19. Callie
Callie
The seven-day deadline my mother gave me comes and goes.
She never tried to contact me again, which surprised me after how adamant she was about me returning home with her. We are rapidly approaching the end of the second week, and I can’t help but feel I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Blake isn’t taking any risks, not when it comes to my safety. Even if he isn’t able to be with me himself, like today, one of his men is assigned to me for protection at all times. This is how I find myself in the car with Kellen, arguing about Justin Bieber, of all things.
“You can’t be serious!” I laugh as he drives us back home to the loft after taking me to pick up my latest box of goodies to test.
“What? You have to admit some of his stuff is catchy,” he protests with a laugh of his own.
“I think we should keep this between us, Kellen,” I tease. “If the guys find out, they will revoke your man card.”
“Oh, please, some of them are worse than me. Ask Arlo about his Britney fetish. He must have watched her videos a hundred times,” he protests.
“Watched or listened to?”
“Watched. Why does that make a difference? It’s still Britney coming from the speakers of his laptop, singing about a slave or some shit when I walk past.”
I shake my head at how dense he’s being. “I love Britney but I guarantee you he’s not watching Britney for her musical genius, Kellen. How have you never seen the ‘Slave for You’ video?”
He looks at me in confusion, making me burst out laughing as my phone rings.
I slide it out of my pocket as Kellen turns down the radio, silencing Justin Bieber’s voice and the whole reason for the prior conversation.
I frown, not recognizing the number, but it’s local so I answer anyway. “Hello.”
“Hello, is this Miss Ward?”
I frown. “Yes, this is she.”
“My name is Claire Sutton. I’m a nurse at the St. Vincent’s Medical Center. I’m sorry to tell you this, but your mother has been admitted with some serious injuries after being in a car accident today. She’s sedated now, but she managed to give us your details earlier.”
“What?” I don’t say anything else. I don’t even know what to say.
“If you could come down and fill out some paperwork, that would help us out a lot.”
“I… Okay, sure,” I answer, because what else can I do?
“Thank you, Miss Ward. When you get here, make your way straight up to the ICU on the fourth floor.”
I hang up the phone and stare at it, feeling strangely disconnected.
“What is it? What’s going on, Callie?” Kellen asks from beside me.
“That was the hospital. My mom’s been in a car crash,” I tell him, my voice sounding robotic and void of emotion. I feel nothing. My mom is in the hospital, shouldn’t I feel something?
“What? Fuck . Is she okay?” Kellen questions, turning the car around sharply. “Which hospital is she at?”
“She’s at St. Vincent’s,” I say quietly, trying to make sense of what I’m supposed to do now. I’d washed my hands of her, labeled her in my brain as a persona non grata, and now, all of a sudden, she needs me, so I’m supposed to pick up the pieces and form them into something salvageable?
“She’ll be okay, Callie,” Kellen reassures me, mistaking my quietness for worry.
I don’t answer him. What can I possibly say without sounding selfish?
Thirty minutes later, he pulls up at the hospital, slipping into a parking space behind someone who just pulled out. Our car comes to a stop for all of two seconds before we find ourselves shunted forward when something collides with us from behind. The force of the impact has me jerking forward, my head smacking into the dashboard with a thud that makes my ears ring.
“What the hell?” Kellen yells, turning to look at me. “You okay?”
I nod and watch as his face turns a shade of red when his eyes hit my hairline. That’s when I feel it, the telltale sign of blood trickling down my face.
“Stay in the car and call Marcus. He’s at the office, speed dial 2,” he says, tossing me his phone before opening his door and climbing out of the car.
Oh boy, this is not going to be good.
I press the number 2 button and wait for Marcus to answer, watching in the rearview mirror as two men climb out of a lifted truck that I assume is responsible for hitting us.
“Yo,” Marcus answers, surprising me. I had been so focused on Kellen that I almost drop the phone.
“Popeye?” Despite my best efforts, my voice cracks as I watch one of the guys shove Kellen, who doesn’t move at all.
“Callie? Talk to me. Where’s Kel?” he asks, and I can hear voices in the background but not what they’re saying.
“We are at the hospital. We just pulled into the parking lot when someone plowed into us from behind. We’re okay, but Kellen lost his shit when he saw I was bleeding, and now he’s about to get into a fight with two humongous guys who look like they eat steroids for breakfast,” I say all in one breath.
“You’re bleeding?” Marcus roars, making me realize belatedly that I should have left that part out.
“It’s just a bump, but if you don’t get someone down here soon, there will be a lot more blood to deal with,” I snap, wincing when one of the guys throws a punch. The back doors of the truck open at the same time, and two more guys climb down, looking almost like clones of the other two meatheads Kellen is already facing off against.
“Shit, fuck, shit,” I curse, fumbling to free myself from my seat belt before swinging my door open and climbing out.
“What? What’s happening?” Marcus barks as I hear the sounds of a car starting. Hopefully, it’s heading our way.
“There’s four of them now. I have to do something.” I look around for something to use as a weapon when Kellen’s head rocks back from an uppercut to his jaw.
“No, absolutely not. Do not engage them. Callie, do you hear me? I want you to go inside the building and stay there until one of us comes for you.”
“But—”
“No, I know you want to help, but Callie, you’ll only distract him, and he will end up hurt worse trying to protect you. Go. We’ll be there in ten minutes, and the cops are en route.”
I hesitate a moment longer until one of the guys spots me, then smiles in a very not nice way, and I realize Marcus is right. They’ll use me against Kellen, and that will hurt him more than a few punches to the face.
I take off at a dead run to the hospital’s main entrance, pushing past people waiting to be seen. The lady with a scowl on her face sitting at the large desk doesn’t seem bothered at all about the fight in the parking lot. But when she realizes I won’t go away until she does something about it, she relents and finally agrees to call hospital security, but not before I lose my shit and end up getting sent on my way.
I take a deep breath to calm my frazzled nerves and decide to head up to my mother’s room, knowing that’s where the guys will look for me first. Besides, I’d rather get this over without an audience.
I take the elevator up to the fourth floor and head down the corridor to the nurses’ station. One of the two nurses points me in the direction of her room, so I head that way, promising to fill out any paperwork she needs afterward.
It’s quiet when I enter. The only noise is the intermittent beeping of the machine beside the bed.
“Mom,” I call softly. I don’t know if she’s asleep or ignoring me, but she doesn’t turn to face me. I leave the door open and walk over to the bed. I’m ready to tell her I’m leaving, that I’ll fill out whatever paperwork needs taking care of, but that’s where my role in her recovery ends. Only something else comes out instead.
“I love him. Every single instinct I have tells me to run to keep him safe, but that’s just my fear talking. Blake’s a fighter, strong, fair, and protective. He knows all about Christian and yet I held back telling him the truth about you. I let you get in my head again, questioning how he would react because I didn’t trust him enough to believe me. That stops now. In a moment, I’m going to walk out of this room, and you’ll never see me again. I’m going to tell Blake everything. I’m tired of running, I’m tired of being afraid of my own shadow, and I’m so fucking done giving you any power over me.”
She rolls toward me. One of her eyes is so swollen she can’t open it, but she doesn’t need to. I know it will be the same blue color as the left one blinking rapidly as tears fall down her cheeks.
I suck in a sharp startled breath and take a step back as I stare into the eye that should be the same copper color as mine. I don’t know what’s happening, but one thing is clear, whoever this woman is, she isn’t my mother.
“Hello, Callie.”
I spin around at the sound of my name, gasping when I feel a sharp pinch on my neck. I can feel the blood draining from my face when my eyes connect with the icy cold blue ones of Christian.
I spot a syringe in his hand. The image becomes hazy, fading in and out as I try to comprehend what that means. Then the floor rushes up to meet me, sending me into oblivion.