Page 71 of Shattered Veil

“That’s not funny, Cas. If you disappeared, I’d lose my goddamn mind.”

I said it in a quiet mutter that made her tense, and when I looked into her eyes, I no longer found any trace of humor in them.

She whispered, “Sorry.”

I blew out a rough breath through my nose. “’S’okay…you’re right.” I continued to brush through her hair with my fingertips. I murmured, “I’d find you, Darlin’.”

The name for her had simply waltzed out of my mouth. I hadn’t meant to say it—had never internally tested the word in my thoughts—but I uttered it, anyway. And there was no awkwardness. No teasing, questioning, ‘Oh, I’m Darlin’?’ There was only her soft exhale before she leaned forward to kiss me gently, and we plummeted into our familiar magnesis.

Chapter 14

I’m a simple man. I put in my time at work, but not overly so. I love my friends and family. I thoroughly enjoy the company of a woman who is enjoying said company with me. I relish in the beautiful, comfortable laziness that life can provide. The latter two were currently leaving me in a happy, drunken buzz, though I hadn’t drunk a drop of alcohol.

I had yearned to naturally wake, and I did—to a blissfully cold room, lying flat on my back with the heat of Cassie on my front. Her head on my chest, her arm around my waist and leg hitched up to wrap around my nearest thigh, I was holding her while she continued to snooze away. I had no recollection of my dreams, nor did I have any intention of mentioning the drama of everything involving Colton—whether it be 2D, the laptop, or the missing women of Salem. There was no need to speak of it now. With no lives on the line and no urgent notifications on either of our cell phones that I had glanced at upon first awakening, I had deduced that I was going to revel in the now.

In our purgatory.

Cassie would eventually stir, and we would rise from her bed with slow, blissful movements on this quiet Saturday as if it were a Christmas morning. We would go to greet Skylar, who, of course, was still on the couch. We would speak of breakfast. My bare feet would be cold on the tile as I walked back and forth throughout the kitchen to make them both pancakes. It would be simple. It would be happy…and for the briefest of moments, I sincerely thought that was a possibility.

I actually had a shred of fucking hope.

I was holding onto that shred until my phone began to vibrate on Cassie’s bedside table, and I removed my hand from her naked waist to blindly reach for my cell. In one glimpse, I saw that it was Luke, and my hope dissipated into the air like smoke, leaving no trace of its previous existence whatsoever.

Trading the grip on my phone from left to right, I begrudgingly began to unravel myself from Cassie. She whined sleepily as I moved, rolled herself over, and stretched as if she were anticipating me to wrap my arms around her from behind. Her hair cascading over her bare back before me made me let out a quiet sigh, and if it weren’t for the apprehension that I held over awaiting a call from anyone in our collective found family, I would have just silenced my cell.

I almost did, ever-present nerves aside, because the sight of her was calling to me like a damned siren…but because that would have been foolish, downright dumb, and, above all, selfish, I didn’t.

Crawling over her and out of bed before the call could cease its ringing, the moment that my feet touched the floor, I slid my thumb across the screen to answer it. Before I could so much as speak my hello or walk to the bathroom as I had intended, Cassie called to me in a half-asleep, near-slurred:

“Come back to bed, baby.”

What was most definitely Claire’s voice shrieked through my cell that I still held in my palm, and I rapidly deduced that it was not just my brother who had rang.

Cassie’s repeated use of the endearment—when we weren’t even in the throes of passion, no less—was far, far more than welcome. In fact, if I hadn’t made it abundantly clear already, I fucking loved it. Now, however, with the other end of the call clearly being on speakerphone, was not the time for her to be using it. The only thing I could be thankful for was that she sounded far from her own usual tone. Though it still maintained the typical deep huskiness that I enjoyed, it held a significant rasp. It was sleep-filled. Content. And, unfortunately for me, because I felt as though I was about to suffer from a stroke, well-fucked. She sounded well-fucked.

I glanced at Cassie, who seemed to be obliviously blinking the sleep from her eyes, and I looked from my phone and back to her with an alarmed expression that I hoped conveyed, ‘Please, dear God, stop talking.’

Claire’s shrill, “AH—fuck, TMI!” was so loud that it was able to be heard by both of us, and Cassie appeared to fully wake—thoroughly and abruptly—as she sat at attention and smacked a hand over her mouth.

I pointed to the bathroom, signaling to her that I was going there to take the call, and she let her hand fall as she silently mouthed a frantic, ‘What’s going on?’

As rapidly as I could manage, I lifted my phone to my ear and rattled off, “Is anyone dead, dying, or in danger?”

Luke called back, “No!”

My usual anxiety—the one that had nothing to do with my and Cassie’s romantic involvement—eased, and I sighed before crooning, “In that case—one moment, please.” I pulled it away from my ear to purposefully hit the mute button, and spoke to Cassie in a surprisingly reassuring tone, “I muted myself; sounds like they’re fine.”

“Who’s they?”

“Luke and Claire.”

“Okay,” she exhaled. “Okay…think, ah…do you think they knew that was me?”

I shrugged. “They heard a woman…not necessarily you.” I listened to my phone once more, hearing glass sliding across granite and the murmurings of Luke offering Claire a towel to clean up spilled coffee. I concluded, “There’d be a touch more screaming if they knew, I think.”

Cassie grumbled, “Probably…just—just don’t say anything, okay?” She anxiously added, “I’m not trying to sweep us under the rug. I—I’m not, really.”

I hadn’t thought that in the least, but the reminder that her opinion had thoroughly changed on burying any of our feelings still made me feel shockingly light.

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