Deceptions (Evie Cortez Book 1)

Chapter 19

Chapter 19

There was nothing I could do but that didn’t stop me from wanting to go back to the house. Jared kept trying to ensure me Caleb knew what he was doing and the rest of the pack was near by but for some reason that wasn’t enough for me. My job was done, Jamie was back home except it felt uncompleted with Caleb still out there and probably in danger.

With my hands tied I honored Kevin’s wishes and let him finish working on me, my reward was being tricked and I think looking back on it Jared was involved. What I was told was a drug to help with the pain was really a sedative.

It was the best sleep I had gotten that week but when I woke there was nothing good about it. I jumped up and sent a nice wave of pain all through my bruised body. “Caleb.” The room was very dark and my vision was blurry with pain but I knew he was there. I placed my hand over my forehead  and tried to clear some of the fog.

I saw his eyes before I saw him, they were his wolf’s; a burning bright yellow. He stood from the chair he sat in and moved toward the bed. “What you did back there was careless.”

I was scared and nervous about seeing Caleb on the brink of losing his control to his wolf; I did not want to end up his dinner. “I’m still alive.” The way I saw it; no matter how bad my choices were I was still breathing.

He laid his warm hand flat on my cheek. “Barely.”

“Have you seen Jamie?” I had to keep talking or I’d let my fear became known and that would be a problem. The fearful were easier to prey on.

“Yes, she told me you were here. Jared explained how he tricked you into staying.” Caleb was acting like Caleb but his eyes were not his. Something was wrong.

“I knew he was in on it.” I said mindlessly and came to realize why Caleb looked tormented, why his wolf was staying present. He had killed his brother in order to insure he couldn’t use Jamie again. “Why did you come here?”

“To take you back home, you didn’t want to be here in the first place.” His hands slipped from my cheek and gripped my hand to help me up.

“No,” I agreed. “but the drugs are good.” I followed his lead and was careful not to do anything that would startle or challenge him. He didn’t speak on the ride to my place and I didn’t ask any questions. The first signs of morning began to show at the sky lightened and the street lights turned off. When he passed his house I noticed Jake’s car, he’d be keeping watch until Caleb was himself again.

He followed me inside to my place and that’s when everything broke loose. “I had too.” Caleb said tightly as he stood in the middle of my living room.

I stood a few feet in front of him. “I know.”

“It wasn’t the first time he tried to come after me and it wouldn’t be the last. He knew using Jamie was effective and he would’ve done it again.” His hands were tight fists at his side, his eyes shifted between his blue color and the wolf’s yellow. His brother was a rotten person but he was still family and no matter how cruel they were you always loved your family. This was eating at Caleb.

“I know.” I felt tears stinging my eyes as I watched his emotions growing.

Caleb’s voice dropped. “He was my brother. I don’t understand why he had the need to do any of this or why he thought he was better than me.”

“You are.” I snapped. “You don’t kidnap innocent children as leverage and you don’t force someone to work for you out of blackmail. I don’t know what happened between the two of you but he was wrong, not you.” I couldn’t stand there and let him berate himself over guilt he shouldn’t have. There was probably another way everything could’ve turned out but Nick made the choices that got the ball rolling, the fault laid with him. I sighed and took the chance of meeting his eyes. “He would’ve continued to hurt you until you gave him what he wanted and I believe if you didn’t he could’ve killed you.”

Caleb looked taken back; I guess that wasn’t what he expected me to say. “Thank you.” his eyes settled on blue. “For everything.”

I shrugged and brushed my hair behind my ear. “You’re welcome.” With nothing left to say he turned around and left the house. I stood there and listened as he drove away. What happened next? There was still so much I had to figure out in my own life that I put to the side when I agreed to work with Caleb. But it’d have to continue to wait. All I wanted to do was sleep off the rest of the sedative.

After a good three hour nap I woke up and took a long shower. It took awhile trying to get off the dry blood from my battle wounds without making it hurt worse. When I was as clean as I was going to get I left the bathroom in a towel to get dressed in my room. To my surprise my room wasn’t empty. “Hi, what are you doing here?” I asked, awkwardly.

“I came to check on you.” Jared said. “The front door was open and I thought something might be wrong.” He made no attempts to hide the fact he was checking me out, the towel revealed enough for him to look at.

“I’m fine. I forgot to lock it when Caleb left.”

He brought his focus back to the subject at hand and looked at my eyes not my legs. “How was he?”

“As ok as he can be right now.” I felt sad when I remembered how hurt Caleb had looked speaking about his ungrateful brother. It would take time for him to get on with his regular routine.

“He’s not talking much and he won’t mention last night. It’s all gone by the way, the house was burned down.”

“Good.” I hoped Caleb and Jamie would find closure and be able to move on. “I have to get dressed.”

“Why?” Jared asked with mock outrage at the horrible idea.

I smiled. I was growing to like his obvious sometimes very bad flirting. “Go before I have to cast a spell that will erase the memory of me in this towel from your memory forever.”

He gasped and I don’t think he was joking that time. “You can do that?”

I couldn’t but I wasn’t going to tell him that. “Do you want to risk it?”

“I’ll go but you’re not getting rid of me. We still have that date to discuss.” Jared tossed the words over his shoulder as he walked out of the room.

“I don’t date.”

“You do now!” he called back as he reached the bottom of the staircase. I should’ve known he heard what I said no matter how low I said it, he was a werewolf. I didn’t date and even if I did I certainly wouldn’t make the mistake of dating a werewolf or any type of supernatural again.