Don’t worry, Red. I’m going to protect you.
Oh, Caleb.
He made me feel safe, cherished…loved. Even when I pushed him away, he never stopped loving me.
That moment in the multipurpose room, when I thought he was going to kill Justin, I’d called out his name. And he came back. He came back for me. He didn’t cause pain just because he could or because he got off on it… He did it to protect me. Because…because he loved me. He wasn’t like the monster in my childhood. He wasn’t like my dad.
I got up from the floor and stared at my reflection in the mirror. My face was pale, and dark circles hung under my eyes. I brushed my teeth quickly and washed my face again.
I was going to eat a goddamn peanut butter sandwich.
Chapter Thirteen
Caleb
Patience has never been one of my best traits.
I stood by the window, my hands in my pocket, jiggling my car keys. I wanted to go home to Red. Preferably now.
I’d just arrived at Matthew’s place. Cameron and some of the team had helped me go back to the campus to find and destroy those damned posters. There weren’t any more. Thank God.
Justin needed to start praying and offer a couple sacrifices to save his neck if he tried hurting my Red again. I was sure I would do more than choke him if he did.
I glanced at my watch and noted that it was almost two hours since I’d left Red.
“I gotta go,” I said.
Levi tried to raise his chin from his chest to look at me. He was clearly drunk. He had stayed behind with a couple other guys at Matthew’s place to make sure there weren’t any of those damned posters online. After all was clear, he and the other guys had decided to make it their life mission to finish two bottles of scotch from Matthew’s father’s liquor cabinet. Empty beer bottles and boxes of pizza littered the floor.
The other guys had already left before I arrived. I found Levi slumped in one of the chairs. Matthew was sprawled on the couch, his eyes zoned in on the TV screen. He was watching The Avengers.
“Do me a favor, dude. Bring this sack of limp biscuit with you,” Matthew pleaded, throwing Levi a disgusted look.
I tamped down my impatience. I wanted to go straight to Kara’s place to pick up Red.
Before Red had slipped out of my car, some emotion had flashed in her eyes that I couldn’t decipher. It made me uneasy. I wanted to make sure everything was all right.
We’d just gotten back together. I didn’t want to lose her again. If I lost her again, I would… I didn’t know what I would do.
My eyes narrowed as I spotted a yellow truck pass by Matthew’s place. It looked like Justin’s truck.
“Does Justin know we were meeting at your place?” I asked.
“Hell no,” Matthew answered. “What makes you say that?”
I grunted as I watched the yellow truck disappear and forced myself to relax. “All right. Let’s go, Levi.”
“What? Did you say boner?” He hiccupped.
Matthew choked. “Yeah, dude. Something you wouldn’t know about.”
I shook my head as I hauled Levi up from the couch. He was hammered.
“If you throw up in my car, I’m going to leave you on the side of the road,” I warned.
“That sounds uh-mazing,” he slurred. “Why you carryin’ me? D’we get married or sumthin’?” He pu
ckered his lips and swung his head dangerously close to mine.