DAY 31

by Kane Caldwell

  I ate slowly, waiting for Aaron to get done first and leave. As I made my way to my room, I slipped inside his doorway, catching him off guard as he was putting his clean clothes away. Grabbing his shoulder, I turned him, snatched his collar, and pushed him against the wall, causing him to let out an oomph.

  “Anyone comes in the room and you say anything other than we are having a nice fucking conversation, I’ll kill you,” I spat lowly in his face.

  He nodded as his eyes grew wide with fear.

  “You utter another word about my visitor, I’ll fucking break every bone in your goddamn body. Got it?”

  He nodded again, quickly, his lips slightly parted, sucking in air.

  It wasn’t good enough. So I put pressure on his neck, causing him to gasp in a breath as his face began to turn red.

  “I can’t fucking hear you,” I rumbled lightly.

  “Okay,” he coughed out, and I released him just in time.

  “There a problem, gentlemen?” Dr. Meyers’s voice came from the doorway.

  “No, not at all. Just talking here.”

  That’s what I fucking thought, pussy!

  I turned my head to look toward the doorway and saw Noelle standing a foot behind the doctor, her worried blue eyes on me.

  Fuck!

  I patted Aaron on the shoulder. “Good talk.”

  “Yeah,” he agreed with a cough.

  Walking out of the room, I slipped by the doctor and said, “Let’s go,” when I made eye contact with Noelle.

  She gave a little jump before swiftly moving to keep up with my long strides toward my room. Once inside, I went to my drawers to retrieve a pair of jeans, T-shirt, and boxer briefs.

  “Callen?” she whispered.

  I grunted.

  “What just happened?” she asked lightly.

  “Nothing,” I replied, turning. “Gotta shower, meet you in the courtyard in fifteen.” Then I walked through the door to the small bathroom in the left corner of my room.

  In the shower as I ran my soapy hand down my abs to grip my erect cock, I sucked in a breath. Visions of her panic-stricken eyes filled my mind and I closed mine. For some reason that worried look etched across her gorgeous face turned me the fuck on. I imagined that same look in her eyes as I sank my cock deep into her cunt, listening to the pained moans as I pounded into her.

  My hand began to roughly stroke my rigid dick and I placed the other to the tile wall, bracing myself. When my breathing became erratic, I knew it wasn’t going to take long. My hips began to jerk, relentlessly fucking my hand as I envisioned thrusting hard into her dripping pussy. Pounding with abandonment, her cries egging me on. And I groaned lightly when the first shot of come came jetting out.

  *~*~*

  Noelle

  “Ms. Anderson” was called softly from behind me.

  I turned to see Sylvia with a woman around her age and an older man standing next to her.

  “Yes,” I answered with a smile, standing from the bench I’d been sitting on to give them my full attention.

  Sylvia tossed her arm out, gesturing to the man and woman standing with her. “This is Mr. and Mrs. Westbrook, Callen’s parents.”

  My heart skipped a beat as nervousness began to swirl inside my empty stomach.

  I should have eaten before I came here.

  “Oh,” I cooed, and rounded the bench, putting my hand out. “I’m Noelle. Noelle Anderson, Callen’s sponsor in the visitor program. It’s so nice to meet you both.”

  His mother gave me a quick once-over before her lips tipped up with a grin. She then looked to her husband and they both smiled at each other, clearly exchanging silent words. He nodded to her.

  “What a pleasure it is to meet you, dear. Please,” she offered, taking my hand in both her warm soft ones, “call me Marion.”

  “Marion,” I said kindly.

  “Gordon,” her husband said, and I turned my attention to him while Marion let go of my hand.

  I felt a weird sensation leave my body when she let go. Her tender grip and gentle green eyes had given me the impression that I could sit and have an intense talk with her and everything would be held together with just that small hold of her hand.

  Gordon’s hand was firmer, and I immediately saw where Callen had gotten his stunning looks from.

  “Hello,” I greeted when I shook his hand tightly.

  “Oh,” Sylvia said. “Here comes Callen now. I’ll leave you all to enjoy your afternoon.”

  Sylvia turned and began walking back up the slight hill. She said something to Callen while passing, but he never stopped to acknowledge her. His eyes were penetrating and focused on all three of us as we waited for him. But when his intense gaze met mine, I involuntarily shivered.

  And as I took him in, the shudder had my intimate places pulsating. His upper body was covered in a white T-shirt, the sleeves stretching around his bulging, powerful arms. I caught a glimpse of a tattoo on the top of his right bicep and hoped to discover more about it. The extremely faded blue jeans fit like they were made for him, and it was completely evident that Mr. Callen Westbrook had a lot to carry downstairs. There were pristine Nike sneakers on his feet, and of course, his charcoal-gray beanie was in place. He looked young, younger than he was.

  It wasn’t until he got close to us that I got a whiff of his intoxicating scent, causing me to clutch the back of the bench as my legs became unsteady.

  “Hello, sweetheart,” his mother cooed as she opened her arms.

  He went right into them, giving her a squeeze and a muttered, “Mom.”

  When she released him, he put his hand out to his dad, who took it, and then they folded into a guy hug complete with hard slaps on the back.

  “How ya doing, son?” his father asked when they separated.

  And it was then that I saw a whole new side of the hard, rough Callen Westbrook.

  “Doing good,” he grumbled quietly and looked to me.

  If I had to say, he looked almost uncomfortable with me there. So I did the right thing even if I didn’t want to. “I’m going to leave you all to your visit and come back later,” I began, and started stepping back slowly.

  “No,” Marion disputed. “Please stay.”

  “Really, it was nice meeting you both, but I should come back and—”

  I was cut off by Callen’s deep firm tone. “Stay.”

  His parents’ eyes had moved from me to him in the blink of an eye, puzzled expressions strewn across their faces as they looked at their son.

  It was a few beats before Gordon spoke. “Yes, we’d love for you to join us.”

  An hour later, we were all seated around one of the stone tables in the courtyard with coffee in front of us. I’d learned a lot in the short time. One, that Callen’s parents lived about five hours away from Mountains Bay in Savannah, and they’d lived there for nine years now. When I asked where they originally came from, they gave me a baffled look and informed me, “We used to live by Callen, in Houston, Texas, before he moved to Georgia about a year and a half ago.”

  I didn’t let it be known that Callen had never shared that information with me. I nodded like I knew what they’d been talking about. Then I’d found out that Callen’s brother, Benjamin, had moved a few months ago to South Carolina to open a quaint little coffee shop on Hilton Head Island that’d been doing tremendously well. Also that his niece, Arabella, had perfected her ABCs and counting to one hundred, and loved the preschool she’d been placed in.

  Nothing was said of Callen’s past.

  When they turned to me and started asking questions, I lied, giving them the same fib I’d given my father and leaving out little bits and pieces. Like that the church office I was working in part-time was the one my father was a pastor at. I said a small prayer for God to forgive me for the lie and hoped he understood why I needed to do it. My gaze had flicked to Callen as I gave his parents the false information, and his eyes were focused on my fingers playing with the small, simple cross that
hung from the gold chain around my neck.

  We were about two hours into his parents’ visit when his mother rose.

  “Gordon,” she called, breaking the idle conversation on golf he was having with Callen, who looked disinterested. When Gordon’s eyes turned to his wife, she said, “Could you help me bring lunch out?”

  “Sure can,” he replied, stood, and went to his wife, taking her hand.

  “I brought a roast chicken with all the fixings,” she told Callen with a smile on her face.

  “Sounds great, Mom.”

  Once his parents were out of earshot, he whispered harshly to me, “Why are you fucking lying to my parents?”

  My eyes grew wide, my head snapped back, and I began to finger my cross as I retorted, “I’m not lying to them.”

  “Princess,” he leaned in, his voice getting rough and quiet, “whenever you play with that cross you’re either nervous or lying, and there was no fucking hint of anxiety in your body.”

  “I—”

  He abruptly cut me off. “I fucking hate liars,” he said, harshly adamant.

  I stopped playing with my cross but kept my thumb and index finger gripping it. He said, “Now you’re nervous.”

  We sat in silence, his eyes turning a dark shade of green as they intently scanned my face. My heart began to race and I prayed that a breeze would float by and cool my heated skin. Quickly I rose and muttered, “I need to use the restroom.”

  I didn’t need to turn to know his eyes were still on me, because I felt them searing into my back.

  Chapter Seven

  Callen

  *~*DAY 38*~*

  “Did you find anything out?”

  “Why do you keep avoiding the question, man?”

  “Fuck, Ben, just answer me.”

  “Cal, you answer me first.”

  “What are we, fucking teenage girls?” I grumbled, annoyed.

  That got me a hearty laugh from my brother on the other end of the phone.

  “Mom said she’s a gorgeous, sweet girl?” he asked me, still avoiding my question.

  I let out a deep sigh and answered, “Mom’s not wrong.”

  “Why the sigh?” he questioned.

  “Ben,” I started, then collected my thoughts and tamed the anger brewing inside. “This isn’t a damn brotherly chat about a girl, it’s about you telling me if you found anything out about Olivia.”

  We both went silent when I said her name. It’d become a name that wasn’t spoken often in the family. And normally when I had to utter her name it was followed by a searing pain of betrayal. But this time it fell from my lips without any repercussions.

  “I got a name—”

  I quickly cut him off. “Who?”

  “Not that name. A name of a guy that I really think can get you the info you want. But, Cal, I’d rather talk to you when I can get down there.”

  “For fucks sake, Ben, tell me.”

  “Okay,” he defeatedly drawled. “I had to go to Denver to the textile company I ordered the wall prints from for the coffee shop, and when I was there I stopped off at this café ’cause I’d heard they had great burgers, which, fuck man, they were out of this—”

  “Stay on fucking track, man!” I grated out.

  “Did you take your meds today?” he probed.

  “Ben,” I responded firmly.

  “Okay, just looking out for you.” There was concern etched in his voice.

  I let that hang between us before I lowly told him, “I’m good, man, just keep telling me what you found out.” I wasn’t truly sure if I was good, but I know he needed to hear it.

  “There were a couple of women sitting in a booth behind me, hot as fuck women too. But one of them asked one of the other women if her husband was still taking cases. I kinda tuned them out thinking her husband was a lawyer, until another woman chimed in relaying that he’s one of the top PI’s around for hundreds of miles. That got my attention but when the owner came over with a to-go bag and spoke to these women like he personally knew them, I figured I’d ask him. And I did.”

  “And,” I pushed when he stopped talking.

  “Bella, sweetheart, don’t climb on the roof of your castle,” he said in a muffled voice. Then came back to me. “Sorry, man, but I built her this castle in the corner of her room and she keeps climbing on the roof instead of playing inside it.” He chuckled.

  And I felt a pang in my heart that I hadn’t seen my niece in months.

  “His name is Chase Black, and he owns Dark Edges PI. He only takes on a few cases a year. But from what the owner was saying, this guy is the shit when you want to find anyone or anything out. I think we should give him a shot.”

  “Let’s do it,” I told him, moving from my desk chair to the bed.

  “Okay. I figured you’d be on board, so I got his e-mail address and as soon as I get Bella down for a nap, I’ll shoot him one.”

  “Sounds good, and….” I stopped talking when I heard the sweet little voice of Arabella in the background.

  “I’m gonna let you go, man. Give that girl a hug and kiss from me, yeah?”

  “I will, Cal, and I’ll get down as soon as I can, buddy,” he said with a hint of sadness in his voice.

  “I know.”

  “Love ya, buddy.”

  “Love ya too, Ben.”

  “Wait!” Ben called out just as I was taking the phone from my ear.

  “Yeah?”

  “What the fuck number did you call me from? It didn’t say Mountains Bay on the caller ID,” he asked.

  “They gave me this cell phone so I could talk and text with my visitor only, but I broke into the security firewall and bypassed the block on the phone.”

  Ben laughed. “Smart of them to give an IT guy a secured cell phone.”

  “Exactly,” I said. “Dumbasses.”

  Arabella spoke in the background again. “Next time, you tell me about this little hottie of yours visiting you, yeah?”

  “Yeah,” I appeased him. “Later, man.”

  “See ya, Cal.”

  Yesterday, Noelle had never returned from the bathroom. She sent Sylvia to come tell me that she was feeling ill and left. My parents were at least grateful that they’d met my visitor. But me, I’d been fucking happy she left because I knew she’d been hiding something. And the last fucking thing I needed in my life was another fucking liar. So that night after my parents left, I jimmied with the phone and broke the security block.

  Ben was right, don’t give an IT guy, especially one who was the manager of a successful company, a secure cell with a loosely built firewall. I’d logged into a finder site I belonged to and searched for Noelle Anderson. All that surfaced was her contact information for the church she worked at, which I bypassed. I clicked on and read how she volunteered at an adoption agency. But there had been nothing else. Not even social media links.

  There were a few times I had my finger on the call button, but I never tapped it. Fuck that and fuck Noelle Anderson.

  *~*~*

  That afternoon I sat with my ass in the grass, elbows on my bent knees, eyes closed and hands on my head. I inhaled deeply through my nose, smelling her sweetness. I’d felt her approach a minute ago, but she hadn’t said anything.

  I reached for the beanie between my bent legs.

  “No,” she said softly. “Leave it off, please.”

  Rotating my head, I looked at her and… fuck.

  She had on a pale yellow, thin-strapped sundress. The top molded to her small tits and when it reached her tiny waist, it flared out, ending right above her knees. Her hair was in a braid, and simple white sandals with no heel encased her petite feet. And her lips shone with a slight glossiness.

  My fucking cock twitched.

  Jesus!

  I ignored it and all the vision that began to fill my head as to what lay underneath her dress, and grated out, “You better be here to tell me the fucking truth, princess.”

  She didn’t say anything as she sat nex
t to me and crossed her legs, tucking the material of her dress between them.

  “I haven’t lived a normal life,” she started, and took a deep breath as her eyes focused on the pond. “The church I work at, my father is the pastor there.”

  A fucking preacher’s daughter! Fan-fucking-tastic!

  If I wasn’t going to hell before, I sure as fuck was now.

  “I see,” I whispered. “You’re a good girl then?”

  She shrugged, still gazing at the water.

  “Look at me.”

  She obeyed, and when her light blue eyes hit me, not only did my cock tighten but so did my chest.

  “Why are you here, Noelle?” I asked her, keeping my voice even.

  “Because I like helping people.”

  I nodded, but for some reason didn’t believe her. Maybe it was my trust issues but there was something in her eyes that said she wasn’t fully telling me the truth. I let those feelings slip aside for now, but I wouldn’t for too long.

  “I put in for our first outing,” she said, and looked to where Steven was feeding the ducks. “I know it’s only been four visits, but Dr. Meyers needs to speak to you about your behavior. I’d really like to take you out Callen and if you don’t improve, he won’t approve it for Wednesday.”

  “I’ll talk to him.”

  And, I would. Because watching the frown and sadness fill her beautiful face had my stomach knotting.

  “It’s just to town. Thought maybe walking around, shopping, and having a bite to eat would be good.”

  “I don’t get a say in where we go?” I asked tightly.

  Her head swung my way. “I’m sorry, I just thought that you’d like to start out simple. Dr. Meyers thought it was a great idea, if he approves it, but if you don’t….”

  “I’ll go,” slipped from my lips before my brain knew what the hell it was doing. “If he lets us.”

  “Great!” That smile was back, the one I was starting to become addicted to.

  “Where’s the phone Sylvia gave you?”