Reckless Soul Read online

  He was saved when his cell phone rang. Calhoun excused himself and stepped into the kitchen. It really was a drab room that could use a face lift.

  “Calhoun.” He looked over at the sink and couldn’t believe he’d washed dishes. He’d never washed a dish in his life.

  “Hey, it’s Ethan.”

  Ethan was one of the annihilators working for Prince Christian. He was also one of the men who had helped Calhoun track down the second drug lab.

  “What’s up?” Calhoun looked toward the kitchen entrance to make sure Roy hadn’t followed him.

  “I got some good news and some fucked-up news. Which one do you want first?”

  “The bad.”

  “Well, the good news is, Rock and I found two of the five men from the lab. They’ve been eliminated. I wasn’t trying to go that route, but they forced our hands.”

  “I thought I said I wanted the bad news first,” Calhoun said.

  “I wanted to brighten your day before screwing it up.” Ethan chuckled then sobered. “The bad news is there’re three of those bastards still out there.”

  “I can do the math,” Calhoun said.

  “Jeez, it’s like dealing with Logan. That wolf shifter always has something smart to say. I swear, one of these days, I’m gonna put my size thirteen boot up his ass.”

  “Was that the fucked-up news?”

  “No, the math problem was just a cushion in between,” Ethan said. “Look, everyone is okay, just remember that. Merk, the vampire who threatened you, was looking for you in your old pack, demanding to know where you were.”

  Calhoun’s blood ran cold. He might have decided to never go back there, but a lot of pack members were his friends. And even though he didn’t care for his adoptive father, that didn’t mean Robert McCoy deserved to die. “What the fuck happened?”

  “Slow down,” Ethan said. “Remember, everyone is fine. Panahasi got there before Merk could torture anyone and placed a protective spell over the town. But Merk managed to escape, again. Does McCoy know where you are?”

  “No. He charged me with finding his son, but things resolved themselves before then. I never told him where Raven was, which means he has no idea where I am.”

  He couldn’t get Merk’s image out of his head. The pure evil in his eyes. The aura of darkness that surrounded him. The long scar that ran the length of the vampire’s jaw.

  “Well, I just wanted to keep you posted. It looks as though Merk isn’t giving up. He wants you pretty badly. I also found out that the wolf shifter who is also after you is Cash Phillips, and the demon goes by the name Razor. The name sounds pretty corny to me, but I can guarantee those men mean business.”

  And that was exactly why Calhoun needed to stay away from Roy. He didn’t need Merk—or Cash and Razor—to discover Calhoun’s connection to the human. Roy would never survive Merk’s brand of twisted evil.

  “I can handle a vampire, a shifter, and a demon,” Calhoun said. “Just as long as they don’t come at me at once.”

  Calhoun spun when he heard a gasp behind him. Goddamn it. Roy stood there staring wide-eyed at him. “I gotta go.”

  “Vampires, demons, and shifters?” Roy blinked several times. “Jesus H. Christ. You’re a lunatic.”

  Should Calhoun let Roy think that so his mate would keep clear of him? It would be better that way. If any one of them found out about Roy, they would destroy the human.

  “I’ll just go.” Calhoun headed for the archway, but Roy didn’t move out of his way.

  He pressed a hand against Calhoun’s chest. “You’re not going anywhere. For the past few months I knew something strange was going on in this town. I felt it in my bones. You’re gonna tell me…please.”

  That was the opposite of what Calhoun wanted to do. “What do you mean strange?”

  Avoidance. Redirect. Those were the only things Calhoun could think to do.

  The longer Roy studied him, the more his mate seemed to lose his burst of bravado. “I just catch things from the corner of my eye. Hear things others talk about when they think I’m not around. I’ve heard a couple of the guys at the station call their boyfriend ‘mate.’ I caught the word ‘shifter’ once. And one time, when I was out on patrol, late at night, I could’ve sworn I saw some guy with glowing red eyes.” He shrugged. “I just thought I was exhausted and seeing things.”

  “What guy with glowing red eyes?”

  “A resident named Jude Pearson.”

  Calhoun committed that name to memory. “Anything else?”

  Roy shoved his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. “Lots of little things that just didn’t add up.”

  “Small towns hold many secrets.”

  His mate’s eyes narrowed to slits. Talk about passive-aggressive. “Please don’t treat me like I’m an idiot. I can handle the truth. You’ve already mentioned shifters, demons, and vampires. Do they really exist?”

  “And if I said they did?” Calhoun finally moved past Roy and headed into the living room where he’d left his boots. Even if Roy accepted the nonhuman world as fact, there was no way Calhoun could allow his mate to show up on Merk’s radar. He just couldn’t do it.

  Darkness already plagued him. Calhoun had too much guilt riding his shoulders. There was no way he could be selfish enough to claim Roy just because his tiger was going apeshit.

  He had to think about his small human in all this.

  Calhoun sat on the couch and slid his boots on over his sock-covered feet.

  “Where’re you going?” Roy appeared next to the couch.

  “You’re home safely and no longer look like death warmed over. It’s time I left. I have work in a few hours, and I haven’t gotten any sleep.”

  And those men were tracking Calhoun. What if they showed up and saw Calhoun with Roy? He shuddered at the thought.

  “You can sleep in my bed,” Roy offered. “I’m not tired, and you could get more sleep if you didn’t have to travel.”

  Calhoun needed to buy a car. Panahasi had brought him to Maple Grove. His truck was three states away, behind an abandoned paper mill. He’d eventually get it, but with Merk and the two other men from the lab on the loose, Calhoun didn’t dare go near it right now.

  “I’m ten minutes from here.” That was if Calhoun had been driving.

  Roy’s shoulders sagged, as if he’d run out of reasons for Calhoun to stay. It was killing him to leave his mate. His chest felt heavy, and Calhoun really didn’t want to go. He wanted to crawl into Roy’s bed, make love to his mate, and get some much-needed rest.

  But even if those men weren’t tracking him, Calhoun wouldn’t subject Roy to his nightmares. No decent person deserved to see that.

  Calhoun walked to the door and stopped when Roy followed him. “I’ll see you around.”

  Damn his mate was adorable when he pouted. “I guess I’ll see you around.”

  Knowing he shouldn’t touch Roy, because it was a dumb thing to do, but unable to stop himself, Calhoun grabbed Roy’s nape and pulled him close. Roy looked up at him with wide, expectant eyes.

  Calhoun gave his mate a toe-curling kiss before he walked out the door.

  Chapter Three

  “What’s got you looking so flushed?” Deputy Aaron Mills asked when he joined Roy in the break room. “You coming down with something?”

  Roy wished that was the case. Then he wouldn’t be sitting there replaying that hot-as-hell kiss over and over again in his mind. He also wouldn’t be sitting there with the knowledge that more than humans walked the earth.

  He wished he hadn’t asked. Roy had thought he could handle the truth. Although Calhoun had neither admitted nor denied the existence of other-worldly creatures, Roy knew in his gut that they did truly exist.

  And what a mind-blowing realization that was.

  “No, I’m fine.” He grimaced when he took a sip of his coffee from the break room coffeemaker. Someone seriously needed to clean that machine out. Or make a fresh pot, because what he was drinki
ng constituted as sludge.

  Aaron’s hazel eyes lit with amusement. “You can’t fool me. I know that look. You met someone.”

  Just like Malik and Darren and Joshua, Aaron had a muscular build and was tall. Every time Roy came to work, he felt like he was a kid just hanging out at the station where all the real men worked. Even his boss was built like a linebacker.

  “I didn’t meet anyone.” Not anyone of a romantic interest. Aside from that mind-melting kiss, Calhoun had been the perfect gentleman. The opposite of what Roy had wanted.

  Aaron squeezed Roy’s upper arm. “Don’t worry, Roy. You’ll find the right person who’ll sweep you off your feet.”

  This was something Roy didn’t want to talk about and was thankful it was time for his patrol. He was not only working with Aaron tonight but Joshua was also on the schedule. Thank goodness they were allowed to drive alone. Roy wouldn’t be able to handle Deputy Hayley right now.

  Not long after getting into his squad car and leaving the station, Roy passed Tilted. He was tempted to stop by just to see Calhoun, but he didn’t want to seem desperate. Roy’s heart ached for another one of those kisses, to see Calhoun one more time, or to feel the heat of his presence.

  A few hours into his shift, Roy had already given one guy a speeding ticket, driven a teenage girl home for being out past her curfew, and helped an elderly man fix a flat tire.

  It was after midnight when he got the call about another home invasion. He pulled up to the residential home and saw Aaron and Joshua had beaten him there.

  “It’s escalating,” Aaron said when Roy entered the house. A young woman sat on her couch, crying as Joshua spoke to her. He was seated next to the woman, talking in a gentle voice.

  Roy had noticed lately that Deputy Hayley wasn’t his usual surly self. He was more quiet and reserved, talking only when spoken to.

  “How so?” Roy asked.

  “This time the perp not only stole a pair of her underwear but he touched her while she was sleeping.”

  Roy gritted his teeth. He wanted the sick bastard caught. The woman looked terrified as she talked quietly with Joshua, as if she was afraid to speak any louder.

  What if that had been Lacey sitting there? His sister lived alone. Roy would have to make sure he talked to her about keeping her windows locked and her alarm set. He would be devastated if anything happened to her.

  “Sheriff Copache has the tech team coming in to dust for prints. Hopefully we can ID this guy and get him off the streets.”

  Roy agreed. Since Aaron and Joshua were already on the scene, Roy left, driving away to patrol the town. Maybe he would catch the guy sneaking into another house.

  He slowed and pulled to the curb when he spotted Jude Pearson coming out of his house. Red eyes. What did that make Jude? He couldn’t be human.

  Jude walked down the street and then turned the corner. Roy eased his car around the block, slowly following the guy. Not that Jude had done anything wrong, but Roy was curious.

  When Jude stepped into the alley behind the diner, Roy eased his car to a stop. He saw two men arguing in the alley. One of them was Jude. Instead of getting out, Roy flashed his search light in their direction.

  Jude vanished into thin air. He just fucking vanished. Roy sat there with a pounding heart as the other guy—who had a long scar across his jaw—turned red, glowing eyes on him. They locked gazes before the stranger vanished, too.

  How could that be? People didn’t just magically disappear in front of your eyes. He started to get out to investigate, but something, maybe his survival instincts, told him to stay in his car.

  Roy listened to his gut and cut off the search light before he drove away. He’d never asked Calhoun how he knew about the other-worldly creatures. Was Calhoun even human?

  The thought made his blood run cold. Then again, Calhoun hadn’t acted in any other way except kind. As far as Roy knew, there was no reason to fear the bartender. Evilness didn’t drive you home and put you to bed. It didn’t wipe your face while you threw up. It didn’t make breakfast, nurse a drunk back to health, and give a kiss that had set Roy’s soul on fire.

  No, he refused to believe Calhoun was anything other than human.

  And if he wasn’t, Roy couldn’t and wouldn’t believe the man was a monster.

  When he made a second pass of Tilted, Roy pulled into the parking lot. The tavern wasn’t as packed as last night. It was a Wednesday, with no food specials going on. But there were still plenty of vehicles sitting there.

  He got out and walked inside, telling himself he just needed to be grounded after what he’d seen. He recognized most of the people in there.

  “Hey, Deputy Benton,” Raven, the local mechanic, said as he gave Roy a wave.

  There was a man sitting next to him who had long, rainbow-colored hair. Roy had never seen the guy before. He would’ve remembered hair like that.

  “Hi, Raven.” Roy waved back.

  He also saw some new residents he’d gotten to know. Ben and Milo. And they were with their boyfriends, Jericho and Joe. He knew Milo had custody of his niece, and Roy also knew Joe’s sister loved watching her.

  That must’ve been where the baby was.

  Roy had been trying his hardest not to look toward the bar. Although he needed grounding, he still didn’t want to look desperate, as though he’d become Calhoun’s personal stalker.

  “What’re you doing here?”

  Roy gasped at the deep and alluring voice behind him.

  Calhoun.

  “I stop by here a lot,” he lied. “I just came by to get a soda.”

  Even though Calhoun was behind him, Roy felt the heat coming off the guy and wanted to sink back into all those muscles. A hand landed on his lower back, and Roy was guided to a stool at the bar.

  “Any preference?” Calhoun asked when he walked behind the counter.

  “No.” Roy fidgeted in his seat. Even though there was a counter between them, he still felt the heat of Calhoun’s hand on his lower back.

  Calhoun filled a tall glass with ice and orange soda before setting it on the counter. “Anything else?”

  Just you. “How long have you been a bartender?”

  He took a sip of his drink as he waited for Calhoun to answer him. There weren’t many people sitting on the stools, and Lacey didn’t look as if she was being run ragged. That meant Calhoun had time to talk.

  “I’m not,” Calhoun said. “I’m a barback.”

  There was nothing wrong with working hard for a living. “Oh, okay. Well, I’m in law enforcement.”

  Roy grimaced when he realized what he’d just said. Of course Calhoun knew he was a cop. Duh. Flirting was not his thing, and it looked as though he was crashing and burning with the attempt.

  Too bad he couldn’t get drunk again because clearly the drunken version of him knew how to have a good time.

  “Really?” Calhoun’s blue eyes lit with humor. “You’ll have to let me borrow your cuffs one night, officer.”

  It wasn’t just Roy’s face that burned, but his entire body flushed with embarrassment. “O-On me?”

  Calhoun winked.

  Roy took a moment to compose himself before he combusted on his stool and set the tavern on fire. If he’d been drinking ice water, he would have splashed his face to put the flames out.

  “I actually came in here to talk to you about something.” Roy kept his voice low so no one else heard him. “About you know…what we discussed earlier.”

  Calhoun turned to Armand. “I’m taking my break.”

  Armand seemed to ignore Calhoun as the barback rounded the counter and grabbed Roy’s hand, hustling him out the front door.

  Roy nearly forgot what he wanted to tell Calhoun as he concentrated on the large hand wrapped around his. The heat and strength in Calhoun’s hand had Roy’s cock hardening and his pulse skyrocketing.

  He was also checking out Calhoun’s ass as they rounded the tavern and stopped on the side of the building. Roy mourned
the loss of Calhoun’s hand as the guy pulled it away.

  “Don’t ever talk about that in public,” Calhoun admonished him. “Preternatural beings are fierce about protecting our secret.”

  Our secret. Roy’s throat went bone-dry as he looked Calhoun over, cementing the fact that the guy wasn’t human. Roy took a step back, having had his fill of bizarre shit for the night.

  Calhoun’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t even think about being afraid of me. Have I shown you any indications that I wanted to harm you?”

  Roy shook his head. Calhoun was right. He needed to give the guy the benefit of doubt. He wasn’t sure why, either. Calhoun was a complete stranger, a nonhuman stranger. He should be running away screaming instead of wanting to get closer. His earlier conviction that he wouldn’t judge Calhoun had flown out the window now that he knew for certain that the guy was a preternatural being.

  Tamping down his fear, Roy told Calhoun about what he’d seen in the alley behind the diner, although he was dying to ask Calhoun what he was.

  “Vanished or kind of shimmered away?” Calhoun asked.

  “Is there a difference?”

  “Yes.”

  Roy thought about it. “I don’t really know. I was too busy freaking out. I’m almost sure they simply vanished, though.”

  “The other guy sounds like he’s a vampire, too. They can move at inhuman speeds, making them ‘appear’ as if they’ve simply vanished. What did the stranger look like?”

  As he described the guy, Calhoun’s features darkened. Roy took another step back. The expression on the man’s face was downright lethal. Had he misjudged Calhoun? Had the guy lied to him about being safe?

  “What exactly are you?”

  Calhoun’s gaze flickered to Roy. “I’m a white Bengal tiger.”

  Okay, I’m not going to flip out. I’m going to remain calm and digest what he’s telling me. Roy turned and headed to his patrol car. He felt on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

  Calhoun grabbed his arm and stopped Roy in his tracks. “You can’t leave.”

  Roy spun and jerked his arm away. “And why is that?”