Chapter Twenty-Three #2
Looking in the envelope again, I find a folded up piece of paper.
Pulling it out, I take a deep breath and hold it before releasing it slowly like Caleb has me do when I’m having a panic attack.
Carefully, I unfold the paper and close my eyes before opening them to read the words I know are only going to hurt me.
Caliana,
In less than a week, it will be one year since your husband gave his life protecting someone else.
It’s taken less than a year for you to start whoring yourself out to a fucking motorcycle club.
How many of them are you letting fuck you?
Are you one of the club girls? Trying to find a new daddy for your children by conning some poor guy into marrying you like you did with your husband?
Do you know he couldn’t stand you? He thought you were a weak, pathetic excuse for a woman who couldn’t do anything right.
The house was never clean, you couldn’t cook anything edible, and the kids will suffer with you as their mother.
They never should have been born in the first place.
At the end of the day, it was all part of his plan.
A plan you’re all too stupid to figure out in the first place.
I see it also didn’t take you long at all to let Caleb and Kreed into your house on a full-time basis.
Though, it isn’t your house, is it? That’s sitting empty.
Maybe one of you should check out what’s been done while you’ve been gone.
You might like the changes that have been made.
You’ve moved into the compound and are living in their homes.
You really don’t know how to keep your legs closed do you?
Are they sharing you like they used to share girls in high school or when they were in the military?
You’ve changed and it’s not for the better.
If anything, you’ve only gotten worse than ever before and I know Darren is happy he doesn’t have to witness your current behavior.
In less than a week, you’ll all experience loss. No one is safe from the revenge you all deserve. Darren didn’t deserve to die and others didn’t either. Cali, the revenge starts with you. I suggest you hold your kids tight and love them while you can. They’ll be orphans before too long.
I’ll see ya soon!
I drop the paper quickly as if it burned me while gasping in a huge gulp of air.
I’m trying so hard to force the panic attack away by using the techniques Caleb and I have worked on over the years.
Right now, I’m counting various things around me.
My focus is on that as the guys take turns reading the note left for me and I feel the tension at the table shoot higher and higher with each person reading the words.
When it gets to Luca, I put my full attention on him.
This is going to hurt him and I don’t want him to think of me in the ways the writer is trying to project.
Darren is the only man I’ve ever been with.
I will never be one of the Feral girls. Not because I see what they do as being wrong.
It’s how they choose to live their lives.
I just know it’s not for me. I’m not built for one night stands or having sex with someone I don’t care about.
Luca’s face pales with each word he reads.
I watch as his pale skin turns a deep, dark shade of red from anger.
A vein in his neck starts to pulse and stand out more than the others from the restraint he’s trying to maintain in the diner.
He reminds me of Caleb when he learns of someone he loves being in danger.
Luca is about to explode and I don’t believe anything in his path will survive.
Honestly, I think anyone in his way will suffer and be destroyed.
Tank and Playboy might need to take him to the ring and help him work out some of this aggression.
“Cali, we need to get you outta here,” Manic says in full Enforcer mode as I give him my attention.
“You’re not safe and until further notice, I don’t think you should come into work.
This person is deranged and makin’ wild assumptions about you and your life.
There’s a blatant threat in the note, Cali.
We can’t protect you if you’re here or anywhere other than on the compound.
Reckless and Link will agree with this.”
“We’ll agree with what?” Caleb asks as my two best friends walk up to the table and they discover all the photos scattered around from all of us looking at them.
“Cali needs to remain on the compound until this situation is dealt with. Read this shit. It’s a clear threat to her and others.
We can’t truly protect her when she’s here.
Not because we’re not good enough to ensure she’s safe.
There’s too many innocent lives at risk when she’s here workin’,” Manic states, his words washing over me as I let everyone know I need to get out of the booth and to Caleb.
Caleb, knowing what I need, lifts me over Chaos and Mad Dog.
I’m in his arms and can already feel the panic attack going away.
He murmurs words of reassurance in my ear no one else can hear as I cling to him like a monkey.
Caleb’s arms are wrapped around me as a sense of home and safety cover us.
The weight of the words I just read and seeing the pictures of my past and present fade to nothing as I simply feel the man who means the world to me under my body.
Home. That’s where I am right now. Caleb is my person and I can’t do anything about it.