34. Thirty-four Freya
Thirty-four: Freya
K aleb had been distant over the past week and a half. He wasn’t ignoring me by any means, but I could tell something was wrong. Even when I questioned him about it, he insisted he was just tired and stressed about the case.
I had a niggling feeling that he was keeping something from me, though, but there was nothing I could do to get him to open up—especially since I had half convinced myself that I was actually going crazy and reading into things too much.
I hunched over next to a tree, bracing my hands on my knees and inhaling oxygen greedily, filling my lungs. Gazing back to look at the steep hill I’d just climbed, I laughed as Jackie and my mom stopped to catch their breaths, clutching at their chests. It was sunny today, and they’d insisted that we all get out of the house and go on a hike.
Kaleb had tried to get us out of it, but I couldn’t decline once Jackie’s pleading eyes honed in on me. She’d enjoyed taking Brie hiking, and I didn’t want to leave her to do it without company.
Kaleb was already at the top of the hill—showing no sign of fatigue—and he leaned back against a large oak tree and pulled out his phone, tapping away at the device. He’d been glued to it lately, and when I’d made dinner for the both of us while our moms were out, he got up from the table twice to answer calls from his chief.
He hadn’t been laughing or smiling as much, and even when I dragged him along with Hannah and me to one of Josh’s football games, he sat in the bleachers with a rigid posture and strained jaw. Kaleb enjoyed sports, and it made me uneasy that even a game couldn’t pull him from his own thoughts.
“I’m dying,” I spluttered as I dropped to the ground next to him, feeling the need to lean my head against his calf.
Gazing down at me, Kaleb smiled, chuckling, pocketing his phone and scanning the area. Forest surrounded us, our bodies perched on the top of a dirt-covered hill, two verdant trees swaying in the brisk wind at the peak. The sun peered over the clouds, shining brightly, and the bustling woodland below us basked in the sun's rays.
“I had no idea this was so near us,” I said. I understood why people came to places like this to think and clear their minds. It was beyond relaxing.
“My mom’s been coming here for years.”
“Is it your first time?” I knitted my eyebrows together. Kaleb looked so troubled, and I hated it.
He shook his head. “No, I took her here a few times right after Brie died. She really enjoys how secluded it is, and it’s become her favourite hiking spot.” Although a small smile graced Kaleb’s lips, it didn’t reach his eyes—empty grey spheres of nothingness.
I turned around to see my mom and Jackie sitting on the grass halfway up the hill, taking large gulps from their water bottles.
Knowing we were out of sight, I placed my hand on Kaleb’s cheek, his overgrown stubble grating against my fingertips. “I know I’ve asked you this a thousand times, and you’re probably sick of hearing it, but are you sure you’re okay? You haven’t been yourself since we got back from Brent’s.”
His eyes turned hard, and he subtly shrugged me off and walked forward a few steps to lean over the wooden fence that circled us, clasping his hands together as he cleared his throat. “I’m just tired. My chief is on my case, and I’m worried about your safety. Until Will is behind bars, I won’t be happy.”
“I’m sure they’ll be arresting him any day now. Sorry for pestering you.”
“You’re not.” Kaleb caught a strand of my hair in the wind and tucked it back into my claw clip for me. “It’s just—” His jaw tightened as I looked at him, and his eyebrows collapsed in on one another as he shook his head. “It’s just work. It’s a lot right now.”
I opened my mouth to respond, but once I heard my mother’s bellowing laughter behind us, I took a step away from Kaleb. I couldn’t help but recognise the small glimmer of guilt that swam within his eyes, though. It was just a flash—a spark—and within seconds, it was gone, but I’d caught it, and it indicated he wasn’t being entirely truthful with me.
“I hate to be a negative Nancy, but that’s weird, right?” Hannah mumbled with her mouth full of food, clutching her mojito and nodding towards my drink.
I rolled my eyes, sipping on it, the taste of minty alcohol burning my tongue but momentarily distracting me from my dreary thoughts.
“I know.” I gazed around the bar, smiling at a grumpy Brent, who sat in his booth in the corner of the room, looking as miserable as ever. Kaleb was busy with something tonight, so Brent was having to watch me while I had a much-needed catch-up with my best friend. “We went from sleeping together and being unable to take our hands off one another to just… nothing.”
Hannah’s thin eyebrows flew into her hairline. “Nothing?”
“He won’t talk to me unless I start the conversation, and when we are talking, he’s distracted and closed off.”
Hannah gazed at me sadly, dropping her fries back down into their bowl, a bitter expression taking over her face. “I swear to God, if he’s seeing someone else, I’ll kill him.”
My chest tightened at the thought, and I swallowed harshly, my throat spasming.
Kaleb with someone else. I felt sick.
We weren’t officially together, but I liked to believe that if he wanted to cut things off because he’d met someone else, he would have the decency to speak to me about it first.
“I just don’t know what’s happened in the past two weeks. Something’s going on, and he won’t go into detail. He says it’s work, but usually, if work is bothering him, he tells me about it. When I’m talking to him, it’s like he’s there, but he’s also not, you know?”
Hannah hummed, tapping her finger against her chin.
I turned my head towards Brent, and he averted his gaze, having been watching us intensely. He wasn’t close enough to hear our conversation, but I had a feeling he was trying to read our lips over the music. Waving him over, I waited for him to join us, and he settled down into the chair beside me, arching a brow.
“Am I one of the girls now?” he asked teasingly.
I rolled my eyes. “How’s work been? Kaleb said there haven’t been any updates on Will.”
Brent ran his hand through his short, buzz-cut hair, humming. “No, we haven’t heard much. Because Will knows what Kaleb and I are, there’s not much need to involve us.”
That was what Kaleb had said, too.
“I mean, technically, it is actually Christmas break for us now.” Brent laughed. “Obviously, that doesn’t mean work stops for us, though. We could still get called to do emergency raids, but I think the chief is giving us a bit of slack.”
Slack.
Then what was making Kaleb so stressed and distant?
“When will you be heading back to base?” questioned Hannah, pushing her fries over to a starving Brent, and he dug in, shrugging in response.
“Should be the second week of January, but it depends when we get appointed our new locations.”
I gulped. I prayed Kaleb would be stationed nearby, but I understood the chances were slim.
“Any news on that?”
“Kaleb hasn’t said anything to me regarding a new base. The chief’s called me twice to discuss it, and he’s given me the names of a few he believes I’ll be stationed at, but it’s not a guarantee.”
“So, you and Kaleb won’t be sent to the same one?”
Brent shook his head. “We’ve been partners for years, but that was only because we were from the same area and could spy on Will easily, so no, I doubt we’ll be sent to the same base after he's charged.”
Blissful ignorance. It was damaging our relationship. Kaleb and I were both frightened for the future, but sweeping it under the rug wasn’t going to benefit us in any way. It wasn’t a topic we could put off—not with everything happening so quickly.
“Are you finished?” I asked Hannah.
“Yep, let’s go.”
Brent drove Hannah and me back to our houses, and I wrapped my arms around myself as I made my way up the stairs and towards Kaleb’s room. I wasn’t sure what he was doing tonight—yet another thing he’d been vague about.
“Kaleb,” I called, rattling on the wood of his bedroom door, waiting a couple of seconds before pushing it open, poking my head in.
His desk lamp was on, the yellow rays beaming down onto piles of paperwork. His bed was unmade, and his clothes were strung all over the floor. He usually kept his room pretty spotless, so it was unusual to find it looking like a bomb had detonated inside.
The scent of his musky cologne hit me, and I breathed it in meanly, stepping into the room further. I'd never really taken too much of a good look around Kaleb’s room—always far too distracted—but it wasn’t overly inspiring. Heavy weights thrown to the ground. An open wardrobe full of mostly black clothing. A bookcase shoved into the corner, filled with thriller novels that appeared untouched.
Grunting to myself as my hip bumped into the corner of the desk, I cursed as his paperwork and files tumbled to the floor. God dammit.
I leaned down to pick them up, my hands swiping up the papers, attempting to keep them in order as I stacked them back up on his desk. But one particular yellow file caught my attention.
Mark Henderson.
My face blanched, and my shaking hands reached for it, bringing it closer to my face as I took a deep breath. My eyes skimmed over the papers, but I struggled to pick up more than a few words, my head spinning.
Involvement.
Drug ring.
Will Sheffield.
Location unknown.
Negotiation is possible.
My heart slammed against my ribcage, my muscles cramping up as I stared at the file Kaleb had on my own fucking father—claiming he was involved with the most dangerous drug ring in the city and was working alongside the notorious Will Sheffield.