15. ~Caleb~

The shower finally stopped running.

I waited patiently leaning against the wall chewing on a gummy worm, a bunch of which were in the pocket of my jacket after I’d found some downstairs in the pantry. Cas had ordered some in for me. I smiled to myself. He wasn’t all anger and antagonism toward me after all then. Although, he’d certainly done a good job of making me believe that was all he had to give me right now.

It was really difficult for me to read him while he was like this, because Cas and I had never been in this estranged state before. This… dynamic was a whole new thing to the both of us.

And it had one hell of a bitter taste that went along with it.

I fucking hated it.

But I also knew that it wasn’t just gonna go away right away. It needed time.

Just like a lot of things did at the moment.

Most immediately, the situation with Skylar that I was about to dip my toe into now.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait any longer than the twenty minutes that had already elapsed since I’d walked in here to her room and heard the shower running.

The bathroom door opened and my breath hitched as she stepped out wrapped in one of King Manor’s fancy black towels, her hair wild and towel-dried, still considerably damp.

She sensed me right away and jolted. “Shit. Announce yourself, will you?”

“I actually did twenty minutes ago. I knocked several times on the bedroom door, then I got worried when there wasn’t any answer, so I came in and that was when I realized you were taking a shower.”

“I can’t escape through that bathroom window, it has steel bars on it like the one in here adjacent to the bed. Brand-new it looks like, so Caspian obviously had them installed as soon as he got that lock on my whereabouts.”

“Well, you know he’s always prepared.”

“He considers me a threat. The chains made that clear.” She frowned at me for a moment. “Was it you or Sebastian who convinced him to remove them?”

“Me.”

“So, you’re the nice cop in this fucked-up situation of forced captivity?”

“This isn’t just about Cas not wanting you to take out Jett because it’ll interfere with his complex and long-time strategy against Elijah. It’s because he’s concerned about you, darling. The dark path you’re headed down, what it’s doing to you. Not to mention, it took two years for him to find you, he doesn’t want to lose you again. None of us do. It’s a big deal that you’re finally back here with us, especially when it felt like it could never actually be a possibility. This is a gift.” I grimaced. “Unfortunately, in your current state, you can’t recognize that. You won’t allow yourself to for fear that it will compromise your mission.”

“Being here has already compromised it. I missed my window to continue tracking Jett. Before you interfered the other night, I’d managed to get intel out of his new recruits, but it was time-sensitive. The window has closed. Now, to find him again, to get back on his trail, it’s gonna take time—days or even weeks, maybe—when I could’ve already been right there and ended this fucking thing.”

She growled as she strode to the bed where her clothes were neatly laid out—a pair of black bootcut pants, a vibrant-blue off-the-shoulder-top, and a silky bra and panties, along with a pair of studded ankle boots on the floor at the foot of the bed. They were all part of the closet full of clothes that Cas had bought for her when she’d stayed over that weekend and several days here and there afterward. It had been him hoping that she’d spend more and more of her time here with our foursome.

It was painful how badly that had gone the other way.

She opened her towel, baring her naked body all in one shot.

Off my noticeable reaction, my eyes bulging and my cock reacting for me too, her lip curled and she asked in a seductive tone, “Come here for a hate-fuck too, did you?” She rolled her eyes, switching it off in the very next second in a really jarring way, as she slid her panties on, then snatched up her pants. “You know, it would’ve been a timesaver to just take all of you at once, instead of you each paying me these one-on-one visits.”

“No hate-fuck for me, I’m afraid.”

She cocked an eyebrow. “No?”

“I don’t like the emptiness. There’s nothing to feed off. Everything is just dialed to that one bitter emotion and there’s nothing else there to work with.” I pushed off the wall. “But, just so you know, what happened between you and Bastian wasn’t just a hate-fuck to him.”

“Well, it needs to be.”

“For his sake, right? More than yours?”

“For both of us. All of us. But, yeah, he can’t handle it. He couldn’t handle it back then and he certainly won’t be able to handle it now with all this other complicated shit between all four of us. He’s doing well now, it needs to stay that way for him.”

“You really can’t conceive of a life where he can do well with you being here with us? Come on, Skylar, you know it’s a possibility. It just needs to be done differently this time.”

She put her bra on, securing it and concealing her lovely breasts from my view.

I pushed past my desire for her, knowing even though she was clearly pushing for that from me, likely to throw me off-kilter so we wouldn’t have to get into what really mattered here, that I didn’t want it like this. I wasn’t Bastian. He’d take whatever he could get from her, his obsession obviously having reignited the moment he’d laid eyes on her again. But, for me, I needed to connect with something beyond just the physical. Especially when it came to her and what she’d come to mean to the three of us.

“I’m not back here for that,” she grunted as she pulled her shirt on, then sat on the edge of the bed to put on her socks beside her boots. “In fact, I’m just back here against my will. It’s just temporary.”

“So, your goal is to kill Jett, then what? Go back to that safehouse and live out your life alone and bored doing nothing, retired from everything and the world by extension?”

She put on her boots, finishing getting dressed, then walked to me as she fluffed out her hair. Getting right up in my space, her eyes burned into mine as she told me, “Taking out Jett will lead Elijah to me. He’ll come for me.”

Jesus Christ.“If he comes for you, he won’t be alone. He’s not Cas, he doesn’t do his own dirty work, he’s not a combatant. His people will descend on you.”

“And because it’s so personal, he’ll still be there along with them. At which point, I’ll take the shot and end him before I suffer the same fate from his people. I have a strategy in place to hold them off long enough to accomplish that.”

I shifted my weight, my brow furrowing in contemplation. “Hold on. If that’s the plan, then… fuck, Skylar, this is a suicide mission, isn’t it? You don’t intend to survive this, do you?”

Her gaze didn’t even falter one bit as she told me steadily, “I’ll take him down with me. That’s the mission. Period.”

“Skylar—”

“Then, me taking out Jett won’t hurt Caspian, because Elijah will also be dealt with. If he’d given me a moment to explain that, there would’ve been no need for the chains, for bringing me back here and taking me captive, for any of it. But now you know, pass it on to him, so I can get back to it. I’m sure this place is locked down, and that’s the only reason he agreed to untie me, because he’s made this place into a prison.”

She went to brush past me to head on out of the bedroom, but I shot out my hand, grasping her arm. “There’s no way in hell we’re letting you die for this.”

She looked between me and my hand on her and I saw her eyes flash for a moment, her immediate reaction to dislodge my grip and likely kick my ass for touching her even remotely aggressively.

But she swallowed it down and spoke in a firm, warning tone, “Let go.”

“You’re talking about committing suicide, darling. There are other ways to do this. You don’t have to—”

“I want to!”

Her composure cracked, her voice a pained scream that jarred me down to the bedrock.

“What?”

She jerked her hand free, then shoved it through her hair. “When I was gone all these years, I had this fantasy in my mind at first of being able to come back to you, of a time that would come where I could step out of hiding and actually restart my life—with the three of you. But time went on by and Caspian still hadn’t brought down Elijah’s empire. After I found out Jett was still alive, that he hadn’t died and had instead been in a coma for a while, even what I’d accomplished there had gone to hell. I’d ended up with nothing at all, not even the comfort of the bastard who’d killed my mom and taken everything from me being gone. So, I embarked on this mission. When I woke up here in King Manor and then seeing Bastian, I let that fantasy take me for a little while. For a fucking moment in time, Caleb. But it proved to just be a fantasy and nothing rooted in reality, because I couldn’t connect with him properly at all, I couldn’t feel anything deep or real for him, except sexual desire. And afterward, I realized I didn’t even want to. Because all it would do is hurt—all of us. Every time I think I’m getting my life back, it’s ripped away from me. First at Vista Ridge, then here in Rossun two years ago. It’s a vicious circle for me. I don’t belong, Caleb. I don’t belong anywhere, with anyone. Last time, trying to make that happen ended up wrecking us all.” She sucked in an unsteady breath. “Once I take out Jett and draw Elijah out into the open, I’ll be at peace, and I can finally rest. So, you see, trying to help me and rewire my intentions is futile. There’s nothing to save, there’s nothing here for any of you.”

“No. This is because you’re caught up in all that dark. It’s skewing everything.”

“It’s not. This is reality. It’s what needs to happen and it’s what will happen.” She sucked in a breath, then asked me, “Now, am I allowed to step out onto the patio to get some fresh air, or is that against these prison rules of Caspian’s?”

“You can head out to the patio, but, yeah, there will be eyes on you.”

“Thanks. Now, am I allowed to cook, or is that off the table too? I’d ask you to, but you’re banned from that sort of thing as Bastian tells it.”

“You can cook yourself breakfast. It’s no problem.” With Security around. I just didn’t want her near anything that could be used as a weapon without close supervision. Not even a fucking spatula with her and the insane training we’d determined that she’d had over the last two years.

“Okay,” she said, taking off out of the room and turning down the corridor.

All I could do was watch her go.

Holy fucking shit.

Her revelations had put my plan to help her on hold.

I couldn’t help her like this.

She had no hope at all.

It was beyond depression. So far beyond it.

I felt sick with it, knowing she was in this state of mind and so determined to end her life like it was nothing to her.

No, worse than that, that it was an absolute curse to her.

Just like it had been to my sister.

Fuck.

I couldn’t let that happen again. I wouldn’t.

We wouldn’t lose her too.

I pulled out my phone and fired off a text to Cas.

Caleb: We have a problem concerning me helping Skylar.

He startled me as he responded right away, despite being at work.

Caspian: You can’t do it?

Caleb: Not yet.

Caspian: Not in the mood for cryptic, Caleb.

Caleb: This is a suicide mission to her.

Caspian: Well, she won’t be carrying it out, so it won’t be.

Caleb: No. She wants it to be.

The dots appeared then disappeared several times over.

Yeah, he was shocked to the core, something that was so incredibly rare for him.

Caspian: Leave her be for the next couple of days. I’ll ensure Bastian does the same. In the meantime, I’ll have Doctor Granger come in to assess her. Then we’ll take it from there.

Caleb: Okay.

Caspian: Are you all right? I know this is triggering for you.

I started at his response, him actually showing care to me. I thought I remembered him doing that when I’d been drunk, but that had been an extreme circumstance to him and he hadn’t exhibited anything like that since.

Caleb: More worried about Bastian finding out about this. Maybe he shouldn’t.

Caspian: He and I have an agreement about transparency. He’s not fragile like he was. He’s grown stronger.

Caleb: Okay, I trust in you.

Caspian: That stopped being true two years ago.

I gritted my teeth at his biting response.

He was already back to that then.

Caspian: I’ll get you a suite at a hotel until Skylar’s stabilized enough for you to do what I called you back here for. Or you can head back to your rehabilitation facilities until you hear from me.

Son of a bitch.

Caleb: I’m not going anywhere.

Caspian: You came here for the specific reason to help her.

Caleb: It’s not the only reason.

Caspian: Enlighten me.

Caleb: We’ll talk about it when you get home.

Caspian: If I have time.

I rolled my eyes and slid my phone back into my pocket.

He really wasn’t making this easy.

I mean, I hadn’t exactly expected the red carpet treatment or a warm welcome, but this was another level, and what I’d just found out concerning Skylar just made it a whole other level of complicated.

Well, Cas wasn’t the only one who didn’t shy away from a challenge.

I was here to face it all.

Everything I’d done, everything I’d learned, had brought me here.

And I wouldn’t balk in the face of any of it.