16. FRANKIE

I'd prepared the mattress on the living room floor for after our bath. It was just a sheet and a couple of blankets, but it was also warm, so we didn't need much more. I'd also made sure that the alcohol in the cupboards was real and not just bottles filled with water.

His face lit up when he came down to see what I'd done. I'd used a couple of the tealights from the same pack that I used in the bathroom and placed those in the corner of the living room. I tried to keep them far away from anything they could latch onto and catch fire.

"It's not home, but it will do," Cal said, wrapped in the biggest towel I'd uncovered.

"Let's get you dressed, and then you need to take a shot of this vodka," I told him. "It was a good call coming here. That vodka is like forty dollars a bottle and it's mostly untouched."

As Cal got into the booty shorts and crop top he'd packed, he discovered more things from his bag. He pulled out the mask he wore when he was on webcam trying to find leads from horny men. He placed it to his face and chuckled. "I was in such a rush; I don't even remember putting this in here."

"I prefer you without it," I told him.

"I like it," he said, placing it over the top half of his head. "It makes me feel like I'm not really me. You know."

Strangely enough, I did know. "But I like you to be you when you're with me." I took the mask from his face. "And we're done with this now. We've got the most solid lead we've ever had. And we need to be well rested for tomorrow."

He pouted, slipping his hand down the front of my sweatpants. "I can feel a solid lead right now. In fact, I think it could be harder."

"Oh, it can," I said, throwing the mask across the room. "And you deserve it after everything that's happened today." I hooked my leg around his, pushing on the back of his knees for him to collapse onto the bouncy mattress.

He giggled. "Where's the vodka?" He patted around on the mattress. "And where's that dick?" He spread his legs wide, his cock slipping out the side of the shorts. "I'm ready to claim my reward."

I grabbed the bottle. It quickly turned into a game. Taking shots of vodka and then spilling our feelings about something.

We were several shots deep before the good stuff was coming out of us.

Sitting cross legged across from each other as we passed the bottle back and forth.

I took a shot. It went down so easy, no sharpness in my throat, almost like sugar water. "I feel like I want to leave this life and set myself up where I'm not being told what to do every single day," I said, passing Cal the bottle.

He took a gulp. "I'm not sure how I feel about having the power to take someone's life," he said, passing the bottle back to me. "One minute he's there, and the next, nothing."

One more shot crossed my lips. I was really starting to feel it now. "I can never leave my family. That's the truth. Nobody leaves. You can't." Cal reached out to take the bottle, but I held it firm, close to my chest. "No," I said, taking another shot. "I also think you're the best I'll ever get, and I'm worried I'll lose you."

He took the bottle and drank. "I thought I was going to die. I sometimes still think I'm going to wake up and be right back where it started. I think I'll die if that happens."

We were almost at the bottom of the bottle, and all I wanted now was to bridge the gap between us. I took the bottle and placed it at the side of the mattress. "I'll never let that happen. I didn't just save you, I saved something in me as well. And—and it's selfish, what I'm about to tell you, but as long as we're getting everything out, I want to tell you."

Cal took my hands in his, holding them tight. "What?"

"I knew—I knew—" I started laughing. "I knew the only way I'd ever find someone was to find someone who was damaged, someone who I could help make feel whole again. Someone who I could nurture back to health but rebuild with me as their savior."

He smiled at up at me. "You did save me. I'm—" he hiccupped, then fell into giggles. "Trust me, I hated you for a little bit."

"I know," I said, reaching up and stroking his face. "I know. You screamed and shouted. You once even told me I should've left you to die. But I continued to push you. Baby, you're never going to get rid of me. You can try all you want, but I know as well as you do that, we're both meant for each other."

"I also think I was meant for vacations and beaches too," he said. "And I love you to the moon and back, or—maybe not that far, I'm scared of heights."

"I love you around the world and back, how about that?"

"Also, I think now is as good a time as any to do this," I said. "One second."

I stood, feeling the dizzy effects of alcohol in my head. I stumbled around a little. Cal chuckled as he watched. In a bag I'd packed before we left, I'd managed to grab something. We probably weren't even going to need it, but I had a hunch that good things were happening.

"A ring," he immediately said, spoiling my surprise.

In the tipsy drunkenness, I hadn't been hiding it all that well. I dropped down on both knees in front of him. I opened the jewelry box in front of him. "Cal Drake, will—"

"Cal William Drake," he said.

I snorted back a laugh. "Cal William Drake, will you marry me?"

"Yes," he said. "A thousand times yes. A million times. A bajillion times."

Taking his hand, and the ring, I slipped it over his finger. It was a perfect match. I'd already measured him for it in his sleep. "I know you probably won't feel like it's real until after we've finally killed that bastard, but we've gone a long way already, and I think it's safe to say that this is going to happen now." For a moment, I had wondered if we'd never find him, and then we'd be in a weird limbo about knowing there was a ring, but not wanting to act on it because it would mean putting him behind us and starting a new chapter.

"I love it," he said, admiring it on his hand. "Do we—consummate the engagement, or is that just—"

He was getting ahead of the plans my cock had been cooking up. Throbbing inside my sweatpants, I pulled them tight to reveal the outline. "What do you think?" I asked, reaching out for the hand with the ring on.

"Yes!" He bounced around on his knees, grabbing at the waist of my sweatpants to pull them down.

I laid back. "You like saying that."

"I do."

"And that," I chuckled. "We'll have to plan for that one. Maybe a beach. Maybe in the summer."

He climbed onto my torso and kissed my face. "Maybe on an island, maybe the Bahamas, or somewhere, I don't know." He kissed all the way down to my waist where he acted surprised that my cock was throbbing and hard, begging for him to pay it some attention.

"That's nice," I told him, a hand on his head, pushing him in the right direction. "Show me how much you want that. The better you are, the bigger our wedding will be."

Cal got visibly giddy at the word wedding. He stood and wiggled out of his tiny shorts. "And are you just gonna lay there?" he asked, turning around. He gave his ass a squeeze and then a little jiggle like it was Jell-O.

I placed my hands behind my head. "Yeah," I said. "And I'm gonna tell you what to do. Like the good little boy that you are. You're gonna sit that ass on my ass. Right now."

He popped his tongue at the roof of his mouth. "Yes, Sir," he giggled.

The thing about Cal was that it didn't matter what he wanted to do, I was always in control, even now, as I laid and looked like I was the one being submitted to his ass on my face, I could've easily grabbed him, pinned him down, and taken his little ass for a real ride.

I ate his ass as he sucked on my cock and balls. He really knew how to work the entire thing, both hands and his mouth. I felt like one giant musical instrument, and the more he played, the more active my tongue on his hole became.

Wiggling down on my face and lifting away before pushing his light body weight back down. He let out a huff. He pulled himself off my face and looked at me, his brows pinched together. "You never eat my ass like that."

"It's a special occasion," I said. Plus, usually, I was far too eager to start fucking him, and this time, he was getting to make that choice. "Are you gonna put it back? Or is it going somewhere else?" I pulled a hand from behind my head and gave his ass a spank. "Choice is all yours."

"What do you want?" he asked. He was good like that, asking me what I wanted when I'd given him the choice. "Because I'm fine with continuing that, but I also want to—"

"On my dick," I said, making the choice for him. "Go on." He would've made the choice in the end, but I liked to beat him to the chase. I thrust my hips up. "Sit on my dick," I said, almost slurring my words.

Cal maneuvered himself around on my body. I knew he thought he was trying to tease me by going slow, but he was only teasing himself. He laid on me, his cock rubbing up against the warmth of my stomach. "It's like I'm fucking you," he said with his small, gentle thrusts.

I'd given him the opportunity to do as he wanted, and it didn't disappoint me.

Lifting my knees up and thrusting my hips, my cock was positioned, ready for action. All I needed was a little more momentum and him to slide down a touch. The tip of my cock pressed against his hole. I kept my hands behind my head, pushing my knees and thighs to do the work and fuck him.

"I know what you're trying to do," he said.

"Then let me do it."

He shook his head. "I like teasing you."

I guess he was teasing me, and I was falling for it now. "Wrong answer, baby." I wrapped my arms around his back and sat up with him on my lap, my cock sliding between his cheeks and going up his back.

"Maybe this is what I wanted," he said, pursing his lips. I gave him a kiss.

I laid him back on the mattress, spreading his legs out before pushing them back like he was some gymnast, his knees folding down at his side. My cock wasn't being teased anymore, I pushed the tip inside and watched as his mouth opened wide to let out a moan. I pushed my cock in deep, leaning across him to take his moan into my mouth and force my tongue inside.

Usually, I'd be slow and build up, but tonight, we were celebrating. I hit deep with fast strokes. Pinning him down with my body on top of his, eating the moans as they came straight from the back of his throat. I didn't want to stop.

The slapping of our bodies coming together, again and again, getting hot and sweaty.

It didn't take either of us long to cum. I think I came first, but it could've been him. Our bodies stopped moving as we both became firm against each other.

It was over quick.

I kept my cock inside him as I pulled away and looked down at it. His cock was soft. I pushed his balls out of the way to look at my cock inside him and how his hole had grown tighter around it.

"I don't think it wants to leave," I said.

Cal reached down with a hand. He collected my tight balls into the palm of his hand. Usually, they weren't so high up, but after cumming they seemed to sit up by the base of my cock while I cooled off.

After the day we'd both had, I didn't want to remove any part of myself from him. But we'd had that conversation before, we couldn't sleep like this, and as he let out a yawn, his hole twitched, pushing my cock out. "Oops," he said, yawning once more.

"We should get some sleep," I said. "Well, you need to get cleaned up first. But then we're getting some shut eye. Tomorrow you're going to be face-to-face with him, and you're gonna need all the energy you can." I'd also need that energy, but he was the one who was going to be pulling that trigger.

As Cal went back upstairs to the bathroom, I helped myself to some of the cold pizza. I didn't mind that it was cold, and probably preferred it. I was worried about Cal. Everything was going to change when he was finally free of his demons, and maybe that was why I'd proposed to him tonight.

I could barely sleep. Cal was out like a log, snoring. I suppose that vodka had been good for something. I kept checking my watch. Barely any time had gone by since I'd last tried to sleep.

And before I knew it, it was almost six in the morning.

A rustling outside was the final straw.

And as I looked out of the living room doorway into the kitchen, I saw someone in all black with a gun walk by the window.

Without a second thought, I left the mattress and grabbed my gun from my folded pile of clothes on the floor. I wasn't afraid to fuck someone up and send another message to my father. They probably pinged my cellphone.

A second figure walked by the window out back.