13 An Unwelcome Visitor #2
“Nice to meet you, Calvin St. James. I’ll be very interested to hear what you have to say in your next episode. You’ll be covering lycanthropy soon, I expect,” Zara says pointedly, with a nod to Calvin, who stiffens as he realizes she knows exactly who and what he is.
“Just let me go,” I say. “Please, Zara. Let me keep them safe.” I hate how I sound like I’m begging.
Zara grunts in frustration. She lunges forward, grabs me by the shirt, and hauls me forward, ignoring Calvin’s dark glare.
“You want to keep them safe?” She’s speaking so quietly, I have to strain to hear her. “Head to Nevada. You agree to work with me, and I will guarantee their safety. I’ll be in touch with details.”
I hear the parts she doesn’t say aloud: Do what I say, or they’ll be the ones who pay.
Zara must take my silence for agreement, because she shoves me away and strides back to her Jeep. Without another glance in my direction, she hops in, peels out, and disappears in a cloud of dust.
“Eldi!” I yell, racing for her as soon as the Jeep is out of sight.
“Who was that?” Calvin asks as I pick up Eldi and hustle her inside, Doug and Dave following, each of them agitated.
“I told you,” I say, “an agent from Agency 51. We’re leaving.”
He follows me into the Winnebago. “What aren’t you telling me, Reggie? What are we really running from?”
“We’re running from the type of people who don’t take no for an answer.
And now they’ve caught up with me and doled out another dose of threats to get me to work for them.
” I slide open the curtain and look in the direction of the departed Jeep.
“She knows about Eldi now. I’m leaving; I’m going to try to stay under the radar, so if you’re going to broadcast anything about our location or what we’re up to, you can’t come with us.
” I meant to sound decisive and in control, but my attempt falls flat.
Anguish colors his face. “I would never purposely endanger you and Eldi.”
I set her down, and she scampers up to her bunk, followed by her guard vacuums.
“No, of course not,” I reply.
“I’m on your side here. I care about Eldi too. I’ll do whatever I can to help keep you safe.”
I wonder if he means the words with as much intensity as he’s saying them.
“You have your own life,” I say, “your podcast and all that—”
“And you aren’t part of my life? That agent already knows who I am, and apparently, what I am. She all but outright threatened me too.”
That familiar feeling, torn between what’s objectively best and what feels right, floats to the surface.
“You’re going to ditch me? Leave me behind?”
That one stings, cuts right through my willpower to argue about this.
“No, Calvin, that’s not what I meant.”
“Then what did you mean?”
“I mean, being around us has put you in danger. A werewolf attacked you, and that’s on me.” I’m trying to be selfless, but I’m so tired of it.
“No, it isn’t. I stuck my nose where it didn’t belong and”—his voice cracks—“it’s my fault.”
“I started following you in the first place to spy on you, you know. It’s not like it’s your fault I’m on a secret organization’s hit list.”
Calvin swears, frustrated, and looks away. He is stubborn, but he has no idea what he’s signing up for. I know I should tell him everything, but I can’t do it. He wouldn’t be so eager to rush after me, then.
“I need there to be no more secrets between us,” Calvin says. “There’s something I need to tell you.”
He looks scared, and I, too, am afraid of the words about to leave his lips.
I feel bad enough without the guilt of hearing how much he cares.
He wants to hand me his heart in exchange for my past. But I can’t confess more secrets, and I don’t want to leave him behind.
This conversation needs to end now unless I’m willing to lie to his face.
Calvin presses his hands together, takes a deep breath. “Maybe you should sit down—”
“Whatever you want to talk about can wait,” I say. “But we need to go now. Agency 51 knows where I am, that Eldi is with me. The only thing that matters right now is getting her as far away from Nevada as possible.”
He swallows hard, his face pale, and opens his mouth to talk, but I cut him off.
“I want you to come with us,” I tell him. There, a small truth so that I can hold back the rest. It makes me sick, manipulating his emotions like that, but what else can I do?
He watches me for a long moment, eyebrows drawn together, a faint frown on his face. A tangle of emotions I have no hope of unwinding shoots through me.
“You want me to come with you,” he checks, reaching out his hand and stroking his thumb across my cheek.
“Are you being serious right now? Yes, Calvin, I don’t mind you around—I think that should be obvious.” I gesture to our mismatched clothing, knowing we’re both remembering how we ended up that way.
“Let’s go,” I prod. “We’ll have time to talk later.”
Calvin hooks a finger in the waistband of his boxers that I’m still wearing, then tugs me closer to kiss my forehead tenderly.
Eldi makes a gagging noise from the bunk, and Calvin blushes.
I roll my eyes. “All right, all right, that’s enough. Let’s hit the road. But first”—I look down at the pair of Calvin’s boxers I’m wearing—“I gotta find some pants.”