“See you then.”
“Bye.”
* * *
Caleb
When Tegan came downstairs in that dress, I wanted to kiss her so bad that it hurt. I value my life a little too much, so I didn’t. But I wanted to. Instead, I told her to have fun after she basically confirmed that she’s going to fuck someone else. Then I came back inside and have been putting on a good front for my son. Or at least I thought I was doing a good job.
“It’s your own fault if she kisses another guy tonight.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t. I mean, yeah, you screwed up yesterday, but you could’ve invited Mama on a date, and I think she would’ve said yes.”
“I hate to insult your intelligence, buddy, but I’m stuck in this building. Where exactly would I take your mom on a date?”
“The bowling alley, the theatre, the ice rink, the game room, the indoor beach. Heck, you could even take her to the batting cages.”
“Excuse me?”
“I know Mama gave you access to the whole building. Haven’t you looked around?”
“A little, but not much. I figured it was all just a normal apartment building.”
“You know what my mom and her friends do, and you still thought they would live in some boring, normal apartment building?”
When he puts it that way, I’m the one who looks dumb. “Yeah,” I say, weakly.
He just shakes his head, and we both laugh as we hear the front door open. Tegan walks in, barefoot with her shoes dangling from her fingers. I stand up and take a few steps before I can stop myself.
“Oh, um hi. I thought you guys would be hanging out downstairs or something,” she tells us, her eyes wide.
“Dad didn’t even know about the downstairs. He hasn’t looked around there at all.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I already know I’m pretty dumb, so you can save your comments.”
“No, I really can’t. I mean, you’re Mr. Super Scientist, and yet you weren’t even a little curious about our building?”
“I thought I’d find a weight room and maybe a pool.”
The side of her mouth quirks up into a smile. “It’s so much better than that.”
“So I’ve been told.”
“Let me change, and then we can go play in the game room.”
“I thought I couldn’t play video games,” Ethan tells her with a smirk.
“You can’t,” she tells him, hands on her hips. “You can play skee-ball or any of the other non-video game, though. Or you can just stay here by yourself.”
He looks between us, and smiles again. “I’ll stay here.”
The smile falls from Tegan’s face as the one on mine grows. Oh yeah, the kid’s on my side now. Score one for dad.
“Are you sick, E? You never turn down the game room.”
“He’s not sick, he’s just being a good little wingman.”
There’s that arched eyebrow that somehow manages to make me harder than I’ve been since I was sixteen. “Wingman? Are you trying to get a girl, Cal?”
“No. I’m trying to get a woman. The only woman I’ve ever really wanted.”
“What are you trying to get at exactly?”
“I was hoping that my beautiful baby mama would let me hold her hand.”
“You want to hold my hand?”
“Yeah. I was thinking we could see if we like it for like, maybe, a few hours. Then, we could try something else.”
“Cal,” she says, holding back a sob because that’s almost exactly what I said to her when we were thirteen.
“I know I’m supposed to ask for a week, but I can’t wait that long for the rest. What do you say, Teeg?” I ask, holding my hand out to her, palm up.
She doesn’t hesitate to place her hand in mine, and this—holding hands with the woman I’ve always loved, while our son rolls his eyes at me—this really is the definition of happy. We just stare at each other with smiles on our face, until she gives my hand a squeeze and let’s go.
“I’m going to change.”
“You don’t have to.”
She looks at me in my jeans and t-shirt and then down at her dress. “I’m a little overdressed for games.”
“I think you look perfect.”
“What if we play pool, and I have to bend over?”
“I won’t look.” I get the eyebrow again. “Okay, so I’ll totally look. But I’ll do it in a respectful way.”
“Ugh. Come on people, I’m still here.”
“Sorry, E,” I tell him with a sheepish grin.
“Yeah, yeah. I’m going to my room until you guys leave.”
We hold in our laughter until he stomps up the stairs. “I’ve never had to worry about that before. We should’ve handled that a little better.”
“Is there really any good way to handle the fact that you’re going to get it on when it comes to your kid?”
“I don’t know who you’re planning to ‘get it on’ with tonight, but I can tell you it’s not going to be me. We can go have some fun, and I’ll let you hold my hand. Maybe even kiss me, but that’s it. I can’t give you more yet.”
“I’ll take whatever I can get. I’ll happily kiss you for hours if you’ll let me.”
“I said ‘maybe.’”
“We’re playing pool, so we can just bet on the game.”
“What do I get if I win?” she asks, taking my hand.
“Whatever the fuck you want.”
She lifts her other hand to run her finger over my bottom lip. “I guess we’re kissing no matter what then.”
Yes! But I have to know something else before we go any further, before I take this leap with her once again. “You didn’t get the kisses you wanted at the club?”
“I wasn’t looking for kisses. I wanted to get laid. But all I could think about was a hipster with a sexy southern accent.”
“You grew up with my accent, Teeg.”
“And I’ve always thought the way you talk is sexy, Cal.”
She walks out the door after tossing her shoes onto one of the couches. I follow her to the elevator and wrap myself around her from behind as we wait. She stiffens, but doesn’t pull away.
“All that sexual frustration is still in there, isn’t it? I could help you get it out.”
“I already told you that’s not going to happen.”
“So you’re saying that you would’ve fucked some random guy, but not me?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
I’m the one who goes stiff as the elevator stops. I don’t fight her as she moves out of my arms and gets inside. There’s a challenge in her eyes when I meet them with my own. How I react to what she just said is going to determine more than just tonight. I know that, and so despite the jealousy raging in me, I smile at her.
“I’m going to make you forget other men have existed.”
“You’re certainly welcome to try.”
We spend the next several hours playing all kinds of games. Everything from pool to Pac-Man. No kisses are exchanged though. We both said we wanted to kiss, but for some reason we don’t. We hold hands, and I laugh more than I have in the last decade. It’s the best date I’ve ever been on, and I don’t want it to end. All good things come to an end though, and we both can barely keep our eyes open by the time we stagger up the stairs to our rooms.
I did manage to ask her for another date tomorrow, so my mind is spinning with ideas as I fall asleep. Sweet, sexy, naughty things. We’re going to do them all, too. I’ll beg if I have to, but I’m having her tomorrow if it’s the last thing I do.
Chapter 7
Caleb
Holding hands with Tegan last night was pretty damn great. Over the years, I’ve forgotten how good just holding someone’s hand can feel. Okay, not just someone. Holding her hand is what’s so awesome, and I know she appreciates me taking things old school.
Tegan’s asked me to meet her in her home office to talk about the t
hreats against me. I have to admit that someone sending people to hold me at gunpoint, and then blowing up my lab, made me take the threats more seriously. Tegan’s friends have people watching over my family, but I worry for Ethan. And her. I still have no clue why someone cares this much, though.
“Hello, ladies,” I say as I walk into the room.
“Hi, Caleb,” Jade says.
“Hello,” Isa tells me. She’s a little more reserved, but something tells me not to underestimate her.
Reina skips the greeting and gets down to business. “Have a seat, Caleb, and we’ll get started.”
I take the seat next to Tegan and immediately grab her hand. It’s not even an option for me to not hold it anymore. Just like I won’t be able to stop kissing her once we start to do that again. Reina raises an eyebrow, but the other two women just smile at us.
“We need to know if you can think of anyone who might want to stop your deal from happening, Cal. Delia’s not talking even though we’ve got her in custody, and the gunman we captured was too low level to know anything.”
I know I should be more shocked that Delia was part of the group targeting me, but once I saw Ethan, nothing else mattered to me except for him. I feel stupid for not realizing how much she hated me, but I don’t have it in me to care all that much. Or try and look too closely at what these people’s motive must be.
“We’ve already been over this. I don’t know who else could be behind this. I mean, I’m sure the Saudis aren’t happy, and neither are the other American oil companies, but I couldn’t tell you who’s this desperate. I mean, my formula won’t even come close to completely replacing traditional oil usage. At least not right away.”
“There’s no one who’s close to you that would take a hit?” Isa asks me.
“Honestly, no one I can think of. I’ve been immersed in my research for the past few years. I don’t socialize much.”
“You got engaged,” Tegan says.
“She was convenient, Teeg, and she tried to kill me when I broke it off.”
“She was always a few crayons short of a full box. And she was in on it before you dumped her. That much we know at least.”
“What about your other high school friends? You said you haven’t been socializing much, but do you still keep in touch with them?” Reina asks me.
“We get a beer now and then, yeah.”
“Do you talk about your work?”
“Sometimes, but just in basic terms. Greg and Phil aren’t really interested in science.”
“You hang out with Greg? Really? You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“He’s a good guy.”
She pulls her hand from mine and stands so fast that her chair falls over. “I can’t do this. I just can’t.”
“It was your choice to be part of this mission, Tegan.”
“I’m not leaving the mission, Rei. I’m putting a stop to this,” she says, gesturing between the two of us.
“We have a son together. ‘This’ isn’t going away,” I remind her, feeling the loss of her hand—and her—more than I thought I would after all these years.
“Ethan isn’t, but the hand holding is. We’re going to behave as though we’re divorced and just hanging out together for his sake. Greg, and whoever else from school you hang out with, won’t come near him, though. I mean it. I will put a bullet in you myself if you bring them around.”
“So you can have your friends, but I can’t have mine? Just because you cheated on me with one of them doesn’t mean they’re bad guys.”
She just stares at me. I can see she wants to say something, but she doesn’t. She just sits back down in her chair, moving it as far away from me as she can. Her jaw is clenched, and she’s breathing hard, yet she’s backing down. I don’t know why, but I’m not sure I like it. I want her to defend herself, but it’s obvious that she’s not going to do that.
“Are you okay to continue now, Teeg?” Reina asks her, looking as concerned as I feel.
She closes her eyes and nods before speaking again. “There’s been no more activity at the ranch, Caleb. The people we have with your family say that the whole town is talking, but no one out of the ordinary has come to the property.”
“Thank you for protecting them.”
“It’s our job,” she tells me in a flat voice.
Reina wraps up the meeting as quickly as possible, letting me know who and what they’re looking into but not giving me too many details. She also asks me to keep wracking my brain for anything out of the ordinary that someone might have said to me. I promise I will.
Once the other women leave, I pull my chair over next to Tegan. She’s got her head in her hands now. “They’re good guys, Teeg. You wouldn’t have slept with Greg if you didn’t think there was something good about him. And Phil’s never done anything to you. Well, I mean, he joined in with all of us to torment you, but you did cheat on me.”
“First of all, if sex happens, it takes two people. Punishing one, while being best friends with the other is bullshit. Second, I need you to get the fuck out of my office right now before I hurt you.”
I see her hands shaking, and I know she’s in pain. I want to comfort her, or ask her more about why she’s so angry, but I don’t doubt that she’d hurt me at the moment. I push my chair back and walk away from her. I took one step forward last night, but just flew back about five hundred right now. The universe keeps telling me we shouldn’t be together, and maybe it’s time to start listening.
* * *
Tegan
Hearing that Cal still hangs out with Greg sometimes hit me like a freight train. I know I didn’t handle it well, but it hurt me so badly—almost as much as it did all those years ago—and I couldn’t stop myself from lashing out. I’m really not sure that there’s a future for us, other than being Ethan’s parents. And I’ve got to learn to be okay with that.
I’ve been working for about two hours, looking back over every piece of information we have, when Isa’s distress call vibrates in my arm. I immediately run from the room and down the stairs. I’m grabbing guns from the living room safe when Ethan and Caleb walk in, wrapped in towels from their time at the indoor beach.
“What’s wrong?” Ethan asks me.
“Isa’s in trouble.”
“Isn’t she with Uncle Brad today?’
“Yes,” I say as I grab my bag and start to push past them.
Caleb grabs my arm before I’m out the door. “My uncle, Brad?”
“Yes. Let me go. I need to get to them.”
“Be careful, Tegan. And thank you.”
“I’m not doing this for you.”
I get down to the garage as fast as possible and hop on my Ducati. I know it’ll be faster than my car or truck, and right now all I can think about is getting to the Las Vegas Literacy Project offices in time. We put extra security in place there, too, but it obviously wasn’t enough.
As I approach the building, which is in the middle of the Downtown Summerlin shopping area, I see that the doors are blown open. Shit. I drive around the back where I see Darcy already climbing the outside of the building. Her cat burglar skills definitely come in handy in times like these. I nod at her before activating my communications unit to let Ainsley and her team know that I’ve arrived, and head inside through the loading dock. The freight elevator is in front of me, and I see that it’s been disabled. She tells me they’re working on it, but whoever did this is good. Not as good as her, but good enough to slow her down.
I don’t have time to wait for her, but it’s really not a problem. Darcy may have grown up climbing buildings, but I grew up climbing trees. The inside of the elevator has enough places for me to hold onto, and I know I can make it up with little effort. I do attach the harness I got from one of my saddlebags because I’m not stupid enough to free climb in a building filled with people who probably wouldn’t think twice about killing me.
I climb my way to the third floor before Ainsley says she’s got control
of the elevator again. She also tells me that everyone is on six, which is the main floor of the Literacy offices. I have her send the elevator to me and jump on it as it ascends to the fifth floor. Our ruse had the desired effect, and I hear gunfire pinging below me as I climb to the floor above. I flip to the top of the doors as she opens them remotely.
Rapid gunfire hits the wall across from me, as I wait. Ainsley starts the elevator as the gunman peeks inside. I swing down and wrap my legs around him, dropping him into the elevator shaft. He gets off a few more shots as he falls, but I manage to avoid them as I swing out into the lobby. Two guns are pointed at me as I land, but neither person sees Darcy behind the guy on my left until it’s too late. She takes him down, while I dispose of his friend.
We make our way up the spiral staircase with our guns drawn, speeding up when we hear a scream. I burst into the room, knowing that I can’t let anything happen to Brad, even if I get hurt myself. He was a big part of the support system that kept me going during my darkest hours. I owe him so much, and I won’t let anything happen to him.
The first thing I see when I enter the room is Yasmin Griffin lying on the floor. I thought it was her scream, but I couldn’t be sure. Isa’s with her, pressing her shirt to a wound in Yasmin’s side, while a stunning blonde holds a gun to Brad’s temple. There are two other women with guns in the room, but I know Darcy can handle them.
“The pageant called. It wants its hair back,” I tell the blonde, purposely trying to keep her distracted while Isa gets her gun out.
“Bless your heart,” she responds.
“You can come up with a better insult than that,” I reply, letting some Texas back into my voice.
“If you were worth my time, I probably could.”
“You shouldn’t underestimate me. It never works out well for anyone who does.”
“I’ll take my chances.”
“That’s your first mistake,” I say as I shoot her in the arm, thanking God that Brad is able to drop to the floor and get out of the way as all Hell breaks loose.
Faith comes through the door, guns blazing, leaving Isa and Darcy to take care of Yasmin. I crack my neck and motion for Blondie to bring it. I know we need to keep her alive to question her, but I need to fuck her up just a little bit.
Uncovering His SECRET Page 6