Chapter 29: Chapter 29

NICOLE

HE DIDN’T KILL ANYONE. HE DIDN’T SAY A FUCKING THING right after I grew some balls and challenged him knowing very fucking well, he got pissed when he didn’t have control.

I did it for me, taking that job meant finally doing something useful in my life. Not gonna lie with a father like mine I never had to work a single day of my life because daddy dearest made sure I didn’t and as such I lived in a bubble.

A bubble that hadn’t prepared me to face the demons in the real world like Lucas.

The other part of me the one that still craved family and love might have argued that I did this to make him jealous, that I did this to bring Callan and I together which I must admit was selfish to my boys but the heart wanted what it wanted.

Even if what it wanted was a six feet hunk of muscle that would rather eat bullets for breakfast than forgive me for everything.

“Two chocolates each or else it’s broccoli for supper. Oh God, I’m going to miss you two, come here”, I knelt on our carpeted living room pulling them for a hug and kissing the top of their heads.

“Mommy”, Jr whined trying to pull away from me but I held him tight.

“We are big boys”, Connor tugged at my shoulder and were it not for the fact that I had make up on I would be shedding tears right this instant.

“You are my babies”, I cooed parting from them to give them the warning gaze.

“No shenanigans”, I kissed them again.

Standing up straightening the black dress I had ironed stressfully yesternight while scolding myself over and over as to why I kissed Callan, I stared at the wall separating the living room and the kitchen.

“Callan is in the garage. Do you want to kiss him goodbye too, I’ll call him”, Connor’s brown eyes lingered on me and I shot him a fast ‘no’.

“Why does he get a kiss from mommy?” Jr jeered; his hands crossed on his lightning mc queen t-shirt that read ‘need for speed’.

While Connor and Callan were making progress, Jr and him were still at loggerheads and maybe this was a good thing. Without their mommy being around all the time maybe Callan would have enough time with the kids enough to assure them he was their father and a good one at that.

Even though he was a big asshole in refusing to actually act on what it was he felt.

I didn’t need my sons to tell me how he looked like this early morning, I could probably see it all in my head.

Callan with a tank top that looked like it would rip from his body any second, that eminent scowl on his face when things didn’t go his way and let me guess he was probably loading and reloading his precious guns trying to promise himself that was the last time he would ever kiss me.

I had started this game and God knew I was scared to the very tip of my toes but if the big monkey didn’t want to see what was right in front of him—which was me and the kids, his family…

Then I would have to resort to measures I didn’t think thirty-one-year-old me would be doing.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Leonard Arkinson was something alright.

I could have glossed over the fact that he had picked me up from my house on my very first day of work but actually seeing where he worked?

Now that was fucking something and I had seen a lot being the mayor’s daughter in Miami and all.

While this little town resembled your average town with diners at every corner, a sheriff making daily rounds across town, an old church and the only church what Leonard had done to town hall was okay-ish for a man that looked like a rookie playboy trying to fuck for the first time.

By the time we reached my little station I could see why most women looked like they were constipating when Leo flew smiles at them and I get it…had I never met Callan maybe I would have swooning at my boss’s smug face and golden cufflinks that screamed mannerism and power.

“I hope this isn’t much for you”, Leo’s voice came behind me and I tucked the wisps of hair from my face gawking at my office.

Come on, this was…grand for a secretary.

A floor length wooden book shelf with a few engravings on the side stood on one side of the room. Stacked to the brim with books I was sure I would never have time to read. There was a mini fridge too, a cooling fan, a big ceramic vase with a plant that at least looked like a mini palm tree and finally my desk.

My desk stationed next to a window with shut drapes.

“You have to be kidding me”, I said hanging on to my purse like it was my support.

“Is that a good sign or a bad one? We can take the potted plant away, my last secretary was a bit of a florist, loved plants and every with them”

I turned around to face Leo barely containing my excitement.

“This is…too much for a secretary. I mean I’ll only be answering calls and that I can assure you doesn’t need all these”

Construing my reaction with a sloppy smile, Leo’s hand landed on my forearm.

“Trust me Nicole, you’ll be doing more than answering calls. After all you do work for the mayor and that comes with a lot of baggage. Glad to have you on the team, I guess I’ll leave you to it”

Leo meant well but I just couldn’t help taking a few baby wipes from my purse and rubbing the spot he had touched like it icked me.

Lucas had ruined anything associated with touch for me and maybe made me conscious of my body, I don’t fucking know.

And with Callan? I had kissed him; I had felt good when he touched me and did that mean I was healing?

“Church picnics, sign the mayor up but not invitations to sermons”, Polly explained.

“Why?”

“Pastor Pete invites the mayor to sermons only to call him out for his actions in front of a whole congregation and we can both agree that does not exactly create a good picture especially if he’s planning on getting reelected”, she paused running to my door to shut it all the way,” don’t tell anyone I told you this but I suppose you should know given the fact that you’ll be working with us.

Pastor Pete’s daughter, the one with the freckles allegedly had a thing for the mayor. Leo shut down her advances like a bug getting choked by bug spray”, she laughed in that cynical way villains did.

I laughed faintly with her. Asking help from co workers was a big fucking mistake. Especially if the said co workers were the sought of women who wore tight plaid skirts, a blouse opened at the collar that showed jiggly boobs and somehow had a crush on your boss.

“And the pastor has been mean to the mayor ever since”

“Got it, ignore the pastor’s calls for as long as I can”

God, I needed a sandwich, maybe grilled cheese, maybe some air to breathe from the leech that had occupied my office since I first got here?

She clapped her perfectly manicured hands.

“We are going to get along just fine especially because you are married”

Especially because I wasn’t a threat to her and whatever relationship she had with Leo.

“Thanks for the help, Polly”

She left a few minutes later and I was already up on my feet opening the mini fridge with a growling stomach.

Water. It had only a bottle of water. Oh, kill me.

Polly had been here since morning then past my lunch break and with the way her legs ran all day, I doubt she needed food, she looked like the sort that prioritized dieting more than anything in the world.

Well, that and Botox because there was no way her forehead was that perfect.

If I tried maybe I would make it all the way to that diner that I saw on my way here before the damn telephone on my desk rung.

I spoke too soon when the sound of a cell ringing reverberated inside my office.

Except that wasn’t the telephone…

I took a few paces to my chair.

The ringing was coming from my purse?

I didn’t own a phone. Not in a long time, I hadn’t.

Taking my bag wearily, I rummaged through my stuff finding the thing at the bottom of my purse well stashed between my tampons.

A burner phone?

Callan fucking Asher, you sly dog.

I picked up without looking at the damn number.

“You sneaked a phone in my purse?”

He didn’t speak.

I could hear him breathe from the end of the line.

“Callan, I know it’s you”

“Rule number one about taking unknown calls, never speak first”

“I’m hanging up”

“You didn’t eat”, his velvety voice soared into my ears and I blinked.

How did he know I didn’t…suddenly I was inching towards my window scouring my eyes on the bushes outside.

I wouldn’t be surprised if he was lurking in the bushes spying on me like some sort of Rambo with a rifle in hand.

“I’m not in the bushes Nicole”, he accused, his voice hard.

Holding the phone against my ear I moved away from my window,

“Did you bug this place? Oh God did you put one of your little cameras in here?”

“You never answered my question”

I screeched into the phone, “You never asked a damn question!”

I advanced to the book shelves. When would he even get time to install cameras in here, town hall was the safest place in this town. It held the office of the fucking mayor and security was tight.

So tight.

“Is he forcing you to do something you don’t want to?”

If it were another man saying that I would have simply laughed it off with ‘you’re delusional’ but this was Callan.

The man who would flay someone to death and later send said someone’s intestines to his parents in a gift bag.

“Leo is not forcing me to do—”

“Leo? You two are on a first name basis now? I fucking thought he was your boss”

“What do you want me to call him? Sir?” hungry, exhausted. I taunted just for the fun of it, “or should I call him daddy?”

I heard him growl from the other end of the line.

“Call him daddy and I’ll fucking castrate him before he even thinks of sinking his dick in you”

It was a slip of the tongue and yet I heard it. I heard him.

“What—is that supposed to mean?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if you took a liking to him. Shit, men like him are your—”

“Are my type? Is that how little you think of me? That just because I made a mistake with Lucas and betrayed you that I’m ready to hop on the next guy that wags his dick at me—”

“Shit, that’s not what I fucking meant and you know—”

“Deactivate the cameras Callan!” I heaved.

“I can’t do that”

“Fine”, I huffed with frustration and so so much rage.

“Fine what? Talk to me, damn it”

“Either you deactivate your stupid cameras or you are out of the house tonight”

He laughed like it was nothing and I understood it was nothing because it was his house and I couldn’t kick him out even if I wanted to.

But he didn’t understand that, he didn’t understand that his statement hurt me, that his damn cameras stretched the rift between us even farther.

Him putting cameras here meant he thought I would sleep with another man, as if he was waiting to prove for a fact that I would betray him given the chance.

His voice turning neutral, he grunted,

“Guess I’m sleeping in the garage tonight”