Chapter Forty-Three
Caleb
Sasha throws herself at me, and I quickly muffle the phone so Indi can’t hear while I shove Sasha back with my free hand. I’m so furious that I don’t even care we’re standing in the middle of the hotel hallway. I’ll make a scene if that’s what it takes to get Indi back.
She comes at me again, and I force her away, but she only laughs as I lift the phone back to my ear. “Indi, baby, I swear she’s just trying to cause trouble…” There is a pause. “Indi? Are you there?” I ask, but all I’m met with is silence, and my stomach sinks.
“Get. Away. From. Me,” I say quietly, each word measured, but laced with enough venom to make it clear I’m barely holding myself together.
“Aww, did little Princess Indi hang up?” Sasha taunts.
I close the distance between us and wrap my hands around her wrists, gripping tightly enough that she knows I’m done playing games. “Don’t you even say her name,” I warn, my voice low and deadly. “Now fuck off before I lose what little control I’ve got left.”
She yanks herself free and rubs at her wrists. “Fine, but one day, Caleb, I will have you.”
“I swear to God, Sasha, if you ever come near me or Indi again, I’ll kill you. Don’t think I won’t. I’d spend the rest of my life in prison if it meant she never had to deal with you again.”
She smirks as though I’ve just told her a joke. “You don’t have the guts to kill anyone, Caleb.”
I stare her down. “Try me.”
Her smile widens. “You remember that night we supposedly slept together? The one that caused all those problems between you and Miss Indi?” A knot twists painfully in my stomach.
“Well… we never actually slept together.” She folds her arms, looking entirely too pleased with herself.
“You called me because you wanted someone to talk to and asked me to bring more alcohol, so I did. I got you so drunk you wouldn’t remember a thing, stripped you naked, planted a condom with moisturizer in it beside the bed, and made it look like we’d had sex.
Honestly, you couldn’t have gotten it up if you’d wanted to.
You spent the whole night talking about your precious Indi and how much you loved her.
” My pulse pounds in my ears. “I thought it was pretty rude that you invited me over just to talk about another girl,” she continues with a shrug.
“Then you called me again another night, wanting someone to listen to your problems, so I decided to return the favor by ruining your life. Tell me, Caleb…” She tilts her head, her smile never wavering.
“Do you really have the guts to kill someone?”
Something inside me gives way.
The rage that’s been simmering since she appeared erupts so violently that I’m moving before I’ve even made the decision to do it. My phone slips from my hand and crashes onto the floor as I slam her against the wall, my hands locking around her throat with a force that shocks even me.
She gasps and claws at my wrists, but I barely register it.
All I can see is Indi.
Every tear she cried.
Every time she looked at me with hurt in her eyes because of this woman’s lies.
Every moment we lost because Sasha decided to play games with our lives.
My grip tightens, and she struggles harder, scratching at my hands while her feet scramble for purchase against the wall, but I can’t seem to make myself stop.
Every frantic gasp she takes reminds me of everything she stole from us, and for one terrifying moment, letting go is the last thing I want to do.
“C-Caleb…” she chokes out, the sound barely audible.
I lift her higher, glaring into her widening eyes as panic replaces every trace of arrogance she’d worn only moments before. Her lips begin to turn blue, her movements become weaker, and her eyes slowly roll back.
The sight hits me like a punch to the gut.
Jesus Christ. What am I doing?
Horror slices through the haze of my anger, and I release her immediately.
She crumples to the floor in a coughing heap, dragging desperate breaths into her lungs before scrambling backward away from me as though I am the monster.
Maybe I am.
I stand there, my chest heaving as I stare at Sasha curled on the floor, coughing and clutching at her throat. “Believe me now?” I ask through gritted teeth.
She nods frantically, unable to speak as she struggles to draw in a proper breath.
“Then stay the hell away from us. Forever.” I take a step toward her, and she immediately recoils, fear replacing the smug confidence she’d walked in with. “Do you understand me? Because next time I won’t stop.”
She nods again, rubbing at the angry marks already forming around her neck.
“Now get the fuck away from me.”
She scrambles to her feet and staggers to the elevator, jabbing repeatedly at the call button until the doors finally slide open. She stumbles inside without looking back, and only when the doors close do I realize how hard I’m shaking.
I drag both hands through my hair and force myself to breathe, but nothing settles the storm raging inside me.
What the fuck! I nearly killed her.
And for one horrifying moment, it hadn’t even felt wrong.
I close my eyes, trying to steady myself, but all I can see is Indi.
She’ll have hung up, thinking I’d lied to her again, believing I’d chosen Sasha over her after everything we’d fought to rebuild.
She doesn’t know the truth. She doesn’t know that every second Sasha has been near me has been against my will, or that the woman has spent months manipulating both our lives just because she couldn’t accept that I never wanted her.
I bend down and retrieve my phone, relieved to find the screen cracked but still working.
Good.
I swipe my key card and step into my room, dialing Indi’s number before the door has even shut behind me.
It rings.
And rings.
No goddamn answer.
“Come on, baby,” I whisper, willing her to pick up.
The call ends.
I ring again.
Nothing.
Again.
Still nothing.
“Fuck!”
The room suddenly feels too small, the walls closing in as I pace from one side to the other with the phone pressed against my ear.
She has to answer. She has to let me explain that none of this was real, that the night Sasha convinced me I’d slept with her was nothing more than another one of her twisted games.
How could someone be so completely fucking insane?
I hit redial again, my heart pounding so violently I can barely think straight.
This time, the call doesn’t even ring.
It goes straight to voicemail.
She’s turned her phone off.
“For fuck’s sake!”
The bedside lamp is in my hand before I even realize I’ve picked it up. It crashes against the wall, exploding into pieces that scatter across the carpet, but the sound does nothing to release the pressure crushing my chest.
I need more.
The chair slams into the wall next, splintering into jagged pieces before I sweep the ornaments from the television cabinet and hurl them across the room.
They strike the floor-to-ceiling mirror with enough force to send glass raining everywhere, the shards glittering beneath the lights as they scatter across the room.
My breathing comes in short, uneven bursts as I stand in the middle of the destruction.
None of it helps.
None of it changes the fact that Indi thinks I’ve betrayed her.
I can’t stay here.
Every instinct I have screams at me to get on a plane and go to her. If I leave now, the band’s jet will have me back in London in a couple of hours, and maybe, just maybe, I can get to her before she walks away from us for good.
Knowing Indi the way I do, she will already be packing.
Or worse…
She’ll already be gone.
I don’t waste another second.
I don’t care about my clothes or my luggage. None of it matters. The only thing that matters is getting to Indi before it’s too late. So, I walk straight out of the trashed hotel room and head for Dad’s suite, knocking hard enough that the sound echoes down the hallway.
“Dad!”
A few seconds later, the door swings open, and he fixes me with an irritated glare. “Caleb, keep your voice down. You’ll wake everyone.”
“I don’t give a fuck.” I turn away almost immediately. “I’m leaving. I just thought you should know.”
His hand closes around my arm before I’ve taken two steps. “What do you mean you’re leaving?”
I wrench free and face him again, every nerve in my body vibrating with panic. “Sasha came back and ruined everything. I have to get to Indi before it’s too late.”
He studies my face, the irritation disappearing almost instantly. “Okay,” he says calmly. “Take a breath and tell me what happened.”
I shake my head. “I don’t have time to take a breath,” I snap.
“Sasha turned up at the after-party and took a photo of me before I even realized she was there. She sent it to Indi, and now she won’t answer my calls.
Dad, I have to get back to London. I have to make her understand that I didn’t know Sasha was there, that I wasn’t with her.
” The words tumble over one another as fast as I can force them out.
“I’ve spent four months away from Indi, and if I don’t get back now, she’ll leave. She’s a goddamn flight risk, you know she is. She’ll disappear before I even have the chance to explain myself, and I can’t let that happen!”
My chest tightens until I can barely breathe. “I can’t… no, won’t lose her again.” The frustration surges through me before I can stop it. My fist slams into the wall, punching a hole straight through the drywall.
Dad grabs my hand before I can do any more damage. “Caleb…”
“I strangled Sasha.” The words leave my mouth so quietly that they almost don’t sound real.
Dad freezes. “She admitted everything,” I continue, my voice hollow.
“There was never any sex. She set the whole thing up. She got me drunk, planted the condom, and made me believe I’d cheated on Indi.
” His expression drains of color. “I nearly fucking killed her, Dad.” For several long seconds, neither of us speaks.
“And the worst part?” I whisper, staring at the hole I just punched into the wall. “For a second, I didn’t want to stop.”