Borrowed Souls (Soul Charmer #1)(89)

“Yeah?” a male voice answered.

“Have Josh say hi.”

“What’s going on?” Josh said after a second. He sounded weary, but still very much like her brother.

“Roll down the window and look up, Joshy,” Ford directed. Then he nodded to Callie and her window.

Derek’s subtle nod, the infinitesimal sign of security, was all it took for her to rush to the curtains. Her brother’s too-pale face peeked out of a black SUV in the rear of the parking lot. Callie needed several calming breaths before she was able to turn toward Ford again. He’d already ended the call. Anxiety and relief warred within her. Again. It was supposed to be over now, but her gut didn’t believe it.

Bastard gut.

She wadded her concerns and squished them beneath her stomach. Distracting emotions were best buried. She tossed the small drive onto the coffee table. It skated a few inches and stopped near the end closest to Ford. He snatched it with a scowl. She’d given him everything the police had, and he had the nerve to glower at her?

“You plugged this into the third rack, right?” He emphasized the number. Nothing like the douche who kidnapped her brother doubting her competence.

She nodded. The risk of saying the wrong words when she was so close to being done with Ford and having Josh back safely was too great.

The quick salute he gave her smacked with condescension, but it also meant they were done. “Stay here. We’ll send Josh up.” Then he turned and left.

The door snicked closed behind him.

“Creepy fucker,” Derek muttered.

Her hands were shaking, and Callie wiped a fine coat of sweat from her forehead. “Understatement.”

Derek hadn’t closed the distance between them. “You want me to stay?” He wasn’t ready to leave. “I mean, do you want some time alone with your brother?”

He wasn’t bothering to conceal his need to care for her. Another day she might analyze that, poke at why he wanted to be near her, contemplate if she was his way to atone for the dark secrets in his own life. Save the girl, make up for the bad. Today she didn’t have the energy for such drama. She’d spent years working to remain under the radar, to be the girl no one noticed. Now too many people knew her, and the stress and the fear and the pressure of it all was congealing in her stomach. Derek had reeled her in before. She’d let him keep her from the edge now, but she couldn’t afford to say all that. Yet. “Can you?”

One corner of his mouth pulled upward. “Of course.”

She’d taken a single step toward him when her front door flew open. Derek lurched around to block the man who’d burst in.

“It’s okay,” she yelped. “It’s Josh.”

It was, but it was a sickly version of her big brother. Derek released him, but remained angled between the siblings. Callie swallowed her fear.

“You okay?” Falling back on the words Derek had offered her after the break-in steadied her. Distracted her from the changes before her. Her brother had never been bulky, but he hadn’t been classified as lean either. In the weeks since she’d seen him, his face had gone gaunt and his hair, once the same rich brown as her own, was darkened to near black with grease. A raspberry scrape on his left cheek was the only mark of brightness he carried.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m going to be fine.” He’d licked his lips between every word, shooting questioning glances one after another at Derek.

“Good?” The package of anxiety she’d hidden in her stomach quivered.

“I can stay here, right?”

So much for Zara’s proclamation about Josh crashing with her. What else had her mother lied about?

“Tonight, sure.” Callie moved toward her brother with open arms, ready to hug him and let this drama be finally over with. It wasn’t though. She stopped mid-step and dropped her hands to her sides. Frost built beneath her nail beds and her hands turned icy.

“Goddamn it,” she swore.

Josh’s confusion didn’t help matters. Of course he’d used souls. Of. Fucking. Course. “You alright, Cal?”

“I’ll be fine,” she said through gritted teeth. She backed away until her hands regained warmth.

“Look, I’m going to need to stay here for awhile. Mom isn’t going to handle this well, and I need time to recover before I see her. You do kind of owe me, after all.”

Derek’s anger snapped before Callie’s could, which said something. “You want to try that again?” he rasped.

“Who is this asshole, and why’s he in your apartment?” Josh asked to Callie, and then turned to Derek. “Charmer’s business is done. You can get out, Lurch.”

“You’ve got fucking nerve, kid, I’ll give you that,” Derek said.

Callie pressed her hand against Derek’s back. He softened, and moved to her side.

“First, Derek’s a big reason as to why you’re alive and not in tiny pieces all over the city right now. Be nice. Second—”

“I’ll take care of you now. Family does that.” The same words her mom, her aunts, her cousins, and every other person in the Delgado family threw around, were now coming from Josh’s mouth. He punctuated them by reaching for her, his hands grazing her forearms before Derek shoved him away.

The hailstorm raging inside her was agony. Ice licked up to her elbows as she stumbled backward, and her skin darkened. Frostbite. Her brother had given her frostbite. The terror of the previous night, the unending worry over her temporary abilities, it all came up. Literally. Her stomach revolted. She ran to the bathroom, barely making the bowl as her stomach spasmed.