Chapter 14
Callum
Five Years Ago
“What do you think you’re doing?” Olivia Jaeger chokes out, fighting against our hold.
Milo and I grip her in the back seat as my friend Delaney drives. Vincent watches us from the passenger side.
“She saw you!” Liv cries. “She saw your faces.” She looks around at all of us. “She’s calling the police by now.”
“You think so?” I taunt. “What will the police do to me?”
I force myself to look amused at how clueless she is, but I know I’m driving off a cliff here. We’ve stolen Dallas’s sister out of a limo after her nice night with Clay, coming out to the whole damn town, both of them in love and shit.
I don’t care about any of that.
I’m going to fuck her and show him that he doesn’t have to pay for his mistakes. His family will.
She closes her mouth, staring at me and knowing that the police aren’t a threat to me.
I peer over at her. “I think she called your brothers instead, don’t you think?”
Clay’s instinct would’ve been to get Liv back. She wouldn’t have trusted the police, given who my father is.
And I know that. I know exactly what’s coming.
“That’s what you want,” Liv whispers. “You’re drawing them in. You want his attention.”
Did she actually think this was about her?
That morning when my father confronted Dallas and me at the visitors center was the last time Dallas spoke to me.
Or spoke to me kindly.
The next weekend, I came over to the Bay like we talked about, but he didn’t want me anymore. Already had someone new in his sights.
Whenever I tried to catch him alone, he’d spit awful words at me or laugh. He stopped joining his brothers to work on our pool and lawn, and seemed to go out of his way to rub women—and other men—in my face.
I hated myself. It was like I’d imagined everything.
So after months of trying to bury it in my head, I couldn’t ignore it anymore. I wanted to make him hurt.
Starting with his sister, who waltzed around school as if she wasn’t a constant reminder of him.
We struck a deal. She’d play at Fox Hill with us tonight—we’d even get her a girl.
And I’d give her a contact and help her save the Bay for her family.
I knew she was lying when she finally agreed to this. She was playing me.
But a deal is a deal. I’m just making sure she keeps her end of the bargain.
“Unless you told them about the night we planned,” I tell her. “Then no one will know where to find you tonight, so no, I don’t expect your brothers to actually show up. It’s just us. I’m sure they’ll find me in the days to come, though. After we’re done.”
She swallows, a lump moving down her throat.
They’ll search high and low tonight, and tomorrow or next week, Dallas will fuck me up.
I expect it.
No one is coming for her, though. She doesn’t have a phone on her, unless it’s back in the limo, so no one is tracking her.
If he doesn’t want me, then I’ll make sure he never forgets me.
We race onto the highway, speeding down a dark lane, and Del dips off to the left suddenly, taking the long paved road up to Fox Hill.
The oaks on both sides provide a canopy from the moon and stars, and the shimmer in her eyes is the only thing I can see as she stares at me and I gaze back. Darkness consumes us, and my heart beats faster.
I could abort right now. Say it’s a prank and laugh it off.
She’d keep her brothers at bay, because she doesn’t want them arrested.
“You will never come back from this,” she murmurs.
I didn’t know these muscles were a thing, I feel Dallas’s light whisper on my spine.
I don’t want to come back from this.
I’m tired of awful men in my life. They’re killing me.
I glance out the window. “I’m not worried about me.”
“You should be,” she says. “This is gonna hurt.”
I’m banking on it.
Del slams on the brakes, and the SUV screeches to a halt. She darts her gaze out of the window. I don’t know if she knows the golf course well, but we’re at the back of the field house.
We open the doors, Del pulling her out of the cab. He spins her around and looks down at her as I tighten the band around her wrists. A smile lights up in his eyes, and I’m not sure this guy even knew she existed when he was at Marymount, but he sure knows now.
His eyes trail down and back up her body, and unease makes me pause. She’s in her underwear. I think I noticed that. She and Clay were clearly in the middle of something in the back of the limo. She’s only in panties and a little corset.
“What a waste,” he gripes.
I don’t think Clay is letting her go to waste at all. She’s beautiful. There’s no denying it. She looks a lot like her brother, but her eyes are brown. Not green fire, like his.
Del’s hands spread over her stomach, sliding to her back, and she fights, hollering at the top of her lungs.
And all at once, Milo sinks his teeth into her ass, but before I can push him and get her inside, she kicks him and then throws herself on top of him. They tumble to the ground, her knee slamming into his groin.
“Ah!” he bellows.
Oh, Jesus.
She growls, and he yanks her hair, pulling her head back. I shove her off him, and she lands on the driveway on her back.
Immediately, she bolts up, but I’m there, pinning her down. I place a vial in front of her face as I hover over her. “You wanna remember this?”
She stills, her breath hitching.
She looks at the drug and then back to me, her hands crushed behind her.
She swallows hard, nodding. If I force this down her throat, she’ll be unconscious. She won’t be able to fight back, run, give a positive ID…
I don’t want to give it to her. I want her willing, like we agreed.
Of course, I wouldn’t give it to her. She doesn’t know that, though.
“I doubt I’ll remember it anyway,” she spits out.
I simply chuckle, hauling her off the ground. She’s so much like him.
“Take her.” I shove her to Milo.
We lead her inside the dark building, where the scents of wood polish and leather furniture linger.
We push her through the anteroom, a sitting area with tables, couches, and a bar gleaming in the moonlight that streams through the windows.
We don’t head straight to the Wolfe Room—empty tonight anyway—but take the door to the left. After a moment, we’re in a hallway.
I don’t have to do this. There’s still time.
Even if I stop this now, though, my friends might not stand for it.
I squeeze my eyes shut for a second, the hoodie making the May heat feel like August.
A sob escapes her, but she stifles it, and I can imagine she just wants to go home.
Or maybe she just wants Clay.
At what point did it hit my stepsister that there was no escape? I watch Liv, almost seeing Sophia. Was it almost like this for her? “There are witnesses,” Liv says. “There were cameras on the streets.”
I wet my throat. “You’ll go home in one piece,” I reply. “We had an agreement. I want what you promised.”
She spins around, getting in my face. “I never promised.”
Oh, yes, you did. You can’t just jerk people around and not expect their wrath.
“Walk,” I growl in her face. “Walk and pay up, and this won’t have to escalate. I know how to hurt you without laying a hand on you.”
Milo pulls her back around, shoving her headfirst through a door. He grips her hard, holding her as she stumbles down some more stairs, another hallway, and into a room.
Others are waiting for us, and as soon as she notices it’s seven of us instead of just four, she stops.
Two other men wait in the room, and a young woman leans against the back wall. Next to the pool table.
She cocks her head, taking Liv in.
Petite, blond, blue eyes…Just like Clay.
Walking over, she smiles gently, her long, smooth hair falling over her left eye just a little, and her full red lips open to perfect white teeth.
She’s dressed conservatively in tight black pants and a tight, short-sleeve black T-shirt, and I don’t think she’s more than a year or two older than us. Beautiful, young, soft…
But then she drops her gaze, noticing Liv’s arms behind her back. “Why is she tied up?” she asks.
I come around to her front and look between the two girls. “This is Morgan,” I tell Liv, ignoring her question. “Your date.”
She slips a finger inside the hem of Liv’s panties, but Liv jerks away. Shooting out her foot, she kicks Morgan in the stomach.
She yelps, stumbling backward, and Liv widens her stance, ready.
“What the hell?” Morgan blurts out, holding her torso and glaring at me. “You didn’t tell me she wasn’t into this.”
“She’s into it.”
But she charges to the wall again, grabbing her bag as she continues to clutch her stomach. She marches for the door. “I don’t do shit like this.”
Fucking hell. Every muscle tightens, and I almost stop her, but she’s got a pimp I don’t need on my ass, too, dammit.
Liv holds her head up and looks in each of our eyes in turn. “Looks like you’ll have to do your dirty work yourself,” she tells me, tugging at her restraints. “Come on. Who’s first? It’s my first dick, so I’d prefer a little one to start. Milo?”
I shake my head as a snarl crosses his mouth.
“Come on,” she taunts. “Blow my mind. Fuck me so good I go straight.”
He charges up to her and grabs the back of her hair, shoving her onto the pool table. “Shut up.”
She flips over, sitting up, and I can tell by her staggered breathing, she’s scared.
But she’s pissed, too. “Come on, baby.” Her jaw flexes. “Come on. Show me what a man is.”
He reaches down, unfastening his belt and jeans, and I stand up straight.
Shit—
Tears pool in her eyes. “Yeah, look at that thing,” she grits out, biting her lip and staring down his pants. “It gets bigger when it gets harder, right? I can’t wait to see.”
He grasps her throat. “Shut. Up.”
“Oh, come on, baby,” she growls. “You wanna feel me? Huh? Wanna give it to me? Wanna show me how it’s done? I know you can. I know it.”
He shoves her back onto the table, and I open my mouth to stop him.