Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
ATLAS
I know Calvin loves his job, but there’s a part of me that wonders if he has vacation time stored up.
Not so we could go somewhere—though there’s something to be said for getting out of the state for a while until we can track down the two bastards who are causing us trouble—but so he can rest. He has too much going on all at once, and even though he’s amazing at what he does…
Well, shit, anyone who has someone out to kill them deserves a break.
I contemplate bringing it up to him while I carefully browse through Calvin’s living room. Even though I’ve been here before, I hadn’t really taken the time to look at his belongings.
You can tell a lot about a person by the things they own.
Just as I lean down to rifle through his cabinets, I hear him yell.
I’m already moving before he manages to shout my name, my mind flickering from curious to cold in one breath to the next.
Honestly, I was hoping Calvin could avoid this part of me—it’s one thing to know what I do; it’s another to see it.
But in the end, it seems like it was kind of inevitable… because anyone who makes him sound so afraid is breathing borrowed air and they just don’t know it.
I don’t even bother grabbing a weapon. I’m sure there’s plenty I can use in the room, and I’m not taking any longer than I have to.
I learned a long time ago that a few seconds can be the difference between someone being okay and death. The thought of something happening to Calvin—especially when I’m so damn close to him—is enough to drive me crazy.
Knowing I was too careless to clear his apartment before letting him inside will haunt me for the rest of my life.
I can’t think about it right now. Instead, I slip into the room where Calvin is on the ground, and narrow my focus on the man standing in front of him.
It takes my brain a second to realize it’s the same guy who was standing in the elevator with us—the one who got in before we did and completely ignored us once I stepped in after Calvin.
I could have lost him then—I could have lost him, and the knowledge makes whatever careful reserve I might have been holding onto, whatever desire I have to make sure Calvin doesn’t see exactly how much of a monster I can be, completely disappear.
It doesn’t matter.
I’m silent as I move further into the room, and the man is only half turned to me when I reach out and wrench his arm—the one holding a knife—behind his back. There’s a moment between the wet, nearly slick sound of his shoulder popping out of place and the scream he tries to let out…
But I’m not dealing with that. I slap my hand over his mouth and catch the knife as it falls from his fingers.
If I were North, I’d probably make this messy—I’d probably take my time.
If I were Wylder, I’d knock the man out and spend days torturing him.
But I’m not my sons, and I don’t have to ask him who sent him to know that it was either Keegan or Mitchell.
That and I can recognize a hired hit when I see it. He doesn’t know shit.
Which means he doesn’t need to be breathing anymore.
I pull the knife up and slide it across his throat in a quick, deep motion.
It leaves him gurgling as blood fills his lungs, and the sound of air escaping in wet little whistles through the disconnected passage of his windpipe fills the air in a grotesque litany of how far I’ll go to protect Calvin.
Fucking sharp blade.
I drop the body instantly, aware that my hands are dripping in blood, that Calvin’s chest is covered too…
And I don’t know if any of it is his.
“Sweetheart…” I throw the knife on the bed—we’re going to have to strip the sheets anyway—and step across the room to him. “Calvin…” My voice is careful as he looks up at me, his dark eyes wide. “Are you okay?”
“I… you killed him.” He sounds shocked… and I wonder… was this the point? Not to hurt Calvin, because Keegan knows better than to send some fucking green killer after us when I’ve made it very clear that I’m not leaving Calvin’s side… but showing Calvin I’m a monster?
Fuck, that sounds exactly like something he’d do.
A deeper way to cut.
And I don’t know if the wound landed.
“I did,” I say carefully, my fingers fluttering across his chest, his neck, his arms… I don’t feel any wounds.
All the blood belongs to his would-be killer.
“He… he attacked me. He was waiting in here, he—”
“Calvin.” I cut him off. “Listen to me, please?” I keep my voice careful, calm.
He isn’t panicking yet, but I’m worried he’s going to.
I’m worried seeing me as a monster is going to be different than hearing that I am…
and I don’t know what I’m going to do if that happens.
I won’t leave him alone—I can’t leave him alone.
I’d rather him hate me than for him to get hurt… and fuck me, if that doesn’t hit me in the center of my chest.
“Okay.” His answer comes out soft, and I catch his face between my hands when he starts to look down at the man behind us. There are still a few wet sounds coming from him, but he’s not a threat. He’s mostly dead.
“I need you to go take a shower and put your clothes in a bag. I’m going to call North to come help with this, okay?” I pause, my brows snapping together as I look at him. “I’m sorry you had to see me like this… but I’m not going to let anything hurt you, do you understand?”
He stares at me, really stares at me, and then nods. Once. Slowly. His eyes search my face like he’s seeing me for the first time, and then he nods again.
“You should shower too.”
Not “you’re a monster,” or “I can’t do this anymore.”
I blink at him slowly.
“I will once I’m finished.”
He nods again, swallows loud enough I can hear the audible click in his throat, and then shakes his head.
“The cameras on the staircase don’t work.
Security hasn’t replaced them yet—they sent us an email a few weeks ago to let us know.
If you need to get him out without anyone seeing…
I…” Calvin sounds… shaken, but determined.
Helpful.
I lean down, catching his mouth with mine before I can help myself. I know it’s not the time, and I’m not going to try to do anything more than kiss him… but damn it…
He’s not running.
He’s not even trying to push me away.
He’s helping.
When I pull back, I look him over once—the press of my lips seems to have grounded him slightly, because his eyes are a little more relaxed. “We really are in this together, aren’t we, sweetheart?”
What I say registers across his face one slow inch at a time, and he nods. “I told you we were.”
Maybe Keegan did this as a way to push us apart, or maybe his fuck-ass ex-husband did. But whatever the intention was, it backfired. He’s shaken, but still standing steady in front of me. Calvin isn’t running.
Calvin sees who I am, and all he’s doing is staring up at me like he wants me to stay.
I press my forehead to his, dropping a soft kiss on his nose. “Go. Shower. I will after I get this cleaned up, okay?” He nods, and then before I can help myself, I add. “And pack enough to last you a while… You aren’t coming back here until this is over and done with.”
It isn’t a demand as much as a necessity, and I think he sees it too, because he nods as he steps to the entrance of the room.
Before he leaves, he pulls off his shirt, shoes and pants, balling them up in his hands.
It takes me a second to realize he did it so he doesn’t drip blood as he goes to the bathroom.
Fuck.
I think I really might be in love.
North is a little too smug about the fact that I’m calling him for help for the second time in less than a few months. It’s probably because I’ve given him more than a little shit the last few times he’s called me.
It’s definitely an eat my words kind of year, isn’t it?
Still, he’s already out the door before I have a chance to hang up, and I can hear Ranen start to protest before North whispers exactly what he’s coming here to do. He quickly passes when he realizes it’s wet work.
God damn it, I haven’t had to do cleanup like this in years.
The shower is still running when I get off the phone, and I take a second to glance around Calvin’s room, assessing the damage.
Thankfully he doesn’t have carpets, or we’d be fucked.
As it is, I strip his bedsheets and roll the body on top of them.
It’s not going to do much for the blood already everywhere, but at least it will stop him from leaking all over the place.
I pick up the knife and wipe it clean on the asshole’s shirt, pocket it, then use a towel in a hamper to soak up as much of the blood as I can.
I leave it where the majority of the mess is, because we want to make sure it’s thoroughly cleaned.
Stripping out of my jacket and rinsing my hands in the sink gets rid of enough of the evidence on me that I can touch things.
I drag Calvin’s suitcase out of his closet and throw the majority of his clothes into it, carrying it into the living room for him to pack.
If he needs anything else, we can stop by the store to grab it.
Before I leave, I snag the man’s phone out of his pocket, wiping his bloody fingers on his shirt so I can unlock it.
A quick glance shows me that there’s nothing useful on it.
I drop it back onto his chest so North can get rid of it far away from wherever he’s going to end up dumping the pieces of this fucker.
I make sure to shut the door behind me when I’m finished. Maybe he was okay with what happened, but I don’t want Calvin to have to see the aftermath of my anger any more than he already has.
He stays in the bathroom long after the shower goes off, and I wonder if he’s trying to collect himself before he comes back out. I’m about to knock on the door to ask him if he’s okay when I hear another knock.
I check through the peephole to make sure it isn’t another sub-par assassin come to finish us off, but it’s just North. He’s standing with an oversized duffle bag slung over his shoulder and a smirk on his face.
I let him in and brace myself. Sure enough, the first thing that comes out of his mouth as soon as the door closes is a smug, “You really like getting yourself in trouble once you find someone to fuck, don’t you?”
“North…” My voice is a calm warning, but the warmth in the smile he gives me is genuine, and he tilts his head to look at me with a grin.
“I’m happy for you, Dad.”
He sounds it too.
“I’m not usually this reckless, I just…” I trail off, and he gives me a knowing look.
“It happens when you find someone, trust me.”
I don’t have to trust him. I’ve cleaned up the evidence of it in my basement. He takes a few quick steps across the living room and opens the door, peeking inside. When he lets out a low whistle, I sigh.
“That’s enough, son.” It doesn’t stop him from turning around and arching a brow.
“Impressive. Really. I thought you didn’t like knives?”
The bathroom door opens before I can tell him I’ll just call Wylder to come handle this, and Calvin steps out. I see now that he was in there for so long because he’s packed a bag full of toiletries. Enough that the amount of clothes I grabbed for him suddenly doesn’t seem so ridiculous.
“Hey, North.” He says it like there isn’t a dead body in the room right beside us.
“Hey there, Calvin. Getting up to trouble?”
My eyes slip to Calvin as he steps beside me, surveying the closed door to his room and the bag that North has on the ground.
“No… not really.” He looks at the door again with a frown.
“Is everything… okay?” He sounds so serious when he asks, and I try not to get caught up in how pretty he is with water still caught in his lashes from the shower.
“Everything’s going to be fine,” I say carefully, and in front of us, North chuckles.
“Yeah, Dad gets to see what it’s like for someone to clean up his mess for once. Do you know, he’s really not a blood kind of guy? The last time he called me for help it was mostly just bullet holes.”
“North.” I try to interrupt him. It’s not like he’s lying, but… “That’s enough.”
North ignores me and leans in, his eyes curious as he looks Calvin up and down. “You really must be special.”
I don’t expect the small flush that crosses Calvin’s cheeks and the almost self-assured smile tipping up his lips—a few minutes ago, I was pretty sure he’d never blush for me again… but… “Maybe I am. Are you going to be able to get the blood out of my flooring, though?”
North’s curious expression blossoms into a smile. Maybe he’s seeing it too, the fact that Calvin somehow fits in perfectly with our fucked-up little family—maybe we were both waiting to see if he would.
“By the time I’m done, your landlord is going to end up giving you back your deposit when you move in with Dad.”
“I didn’t say I was moving in with him.” Calvin laughs like it’s a joke, and North shakes his head.
“Yeah, I give it a month.”
He picks up the bag before we have a chance to argue and goes into the room, carefully closing the door behind him.