9. Callie
CALLIE
I have never been soscared in my life. Fear is all I can think about as the two burly men on either side of me drag me into an abandoned warehouse. My hands are tied behind my back and there is duct tape over my mouth, rendering me even more helpless than I already am.
Everything happened so quickly, I didn’t even have a chance to scream. When I rounded the corner at the restaurant and saw the driver dead, someone grabbed me from behind before a scream could rip from my throat.
Why would anyone do this, and why in the world did they take me?
The worst possible scenarios run rampant in my mind. Human trafficking is on the very top of that list.
“Move it, slut,” one of the men growls when I can’t keep up with their long strides.
We stop at the end of a wide hallway, in front of a door, which the man to the right of me unlocks and opens. They push me into the dark room, and I barely manage to stay on my feet. I stumble into the dingy space just as the door slams shut behind me. The lock engages with a loud click that echoes through the room eerily.
It takes my eyes a few moments to adjust to the darkness. There is no window, but some light comes through the cracks of the door and that’s enough to illuminate the room slightly. It’s empty beside a mattress on the floor in the center of the space.
A chill runs down my spine, and my knees are about to give out from fear. There is no way I’m going anywhere near that mattress. Instead, I walk to the corner of the room and carefully lower myself to sit on the floor.
My mind is filled with terror, making it hard to think. I just hope Talon is okay. I hope they didn’t hurt him. No, I can’t think about that. I’m sure he is fine. I have myself to worry about now.
For a while, I try to wiggle out of my restraints, but all I manage is to dig the cable ties deeper into my skin until I feel blood dripping down my hands. Defeated, I give up and let the tears freely run down my face.
I don’t know how long I sit here, but it feels like an eternity until the sound of footsteps approach. Gathering all my strength, I push myself off the ground to stand up. I make it to my feet just as the door unlocks and swings open.
Light floods in from the hallway into my cell and blinds me for a moment. I squint my eyes just as I hear a somewhat familiar voice.
“Well, hello there, little Ricci whore.”
I blink my eyes open to see the same man we ran into earlier. Talon’s old friend, Anthony Moreno. Shock grabs hold of me, and I stand there, stunned. Even if my mouth wasn’t covered with duct tape, I wouldn’t be able to get a word out past the giant lump in my throat.
“I see the confusion on your face. I guess you really don’t know who I am? Do you even know who you married, or did he lie to you about that too?” Tony steps closer, and I wish I could step back, but the solid wall is behind me.
“Here, let me get this off so I can hear you scream,” he says before closing the distance between us. He lifts his hand, peeling off the corner of the tape, he rips is off my lips uncaringly.
I suck in a shuttered breath through my mouth. “I don’t understand,” I croak.
“So you’re dumb too, whore?” He chuckles. “The Ricci family is the largest crime organization in the city. Your dear husband is a criminal and so am I. Unfortunately for you, I want what Talon has, and you, my little whore, are the perfect bargaining chip.”
Talon is a criminal?No. That can’t be. Thoughts run through my mind like a tornado, analyzing all the interactions I’ve had with my husband. He told me he has many businesses… the restaurant was his. Did he lie to me about that or are his businesses just a front for what he is really doing?
“I don’t believe you,” I whisper.
The back of his hand hits my cheek so hard my head snaps to the side and stars float across my vision.
“Are you calling me a liar, slut?” Tony spits. “Maybe I need to teach you a little lesson?”
Fear overwhelms me as he grabs hold of my upper arm and drags me to the mattress on the floor. He kicks my legs out from under me and throws me onto the dirty mattress. Since my hands are still tied behind my back, I have no way of defending myself. Tears run down my cheek as I beg him.
“Please don’t do this. Just let me go! Please.”
“Save your begging for when my cock is buried in your cunt. I want to see what’s so special about you. Maybe we can take a little video and send it to your husband as an incentive.”
A new kind of bone-chilling fear spreads through my body and, despite my bleeding wrists, I pull on the restraints with all my might. I can’t let this happen. I can’t let this man rape me.
Despite my desperate tries to slip out of the cable ties, my hands remain bound behind my back as Tony gets on top of me. Straddling me, he rips off the strap on my sundress. I scream so loud my ears ring, but that only seems to egg him on more.
He laughs as he pulls down my dress, exposing my lace bra. “You do have some nice tits,” he growls, grabbing my breasts with both of his hands.
Tears make my vision blurry, as I can’t hold them back any longer. “Fuck you!” I scream, but that only makes him slap me again.
“Watch your mouth, whore! Do you think you are better than me?”
“You’re a monster.”
“I’m no more of a monster than your husband,” he says, while grinding his hard bulge against my crotch.
Bile rises in my throat as his hands roam my body. Squeezing my eyes shut, I try to go somewhere else, imagining I’m not here. It doesn’t work. The smell of Tony’s aftershave is too potent to imagine my happy place.
“Open your eyes, slut,” he yells, grabbing my face between his hands.
I shake my head as much as I can in his grip.
Just when I think I’m about to experience the most traumatic event of my life, a loud explosion somewhere in the building rocks the floor. Tony jumps up, leaving me on the mattress, catching my breath.
“Fuck,” he mumbles as he rushes to the door.
“Boss! We’re under attack,” someone yells from down the hall.
“Fucking Ricci,” Tony spits, pulling a gun from the back of his pants. “I’ll kill him myself. Stay here with this bitch.”
No! Not Talon. Please don’t let him die.
“Yes, sir,” the man agrees, walking into the room.
Another explosion erupts, followed by rapid gunfire. It sounds like a machine gun of sorts. I can’t think. All I can do is be scared. Scared for me and scared for Talon. Could it really be that Tony was telling the truth? Could Talon be involved with the mob? I don’t have time to think about this now. Not when I’m at the edge of a war zone, or at least that’s what it sounds like from here.
The man who is supposed to watch me stands at the door, looking nervous as hell. He is holding a gun in his hand, pointing it to the ground as he starts to pace the room. He doesn’t look at me, ignoring me like I’m not even here.
As the gunfire grows closer, the man becomes more nervous. His pacing speeds up, and I notice his hands shaking. He is scared, and that frightens me even more. The door is slightly ajar, and the man sporadically takes a peek outside.
“Fuck!” He suddenly says, before backing away from the door. He drops the gun on the floor and lifts his hands up in the air in a defensive manner.
Before I realize what’s happening, the door flies open and three men in tactical gear storm inside.
“I swear I didn’t touch her,” my captor says.
“I don’t care.” Talon’s familiar voice meets my ear before it’s drowned out by the loud bang of his gun.
A scream rips from my throat as I watch a bullet hit the man between the eyes. His body crumbles to the ground like a rag doll, landing on the floor only a few feet from me.
My eyes are wide in fear, glued to the very dead man next to me.
“Callie!” Talon yells, kneeling down beside me on the mattress. He lays his gun beside me, so his hands are free to roam my body as if he is looking for injuries.
“Are you okay, baby? Did they hurt you? I swear to God, if anyone touched you, they will pay dearly. Callie, talk to me,” Talon coos, but I’m too stunned by everything to get a single word out.
All I can do is shake my head. This can’t be real. I just watched Talon kill this man like it was nothing. He doesn’t even care that he just shot a guy. Tony was telling the truth, I realize. My husband is a criminal. I open my mouth, but no sound comes out.
Talon pulls a knife from his boot and cuts the cable ties around my wrists. Pain radiates from my arms all the way through my shoulders as I bring my hands to the front of my body to cover myself up. Talon shrugs off his jacket and drapes it over my shoulders before picking me up and lifting me into his arms.
I don’t want to take comfort in the man who lied to me, the man who is a criminal and a killer, but right now, all I can do is close my eyes and bury my face in his chest to cry.
“It’s all right. I’ve got you now. Everything is going to be okay.” He whispers sweet nothings, but I know better. I know nothing is ever going to be okay.
Talon carries me out of the building and into one of his cars. He holds me in silence all the way back to the house. Normal people would go to the police or maybe even the hospital to get checked out, but my husband simply goes home.
When we get to the house, I let him carry me out of the car and into the house. We go up the stairs to our bedroom, where Talon gently lays me down on the bed.
“I’m so sorry you got mixed up in this. I never wanted you to?—”
“Know the truth?” I finish for him.
He sighs deeply before sitting down on the bed. “I was going to tell you the truth eventually, but I wanted to enjoy our time together for a little bit longer without burning you with all of my shit.”
“You lied to me.” A single tear runs down my cheek.
“I know, and I’m sorry.” His apology seems genuine, but it doesn’t change what he is.
“You are a criminal.”
His lips press into a tight line. “Yes.”
“You kill people.” I shudder.
“Only if I have to.” That’s a lie.
“You didn’t have to kill the guy earlier.”
“Yes, I did. They took you, put you in a cell on a dirty mattress. I had to kill everyone involved,” Talon says in his matter-of-fact way.
I sigh. He doesn’t understand. “I don’t know if I can do this,” I whisper.
“Do what?”
“Stay here… with you. Knowing what I know now. I don’t know if I can be your wife. I don’t know if I can be part of this life,” I say honestly.
For the first time since I’ve known Talon, he looks shocked and speechless, as if he can’t believe I would consider leaving him, and for a moment, I wonder if he is going to let me go at all.
A few seconds of silence pass before he composes himself. “I understand you need some time and space. I’m willing to give that to you.”
This time, I sigh in relief. “Thank you.”
“No need to thank me. Just do me a favor and stay here one last night. I’ll take the guest room, but I want you to sleep here so I can make sure you’re okay. I’ll take you back to your apartment tomorrow morning.”
“Okay,” I agree.
One last night won’t hurt me. If I’m being honest, I don’t want to be alone right now, anyway.