Beyond Broken (The Bay Boys #3) (22 page)

“It was true then?” she whispered, her throat closing up, eyes suddenly stinging.

“Get out,” he said lowly.

“Caleb—”

“I said, get the fuck out!”

Maddie let out a shuddering breath, the paper invoice still clutched in her hand, and then she turned and fled before he could see her cry yet again.

TWENTY

Rage.

Rage and memories and that hot, desperate feeling whenever he saw his bedroom door open in the middle of the night swarmed Caleb until he put his hands to his head and crouched on the dirty floor of the garage.
 
His breaths came out fast until they were like sobs scratching at his throat.

Caleb wasn’t proud of it, but he immediately stood up and stumbled over the wood cabinet on the far wall of the garage.
 
His uncle had liked his whiskey.
 
Many nights were passed in this very garage where they’d both had a wrench in one hand, a tumbler of amber liquid in the other.

The bottles were all still there since Caleb hadn’t had the heart to move them.
 
Like a morbid shrine, they sat glittering in the fluorescent light and Caleb reached in and grabbed the fullest one.
 
And then he took a long, burning sip.

The whiskey raced a fiery path down his throat and warmed his insides.
 
He took another and then another until the panic slowly receded.
 
It didn’t disappear entirely, but it was more manageable.

Caleb had always tried not to turn to alcohol whenever he felt a panic attack coming on.
 
He was afraid that he might become dependent on it, but at the moment, he hardly cared.
 
He felt like getting drunk, until Maddie’s words washed away from his mind, right along with the memories.

You don’t remember me, do you
?

Caleb gave a bitter laugh and it echoed in the empty garage.

Oh, he remembered her, all right.
 
Now
he did.
 
He hadn’t realized that the same girl he’d sat with that afternoon had been Maddie, sure, but he remembered the girl she’d described.
 
He thought about her on occasion…remembered her glittering eyes and the tragic sadness etched, seemingly, into her entire body.
 
Had he known she was Thomas’ sister?
 
No.
 
He simply hadn’t made the connection.

But the worst thing was that she knew.
 
She knew his darkest secret, made not-so-secret by his bitch of an ex-girlfriend, who’d betrayed his trust in exchange for a juicy piece of gossip for her friends.
 
The rumor had spread like wild fire around the campus.
 
Everyone knew.
 
It got so bad that Caleb had to finish the last two weeks of high school at home, although his uncle had never known about it.
 
He hadn’t been able to set foot inside that school without heavy stares and whispers.
 
He’d stayed home instead of going to his graduation ceremony, feigning illness so his uncle wouldn’t suspect anything.

He took another pull from the whiskey.

So many lies, when all he’d really needed was to tell one truth.

Another pull.

Another pull.

Another pull.

*
   
*
   
*

Maddie didn’t go home.

She stared at the door of the office for two hours straight, wondering if Caleb would return.
 
But he never did.
 
Slowly, she heard the men below leave, until she was sure only Brian and Peter were left, like usual.
 
When the clock eventually slid to eight o’clock, there was still no sign of Caleb.

She’d gotten very little work done, unable to stop thinking about what happened in the garage.
 
Every time she pictured that resignation on his face, she wanted to vomit.
 
The horrible things he must’ve gone through…

Maddie finally shut down the laptop, knowing that she’d wasted the evening.
 
Realizing that she wouldn’t be able to go home tonight without knowing that Caleb was all right, or as all right as he could possibly be, she ventured downstairs, nodding at Brian, before making her way back to the second garage.
 
She felt guilty for bringing up the past.
 
The least she could do was apologize.

At first, Maddie thought that Caleb wasn’t there.
 
The overhead light was still on, the harsh florescent lighting illuminating the heap of metal on blocks, but there was no sign of him.
 
At least until she heard a clink of glass and a clumsy curse.

Maddie hesitantly stepped towards the noise, rounding the front of the car, and peered into a darkened corner of the building.
 
And there he was: slouched against the wall, one knee bent, one leg stretched out in front of him, a half empty bottle of alcohol dangling from his loose fingers.

“Caleb…”
 
Her heart throbbed and she crouched down in front of him.
 
“Why don’t you give me that?” she suggested, reaching for the bottle in his hands.
 
It was whiskey.
 
She wondered how much he’d had in the past couple hours.

A lot
, judging by the look of him.
 
His eyes were glassy, hair messy, cheeks flushed.
 
He stared at her and then groaned, pushing a hand to his eyes.

“Oh, Caleb,” she said, biting her lip.

“Everything’s spinning,” he slurred.

“I bet.”

Maddie looked around, wondering what she should do, feeling responsible for his current state.
 
It was getting late, but he was obviously in no condition to drive home.
 
She briefly debated letting him stay in the office, but the idea saddened her.
 
She hated seeing his jacket balled into a pillow and that ratty old blanket sprawled on the floor.

“Stay here, I’ll be right back,” she told him, setting the bottle of whiskey on the work bench.
 
She hurried back to the main garage and, thankfully, Brian was still there, cleaning off his tools.

“Brian,” she started, “it’s Caleb.”

“What is it?” the older man asked, frowning.

“He’s drunk.”

“What?”

“He had a bottle of whiskey.
 
I don’t know where he got it, but it looks like he’s been at it for a while.”

Brian sighed, rubbing his temple.
 
“Probably from John’s old stash.
 
I’d wondered if he got rid of it.”

“He can’t drive in this state.
 
He’s—” her throat tightened and she bit her lip to keep it from trembling.
 
“He’s not…”

“It’s okay, sweetie,” Brian told her softly.
 
“Let me help you with him.
 
He can sleep it off in the office.”

“I—I think I’d rather take him home, Brian,” she said, looking down to the floor of the garage.
 
“We argued earlier.
 
I feel partly responsible.
 
It would make me feel more comfortable, knowing he was safely home.”

“I don’t know,” Brian started hesitantly.
 
“He might not want to wake up there.”

“Please, Brian.
 
I…” her voice hitched, “I
hate
it when he sleeps in that office.”

The older man sighed.
 
“I do too,” was his quiet reply.
 
“All right.
 
We’ll get him to your car.
 
But if he asks, this was your idea.”

“Deal.”

Together, they rounded the corner of the garage and walked past the employee break area.
 
When Brian saw Caleb, he whistled.
 
“Now, Caleb, I’m impressed.
 
How much did you
drink
?”

“Fuck off,” Caleb groaned.

Brian heaved him to his feet with a grunt and supported him with an arm around his waist.
 
Maddie felt helpless, but Brian seemed to be able to handle Caleb’s weight all by himself.

“Go get your car ready,” Brian told her and she nodded, hurrying ahead in front of the two men.
 
Maddie pushed the passenger seat back as far as it would go and turned on the ignition to blast the heater.
 
When they reached the car, Brian unloaded Caleb, as gently as possible, into the seat and Maddie reached over and buckled him in.
 
Caleb’s bleary eyes connected with hers for a brief moment before he shut them.

“His house keys should be on his desk,” Brian told her, even though she’d already known that.
 
“I’ll watch him while you go get your things.”

Maddie retrieved Caleb’s keys when she arrived back up at the office and snagged her purse and jacket before flicking off the light switch.
 
She’d only been gone a couple minutes but Caleb appeared to have passed out when she returned.

Brian gave her Caleb’s address, a suburb in Martinez not far from where she’d gone to school, and she plugged it into her phone for directions.

“Thanks, Brian,” she said.
 
“I’ll make sure he gets home safe.”

“You do that, sweetie,” the older man told her, eyeing Caleb in the passenger seat.
 
Then he looked at her and his features softened.
 
“I don’t know what’s happenin’ between you two, but I will say that I’m glad for whatever is.
 
He needs someone like you in his life, you know?
 
Someone lovin’ and stable and, most of all, patient.
 
And don’t you let him scare you off.
 
He puts on a mean front, but he’s not that person underneath.”

Maddie thought over his words and then glanced at the man sleeping soundly next to her.
 
His features were relaxed, possibly the most relaxed she’d ever seen them.
 
He wasn’t scowling or furrowing his brow.
 
All the lines on his face were smooth and soft and it made her heart ache.

“Well, he hasn’t scared me off yet,” she finally told Brian, trying not to feel as hopeful as his words made her feel.

When she pulled up to a single story house in an upper middle class neighborhood after following the directions to the letter, she couldn’t help but be surprised because Caleb only lived about five minutes away from her mom’s house, the house she’d grown up in.
 
Of course, it made sense, considering that they both went to the same high school together.

So, was this the house he’d lived in during school?
 
Was this his uncle’s house?
 
The house where…

She didn’t want to think about that, so she pushed the thoughts from her mind and pulled into the driveway, parking as close as she possibly could to the front door.
 
Caleb easily had fifty or sixty pounds on her.
 
It would take a miracle for her to get him inside if he was dead weight, so she reached over and brushed a lock of hair away that fell into his eyes.

“Caleb,” she said, softly.
 
“Caleb.”

Maddie jostled his shoulder, feeling the hard muscle there.
 
His t-shirt sleeve rode up a bit and she paused, staring down at the exposed skin.
 
Dark swirls of ink peeked out before disappearing under the hem.

When she pushed at his shoulder harder, he came awake suddenly, panic flaring in his gaze as he looked around him like a spooked—albeit sluggish—animal.

“It’s okay,” Maddie soothed, keeping her voice steady.
 
“It’s me.
 
I’m just taking you home.”

His eyes shot to hers and he seemed confused.
 
“Maddie?”

“Yes,” she whispered.
 
She cut the engine and there was silence.
 
“I can’t lug you to the door myself.
 
Do you think you can walk?”

His head lolled around his shoulders but he nodded.
 
He reached for the car door, but then realized he was buckled in.
 
Maddie watched as he fumbled with the release button until she finally reached down to help him.

She shot out of the car as he heaved himself to a standing position and she hurried around the front to steady him so he wouldn’t stumble and fall.
 
Because all she needed right now was for him to get hurt.
 
That would just be the cherry on top of her night.

Hesitantly, she wrapped an arm around his waist, wondering how he’d react, but the moment she touched him, he leaned into her.
 
Stumbling to balance herself under his sudden weight, she huffed out a breath and slowly walked to the door.
 
His body was like a furnace, blood rushing because of the alcohol.
 
But even under the smell of whiskey, she smelled
him
and that comforted her.

Caleb was clumsy and once Maddie led him up the pathway to the front door, he collapsed in a heavy heap by a dead potted plant, leaning his head against the stucco wall and closing his eyes.

“Caleb,” she said, crouching down in front of him.
 
“Don’t go to sleep.
 
We’re not inside yet.”

He mumbled something that sounded like, “I’m not,” but she couldn’t be sure.
 
Quickly, she dug out Caleb’s key from her purse.
 
There were only four keys attached to the simple silver ring: his car key and three silver ones.
 
She slid them all, one-by-one, into his front door until the last one finally turned the lock and she pushed open the heavy wood door.

An alarm blared from the inside, making Caleb jolt awake.

“Crap,” Maddie whispered, hurrying inside.
 
Right next to the door there was a keypad to turn off the alarm.
 
“Caleb, what’s the code?”
 
He groaned.
 
“Caleb!”
 
A visit from the police would also be fantastic.