Page 89 of Wicked Promises (Fallen Royals 3)

“You got it,” she answers.

As soon as she’s off the phone, I push Caleb away. “Stop, stop.”

He smirks at me, but it slides off his face when he sees my expression. “What’s wrong?”

He follows my gaze to the window.

“Margo. Do you…”

I get goosebumps.

And I swear, it isn’t because Caleb most likely gave me a giant hickey on my neck.

I race to the front door, flinging it open and bounding out onto the porch.

A car screeches down the street.

“What was that?”

“I keep feeling like someone is watching me,” I say. I hate, hate the fear in my voice. I thread my fingers with Caleb’s and hold on tight. “And that—”

“Unknown. You’re sleeping in my bed tonight,” he says firmly. “I don’t give a fuck if the Blacks have an objection, or if they find out. You’ll be safe with me.”

I blink back tears. “Thank you.”

“No thanks necessary,” he says, holding me close. “We’ll find them. I promise.”

22

Caleb

Margo is freaked out. Information overload, plus Robert in the hospital and learning that her mom is only a town away…

Yeah, I’d probably find any excuse to lose it.

But she doesn’t. She holds on to my hand hard enough to crush my fingers, and she sure does sound scared, but… she doesn’t look it.

On the outside, she’s strong.

I scoop her up and carry her down the stairs, and it’s then that I feel the way she shakes. It’s more of a shiver than anything else, but it doesn’t stop even when we’re downstairs.

Dusk has set my room in strange blue hues, making it seem all the more eerie. I turn on the lamp by my bed and lay her down.

“You always go straight to bed,” she comments.

“Seemed the most logical,” I answer. I pull the blankets up over us. “It’s your safe place.”

Her eyebrow goes up. “Is it?”

“After every incident, you come here—whether my choice or yours. It’s just habit now. You’ll relax.”

“It’s not your bed,” she mumbles.

It has to be. After I found her in the woods, and then when I was out with my friends instead of being here for her—

“It’s you,” she says, lifting herself up. Defiance flashes in her eyes. “It’s not this bed, Caleb. It’s you and your presence and knowing that if you’re gone, you’re coming back here—”

Those words unravel my self-control.