Page 46 of Crave Me

Shit.

Asher had fired up my intel and we’d been able to determine two stops that the transport trucks had made after Elijah’s people had switched from the vans to them that night.

The first had seen the trucks idle in the middle of nowhere for a couple of hours, before then traveling two hundred miles away to another location. Asher had pulled up surveillance footage from a diner at a truck stop and confirmed the trucks had been left there. As for the location that they’d lingered at before, there was nothing in that area to pull up. It had literally been in the middle of nowhere. But it had been close to where Bastian’s pendant signal had started emitting from, so Caspian wanted to head down there to search for Caleb. He was really anxious that Bastian had managed to escape, yet Caleb hadn’t. So was I. It didn’t make sense, so something awful had obviously happened. We wouldn’t know what until Bastian woke up.

“Just give him a little more time,” I urged Caspian.

“Ten minutes and then I’m heading out, love. I can’t wait any longer. Caleb can’t.”

“I know,” I admitted. “Just… going there without knowing what happened, how Bastian got out but Caleb didn’t come with him, where exactly they were and the intel surrounding that… it’s a risk.”

“An acceptable one in order to bring Caleb back to us.”

I pushed off the bed and rounded it to him. “You could end up in the same situation, Caspian. You could be taken as well. Especially when you’ve refused to take Luke, Dante, or any of your teams with you.”

“They violated my command by circumventing me. They put you in danger by sending you out there beyond my protection.”

“If I hadn’t done that, we wouldn’t have this lead.”

He shook his head. “It could have been accomplished another way, a safer way that didn’t endanger you.”

“They were worried about your state of mind. I saw, Caspian, I saw what you did to that lieutenant of Elijah’s.”

He didn’t so much as flinch at me bringing up his horrific torture session, his brutal murder.

“I did what was necessary. And in order to bring Caleb back to us, I need to continue in that vein. Nothing can be off the table.”

“And that’s another reason why you’re insisting on doing this alone, isn’t it? So there won’t be anyone there to reel you in? So you can be as merciless and as sadistic as you like?”

“I’m not doing it alone. But those assisting me don’t have any qualms about crossing certain lines. They see things the same way as I do.”

Before I could continue to try to get through to him—as futile as that was proving to be—a hand landed on his shoulder a moment before Asher came into view. He was decked out just like Caspian. Oh God. Both Dante and Luke had warned me about Asher Monroe’s reputation earlier right after our gathering in The Jackals Lair. Him going along was absolutely going to feed the darkness and depravity that Caspian was currently embracing to its fullest.

Asher gave me a chin lift, then asked Caspian, “Ready to head out?”

Caspian held my gaze for a moment and there was a brief spark of hope there that he might actually listen to reason when he hesitated as he looked between me and Bastian.

But then he blinked and told Asher over his shoulder, “Ready.”

Rushed footsteps sounded a moment before Damien appeared, then brushed past Asher and Caspian, coming into the room for Bastian.

He walked to his sleeping form and stroked his arm. “It’s all gonna be fine, little bro.” He looked at me. “I talked to the doctor again and she said he’s gonna make a full recovery.”

“I know. She said any longer before he’d gotten treatment and it could’ve been a different story.”

“But it wasn’t. It’s all good, Bluebell.” He reached out and cupped my cheek in a comforting gesture that I really needed. Not long ago I never would have imagined accepting that from him, but things had shifted now. “And it will be a whole lot better once we bring Cal back.” He released me, then grinned at Asher and Caspian. “With me and these two badass motherfuckers on the case, you’ve got nothing to worry about.”

Caspian gave him a withering look, while Asher wasn’t appearing to pay attention at all, focusing on his phone, typing away.

“Just be careful, all right?” I urged him.

He pulled me into a hug and discreetly whispered in my ear, “I’ll take care of it like you asked. You’ve got my word.”

He was referring to a backup I’d put in place if Caspian didn’t heed my warnings and concerns about the dark path he was headed down. After my own struggle with it, I could see the signs all too well. I hadn’t needed those photos that Dante had taken to tell me. I’d already seen it all over him.

As we pulled apart, Damien told me, “Just take care of Seb, yeah? He’s gonna need you here when he wakes up.”

“I will.”

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