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They tug at me, but I hold on tighter as my heart breaks into small pieces.
Fox. The only friend I have in the world and this fucker tells me like this?
They finally yank me off. I raise my hands, surrendering to the strength of three men. They pull me away from him and Paxton’s fucking grin returns to his face.
“You’re lucky you’re out of here today, Fawn.” He smirks. “If you weren’t, I’d have to make quite the example out of you.”
His eyes slide down my body and it’s easy to read the meaning dripping off his words.
I jerk my arms free from their grasp and spin away from him to leave the tent. A small crowd gathered behind us and I push through them, driven to distance myself as far away from this moment as possible.
“Caleb?”
I pause near the barracks, completely blanking on how I got here in the first place.
Boxcar reaches out for me and he studies my face, cupping it softly to hold it up. “Whoa—” He looks over my shoulder at the dispersing crowd across the camp. “What’s going on?”
I try to look him in the eyes, but everything feels so heavy. Tears push through my throat, breaking through every attempt I make to hold them down.
“Fox…” I whisper.
Boxcar pulls me out of the sun and guides me back into the barracks. “Caleb, what happened?” he asks. He stops us and holds my face again. “Look at me.”
His face blurs. My gaze wanders over his shoulder, landing directly on Fox’s empty cot.
“Fox is gone…” I say it so softly even I can barely hear it. “His plane went down, and…”
Boxcar pulls me closer, tightening his embrace around me without a care for what it might mean to others.
“I’m sorry,” he whispers, his words stiff but powerful. “It’s going to be okay, Caleb.”
I shake my head, rejecting the very thought. “He…” My voice fails and I choke as tears fall from my eyes.
My knees give under me and Boxcar holds me tighter to guide me down to the floor. I cry into his chest and he repeats his words softly in my ear.
“It’s going to be okay, Caleb.”
Maybe someday I’ll believe that.
Chapter 23
Boxcar
Now
If pissing off Caleb Fawn were an Olympic event, I’d take home gold every single time.
Naturally, when it came time to do it on purpose, things went exactly as planned. So much so, in fact, that I can barely even hide the victory smile attacking my lips.
I look down at Caleb in my arms. She stares straight ahead out the windshield, watching as we ride closer and closer to Fox and Dani’s house. I nudge her chin to bring her face up to mine. Bright streetlights pass by the windows, illuminating her already stunning face with orange light. There’s a quiet anger behind her eyes, obviously, but I flash her my token, cocky smile. A hidden smirk made just for her.
Caleb blinks at me with suspicion and her face finally falls.
She gives me that look.
What the hell did you do, Box?
I tighten my arm around her and brush my lips against her forehead.
