Chapter 35 Cal
Cal
I’m helpless to give my wife everything she wants.
It’s why we’re committing, why I left her barely clothed, tied up in an abandoned warehouse half an hour outside the city limits.
I scoped the place out for a filming location a few years ago, and while the script that the film was tied to has been in limbo due to the writer’s strike and financing issues, I kept the location in mind.
It’s secluded, set back from the road, and the only other business in the area is a fishing shack that sells bait and tackle for those who wish to go fishing on the lake buried at the back corner of the property.
I despise leaving her there, vulnerable. My head fills with a million horrors, all the ways that this idea can go wrong before we even set the plan into motion.
“I know this is what you said you want.” I swallow, pressing my forehead against hers so that I can hide the terror making my stomach churn. “But tell me one more time. If you’re even a little hesitant, we can call it off. I’ll make popcorn; we can find a horror movie to stream…”
“You’re scared.” She laughs, her eyes searching mine.
Even in the darkness, she can see it.
“I won’t let anything happen to you.” I promise her. “You’re fucking mine. My wife.”
It’s the most incredible thing I never knew I needed.
Her lips twitch at that. It was a financial decision, as far as she’s concerned. She wanted to help secure me the funding I need, and I want the money, too. But being married to her? Having the privilege of calling this beautiful, terrifying, incredible woman my wife?
She asked that we not do anything ostentatious, given that she has no family to celebrate with, and once the idea had been proposed, I was desperate to commit as soon as possible…
before she could come to her senses and back out.
We expedited everything we needed to replace the documents that had been lost when she was kidnapped, given that the man I had to go check on her apartment assured me that everything had been turned out and a small family was living there.
It’s amazing, though, how quickly you can get everything into line when you’re willing to pay a premium.
We married in the park, with lots of confused onlookers strolling by in their workout attire with their picnic baskets. Katrina was her bridesmaid, Dex was my best man, and it was perfect. She looked like heaven, an absolute fucking angel.
Until now, we haven’t left the house in days and the bed in hours. We wouldn’t have either. I want to take her to Bora Bora, where it can be just the two of us in a hut on the water. We could live there, if she likes it enough.
But Thursday rolled around, and Amber didn’t want to deviate from the plan. She wants justice for herself, for Katrina—who she’s become surprisingly cordial with given what a unique dynamic they have—and for every person who’s been affected by Garrett and his shitty friends.
“I’m not afraid, Cal.” She says calmly. “You are.”
Damn right, I’m scared.
I’m fucking terrified, actually. Terrified that things will go wrong, that she’ll get hurt, that I’ll lose her.
When she suggested this, it had sounded like a win-win. I get to sate the beast with bloodshed and violence, take out my competitor who is a genuine piece of shit, and she gets to see revenge served upon men who’d hurt her, given the chance.
I had my regrets when I let Garrett come to the basement of the theater, which is why I stopped him before he could fuck her.
But I can’t come up with any sort of excuse to prevent it from happening tonight, which means I have to let him think he’s getting away with it.
Then, I have to dispose of him quickly and quietly so that the others don’t figure it out.
It feels like a suicide mission.
It’s fucking insane.
I will be outnumbered. The only advantage I have is the element of surprise.
And my beast has been clawing at the very idea of it, too possessed with the need to slay them all. There’s no going back; I can sense that. Even if we didn’t do this in this way, people would die tonight.
I need to kill.
“I’m scared you’ll get hurt.” I admit. “And that you’ll hate me for letting you do this.”
Feeling things like this is new to me. It’s like walking around with my chest open so that anyone can reach out and pull my insides from me. I don’t think I like feeling fear. My little doll, on the other hand, seems to enjoy it.
“I’m an adult.” She says calmly. “And a mostly free woman. I can decide what risks I’m willing to take. You promised me you’d help me get justice where there is none. Are you trying to back out of that promise now?”
I shake my head against hers, breathing her in. She smells clean and sweet. She’s too fucking precious to be here, let alone to be left here by herself with the raccoons and spiders that have made this place their home.
“I’ve been hurt before.” She reminds me. I don’t need that reminder. It’s obvious in the way she so readily and dauntlessly offers her body as a sacrifice. “Really badly. And I’m still here.”
My temple, a place for other men to desecrate.
I don’t fucking think so.
No self-respecting man would let the woman he loves take a risk like this, but on my life, another man will never touch her without her consent again. If she wants to put herself on the line, I’ll let her lure men to their own graves. But they will never fucking experience her.
My little doll doesn’t help me control my beast.
She controls me.
She owns me.
It may be my home we live in, but that doesn’t mean that I’m the one who holds the power between us.
It’s her.
That’s why we’re going through with this, why I have her arms tied down at her sides, why she’s lying like a sacrifice in the center of this crumbling room.
“How are you so calm?” I murmur, pressing my head against her chest to marvel at the way it rises slowly, steadily.
“Because the time to worry isn’t when you’re standing on the battlefield.” Her lips tip into a smile. “I’ll be fine. I can handle anything they throw at me.”
I nod because I don’t doubt that she can. But the truth is, I have no idea who I’m going to be bringing into her life. It doesn’t matter that it’s going to be brief… I’m still introducing a bright spot into their last moments, which should be full of nothing but pain and suffering.
“I love you.” I tell her. “And I know that scares you. You don’t have to say it back. But I’ll keep saying it until you’re ready to say it back or until I say it with my last breath.”
She doesn’t speak, but her lip wobbles a bit, and she blinks, refocusing her attention on the ceiling above her.
I know I’ve lost her then, as she slips away into her mind, the safe space where nothing can hurt her because it won’t compare to the rest of what she’s been through.
Watching her dissociate again makes my stomach burn, and I decide that when we get home tonight, I’m going to make her give me a list.
I want names, and I will find every last one of them.
Maybe one day, she will feel safe enough around me to not have to disappear again. Maybe one day I will earn the right to have her full presence at all times. Maybe one day, she will love me.
That day isn’t today, but I’m okay with that.
I’m a patient man, and she’s a treasure worth waiting for.
The poker game takes place in the back of a dingy strip club, the neon letters burnt out around the O in the name Nova. It’s an apt sign, given that I’m pretty sure the dancers here are less focused on performing and more focused on delivering orgasms to their clients.
There’s a brunette in full bondage beneath the table, leather straps crossing her tits and a collar around her neck.
The ring gag in her mouth ensures she’s available to service the men, who take turns shoving her back and forth beneath the grainy wood tabletop.
As Garrett introduces me to his buddies, the one he calls Kev winds her hair in his fist and uses it to slam her head over his cock.
I hear a sickening crunch before he cries out like a little bitch as he comes, lifting his hips to force himself deeper into her as he unleashes himself.
I see the blood pouring out from what I can only assume is her broken nose, and my beast stirs in his cage, anger and excitement at the impending violence.
I’ll be sure to break Kev’s nose tonight, just for that.
“Go get cleaned up.” Garrett tells her, looking at her scornfully as she wobbles to her knees, trying to cup the blood flow before it can spill all over the marled wood floor.
“You brought a boyfriend, huh, Wilkinson?”
“I brought a… business partner.” Garrett says, looking to me for confirmation. “My friend here has procured some very fine pussy. I figured I’d see if any of you were interested before we made this offer to the type of men you don’t want to be Eskimo brothers with.”
One of the guys, whom I think Garrett introduced to me as Jenko, grunts a laugh. He's a lumbering man, even sitting back in his chair with the cards fanned out before his face.
“Why pay for pussy when I can take it whenever I want it for free?”
“Maybe because we're not talking about the back-alley whores who will fuck anything for a buck.” Garrett shrugs.
“You may just take what you want, but you're not exactly stealing premium product.
It's like a petty thief hotwiring a Honda when there are plenty of Ferraris left unattended.
You pay the right person, they'll let you take the Ferrari for a spin.”
Jenko blows out a puff of smoke, the cigarette dangling between his fingers. “Who's this pussy belong to that it's considered premium?”
“Me.” I say coldly.
That earns a laugh from a few of them.
“And who are you?” Kev’s lip twitches, like he finds me more amusing than he wants me to know.
I’m your fucking demise.
“I'm Callum Kensington.” I tell him smoothly. No sense in lying. He won't live long enough to tell anyone. I turn to the old man next to him. “I believe you know my father. Old friends?”