Page 27 of The Last Call Home
She could ruin me—and I’d welcome the fall.
But there’s something electric about the two of them—Mal and Lilah.On their own, they’re volatile.Fire and flint.But together?They’re a fucking storm.Wild.Untamed.Beautiful.
And I want to lose myself in it.Not because it’s part of the job.Not because it’s smart.
But because—for the first time in longer than I care to admit—I want to stay.To surrender.To touch something tangible that might stick for longer than a season.
And maybe ...just maybe ...I want them to be the ones I stay with.
She leaves the building without so much as a glance over her shoulder.
My pulse hasn’t caught up with her absence.
“What the fuck just happened?”I mumble, raking a hand over my jaw, trying to find my balls somewhere beneath the rubble of her voice, that stare, the scent she left behind—amber and sin, defiance and a challenge I want to meet with my mouth.
“She busted our balls,” Malerick mutters, not nearly pissed enough.
“I like her even more,” I breathe, more to myself than to him.
“Stay the fuck away from her.”His warning lands like a punch in the gut—late, but it still hurts.
I scoff because he should know better.“That’s up to her, Mal.She seems to like the idea of us and looks like a woman who doesn’t like when other people try to decide for her.”
“The last time someone liked the idea of us ...”He levels a glare at me that should kill.“You fucking left.”
I meet his stare.I don’t flinch.“So you could give her what she wanted,” I say.“I wanted you to be happy.”
His mouth tics.
“What happened?”I push.
He runs a hand through his hair like the answer’s tangled in there, waiting to be pulled out strand by strand.“I realized things with her weren’t ...”
He exhales, the words stuck somewhere deep, where regret knots itself too tight to name.
“You were missing.”His voice drops lower than I’ve ever heard it.“Maybe it’s because you fucking left without a goodbye, no closure.I don’t fucking know.It broke me.You were my partner not only in bed but at the job.We worked side by side for years.Bureau gave us a badge and a cover story, but we made it real—too real.You watched my six, and I memorized your tells.The field blurred everything.Then it all imploded.Yet, they sent you here.”
He takes a break and asks, “Why the fuck are you here?”
I shrug, like I haven’t played that moment in my head on a loop for years.We could talk about the past, but I focus on the part where he can’t believe I’m here.
“These are the assignments I get.Blend in for a couple of years.Infiltrate.Lie.Breathe someone else’s life until I forget how to be mine.The usual drill.”
“So you do work for Crait?”He’s still trying to piece together the person I became without him.
“I ...yes.I started by consulting for them while still being part of The Organization—the first company that hired me.But at Crait’s ...they needed people, and they offered a lot more money and benefits.”I lean back against the wall, watching him carefully.“When did you jump ship?”
“CQS has been trying to recruit me since they started.”His eyes drop to the floor like the truth’s easier to say if it’s not looking back at him.“I didn’t want to leave.But a couple of years ago, when they got information that a syndicate wanted to move out here, they offered me a job and of course part of it was to become the sheriff in my hometown.”
“You hate this place.”
He nods.“Yeah, but Mom was sick, and I hoped I could be here to help.”
“How’s your mom?”
“She died before I moved back.”He shrugs like it’s not important, and I bet he hasn’t grieved the loss.“Still, it made sense to do it, accept the job and the assignment.I was done with the Bureau.”
I glance at the door she walked through, suppressing a laugh.“Seems like you’re not fooling them.”
