Chapter Twenty-Two
Nixie
The sound of a glass smashing makes Darcy stop what she was saying. I get up from Calvin’s desk and walk to the window to see where it came from, but I can’t see much going on. I sit back down at the desk
“Sorry, Darc, what were you saying?” I ask her again.
“I was saying, I miss you. I feel like I haven’t spent any time with you recently.” She pouts.
“I know, and I’m sorry, it’s just been a bit hectic lately,” I tell her.
She smiles at me “I, er—I also needed to speak to you because a package came to the apartment the other day,” she says quietly.
“Another one for me?”
“No”
“Then for who?” I asked, confused.
“For me.” Her voice is shaky. “Nix, it was horrible. It had a note in it saying if I didn’t help them get you then, they were going to go to my family.”
“Darc, you can’t stay there, it’s not safe.”
“I know. It’s just. I have nowhere else to go without including my family in what’s going on.” A little sob comes out of her.
“Okay. How about I speak to Calvin and see if you can come stay with us for a bit? Just until we get all this shit sorted?” I ask her.
“I don’t want to impose on you guys.” She shakes her head.
“No. No, don’t worry about that,” I reassure her and pick up my phone from the desk. I shoot a quick message to Calvin, asking him to come up here when he’s got a minute.
Seconds after he reads it, he comes through the office door, looking fucking incredible as always. It’s not fair. How beautiful he is. I look him up and down, instinctively licking my lips, which makes him shoot a wink at me and smirk as he makes his way over to me. He always knows what I’m thinking.
“What’s up, darlin’?” he asks as he comes behind me, placing a kiss on top of my head.
“Darc, tell him what you told me,” I encourage her.
She relays what she told me to Calvin and I can see him tensing up. Before I can even ask him if she can stay with us, he beats me to it.
“You’re staying with us.”
“I don’t want to impose.” She repeats what she said to me.
“I’m not arguing about it, Darcy. I’ll have Maddox take you to your apartment. Pack what you can, and I can help with the rest,” he instructs her. She just nods in response.
Calvin must have already messaged Maddox, because he steps into the office.
“You rang?” he says.
“Take Darcy back to her apartment and gather as much as you can of her stuff. The threat has now gone to her, and she’s unsafe by herself,” he orders him.
Maddox just nods and guides Darcy out of the office.
I stand from his desk and start pacing up and down the office. “What are we going to do about this, Calvin? It’s one thing to come after me, but now they’re going after my best friend!” My voice is shaky and raised at him.
He walks over to where I’m burning a hole in his floor with all this pacing and wraps his arms around me, pulling me into his chest. The smell of him just instantly calms me. It’s woody and spicy at the same time.
“Don’t worry, it’s all going to be over soon,” he reassures me.
“How?” I ask.
“Tanner is working on it.” He smiles at me.
The smile doesn’t quite reach his eyes, so I know he’s unsure about something.
“I’m sorry for all this extra stress,” I tell him as I bury my head into his chest even more.
“There is nothing for you to be sorry about. This is nothing to do with you. It’s my fucking father trying to get the last laugh.” His words come out strained and angry.
“What happened to him?” I ask, trying to get him to open up about it. He keeps a lot locked away, and it isn’t doing him any good.
I feel his body tense with my question and let out a sigh. His arms fall from around me, my body instantly goes cold at the loss of his body heat. I watch as he sits down at his desk and runs his hands through his hair, my own hands itch to do the same.
“We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” I say, starting to feel uncomfortable about bringing it up.
“No, it’s okay,” he tells me.
He leans back in the chair and holds his arm out for me to join him, which I happily do, taking a seat on his leg. He wraps his arm back around me, and I feel content again being in his warmth and surrounded by his smell.
“Just promise me, whatever I say doesn’t change how you feel about me.”
I hold out my pinky finger and his confused look has me letting out a small laugh. I take his hand in mine and link my pinky in his.
“I promise you.” I smile at him. “And this pinky promise is only for serious business,” I tell him, trying to lighten the mood a little. The laugh that comes from him has my heart beating faster than it should.
“The family business has also been about importing alcohol and weapons legally for years. Our father spent years training Reid to take over the business when he was old enough, but me? He made me a fighter. He had me in underground fights. He said that my brother would need a strong fighter on his side when shit got too much. Before I knew it, the underground fights turned into me going out behind Reid’s back to either hurt or kill people for my father.” He stops to take a breath and looks at me. I can see the worry hidden behind his eyes. I reach out and take his face in my hand and encourage him to continue. He swallows and carries on. “After a short while, I started to enjoy it. Having the power to end someone”s life. It was thrilling, especially only being eighteen years old at the time. After a while, I was numb to it all. I didn’t care when they begged for their lives. I just wanted to end it as quick as I could and move on to the next. Reid caught wind of it all because Father had me killing with old business partners and potentially new ones. Reid told him that if it carries on there won’t be any business to take over, and it will be his name that has dragged it into the ground. This made him stop for a while. But for me, it was torture.” He moves me so I’m sitting on the desk in front of him now. He stands up and starts pacing around the room.
“We can stop, Cal, it”s fine,” I reassure him.
“No, it’s okay. I just need a minute,” he says as he walks to the bar and pours a drink for himself, which is literally gone within seconds.
“It was like an addict from drugs to having nothing,” he continues whilst pacing, “I went from killing multiple people a day to nothing. I was itching to get my hands on someone. To the point where I felt like maybe if I hurt myself, it would relieve some tension. But I never did. Instead, I started hunting down people who didn’t deserve to be in this world. Rapists. Predators. Child traffickers. Gone. But that messed me up even more. Seeing what they did to innocent people. But then, am I any better? I’ve killed so many people, Nixie.” He collapses onto the floor and I’m off the desk and running over to him before he can fall any further.
“No. Now it’s your turn to listen to me. You are so much better than them. Yes, what your dad had you doing was terrible and messed you up. But instead of letting it consume you, you turned into seeing justice for people who need it. You kill people who deserve it!” I try to reassure him.
“Did my father deserve to die?” he asks me.
His words shock me.
“When my father started to get into debt and dragged the business down again, Reid and I spoke about what we needed to do. Because we couldn’t let him continue to damage the family name and business. People were waiting for it all to fail, to get to my father for all the debt that he owed. So, it was rather us get rid of him, or one of the many debt collectors come and finish the job,” he lets out.
We stay on the floor huddled together. I know he is waiting for a response from me, but I just can’t seem to figure out what to say right now.
“Please say something,” he whispers into my neck.
“I don’t know what to say. I’m just trying to process it all,” I tell him.
Calvin just nods his head at my words and squeezes his arms around me tighter.
“I think I understand what you did and why you did it,” I tell him. “But then I also don’t understand how you could kill your own flesh and blood.”
“No one knows what happened apart from me, Reid, and now you, and it has to stay that way.”
“It will, I promise. Thank you for sharing it with me.” I tell him.
We eventually get up from the floor and Calvin excuses himself, walking out of the office. I leave him to it, because god knows how his brain is feeling right now after unloading all of that. I can’t even begin to imagine what it was like to grow up like that and doing the things he’s done. And I thought I had a shit childhood. Mine is nothing compared to his.
I just can’t understand how a father could make his child do something so sinister for him.
“Maddox says they have got everything they need and are heading over to the house now,” Calvin announces as he walks back into the office.
He is trying to act like everything is okay, but I can see it. I can see all the memories of his childhood invading his brain again. My heart aches for him.
“Let’s go home then.” I smile at myself, which makes him smile back at me.
Home with Calvin. That is all I need in life, I think. I know we still have some obstacles to get through.
Calvin guides us through the club and outside into his car that is ready and waiting for us. We drove home in a comfortable silence. When we arrive at the house, Maddox and Darcy look to be having some kind of argument at the boot of his car. Maddox looks pissed.
“Darcy must be getting right under his skin, for him to have a face like that.” Calvin laughs as he puts the car in park behind them. The lights shine on them giving us full access to see what’s going on. Maddox might be scary looking, but he doesn’t have a chance at winning with Darcy. She is as stubborn as they come.
Calvin turns the car off, plunging them into darkness, I look over to find that soft small smile on his face. And it all clocks into place.
“Wait,” I tell him before he manages to open his door, he stops and turns to me.
That beautiful face stares right into my soul.
“I, erm. I know…you said I didn’t have to say it, but…” I ramble before taking a deep breath and pulling myself together.
“I love you,” I close my eyes and rush out the words.
The air around is thick and quiet, and if I don’t get out soon, I’m going to suffocate.
“Say it again, whilst looking at me.” Calvin’s voice came through my ears, making me open my eyes and peek at him, he sat in his seat with that smirk on his face.
“I love you, Calvin.” I stare at him before he crashes his lips to mine.
“I’ve been waiting so long for you to say it back.”
“Now let’s get inside and I can really show you how much I love you.” He winks at me as he gets out of the car.
My heart aches with the happiness that is running through it, yet I can’t help but have this nagging feeling that something is going to happen.