5. Caleb
Chapter 5
Caleb
M r. Black meets me outside the county jail, and I can’t say I’ve ever felt like more of a miscreant. But at least Uncle isn’t the one waiting for me.
After our ‘interview’, the detective said he had enough cause to hold me without pressing charges. So there I sat, while Margo was in the hospital without me.
“I found her,” I say once we’re in the car. “And they just?—”
“He already suspected you. When you showed up with her at the hospital, her arms still fucking bound…”
Eli’s dad isn’t a swearer. He drinks expensive whiskey when the occasion calls for it—after a big day at work, maybe—but otherwise, he doesn’t like alcohol. For years, I’ve been trying to find his vice. Smoking, gambling, women.
There had to be something.
Instead, I found a good man. He went to church with his wife on Sundays and tried not to disappear into his office on the weekends. He was present. At the games, cheering us on. When we were younger, he’d pick us up from school and we’d grab ice cream.
Eli’s family was more like mine for a long time. And if I had to pick a man to emulate when I got older, it was him.
He hands me my phone. “Your uncle called.”
I grimace. “I was hoping to avoid telling him I’m out.”
“Did the time in jail make you delusional?” He shakes his head. “I can sometimes pull a rabbit out of a hat, but I’m no miracle worker.”
“Maybe.” I fiddle with it. “How is she?”
It’s been just under seventy-two hours. Almost three days exactly since I saw her. And every moment of it has been hell. My skin has been crawling since they put me in the holding cell. There was an odor in there, but now that I’m out, I think it’s me.
I should be ashamed, but I’m just mad. At the detective, at Unknown and whatever fucking game they’re playing.
Finding their identity is my new priority.
Eli’s dad glances over. “She told the detective it wasn’t you.”
I didn’t expect anything different. It wasn’t me. But the sudden relief at knowing she knows… indescribable. My shoulders lower a fraction, and I take a deeper breath.
“Is she still in the hospital?”
His grip flexes on the steering wheel. “They discharged her this afternoon.”
It’s a little past seven. Winter has well and truly arrived, because it’s already dark. And there’s a fresh layer of snow on the ground.
“She could be home already,” I muse.
I scroll through my missed calls and texts. Falling off the radar doesn’t go unnoticed in Rose Hill. But I’m only scanning for one name in particular. Instead, another catches my eye.
Riley
It’s Margo. I’m home.
Not sure where my phone ended up.
That’s an invitation if I’ve ever heard one.
“Robert is still in the hospital,” Eli’s dad offers unexpectedly. “They moved him out of ICU. But with Margo home, Lenora is trying to be in two places at once.”
I scowl at him. “Margo shouldn’t be alone. Not with a kidnapper on the loose.”
And Unknown still harassing us .
They knew I was going to get arrested. Knew I’d find the barn… but how?
He nods. “I figured you would say that. I checked with her case worker and made some calls. Riley and her dad are going to stay with Margo while Lenora stays at the hospital.”
Not good enough , I almost say.
I swallow. “Is the detective going to come after me again?”
“I’ll make sure he doesn’t.” He sighs. “She wasn’t able to name anyone. Says she didn’t see, although she swears it wasn’t you.”
Something funny happens in my body. Every muscle gets tight. Alarmed. A lump forms in my throat, and it’s hard to breathe. She was held—they pulled her from the wreckage and did who-knows-what, and she never saw them?
“Even more reason to stay with her,” I bite out. “Who?—”
“Caleb. I’ll drop you off at Margo’s house, but do not, under any circumstances, talk to Masters or anyone else about what happened.”
Mr. Black is a badass defense lawyer. He has sway in the prosecutor’s office and all over the county. Hell, half of New York City knows of Josh Black. I don’t think the district attorney has ever had a worse record in court against one lawyer.
And right now, I’m grateful for it.
I barely slept while in holding. There was an officer keeping watch, but it was county jail. All sorts of crazies were brought in.
My phone vibrates again.
Uncle
Tomorrow morning. My house.
I can hear his anger from here. He thinks I did it, but he’s more concerned that I got caught.
I don’t respond to Margo, or my uncle, or any of the other messages. I need to see her with my own eyes.
“I should’ve taken off the duct tape.” I don’t realize I’ve said it out loud until Mr. Black has slowed the car and twisted toward me.
“Caleb.” His voice is stern. “You cannot say things like that, especially around the detective. You understand?”
“I found her on the floor of the barn.” I meet his gaze. He already heard this story when I told the detective, but it bears repeating. “She was unconscious. I was more worried about getting her to the hospital.”
“All they’ll see is someone who wanted to keep her in check. Under their thumb.”
I bristle. “That’s not it.”
“I know that’s not it. I know you. But that’s what they’ll say, and that argument is what they’ll build a case on, if Masters decides to charge you.”
“She said it wasn’t me.”
Eli’s dad tsks. “She was drugged. She could’ve been confused.”
“I found her!”
“How? How did you know exactly where to go? Why didn’t you call the police?”
“Fuck!” I’m tempted to jump out of the car. Of all the things, I kept the detail of Margo’s stalker leading me right to her a secret.
“Son, I’m just trying to get you to see how the prosecutor would?—”
“Yeah, I get it. Can we just…” I wave toward the road. We’re close to Margo’s house, and I’m eager to see her. And be done with this line of questioning.
He chuckles to himself. “I suppose it’s a good thing we’re going to see her now. Saves you a midnight trip.”
Ah, shit. “You know?”
“Just because you think you’re quiet doesn’t mean I don’t know everything that happens in that house. But your runs don’t usually end with you coming home in a reasonable time. And sometimes they involve your car.”
I chuckle. “Yeah, that may be true.”
We pull into Margo’s driveway, and he stops me from getting out with a hand on my shoulder.
“Seriously. We had the sex talk when you were fourteen. I don’t need to tell you to be safe, right? You’re smart enough to already?—”
“Yeah, we’re good.”
He drops his hand, and I get out. Lenora’s car is in the driveway. Robert’s is probably at the junkyard… or in police custody. I didn’t see it, but I have enough mental imagery to last a lifetime.
Lenora yanks the door open before I have a chance to knock.
“Caleb.” She’s decidedly unfriendly.
I narrow my eyes. “Mrs. Bryan.”
“Angela told me…” Her attention slides past me, to where Josh Black comes up behind me. “The charges were dropped?”
“I didn’t do it.” I stare at her, willing her eyes to come back to me. “I would never.”
She scoffs. “You seem to be the cause of a lot of heartache.”
“I can’t really do much about that unless you let me in to fix it,” I say quietly.
She only steps aside once Mr. Black is behind me.
The living room is empty. I glance into the kitchen, find that empty, and head up the stairs. The longest walk of my life. It’s been the longest few days of my life, actually.
My imagination runs wild. I walk down the hall to her room, and it stretches out in front of me. Her door is cracked open, and it doesn’t make a noise when I nudge it open farther.
She’s… cleaning .
Shoving papers into drawers, straightening her books. Her small trashcan is in her hand, and she periodically shoves random things—a bauble, a paper, something that appears to be a seasonal decoration—into it. Her sheets are off the mattress, balled up in the center of the room. Comforter thrown on the floor. All her clothes are stacked in a pile on top of her nightstand.
Maybe cleaning was the wrong word. She’s doing more harm than good.
And she’s sniffling.
The whole room feels different. Like I left it—and her—one way, and now I’m coming back to someone new.
“Margo.”
I startle her. She nearly jumps out of her skin, and my heart gives a nasty thump.
Her face is bruised. A few butterfly bandages are taped over stitches across her forehead—that gash was the source of a lot of blood. She probably has more injuries, but those are the only visible ones.
That, and her expression.
I step toward her, and she steps back.
That’s not how this normally goes.
“You don’t think I had anything to do with this, do you?”
Her eyes widen, then skip to the window. I can’t help but notice it’s locked. A message if I ever saw one. I want to howl. Instead, I keep approaching. Her back bumps against the bookshelf—the very same one I found the spying figure on—and she freezes.
I relish the heat of her body, but I don’t touch her. I stop just a hair’s breadth away and meet her dark eyes. There are hours unaccounted for after the accident, and I would kill to give them back to her.
I force myself not to trace her jaw. To inhale the scent of her shampoo—because even that is off, tainted by the antiseptic smell of the hospital.
She’s breathing heavy, like me being in her room has stolen her oxygen.
This isn’t you , I almost say. This girl is scared—but she doesn’t need to be scared of me .
“Are you angry?” she blurts out.
“Furious,” I whisper. “But not at you.”
I give in to temptation and drag my finger across her lower lip. It’s split, a little swollen, but she doesn’t move when I press, parting her pretty mouth.
Her tongue darts out, touching my thumb, and I grin. I’m getting harder by the second, but I think Margo knows what she does to me.
It’s so fucking good to see her.
“I thought you might be happy to see me.” I stroke her hair. I want to kiss her, but she seems scared. I don’t know why she’d be scared of me. “You okay, baby?”
A ridiculous question to ask, given the circumstances.
“Caleb…” She trembles, but she reaches out and steadies herself on me. “I’m so far from okay, I don’t know what to do.”
I can’t read her expression, but she seems terrified.
“Tell me,” I demand. “Let me make it better.”
She sucks in a breath, then blurts out, “My memories came back.”
And all the things I was trying to keep from her are suddenly… not so hidden.
Fuck .