Page 20 of Only The Strong

19

REESE

Callum leadsus outside and I watch him lock up the little bar. “I have one more stop for us if you’re not too tired?” Cale says, handing me the helmet.

“Okay. Where?” I ask, wondering what more we could possibly get into tonight.

His easy smile turns mischievous and his eyes sparkle under the streetlamp. “Can you find out where your ex is right now?”

“What?” I balk. My ex? Why?

“Can you?” He ignores my question.

I shake my head, confused as to where he’s going with this. “Yeah, but—”

Callum nods and licks his bottom lip. My attention immediately falls to his lips and I forget what I was saying. “Great. Figure out where he is, I have to make a call.”

Callum leans against his bike to make his call and I sit down at a nearby wooden picnic table and pull out my phone. I click on Instagram and look up Noah. It's a Saturday night, which is when he usually did something with his friends and he more often than not documented it on his story. Pulling up his profile I roll my eyes at the initials in his bio. If he had a penny for every time he put a girl’s initials in his bio he would never have to work another day in his life. But sure enough, the multicolored ring spins around his profile picture. I click on it and flick through a multi-slide story of him drinking with his friends at a bar. From the logo on the cups and the small glimpses at the background in the story, I can tell exactly where he is.

I quietly approach Callum, his eyes following me the whole way, and show him the slide from Noah’s story with a clear shot of the logo on the cup, which was taken about five minutes ago. His grin turns victorious. “He’s at McCann’s,” He says into the phone. “Meet us in the District parking lot.” Then he hangs up and moves to straddle his bike.

* * *

We pullinto the parking lot and stop at the entrance. “What does he drive?” Callum yells over the sound of the bike.

I lean forward so I can talk into his ear instead of yelling. “A white Toyota Camry.”

He turns his head to look at me, his eyes squinting, but without saying anything he shakes his head and turns back around so we can cruise through the lot looking for Noah’s car. There are several street lamps around the lot so when I see it a few cars down in the corner of the lot, I point to it. We park in front of it and step off, pulling our helmets off.

Callum eyes the compact car with disdain. “You know, you can tell a lot about a man by what he drives.”

“Are you saying I was supposed to know he was a cheating asshole by his choice in transportation?” I ask with a laugh in my voice.

“I mean does this scream trustworthy to you?” He gestures to the car with a very serious face, not breaking at all.

I shake my head, willing to play along. “Okay, so what do your vehicles say about you then?”

Callum smirks. “Well the Raptor says I'm confident, clean, maybe even accomplished. The bike says, trustworthy, fun, and responsible.” He looks back at the Camry. “A Camry isn’t manly.”

I cross my arms over my stomach, genuinely interested in his argument now. “And how did you get these qualities from a car?

Callum sits, full on sits, on Noah’s hood. No regard for the paint or respect for someone else’s property. “As I’m sure you’ve noticed, A Raptor is loud and big and when you drive by people notice, that’s not for an insecure person. It says I’m a clean and professional person because of how well I take care of it but also because of the architecture of the car, beautiful lines, and flares. It’s a beauty of a truck, and I don't know if you've checked the prices on those things, but they are not cheap so you have to have some cash to afford one.”

He tries to continue but I can't help but interrupt him and burst his bubble. “One could say you are overcompensating with your big loud truck, and that you're financially irresponsible for purchasing such an expensive vehicle.”

His smirk drops, which makes mine only grow. He stands and strides towards me, his eyes drawing me in and not letting me look away. He stops inches from me, my nose almost brushing his chest. Callum gently takes my hand and runs it down his hard pecs and abs, and down over his jeans. He palms his growing erection, my hand in between his and his jeans. “Am I overcompensating, Red?” He cocks his head and raises an eyebrow.

I clear my throat, trying to give myself a chance to remember what words are and clear the fog in my head. I’m spared from having to answer when a pickup pulls up behind us and Callum smiles at whoever is there. I pull my hand out of his while he’s distracted. I turn around to face the pickup and see Ronan, Saint, and Jack getting out of the cab and walking around to the bed of the truck. They lower the tailgate and sit down, Ronan smiling from ear to ear, Saint swaying a lot, and Jack looking like he always does, lost.

“Did you bring what I asked for?” Callum asks, standing in front of the guys.

“Sure did!” Ronan says, dragging a sledgehammer from behind him and sliding it into Cale’s hands and then slinging his arm over Saint’s shoulders. Jack grabs a tire iron from behind him and hands that to Callum too. “Prospect, put on some mood music and grab my bottle of Crown.”

Jack hops off of the tailgate and disappears around the side of the pickup. Callum turns towards me, his grin splitting his face and I stare at him questioningly.

“What are we doing?” I ask slowly.

“I think you can put two and two together, Red. Heavy tools, a cheating ex’s car.” He laughs and holds the tools out to me. “Which one you want?”

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