveway, but there’s an envelope sitting on a chair to my left.
Apprehension immediately floods my senses, and I reach for the gun at my back before leaning out to look around.
I don’t see anyone, but that doesn’t mean someone isn’t out in the woods waiting for me…
Of course, Keegan hasn’t sent someone to assassinate me yet, and as far as I know, I don’t have any other living enemies.
My mind is made up for me when the envelope starts ringing.
I dart out and grab it, jerking my body back inside and shutting the door behind me. The muffled sound is still coming from inside the sealed package, but I ignore it and go to my kitchen table, feeling the contents out carefully before I finally open the flap and dump them onto the table.
There’s some photos, a mugshot, a letter, newspaper clippings… and a cellphone that’s still ringing.
I stare at the unknown number for a moment before my eyes drift. The newspaper article is from a different town, and the name on the headline rings a bell—the same asshole I’d half listened about escaping this morning. I pick it up to read it when I notice what the photos are.
They’re of me… and…
Calvin.
Calvin working. Calvin smiling. Calvin dancing. Calvin with a red circle around his face and one bold sentence written across his chest.
DIDN’T YOU LEARN BEFORE?
My fingers feel numb as I pick up the phone. I don’t speak, but that never really stopped Keegan from wanting to hear his own voice before.
“I’m getting tired of you taking out my best men, Atlas.”
I’m silent, but the shaking intensifies. I can feel it in my shoulders, in the jerking spasms along my sides.
“So I thought we could play a little game. Do you think you can find me before your little nurse’s ex-husband finds him? It was surprisingly easy to break him out of jail.”
“What?” I don’t mean to speak, but that information startles the question out of me. My shock makes the man on the other end of the line laugh—fuck, I was hoping the next time I heard his voice, he would be screaming. Not this…
Not Calvin…
“Didn’t he tell you? He married quite a notorious man. I suppose he has a penchant for miscreants.” Keegan still sounds so smug, and I want to reach through the phone and wrap my fingers around his throat.
“What do you want?”
But I already know. I’ve always known.
“To make you suffer. To watch you break. Though at the moment, to pay you back for the pieces of my men you’ve been sending me. It’s a terrible way to flirt, Atlas.”
“I’m going to kill you.” I’m surprised how calm I sound given the way I’m actually feeling. It’s too much to process, the fact that I wasn’t the only one with a secret—that Calvin is in danger because I couldn’t not want him.
I should have known better.
“You’ve had years. You could have killed me when we were young, but you left me alive.
You could have killed me after I killed your pretty little wife, but I’m still breathing.
And you could have killed me instead of torturing my men…
and now your little nurse is going to pay for it.
You better run, Atlas. I’ve heard his husband is out for blood. ”
The phone disconnects before I can say anything else.
I don’t have to look at the pictures again, but I do… My eyes fixate on the one of Calvin smiling, looking… half in love already.
“Sorry, sweetheart,” I murmur to the photo. Because as much as he wanted time, as much as I wanted to give it to him… it’s out of his hands now.
I’m not that far from the hospital when my phone rings. I answer it as I’m pulling into a parking spot, and the sound of Calvin’s voice is both a relief and makes me catch my breath.
“Calvin, are you okay?”
“I—” He pauses, like he’s confused about how I would know that he’s not, and then he takes a shaky breath like it doesn’t matter. “Atlas, I need to talk to you.”
I push my way into the emergency room and notice the second a pretty woman in scrubs recognizes me. She’s older, but her smile is sweet when she pulls a pencil from her hair and gestures with it as she mouths, “First door on the right.”
I’ve seen Calvin talking to her before. I trust her enough to go down the hall.
“Calvin—”
“No, listen. I know I told you I needed time,” he starts as I make my way toward him. The first door on the right is slightly ajar, and I can hear his voice echoing now. “But that doesn’t matter anymore. I need…” He pauses, his breath shaky. “I need you… to…”
Calvin drifts off and lowers the phone as I push the door open.
“Need me to what, sweetheart?” My voice is as casual and charming as usual, but inside I feel like there’s a fire in my chest. I want to go across the room and wrap him in my arms. I want to take him away from here and keep him somewhere safe until I can deal with everything once and for all.
I want—
He comes across the room and drops his head onto my chest, sliding his arms around my waist. “Atlas, I’m… oh fuck…”
I’m not the thing that has him so shaken up, or he wouldn’t have his arms around me.
I pull him against my chest and drop a soft kiss on the top of his head.
My voice is low when I murmur against his hair.
“Listen to me. Nothing—no one—is going to hurt you while you’re with me.
Do you understand? I know you said you needed space, but you’re going to have to figure out how to take it while I’m with you. ”
“You don’t understand,” he starts. “There are things you don’t know about me, and I—”
“Is your shift over?” I interrupt him. As much as I want to stay here with my arms around him, I want to get him back to my place more.
Yeah, Keegan knows where that is, and he might have told Calvin’s husband the address…
but I also have weapons and security there.
It’ll be safer than his apartment, and it will certainly be safer than staying in this hospital room while we try to figure things out.
“It is. I called you as soon as I clocked out.”
“Come home with me?”
He turns his head up, and I can see the fear in his eyes.
The pain and terror, something deep-seated that probably ripped open fresh wounds when he heard his husband had escaped.
Maybe it’s the pain that makes him answer.
Maybe it’s the fact that even with what’s going on, the feel of my arms around him is the most calming thing he’s felt in years. Whatever it is, he only says one word.
Soft. Like he can’t quite help it.
“Okay.”
We’re silent on the way back to my house, like Calvin doesn’t want to distract me with his news. It would be easier if I could just tell him I already know, but I want him safe and behind locked doors before I break it to him that this is probably my fault.
Maybe North was onto something when he moved in with Ranen without really giving him a choice… except I’m too old to deal with being clever. I’m just kidnapping Calvin like a normal psychopath.
When we finally get into the house, he turns. I catch him before he can start with a soft kiss on his parted lips. “Go shower. I’m sure you need it after being at work all day. We’ll talk after, okay?”
He looks up at me, and I can still see it—the pain, the exhaustion, the fear. Years of it spilling to the surface. “I…”
“You’re safe here, Calvin. Go on.” I press his shoulder gently and gesture to the guest bathroom down the hall. “I’ll bring you something clean to wear.”
He opens his mouth like he’s going to protest, but with a soft, shuddery sigh, he nods.
Maybe he needs a few minutes to himself, to sort through what he’s thinking and how he’s feeling.