Page 49 of Crave Me

My hands tightened around the steering wheel. “No,” I ground out. “I’m a big advocate for self-expression, being liberated, and embracing your true self. But there do need to be boundaries and limits or absolute chaos will ensue, control will be lost.”

“Jeez, the number of times I’ve heard some variation of that over the years… I’ve lost fucking count,” Damien’s voice came from the backseat.

Hell. I’d been doing so well pretending he wasn’t here.

He’d been quiet up until now playing a game on his phone. It was actually a callback to old times when he’d been a member of The Jackals and he’d do that on our way to a job to center himself, as he’d called it. To be in the zone to punish and destroy was what I’d called it. Things had really come back around lately, because now I wanted that from him again.

Asher eyed him over his seat. “You’re an extreme case, one that enforced this intensely controlled approach for Caspian.”

“An extreme case, huh? You flirting with me, hot stuff?”

“You’d know if I was, believe me.”

In my rearview mirror, I saw Damien lick his lips at him. “Can’t wait.”

“Don’t hold your breath,” Asher said as he tossed the butt of his cigarette out the window, then rolled it back up.

“Yeah? Why’s that?”

“You couldn’t handle me, sweetheart.”

“You’d be surprised.”

“I doubt that.”

Damien sat forward in his seat. “What—”

“Enough,” I growled. “Let’s focus.”

“We have twenty minutes before we arrive,” Damien argued. As per usual.

Asher turned to me. “As I was saying, when it comes to Caleb, I’d relax your boundaries a little. He didn’t just leave because of his issues.”

“You’re accusing me of suffocating him?”

“Oh, damn,” Damien commented.

“No. I’m saying that he did it to himself in order to please you. It added a great deal of strain to him.”

“I know,” I found myself admitting, and I saw Damien’s shock mirror my own.

Asher smiled. “Good.”

The drive went on in peaceful silence for another ten minutes.

Well, outwardly peaceful.

Inside my own head, it was utter turmoil.

Rage, grief, and pain.

Such intense worry and heartache for Caleb still being in Elijah’s clutches.

We had a solid lead now, but it was still no guarantee, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that we’d encounter yet another setback.

“If this doesn’t pan out, there’s another option,” I finally spoke.

Asher swung his head toward me. “Of course there is, we’ll keep searching, and we won’t stop.”

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