Page 63 of Stella
“Stay away from all the pretty boys,” Angel warns. “Those are the ones that will get you into the most trouble.”
“Like you and Dad?” she snarks.
“Exactlylike me and Dad.” Angel shakes her head at the memory. “I love him more than life itself, but he drives me nuts.”
“Don’t all men?” I agree.
I’ve been lucky in my life, but now I just feel like I’m walking on a cloud.
This seriously can’t be my life. To have this amazing opportunity with Angel, and I’m going to have her ink on mybody. I want to jump from the rafters, but I also want to tell everyone. If that happens, it’ll get back to my dad, and then he’ll try to talk me out of it.
This tattoo isn’t a kiss-ass to Cash, or to try to show the club how much I want to be a Rebel. It’s for me. I wasn’t kidding when I said that the Rebels are in my blood; they’re my family, and my loyalty will always lie with them.
I think about Angel’s words, and I know that continuing to pursue Cale is dangerous, but my heart wants what it wants. I can’t help it. My gut tells me that it’ll be hard, and we may get found out, but I have to at least put myself out there. I want to know what it feels like to be with him. Even if it means jeopardizing my place in the Rebels. I don’t want that, obviously, and it’s a risk to take, but the idea that we just leave it alone is heart-wrenching. Ineedto know him. I can’t stop.
Nobody has to know.
And if they find out, I’ll deal with it. At least, that’s what I tell myself.
14
CALE
I’min the interview room when Willow sticks her head in and gives me a chin lift. I excuse myself, leaving Dougie for a second.
“What’s up?”
“We got another one.”
I frown. “When?”
“This morning.”
“Addressed to me?”
She nods. “Yeah.”
I take off to my desk; sure enough, three of my buddies, Carl, Luke and Jon, are standing around, looking at the package.
The last time this happened, inside were the contents of a blueprint map. The second time, a key. For what, we don’t know, but someone is playing games because the exact same size parcel, with the same creepy handwriting, is sitting on my desk. The first time this happened, the package went through the usual channels before reaching me, including the bomb squad. It’s always addressed to me;Detective Cale Callaghan.
Standing, Calli sniffs the package. She’s a highly trained sniffer dog, specializing in narcotics, and she’s always with me when we do a raid. Of course, the package has been tested, butnobody’s detective equipment is as good as her nose. She doesn’t sit; that’s a good sign.
“Good girl. Heel.” She moves closer to me and I pat her on the head. “Sit.” She does as I say.
Willow joins us, hovering to see what’s in the package. “This is getting kinda creepy, first a blueprint of a building, then a key, you sure you didn’t piss off any chicks lately?”
The guys laugh, along with her, and I give her a withering look. “If I did, then I guess I have a key to her apartment with absolutely no way of knowing who the hell she is. My guess is someone has nothing better to do with their time,” I sigh. “Remember that jackass we had a while ago who kept sending in their clues to the attempted bank robbery a few years back?”
Carl slaps me on the back. “I don’t know why it happens, but you seem to get all the crazies.”
He’s not wrong there. It’s like trouble just seems to find me. I slice the parcel open with my knife, and tip the contents out onto the desk. I frown.What in the actual fuck?
Willow peers over my shoulder. “Is that… a shot glass?”
“What it is, is evidence,” I say, opening my drawer to pull out a glove. I carefully place it into an evidence bag. “Hopefully this motherfucker left a fingerprint or something. What the fuck this has to do with the blueprint and the key is beyond me.”
This shit is just tiresome and annoying. I have plenty of work to do without having to think about some mystery package that means zero to me. If I could figure out what the blueprints are of, then maybe I could piece it all together.
