Chapter 23
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
ATLAS
I can’t pretend to be a good person anymore. I can’t pretend to be calm and friendly.
All I can do is make sure I get Calvin as far away from the hospital as possible, because people are going to see the body soon, and the last thing I want is for them to think he had anything to do with it.
I don’t know if part of his ex’s intentions were to set him up, finding his friend like that… but I’m not taking any chances.
As it is, I’m already texting Wylder and seeing if he can get his contact to scrub any footage that might have possibly linked Calvin to the scene.
I’d intentionally parked out of sight of the cameras since I had access to everywhere they were pointed.
I’d meant to do it just in case I had to kill someone, but it had worked in our enemies’ favor instead.
It’s not like Mitchell would have known where the cameras were visible, though. He didn’t have a son with connections.
“Shouldn’t we call someone, or…” Calvin sounds shellshocked and devastated, and the anger I feel welling in my chest knowing that some asshole who used to be a part of his life took away his friend and put that expression on his face…
It’s too much.
It’s been too much. I don’t know why I even let it get this far, why I didn’t figure out a way to hunt this asshole down before… but I don’t have to now. He’s given me the keys to the kingdom, and I’m not going to waste the opportunity.
“What’s the address on that note?” I don’t like how hard my voice sounds, but it seems to ground some part of him, because those shocked eyes look at me and seem to really focus.
Calvin rattles off the address automatically, only pausing after he’s said it to consider why I’d even ask.
“What are you going to do?” he starts, and then, like the obvious intention in my expression finally sinks in, he reaches across the console of my car and grabs my wrist. “You’re not going after him alone—he probably wouldn’t let you get near him anyway. I have to be there, I—”
I pull the car over, satisfied that we’re far enough away from the scene of the crime that it’s safe, and turn to him.
Calvin’s fear has turned into a near panic now, and I realize it’s not just because of his friend’s death.
The shocked look, the worried expression—it’s for me.
It’s because he doesn’t want me to get hurt now that I have a direct line to finish this.
I take his face in my hands and gently press my thumb to his lips to quiet him.
“No. I’m not going alone.” Some of the tension instantly bleeds out of his posture, telling me I was right.
“But we are going tonight—if we wait, there’s a chance he could move, or hurt someone else you care about.
If he thinks you’re doing what any normal person would do and calling the cops, he won’t stay put.
He’ll relocate and try to send you another message, and I don’t know the man well enough to know what he would consider important to you. ”
I don’t know Mitchell, but I know men like him.
Calvin has been seen talking to Ranen more than once.
He’s sweet to his patients, and he was laughing with another coworker while I was watching him on shift.
Men like Calvin’s ex-husband will take anything as free game.
The fact that my family is on that list just makes it all the more urgent.
I’m not calling in North, because he’s exactly where he needs to be, making sure Ranen is safe.
That and I’m pretty sure if I even hinted that someone might hurt Ranen, North would go in there guns blazing with the intention of making the biggest mess possible. I need this to be precise—I need it to be finished when I walk out that door so Calvin never has to worry about Mitchell again.
“He’s horrible, Atlas. He…” Calvin slows down and looks me over. “We? You said we, right?” And for the first time since he froze beside me in the parking lot, I see him take a deep breath.
“Yeah, we. You’re right—he probably wouldn’t let me get close to him if I was alone.
” Nevermind the fact that I’d cut through him and whatever men he had.
I have a feeling if Keegan told him about me, he told him enough to know that he can’t operate solo.
I’d still risk it… but… the thought of me getting hurt, the thought of something happening to me and that weighing for the rest of his life on Calvin?
I couldn’t do that to him. Not now, not ever.
“Then what do we do?”
There wasn’t an answer I could give him that I actually liked, but if I were handling this with a partner—with someone I considered an equal…
Shit, I knew what I’d say.
“We’re going to go to that address he gave you, and you’re going to go in there.
” It feels wrong coming out of my mouth, wrong to even suggest it.
But… “Make it seem like you left me, like you came alone to protect me. Whatever you need to do to get his guard down. Once you have, I can circle around and come in from his blind spot.”
It was a shit plan—the worst plan… probably because it was a good plan. Someone running away from their love to protect them sounded exactly like a scenario that would happen. Someone showing up to a situation alone because they wanted to protect the person they were with?
“Atlas… are you… are you sure?” Calvin still sounds stunned.
“I will be if you can answer me honestly. Do you think he’ll kill you as soon as you step through the door?” I think I already know the answer, but…
“No. Think of the worst person you know, then multiply that by ten. That’s Mitchell.
He hid who he was from me for years. And when I finally found out…
” He shakes his head slowly. “No… he’ll want me to suffer first. He’ll tell me what he did to Meka in all its gory details.
” Calvin’s expression goes darker, and the pain from earlier flicks through his eyes.
“He knows if he hurts me first physically, the emotional toll of what he did won’t hit nearly as hard. ”
He sounds like a complete piece of shit, but I’m not surprised.
“It won’t take me long to secure my position so I can come in.
I’m not going to let you out of my sight for long.
” I recognize the address Calvin gave me.
It’s on the outskirts of town, a run-down old building on the edge of the woods.
I’m guessing Mitchell picked it because he thought it would give him isolation, somewhere he could take his time with whatever he planned on doing to Calvin.
It’s another reason I don’t think he’s going to just kill him and move.
I’m putting a lot of blind faith in everything Calvin has told me about what’s happening, and a lot of faith in the fact that Keegan is a fucking coward who hasn’t let me see him since the day he killed Julia—this is about putting Calvin in danger, not catching me.
It’s about hurting me from a distance. He won’t be there as backup if things go south for Mitchell.
It’s the last mistake either of these assholes get to make, because I’m done. I’m done with all of this—I’m done with Calvin being in danger, with Calvin being hurt and afraid…
“Okay,” Calvin says, and I can see it on his face, steely determination slowly slipping along his features until it reaches his eyes. “I trust you,” he adds, and I know what he means. He trusts me to make sure I’m watching him, to make sure he’s safe. To make sure we can finish this.
“And I trust you, sweetheart. I know what I taught you, and I know what you’re capable of. If he tries to touch you—if he tries to hurt you at all…” My blood runs cold with the thought, but I push past it. “Fucking fight back.”
Calvin nods once, and then again, bringing his fingers up to pull my hands from his face so he can squeeze them. “I will.”
There’s still more, though, and I don’t know if he gets it.
It’s one thing to kill someone who’s trying to hurt him, who’s trying to kill him in cold blood.
It’s another to intentionally set a man up for death.
But there’s no scenario where anyone in that building other than Calvin and me walks out alive, and I need to make sure he understands that.
“Calvin, are you sure you’re okay with this… what this really means?” My words are cautious, but I don’t pull away from him, and I don’t let any kind of doubt into my voice.
“What do you mean?” There’s a soft catch in the question, but from the way he’s looking at me, I have a feeling he knows exactly what I’m asking. I’ll lay it out for him anyway.
“You’ve seen what I’m capable of, you’ve seen what I can do.” He’s seen it firsthand, and I watch the memory of it play behind his eyes while he stares at me. Calvin nods softly.
“Yeah, I have.”
“Being with me… it means being with that man, especially when you’re in danger. I’m not catching your ex so he can go back to prison. When I’m done, I’m going to have to call North to help me clean up… do you understand?”
This time, he doesn’t hesitate. “I know, Atlas. I…” He blows out a slow breath. “You’re not the kind of person who would let someone who hurt me live.”
It’s there in his voice, the raw honesty, the understanding. The acknowledgement that there’s only one road to taking care of this.
“And you’re okay with that? If you aren’t, Calvin, I can go alone if I have to. I—”
“No!” He cuts me off, and the fierce determination and sharp demand in his voice slices through my chest. It feels like fingers sliding along my ribcage, wrapping around my heart with the warmth and soul of the man in front of me.
“You’re not going alone. I know you’re going to kill him.
I know the kind of man I’m choosing to be with.
” Calvin doesn’t stutter or linger on the words.
“I get it… and I’m going to be there to help.
We’re in this together. We’re doing this together. ”
I shake my head, staring at him in near awe. I’ve never met a person like him, never met someone who made me feel the way he does. It’s fucking transcendent, like destiny. Like all the broken pieces of me really were made to fit around the warmth, the shape of him.
“Yeah, sweetheart. We’re going to do this together.” I lean in and brush my lips gently across his for a brief moment before pulling back onto the road and heading toward my house.
“Where are you going, the address is the other way?” He looks over his shoulder as I step on the accelerator.
“I might be letting you walk in there alone, but I’m going to make sure you’re loaded up and ready to take out anyone you have to from the second you step through that doorway. Would Mitchell expect you to be armed?”
Calvin thinks about it for a second before shaking his head. “Doubt it. I didn’t learn self-defense until after he got locked up.”
“Good.” I look him over once before turning back to focus on the road, but I do reach across the distance and take his fingers in mine. “By the time I’m finished, you’re going to be armed enough to take out an entire fucking building if you have to.”