Page 157 of Dark Duet: Platinum Edition

“Maybe!Maybe I did,” I plead. I don’t know if wording things hypothetically changes anything, but I have to try. I have to know if Reed can help me. I have to know if he will. “I needed time, and you weren’t giving me any,” I sob. “You came in here, asking me all kinds of questions and calling me a fucking terrorist. What was I supposed to do?”

“You were supposed to tell me the truth! That was the deal. You tell me the truth and I help you,” Reed says and resumes pacing.

“I did tell you the truth! I told you everything you needed to know. I helped you find the auction, but here you are – telling me there’s no justice! So who’s the liar, Reed?” I cry.

Reed turns and glares at me. He looks a lot of things: angry, exhausted, and sad. Finally, he looks away and collapses into the chair.

“Reed?” I edge closer.

“There’s nothing I can do, Livvie. The team is already on its way and the FIA is calling the shots,” he says.

His words play in a loop in my head until they’re reduced to their true meaning: I’ll never see Caleb again. I feel dead inside. Empty. Hollow. Vivisected.

“There…has to be something,” I croak.

Reed shakes his head.

In my head, I can hear myself screaming. I can see myself clawing at my skin and tearing at my hair. In reality, I’m motionless – no tears, no screams, no flesh being torn from my bones.

Reed is silent. He can’t help me. No one can.

My thoughts turn to Caleb and the last days we spent together.

***

Caleb had been gone for hours. I sat on the floor, next to his gun, waiting for something to happen – anything to happen. Several times, I thought about leaving the room and searching for him but kept talking myself out of it. Caleb had said to wait. I waited.

A feeling of dread began to settle over me when I saw light peeking in around the curtains. The sun was coming up and Caleb still hadn’t returned. I wondered if Celia might come back, but I doubted it. Our bridge was well and truly burned. My only solace was in knowing she would keep Felipe from hurting me.

Suddenly, there was a hard thump on the door, then another. My heart felt like it had leapt up into my throat, but then I remembered Caleb had said he would knock twice. I reached for the gun, just in case.

I watched as the handle turned, and when the door swung open, I could barely process what I saw. Caleb stood in the doorway. He was covered in dirt. He was smeared with blood.

“Caleb?” I managed to whisper but still couldn’t move.

He wouldn’t move from the doorway. He just stood there, his eyes fixed on some distant point. He looked like he’d been crying. His blue eyes were ringed with red and swollen. He had a cut on his forehead and blood dripped onto his eye. He didn’t blink.

Instantly, I was in tears. Something terrible had happened. Something awful! Slowly, I stood up. I grabbed the shirt Caleb had left and pulled it on over my head. We had to go, and it was going to be up to me to get us out. I scrambled for a pair of pants and found a pair of Caleb’s boxers instead.

Caleb never moved.

“Caleb?” I whispered and came a little closer. His mouth turned down briefly, like he’d been about to cry, but then his face returned to a catatonic state. “You’re scaring me, Caleb. Please, say something,” I sobbed.

Tears fell from his open eyes.

It was more than I could bear to see him in so much pain and not know why. I rushed forward and wrapped my arms around him. “Please, Caleb! Wake the fuck up!”

His weight collapsed on top of me and we fell. As I lay flat on my back, Caleb pulled me close and released an agonized wail into my chest. The sound terrified me and I wrapped my arms around him, holding him as tight as he held me. It was all I could do. His entire body trembled and shook with the force of his gut-wrenching sobs. I felt like a knife was buried in my intestines and someone kept turning the blade. The only thing I could do to keep from screaming was hold him.

My hand shook as I stroked his hair. “Shh, Caleb. Shh. It’s okay. Whatever it is, it’s okay.” I sobbed when he pulled me tighter and tried to bury himself deeper into my chest.

His hair was stiff and brittle – gritty with sand.

He’s been digging. He’s covered in blood.

“Shh, baby,” I whispered and kept stroking Caleb’s hair. He was barely allowing me to breathe, he gripped me so tightly. “Whose blood is this?”

I felt him shaking his head, fast, angry. He accidentally nudged my chin and I winced. “Okay. It’s okay. I don’t need to know.”