Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 103033 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103033 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
My mouth twitched with mirth, and I shook my head at his cuteness. Gael had regressed a bit since I’d seen him last night, and it was a great look on him. He was relaxing in Joshua’s ownership.
“I’m not making any promises on this being just one night, though,” Joshua continued, and I gave him a flat stare. There we go. So, what? We’d simply stay out in Mclean indefinitely? Absolutely not. “But I do have a plan. The Tenleys and Colt are gonna help me—and you, if you’re up to it.”
Up to it?
Fucking brat.
His smirk told me he knew he was pushing the right button.
“Tell me the plan,” I demanded.
Gael slipped his hand out of mine and chewed on the inside of his cheek.
“I gotta run it over with Reese and Colt first, but I wanna use you as bait,” Joshua replied. “And Gael.”
I lifted my brows.
Gael smiled nervously. “Daddy explained in the car. I’m gonna be brave.”
I didn’t like that part at all. Gael shouldn’t go anywhere near Caleb.
“I thought of it when Gael told me he’s dropping out of your class—”
“He’s doing what?” I stared down at Gael, surprised. Disappointed too, if I was being honest.
“We can discuss that later,” Gael said. “The important thing is, I’m not your student anymore, but I will pretend on Thursday. Tomorrow, you will go to class as usual, and Daddy and Reese and Colt will look out for anyone who might be following you. Daddy will keep his distance since Caleb likely knows what he looks like. And if this works, great! If it doesn’t, we’ll try again on Thursday, and I will be there also, and you and I can sit together outside the hall and be bait—and maybe talk history because I like that very much.”
It was a mindfuck to listen to his rapid rambling, because part of me just wanted to stare, fascinated and ridiculously attracted, while the rest of me was processing the information. I had no problems acting like bait; it was an old tactic that’d won many battles. And as long as Gael stayed close to me, I supposed I could survive his being part of this plan.
“Daddy’s gonna ask if I can bring General to Mclean too,” Gael said. “We’re keeping our fingers crossed, but we’re ready for a no because of allergies.”
That shouldn’t be a problem. If I were to actually go through with this, I wasn’t staying in a guest room at the house. Each of the founding members of Mclean House had an A-frame cabin that lined the back of the property, and Macklin was one of those founders. Given how busy he and Walker were at the moment, we could probably borrow their cabin.
Christ. Was I actually considering this, then?
The boy’s not your student anymore.
Fuck.
I was going to have a talk with Gael about that. For selfish reasons, his dropping out meant I was no longer worrying about breaking my own moral code. At the same time…he was perfect for my class. I’d been hoping to see a more active side of him now.
I pinched the bridge of my nose.
“Is it working, Daddy? Are we convincing him?”
“We are going on an adventure,” Gael sang in the back seat. “Yes, we are, yes, we are, yes, we are.”
I side-eyed Joshua and the love-sick look on his face. He kept watching his boy in the rearview and smiling to himself.
I peered out my window instead. Weekend bag and laptop bag in my lap. Wondering how the fuck I’d ended up here.
Somehow, I’d agreed to “a few days” in Mclean, and Macklin could not have agreed quicker to letting us borrow their cabin. In other words, a fuzzy cat named General was sleeping in his carrier next to Gael.
We drove out to Tysons, where we met up with River and Reese in the parking lot behind an auto dealership. The elaborate plan included making sure nobody found out about Mclean, so it was a way to shake a potential tail.
Joshua glanced around us and greeted the twin brothers.
“So they managed to rope you into the whole thing.” Reese grinned and shook my hand too.
“Joshua sent in the infantry. Puppy-dog looks by Gael,” I replied.
Gael looked proud—and a little sheepish.
“Yeah, that’s effective.” Reese ruffled the boy’s hair. “How you doin’, kid?”
“Relatively all right!” Gael answered. “I just hope this is over soon.”
“Eh, I don’t foresee any issues.” Reese turned back to Joshua. “So we’ll discuss the details later. Where do you want us to go now?” He handed over the keys to what I presumed was River’s truck.
Joshua accepted them and handed over his own keys. And a Post-it note. “I wrote down the addresses here—and the potential cars. It’s Gael’s place, Dean’s address, and the lecture hall. The parking lot around there, just see if you spot any of the models I wrote down.”