39. Payback
39
PAYBACK
CALEB
P retending to be dead and trying not to breathe was a difficult task. Especially having your dad, your dad’s wife who’s your ex, your hot older girlfriend and boyfriend crying and sobbing over you as the nurse (dad’s colleague) drags your body to the mortuary for the fake autopsy.
I heard Felix, Anna’s ex-husband, call her since he was living at her house and taking care of Alice. Anna had faked her sadness so well that I had to ignore the urge to stand up from the stretcher and hug her. She told him not to tell Alice yet, and she’ll tell her when she comes back home.
Which was a lie. We would catch Timothy, get his statement, and arrest him. Then I’d come back to life, confess to my lovely boyfriend and girlfriend how much I love them, and force them to move in with me so we can have raunchy sex all day and night.
Anna didn’t know it, but I already had a real estate agent looking for a huge open space for her Pilates studio near my house. I even ordered a reformer for the home gym so she can take online classes from home if she wants.
For Kyle, I knew he preferred to work from his office, so I could clear out my teenage bedroom, turn it into his home office so I could have both of them all to myself—unless Jem wanted to move in too and Alice wanted a bigger bedroom. I’d ask the real estate agent to look for a huge house. Our family would likely be expanding anyway, if Kyle and I got our way.
I had to stop my grin, thinking about our future together. Only a paper-thin sheet covered my entire body, and thankfully, I was still wearing the hospital plasticky scrubs. If I got a hard-on now, everyone would know I was very much alive and breathing. Plus, I’d scar my dad for life.
Which I should, since he had scarred me when I walked in?—
“We’ll start the post-mortem. You can wait outside,” the nurse with gruff voice said as the surrounding temperature dropped and goosebump erupted all over my body with the coldness.
It smelled like soap, detergent and scrubs, with a hint of metal in the air.
I closed my hand in a fist and calmed myself. There were cameras in the room, and I only had to wait a few minutes to half an hour before Timothy showed up. My ears strained when I was placed on the cold slab of metal with bright lights above me.
Time trickled by as I forced myself to take a slow breath. Dad’s deep voice spoke to me via the small earpiece hidden in my ear.
“Tiger. Parking lot.” Tiger was the code name for Timothy, and I braced myself for whatever he was planning to do.
Anna, Kyle and Emma were in my room, acting sad while Dad was in the surveillance room with the few of his colleagues hiding in the hospital. Elena, his boss, had provided us with extra manpower.
“Tiger is approaching,” Dad’s voice rang through the earpiece, a slight robotic gruff to it. “Be ready, Caleb.”
My adrenaline was building up when the door opened, and Timothy sneaked in. He had paid the receptionist extra to keep it quiet, and cops were waiting outside his shitty house with the search warrant as soon as we arrested him here.
I held my breath when heavy footsteps moved around the metal table I was on. I kept my eyes closed when the cloth was lifted off me.
I was glad Emma had come prepared. She and Anna had applied makeup to make me look paler. I had wrinkled my mouth with disgust when I saw my reflection in the mirror, but Kyle teased me I looked like a handsome vampire.
Maybe I can roleplay as Edward Cullen or Carlisle Cullen for him in the future .
“Jesus,” Timothy said, his voice scratchy. I could feel his eyes on me as he moved around before he dropped the cloth back in place, covering my face. “Definitely dead.”
I heard him type something into his cellphone, and a moment later he was chuckling. “Shouldn’t have fucked a young kid. Look where he ended up, all because of a dumb bitch.”
My hand clenched hearing him. Calm down, Caleb. Don’t fuck this up.
He was whistling, and just when he was about to walk out, I slipped off the table as quietly as I could, my vision clearing to his back in dark leather.
“Caleb,” Dad’s voice rang out. “What the fuck are you doin?—”
I grabbed a scalpel and removed the earpiece before tailing him. He opened the door, but I pushed it close, locking it. His shriek came up short when I pinned him on the door, pointing the sharp end of the scalpel to his double chin.
“You’re dead!” He shrieked, eyes wide.
“Who’s a dumb bitch now?” I said, raising my brow and shifted to pin my elbow on his neck and pulled out his phone from his pocket. “Who were you texting?”
“I’ll kill you!” he roared, and I was pushed back by his weight and covered my head when he punched me—and missed.
I chuckled. “You already tried, and here I am.” I spread my arms wide with a grin and winked at him. “Very much alive and laughing at you.”
He groaned out a curse before pouncing on me, and I dodged him with a small smile.
Time for payback.
Two minutes later, I wiped my knuckles on the scrubs and unlocked the door as my dad and cops stormed in with their guns and body armor.
“Why the hell is there so much blood?” one of them said and looked at me.
I pointedly ignored the glare I was feeling from my dad and blinked innocently, “H-he attacked me, officer.”
My dad scoffed before holding my neck from the back and dragging me out of the room as if I was a kitten. “Dad—Dad, stop it, my hand slipped and—ow!”
I pouted when he sat me down on a chair and seethed, “You put your hands on the suspect?—”
“He tried to punch me first.”
“Because you provoked him!” He had a vein popping on his forehead, and I was sure my neck was straining too by the amount of control I had not to kill that motherfucker.
“He stalked her for months, took naked pictures of us, almost got her killed and you want me to sit by and do nothing?” I asked, standing up from the chair and leveling his stare. “I want to go back there and kill him for what he did.”
“I know that,” he said, his voice soft, and I blinked, realizing he was in the same position as me years ago. Of course, he understood how I felt.
I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. “What happened with the house warrant?”
He nodded, knowing I had calmed down. “They’ll pass it as soon as we find evidence in his phone.” He looked at me and said, “Go get some rest.”
I met his dark eyes, similar to mine, and said, “As soon as this is over, I will.”
Before I could walk out of the hallway, he called my name. I turned around as my dad softened his eyes. “Don’t go around beating people up. You don’t know if they have any weapon.”
“Yeah,” I lied with an easy smile. “I won’t do it again.”
I would do it if they planned to hurt the people I love. And I knew he could see it on my face that I was lying.
I was his son, after all. We would kill for the people we love.