Page 37 of Hate Me

But then I was jolting at the name flashing on my screen.

Fuck me.

Caspian.

It was him.

After all this fucking time, he was contacting me.

Out of the blue.

That didn’t even cover it actually.

It had been so long.

I opened the text.

Caspian: There’s a situation that requires your expertise and influence. Skylar has been found. She’s on a rampage. A personal touch is required. My presence will antagonize her and be seen as a threat to her current crusade. Bastian isn’t ready. Has to be you. Confirm and I’ll send you the coordinates and further details. Classified details, Caleb. Not for my replacement’s ears.

“Everything all right?” Ash asked, pulling me from the shock of it all.

It took me a few seconds to utter a response and fortunately when I did, it at least came out steady. “Not exactly, but I’ll deal with it later.”

“Deal with what?”

Of course he wouldn’t just accept that. He was all about the details. “It’s nothing to do with any of this.”

“Is there a problem at one of your rehabilitation facilities?”

“No, nothing like that. I’ve got the best of the best running the show there. This is something else. Cas needs a word. In person.”

“Caspian King? Your former flame?”

“I wouldn’t put it exactly like that, but, yes, it’s him.”

Former flame. Cas would never be my former anything. That was just in a painfully paused state. And as for him being my flame, he was so much more than that.

“Go.”

I jolted at Ash’s response. “What? No. We’re not done here.”

“You can be. You’ve done more than enough already, stayed way beyond what I expected you to.”

What the—what was happening? “Is this about me breaking our agreement over Jonah? Honestly, that wasn’t planned, or—”

“You needed it, I get it. Believe me. We’re solid, Cal. After everything you’ve done, how you’ve helped me, it could never be any other way. If King needs you then it’s got to be urgent and, no doubt, dire. He never reaches out for help like this.”

“Especially not to me,” I grunted.

He could’ve found me, he obviously had, seeing as though he was contacting me now like this. But aside from once in two fucking years, he’d never called, never tried to make contact. He’d just… left me to my own devices. So, no, he didn’t reach out for help, he didn’t reach out for anything anymore. Except this right now.

“Exactly. We’ve got it from here.” Asher smiled. “Get out while you can, brother.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’ll head out in a few. Let’s finish this first.”

“All right.” Asher turned and looked out at the others. “We have the makings of a strategy, let’s work on the details.”

It was all I could do to keep my focus and not split it between this and the mind-fuck that was Cas contacting me like this, not to mention, the reason behind it.

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