Page 10 of The Devil’s Bargain (A Devil to Die for #3)

“Cal!”

Calix turned at the sound of his name, just about to exit the hospital.

He’d spent a good hour there with Mercy for lunch—again—and was eager to get back to the station.

A few minutes ago, he’d received word they’d gotten another case, and there was something about it that his team wanted to speak with him about in person.

“Hey!” Nero jogged up to him, grinning, appearing for all the world like a guy who’d run into an old friend.

If Cal really tried, he could still recall the squeal of his tires and the hard thumping sound Nero’s body made when he hit him with his hovercar all those years ago.

A few months ago, Nero had returned and met with him.

The two of them had talked things out, and Calix had been under the assumption it was finally settled between them.

Over. Done. So, for the life of him, he couldn’t figure out why Nero was here now, standing before him, slightly out of breath, looking happy to see him.

He’d broken the guy's spine, after all.

Didn’t really seem like the type of thing someone really got over.

“Hi,” he tried his best to sound light, not sure if he succeeded.

“I heard you came back from your trip,” Nero smiled at him. “I’ve been meaning to visit you at the station, but life has been a bit hectic lately.”

“Oh?” Why would Nero want to visit him? They’d never been friends.

Was…this how people became friends? Calix had always been good at casual connections, but he’d never gone from a hate relationship to wanting to be close to another person. If he were Nero, he’d want nothing to do with the guy who’d bedridden him for nearly a decade.

“Yeah, my checkups have been going well though,” his old classmate continued, unaware of the confusion brewing in Calix’s mind.

“Actually, I’m here to meet with Titus Mercer.

Since he was the one in charge of me back then.

Figured it can’t hurt to get his opinion now that I’m supposedly fully healed. ”

“Mercy agreed to meet with you?” Why hadn’t he told Cal anything about that? Hell, he’d literally just come from his First’s office…

“Mercy? Oh.” Nero gave him an odd look. “Is that a nickname? I didn’t realize you two were close.”

“It’s a fairly new development,” Cal rushed to explain, not wanting him to get the wrong idea and start to wonder if Mercy had rigged the test results, and his testimony, all those years ago.

Especially since he had, in fact, done those things.

For Calix.

Even back then, he’d done a lot for Cal.

So there had to be a reason he hadn’t brought up Nero’s appointment.

“Does he have something to do with you sticking around?” Nero jabbed him lightly with his elbow and waggled his brow teasingly. “I was surprised when I heard you’d quit the agency. Homesick after all this time?”

“Nothing like that.” Calix had hated living on this planet when he’d been younger.

If not for Aodhan and Mercy, there wasn’t a chance in hell he’d choose to come back to this place and settle down.

But for them? Maybe even thanks to them, he was getting a chance to hit the refresh button.

Learning to love the place he’d once held in contempt.

“I actually have to get back to the station now.”

“Of course.” Nero clapped him on the back, chuckling awkwardly when he finally seemed to catch onto Cal’s unease.

“Sorry, I just thought…Well, our situations are a lot alike, aren’t they?

We’re both returning home, and we’re starting new…

Navigating all of that is a lot, and it’d be nice if I had someone I could relate to. ”

Calix frowned.

“I know I was shitty to you in the past,” Nero continued. “But I’m hoping you’re willing to put it all behind us and start again.” He held out a hand. “Friends?”

Cal hesitated. Making peace was the smart move here, and yet… “Wouldn’t it be best if we really put the past behind us and went our separate ways?”

“Ouch.” He didn’t lower his hand. “Come on. I was an asshole to you, you hit me with your car…Aren’t we even now?

I’m just asking for the two of us to get along, maybe hang out now and again.

To be honest,” he took a step closer, voice lowering, “no one here really gets me. They don’t understand what I’ve been through.

They keep pushing me to pick things back up where they left off, as though eight years haven’t come and gone.

I don’t know about you, but I’m not the same person I was at eighteen. ”

“No,” Calix found himself agreeing, “me either.”

“Exactly.”

Cal’s multi-slate chimed, and he saw Mitri’s name pop up on the screen.

“How about it?” Nero insisted. “Tonight? Let’s grab drinks at Fair Ground when you’re off work?”

Shit.

“Sure.” Calix didn’t have time to waste on this anymore, and without a good reason to reject him, went along with it in the end.

* * *

“Cheers.” Nero clanked his glass against Cal’s in the bar they’d both been too young to hang out at as teens. It was a popular location, in a busy part of town, and was filling with people getting off work, stopping by for a drink or a quick meal before heading home for the evening.

Admittedly, Calix had been a bit suspicious when he’d gotten the invite, but now that he was here…

“The burgers are pretty good.” Nero held up the menu. “You still like them with extra pickles?”

“I—” Calix stared at him. “Yeah.”

He chuckled and motioned the bartender over, placing orders for both of them.

“You’re wondering how I know how much you like pickles.

That’s not all I know. You always chugged a canned coffee before first period—Smithy’s, the cheapest in the convenience store down the road from school at the time.

At lunch, you waited for everyone else to buy food so you could get the items left over, since those were usually the lowest priced. ”

“Um…What’s going on?”

“Do you remember the pork buns that started showing up in your locker after fourth period?”

Was Cal drunk already? After three sips?

“That was me,” Nero finished sheepishly.

“What?” He shook his head dumbly. “Why?”

At first, he’d refused to eat the food, but by the end of the first week, hunger had won out over his pride.

His allowance from Sister Grace was meager, and he’d been saving every spare coin for college.

While he’d never discovered who’d been leaving the expensive buns, he’d figured it was one of his closer friends, feeling sorry for him.

Not that he’d been all that close with anyone, now that he had the perspective of age.

“I liked you, duh.” Nero chugged half his beer. “I know that sounds crazy, after everything. But that’s the truth. That’s why I freaked out when I realized you were sleeping with—”

“Don’t,” Cal stopped him, then cleared his throat when that made Nero flinch. Damn it. “It wasn’t consensual, okay?”

Nero’s eyes went wide. “Holy shit! Really?! Calix, I am so sorry! Fuck. No wonder you got mad enough to hit me with your car!”

“Keep it down.” He glanced around them, but no one seemed to be paying them any mind.

Which was kind of ironic, all things considered. If this had been nine years ago, everyone in here would be staring, whispering about them.

About Cal.

“Look, I was a shitty kid who didn’t know how to deal with my jealousy issues,” Nero told him.

“I treated you like trash—no, worse than trash, but I meant everything I said when we met earlier this year, and this afternoon at the hospital. I really do hope we can put it all behind us and start fresh.”

Right, this afternoon, when Nero had been going to an appointment with Mercy that Cal hadn’t been read in on. He guzzled his beer and motioned for another, stopping the bartender at the last second and ordering something stronger instead.

“Want one?” he offered Nero, who nodded. As soon as their glasses were filled, he downed that and requested another.

“Whoa, slow down,” Nero suggested. “Man, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”

“It’s not you.” Another irony, because it really wasn’t. “Although I do think I should clarify something, just to be sure.”

“Okay, yeah. Of course.”

“I’m in a relationship.” They hadn’t really made themselves public yet, but that was something Calix was gearing up toward. He’d yet to mention it to either Aodhan or Mercy, but he was done hiding in the shadows. He wanted to live out in the open, unapologetically.

He also didn’t want it to be so easy for other people to make the moves on what was his.

They’d tricked him into this whole thing, into accepting the connection. They didn’t get to keep stuff from him now that they had him. Meeting with Nero behind his back? What the hell?

“Oh.” Nero held up his hands. “Oh, no. I mean, I get I just confessed for back when we were young and stupid, but I swear I’m not coming onto you. I have a girlfriend, remember? I mentioned her before.”

That was right…Calix vaguely recalled.

“I was just making sure,” he said.

“No, I totally get it.” Nero held up his glass for another cheers, sighing in relief when Cal complied. “So...friends?”

“Yeah.” Friends.

Friends got to visit each other’s houses and meet significant others, didn’t they?

Calix downed another two drinks, plan already in motion.

He really was a glutton for punishment.

Especially Mercy and Aodhan’s particular brand of it.