“Yeah. Fuckthat,” I hissed, stepping into him again. He backed away from me, almost cringing in a way that was so inherentlynotCal that it made me sick. I frowned, realizing it seemed as if he were favoring the left side of his body.
He looked so unlike himself. So tired and sad and broken… like a scared, injured animal. I forced myself to back off and give him space. I didn’t want to be the reason he felt stressed or cornered.
Making the conscious decision to give him some room to breathe, I did everything I could to calm my own panic at the sight of him nearly cowering before me.
I swallowed, ignoring how tight my throat felt. I needed to keep it together.
For him.
“Do what you need to do for now, Callum, but I’m not giving up on you. I’ll be right fucking here, waiting for you to come back to me when you’re ready,” I promised.
“You’ll be waiting a long time, then.” He sighed, taking another step back toward his car.
“I’ll wait for you forever if I have to, angel.”
His mouth parted, and his eyes turned glassy.
“Angel?” he whispered just as Naomi’s voice rang out behind me.
“Cal! You’re back! Are you okay?” She cried, rushing down to meet us on the sidewalk. Cal pulled his dark gaze away from me, and he pinned his sister with the same dead look he had given me.
“Get in the car, Naomi.”
She froze at his tone, glancing back and forth between Cal and me, much the same way I had with Vox earlier.
“Umm… okay…” she squeaked, frowning. She looked at me, and I gave her a nod, squeezing her shoulder.
“Go with him and make sure he’s alright. I’ll text you later,” I whispered in her ear, and her frown deepened, but she nodded, climbing into the passenger seat.
Vox came up to stand beside me. Thankfully, he hadn’t seemed to notify Cassandra that her brother was back. I had afeeling if she came out here, things would have been even more of a disaster.
Cal looked at Vox, his mouth forming a firm line.
“You and I are no longer partners. I’ve been reassigned, and you’ve been excommunicated from Apex. If you come back, Damian will kill you.”
His delivery was flat, and Vox scowled, but Cal just turned on his heel and got into the driver’s seat of the Aston Martin.
“I’ll come by with your stuff later, Naomi!” I called, but my words were drowned out by the car’s engine.
I waited for the usual screech and groan of Cal’s robot music, but nothing was playing on the speakers as he pulled out, and I frowned.
Calalwayshad music playing in the car…
Naomi waved to me as Cal drove away, and I tried to give her a reassuring look, but I wasn’t feeling super optimistic myself.
I turned to Vox to demand he give me some clue as to what the fuck was going on, but he was already jogging toward the G-Wagon.
“Hey! Wait! Where are you going?” I chased after Vox, but he leapt into the car and locked the doors, preventing me from entering the vehicle. I pulled at the handle frantically. If he was going after Cal, I wanted to go too.
But Vox cut me an angry glare and pointed back at the house.
Fuck, I wished this dude would just fucking talk to me.
He pointed at the house again and gave me a look that saidplease fucking listen to me for once.
As much as it killed me to do it, I sighed and stepped back, remembering how easily he had disarmed me earlier.
“Bring him back,” I ordered through the crack in the window. Vox nodded as if to say,‘That’s the fucking plan.’
