She held up shaking hands in surrender and nodded. “Of course. I’m sorry. I never meant to use him. I thought we had a mutually beneficial arrangement.”
“Yeah, well, the arrangement is over. Now get the fuck out of here before I do you like they did Jesus.”
I slapped my palm into my face and groaned, sliding down in my seat.
“Holy fuck, Cal. Tone it down,” I grumbled, feeling like the entire world was closing in on me.
Joanna’s chair scraped back, and I heard her scurry away. I couldn’t look up. I knew everyone in the cafe would be whispering and staring at us. This was, like, my worst fucking nightmare.
Cal grabbed my wrist and pried my hand away from my face. I met his hard, angry gaze, and he jerked his head at the door.
“Get in the car.”
“Cal—”
“Get. In. The.Fucking. Car,”he growled, and I saw how serious he was. If I didn’t get in, he was going to make even more of a scene.
I nodded minutely and stood up, leaving my barely-touched coffee on the table. Cal stalked out behind me. He stayed so close to my back that I could feel the heat radiating off of him.
With surprising gentleness, he steered me toward the crazy black SUV he had been driving lately.
Soft nudges on my hips and a feather-light glide of fingers up my arm made me shiver involuntarily.
When we reached the vehicle, he reached around me and opened my door, jerking his head again in a silent order to get in.
I scowled at him. “I don’t need you to open the door for me.”
“Shut the fuck up, Ryan,” he snapped and slammed the door shut before I could respond. He jogged around the car and hopped up into the driver’s seat before punching the ignition.
His insanely loud robot music started blasting out of the speakers, and I noticed he had two small monitors installed on his dashboard that looked like a customized build. They flickered on and showed a GPS map and the rearview camera.
This SUV was super high-tech… How much money did Cal fucking have?
I glanced over at the angry mercenary in question as he pulled up his hood and slid on his Ray-Bans. He peeled out of the parking lot without saying a word, his tattooed fingers tapping on the steering wheel in…agitation?
I wasn’t used to seeing him on edge like this. He was always flippant about everything and constantly making jokes.
I couldn’t tell if I was upset that he was angry or somewhat thrilled that I had the power to make him feel this way at all.
That was fucked up, right? Definitely toxic… I just… it meant something to me that he was this upset over seeing me with someone else. I couldn’t fathomwhyhe was so obsessed with me, but for someone who had spent most of their life trying to be invisible, it was strangely validating to feel like someone cared enough to want me so badly.
“Cal, I—” I reached forward to turn down the horrible robotic noise coming out of his speaker, but he snatched my wrist and nearly snarled at me.
“I said shut the fuck up, Ryan. And don’t touch my fucking stereo.” He had to yell to be heard over the racket, but there was a weird muscle twitching in his jaw, so I let it go.
Settling back into my seat, I resolved to give him a few minutes to calm down as he drove me home. However, it didn’t take long for me to realize hewasn’ttaking me home. He hoppedon the highway and took an exit that led us away from Fairview Funerals.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked, feeling slightly panicked.
He didn’t answer, and soon, the houses and shops around us became fewer and farther between.
After roughly twenty minutes, he pulled off the two-way country road he had navigated to and parked in what seemed to be an abandoned farmer’s field. There was a dilapidated split rail fence a few yards away that marched around the perimeter of a grassy expanse of land that was likely used to house cows or horses. There was no one for miles, and I hadn’t seen another car in ages.
He turned off the music and leaned back in his seat. Removing his shades, he ran the palm of his hand down his face and sighed. It was the most un-Cal thing I had ever seen, and I suddenly felt a bolt of fear shooting through me.
“Did you bring me here to kill me?” I joked, trying to lighten the mood. But when Cal looked at me, the smile dropped off my face.
Oh.
