Page 38 of Reid

“What the fuck,” Gunner got out before he felt an explosion of pain in his head and everything went fuzzy as he fell to the ground. Polished shoes came into his peripheral vision before man crouched beside him.

“Let’s get you into the van before someone sees.”

Those were the last words he heard before he felt the pinch of a needle in his neck and then blissful nothing.

When Gunner woke a few hours later, he was in his digs, lying on his couch with a brutal headache but otherwise okay. He stood, taking an unsteady breath as he stumbled to the kitchen. Grabbing his spare gun, he made an effort to secure his property before he chugged down a cold glass of water to clear his head.

He had no clue what had happened or why, but he intended to find out and that bastard Seamus would be the first person he’d be visiting after he’d dealt with the other shit involving the model and Reid.

He was getting tired of watching his back, of not knowing who to trust. But he had nobody to blame but himself, he’d made the wrong choice and now he had to live with it or swallow a bullet, but that wasn’t an option while his sister was still at the hands of monsters.

Chapter Fifteen

The sound of the door opening interrupted Callie from the discussion she and her new friends were having about their lives or more importantly, the loves of their lives. To say these women were in love was an understatement. But unlike her mother, who lived to deliver her husband’s every whim, these women had careers and reading between the lines, pretty intense ones too.

She sighed inwardly at the sight of Reid in the doorway looking good enough to eat as he leaned a shoulder against the frame. He walked toward her, a cocky grin on his face as he removed his jacket and lay it across the back of the chair. Reid’s eyes held her immobile as he moved behind her, and she lost sight of him. Her belly went liquid at the gentle touch of his lips to her crown. It was sweet and tender and her feeling for him were so much more than sexual.

“Ladies,” he said in greeting.

They all responded with knowing smiles and greetings of their own. She caught the look Pax sent Evelyn and grimaced at being the centre of attention. Callie was used to people looking at her, at journalists poking into her life, but this felt different more intimate but not only that. This, whatever it was they were doing, meant something.

Callie was pulled from her thoughts when her phone rang on the coffee table in front of her. She tried to stifle the groan at seeing her agent’s name on the screen. Standing, she excused herself to take the call, catching an unreadable look on Reid’s face.

Moving into the hallway, she answered the call. “Hey, Sophia.”

“Don’t you ‘hey, Sophia’ me. I have a shit storm of epic proportions here, and you’re nowhere to be found. Mel is losing his mind because he can’t find you. You seem to be ghosting our calls, and now I have Claude threatening to pull out of the Gucci shoot next month unless I tell that fucking little diva where you are.”

Sophia took a breath and Callie tried not to sigh. “I know this is hard on you, Soph, but I can’t tell anyone where I am.”

Callie heard the soft resigned tone in her voice. “I know you have a lot going on with the stalker and now your housekeeper, but I need something. The press is going mad over this. Just give me something or better yet, call Mel so he can work out what to tell the media.”

“Fine, I’ll call him. I am sorry, Soph, but my security thinks this is for the best.”

Sophia snorted. “Yeah I get it. If he were my security, I’d be holed up someplace private, too. Just don’t ghost me again.” The soft reprimand stung for doing it in the first place. But she’d needed to get away even if it was for a few hours.

“Fine. Can you handle Claude?” Callie didn’t bother to deny the relationship between her and Reid, it was pointless at this stage.

“Of course I can handle him. Handling divas is my job, remember.”

Sophia hung up, and Callie looked down at the phone with a smile. Hearing voices, she looked up as Reid showed Roz, Evelyn, and Pax out. He caught her eye, and she waved at the three women as they left.

Reid closed the door and moved toward her. His steps slow and measured, with no excess energy used. He was like a sleek panther, and she felt like the very willing prey.

He stopped in front of her and raised his hand to gently cup her cheek. “Everything okay?”

Callie leaned into his touch, letting the settling feeling of safety flow through her as well as a hefty dose of lust. “Yeah, that was Sophia. She was just unhappy I ghosted her.”

Reid’s jaw twitched, but he said nothing, just pulled her closer to his body and enfolded her in his arms. She sucked in a lungful of his scent and felt a pull of desire shoot through her body. Her arms snaked around him, and she sighed at the rightness of being in his arms. This felt like home, but different in some ways. It felt like—everything.

Callie tried to push the notion aside, knowing it was way too soon to be thinking things like that. They hadn’t even slept together yet. What if he was crap in the sack? The thought made her giggle to herself, as if a man like Reid would be bad in bed. He was built for sex and sin, and she shivered at the thought of all the naughty things she wanted him to do to her and the things she wanted to do to him.

He must have felt the shiver because he groaned before taking her hand and dragging her towards the door. “Let’s get out of here before I forget I’m a gentleman and drag you into that bedroom and show you everything I’ve a dreamed of doing to you since I first laid eyes on you.”

Callie laughed as she let him pull her to his car. “I’m okay with that.”

He waited until they were in the car before he turned and tipped her face to his, so their eyes met. “Maybe, and God knows I want nothing more than to sink into your warm heat, but my Mama would whip my ass if I didn’t at least take you on a date first.” Her mouth dropped open in surprise and Reid dropped a quick kiss on it before he started the car and reversed.

Callie grinned again wondering how being with him made her so happy when her life was a disaster zone. A drizzle had begun as they drove west, and she pulled her jacket around her. She’d only just snagged it as they went out the door and was thankful, she’d picked it up. She looked down at her clothes and then regarded Reid, who was still holding her hand. “So where are we going?”