Darkness Falls (The Darkness Duet Book 2), page 16
I stand and offer her my hand. "Come on, we don’t want the water to get cold."
"Water?"
"I told you I’d take care of you when we got home. Let's go soak in the tub for a bit." I say with a smile.
We walk to the bathroom, but I can’t stop the thoughts from spinning in my mind. How was she singing the exact song that my mother used to sing to me when I was a child? Part of me wants to think that she had to know somehow, but there is no possible way. I couldn't even remember what that song was, and I have been trying to recall it for years.
Her eyes land on the tub, and she turns to look at me with pure joy all over her face. I step forward to undress her. She still has the toy inside her, and I need to take it out. I pull the shirt over her head and unclasp her bra, letting it fall to the floor before looking down at the way her nipples pebble from the air. I carefully unbutton her jeans next and pull them to the floor with her panties. She places her hands on my shoulders to steady herself as she steps out of both of them.
I lead her over to the vanity and say, "Bend over." She looks up at me, eyes full of concern, and I shake my head to reassure her. "I'm just taking the toy out. We're done playing for the day."
She takes a breath and nods before turning to bend over so I can pull it from her. A small whimper leaves her as I place the soaking-wet vibrating stimulator in the sink. I turn her back around and guide her over to the tub.
Before she can get in, I free myself of all my clothing, and she slowly eyes me up and down. My cock is fully erect, and I don't miss the way her eyes linger on it for a moment. I step forward and place a foot into the tub before extending a hand for her to join me.
"Together?" she questions.
"Unless you would rather be alone," I say, but she shakes her head. She wants me there to give her this comfort after the events of the day. I find myself needing this moment with her just as much after having that flashback of my mom. I've never connected with another person like this before, and it's a strange feeling.
I sink into the tub and pull her into me with her back pressed firmly against my chest. Everything I need to help her relax is set up along the edge of the tub, so I reach out to grab the loofah and squirt some grapefruit-scented bath wash onto it.
"Close your eyes and relax, trouble," I whisper in her ear before bringing the loofah to her chest.
She always smells like grapefruit, so I thought it was fitting to have a similar-smelling body wash here for when we brought her back to the house. I gently move the loofah across her body, washing the stress of the day away. She sighs and relaxes into me, soaking up the entire experience. When I finish, I wrap my arms around her to hold her in place. We sit like this in silence for a while before Callie breaks it.
"Want to tell me about her?"
"Who?" I ask, knowing all too well who she's talking about.
"Your mom. If you want to talk about her, I want to listen."
I take a deep breath and hold her hand under the water. "It's hard because I don't remember a lot about her. When they put me in foster care, nobody thought to put aside any of her belongings or photos. All I have to look back on are the very few pictures that I've been able to find online. She always seems so much different in my mind, though." That makes me a little sad to admit. "It's weird because she was only part of my life for a few years, but I still miss her so much."
"You never stop missing someone you love," Callie says, looking up at me with eyes full of sympathy.
"She always used to sing to me. That song you were singing was part of our bedtime ritual. She would sing it to me every night before I went to sleep. We used to sing and dance all the time. After dinner, she would make it a fun game to pick a song to dance to while we cleaned up. The goodnight song was the only one that we always sang every day." I let my mind wander back to the earlier memory for a moment and smile. "She had the weirdest laugh. That’s one of the strongest memories I have of her."
Callie smiles up at me. "A weird laugh?"
"Yeah, it was a combination of a cackle and a wheeze. Everywhere we went, people would stare at her every time she laughed, but she never let it bother her. She would just tell me people were staring because they were sad they weren't in on the joke, too."
"She sounds like she was an amazing mom."
"I was just a kid. I didn't know any better, but she did everything she could to make sure I was happy. I got so angry after she died..." I trail off and realize I've never really let that anger go.
"Seb?"
I sigh. "She was taken from me way too soon. I hate that there was nothing I could do about it. It's part of the reason I'm so protective of Barrett and Ky, and I guess now you. I don't want to think about what would happen if more of my family was taken from me."
"That’s why you wanted me to make up with my mom. You know that happiness can be taken from you at any time, and you can't control it."
"Yeah, something like that."
She squirms in the tub and turns to face me. "She would be proud of you if she were around today. The way you protect your family over everything, she would be proud of that."
I let myself absorb her words, and they settle something deep inside me. I really hope she’s right and that my mother would be proud of me if she were still here. I reach out and trail my hand down Callie's cheek before gripping her chin and leaning in to kiss her.
"We should get out. The water’s getting a little cold," I whisper, and she nods.
I step out of the tub and hold out my hand for her to help her out before leading her to the shower stall and turning on the water. She looks annoyed, but we need to rinse the oils from the bubble bath off of us.
"Just real quick."
After a minute, I turn the water off and grab towels for us to dry off with. There is a big fluffy pink robe in the corner that I reach out to grab and help her into.
"When did you get this?" she asks. "It's seriously super comfy."
"We had it here for you… um… before. I just didn't have the chance to give it to you."
Sadness fills her eyes, and I wish I hadn't said anything at all. Her sadness quickly morphs into something else entirely, and she reaches out to touch my chest. "You guys bought me a robe?"
"Barrett did. He did most of the shopping for your clothing."
She giggles. "He's the one that bought that damn taco shirt and the smiley face slippers."
"Are you surprised? The guy has a twisted sense of humor sometimes."
"I should have known." She rubs her arms, feeling the comfort of the robe.
"We have two options now. We can either take a quick nap or head downstairs and get started cooking dinner."
She tilts her head with interest. "What are we making?"
"Chicken pot pies. You don't necessarily have to help, but having you around might not be so bad."
"Ooooh, I love your chicken pot pies!"
"I know, Ky told me. So, nap or kitchen?"
"I'll sleep after dinner," she tells me, but it looks like she wants to say something else. I don't like that she's keeping it to herself.
"What's wrong?"
"Um. I uh. Would it be okay if I slept in here with you tonight? You know, give it a try?"
Relief floods through me. She is trying to work out this new common ground between the two of us, just like I am. "You can sleep wherever you want, whenever you want," I reassure her and grab her hand to lead her downstairs.
Chapter 24
Kyler
I'm watching TV on the couch, and I hear the front door open and close. Before I can get up, I see Seb and Callie walking hand and hand straight toward the steps, and it confuses the fuck out of me. I stand up and run to watch them march directly up to his room.
She looks upset, but they seem to be working on their shit, so I'll try my best to keep my distance and let them work out whatever little tiff they are having. I'm a bit surprised that she went with him to drop Natasha off, considering she was keeping her distance.
I need to distract myself from Callie being up in a room by herself with Mr. Grumpy, so I click off the TV and head to our office. I can focus my attention on a better task. It's also a bit comforting to know I can pull up the house feeds from in there.
I step inside and flip open the laptop to log into the feeds. I can't believe I'm pulling a Barrett to keep an eye on her, but I want to make sure she's okay. If that asshole makes her upset, I'll barge right in and grab her to take her out of that mess.
I peek at the footage to see her sitting on the edge of his bed by herself. I flip over to the camera in his bathroom to see him filling up the tub. The camera angle in here excludes the toilet because we all have to have a small sense of privacy, but the tub and shower are fully on display. I swap back to the screen with Callie on it as I pull open the desk drawer to grab Gabriel’s notebook.
We've been so caught up in Callie over the last few days that we haven't had a chance to dive into this thing and figure out what the contents actually mean. I flip through pages full of first and last names, but none of them stand out to me.
I grab my phone to search a few of them, but there doesn't seem to be any sort of correlation between any of these people noted, aside from being in the same notebook. Most of them are high-up government officials or hold some sort of standing position in society. Part of me is starting to wonder if Gabriel has these people noted in here because he has some kind of blackmail on them. There has to be some way these names fit into his master plan.
Growing frustrated, I turn to the very last page to reveal something entirely different. There is a set of numbers that, at first glance, don’t seem like anything, but when I look at them again, I realize they are latitude and longitude numbers. I go to type them into the computer but see Seb come back into his room to bring Callie to the bathroom. I follow the cameras and watch as he undresses her and pulls a toy out of her. Interesting.
I open a new tab and decide to give them a little bit of privacy. She seems okay, and that's all I'm worried about. I quickly type in the coordinates, and it loads some random spot in the middle of the woods in northern Tennessee. I try to zoom in, but I'm not able to see anything except for trees. I'll have to have Barrett look into it further.
It's like the bastard has a sixth sense because just as I'm thinking of him, he makes his grand entrance into the office. "Can I help you?" I ask before he even has a chance to take a seat.
His eyes immediately move to the computer screen next to me, and he raises a brow. "You know I get an alert now when someone logs into the house feeds."
Fuck.
"Didn't you give me shit for watching those?" he asks with a smug grin. "Something about it being an invasion of privacy?"
"Fuck off. They came into the house, and she looked upset. I wanted to make sure she was okay."
I click over to the feeds again to close out of them, but the sight of her face makes me pause. She seems so relaxed and happy. I don't know what the hell happened between them, but she feels so comfortable with him all of a sudden.
"They look perfectly content to me," he tells me, and I scowl at him.
"Drop it. I was just making sure she was okay."
His hands go up in defense. "Hey, don't be embarrassed because you got caught."
"Seriously, drop it." I look over at him, annoyed.
He chuckles. "No judgment here. I would watch her all day if it were up to me. She's fucking perfect."
I can't disagree with him there, but I don't want to talk about it anymore. We need to refocus on the task at hand so that we can help Callie get her revenge and finally be done with all this bullshit once and for all.
"Was there something you needed?" I say, keeping my tone flat.
"I mostly came in to give you shit about the feeds, but I was also curious why you were in here." He folds his arms across his chest. This room and the security room in the pool house are the only places on the property without a camera monitoring them.
"I'm trying to figure out this notebook that Callie grabbed. Did you see this weird set of coordinates in the back? It pulls up a random location a few hours north of Rogue's compound."
"That's definitely something I'm going to have to do a deep dive on. If Gabriel wrote it in there, it must be important."
"Maybe there's some kind of old building that's not showing on the maps. You know some of the more secluded areas don't always have the most up-to-date search results."
"That's possible. Maybe he's hiding something important there." Barrett types something into his phone, and I see him zooming into the screen. He switches between a few apps before looking up at me. "I'll need to use my equipment in the security room, but I'll get it figured out."
The door to the office swings open, and Seb walks in. He crosses his arms and eyes us cautiously. "Since when do you have meetings without me?"
"Why is everyone so fucking annoying today? You were busy with Callie, so I came in here to kill some time and be productive." I gesture to the notebook and then point over to Barrett. "That one came in and started bothering me. This isn't a meeting."
"You never told me to leave," Barrett says with a shrug.
Another body appears in the doorway. It's my wanderer wearing a fluffy robe. She sees me and runs over, planting her sweet ass right onto my lap.
"Hey, beautiful," I say, leaning down to give her a quick kiss on the lips.
"What's everyone doing in here?" she questions.
"Did you have a nice bath, princess?" Barrett asks with a dumbass grin. This fucker.
She points her finger to chastise him as she spits out, "You have to stop watching me every second of every day."
He laughs and shakes his head. "It wasn't me this time. That was all Ky. I just happened to catch him in the act."
I should have known that little shit would rat me out. Her head turns, and she locks eyes with me. "You were watching me?"
"I told assface over there that I just wanted to make sure you were okay. You and Seb were acting weird when you came home. You were holding hands."
"Wait, you didn't tell me they were holding hands," Barrett interrupts. "So, you're holding hands with our girl now?" He directs over to Seb.
"Would the two of you knock it off?" Callie says. "I'll hold whoever's hand I want to."
"Nothing wrong with holding hands. I'm just happy to see the ice king over there is finally letting you thaw out his black heart," Barrett jokes, and I have to try my best to resist laughing. Seb clearly looks annoyed by this entire exchange, and that makes it so much better.
"What's going on between me and Callie is none of your business. I don't put my nose in your relationships with her," Seb says, frustrated with how this conversation turned on him.
"Well, there it is. That's the only thing we wanted to know. Last we knew, there was no relationship between the two of you," Barrett says.
"How's the hate sex? Did he put a collar on you or chain you up?" I ask Callie, and she slaps my chest.
"Would you stop it? Seb and I are figuring things out. That's all you need to know. Also, I would prefer it if you would all stop watching me all the time when I'm in the house. There are some moments that need to be kept private."
"I swear I was just making sure he wasn't being an asshole to you," I say.
Barrett smiles. "No promises."
"Great. Now that we are all up to speed on the status of our girl and me, do you want to update us on what you found in there?" Seb asks while pointing at the notebook.
"It's a list of names, but I wasn’t able to find anything linking them together," I say as I flip it back to the beginning. "Callie, do you recognize any of these?"
She leans in to look through the first page before flipping it to another and shakes her head. "They’re mostly members of Rogue, but there are a lot I don’t recognize."
"There was also a set of coordinates," I say as I click back to the tabs with the search pulled up. "Does this place look familiar to you?"
"Not really. It's just a bunch of trees," she says, and I'm a bit disappointed. I was hoping she could give us some insight. It makes sense that she doesn't know. Gabriel made sure she always knew as little as possible.
"I'll investigate everything tonight. With any luck, we will have more information on both the names and the location fairly quickly," Barrett says, smiling at Callie.
She nods and looks over to Seb. "I believe I was promised chicken pot pie."
He holds out his hand to her, and she hops out of my lap. "Let's go cook you some food."
She leaves the room with Seb, causing Barrett and me to look at each other in utter disbelief. Let's hope Seb keeps his shit together and doesn't upset her again because I would hate to have to beat my own brother's ass.
Chapter 25
Callie
Iwasn't expecting to see such a gentle side of Sebastian, but I'm grateful I was able to learn more about him. It makes me understand him better, and we’ve finally reached a point where it seems like every single day, we grow a little closer to each other. I care for him more than I think I’d like to admit.
I make a mental note to call Avery later to fill her in on all the juicy details of my relationship with Seb. She's going to lose her shit when she finds out I'm with him too. She's insisted it was going to happen ever since I came back and told her about our quick moment after killing my father. Per usual, she was right.
"Trouble," Sebastian says as he snaps his fingers directly in my face and pulls me from my thoughts.
I glare up at him in annoyance. "Was that really necessary?"
"We need to get this plan figured out so we can move forward with things. The sooner we’re able to handle all of this, the better. You were off in la la land," Seb says.
"Yeah, yeah. I know. I'm just not exactly sure what else you need from me. Isn't this what you guys do for a living? Why don't you plan the job and just tell me what I’m supposed to do once it's all figured out? I want to finish reading my book."
"If you want to go with us, then you will sit here and help us figure this out. You’re welcome to go read, but if you decide to do that, then you will stay here by yourself while the three of us go figure out what’s up with the coordinates in the notebook." Seb leans back in his chair like some big broody boss.
