“What is this?” I asked, reaching up to touch the dark sticky substance. He jerked beneath my touch, and my fingers came away stained red. “Is this fucking blood!?” I gasped in shock.
Without thinking, I curled my fingers into the neck of his hoodie and pulled it away from his neck, frantically looking for the source of the blood.
Is this why he was late?! Had someone hurt him?
He chuckled and snatched up my hand, bringing my knuckles to his mouth and leaving a warm kiss on my fingers.
“It’s just a scratch, ginger snap. Calm down.”
Just a scratch?
I stood there, staring at him for a minute, doing my best to process everything I was feeling.
On the one hand, I was relieved that it was minor. On the other hand, what the fuck had he been doing all night that had him coming back bleeding?
I fucking hated this.
Jerking away from him, I took a deep breath and straightened my suit jacket, pinning him with a very serious look.
“I need to wrap up this ceremony. I would appreciate it if you waited for me outside,” I said, doing everything I could to keep my voice level and even.
His brows furrowed, and he reached out to touch my cheek, but I staggered back, anxiously glancing back up the hall to make sure no guests had seen.
Cal’s gaze hardened at my reaction, and he scowled. “God forbid someone sees you out here with me,” he snapped, and it was my turn to scowl.
“This isn’t the fucking time. I amworking.” I gestured angrily to the blood on his neck. “You can understand that, can’tyou? Since you were too busy at ‘work’ to even send me a fucking text to let me know you were alright.”
Confusion flickered across Cal’s face, and he cocked his head to the side. His mouth opened, but I cut him off before he could say anything.
“Please. Get out of here before you make more of a mess of this service. People are here trying to grieve the death of a fucking loved one. I can’t do this right now,” I snapped, and he nodded, still watching me with that strange look on his face.
I left him standing there and returned to the crematorium with my heart in my throat and a pounding headache that I only ever seemed to get when Cal was around.
The rest of the service went relatively smoothly despite Cal’s interruption. As guests started to leave, I excused myself and went to hunt him down.
We needed to talk about some things, and the sooner we had this conversation, the better.
Leaving Luthor to deal with clean up, I wandered through the house searching for my mercenary. I found Iris and Naomi in the kitchen making cookies, and I couldn’t help but smile at the wholesome sight.
“Hey, is Cal in here?” I asked, and they shook their heads.
“He was here earlier, but he went out back. He said he needed to talk to that girl out there.”
My heart stopped.
“What girl?” I snapped, and Naomi’s eyebrows rose in surprise at my tone.
“I don’t know. There was this angry teenager moping in the garden. He went to see if she was okay.”
“Jesus fucking Christ,” I muttered, pinching the bridge of my nose in exasperation before heading out the back to run interference.
Why couldn’t he just stop meddling in shit that wasn’t any of his business?
I stepped out onto the sunny porch and saw Cal sitting on one of the wrought iron benches in the middle of the garden with the angry teenager from earlier. Their backs were to me, so they didn’t immediately notice me as I approached.
I was about to lay into Cal but paused when I heard what he was saying.
“It’s okay to be sad, you know. Even if you did hate him.”
