Page 100 of Ricochet
“Thank you.”
“Those shadows can’t touch you when I’m with you,” I tell him again, holding him a little tighter.
He nods. “I don’t belong to them anymore. I belong to you.”
“That’s right, baby.”
I think Callum and Iboth slept like fucking babies after our fun in the middle of the night. Neither of us wanted to wake up when my alarm went off in the morning. I ended up snoozing it at least half a dozen times.
We may have gotten a later start than I wanted, but we’re finally on the road now.
The sun is peeking over the tree-covered hills in the distance as I drive along the backroad that’ll lead to Callum’s surprise. After I turned off the main highway and refused to tell him where we were going, he spent the next five minutes grumbling.
It didn’t bother me. I’ve never been fucking happier.
He’ll be just as happy soon too.
He met my mom this morning, which I wasn’t expecting. She had come home at some point in the middle of the night to grab a couple hours of sleep and a quick breakfast before heading back to the hospital. It was fine because Callum and I needed to get going, and I would’ve felt bad cutting time with her short. I promised her we’d be back to visit soon.
Callum must be finished sulking because he turns to me with a grin and says, “You know, you and your sister are kind of like Batman and Alfred.”
I snort. “Really?”
“Yeah. You’re my Dark Knight. You even have the Batmobile, and she runs the Batcave.”
“Does that make you Robin?”
He scoffs. “Nah. Robin’s cool, but he doesn’t have superpowers like I do.”
Reaching across the center console, I grab his hand and squeeze it. Just for the simple fact that I already miss touching him. “Yeah, you’re way cooler than Robin.”
A few minutes later, after driving through the middle of nowhere for a while, I pull into a dirt driveway partly concealed by trees and brush. The car jostles over dirt and rocks for nearly half a mile before a wooden cabin comes into view. It’s small, only one bedroom and one bathroom. The lake behind it, however, stretches on for miles.
Callum leans forward in his seat. “That’s the cabin from the photo hanging over your fireplace.”
“It was my granddad’s,” I explain. “He passed it down to my dad, and my dad passed it down to me. It transferred to my name when I was eighteen. The land is probably worth more than the cabin, but I have a lot of good memories here.” I put the car in park and stare up at the cabin in front of us. “My dad used to bring me out here to go fishing. It’s so quiet. No one around for miles.” I peer at him and let my gaze rake over his body as I bite my lip. “No one around to hear you scream.”
Or anyone else for that matter.
I laugh at the way Callum’s cheeks flush. Shutting off the engine, I grab a bag out of the backseat, then get out of the car while he does the same.
“So what are we doing here?” he asks as we meet in front of the car. “Going fishing?”
Grabbing his hand again, I pull him to me and give him a kiss. “I already caught the fish. It’s time to fillet it.”
His eyes brighten, and I know I want to keep making him happy like this for the rest of my life.
When we step inside thecabin, the first thing I see is thefishthat Stone caught.
The man is tied to a chair in the middle of the living area with plastic sheets on the floor beneath him. Just like I had been in Stone’s apartment not so long ago.
He’s dirty and bloody, his jeans ripped. His short hair is sticking up in all directions, and there’s duct tape over his mouth. A trail of dried blood goes from his nose and over the tape to his chin. His head lolls to one side, his eyes closed.
“When did you do this?” I ask.
Stone comes up behind me, his hands on my waist as he leans in. “Last night after you fell asleep the first time. I was only gone a couple hours.”
As he starts placing feathering kisses below my ear and down the side of my neck, the man in the chair groans. His eyelids flutter. When he spots us, his eyes fly wide open, and his spine jerks up straight.