Page 102 of Fall Into Me

“You’re safe, baby,” I promised, my voice low and steady, the kind of promise that held weight. My free hand smoothed over hers as if I could physically press the truth into her skin.

Her eyes flickered to mine, uncertain but searching. “You’re safe,” I said again, willing her to believe it, because even if it wasn’t true quite yet, it would be soon enough.

31

Calista

After

“This is so depressing,” I whimpered, standing next to Fane in my driveway, staring at my car. “She was still so young.”

“Cali,” he sounded so unimpressed. “This car is like, thirty years old.”

“Thirty, flirty, and thriving,” I whispered, sliding my hand along the side of it.

“The airbags didn’t even deploy.” His hands were on his hips, and he was facing me fully now. “Do you understand howcrucialthat is for a car to do?”

“If she had some, I’m sure they would have!” I grumbled and turned to head inside. Ideally, I would have had a little more flair, but the doctor said that it would take at least a week before I started feeling more like myself again.

“I’m sorry.” Fane didn’t sound sorry at all. “You mean youknewthere were no airbags in it?”

“I paid three hundred dollars for this car, Fane,” I sighed. “Of course I knew.”

“I—” He did this tai chi-looking move like he was pushing down all the frustration in his body. “You are going to give me an aneurysm. This isn’t something to joke about, Calista.”

The words came out low, almost a growl, and his entire demeanor shifted. The air between us grew heavier, darker, like a storm had rolled in without warning. His body went rigid, tension coiling through him as his hands clenched at his sides until it all just disappeared.

Poof. Gone.

Like he was the eye of that storm now, at ease with the chaos it brought. That easy frustration he’d shown moments before was gone, replaced by something far more dangerous.

I swallowed hard, my earlier humor evaporating under the weight of his quiet anger. For a moment, I forgot to breathe, caught between the overwhelming intensity in his eyes and the way his chest rose and fell like he was fighting to hold himself back.

“I know,” I said softly, my voice barely above a whisper. “I know it’s not a joke.”

The good news was that Ash managed to get a ping on one of Declan’s cards a few hours away from Darling around midnight and then another back in Artington in the early hours of the morning.

“But he’s not coming back, Fane,” I added, my tone lighter, trying to ease the crackling tension still hanging in the air. “If we can’t laugh about it, I’ll have an aneurysm too.”

He didn’t say anything else, just closed the distance between us and wrapped me in a hug for the third time today. It felt like the most natural thing in the world, but also like these weren’t things that were meant for me. Like they didn’t belong to me. Not really.

He held me anyway, strong and steady, just like he’d done a thousand times before. Like he’d do a thousand times again if I let him.

Regardless, I was the sort of girl who kept her word. So, after a very hot shower, some painkillers for the bitch of a headache, and finally calling my dad back after we’d left the hospital before he managed to arrive, we were hauled up in Fane’s truck heading for the park right in the middle of town.

I wasn’t trying to avoid my dad. The opposite, in fact. I knew that if I did anything but play it off as a minor ding and nothing more, then he would try to tear himself in half to be at my door every morning instead of with my mom, where he was supposed to be.

“Dad, I promise. Keeping me overnight was overkill. Fane and I are almost at the Autumn Fair.”

“You should be at home, Cali.” He sounded gruff and like I was about to givehiman aneurysm too.

“I made a promise to Mags. Fane has already made me swear that all I will do is sit down and take people’s cash.”

“She won’t get up off her…back end.” He gave me this look that said,Is saying ‘back end’ to your dad any better than saying ass?and I had to clamp a hand over my mouth to muffle the aggressive-sounding chortle trying to escape.

“I’m hoping she might even nap,” he continued, voice dry as ever. “I bought a set of noise-canceling headphones and a pillow just in case.”

“You didn’t!” I turned my head slowly toward him.

---