Chapter 7 #2
But Callie was human. This Mitch was obviously human, too.
In the Iron, he knew the humans tended to massacre each other even more mercilessly than his kind did in Faerie, but he carried a piece of Callie’s soul inside of him now.
Her response at his touch told Ash that he would be able to seduce his mate eventually, but if he killed that male?
She’d never let him touch her again.
Good thing that Ash was clever. Tricky. Determined.
And he had a watch that would lead him to the human, and whatever glamour it took to convince this Mitch to leave Callie in his care.
After all, he was her mate. No one would take better care of her than he would.
Ash told her that the fae couldn’t lie, and he also told her that she wouldn’t be able to keep him away.
Three days after he left her apartment, Callie was beginning to think one of the two things couldn’t be true since there had been no sign of Ash.
She couldn’t understand why she wanted him to visit her again so badly.
Though she didn’t expect him to show up at Buster’s or anything, he wasn’t at the park when she purposely stopped by, and if her heart rate picked up whenever someone approached her apartment, disappointment set in every time that it wasn’t her golden fae.
She should’ve known better. If that touch felt as good to him as it did to her, he’d probably gotten what he wanted out of her already.
Then again, he had made it clear that he wouldn’t settle for less than getting into her bed, so maybe she was just being an idiot for hoping that he’d come and see her again.
But he hadn’t, and on the fourth evening, she huffed and drowned her sorrows in a pint of ice cream.
Add that to how strange Mitch had been acting lately and Callie was feeling more than a little alone.
She blamed it on the pressures at his office since her roommate seemed to be almost living downtown.
Over four days, she’d seen him for maybe a grand total of twenty minutes.
He looked pale and wan, a glazed look in his deep brown eyes, and dark purple circles underlining them.
She didn’t want to bother him, so she made quick small talk and just reminded Mitch that she was there for him.
Maybe when he finally got that promotion, she could take him out to celebrate. Kill two birds with one stone and all that. Show Mitch she was happy for him while also getting out instead of waiting around for Ash to reappear.
The next morning was her off day and though it was out of the ordinary for Callie, she allowed herself to really sleep in. It was almost nine when she got up and, feeling a hunger deep in her gut, decided to make breakfast.
Ha. As if food would feed the craving she hadn’t been able to kick yet.
She wanted dick. Plain and simple. And though she knew Mitch would shuck his boxers and give her exactly what her body needed, the idea of banging on her roommate’s door left her feeling shaky.
Damn it, she didn’t want just any dick. She wanted Ash, and she blamed him for putting the idea in her head and then bailing.
Not that she wanted to prove him right. He’d seemed so sure that she would come around in the end, and if she jumped him the next time he showed his gorgeous face, she could only imagine the smirk he’d pull.
Ugh.
“Get control of yourself, girl,” she murmured, grabbing her hair and throwing it up in a bun.
She put on her slippers, rolling her eyes when she saw the bottoms of the sleep shorts she’d taken to wearing peeking out from under the hem of her sleep shirt. Damn it, it had barely been a week since Ash came bursting into her life and already he’d made her as nuts as she thought he was.
Whatever. If he didn’t want to see her again, she couldn’t make him. She’d been happy before the day she saw him standing beside that tree, and she’d be ecstatic if she never saw him again.
And if she told herself that enough times, maybe she’d actually believe that whopper this time around.
Since Mitch had mentioned that he wasn’t going into the office today—for the first time in Callie didn’t know how long—she figured he was still sleeping when she saw that his door was closed.
Feeling queasy at just the thought of knocking on it even though she’d never turn to her friend just to scratch this crazy itch, she shuffled past it.
Still, she was heading to make breakfast. She might as well see if he wanted any.
“Mitch?” she called out. “I’m gonna make some waffles. You want some?”
No answer.
He must be out cold, she mused. Good. He needed the rest.
She milled around the kitchen, pulling out all of the ingredients she would need to make waffles.
For some strange reason, it looked like there were fewer things in the pantry, the drawers, the fridge than there had been before.
Maybe it was time to take a run to the grocery store.
Might as well since she didn’t really have anything else to do today, and going to the park to take more photographs just didn’t appeal to her at the moment.
As she went to the cabinet where she swore she kept their waffle iron, she noticed that it wasn’t just food that was missing.
The whole kitchen looked different. Something…
something wasn’t right. It took her longer than it should’ve to notice that Mitch’s cast iron pan was missing, especially since it had been so handy the other day against Ash.
Not that she was planning on threatening him with it a second time.
If he ever showed up again, that was.
Shaking her head, she started to look for the cast iron pan. She still wasn’t so sure that Ash hadn’t snagged Mitch’s watch, and though she couldn’t figure out how he’d take the cast iron pan when he was clearly wary of it, maybe that was exactly why it was gone now.
Sure, she might—against her better judgment—want to fuck Ash, but she’d be a moron to trust anything he said.
After another search, she realized that there was no sign of the cast iron pan. Even weirder, that wasn’t the only other item that was gone. Mitch’s knife set. His favorite cereal bowl. The set of good glasses that he kept for when Tony and Ariadne came by for dinner.
Ignoring the sinking suspicion in the pit of her stomach, she left the kitchen, heading for the bathroom they shared.
Everything that Mitch used was gone.
What the—
Though it took every ounce of will Callie had, she went to his bedroom. The suspicion had ramped up to a burst of anxiety she couldn’t ignore so, instead of knocking, she threw open the door.
There was a mattress in there.
That was all.
A mattress.
No bedding. No blankets. No pillows.
Callie darted in, yanking open his closet door. Not even a hanger lingered inside.
“Mitch?”
She had a phone in her room. Trading Mitch’s for hers, Callie grabbed the handset and dialed his cellphone number, grateful she had memorized it.
Of course the fucker was off. Why wouldn’t it be when it seemed as if her closest friend had up and disappeared without a word?
Slamming down the phone, she tried in vain to make sense of what had happened. Because it didn’t make any sense at all. It was like Mitch had taken everything he owned with him overnight, moving out without saying a damn thing, and he would never, ever do that… would he?
She thought about calling her sister, maybe having Ariadne ask Tony about Mitch. Since that would inevitably lead to everyone losing their shit if they didn’t know, she decided to wait until she could get in touch with him first. The phone wasn’t on right now, but it would be eventually, right?
And then she’d make him explain.
Because this? It was inexplicable.
Callie stormed out of her room. She wasn’t sure if she was surprised or angry or just confused.
Mostly confused, she decided, and definitely not hungry any longer.
She headed back toward the kitchen, determined to put away all of the ingredients she had taken out—and that’s when she noticed the envelope with her name scrawled in Mitch’s sloppy handwriting on it.
It was resting on the back of the couch. He probably thought she couldn’t miss it, but she obviously had.
Until now.
Her heart racing, pulse pounding, Callie snatched the envelope and tore it open. If he thought he could explain the way he dipped out so suddenly in a letter, then he had another think coming.
And then she read the single page he’d tucked inside, and it suddenly made just a little more sense.