Chapter Eight #4
He still felt betrayed by Callie. When she slept with Marco, it felt like she had cheated on him as well.
It was a complicated triangle, but Damian had always thought they would figure it out.
He also felt betrayed by Ryan. Although very drunk, Ryan had finally admitted his feelings and had not stopped Damian from pleasuring him that night.
For a brief moment, Damian thought there was a chance for the three of them.
Callie’s actions were selfish and made no sense, and Damian couldn’t see a way to forgive her.
Then Ryan ghosted him. Yes, he was hurting, but when Ryan ignored him, Damian knew where he stood.
He was once again Ryan’s shameful secret, an attraction and desire Ryan refused to admit openly.
That made it easier for Damian to leave and put them all behind him.
He knew his trial was rescheduled, but Caleb was working on it independently now.
He hadn’t even seen Ryan’s name copied on emails.
Damian was fine with never seeing Ryan or Callie again.
It was the simplest way to get over them.
After a couple of weeks without hearing from Ryan, he changed his number, and no one had the new one, not even Caleb. He decided to give himself closure.
Damian repeatedly agreed to take extra shifts and had just worked ten days in a row.
His boss finally forced him to take a day off, and he was at home, lying in bed, in no rush to start his day.
But someone started knocking on his door.
He wasn’t sure who would knock instead of calling first, so he ignored it, assuming it was some sort of solicitation.
The person persisted, forcing Damian to get up.
He didn’t bother pulling on a shirt and went to answer the door in only his sweats, to make it clear to the visitor that they had woken him.
But when he opened the door, he froze. Ryan was standing on his porch.
“We need to talk,” Ryan said quickly, before Damian could slam the door in his face.
Damian stared him down for a moment. He wanted to tell him to go to hell. Why should Damian suddenly be ready to talk now that Ryan had decided it was time?
“Please,” he said. “It’s important. I fucked up.”
Now curious, Damian motioned for Ryan to enter and led him to the kitchen. He was shocked and angry. He had been happy with the clean break. Ryan’s sudden appearance was cruel and selfish. If Ryan didn’t explain himself quickly, Damian would tell him so and throw him out.
“Coffee?” Damian offered. Ryan nodded.
Damian needed one, and he wasn’t such a bad host that he wouldn’t offer Ryan a cup. He handed Ryan the drink and took a seat at the table. He noticed Ryan shift uncomfortably, and Ryan’s eyes lingered on Damian’s bare chest.
“What’s up?’ Damian finally asked, annoyed that Ryan didn’t take the initiative to speak. He was angry at Ryan, but he wanted to know why Ryan was there before he unloaded on him.
“I made a mistake,” Ryan stated again.
He took a deep breath, looked at Damian, and began to explain Edwards' visit and the test results, even admitting he had threatened the Service after Damian was hurt. The story seemed unbelievable. It was the Service again. They had set it all up. They wanted to ruin Callie and torture Ryan. It made more sense than what they had all assumed, and Damian felt sick about how he had treated Callie. But he didn’t understand what Ryan wanted from him.
Why did Ryan need to find Damian and tell him this?
“So, have you guys reconciled?” Damian asked.
“No,” Ryan replied. “She’s missing. I have no idea where she is.”
“And you think I do?” Damian asked. “Sorry, I don’t. I was an asshole. I deleted all her messages and blocked her. I sided with you, though it didn’t seem to matter to you.”
There was a long, awkward silence between them.
Seeing Ryan again angered Damian. But now that he knew he had destroyed his friendship with Callie by blaming her for something that wasn’t her fault- in fact, it was more Ryan’s fault- he was furious.
Even if Ryan hadn’t pursued him again after the breakup, Damian believed their friendship would have stayed intact.
However, when Ryan never reached out or responded to his messages, Damian decided to leave them all behind. He had been doing fine until now.
“Do you even remember what happened at the party?” Damian asked.
Ryan had been very drunk. It was possible he didn’t remember, but that didn’t mean his admission wasn’t true.
Ryan slowly nodded and looked down, ashamed.
Damian realized that, as much as Ryan had those feelings for him, it didn’t matter.
Ryan had found Damian only because he wanted to find Callie, and for some reason he thought Damian would help with that.
Ryan would never be secure enough in his own feelings to admit, openly and while sober, how he felt for Damian.
It would always be his dark secret, hidden away, except when he was curious and horny.
“Never mind,” Damian sighed.
He would give him the out. Ryan wasn’t there for him; his focus and concern were on Callie, and now Damian’s were too.
They could at least agree on that. He grabbed his phone and unblocked Callie’s number.
He wondered if there was a way to recover the deleted messages.
He wanted to know what she was trying to tell him.
“Her number’s disconnected,” Ryan said, watching Damian try to make a call.
Damian put down the phone and looked at Ryan.
“So what do we do?” Damian asked.
“I was hoping you might have some ideas about where she could be,” Ryan said, disheartened.
“Have you called her father?” Damian suggested.
“Yes,” Ryan confirmed. “It wasn’t a pleasant conversation. Other than confirming she’s still alive, he wouldn’t tell me anything. Edward had a PI scope out the house, and she isn’t there.”
Damian replayed every conversation he could remember with her.
They had spent a lot of time together, but not much of it had been personal.
He realized he didn’t know much about her life.
Ryan had spent a week with her and her family after her mother died.
Ryan should have more insight than Damian, and Damian was frustrated that Ryan didn’t have a better lead.
“It’s been weeks,” Damian challenged. “What have you been doing all this time?”
“I needed some time, so I left as well,” Ryan confessed. “I didn’t know any of this until Edward told me. We’ve been searching, but we’ve run out of leads.”
“Why is Edward so invested in this?” Damian asked. But the more Ryan spoke, the angrier Damian grew at Ryan. It was clear Damian had been Ryan’s last resort.
Ryan shrugged and offered no further explanation for Edward’s actions. They started listing possible places, from where her relatives lived to vacation spots. But other than a short list of her relatives' hometowns, they had nothing solid to go on.
“She hardly traveled,” Ryan concluded. “She lived in the same house all her life until she moved to the city. There aren’t many places she knows.”
“So, it’s a place she doesn’t know,” Damian said, suddenly recalling a conversation he and Callie had a couple of months earlier.
“That’s literally the rest of the world,” Ryan frowned.
“I know where she is,” Damian said slowly.
He pulled out his phone and started searching.
He entered the criteria into the AI app.
Callie had told him exactly where she wanted to go and even shown him a picture, though she didn’t know its exact location then.
The app displayed dozens of pictures, and he searched for the one she had shown him.
For some reason, she had picked that one over all the other villages, and if he could locate it, he would bet she had too.
Then he saw it — the exact picture she had chosen.
“There,” Damian showed Ryan the picture.
“Where the hell is that?” Ryan replied.
“No idea,” Damian confessed.
He asked the AI to locate the town in the picture. A moment later, he had a pin on a map. A small town about ten hours north of the city, on the coast and very isolated, just as she had wanted.
For a moment, he considered telling Ryan he couldn’t find it.
He could send Ryan away and find Callie himself.
Ryan didn’t deserve her. He had put her in this situation and hadn’t even considered her for a moment.
Then Damian’s heart sank. Neither had he.
He had blamed Callie immediately, sided with Ryan, and hadn’t even tried to hear her side of the story.
He was just as much an ass as Ryan. And as much as he wanted to find every excuse to be mad at Ryan, Damian knew he had been just as horrible to Callie.
“Looks like we are taking a road trip,” Damian said, showing Ryan the map.