Free Taming the Boy Next Door by M. J. Carnal Page B

enough to show her she wasn’t alone.  “Holy shit.  You nearly gave me a stroke.  What are you doing?”  Andi flipped the kitchen light on and glared at her brother.  “Caleb?”
    He lifted his eyes, the green that usually sparkled with life was hollow and dim.  His face was unshaven, his hair unwashed.  He scrubbed his hand down his face and leaned back in the chair.  He was wearing the same thing she had seen him in on Monday morning.
    “Have you been here all week?  You haven’t gone to work?”  Andi rushed over to the table and sat down next to him. His eyes filled with tears.  “Caleb, you’re scaring me.”  The smell of alcohol permeated the kitchen.
    He rubbed his chest, his face in agony. “I’ve called her every hour.  I’ve sent texts.  I’ve paged her at the hospital.”  His voice was slurred.  He pushed the empty bottle of whiskey away and tried to get up.  When he failed, he groaned and rubbed his chest again.  “I feel like I’m having a heart attack.”
    “She hasn’t been at work.  She called in sick.”  Andi rubbed his arm.  “What can I do?  How can I make this better?”
    Caleb pushed himself up from the table, his tall frame knocking the chair over as he left.  It had been three days and he was already a shell of the man he had been before.  She had never seen him drink more than one drink.  When his bedroom door slammed, Andi grabbed her phone and waited patiently as it rang.
    “Moretti.”
    “Do you always answer your phone with your name?  Is it some sort of rich thing?  Because I have never answered my phone that way.”
    Mark chuckled.  The woman was a certified pain in his ass.  “Andi, you called my work phone.  What can I do for you at this late hour?”
    “I’m really worried about Caleb.  He and Jena had a fight and it was pretty serious.” 
    “Sophie says he hasn’t been at work all week.”  Mark cleared his throat.  “What was the fight about?”
    Andi picked at her scrub pants.  Mark always made her nervous.  “I don’t know what happened.  She freaked.  She was screaming and ran out of here.  Kevin drove her home and we haven’t seen or heard from either one of them since.”
    “ Where’s Caleb now?”
    “Mark, he sat at the k itchen table for hours drinking vodka and whiskey. He is hammered.  He hasn’t eaten or showered and he has now locked himself in his room.” Andi’s voice became a whisper.  “I’m worried.  He is larger than life to me.  But today, he’s completely empty.”
    A loud crash and a moan echoed from his bedroom.  Andi launched herself from the table and ran down the hallway.  She pounded on his door but there was no answer.  “Caleb?  Open the door!  Are you ok?”  He moaned again but didn’t answer.  “Mark, I’m scared.”
    “Go unlock the front door.  I texted Ryan.  He’s about five minutes away.  Take a deep breath, Andi.  Everything is going to be fine.”
    After pounding on the bedroom door a few more times, Andi paced the hallway.  She wasn’t strong enough to get in his door.  She couldn’t shake the feeling that he needed her.  She jumped as the front door slammed shut.
    “This better be an emergency, Allen.  Damnit.  I left my wife in bed for this.”  Ryan yelled the whole way down the hall.  “Open the damn door.”  He pounded.  When there was no answer, he continued yelling.  “I will break this thing down.  Answer the fucking door.”
    Andi shook her head.  “Honestly?  You’re knocking on the door?”  Ryan growled.  “That’s genius.  I never would have thought to just try knocking.”  She smirked.  “Are you growling at me?”
    “Andi, back off.  It’s late.  I’m exhausted.  Between Kevin pulling a disappearing act on me this week and now this shit, I’m not in the mood.”  Ryan took a few steps back and launched his body, shoulder first, at the door.  The wood splintered as the door opened.  “God