27. Twenty-seven Kaleb
Twenty-seven: Kaleb
“ Y ou’re lacking in the bonding aspect of this job, Kaleb,” my chief murmured into the phone, and I gripped it tightly against my ear, huffing. I wanted to strangle it.
“The quicker people realise there isn’t much point in us all bonding, the better,” I said. “We’re all doing our jobs. That’s the end of it.”
“Frederick is my boss, Kaleb. That’s what you need to understand. I answer to him. He believes that everyone having a better connection will help with the jobs. People’s communication will improve, which will result in more arrests and fewer casualties on our side. You’re great at what you do, Kaleb. You’re one of the best, but my boss is noticing your absence when it comes to group activities.”
I rolled my eyes, having no interest in this conversation. “I didn’t sign up for this job to go to fancy dinners and get wasted at crappy clubs.”
“I’m aware of that, and like you, socialising isn’t my favourite pastime, but it has to be done. It comes with the job. You have to work with this team, so bring someone along to the party this weekend.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose.
The stupid bodyguard party. I 'd almost forgotten about it.
“I’m not—“
“Obligated to bring someone, I know. You’ve said.” My chief’s voice became huskier as his frustration flourished. “The other guys need to get to know you, though, besides Brent, and you bringing someone will make that easier. It’ll help you loosen up, I’m sure. Nobody knows anything about you.”
And that’s how I wanted to keep it.
“Who do you expect me to bring?”
“Anyone, Kaleb. Grab a homeless man off the street and claim he’s your long-lost brother for all I care. Just bring someone. Show Frederick you’re actually trying, or I’ll never hear the end of it.” My chief ended the call.
This job wasn’t about making friends. There was no point in getting close to other workers when you knew they wouldn’t all survive. Keeping your distance prepared you for their deaths, and in the long run, that made you much better at your job. Emotions didn’t rule your life. They didn’t get in the way.
However, when Freya was brought into the mix, emotions very much got in the way. I didn’t like getting close to people. I didn’t like letting anybody in, but ?she was able to chip away at the rock-hard wall I'd spent so long constructing. She’d walked right through it, and I didn’t stop her. Instead, I’d pretty much invited her in.
The front door burst open, and my heart jumped out of my chest as I honed in on a wide-eyed Freya, her skin flushed.
“What happened?” I asked her, gripping my gun, and she gestured outside, holding up her car keys.
“Someone was following me.”
My back stiffened. Rage coursed through me, my fists clenching, guilt hitting me brutally. If Freya was being followed, Will had to be behind it, and that was the fault of Brent and I. We had dragged her into this, and now Will was taking his anger out on her.
I wanted to march down to the shooting range and blast a bullet straight through his skull, but ending up in prison wouldn’t help anyone—especially not Freya.
“I lost them but couldn’t see who they were.” Her hands shook slightly, the jingling of her metal keys filling the silence. I cursed, taking them from her and hanging them up on the hook, pulling her towards the couch.
“Car registration.”
Freya relayed the first half to me, but she was unsure of the last few numbers, claiming that her mind was running amuck, fogging her memories.
I tapped my fingers against my thigh, skating my tongue along the front of my teeth. “You didn’t get a sighting of the person?”
“They were big. It wasn’t Will’s stature. It was someone else.”
I didn’t know who this person was, but I was going to find them, and they weren't going to enjoy it.
Freya sighed, her tongue darting out to lick along her bottom lip, and I inhaled deeply, remembering how my own tongue had been doing just that a couple of days ago.
Her eyes. Her body. Her voice. Her
I hadn’t thought of anything else.
My mind had been torturing me with her moans and gasps, replaying them over and over again while I lay in the same sheets she'd dripped all over. I craved her. I'd had my taste and was addicted. She was my personal Class A drug, and I had no interest in getting sober.
“Have you got anything else on Will?” she suddenly asked hopefully, looking like she wanted a distraction. I frowned, disliking that I would have to deliver news she didn’t want to hear.
“No. Will wasn’t there when we last went to visit. We think he’s out of town for business.”
Freya exhaled, her fingers ripping at the skin around her nails, and I placed my hand on hers, stopping the action.
“You’re not staying here alone while Brent and I leave town. Not if someone is following you.”
Freya appeared worried, and she took a deep breath. “You’re leaving?”
“Only to go to a party.” I had to force down my smile at her reaction.
“Oh.” She tilted her head at me. “ You’re going to a party? You hate parties.”
“It’s for work, but I’m not leaving you here without protection. You’ll have to come with us for the night. We’ll be put up in the hotel.”
I watched in anticipation as Freya bit down on her bottom lip before slowly nodding in agreement. My heart rate picked up, and she smiled at me, the action creating a tiny dimple at the corner of her mouth.
My worries and concerns always seemed to melt away when she looked at me like that, but I couldn’t help but allow my thoughts of what would happen once I finished my case with Will to invade my mind and ruin the moment.
I was so close.
So close to putting Will behind bars, but also so close to losing her.
The day of the bodyguard party came around quickly, and to say I wasn’t looking forward to it was an understatement. I’d rather gouge my own eyes out with blunt forks than attend. However, knowing that Freya was joining me caused my stomach to tumble. I didn’t get nervous often. Fuck, anxiety and I were residing on two separate planets, but the foreign feeling of an elevated level of cortisol soaring through my veins made me more than uncomfortable.I wasn’t used to feeling so out of control—as if my body didn’t belong to me.
I was cautious every second we were on the road, observing every car for suspicious activity and monitoring anyone I believed to have been tailing us too long. Nobody matched Freya’s vague description, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t scrutinising anything and everything.
“So they have these every year?” Freya questioned me, gazing over at the GPS. A look of relief flooded her face when she came to the realisation that we were supposedly only four minutes away from our destination.
“Not that I go every year, but I didn’t have a choice this time.”
My chief filled my consciousness, his familiar unimpressed scowl at the forefront of my mind. Sometimes, I really hated his face, but I knew deep down we were more alike than I cared to admit. Stern. Short-tempered. Withdrawn. He hated these functions just the same as I did.
I gazed at my phone as it lit up, a text from Brent coming through, letting me know that he and Kaylee were due to arrive in approximately forty minutes. We'd driven separately—much to the girls’ objections—because I knew I wouldn’t have been able to handle listening to his excited yipping for hours on end. He emitted golden retriever energy. I loved the guy, but he was a pain in my ass.
“You don’t think our moms suspected anything, do you?” Freya worried, twiddling her thumbs, the nervous action gaining my attention before I shook my head. She’d told her mom she was staying at Hannah’s. We'd left at separate times, and I'd picked Freya up from her friend’s house an hour after she had initially left mine.
“We aren’t the likeliest of pairs.” I chuckled. Freya was an artist. She was creative and had a wild imagination. She liked to see the good in people. Warm and gracious—whereas I was dark. Moody. Saw things in black and white. Good and bad. Yes and no.
We were opposites, and yet, it felt as if we fit perfectly together—like a jigsaw created where the picture was up to interpretation, but was beautiful when you took the time to really look at it.
“That’s true.” Freya grinned wickedly. “You’re rude and obnoxious.”
I arched an eyebrow at her teasingly, cocking my head, releasing a throaty laugh. “Oh, you’re going to regret saying that, sweetheart.”
We pulled into the hotel parking lot. Valet was an option, but I purposely avoided it. I didn’t want someone else’s grubby hands on my car.
Freya’s eyes bugged out of her head as she glanced up at the tall, regal building, almost falling out of the vehicle. I understood why she was so astounded, but having seen this setting more than a few times, I viewed it as nothing more than a too-large building where pretentious snobs wasted their money, boosting their egos and proving to others they had enough cash to throw away on things that didn’t matter.
Luckily, my organisation had booked out the entire venue, and no snooty fucks were going to be present.
“How can your work afford this place?” Freya questioned as we stepped into the grand foyer, both of our bags clutched in my hand. The flooring was made of shiny, tanned stone with a huge metal fountain standing in the middle—a koi fish squirting water into the shallow tank below. How original.
A red carpet lay across the floor leading towards the reception and the elevators, and people mingled around, carrying luggage and following the hotel staff.
“The hotel gives us a discount since we book up the entire place. Still, I can’t imagine it’s cheap.” Not that it mattered. My organisation had more than enough money and paid us enough, too. It was the least they could do for asking us to continuously put our lives on the line.
We stood in line for the reception, the large granite desk manned by almost ten staff members to get everyone checked in as quickly as possible. An older lady with a neatly slicked-back bun called us forward.
“Kaleb Evans,” I said to her, holding up my ID and badge. She nodded and tapped on the keyboard of her computer before grabbing us some keycards.
“So, you’ve got room two-four-one booked for tonight, which is our king-sized bed suite. Enjoy your stay.”
I arched an eyebrow. “A double bed?” I had let my chief know I was bringing someone and had specifically requested either two separate rooms or a room with two beds. Freya and I had been intimate, but that didn’t mean she was going to be comfortable sharing a bed with me as if we were a couple.
The lady behind the desk frowned, double-checking the booking. “Yes, Sir. This is the room you were booked into. If this is something that you’re not happy with, I’m sure I can try to sort something.” She hummed as she pressed a few keys on her keyboard. “No, there are no other rooms available for tonight, I’m afraid.”
Freya cleared her throat from next to me. She looked slightly stiff but leaned forward to take the cards. “That’s fine. Thank you.”
Eyeing her up as we reached the elevator, she stepped inside, studying the keycards between her fingertips.
“Freya,” I breathed out. The last thing I wanted was for her to feel like she had to sleep in a bed with me. “I didn’t book it, and I’ll be speaking to my chief about—“
She cut me off with a small laugh, shaking her head at me. “Kaleb, you literally made me come the other night in your room. I think we can stretch to sleeping in the same bed without it being weird.”
My fists clenched, causing my knuckles to turn white at her words. They came out confidently—her voice not wavering in the slightest like it often did whenever a sexual innuendo was the topic. I liked it. I liked her so sure of herself. She had every right to be.
“You’re going to have to give me a warning if you’re going to mention that in public again,” I told her, my voice husky, and as the elevator door opened to reveal people waiting, I pulled Freya over to me to stand in front of my body. The last thing I needed was for the people I worked with to see my solid rock-on.
She giggled as we made our way out of the elevator and into our room. The enormous bed was coated in a creamy, soft duvet and matching pillows, and the walls were dark—dotted with fancy paintings of people too old to identify or care about.
There was a massive flat-screen TV hooked onto the wall, and the large ceiling-to-floor window gave us the perfect view of the countryside below, where the gardens were decorated with rows of colourful flowers and greenery.
I forced myself to look away from Freya’s perfectly sculpted body to give my cock a chance to settle down, and I recited my most recent grocery list in my head until my dick was no longer straining against my jeans.
“You better not snore,” she told me, crossing her arms over her chest, rummaging through her bag, and pulling out her clothing options.
I watched in amusement at the sheer number of jeans, summer dresses, and skirts she’d brought, knowing she wouldn’t need any of them.
“Did I forget to mention that it’s a black-tie event?” I said with a smirk, causing Freya’s eyebrows to arch and her mouth to pop open. Frustration took over her usually harmonious features.
“Are you kidding? Kaleb, I have nothing suitable!”
I hummed, taking a step closer to her, picking up one of her slinky dark green skirts and playing with the fabric between my fingers, imagining the material enclosing her curved hips and thick thighs.
She snatched the skirt away, sighing and shoving it back into her bag, heat clear on her face.
“I think I can fix that.”