Page 111 of Crave Me

Skylar came to me and took my hands in hers, smiling up at me with those beautiful beaming emerald eyes. “And yet some things haven’t. And they never will.”

“The four of us,” Bastian clarified, just in case.

“Exactly,” Skylar said. “We’re here for each other. A family. Whatever you need, however we can help you reacclimate, we’re here, okay? Always, Caleb.”

“I know, darling. I know.” I pulled her against me and wrapped my arm around her. “I missed you. Fucking missed you so much. Missed being here with you all.”

The next thing I knew, Bastian was right there wrapping himself around the both of us. “Never again, all right? Never are you going anywhere again like that.”

“Neither of us, B.”

“Damn fucking straight, neither of you,” Skylar said, grasping us more tightly.

I looked out to see Cas hesitating on whether to make physical contact with me.

“It’s fine, Cas. I’m fine.”

He didn’t move. He didn’t fucking believe me.

“Fuck, Caspian,” I grunted.

“You just offered to use yourself as bait. You’re not fine.”

Skylar looked between us. “We all need to take a beat. Caleb needs time to sink back into being here and being free of that nightmare. You need time to heal. I know you’re going to want to be at the forefront of our takedown of those maniacs and you can’t do that when you’re injured and not at your best. I’m not just talking physically either, you’ve been struggling Caspian. We all have, but the burden has been greatest on you. So we take some time to recuperate before we pursue Jeremy and Elijah and what now appears to be their mercenary allies. Once we’re back on solid ground, we’ll do it together. And that’s how we’ll win.”

Bastian reached out and stroked her hair, staring at her in starry-eyed wonder.

Fuck, I was right there with him there.

“You’ve come a long way, beautiful. A hell of a long way.”

“Well, like I told you before all of this happened, I’m all in.”

“All right,” Caspian said, a smile forming in spite of everything. “That’s what we’ll do.”

23

~Dante Mancini~

“Luke told me I would find you down here.”

Caspian spun on his rolling chair at the command center.

I didn’t care for what I was seeing from him.

His hair was a wild mess, he was wearing a pair of rumpled dress pants and an open white shirt rolled up to his elbows, the same precise outfit I’d seen him dressed in two days ago. His eyes were bloodshot, and he had a manic look in his eyes.

Those eyes that looked so much like Bianca’s.

It was both a knife in my heart and a spark of hope.

A knife because she was no longer here with me and never would be again. But a spark of hope because she lived on in part through our son.

Our son whom she never got to know.

And the man who was looking upon me now reminding me so much of the state I’d been in when I’d lost so much at my father’s hands a quarter of a century ago.

On the surface, it was determination that he was putting forth.

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