by Onley James
Robby’s eyes welled with tears, and he nodded. “I believe you.”
“Good. Let’s go back to bed for a while.”
The smell of coffee and bacon forced Robby’s eyes open. For the first time in a few days, he didn’t instantly wonder where he was. He rolled onto his back, stretching his limbs with a groan—muscles he never knew existed protesting and an unfamiliar ache in his backside reminding him of exactly what they’d done last night. He smiled to himself, grabbing Calder’s pillow and pulling it against his face, inhaling the familiar scent. Last night had actually happened. Calder had taken Robby’s virginity, and they’d talked until they’d fallen asleep, wrapped around each other. Robby wasn’t sure it was possible to be happier than he was right then.
“Rise and shine, angel,” Calder called. “Grubs on.”
Robby dragged himself into a sitting position. Calder’s phone blipped from the side table indicating a text. “Somebody texted you,” Robby managed, voice sleep soaked.
“What’s it say?” Calder asked from the other room.
Robby’s brows shot up. “You want me to look at your phone? What if it’s one of your groupies?”
“You think I’d give them my private number, angel?” Calder asked, amusement evident in his voice.
“Haha,” Robby said, refusing to let Calder’s teasing ruin his good mood. “I don’t know your code.” Calder called a four digit number out to him without hesitation, and Robby’s heart skipped a beat. It was stupid to read anything into that, he supposed, but it felt like it meant something, like it meant Calder had nothing to hide. Robby pulled up the message. “It’s from Linc. He said, ‘Resignation not accepted, asshole. Get your ass into the office and bring the kid.’”
Calder barked out a laugh. “Get in here and eat your breakfast. I’ve been slaving away for hours.”
Robby stood with another stretch, adjusting Calder’s boxers as best he could, before shuffling into the kitchen like a zombie, stopping short when he saw Calder dressed in his usual attire of ripped jeans and a ratty band t-shirt, hair already piled on his head. In his lap sat Cas, gazing up at Calder with his good eye, tongue lolling as Calder fed him tiny pieces of bacon. The dog really wasn’t supposed to have bacon but they both looked so content, Robby didn’t dare say anything. Cas was ancient and bacon was delicious. A little couldn’t hurt.
Calder had set a place for Robby, piling more eggs and bacon and toast on his plate than Robby could ever hope to eat. Even if he wasn’t filming now, he would be soon and his trainer would kill him. But, a voice nagged, there was a possibility he was going to prison, so maybe he should enjoy what he could while he could.
As he walked past, Calder snagged Robby by his hoodie, tugging him down for a kiss. “You look like a baby bird, angel. That hairstyle doesn’t hold up to you sleeping on your face all night. How do you breathe like that?”
“Don’t tease me before I’ve had my coffee,” Robby grumbled, dropping into his seat and taking a sip of the hot liquid, letting it burn its way down with a sigh. “So, does Linc’s text mean you’re still going to be my bodyguard?”
“I’m not going anywhere, regardless of what Linc says or does. You’re stuck with me until we figure this mess out.”
And then what? Robby shook the thought away. He needed to just try to be happy for now. They could worry about the rest later.
While he ate, Calder cleaned the pans in the sink and put them away. He seemed to make more of an effort to straighten up with Robby there, but it was unnecessary. The place looked lived in but not dirty. Robby’s apartment was sterile. There was nothing there that represented him because it never really felt like home. He and Cas were always just taking up space. Here, Cas’s toys were scattered on the couch and rug and Robby’s pants were still on the bedroom floor where he’d lost them last night. Calder’s apartment felt more like home than anywhere Robby had ever been, and he wasn’t quite sure what to do with that.
When he finished shoveling food into his mouth and had set his fork down, Calder leaned over him, sliding his hands up Robby’s shirt to play with those steel bars in his nipples. He instantly melted back into the chair. Calder chuckled. “If it was up to me, I’d take you right back to bed, angel, but we gotta go. Go put some clothes on, and we’ll walk Cas and then take him with us to the office.”
Robby whined, dragging Calder down for a dirty kiss that had Calder plunging his hands into Robby’s pilfered underwear. Before he could even appreciate Calder’s groping, it was gone. “Now, who’s the tease?” Robby grumbled.
Calder chuckled. “Don’t pout. I promise, as soon as we get home tonight, I’ll do whatever you want to this hot little body of yours.”
Robby stood, wrapping his arms around Calder’s neck, pressing himself close. Calder’s arms went around him, grabbing two handfuls of Robby’s ass. “Anything?” Robby pressed.
Calder ducked his head, growling against Robby’s ear. “Mm, anything your kinky little heart desires. Spanking? Wanna be tied up? Want to sit on my face?” Robby whimpered at the last one, his hard cock already tenting his boxers at the words. “You like that one, huh? Well, be a good boy for me today and I’ll make it happen.”
“Fuck,” Robby muttered, pulling Calder in tighter. “Why does that get me so hot?”
“I don’t know, but I’m glad it does,” Calder mused. Robby jumped as a hand slapped his ass hard. “Now, go get dressed before I bend you over this counter and fuck you silly.”
Robby glowered at Calder before rubbing his smarting ass cheek as he walked away. “Yeah, big time tease.”
Robby dressed quickly, pulling on a pair of ripped black skinny jeans and reaching for one of Wyatt’s shirts before his gaze snagged on Calder’s closet. He wandered there instead, reaching up and snagging a black t-shirt with a white graphic for a tattoo studio emblazoned across the front and tiny pant platters everywhere. Robby smiled. Everything Calder owned was covered in splotches of paint. He pulled it on and threw on his chucks before frowning at his hair. Calder was right. He did look like a baby bird. He grabbed a white beanie cap hanging half out of Calder’s drawer and a gray cardigan of Wyatt’s and considered himself presentable enough for friends.
Robby grabbed Cas’s crate, but Calder scooped up the dog and opened the door. They still needed to walk him. When they were halfway down the apartment stairs, Calder grabbed Robby’s hand, and he was almost positive his heart became light enough to fly away. He was finally getting to experience life like a normal person.
Calder dropped Robby’s hand to push open the security gate and usher him through, and that’s when he spotted them…and they spotted him. He didn’t know how many of them there were—more than enough to converge on the two of them, surrounding them almost instantly with their cameras and microphones.
“Robby, have you and Elijah buried the hatchet?”
“Is this your new boyfriend?”
“How did it feel to kill a man?”
“Can you comment on your father’s harassment complaint?”
“Are you in a cult?”
“Is it true you’ve been fired from your show?”
“What will you do now?”
The questions came at him from all sides until he was dizzy, his head swiveling this way and that, trying to find a clear path so he could flee. Cas growled and yipped, but it was lost in the fray. Suddenly, Calder’s arm came around his shoulders as he bulldozed his way through the throng of media. Robby kept his head down, trusting Calder not to let him stumble and fall.
When somebody grabbed Robby’s hand, he snatched it back, only then realizing they had slipped him a note. His head jerked up as he scanned furiously through the crowd, his eyes lighting on a familiar face, the shock of recognition spiking his heart rate. “Rebecca?” he whispered.
But she was already fleeing, giving him one last look over her shoulder before ducking around the corner. He shoved the paper in his pocket so he didn’t lose it. What the fuck? Was that her? It
had been so long since he’d seen her. Her hair was longer, and she was wearing jeans and a black hooded sweatshirt. He couldn’t recall ever seeing her out of her long blue frock with the white ruffles. Was it really her? Had he just imagined it?
He didn’t have time to really stop and ponder it. Calder was doing his best to get him to the truck. When Calder had finally gotten him inside with his seatbelt fastened, he just clenched his eyes shut until they were pulling out of the parking lot.
“You can open your eyes, now, angel. We’re good.”
Were they? “I’m sorry,” Robby said.
Calder took his eyes off the road briefly to frown at Robby. “Sorry for what?”
“That. Back there. You didn’t sign on for any of that. I-I don’t know how they found me.”
Calder scoffed. “That shit don’t bother me. If I had a problem with being photographed by paparazzi, I wouldn’t babysit celebrities for a living. You seem way more shaken up than I am. Are you okay?”
Robby closed his eyes for a long moment. Trying to make sense of what just happened. “I think so. It’s just that…”
“Just what, sweetness?”
Robby dug the piece of paper from his pocket, staring down at it with equal parts bewilderment and anxiety. “My sister.”
Calder’s brows knitted together. “What?”
“My sister…Rebecca. She was there. In the crowd. She handed me this note.”
He waved the folded up paper as proof he wasn’t making this up, that his sister was somehow there outside of Calder’s apartment even though he hadn’t seen her in years.
“What’s the note say?”
Robby unfolded it with shaky hands. There, in neat script, were just two words.
Help me.
Below the words was a phone number with an LA county area code. Robby couldn’t speak. He let Calder pluck the note from his fingers.
“Do you think this is for real?” Calder asked.
Robby shrugged, leaning his forehead against the cool glass of the passenger side window. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen my sister since we left her with Brother Samuel all those years ago.”
“Brother Samuel?”
Robby shivered like somebody had walked over his grave. “Yeah. The original church founder. He and my father had a falling out years ago, and they agreed to separate the flock. The one condition was that my father give Rebecca to Samuel as a third wife.”
“Third wife?”
“Samuel was already married to Regina and Malinese, but he’d wanted Rebecca for way longer than was legal. My father sold my sister in exchange for the church’s name and the members who wished to follow him to Los Angeles. To be fair, she really wanted to go. She was obsessed with him.”
“Your dad and this Brother Samuel sat down and divided up the members of the church, and then he took your sister and the group and left?”
Robby shook his head. “We left. We all left the farm and came here so my father could live out his dream of making Magnus Dei the next Church of Scientology. As far as I knew, my sister was back in Kentucky with Samuel and the others.”
“So, what the hell is she doing here in California?”
“I really don’t know.”
For as horrible as his father was, nobody was worse than Samuel. He’d asked the children to treat him like their true father, but Robby had always found him…vacant. Empty. There was something about Brother Samuel that had unsettled Robby from as early as he could remember. The thought of him there…in LA…this close…chilled him down to the marrow of his bones.
“Could he have something to do with the man coming to your apartment?”
Robby shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything. He never liked me. He hated me and my sister, Ruthie. I don’t know why he’d care about me or my life here. Maybe Rebecca finally saw him for the monster he was and escaped? Maybe he’s still in Kentucky and she came here to find me?” He hated the hopefulness in his voice. He knew better than to hope for things. Not everybody got to have a family. Not everybody got to have a husband and kids and a picket fence and a house full of strays and siblings who griped about babysitting. That only existed for other people. Not him.
“I don’t know either, angel. But we’ll figure it out.”
Calder left Robby and Cas in the office kitchen with Wyatt under strict orders not to give Robby any caffeine. Being ambushed by the press had left the kid so wired he was practically generating a frequency. Calder assumed Linc wanted Robby there so he could talk to them both together, but Calder wasn’t sending Robby in there blind. He was too vulnerable and Linc’s beef was with Calder, not the boy.
Calder rapped his knuckles against the slightly ajar door before pushing it open. Linc sat behind his huge mahogany desk . He heaved a sigh when he saw Calder and tossed his pen down. “Get in here and sit down, asshole.”
Calder dropped into the seat on the other side of the desk. “I’d respectfully like to remind you that you’re not the boss of me anymore.”
Linc scoffed. “What the fuck, hoss? You were willing to quit a six-figure job to stick your dick in this kid?”
Calder shook his head, irritated with Linc’s cavalier assessment. “It’s not about that.”
“Then explain it to me? What is this compulsion that leads you to fuck up every good thing you have? You up and quit the Rangers, you constantly fuck up this job. You like to act like you just roll along with nothing touching you, but somewhere deep down, there is something driving this.”
Calder scrubbed his hands over his face. He hadn’t expected this. He thought Linc would give him a lecture and send him on his way. He hadn’t expected to be called out over his self-destructive behavior. Maybe Robby was right. Maybe he did need to look more into what happened to Megan. But, before he did that, he needed to make one thing clear. “You told me that I wasn’t allowed to have sex with Robby and still be employed with Elite. I made a decision. I’d rather have him than this job. I’m not trying to fuck up my life. I have plenty of money saved. Shit, Linc, this might be the first time I’m trying to save my own life.”
Linc leaned forward in his seat. “Level with me, are you falling for this kid?”
Yes. “Yeah, I think I am.”
“Christ,” Linc muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose.
Calder frowned. “I mean, I know Elite is getting a bit of a matchmaking reputation, but I would have thought you of all people would be happy to see me falling for somebody. If I’m sticking my dick in him, then I’m not sticking my dick in the clients. Problem solved.”
“Why’d you have to pick that kid?”
Calder looked towards the closed door. “How could I not? He’s…perfect.”
Linc slammed his fist on his desk. “You know what? Fine. But I want you to know that I now owe Wyatt a thousand fucking dollars and I’m taking it out of your yearly fucking bonus. You know how smug he’s going to be about this? I hope this kid’s worth it.”
“He is,” Calder said without a moment’s hesitation.
“Well, mazel tov, I guess. But what are we going to do about his case? I can’t have you guarding your boyfriend. It’s bad for business.”
“You and Shep both did it,” Calder reminded him.
“Yeah, and both times, we made stupid mistakes that could have ended up with them getting hurt,” Linc countered.
“I’m not walking away from this. Give me a leave of absence, fire me if you have to, but I’m sticking this out until the end.”
Linc grunted. “Were you always this much of a pain in the ass?”
Calder shrugged. “Well, yeah. But I’m the only guard with a PI license. So, you tolerate me.”
“Fine. But if this goes sideways, it’s on you.”
Calder winced. “Well, funny you should say that…”
“I’m going to rehire you just so I can fire your ass. What now?” Linc asked, exasperated.
“Somebody tipped off the press that Robby was at my place.
They ambushed us on the way out this morning. We can’t go back.”
Linc nodded. “You can use one of the safehouses. I can send Connolly to collect some of your personal items from your apartment. Just make a list. Is that it?”
“Nope. Robby recognized somebody in the crowd this morning. His older sister. She slipped a note into his hand. It just said ‘help me’ and gave a phone number.”
Linc jammed his finger down on a button. “Get the client in here, please,” he growled into the intercom before releasing the button. After a moment, he jabbed it down again. “Keep the dog out there. It gives me the creeps.”
Calder’s mouth fell open. “Hey, Cas can’t help how he looks. It’s not his fault he’s ugly.”
Linc snorted a laugh. “Jesus, this kid’s really done a number on you.”
Robby creaked the door open like he was trying not to wake them, closing it softly behind him before trudging forward, arms crossed like he was cold.
“It’s okay, angel. You aren’t in trouble. Linc’s face always looks like that,” Calder assured him, waving Robby to the empty seat beside him.
Linc flicked him off before turning his attention to Robby. “You still have the piece of paper the woman gave you?”
Robby nodded, fishing the paper from his pocket and handing it to Linc before sitting on the edge of the seat beside Calder, almost like he wanted to be prepared if he had to flee suddenly.
Linc pushed a single button on his phone. Webster’s voice popped up on the other line. “‘Sup, brother?”
Linc didn’t bother to return the greeting. “I need you to trace a phone number for me.”
“Uh, can it wait like two hours? I’m balls deep in the financials for the Delaney case and I’m just about to make them scream my name.”
Linc rolled his eyes. Calder laughed but Robby flushed, his gaze dropping to his hands. Was he thinking of last night? Of Calder buried balls deep inside him? Of the noises he made or how hard he’d come? Did he want to do it again? Calder couldn’t fucking wait to do it again. He mentally shook the thought away. Linc was willing to forgive only so much, and overlooking inappropriate office boners was a big ask, especially after everything else.