I shake my head, remembering how furious we were. Me, Noah, Sia. Sia, my twin, who was just as devastated, just as upset.
“So Noah and I did something about it.” I shrug. We had to. We couldn’t go on while our family’s killer walked free. “We asked around, followed people, did research. I hacked into phones and systems until we figured out who did it. Then we found the guy and ended him.”
“Holy shit,” she whispers.
“It was bad and messy. We were horrified at what we’d done, while also feeling like we got vengeance for our sister. Not that it would ever bring her back, nor change her devastating final moments.”
Callie takes in a ragged breath, and I look at her. Tears stream down her face. She grabs my free hand with both of hers and squeezes.
“My twin—Sia—found out what we did. She was horrified. She wanted us to turn ourselves in. She said she couldn’t.” I shut my eyes, her horrified face always in the back of my mind. “We didn’t, of course. And we kept going. Finding the worst of the worst and taking care of them ourselves.”
“Your tattoo.” Callie turns and wraps her arms around my waist. “Ivy.” Surprised, it takes me a few seconds to turn toward her and return the embrace. She buries her head in my chest and cries. “I’m so sorry.”
“Sorry for what? You didn’t do anything.” I rest my cheek against the top of her head, then kiss her gently.
“I’m sorry for your sister and your family and you and Noah and your twin. It’s all so awful.”
“It’s why I watch out for Noah so much. I can’t lose him, not after losing the rest of my family. Sometimes he can be reckless. I make sure he’s safe.”
“That’s beautiful,” Callie says, a hitch in her voice.
Callie’s crying for us. Not running screaming because of what she just witnessed.
“Hey, it’s okay. It was a long time ago.”
“It is not okay, Wesley.”
“Hmm.” I shut my eyes. She’s right. It’s not. It never will be.
“You know what?” She looks up sharply. “I’m glad you guys got the man who killed your family. And I’m glad you did what you did tonight.”
“You are?”
“Yeah.” She nods. “Before I realized what was happening, I was hoping someone would help that girl. The first one was so scared, and so was the second one. You and Noah did that. You saved them.” Callie nibbles on her lip. “Who knows howmany other people you saved by getting rid of that guy tonight.”
She fucking gets it? She gets it. My chest aches with emotion.
Then she leans in and kisses me, sweetly at first. I lift her up and settle her on my lap, straddling me. Our tongues mix together, and she arches against me, rocking back and forth as if it’s enough to fuck me through our layers of clothing.
“Callie,” I say, pulling her mouth off mine with regret. “We can’t stay here. As much as I’m enjoying this. I shouldn’t be out, not after?—”
“Then take me back to the apartment.” She slides her hand between us and rubs my cock through my jeans. “And hurry.”
Fuck, yeah, let’s hurry.
Chapter 24
It Was Gonna Happen
CALLIE
Wes closes the door behind us and slides the deadbolt, then crashes his mouth onto mine. He bends down and picks me up again, holding my thighs around his sides so I can wrap my legs around him. Step, step, step. I vaguely recognize that he’s walking us down the apartment hallway, but he’s kissing me the entire time and it’s hard to notice anything else.
I was both right and wrong about Wes. He’s definitely a criminal involved in bad things. Worse than I’d imagined. By far. But he’s also a really decent guy. He protects the right people and takes down the worst ones. He doesn’t pretend bad things don’t happen, instead, he chases the ones responsible for them.
We don’t turn the lights on. I don’t look around. He walks me through a doorway and in a smooth motion, pushes me onto the bed, pulls off my jeans and my shirt, and leaves me on my back in my bra and underwear. He pulls his hoodie over his head with one hand and kicks off his jeans, so he’s left only in his boxer briefs. He pauses for a beat at thebottom of the bed, his chiseled chest on display in the moonlight, his expression heated and predatory as he stares down at me.
“Wes,” I say as he lets his eyes soak in my body and then drops onto the bed and crawls over me. This is spiraling out of control. We should have a conversation before we have sex. Talk about… things. Make sure it’s clear what we are doing. I feel his heat as he pauses above me, then lowers his body onto mine. The flesh-on-flesh contact is almost more than I can handle, but then he slides his hand down my abdomen, and into my soaking wet underwear. I moan as his fingers find the place they left off before we were interrupted in the kitchen, his thumb massaging my clit, his finger slowly slipping into my pussy.
