Chapter 33
Callum
Looking up at him, I listen to the steady, shallow breaths flowing in and out of his lips.
His dark lashes rest under his eyes, and it’s the most peaceful I’ve ever seen him in years.
Dallas Jaeger is either moving, eating, fighting, or fucking, but right now, the muscles in his face are completely relaxed and his body is calm.
I like this view, because it simply means he’s in recharge mode. I smile up at him. When he wakes, he’ll be hard again.
I should get a shower while I can.
Pushing up, I see him stir, and I mold my mouth to his, kissing him softly. “Stay in bed,” I whisper. “I’ll be right back.”
He moans, but he doesn’t open his eyes. I have no idea what time it is, but the sun is up. That’s not a good sign, because I feel like I’m already late for something.
Throwing on my pants, I open a couple of Dallas’s drawers and find a T-shirt. I put it on and open the door, pausing when I see the drawing still on the wall. Solve the problem in parentheses first.
I’m sure there’s some philosophical meaning behind it, but I’ll have to ask him. I think I warrant a real answer now.
Heading to the bathroom, I close the door and turn on the shower. When I turn to search for a towel, there aren’t any on the rack. I spin in a circle, not seeing them anywhere. The shelves are empty except for some hand towels, washcloths, and shower steamers.
There’s a bathroom in Macon’s room, but I’m not going in there without permission again. I already snuck in once back in high school as a prank.
Turning off the water, I head back out of the bathroom and down the stairs. There’s a shower on the first floor. Hopefully, there are towels.
But as I swing around the banister, I catch sight—through the living room and into the kitchen—of what looks like the entire family sitting at the breakfast table. All of their heads are turned, eyes on me, and my heart skips a beat. What the hell?
How did every single person in the family get up and get down here without Dallas and me waking up? I remember the trampling of his brothers back in the day.
“You sleep all right?” Iron calls out.
Someone snorts, but I can’t tell who.
“ ’Cuz we didn’t,” Trace teases.
“Shut up,” Liv scolds.
The hair on my arms stands up. I’ve never been alone with his family, and I wasn’t planning on it anytime soon. Obviously, they helped him come for me last night, and they haven’t kicked me out, but we have a lot of history other than just the treasure.
It would be extremely poor form to ignore them right now.
I drift over to—I don’t know—thank them for saving me from Milo and his cousins or for letting Dallas love me or for being kind to Anna-Katherine, but as soon as I approach, Trace sets a plate at one of the two empty chairs at the end.
My stomach swoops a little, encouraged by the prospect of being welcome at the table, too. Though I told Dallas I’d be right back.
There’s a spread of food across the table, some kind of egg, spinach, and cheese dish, as well as cereal, bacon, and sausage. Macon’s smoothie looks pretty good, but I don’t see anyone else with one.
My sister smiles at me from between Clay and Liv, and I start to sit.
“No, no, no…” Macon shakes his head. “You got one more thing to take care of.”
I see his eyes flit to his sister before he digs into his food with his fork.
The weight of everyone’s attention sits on me, and slowly, I glance at Liv. One more thing…
“Can I speak to you, please?”
She looks over at me, but Army speaks up. “You can do it here.”
I draw in a long breath. Fuck.
Liv rises, sliding out between the packed chairs, having mercy on me. We walk outside, down the three porch steps, and into the yard.
Turning and facing me, she lifts her chin, and that night comes flooding back. I don’t know how I thought I was going to walk away from that.
I remember believing that my revenge would hurt him, and I can even understand getting to the point where that’s the singular thing I could want, but I never took into account what it would do to her. Or me.
God, I’m fucking glad she got away. I would never have forced her, but Milo might’ve tried. I put her in his path.
“I’m sorry,” I tell her.
She blinks, her brows nose-diving.
“Are you apologizing to me?” she asks, disbelieving. “You think that’s what I want to hear?”
I don’t…
“Our family doesn’t apologize to each other,” she states.
And my heart skips a beat. Our family.
So what does she want instead, if not an apology?
Thinking of the men who raised her—Macon, Army, Iron—I can’t imagine them apologizing to one another, either. They wouldn’t want to hear “I’m sorry I fucked up.”
They’d want to hear that you’re going to fix it.
I take a step closer. “What scares me sometimes is what would’ve happened if you hadn’t gotten free,” I try to explain. “I didn’t want to hurt you. I didn’t want anyone to hurt you. I think I would’ve stopped it, but that’s easy to say. I’ll never know.”
“Do you know what you would do now?”
“Yes.”
I acted like my father. Like Milo.
Like a monster in a suit who can only be trusted to serve himself. Who knows how that could’ve changed me, and who would’ve stepped up to protect Anna-Katherine?
How would it have hurt Olivia? I don’t want to be a shadow over someone the rest of their life.
“Yes,” I say again.
She regards me as if she’s trying to decide if I’m telling the truth or not, but then she blinks as she nods.
“You’re in the right place,” she assures me. “Those men in there weren’t always men, you know?”
Is she implying I still need a male role model? I hide my smile.
I guess it wouldn’t hurt.
She inches up to me, her tone clear and steady. “Are you going to make us stronger or weaker?”
My shoulders seem to square of their own accord as I look down at her. “Stronger.”
“Do you love my brother?”
My heart swims, and I can only whisper, “Yeah.”
I don’t know if it’s the prospect of being included in a real family or I just love him and will do anything to be here, but I want to be good for them.
“Let’s eat,” she says.
She starts back for the house, and I follow.
“And I think you would’ve stopped it,” she tells me over her shoulder. “I was more angry than afraid that night. I’m not sure if I ever really believed you were going to let it happen.”
She opens the door and looks at me. I remember her fighting. Man, she pissed Milo off.
She walks in. “You would’ve stopped it.”
I hope so, but it’ll haunt me. The only thing to do now is to prove I’d never let it happen from here on out. I’ll stand in front of her if I have to.
“And Mad Rock distribution called me,” she says as we head back to the table. “They want to see some dailies. Do I have you to thank?”
“Your family says thank you?”
She laughs. Like actually throws her head back, her brothers watching with borderline disdain that I made her smile.
Still, though. They hand me a plate.
—
After breakfast, Dallas and I shower, interrupted after about an hour to “get our asses downstairs.” I realize it was pointless to bathe, because we’re dirty again.
I should get back to St. Carmen, deal with my car, pack up some of my and Anna-Katherine’s things, book an Airbnb until I can figure out how to get my father out of the house, get online and check my accounts, stocks, and emails, talk to Grady, meet with the Ministry…
I end up spending all morning helping clean up the Bay after the storm.
Just as well. I need more time to figure out how to handle Jerome, Vincent, and the other boosters, not to mention potential business partners.
I don’t think my sexual orientation will be an issue to them so long as I continue to prove myself lucrative, but if not, all I can tell them is to fuck off.
No one gets between Dallas Jaeger and me.
Walking into Mariette’s, I see tables packed with families eating in between bouts of tidying the streets and yards of fallen branches and palms, as well as getting electricity flowing to the homes in the swamps, finding lost boats, repairing shutters and shingles, and hosing off mud.
A chainsaw whirs in the distance, a downed tree probably blocking a road.
Servers slip around tables, setting down plates with hamburgers and dumping piles of seafood onto newspaper. Guests get up and refill their soft drinks at will. Is Mariette not charging today?
Nothing like this happens in St. Carmen. Workers come in and clean up for us, sometimes overnight, and you almost didn’t know there was a storm.
We definitely don’t help our neighbors.
Surveying the area, I can’t find Anna-Katherine. Aracely said she was here. Then I find her, through the kitchen window.
Slipping behind the counter, I walk through the door, hearing her exclaim.
“I’m learning how to make tarts!” she bursts out, stirring a large bowl of key lime custard. “Like in Alice in Wonderland!”
She’s not looking at me. Who’s she talking to?
“That’s great,” I hear her mom say. “Save me some!”
I glance down, seeing my sister’s phone on speaker.
“I will.”
Well, that’s one phone call I don’t have to make, I guess. Good. I didn’t want to relay to her that my father came home early, which means she didn’t go with him to Colorado or stay long if she did. Otherwise, she would’ve known he’d left.
Mariette works alongside Anna-Katherine, other cooks around the kitchen frying, boiling, and grilling.
“I’ve rented a house in St. Augustine,” Ava tells her. “There’s a big kitchen if you want to cook.”
Anna-Katherine’s worried eyes flash to mine. “No,” she whimpers. “I want to stay here.”
She pleads with a look, but she doesn’t have the heart to tell her mom she’d prefer to be here.
I take the phone off speaker and lift it to my ear.
“Ava,” I say, turning away and letting my sister get back to her tarts.
“Callum.” She sounds alarmed. “What’s happening?”
“A lot,” I tell her. “But everything’s fine. She’s safe with me in Sanoa Bay. She loves it here.”
“Have you rented a place?” she asks. “I can be there today.”
And I can almost hear her grabbing her handbag and keys and moving for the door.
I scoot to the back of the kitchen, where it’s quieter. “We’re staying with the Jaegers.” I plug my ear with my fingers. “But just for a couple of nights. Don’t come back yet.”
“Callum—”
“She’s on top of the world,” I say in a stern voice. “And she’s safe. I’m making sure of it.”
I crane my neck to see her around the rack. She bounces, bobbing her head to whatever reggaeton song is playing. She’s already begun sampling the tarts.
I come back to my stepmom. “I need more time to deal with him, and I have help,” I state. “You’re just going to get in the way.”
I feel bad for my bluntness as soon as it’s out, but I’m a little overwhelmed right now and it’s the truth. She’s just going to worry about Anna-Katherine, and my sister doesn’t want to leave. Ava’s not actually going to help me accomplish anything.
I even out my tone, trying to calm her. “Don’t worry about us,” I say. “Start looking for a house or something. Somewhere close to her where you can pursue a life.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means we’re going to be free,” I promise her. “One way or another.”
She doesn’t have to live in St. Carmen, but Anna-Katherine will choose to stay.
Her mother can live where she wants, close but not in my house.
Not that I don’t like her, but it’s for her own good as well as mine.
We all need to get on with living. It won’t do Anna-Katherine any good to have her mother hovering daily.
We hang up, and I head back out to my sister. Dallas wants to take the airboat out and check the floodwaters. Alligators hunker down in deep water during storms, but they can get displaced during a storm and float inland. I want to go with him.
I touch the back of my sister’s head. “Anna-Katherine?”
She turns, beaming as she doles out scoops in little tart crusts.
The pocketknife is still hooked to her shorts, and I think I should try to get it from her. I want her to feel safe, but if she tries to use it, it could hurt the wrong person.
“I need to go to Marymount in a while,” I tell her. “How long till you’re done?”
“No, Miss Aracely is taking me to the drive-in,” she rushes out, looking worried again.
The old drive-in here? “Why?” I ask.
“They’re meeting with builders, I think.”
“A contractor?”
“Yes.” She nods. “She said I could see it. And they have a golf cart I can drive around to the different screens. And they’re planning the concessions and the ticket booths and—”
“Who else is going?” I press.
“The girls,” she says. “Paisleigh, Krisjen, and Olivia. Clay has to work.”
I twist my lips to the side. They’re all capable enough even if I have trouble looking at Aracely without remembering that I came on her stomach last week.
I’ll let my sister keep her knife for now.
“Is your phone charged?” I ask.
“Yeah.”
“What happens if someone upsets you?”
She stops and looks up. “I sing.”
“What happens if you see a man who will hurt you?”
“I run to someone safe.”
Okay, then. I kiss her cheek. “Have fun.”
Backing away, I lock eyes with Mariette. No more sugar, I mouth.
If she has an episode, sugar makes it worse, and it’s going to be hard enough to keep her on a consistent routine for the time being.
I can certainly eat one, though. I snatch two cups—one for Dallas—hearing Anna-Katherine behind me. “They need to chill!”
“You chill.”
I wink at her, catching her little scowl, and get back to Dallas.