I furrow my brow and look up at Callum when I ask, "Why don’t they just sleep in the same bed?"
Callum shrugs, squeezing my hand. "That’s what I said. But when anyone suggests it, Tristan goes all psychotic on them."
When we make it up the stairs, and we reach his room, I stop at what I see.
All of my stuff is here, which I was totally expecting, and I’m sure Chapel is stomping around campus because he sent random people to our room to move me out without giving her notice.
But that isn’t what has my attention. It’s the ceiling.
A mural of soft white and lavender clouds stretches above the bed, painted in delicate detail. Like something out of a dream. I’ve always loved clouds, so much so that when we were kids, I’d make Callum lay next to me in the meadow behind my grandmother’s house and watch them pass by on particularly windy days.
I stare at it, breath caught in my throat before I manage, "You did this for me?"
Callum pulls me into his chest, pride warm in his voice. "Everything I do is for you."
I don’t get to respond, because I don’t even know what to say. He’s literally left me speechless.
My phone buzzes and I groan because it has to be one of my parents, or Adam. I glance down at it, fully prepared to just block whichever one of them it is, but what I see makes me flinch so hard that I drop my phone to the plush carpet.
Callum bends to pick it up, his expression darkening as he reads the message.
“Only a slut would fuck on her mother’s porch swing.”
My throat tightens. "Someone was watching us. I haven’t told a soul what happened last night."
“I haven’t either.” Callum wraps his arms around me protectively. "I’m going to get to the bottom of this. I promise, baby. We’ll get whoever’s behind it."
I press my face to his chest. "The only place I feel safe is with you."
He kisses the top of my head. "Then you’ll stay only with me."
I finally pull out of the hug and tell Callum I’m changing into my pajamas because I’m two minutes away from passing out. He kisses me again, but this time softly on the lips.
"Sleep naked. Let me put you to sleep,” he tells me, and his voice drops low in that tone that he only saves for me.
I nod, resting my face against his chest and squeezing his big frame to me one more time before he starts undressing me slowly, like I’m made of something precious. Right after he tucks me into bed, I hear the shower turn on, the sound distant, but steady.
I’m already drifting into a peaceful sleep when I feel the bed dip beside me. Callum’s arm wraps around my waist, and I feel him kiss my shoulder. Callum turns me in his arms, lifts my leg up over his hip, and I feel the thick, familiar pressure of him nudging between my thighs.
“I’m going to fill you up all night, baby,” he whispers. “Sweet dreams.”
And I fall asleep with him inside me.
CALLUM
"So let me get this straight," Hayden says, chewing a piece of gum in a way that I’m sure is going to make Tristan threaten to whack him in the back of the head with his stick. "Her brother borrowed money from the same family trying to force her to marry their fucking son?"
I nod, pacing the length of the locker room. It feels like the walls are closing in on me because I don’t know how much longer I can keep Lilac safe on this campus without having an inkling of an idea who is behind murdering the girls on her team.
Hayden lets out a low whistle like he’s flabbergasted, and I realize that his life has become very uncomplicated now that Madi is safe and he spends all his time counting her eyelashes or whatever the fuck weird, obsessive shit he’s into. I cringe because I really have no room to talk. I’m just as bad with Lilac. "Aren’t the Fairbanks loaded? Why wouldn’t they just pay the debts? And what the hell would he need to borrow that kind of money for?"
"Gambling," I say flatly. "That’s what he told me. But he never said fuck all to me before all this came crashing down." I clear my throat before I add, “I don’t think they have the kind of money they pretend to. I could see how much Mrs. Fairbankswas panicking over her precious baby boy. I think if they had the means, they’d pay up to save him.” I rub my hands over my face, and I can even hear how agitated I sound when I say, “I couldn’t believe how he was coming at her, trying to convince her to agree to do it.”
Tristan’s quiet in the corner, sitting with his laces untied, hands on his knees like he isn’t really here. But then he lifts his head and asks, voice calm, "Did you kill him?"
I blink. "No."
"Shame," he mutters. "If it were Winter, I’d have made his mother watch me break every bone in his body."
