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I sent him a look. Caleb's plans usually worked for what he intended them to, but I couldn't exactly count on him to take Dom's reaction into account. In fact, considering their history, I could pretty much assume that pissing Dom off royally would make Caleb's day.
"Is there a reason why we have to lose them so fast tonight?" I asked. I didn't like being tracked or followed either, but I wanted the trouble I would get for going straight off the radar even less.
"Your things are at a location that I would like to keep private. The druids keep enough damned tabs on me. My biggest weapon stash in town is not their business."
Fair enough. Couldn't blame him there. Knowing Caleb, he'd have things in that stash that would get him imprisoned for eternity or worse.
Of course, that didn't mean I wouldn't be catching all sorts of hell for losing my tail later. I would be worrying about that later, though, since I very much wanted my weapons back. It wasn't even a question.
"Make a left at the next light," Caleb told me.
I did, watching the car that followed rather closely behind me. Whoever had been put on tailing duty wasn't even bothering to be subtle about it. They must not have heard much about me.
"Make a right, here," Caleb said as I drew almost even with a small side street.
I had to swerve rather crazily to make the turn, since he'd given me so little notice. "Maybe you should have driven," I told him as I evened the car out, watching the dark SUV behind us careen wildly into the turn just behind us.
"This is more entertaining," he told me dryly, and I shot him a look. His expression was deadpan, of course, but I knew that he was being very literal. Caleb did seem to find it endlessly entertaining to mess with me. And the annoyed druids behind us would certainly be icing on his cake.
"Right," he said, and I had to make another sharp turn, even going slowly.
"Right," he said again, maybe two minutes later.
"U-turn," he said, when I had nearly passed another street.
"Dick," I muttered, but I followed his instructions.
"Wouldn't you like to know," he shot back without expression.
Actually, I kind of would. I couldn't even be sure what sex the sociopath chameleon alien was, really. His preferred form was male, but that didn't mean a damn thing. I'd seen Caleb mimic me with perfect accuracy, and his sexuality, hell, that was anybody's guess. We'd known him for years, decades even, and he'd only ever showed a leaning towards the A-sexual variety. Was there a specific sexuality for people who only got a hard-on for super badass weapons?
"Not first-hand, that's for sure," I shot back. Never hurt to be perfectly clear about things like that.
He snorted, an unusual noise from his usually stoic self. I shot him a look. His little smile was as good as a shit-eating grin on somebody else. "Trust me, you're safe there. There's only one thing I want your body for."
My mind flashed back to the night before I'd done my little disappearing act. He'd been mimicking me then, wearing an obscene outfit that still made my cheeks heat in embarrassment.
"I really don't like the sound of that," I told him, my tone hard.
He gave his little shrug. "Nothing is free, Jillian. I know you know that. Don't balk at my methods. There may come a time that I'll need to mimic you perfectly. It may make all the difference between success and failure. You are a complicated woman. Complicated takes practice, even for me."
He was full of shit. I just knew it. The bit about needing practice, and the implication that he'd been mimicking me for fun. I tried to level with him. "You are not allowed to mimic me for anything...bad. Got it?"
His smile was chilling. "I can live with that. That gives me a lot of wiggle room, though, you understand?"
I sighed. "I understand that your help isn't free. Getting the best gun in the world at my back will cost me. That I understand."
"Yes," was all he said to that.
"Left," he said, a few minutes later. I didn't even know where we were anymore. The small streets in this area were barely lit, and huge concrete barriers lined the streets, small dark houses nearly hidden on the other side of those barriers.
"Pull into this parking lot," he said, and I did.
It was a small, deserted lot. The large, nondescript warehouse attached seemed disproportionately large for the lot. Caleb pulled something out of his pocket, pointing it at the building. A large panel that I hadn't even realized was a garage door slid open smoothly and quickly. I pulled in without a word. It shut directly behind us. The druids would be getting pissy in a hurry about that one.
"Take off your jeans, shoes, and your bra. Leave your phone in the car, too, of course," Caleb said brusquely, opening his door and getting out.
I did so, sighing. The repercussions were probably going to suck, but he was right. The druids would have slipped tracking devices into all of those, and taking the time to find them would only aggravate things. "You have more clothes for me, perchance?"
