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“How good of friends?” The vision of what I’d found in that room made my stomach bottom out at telling him what she’d likely endured.
“Not like that. Really, we were simply friends. I didn’t lie that she met a guy. They met online, and she flew down to Florida to meet him for the first time. I didn’t like it. He seemed too perfect. I wanted to go with her. Of course, that didn’t go over well.” He huffed.
“I made her promise to call me every day. She told the guy I was her brother and I was worried about her. The first couple of days seemed like she was right. She told me he spoiled the hell out of her. Then she didn’t call, so I called her. He gave me some excuse. Same thing the next day. So I tried again later that day. Conveniently, she was always away from her phone. Something seemed incredibly off, so I looked into him. He was some car salesman at a small lot. No way he made the kind of money he was blowing on her. That’s when I found Scarlett through a friend.” He raked a hand through his dark hair, then picked up his cup but grimaced when he took a sip.
“What? Can’t actually drink anything other than blood?” I teased.
He rolled his eyes and snorted. “I can eat or drink anything I please, but that tastes like shit.”
My eyes narrowed on him, because I knew damn well he was a vampire. I lifted my cup and took a drink. “Oh, damn!” It tasted like burned sludge.
Calix smirked. “Told you. Not everything you’ve read about us is true.”
“Hmpf!” I crossed my arms.
“Now where is Eliska?” Calix asked as he leaned toward us.
“She decided to fly back to Iowa, and nothing we said could change her mind. We have another flight to catch,” Hawk told him as he pulled some cash out and dropped it on the table.
I reached for my pocket, but Hawk shook his head. “That’s plenty for three shitty cups of coffee and a decent tip.”
“I don’t understand why she didn’t know it would be me since we pretended I was her brother already,” Calix murmured with a worried frown.
“She’d been through a lot, and trust is likely nonexistent with her at this point. I doubt she thought about it,” Hawk explained with a sigh.
“I have a car. If you trust me, I can drive us to the airport,” Calix offered with a raised brow.
“Us to the airport?” I asked with a cocked brow.
“If you think I’m not going to see that Eliska is safe with my own two eyes, you’re out of your mind,” Calix insisted.
My gaze darted outside to the sunny day, then back to our old friend. He chuckled, pulled out a ball cap, and plopped it on his head. “Like I said, don’t believe everything you’ve heard.”
We followed him out to a Range Rover with dark-tinted windows. He hit the key fob and went around to the driver side. Hawk climbed in the front seat, and I took the back.
“Nice wheels,” I said, wondering how the hell he afforded it. He’d been a prospect with the shitty Bloody Scorpions when we met him. Not because he really wanted to join them, but he was trying to get close to them to find out more about their trafficking connections. He did something with missing kids and shit, if I remembered right.
“Thanks,” he replied with a grin.
Calix parked his vehicle in long-term parking, and we went into the airport where he purchased a ticket on our flight. It had to have cost him a small fortune.
Since our layover hadn’t been that long, we were boarding in no time. I checked my phone one last time before putting it in airplane mode.
The closer we got to home, the more anxious I became. Laila hadn’t called me yet, and I was worried. Surely, she was awake by then. I hoped when we landed that I’d have missed calls or text messages from her.
We caught another Uber from the airport.
Hawk had called ahead, so when we got to the clubhouse the gate was open. I was shocked to see a large section of our fence destroyed and a temporary one in its place. It seemed Venom had left a few details out of the story.
The prospect closed the gate, and we parked out front.
When we went inside, I glanced around for Laila, but she wasn’t in the common area.
There was a muffled shout as Eliska covered her mouth with both hands and jumped up from the table she’d been sitting at with Blade. She ran at Calix and threw herself in his arms. He spun her around, and I saw Blade’s eyes narrow as his chin moved back and forth in irritation.
I needed to tell him she wasn’t a girl for him to be messing with.
“How did you not know it was me?” Calix asked her. I missed his reply because something more important caught my attention.
“Lucian?” I heard softly, and I turned toward the hall to the rooms.
Then Laila was in my arms with her legs wrapped around my waist. I cradled her head against my shoulder as I held her tight.
That was all it took. All was right in the world in that moment.
“We’ll be back,” I said as I carried her, clinging to me like a spider monkey, back to our room.
The mission might’ve been successful, but I had some adrenaline I needed to work off.
