Page 114 of Tracked
He was leaving. Without me.The very thing he promised not to do.
Like. Hell. He. Was.
I stormed out from the bedroom, grabbing my bag from where it was neatly placed on the table like I was just supposed to take my things, leave a tip for good dick, and see myself out. I dug inside for the folded check I’d brought with me and filled it in for $50,000.
Sure enough, I stepped outside to the very worst of my assumptions.
Calder, dressed in his tracking uniform of dark-green pants, a black jacket, and utility boots, packing camping gear into the bed of his truck. His running truck. And for a second, the only emotion that consumed me was regret.
Regret that he was only mine for a night. Regret that I’d turned all the words he’d said to mewhile we were undercoverinto trophies. Into marks of meaning on my heart. And regret that I could look at him now, watching him in the process of leaving me, and still wish I could have just a little more time with him.
It didn’t take him long to realize I was there. Survival instinct and all that.
“Lara.” His low greeting sent a traitorous hum through my veins as his eyes raked over me.Like he had X-ray vision to all those marks he’d left on me.And it made my heart angrier.
“You found her. You know where the cult is.” They weren’t questions.
“Yes.”
A cocktail of emotions too potent to describe injected into my veins.
“How dare you?” I handed him the tone I reserved for only the gravest of reprimands in the hospital, where a repeated mistake could risk a patient’s life.
“Excuse me?”
His calmness aggravated me. I strode close enough for my head to fog for a second when the scent of strong coffee and masculine musk hit my nostrils. I quickly shook it off and banded my arms over my chest, a barricade against breathing him in too deep.
“What was your plan? Fuck me into a coma so I wouldn’t notice when you left me behind to find Rachel?” I barked out a laugh. “Imean, I heard you when you said you wouldn’t do anything to put me in danger. I guess it’s my own fault for not realizing there would ever be a scenario where you could justify fucking someone to keep them safe.”
His stillness made my skin prickle. The smooth flow of his breath. The unwavering hook of his gaze. But the flex of his jaw—that spelled out in Morse code that I’d struck a nerve. Or several.
Methodically, Calder turned and shut the tailgate on his truck, the latch sliding into place like a loaded gun. And then he was in front of me, his steadiness swallowing me up and holding me prisoner.
“Who said I was leaving without you?”
My heart tripped over a pebble of hope. “You didn’t have to say it. What was your rule? Track the person, not their footprints? You left me asleep in your bed. Clothes, coffee, and my bag waiting for me for whenever I woke up. Meanwhile, you’re dressed and loading up your gear. I have to assume you’ve heard from your brother. That you know where Rachel is. So unless you were planning on hooking up the Airstream and literally hauling me along with you ...”
He inched closer until his chest brushed my arms. “I was planning on letting you sleep for as long as I could while I got everything ready. You were exhausted after last night.”
My mouth dried, a new kind of regret starting to seep in.
“I grabbed a pair of Colby’s hiking boots for you and brought the rest of your things from the house because I knew you’d want to leave as soon as possible,” he said, his gaze unwavering. “And because if I stayed until you woke, we wouldn’t have left that bed today.”
Butterflies swept through my stomach like a fluttering hurricane. “So you weren’t leaving without me?” I said, not trying to hide the huskiness in my voice.
He cupped my cheek, the tender touch turning dominating as that hold slid to my neck. “I promised you I wouldn’t.”
There was something quite unbreakable about a promise made by Calder Stone.
Heat flooded my cheeks, and I felt like an ass. A vulnerable ass. My arms lowered to my sides, taking with them the last holds on my defenses.
“You also said you’d do anything to keep me safe.”
I didn’t know what to make of his soft laugh, and I didn’t have much time to think about it because he grabbed my arm and lifted my hand up—the one holding the check. Air sucked into my lungs as he peeled apart my fingers and pulled free the crushed paper.
His nostrils flared as soon as he saw what it was.
“Calder—” I stopped when a lighter appeared in his other hand, a flame sparking.
