Total pages in book: 167
Estimated words: 157162 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 786(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 157162 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 786(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
Elliot.
He’d called repeatedly during the past three hours. He’d demanded I check in with him, and a quick drive by my house and seeing Kip’s pickup parked there had told me the men had coordinated some kind of protection detail.
No way was I letting that shit happen. Hence the hotel.
I’d texted Elliot to tell him I hadn’t been murdered and was not allowing myself to be a part of any sort of protection detail.
He hadn’t been calmed by that, hence the calls.
Once again, I silenced it, picking up my drink instead.
Drinking wasn’t going to solve my problems, but I wasn’t about to face them head-on. Or sober.
Not that night, at least.
ELLIOT
“Fuck,” I muttered as I heard Calliope’s voicemail message yet again.
Which was, “If I’m not answering your call, I don’t want to talk to you. Don’t leave a message, I won’t listen to it.”
She was screening my calls. But she was okay. Like her text said. It was a mistake trying to put any kind of guard detail on her. I’d told Rowan as much when he’d arrived at the restaurant earlier to ‘make a plan.’
Rowan was the kind of man who needed a plan, needed actionable steps to keep his loved ones safe. I got that. The need to chain Calliope to my side so I could have eyes on her at all moments was maddening. But I understood that that was a surefire way to lose her, which was why I had let her leave my place and had headed to Shaw Shack to masquerade as business as usual. I’d been considering delaying my departure this weekend. Though I’d known Calliope wouldn’t be happy about that. And we couldn’t afford to miss a single catch. The money from those lobsters was already allocated to paying bills.
I’d been musing over this when I pulled up to find Rowan waiting for me, letting me walk him into the silent restaurant.
“She’s in real danger,” was Rowan’s response to my apprehension at the guard detail idea. “She doesn’t seem to think keeping herself alive is important, so I’m taking it upon myself to make sure that my children grow up with their crazy fucking aunt.”
There was plenty of anger in his tone, but I also heard the anxiety. He loved his sister. That much was clear.
“Calliope has a vested interest in keeping herself alive,” I countered. “If not out of self-preservation then because she knows the pain it would cause the people she cares about.” I’d seen it. She’d tried to hide it, but I recognized the fierce love she had for all of her family and friends in Jupiter. It was one of the reasons I was rapidly falling in love with her.
Had fallen.
“You don’t know her like I do.” Rowan rubbed his eyes. He had a newborn at home, so he probably wasn’t sleeping, and what little sleep he got was probably interrupted by concern for his sister. “It’s been a lifetime of near misses. Her luck is running out.”
“Calliope doesn’t need luck,” I told him firmly, taking glasses from the sterilizer. “She’s smart enough to take care of herself.”
He eyed me, a slight curl to his upper lip. I understood his skepticism. We operated differently. Though that didn’t mean I didn’t have all the same urges as he did, to protect her, follow her, not let her out of my sight.
“I may not know her like you do,” I continued. “But you don’t know her like I do either. I know that the quickest way to lose her is to take away her agency. And I’m not losing her.”
“Well, good for fucking you.” Rowan pinned me with a stern gaze. “But I’ll settle for having her pissed at me, strutting around in stupid fucking shoes as opposed to burying her.”
I nodded, taking great effort not to flinch at the thought of Calliope dead. “I respect that. But I won’t be part of it.”
I weathered what was an appropriately badass stare from Rowan that would’ve sent a lesser man running.
Then he left without another word.
I wasn’t sure if I’d gained an enemy of Rowan Derrick thanks to that conversation, but we weren’t slated to be best friends anytime soon. Which was fine with me. My focus right then was Calliope.
I went about the notions of getting the restaurant ready for the lunch rush, all while glancing at my phone every five minutes, checking to see if she’d gotten back to me.
Though I knew better than to expect her to contact me. She’d told me she was alive, that’s all I was going to get. She’d gone somewhere. To keep everyone else safe if indeed the shooting had had something to do with her.
Prideful woman. I shook my head as I put the last of the glasses away.
“Tell me where you are,” I demanded, leaving the message that her voicemail cautioned me against. I walked into the kitchen, surprised and delighted to find my brother there. “Please,” I added before hanging up. Beau looked up and met my eyes as I put the phone in my pocket.