13. Willow

THIRTEEN

Willow

We were in my house, packing more paintings and sketchbooks. Lily had handed over her keys to her truck with no questions asked. Well, she asked one question about insurance, and Caleb told her that he had some kind of insurance that insured him for most vehicles if the car owner had comprehensive insurance. I was sure it was bullshit and Lily would see through it, but she didn’t. She told him that was so convenient, and I began to question her intelligence, because surely anyone with a brain cell would see exactly how convenient it was.

But I said nothing. She’d given me a hug and a look with too much glee and a very unsubtle head nod to Caleb when she told me to have fun .

If I kept telling myself the sooner I had answers, the sooner it would all be over, then at some point, it would all be over.

Right?

“You seem…off. Moody.”

Looking up from the box I was putting my sketchbooks in, I gave him what I hoped was a blank look and resumed my work .

“Okay.” Caleb dropped the packing tape with a sigh. “What is it?”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Well, you haven’t played the dumb card up until now, so I guess it was due?”

Straightening, I glared at him. “The dumb card? Really?”

“Look, I told you to lie down, you refused. I told you to rest, and you insist on helping. You know why we’re doing this, so why are you being difficult?”

“I’m not being difficult,” I said through gritted teeth, “I’m helping .”

“You’re as helpful as a wet paper bag in a storm,” he snapped. “For Luna’s sake, just lie down already and rest. We have a long drive ahead, and I don’t want you to be even sicker through it.”

“Spare me the caring crap. You sold enough of that baloney to Lily!”

He watched me shrewdly. “Ah, I see, that’s why you’re pissed. Your friend didn’t rescue you?”

With hands on hips, I confronted him. “I thought I didn’t need rescued?”

He ignored me. “You think she should have noticed how out of character this was for you and raised an alarm.” Caleb resumed packing. “I admit, I didn’t think she’d buy it either,” he said, patting his pocket where the truck key was with a smirk, “but I guess we were both wrong.” His look was condescending. “Stings a little though, am I right?”

“Fuck you, Caleb.”

I left my bedroom and went into the kitchen, leaving the light off and running the tap to fill a glass of water. He didn’t follow me, and I was grateful for that. I just needed some space.

He was right. I never expected Lily to swallow his bullcrap, but she ate it up like a starving man. Okay, that was harsh. I took a sip of water. No, that wasn’t harsh. It was true. He flashed her a dimple, those white teeth, and all the package that he was, and she gobbled him up.

I was her best friend . She’d known me for years. She saw through me like I was transparent, but put Caleb in front of her, and she was thinking with her vagina.

“Wow, that’s super harsh,” I muttered. Movement in the trees caught my attention. I didn’t know what intuition came over me, but I knew not to move.

Golden eyes watched me from the trees. My mouth ran dry as I met the stare of a predator.

Warmth at my back let me know Caleb was behind me. I almost leaned into him, but his hand on my shoulder pinned me in place.

“It’s okay,” he murmured into my ear. “Just a hunter. Don’t let it show you are prey.”

What the actual hell was that supposed to mean?

“Shh,” he warned, his voice in my ear no more than a whisper. “I’ve got you.”

The trees rustled once more, and the eyes were gone.

My body was trembling, and Caleb squeezed my shoulder. “It’s gone.” He moved away from me, and I sagged forward, my heart racing as if I’d just sprinted the hundred meters at the Olympics.

“What was that? A wolf? ”

“Maybe a bear,” he said with a shrug. He was already walking back to my bedroom.

“Since when do bears have golden eyes?” I snapped, following him.

“I dunno, Willow. Never seen one up close.”

“You are so full of shit.” His shoulders straightened as I spoke to him, but other than that, he looked unimpressed. “You’re a hiker who’s never come across a bear?”

“Not so unusual. I’ve found that the ones who do, have a scar or, I don’t know, a death certificate to show for their encounter!” With arms crossed and that frown on his face, his stance of aggravation was one I was all too familiar with. “People hike, they don’t go looking for bears. If they do, they’re stupid.” His look was cutting. “I’m a lot of things, but stupid isn’t one of them.”

“How did you know it was out there?”

“I didn’t. I came to see if you were okay.” He waved his hand casually over my body. “You tend to faint.”

Bristling even more, I was ready to throw down with the asshole. “I am not weak,” I growled at him.

“I never, at any time, said you were.”

“So, it’s a coincidence? You here and a wolf outside.” I held my hand up. “Don’t insult me by saying bear again.”

He sucked his teeth, looking away briefly. “A coincidence? Yes. What do you think it was? Planned?” Caleb’s sarcasm was scathing, but I wasn’t perturbed.

“You seem very interested in the fact I draw wolves.” Pointing behind me to the window, I carried on. “ That was a wolf. Was it the one I drew? ”

Throwing his hands up in the air, he turned away from me. “What kind of question is that ? Do you hear yourself?”

“Do you?” Stepping forward, I moved closer to him. “You know so much more than you tell me, which wouldn’t be hard, you tell me so little. But I know you know what was out there, and why. Tell me.”

“I have nothing to tell you, except maybe…”

“Maybe?”

“You have a really active imagination.”

My sketch pad sailed through the air as I threw it at him, and to my disgust, he caught it easily, packing it with the rest. “This box is full. We should leave soon.”

“Tonight?”

“Do you think we did all this so we could nap?” Caleb picked the box up and carried it to the front door.

“For hours, you’ve said I was too tired to help, and now I’m road-tripping right now?”

Wiping his hands off the back of his pants, he nodded. “Lily had blankets in her truck. I’ve already made a bed in the back for you. You should be fine.”

“You can’t take over my life, Caleb.”

“For fuck’s sake, Willow, I was thinking of you. Not everything has to have an agenda attached to it.”

“This whole entire thing, this, this insanity that my life’s become since I met you, has had an agenda! If I’m suspicious of everything , it’s because you made me this way!”

“No!” He was in my face so fast that I hadn’t realized how close he had been to me. “I haven’t known you long enough to make you anything. If you’re suspicious and untrusting, that’s on you, not me. Blame me for what you want, hate me, I don’t care, but everything that’s shit in your life, Willow, it’s not on me.”

He moved away, walking past me to get to the bedroom, and I heard him collect more boxes. When he came back, he dumped a tote bag at my feet. “Pack. We leave in twenty.”

Wordlessly I snatched it off the ground. I didn’t snipe at him that he wasted his time bringing it into the living room, because I was a mature woman. An adult. Even if he was a tiny-dicked prick who could kiss my ass. I didn’t say a word, just packed my tote for a few nights and grabbed my toiletry bag.

When I came back to the main room, he was waiting for me.

“Ready?”

No . “Let’s get it over with.”

“Perfect.”

He handed me my house key at the front door, and I again bit my tongue and took it off him, never mentioning the fact he had to go into my purse to get it.

As I opened the door, Caleb’s hand slammed against the wood, closing it quickly. He pulled me into his body, his hand over my mouth, his lips at my ear.

“Shhh, we’re not alone.”

My instinct was to speak, and he must have known that, because he pressed his hand firmer against my lips. I nodded to let him know I understood.

Caleb was still as my panic rose, making me feel like I was coming out of my skin. He didn’t react, just holding me tightly. After what may have been an eternity, he loosened his hold .

“Change of plan,” he murmured. “We leave at first light.”

He turned me to face him. The moon shining through the glass partition at the top of my doorway lit his features. “We’ll leave later.” He shook his head as he spoke. “We’ll rest tonight and head off in the morning. Okay?”

His face was telling me one thing, which was contrary to his words. He mouthed say okay to me, so like the puppet I was, I nodded.

“Okay, sounds good.”

Caleb pulled my unresisting body to the bedroom and guided us both to sit at the end of the bed. There had been some notebooks he had deemed unworthy of including, and he grabbed one and an old stub of a pencil.

We wait and then we leave.

Grabbing the notepad and pencil off him, I scribbled, What is out there?

When he didn’t take the notebook off me, I shoved it into his chest. With a sigh, Caleb took the pencil off me.

Danger.

Wide-eyed, I looked up at him. Was he serious? That was his answer and nothing else? He gave me a look of impatience, and I didn’t move away when he placed his arm around my shoulders. Was he trying to comfort me?

I should have trusted my instincts and moved away.

He wasn’t a comforting man.

When I felt the sharp pain from his hand, I tried to jerk away, but instead, blackness swallowed me whole.

I woke up in the back of the truck, disoriented and slightly alarmed, scared to move.

“It’s me,” he spoke from the front, and I was at once both relieved and pissed off.

“You knocked me out?”

“You fainted.”

“You’re so full of shit,” I grumbled, sitting up and looking around. “You did some Vulcan trick on me.”

He looked at me, using the rearview mirror. “I did what?”

Rubbing the back of my neck and trying to stretch my legs, which had been curled up in the back seat, I still managed to glare at him. “Spock. He used to knock people out with his thumb.” The fact he looked at me as if I was an idiot only cemented the fact I knew he had knocked me out. “You can look at me all wide-eyed innocence or confusion all you like, mister. I may know little about you, but I know you’re a shady shit and you knocked me out.”

Caleb grinned at me. “It’s a simple process of knowing the right pressure points.”

“It’s dangerous. It’s not good for a person, and you could mess up and kill me!” Ugh, I needed to walk around. My legs ached.

He gave me a flat stare. “Trust me, if I kill you, it won’t be with my thumb.”

Shaking my head, I leaned forward and hit him on the shoulder. “You think saying crap like that is reassuring? If I kill you? Seriously?”

“Did you have a good sleep?”

Oh my God, at this rate, I was going to kill him . “You knocked me out. It’s not the same. ”

“Willow, I put you in the truck last night. You’ve been asleep for most of the journey. You came to after I put you in the truck, told me I’d be sorry, and then slept for eight hours.”

When he saw I didn’t believe him, he checked his mirrors and pulled over to the side of the road. Caleb got out of the truck and opened the back door.

“Come on, stretch your legs.”

Unfamiliar trees were behind him, but they were still woods, and all of a sudden, I didn’t want to get out of the truck.

“I won’t hurt you,” he grumbled. “Come on, out. You’re going to need to pee, I expect.”

His tone was so matter-of-fact that I felt stupid for the internal cringe I’d had when he said it. Slowly, I got out of the truck. Caleb caught me and steadied me when I landed on the ground.

“Last night?” It felt about right. My body felt groggy. But also…what the fuck? “How long are you planning on being away? This isn’t my truck, Caleb!”

“I may have exaggerated. Day and a half almost.” He saw my incredulous look, completely ignoring everything else I had said. “You woke up twice. You were definitely out of it, but the last sleep was a deep healing one. I could tell.”

As he spoke, I remembered fragments of conversations, darkness, moving, Caleb telling me I was okay, he had me. Those I pushed far away.

“Okay. We’ll talk about boundaries later.” You had to know when to fight your battles, and right now wasn’t the time. Looking around, I didn’t recognize anywhere. “I’m a bit disoriented.”

“We’re in Colorado,” he assured me. “I took a detour. ”

He didn’t expand and I waited until my patience snapped. “A detour? So we weren’t followed? Right?”

“Just…” Caleb suddenly looked weary. “Just go behind a tree, do what you need, and come back here, and I’ll sanitize your hands.” He handed me a pack of tissues.

“Um…I don’t think so.”

His eyes closed briefly. “Okay, let me make this easier for your current discomfort. It’s been a day and a half, and this isn’t the first time you’ve been awake, just the first time you’ve been extra precious about peeing in nature.”

Horror swept over me as I understood what he was saying. “You helped me?”

He leveled me with a look. “I prefer the smell of pee on the outside of the truck, don’t you?” He shook the tissues slightly. “Now, we can go for round three, or you can hurry this up and go yourself?”

Snatching the tissues off him, I practically ran behind a bush. Looking down, I stared at my jeans and sneakers. He helped me. Oh my God, what did he see ? Pulling at my waistband, I saw my plain gray panties and felt a ridiculous sense of relief that they were semi-decent.

“What is wrong with you?” I scolded myself, pushing my jeans down. “He had his hands on you.”

“I didn’t.”

I screamed in fright and almost fell over due to my jeans being at my knees. “Caleb!” I heard his chuckle. “You’re an immature child!”

He was still laughing as I crouched with my ass hanging out my jeans in the woods. “I didn’t touch you, not like that,” he told me quietly. “I helped you to where you could go , I opened the snap on your jeans, and you did the rest yourself.”

Swallowing back the lump in my throat, I felt my eyes fill, so desperate for him to be telling the truth. “Promise me?” It was barely a whisper, but I needed this one thing to be true, or I was sure I would break.

Caleb heard me and probably what I hadn’t said out loud, for his voice was gentle when he spoke. “On this, I promise you, I didn’t do anything to compromise you…or myself.”

Closing my eyes, I believed him. “Thank you.” My bladder let itself be known, as it had been poised for release for a while now. “Um…go away now and let me do this with some dignity at least.”

I heard his snort of laughter and then the truck door opening and closing. “You’re free to urinate,” he called, and I blushed scarlet once more.

“I swear, just once, I’d love to punch you,” I muttered bitterly, pulling one leg out of my jeans. Squatting and being one with nature is not a good look for women. Adopting a low, wide-legged squat, I held my jeans away from my leg in case of splash back, and after some coaxing, my bladder emptied.

When I was finished, and decent again, I emerged and stumbled when I saw him leaning against the truck with a bottle of hand sanitizer. He hadn’t been inside the truck?

“Hands.”

His eyes danced with laughter as he watched me bite my tongue, literally bite my tongue, to stop from demanding to know if he listened to me. Caleb dropped a generous amount of liquid on my upturned palms and then a little squeeze for himself .

“Hungry?”

Rubbing my hands together, I was about to say no when my stomach answered for me.

Caleb seemed satisfied with that as my response. “Good, me too. Let’s eat.”