“Gah! Maggie! What happened?”
“Marcus,” Caleb answered and kept walking me inside.
“Oh, man. I was just with you not a couple hours ago. He must have been watching and waited for me to leave you.”
“You were with her?” Caleb asked and looked at me.
“Yeah. He met me at the diner when I got off.”
“We went for a walk in the park since you were detained,” Kyle answered and grinned slightly. If I had the strength to glare at him, I would’ve. “It started to rain so we had to cut it short and I got her home.”“Is that why she’s running a fever and her throat’s sore? Because you took her for a walk in the freezing rain?” Caleb asked hotly as we crossed the threshold.
He must have felt that in me because I hadn’t said anything.
“What? Are you sick, Maggie?”
I did feel sick and sore and in the general vicinity of hurting all over. Not only was I sick from being soaked in the freezing rain, but I had just gotten thrown around on top of it. But I didn’t answer him.
We passed through the kitchen and I saw a few ladies in there around the table with coffee cups. Someone must have called them because they looked worried and when they saw me it wasn’t surprise on their face, it was anger.
Rachel came up to me, forcing Caleb to stop. “Oh, no, Maggie.” She brushed her fingers across one of the offense marks on my hand. “I’m so sorry. This isn’t how things usually are.”
“I’m taking her upstairs, Mom.”
She nodded and everyone stood and watched as Caleb made his way up the stairs with me in his arms.
Chapter Sixteen
“You’re burning up, Maggie.”
Caleb had tucked me into his bed in the guestroom after changing my clothes from my soaking wet ones to a House of Heroes t-shirt and his boxers. I didn’t complain and he didn’t ask permission. He was my significant and he was going to take care of me. When my shirt went over my head and he saw the offense marks around my middle, he was thinking about anything but seeing me naked. His mind raced with curses and things he wanted to do to Marcus. Bad things.
“I’m fine,” I croaked.
“You are not fine,” he said as he pulled the covers up to my chin. “Are you still cold?”
I nodded. I was freezing.
He took off his shirt and jeans, leaving him only in boxers, and climbed in beside me. We laid on our sides facing each other as he twined our legs and arms, pressing our bodies close as they could get to warm me. He rubbed my arm with his palm and blew a frustrated breath.
“Caleb, I’m ok,” I assured him.
“Only because you handled yourself. I wasn’t there to keep you safe.”
I wanted him to kiss me even though I didn’t feel good, to take away his anger. I pressed my lips to his, hoping to ease some of his tension away, and I felt his arm relax a little, but his lips weren’t into it. I pulled back, disappointed, and looked at him in the lamplight.
“But I’m ok,” I protested.
“Yeah, no thanks to me. Or Kyle. What were you doing with him anyway?” he asked softly.
“He came to the diner when I got off. I’d just gotten your text and he said he knew you were gone and figured he’d come keep me company.”
Caleb nodded and pursed his lips angrily. “Good old Kyle.”
“I told him no funny stuff and he was completely normal with me, like he used to be. Then it started raining and we ran home, but we were soaked and it was so cold. My dad took him home and I took a shower. Then a little bit later, Marcus climbed through my window telling me his father had shot you in the ambush of their house.”
I shivered as I thought of it. He squeezed me tighter.
“I’m not going anywhere. I’m not leaving you here without me,” he assured.
“At first I thought I was dreaming because I dozed off for a couple minutes, but he was so convincing and...” I sniffed and could feel the tears burning as my body started to relive the pain of hearing those words. “And he said...”
“Shh. Don’t, Maggie. I told you, I’m not leaving you. You and me, always together. From now on I’m probably going to be some form or version of a tyrant. This is your only warning.”
I laughed and sniffed again. “That’s ok. I don’t care. I just want to be with you.”
“And you will be, but first things first. We’ve got to figure out something to tell your father so he doesn’t freak and you can keep him in your life but out of the loop. I don’t want to ruin it with him.”
“Me neither, but what are we going to say? I sure can’t think of anything.”
“Well, I was thinking you could tell him—and my father can go and talk to him about it—that my family is going on vacation for a couple weeks somewhere and want to take you with us. My dad can be pretty persuasive.”
“That might work. Are we going to stay at your house?”
“No. We’re going away, just you and me. But your father won’t know that. The farther away you are the harder it is for the echoling to reach you. My dad is going to stay here and try to work on figuring this out while I work on keeping you safe.”
Though I found the idea of going off alone with Caleb extremely appealing, I was worried, too.
“Where are we going?”
“Let me worry about that.”
“You don’t know or you won’t tell me?”
“It’s best if you don’t know, just in case something happens until we can leave.”
“Ah,” I said understanding. He didn’t want Marcus or his uncle to get our location out of my dreams and follow us there. “Well, I need to figure out my work stuff before we go.”
I snuggled closer and he grunted. “You’re still really hot, Maggie.”
“Thanks.”
He laughed and I smiled because that’s what I had wanted. “Yeah, you’re hot, but you’re also hot. Maybe I should get Gran or someone to get you something for it.”
I grabbed him around his stomach. “Please, don’t go.”
He relented with a nod and nuzzled my nose. His fingers combed through my hair, tucked it behind my ear, traced down my cheek.
“I was so worried about you. All the way here I was yelling at Uncle Ben to drive faster. I heard you calling in my mind and it was like nails in my head. I had already felt your anxiety, but I thought you were just needing me there for the withdrawals. So I told them I was leaving, but then your heart just stopped for a few seconds.” He laughed humorlessly. “I freaked and then you started breathing again, crazy fast. I knew something was wrong so I told them and they all jumped in the car with me. It felt like I was dying.”
“That must’ve been when he told me you and your father were dead. They have a car just like Kyle’s father’s, so when he told me Kyle waiting for me, I believed him. I’m sorry.”“Nuhuh,” he soothed and kissed my lips sweetly. “Not your fault. I’m just so glad you’re ok.” He kissed my lips again and I started to feel warmer and more energized. “For the future, when your significant dies, you know it. You can feel it. It’s excruciating, like you’re dying, too.”
“That sounds fun,” I said dryly.
“You won’t ever have to worry about it. I told you, I’m not leaving you.”
I closed the distance to kiss him, and he let me for a few seconds, but then pushed me back gently.
“You know I want to, but you need to rest, Maggie. You’ve been through a lot tonight and so have I, worrying like crazy about you. We have plenty of time for that later,” he said completely concerned.
“Just give me what I want,” I said as I took his mouth again more forcefully.
He chuckled against my lips and gave in. In no time his humor turned to passion and his hand found my side as he pulled me closer to him. Then he braced himself over me and though I felt the excitement lacing his mind, I could also feel his restraint, which he had claimed the other night to have none of. I mentally shook my head at him. He’d been so worried, so utterly devastated by what happened. He wanted to kiss me until I couldn’t think straight, but knew I was hurt and planned to take it easy with me.
He didn’t press me into the mattress as he had done before. He hovered above me and though his kisses were eager, they were gentle. When I moved my hand up into his hair to tug, I felt and heard his breath catch and exhale in a weird pattern.
I bit his lip gently causing him to groan and press me harder for just a second before pulling back and giving me a comically stern look. “Maggie. Sweetheart, are you trying to kill me?”
I just giggled and shrugged under him in innocence.
I loved it when he called me sweetheart. It zinged me in all the right ways to hear it.
He leaned down to my ear and whispered. “Sweetheart.” I closed my eyes, savoring, and smiled. Then he kissed the side of my neck once, which he’d never done before and it did nothing to calm me down, and leaned back on his side before gathering me up in his arms again. “Go to sleep, Maggie. We’ll have all day tomorrow for anything you want to do.”
“But I have work,” I protested.
“Do you remember when I said I was going to be a tyrant?” I wrinkled my nose and he chuckled. “We’ll talk in the morning. Go to sleep. Sweetheart.”
I smiled at his tactics and closed my eyes to block out everything but him. I fell into a peaceful, healing sleep.