Finding Eden(71)

I bit my lip, warming to the idea immediately. It would be a wonderful relief not to worry about who was outside our door for at least a short while. And maybe by the time we returned, things would have died off. "Yes."

Calder looked relieved. "Thank you."

I shook my head. "No, this is for both of us. Xander mentioned us getting away this morning, too."

He nodded. "We need it. Do we have to tell the police?"

"I don't think so. They didn't say we couldn't leave town." I shrugged. "I mean, we could anyway, just to be considerate, I guess, but I don't think we're required to. And I don't necessarily want them to know where we're going."

"You already told them about recognizing the Indiana sign though."

I nodded. "I know, but I don't want them to think we're going on some vigilante information-gathering mission. Chances are good that nothing at all will come of it anyway."

Calder nodded. "And that's okay. It just seemed like it made sense as far as a location."

"It does." I smiled. "Now go gather my bathing suit before my mom comes home and finds me undressed.”

Calder chuckled and then swam to the other side of the pool where my suit sat right on the edge.

I grinned and then squinted upward as the sun broke through the clouds, casting the gloomy day in sudden light. It felt appropriate, because while before it had seemed as though a cloud was over us, surrounding us, now, everything seemed clearer, brighter. The man of my dreams wanted to marry me, had more hope in his eyes, and light had begun to shine in my heart once more.



**********



Later in bed as I stroked Calder's hair, cocooned in his warm arms, drifting toward sleep, he suddenly said, "That day, Hector kept calling me Satan's spawn. He said it over and over. What do you think he meant by that?"

I shivered, even though I was far from cold. "I don't know," I said. "Who knows what was going through his sick brain?" Something inside me told me I didn't want to know. I snuggled more deeply into Calder's embrace.





CHAPTER THIRTEEN




Calder



Once Eden and I decided to take the trip to Indiana, my mood improved immensely. I had felt trapped, confined, and worthless for almost a month. And I had been trying so hard to snap myself out of it. After all, I had Eden back. If someone had told me two months before that Eden would be back in my arms, I would have happily agreed to live in a dark cave with her for the rest of my existence. And now, here I was edgy and frustrated. I felt ashamed of myself. But the simple truth was, I longed to take care of her. I longed to feel like the man she deserved. I wanted so desperately to give her things, to work for her, to provide a home for us, marry her. And I couldn't exactly do any of that from the guest room in her mom's house, especially considering how welcome her mom made me feel. Or not.

All of that, in addition to my apartment being demolished, and seeing Clive on television had brought on a deep despair. I hadn't expected the very sight of his weasly face to plummet me into a spiral of anger and feelings of defeat. But it had. Despite Clive Richter's small stature, he had always held a place of authority and power over me. Physically, I had always been stronger. But emotionally, or rather power-wise, he had always controlled me, and in some sense, that was still true.

We definitely needed to get away.

The day after we'd decided to take a trip to Indiana, and before we could plan a thing, the FBI showed up at Carolyn's door. My heart picked up in speed and adrenaline pulsed through my body when Molly came out to the patio where Eden and I were sitting to tell us. We exchanged confused glances, mine most likely more worried than hers, and followed Molly inside where a heavyset man with dark hair and a tall, African American man, both wearing suits, waited.

"Hello," the heavyset man said, not smiling. "I'm FBI Agent Rivera." He nodded to his right. "This is Agent Glenn. You must be Calder Raynes?" he asked, holding his hand out to me. I nodded and shook both their hands.

"Please, call me Calder. And this is Eden," I said as Eden came up right behind me. She shook their hands, too.

"Nice to meet you two," Agent Rivera said, the serious look still on his face. "We need you two to come down to the local FBI field office where we can interview you. Sound all right to you?"

My hands were suddenly clammy, but I reached out for Eden's anyway. I had no idea what this meant. When I gripped her hand in mine, she looked over at me, a small crease between her eyebrows.

"Is it necessary?" I asked.

"It really is. We're responsible for numerous missing children's cases and we need to close yours out. Plus, we need to discuss a few other things that I'd rather get into when we get to our office."