Page 60 of Law Of Love

I held my breath, connecting back up with the main street. The car hadn’t stopped.

“What the fuck?” I muttered as I attempted to squint through the darkening early evening to identify the man behind, and I gasped as I almost swerved right into a car barrelling towards me. Their horn blared out and caused my bones to rattle inside my flesh, panic hitting me.

I debated parking up along the side of the road and getting out to demand why this man was copying my every move, but that was the perfect way to get myself killed, and it was probably exactly what he wanted me to do. Nobody was going to stab me and drag me into the woods tonight.

Making a few more turns—with the midnight-black car still tailing me—I signalled to head down a slender road to the left, only to swerve and cut off a car coming my way. It disconnected me from my stalker, and I stepped on the gas toward Kaleb’s house.

The car was still stuck at the junction—nobody letting him out—and I breathed a sigh of relief, my blood running cold inside my veins. No longer was the burning feeling pricking the skin at the back of my neck, and I all but sprinted into the house once I parked in the driveway.

Somebody had been following me, but I didn’t know why.

Twenty-seven: Kaleb

“You’re lacking in the bonding aspect of this job, Kaleb,” my chief murmured into the phone, and I gripped it tightly against my ear, huffing. I wanted to strangle it.

“The quicker people realise there isn’t much point in us all bonding, the better,” I said. “We’re all doing our jobs. That’s the end of it.”

“Frederick is my boss, Kaleb. That’s what you need to understand. I answer to him. He believes that everyone having a better connection will help with the jobs. People’s communication will improve, which will result in more arrests and fewer casualties on our side. You’re great at what you do, Kaleb. You’re one of the best, but my boss is noticing your absence when it comes to group activities.”

I rolled my eyes, having no interest in this conversation. “I didn’t sign up for this job to go to fancy dinners and get wasted at crappy clubs.”

“I’m aware of that, and like you, socialising isn’t my favourite pastime, but it has to be done. It comes with the job. You have to work with this team, so bring someone along to the party this weekend.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose.

The stupid bodyguard party. I 'd almost forgotten about it.

“I’m not—“

“Obligated to bring someone, I know. You’ve said.” My chief’s voice became huskier as his frustration flourished. “The other guys need to get to know you, though, besides Brent, and you bringing someone will make that easier. It’ll help you loosen up, I’m sure. Nobody knows anything about you.”

And that’s how I wanted to keep it.

“Who do you expect me to bring?”

“Anyone, Kaleb. Grab a homeless man off the street and claim he’s your long-lost brother for all I care. Just bring someone. Show Frederick you’re actually trying, or I’ll never hear the end of it.” My chief ended the call.

This job wasn’t about making friends. There was no point in getting close to other workers when you knew they wouldn’t all survive. Keeping your distance prepared you for their deaths, and in the long run, that made you much better at your job. Emotions didn’t rule your life. They didn’t get in the way.

However, when Freya was brought into the mix, emotions very much got in the way. I didn’t like getting close to people. I didn’t like letting anybody in, but ‌she was able to chip away at the rock-hard wall I'd spent so long constructing. She’d walked right through it, and I didn’t stop her. Instead, I’d pretty much invited her in.

The front door burst open, and my heart jumped out of my chest as I honed in on a wide-eyed Freya, her skin flushed.

“What happened?” I asked her, gripping my gun, and she gestured outside, holding up her car keys.

“Someone was following me.”

My back stiffened. Rage coursed through me, my fists clenching, guilt hitting me brutally. If Freya was being followed, Will had to be behind it, and that was the fault of Brent and I. We had dragged her into this, and now Will was taking his anger out on her.

I wanted to march down to the shooting range and blast a bullet straight through his skull, but ending up in prison wouldn’t help anyone—especially not Freya.

“I lost them but couldn’t see who they were.” Her hands shook slightly, the jingling of her metal keys filling the silence. I cursed, taking them from her and hanging them up on the hook, pulling her towards the couch.

“Car registration.”

Freya relayed the first half to me, but she was unsure of the last few numbers, claiming that her mind was running amuck, fogging her memories.

I tapped my fingers against my thigh, skating my tongue along the front of my teeth. “You didn’t get a sighting of the person?”

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