The resulting effect was equivalent to diving head-first into an ice-covered lake. The breath was torn from my lungs, and I literally groaned out loud in pain.
The room was suddenly swimming as several more ghouls clawed at me.
I felt like I was drowning.
I could barely hear Cal shouting at the lady who had accosted me.
“Touch him again, and all these people will be back foryourfuneral, sweets.” He was growling, and I gasped, reaching for him, trying to get him toshut the fuck up.
“Cal. Stop,” I rasped. But he either didn’t hear me or didn’t care. His mother passed through me again, screeching and clawing at my insides.
Everyone was staring.
They were whispering and judging. This was wrong, so, so wrong.
This was so inappropriate. No one was ever going to want to have a service here again… My father’s legacy would be destroyed because I had let this fucking pushymercenaryinto my life…
“GET THE FUCK OUT!” I was suddenly screaming, shoving Cal toward the door.
He turned to look at me, clearly shocked and confused that I was yelling at him.
“Ryan… I just?—”
“GET OUT! YOU’RE FUCKING RUINING EVERYTHING!” I was still screaming. All the stress from the day finally exploded out of me. The additional discomfort of the constant onslaught of ghouls passing through me was making it impossible for me to keep a level head. I just wanted him gone. I couldn’t breathe.
My whole body had broken out into a cold sweat, and I was so dizzy.
Cal looked like I had just broken his heart. He hovered for a moment as if he were waiting for me to take it back, but I couldn’t.
“Please. Just fucking get out of here. You’re ruining everything!” I begged, and finally, he nodded once and pushed through the crowd, leaving the viewing room.
His ghouls followed him, but the damage had been done. I was literally shaking when I felt strong hands curl around my shoulders.
I jerked away, thinking it was Cal, but looked up to see it was my sister. Her lips were crushed into a firm, concerned line.
“Head upstairs. I’ll take over for today,” she said, her tone more gentle than normal.
Nodding, I stumbled away, humiliation and shame at my behavior suddenly taking over.
The hurt look on Cal’s face swam across my vision as I dragged myself upstairs and into a hot shower, doing my best to get my core body temperature back up.
I battled with my guilt as I stood beneath the steaming spray.
Why did I feel guilty? He shouldn’t have been there!He was constantly barging into my life. He didn’t belong here.
My life was serious and orderly… there was no room for the chaos that was Cal fucking Walker.
So why did I feel like I had just made a horrible mistake and hurt someone who might actually really care about me?
I shook my head.
No. I couldn’t think like that. Nothing was more important than the business. Cal was a threat to everything I had worked toward. I couldn’t let him fuck it up just because he had looked at me with those sad brown eyes…
I smacked my forehead into the shower wall with a groan.
What a fucking mess.
After using up all the hot water, I laid down until the sun began to set. By the time the sky began to bleed orange and pink, I was physically feeling better but still so fucking gutted over the way I had yelled at Cal.
