The Lies That Bind

29: The Road to Hell

Vincent frowned over at him. "He wants you to do something for him?"

Cooper shook his head. "Not me. Calla." He shrugged. "Guess he thought I'd be the most effective way to drive the message home."

"Fuck." Vincent scraped a hand through his hair. "I'm guessing I don't want to know about this...thing Michaels wants done."

"Nope."

"Alright." Vincent nodded to himself. "Okay."

Cooper couldn't quite mask his surprise. "You're taking this surprisingly well."

"Yeah, well." He drank deeply. Sighed. "I already knew Michaels was bad news. Steph made it pretty clear he was gonna come after us eventually."

Cooper could only grunt in agreement. His hand drifted to the phone in his pocket. It wasn't like Calla to go out of her way to keep Vincent in the know. He couldn't help but wonder why she'd done it.

Maybe I freaked her out with the whole "I love you" thing. Cooper flushed at the memory.

When he pulled out his phone, there were no new messages from her.

"Don't get on Calla's case for telling me," Vincent broke in, eyeing the way Cooper stared grumpily down at his phone. "She's worried about you. I think she wants me to look out for you." He snorted. "As if I wouldn't have done that already. But...it's good to be prepared. Michaels isn't going to take us by surprise like that a second time."

I wouldn't be so sure. Cooper placed his phone on the coffee table. "She can worry about me all she wants. I'm worried about her."

Her and that temper.

He needed to call her. Beg her not to do anything rash. He was fine, really. There was no need to go rushing off into the sunset with a bloody ax.

"Calla can take care of herself," Vincent muttered, grabbing the controllers for their gaming console from the coffee table. "Hell, she's taking care of herself and us." He frowned in Cooper's direction. "Not that she's doing all that good of a job of it—"

"She's not God," Cooper said, exasperated. "She can't be everywhere at once."

"Well, she's the one who said she was, and I quote, working on it, and if you ask me she needs to work a little harder before we all get fucking killed." He passed Cooper a controller. "Honestly, I don't really wanna think about it right now or else I'll start screaming, and then that'll piss off Billy and we'll have a real situation on our hands."

Cooper chuckled despite his foul mood. "I say we lock Billy and Michaels in a room. See what happens."

Vincent glanced sideways at him.

"What?" Cooper demanded. Not in the mood to be handled.

"Nothing," he hedged, redirecting his attention to the TV. He ran his thumb absently over his controller's toggle. "Just..."

"Spit it out."

"Dude, listen to yourself. What's got you so wound up?"

Cooper grumbled a low curse under his breath. "I was just knocked unconscious. Cut me some slack."

"That's not it." Moments like these made Cooper hate how well Vincent knew him. "It's something else."

He so didn't want to talk about this. But he also worried he might implode if he didn't. Gritting his teeth, Cooper spat, "I told Calla I love her, and she hasn't said it back yet." The weight roosting in his chest lessened somewhat. "Not that it matters. I sorta blurted it after she found me unconscious in her apartment—"