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I did. But not before I knelt and snatched Macy’s key card from the ice, pocketing it and running after Maddox, not sure what the hell we were even running to.
Chapter 20
Family Meeting
Maddox
I ran toward the sound of the explosions, only realizing as we reached the lobby that they weren’t explosions at all, just booming fireworks that had been shot in from the street. A few still crackled out of the boxes that they’d been launched from. Next to the boxes, protesters were being held down by a group of Center employees while someone called for the Enforcers to show up. Caleb was close to my side, Macy nowhere to be seen.
“We have to go,” I said, Caleb still wearing that silly wig and pulling a chuckle from me.
“What? What—oh. Hah.” He swiped the wig off his head and tossed it onto the counter. “Let’s go.”
We hurried past the protestors shouting for the cult to be shut down just as white-robed Enforcers appeared on the scene, hopping out of a white-and-black vehicle, the horizontal stripe of diamond flashing red and purple. One glanced in my direction, but I kept my head down and my pace up, turning down a side street and away from all the chaos that had spilled out of the Center of Betterment.
What a load of fucking shit.
“You okay?” I asked Caleb, looking him over once we got a chance to catch our breaths. “I didn’t want to get recognized or held back by anyone. I thought it was best we just bolted.”
“That was the best move. It got messy back there. Sorry my illusions dropped at the end,” Caleb said, scratching the back of his head and dropping his gaze.
I put my hand under his chin and lifted his head back up. “You did incredible. They wouldn’t have let me in without you. When has a dragon ever joined that shit? Seriously, you did amazing.” I smiled and leaned in for a kiss. “In fact, I think you’ve earned a reward.”
“Really?” His smirk got cocky. He reached into his pocket. Oh, I was thinking we’d wait until we got back to the castle, but if he wanted me to cop a feel now, then?—
“What’s that?” I asked as he pulled out a white rectangular card instead of his juicy and uncut dick.
Damn.
“It’s the key card Macy used in the Center. I grabbed it when she fell on the ice.”
I grabbed his face in my hand and kissed him again, pressing my body to his. “You’re a genius, Caleb. We can use that to get around now. Come. Let’s go back to the castle, and we can regroup. Talk about everything and figure out how we’re getting those paintings.”
“Perfect,” Caleb said, smiling. He looked down at the bag in my other hand. “I thought you lost that.”
“This?” I asked. I huffed out loud and started walking to where I parked my car. “You think I’m leaving behind a double-sided dildo before I get to use it on you and me? Fuck no.”
The red that flushed up Caleb’s neck was delicious, making me instantly hard and hungry.
The castle was a hive of activity when we got back to it. We were first greeted by a flustered Warrick, who was running through the main hall after a soaking wet Bambi, the saber cat clearly having given him the slip fresh out of the bath and deciding she needed to dry off using nothing but the air blowing through her calico fur. The two nearly ran into a sweaty Xavier, who held a basketball under his arm and was chatting with an absolutely not-sweaty Robby. There was someone else with them too.
Benjamin. The vampire who turned Robby. A good family friend. And one of my ex-boyfriends.
He’d been one of those I trusted the most out of all my exes, the only relationship I really had after I was left at the altar, looking like a dumb fuck with my heart in my hands when I’d much rather it have been my dick.
Still, it wasn’t meant to be. We clicked more as friends than as lovers, where emotions would sometimes spiral for reasons that were sometimes invalid but most times not.
So we broke things off and decided to remain good friends. We were both mature, grown men, and we understood that life didn’t always lead down the expected paths. It helped to know that Ben had been seriously dating someone recently; although I had yet to meet the guy, he seemed like he made Ben happy, and that’s really all that mattered.
Still, introducing Ben to Caleb was slightly awkward.
“Great to meet you,” Ben said, smiling wide, clearly understanding that there was more than a working relationship between us.
“Good meeting you too,” Caleb replied and volleyed back with a smile just as wide.
