12. Callahan
Chapter Twelve
CALLAHAN
Gemini
Failure is apart of life.
Brush yourself off, and get back up.
“I’m displeased, Cal. What seems to be taking you such a long time to track down the guy who killed one of our family. You don’t seem to have any urgency. Do you not want to find out who did this? Or did you find out and want to hide it from me?”
A solid punch landed directly in my gut and blood filled my mouth. My arms and legs were stretched wide, held aloft by chains. They’d used tranquilizers on me to knock me out the moment I stepped foot in the casino. Then they dragged me to the basement where no one could hear me scream.
“Maybe we should ask your new girlfriend what she thinks.”
“No. Please.”
“You know we could put her where I put her sister.”
Sister?
Another punch landed, this time to my side and I felt my rib crack on impact.
I swallowed a scream, wheezing in pain. I should have known he was fucking watching me and keeping tabs.
It’s why I didn’t want to open myself up to have someone in my life.
Carmine was doing exactly what I feared he would and now Stella was in danger. Fuck.
“Simon. Where did you take her sister again?” Carmine asked.
My head craned to look. Simon wasn’t here. He couldn’t be. But then I saw him. Arms crossed over his large chest, leaning on the door frame like he’d been there watching for some time.
“I put her with the others. She’s one of the compound’s favorites. You should get the matching set. Twins always sell well there.”
Compound? Sell?
What the fuck had I missed? And why the fuck was Simon here?
“Surprised to see me, brother?” Simon asked, pushing off the frame and walking over in front of me.
“You don’t look so good.” He took my face in his hand and squeezed my cheeks.
His short, sharp fingernails dug into my flesh as his usually expressive eyes looked hard and dull.
It was like he was a completely different person.
Had I been too blinded by our supposed friendship to see the truth right in front of my eyes?
But then he winked at me. This mother fucker winked at me right before he slammed his fist into my stomach.
Not as hard as Carmine, but enough to fucking hurt.
A wad of blood came flying out of my mouth, landing centimeters away from his black boot.
There was a small viscous piece of blood still dangling from my bottom lip swinging back and forth before it slid down onto my chin.
I don’t know how long I’d been there or how long they planned to keep me like this. Time seemed to ebb and drift away from me as black spots flickered in my vision.
“Simon, why don’t you take him home. Seems like he might have learned his lesson,” Carmine said.
“Sure thing, Uncle.”
I heard a shuffle of feet leaving the room and then it was just me and Simon.
His hands worked on my restraints. First freeing my legs and then my arms. I dropped with a heavy thud, landing on my crumpled legs.
I could barely feel them anymore. “Hey, hey,” Simon slapped the side of my face.
“Don’t go passing out on me. I’m going to get you home and have the doctor come look at you. ”
This hot and cold act from him was pissing me off. I didn’t know what to believe. But I didn’t have much of a choice. My body was barely functioning, and I was seconds away from passing the fuck out. I needed water. And rest. And a hospital.
The way my chest and stomach felt made me wonder if I was bleeding internally. My eyes closed and I heard Simon calling for help.
Somehow, I got home. I assumed from Simon, but when I next opened my eyes, I was in my bed. There was an IV jabbed into the crook of my elbow and my ribs were wrapped in some kind of stretchy gauze.
What the fuck had happened?
I sat up, needing to use my arms to help me. It was fully dark outside and what little light was filtering in came from the streetlights. Where was my phone?
Glancing around, there was a bottle of water and some pills on my nightstand with a note that said, “Take two— S.”
The thought of Simon made my blood boil. What fucking game was he playing here?
The sound of my front door opening and closing got my attention. Simon’s head appeared in my bedroom doorway with a smile on his insufferable face and a beer in his hand. “Oh, good. You’re up.”
How could he just walk in here like he hadn’t fucked me over. If my body was in better shape, I’d have my hands wrapped around his large neck right now.
“Woah, don’t get up. The doctor said you have a few bruised ribs and need to hydrate and rest.”
“What the fuck, Simon?”
He tilted the beer up to his lips and took a drink.
“My uncle wanted to kill you. Said you were taking too long to find whoever had fucked the family over. That you’d changed and we couldn’t trust you anymore.
That his gut is never wrong about people and his gut was telling him you’d turned on us.
This was the only way I could convince him to spare you.
And me. If I hadn’t participated, I would have been in an unmarked grave right next to you.
He might talk a big game about handing me over the family business, but I know him too well.
He’s as likely to kill me as much as the next guy who pisses him off. ”
I wanted to believe him, but my ribs were still screaming from the beating.
“I told you. I told you I didn’t want to get involved with anyone. And now he’s fucking threatening her for even being around me. What was all that business with her sister?”
Simon had the good sense to appear guilty. “He’s been taking women to this place he calls the compound. Apparently, it’s where all his rich and famous contacts meet up to let loose.”
“And Stella’s sister is there?”
He nodded. “Along with a bunch of others.”
“For what reason, Simon?”
He leveled his gaze at me that suggested I knew exactly why they were taken there.
My stomach roiled. I knew the Underwoods had some shady dealings in their time. But this? This was new information that had me seething.
He took another sip of his beer and leaned against my door frame. “We’ll find a way out of this.”
“How? He owns everyone in this fucking town.”
“I’m working on it. But you have to trust me.”
This was a disaster. I knew fucking better than to let myself get close to someone and now the exact thing I was so afraid of had come to bite me in the ass.
“Where’s my phone?”
“Right here,” he fished it out from his back pocket and walked over, handing it to me.
The screen had been cracked, probably from when I was knocked out.
And there was one heartbreaking text at seven thirty from Stella, that just had my name with a question mark.
The best thing to do was to walk away from her.
But I couldn’t guarantee that Carmine wouldn’t follow through on his threat and involve her regardless of if I was still with her or not.
Fuck. I had to warn her. She hadn’t told me about her sister, but we had just met. I hadn’t told her about my past either.
But now that I knew the Underwoods had her sister, I needed to come clean and tell Stella the truth. And if I could help not just her sister, but every single person they’d taken to that compound, I would.