Chapter 39
Hailey’sbarely spoken since she told me she liked me last night. It’s been a whole twenty-four hours, and she’s gone numb. I miss her voice, the curve of her smile, the sound of her laugh when I say something she thinks is ridiculous.
We all went to work with her again today. Callie and Wren dealt with the customers and took their orders while Hailey made the coffees, speaking to no one, her hat pulled down low over her face.
Damon and Levi sat in the corner, backs to the wall, and kept watch all day, speaking quietly to each other while keeping an eye on every person who entered the shop.
Derek sat on his own, watching me and his sister every time he thought I wasn’t looking.
I never left Hailey’s side.
I don’t know if she’s scared, angry, traumatized over the fact that there was a camera watching her which was planted by someone who was supposed to be her friend, or a combination of all three. I can’t tell because I can’t get a read on her when she’s like this. I’ve never seen her like this before.
Curled up next to me on the large sectional in my dad’s home office, she rests her head on my shoulder, her legs pulled up over my lap, her eyes distant. She still doesn’t speak, but it makes me breathe a little easier knowing she’s attaching herself to me, that I’m the one she’s choosing to ground her and keep her safe.
When our dad walks in to find us all here waiting for him, not just Callie, he falters. “Out.”
When none of us move, he works his jaw and walks around to the back of the black marble desk. He glances at Callie, checks the time on his watch, then leans forward on his palms and levels us with one of his looks. It doesn’t scare us.
“You will not speak to her,” he says, looking at me specifically. “The only voice I want to hear is Callie’s. Do you understand me?”
We nod as one.
He doesn’t want the woman who killed our mother to hear any of our voices ever again. He doesn’t really want her to hear Callie’s, but Callie wouldn’t let it go. Someone has to talk to her, and to let her speak to my dad would only make her feel like she’s won something from him.
When our dad’s phone rings on the desk, he looks down at it. Callie sits in the armchair across from him, staring at the unfamiliar number displayed on the screen. Our dad made a few calls and arranged for one of the prison guards to escort his ex-wife out of her cell this evening. She’s been taken to a secure, locked room with no cameras, no listening devices, and no glass panels. She’s been given the guard’s personal cell phone to call her daughter.
“You sure about this, Callie?” our dad checks.
She nods. “Answer it.”
He does and taps the speaker button. Callie says nothing, tapping her black painted nails on the arm of the chair as she waits.
“Well?” Katherine’s amused voice comes through the phone, and it sets my teeth on edge. “What is it, Callie? I don’t have all night.”
Callie smiles evilly. “Don’t you?”
She really doesn’t. The guard said we have five minutes exactly, but the comment still pisses Katherine off. She sounds a hell of a lot less smug when she asks, “What do you want?”
“Maverick Kingston,” Callie says, checking her nails. “Tell me everything you know about what he’s planning to do to Elijah and his sons.”
Katherine laughs, back to smug. “You want me to help you? Why on earth would I do that?”
“How many times has he been to visit you?” Callie asks, her lips tilting up at Katherine’s silence. “That’s what I thought. He might call you from time to time, but it’s not because he cares about you. He’s using you for your sick, manipulative mind. He’s going to go on with your plans and leave you to rot in there while he takes everything you’ll never have. What do you have to lose?”
A pause. “You’re a clever girl, Callie, figuring that out all on your own, no doubt. But you’re asking the wrong question. The question, my dearest daughter, is what do I have to gain?”
Callie looks up at our dad, who nods once.
“Name your price,” Callie says.
“As if you’re the one who’ll get me what I want.” She scoffs. “I want to talk to my husband.”
“Your ex-husband,” Callie corrects. “No.”
“Come on. I know you’re there, Eli. Talk to me.”
My dad sets his jaw at the nickname my mother always called him. I wish I could strangle all the air out of the bitch for putting that haunted, broken look in his eyes. When I open my mouth, his gaze cuts to mine, and I curl my shoulders up to my ears. Okay, that look is a little scary.
Leaning against the desk close to Callie, Damon looks like he’s about to explode as he glares at the phone. When I catch Wren’s lips trembling at the lingering pain in our dad’s eyes that never really goes away, I take his hand in mine and squeeze. Hailey snuggles into me closer, her hand on my heart, her fingers clutching my waist. With my free arm wrapped around her, I lower my head to kiss the top of hers over her ball cap.
Katherine sighs loudly, disappointed that our dad didn’t take the bait. “I want skincare, Elijah.”
“Done,” Callie says. “Tell me.”
“I wasn’t finished,” Katherine snips. “I want vitamins. I want decent, healthy meals prepared by a chef of my choosing. And I want a corner cell to myself. No more cellmates.”
Callie looks up at our dad again, who nods again.
“Fine,” Callie grits out, anxiously watching the time tick by on my dad’s watch. “Now talk.”
“Where is Derek?” Katherine asks. “Do you have him or is he with you?”
“What does that matter?”
“It matters to Maverick. If you’re holding his son against his will, he’ll be furious with you, but if he’s there because he’s choosing to be…”
“What?” Callie barks. “Spit it out.”
“Derek knows what will happen. When I betrayed Maverick by getting pregnant with Derek’s baby, I had to take a two week vacation to hide the bruises from Elijah. He’s not a very tolerant man.”
Derek looks a little green as he closes his eyes and runs a hand over his mouth.
“How did you getting pregnant betray him?”
“A child who wasn’t Elijah’s would have ruined our plans. When he found me, he beat me up and forced me to get an abortion, then sent me away to recover. When I got back, I found out he’d been very busy while I was gone. He had pictures of you.”
“Me?” Callie asks.
“Yes, you. The daughter I abandoned at birth. It was the first time I’d ever seen what you look like. He thought you were beautiful. A little rough around the edges, but still. He also thought he could use you to punish me. That’s when he told me I had to bring you here as a gift for his son—my lover.”
Callie’s eyes cut to Derek. When he drugged and kidnapped her, he told her it was Katherine’s idea to bring Callie here, that she was supposed to be his payment for keeping his mouth shut about the affair.
Derek’s gaze drops to the floor.
“But you became a liability the minute you married Damon,” Katherine goes on. “You’re in his way now. You’ll die right along with them. So will Levi.”
Callie’s nostrils flare as she looks back down at the phone. “How is he planning on doing it?”
“I want one more thing.”
Callie growls. “What?”
“When is my grandchild due?”
“What?”
“The baby, Callie,” Katherine says as if she’s stupid. “When is it going to be born?”
Callie stiffens. “I…I’m not pregnant, Katherine.”
Katherine sounds genuinely confused when she asks, “Then how did you get Damon to marry you?”
She didn’t get Damon to marry her. Damon asked her. Fuck that. Damon demanded it. He barely gave the girl a choice, though Callie would have done it either way because she’s madly in love with him.
But of course Katherine can’t comprehend that. She doesn’t know what love is. I’m pretty sure she’s incapable of feeling it. She couldn’t even love Callie, the daughter she was biologically programmed to love more than anything.
“Maybe you and I aren’t so different after all,” Katherine muses, getting it all wrong. “It’s just as well you’re not pregnant. With the blood running through your veins, you’d make a terrible mother.”
I tense every muscle in by body. Damon inches closer to the phone. Callie has to physically hold him back and clamp a hand over his mouth to stop him from saying anything. There are tears slipping down Callie’s face, but her voice doesn’t waver when she asks again, “How is Maverick planning on killing us?”
“Valerie’s, that little coffee shop you all seem to love so much. He’s planning on burning it down with all of you in it.”
“When?”
“Six days from now.”
I can tell Callie’s considering asking what he needs Derek for, but in order to do that, she’d have to tell Katherine what Freya told us last night. We can’t risk Maverick knowing we have her. If he knows we’re onto him, he might decide to change his plan.
“If you’re lying,” Callie warns, “I’ll make your life in there a living hell.”
“If I’m lying, you won’t live long enough to make that happen. Goodbye, daughter.”
The call ends, and Damon digs his fingers into the back of the other chair, launching it at the wall. We all stay very still for a few beats. When Callie moves to walk out, Damon blocks her path and begs, “Don’t. Please.”
She glares up at him, silently warning him with her eyes not to say another fucking word. He doesn’t. When she walks around him, he follows her, stopping in his tracks when I say, “Damon.”
His furious gaze flicks to me. The sneer he hits me with warns me to back down, but I don’t. I shake my head. He looks like he wants to throttle me.
“She’s my wife, Kai.”
“Then you should know what she needs,” I say softly. “It’s not you, brother. Not right now.”