“Wes! Wesley! Hawk!” I wrap my hands around Wes’s bicep in an attempt to hold him back from the beating he’s giving my father’s old colleague. As ifIcould stop him from continuing to pound Jones in the face.
Jones’s angry question repeats in my head:How much fucking money did your father leave you?I was honestly confused at his reaction when I started telling him about my last fight with Shane and how we fought over Dad’s estate. I told him too much, especially considering he was one of the people who stonewalled me when I asked about Shane’s location. I guess for one stupid fucking second, I thought if I was right in front of him, Jones would care about me because of some leftover loyalty to my father or maybe because he’s a human being. But the way his eyes widened at the mention of money? It was wild. Then he lost his mind when I didn’t answer about the money.
Adrenaline courses through my veins as Wes pauses with his fist pulled back, appearing toregister my voice. He turns, and the haze clears from his eyes. Jones deserves to be fucked up, but I don’t want Wes to accidentally kill him. Wes is not a murderer.
Wes fully registers my presence and drops Jones to the ground with a thud. There’s so much blood on Jones’s face. I tell myself it’s probably all from his nose and split lip. But from the way Wes was kneeing him in the chest, I bet he’ll have broken ribs too. At least he’s still breathing.
I thought Jones was going to beat the shit out of me to get an answer. He’s never been a good guy and hardly said a word to me when Dad was alive and Jones managed another part of the business. I didn’t love the way Jones looked at me then, but the violence with which he grabbed me from the hallway and shoved me into the restroom just now was terrifying. Maybe he only stayed civil previously because he was afraid of my father, but now he’s dead, Jones is promoted, and both my brother and Shane work for him.
“Callie.” Wes focuses on me.
“Thank god.” I turn him away from the wall and lift my hands to his cheeks. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have gone off alone. It’s not Noah’s fault. It’s mine.”
“What do you mean?”
“I saw Jones duck down this hallway and made up a story to your brother so I could try to get Jones alone.” God, that was stupid. I slide my hands off Wes’s cheeks and let them hang by my side. “I thought I could get him to talk to me.”
Wes gently grabs my hands and pulls them up to his chest, holding them in place securely. My eyelids flutter.
“You did this on purpose?” Eyes wide and deep, crystal blue, so focused on me. There’s such an intensity there, but also anger.
“I thought that when I asked him where Shane is… but he got so ragey when I mentioned the inheritance…” I blink back the tears that sting my eyes. “He was screaming at me, and it was so fucking terrifying.”
“You can’t keep doing this, Callie.”
“Doing what?”
“Putting yourself in danger.” Wes clenches his jaw, and I can see him fighting for control. “This time, it wasn’t by playing stalker outside of my cabin in a fake scenario that I was monitoring the entire time. This was real. He could’ve hurt you. He wanted to hurt you.”
“Oh.” I flinch, emotions swirling inside me. The way Wes is struggling to not freak out is scary but also fascinating. He truly cares about me being safe. He’s tracking me, protecting me, invested in me. “Shane said some hurtful things to me before he left. I just want to prove him wrong.”
“What did he say?” Wes’s voice is low are dangerous.
“I think it was that I was aboring-ass good girl.” It sounds so ridiculous out loud. I need to get over myself. “So sometimes I try not to be one.”
“I’m going to fucking kill him.”
“Don’t do that.” I almost smile, but Wes looks dead serious.
“Calliope. Promise me you won’t do anything like this again.” His thumbs sweep over the insides of my wrists, and tingles run up my arms. “I swear you are not a boring-ass good girl. Not if you don’t want to be.”
He’s so earnest, my chest tightens.
“I—I promise.”
“When I saw that you weren’t with Noah—” Wes squeezes his eyes shut. “So many bad things went through my head.”
“But you came.” It’s a reverent whisper. My chest is tight, and I focus on the feeling of his hands.
“I’ll always come for you.” He practically growls the words before reaching down and lifting me up by the waist, then turning me around to press my back against the cold tile wall. I whimper and instinctively wrap my legs around him. The sudden ache in my center is more than I can handle.
“Wesley,” I whisper. He’ll always come for me? What does that mean? But at this point, I really don’t care what it means, I care how it makes me feel. Safe. Protected. I wrap my arms around Wes’s neck, and the move brings his face so close to mine. My throat tightens under his intense stare, and I can’t help but glance down at his lips. I hear a noise and realize it’s a desperate whimper coming from my throat.
“Fuck,” he says. “Calliope.” My name leaves his lips and it’s magical, reverent, mystical. A soothing word for my hurting soul. I search his face, and his eyes are so full of life and passion, but there’s also a battle going, and if it’s fighting the urge to kiss me, I really hope he loses it. Ineedhim to lose it.
I open my mouth to say something, then close it again. I’m in the middle of my own battle. Everything just became so much more complicated. Hiring someone to track down Shane was never going to be straightforward, but I didn’t expect this.
I didn’t expecthim.
