14. Callahan
Chapter Fourteen
CALLAHAN
Gemini
It’s important not to dwell too long on our misfortunes. Feel your pain, but don’t stay there.
Simon had sent a doctor back over in the morning, one they used on call for special cases they didn’t want a record of.
The man had to be freshly out of med school for how young he looked.
“You’re lucky. A lot of this will heal in a few days.
The ribs might still sting for a while though,” he said, unhooking my IV.
“Lucky,” I spat the word out of my mouth like it offended me.
I hadn’t felt lucky a day in my life. Well, that’s not true.
The day I saw Stella at the diner is the closest I’d ever felt to being lucky.
But even that turned out to be a shit show.
I hadn’t texted her back yet. The words I wanted to say required more than just an impersonal text.
She’d said she was off for a few days, so once I was patched up here, I planned to go over and apologize in person.
A full day had come and went from when Carmine and his lackeys attacked me.
And while Simon claimed his involvement stemmed from wanting to protect me and himself, I couldn’t help but feel so fucking betrayed and alone.
Simon was all I had. My mom had disowned me.
My dad was dead. And this crime family I worked for nearly killed me.
If the universe had any luck to give, I sure could use it now.
When I showed up outside Stella’s apartment, I clutched the handful of flowers in my fist, knowing that it wouldn’t make up for what I was about to confess to her.
That is if she would hear me out. I had spent the day recovering but also formulating a plan—an exit strategy that would save not just me, but everyone involved with the Underwoods.
I couldn’t have been the only one who was desperate to get out from under their thumb.
Throughout my years of working for them, I found small ways to stick it to them.
One of those ways happened by accident during an execution in Rome.
The man they sent me to deal with had an offshore account that was siphoning money from the casino they ran here in Starfell.
For every five hundred dollars they made, a small fraction was sent directly to the account.
The man transferred it to my name before I pulled the trigger, and since then, I’d been working out how to use that money to disappear for good.
Since I was so heavily monitored, it took time to set everything up without them catching on, but Carmine’s intuition was too good. And he was too careful to ignore when it felt off.
Knowing how they operated, I scanned the area, wondering if they had eyes on the building before I walked in. The door was locked though, so I had to press a million buttons until someone buzzed me up.
Knocking on Stella’s door, my heart felt like it was lodged in my throat.
I’d gone over exactly what I wanted to say to her so many times in my head it was all feeling like a jumble now.
But when the door opened, it wasn’t Stella that answered, but some tall woman with short black hair and a scowl on her face.
I recognized her as the woman that was sitting next to her at Sal’s diner.
“What do you want?” She asked, her tone full of ice and her eyes full of venom.
I didn’t blame her. “Is Stella here?”
“You know, I pushed her to go out with you, and what do you do? You stand her up.”
“I know. Something happened. If you’ll just let me talk to Stella, I can explain.”
“It’s alright Helena, I’ve got this,” Stella said, walking up next to her friend.
“You sure?”
Stella nodded. “Positive. I’ll call you later.”
Helena shot me one more deadly glance before moving past me. Her shoulder clipped mine and the unexpected impact had me stumbling back. I still wasn’t wholly recovered, but at least I was back up and walking.
“Can I come in?” I asked.
Stella glared at me through her dark lashes and her mouth was set in a firm line. “You couldn’t have texted?”
“Not for what I have to tell you.”
“Fine. Come in, but you can keep your stupid flowers. I don’t want them.”
She walked away from the door and into the kitchen area of her studio apartment. It smelled like her in here. Like cinnamon and black coffee.
I followed her, setting down the bouquet of calla Lillies on her counter and turned to face her. What I hadn’t expected was to be tackled to the ground.
My body hit tile and my ribs screamed out in pain. “What the—”
“Good night, Callahan,” I heard her say as I passed out.
I awoke to the sound of metal slicing through air then a distinct thud landing behind my head.
When I opened my eyes, I saw Stella standing there, knife in hand, a scowl etched across her face.
She had her round glasses on, tight black pants that have an array of knives situated over her thighs, and a fitted black t-shirt that scooped low enough that I could see the swell of her breasts peeking over the top.
The only problem was I had been tied to a chair with my mouth duct taped shut.
“Oh, good. You’re awake.” She smiled wide with a wild glint in her deep brown eyes, flipping the knife in her hand expertly.
“Now, you should know I am an excellent shot with these knives. I know I told you it was a hobby but actually, you should be aware, that I can make this knife land anywhere I fucking want to. See how we lie to each other? I find out you work for the Underwood crime family and not… what was it you said?” The knife left her hand and sunk into the wall right behind me, nicking the top of my ear along the way. It fucking hurt.
I attempted to grunt out words, but they didn’t make it past the duct tape.
“Oh, right. You’re in the restaurant business.
” She laughed like it was the funniest thing in the world.
“I bet you don’t even know how to cook. And now you get to find out about my penchant for hurting scum bags like yourself.
You’re right. Dating is so much fun. But seeing as you disappeared and work for my arch enemy, I’m thinking it’s time we see other people. ”
Scowling, I pulled at my restraints. She’d tied them so tight, I could barely feel my own hands and feet.
It was clear we were in a warehouse of some sort.
The windows near the high ceiling were filtering in slivers of light, meaning I’d been knocked out for a few hours now.
The last thing I could recall, it was night and I was standing in her apartment.
Did she move me all on her own? I wasn’t the biggest of guys, but on a good day I was pushing 200 pounds easy.
It was impressive as hell if she not only managed to catch me unaware, but to drag me here as well.
Though, in fairness, I was not at my best after being tortured by Carmine and Simon.
Fucking Simon. I still didn’t know what to think about him.
“It’s such a pity you turned out to be a liar.
I was actually starting to like you. But maybe you can be of some use.
” She pulled over a chair, turned it around, and sat backwards on it, arms crossed over it, holding onto a new knife.
My eyes tracked her legs noting a few gaps missing where the previous knives had been.
But then I caught the holster on her hip and realized she also had a gun.
Stella wasn’t fucking around. And man did I find that so fucking hot.
“Wait a second… are you… are you fucking hard right now?”
I couldn’t respond but the raging hard on in my pants was answer enough.
“Men,” she scoffed, rolling her eyes. “Do you not get that I could end your life right now?”
I knew that, but it did nothing to stop my attraction to her.
The way she moved and the deadly accuracy of her throwing knives at me was a turn on.
My tongue began to work around the seam of my lips, licking what I could of the adhesive.
Not being able to explain why I concealed my job from her was more torturous than being strung up and beaten in the casino basement.
Hurting her was the last thing I ever wanted to do, and I had to tell her that.
“My sister went missing a little over six months ago,” she said, turning that knife around in her hands again, looking at the sharp tip and not at me.
“She was taken by the same scum you work for.” Her face morphed into a hateful sneer.
“Now—,” those dark eyes lifted and stared me down with so much anger, I knew that no matter how much I begged, she would never forgive me for my deception.
Especially now knowing that the very people I worked for were the source of her pain.
“—you’re going to help me get her back, or I will do so much worse than a small cut on your ear.
” She stood up and toppled over the chair.
It clattered to the ground with an echo.
I thought I was protecting her by not disclosing my connections, but maybe the lie was only protecting myself. She deserved to know the truth, and now, Carmine and Simon had disclosed running an operation I’d known nothing about. The compound. And it wasn’t just Stella’s sister they’d taken either.
A small flap of the duct tape began to curl down away from the corner of my mouth with the help of my tongue. Stella caught me struggling and ripped the rest of it away. It burned, but now I could talk.
“What the fuck do you have to say for yourself?” She asked, straddling my lap and placing the knife she was holding directly at the base of my throat.
My cock twitched in my pants as the metal pressed against my skin.
Fuck, she was so goddamn hot. And slightly unhinged. My own personal wet dream come true.
“I didn’t mean to hurt you,” I croaked out. My voice felt raw from disuse.
Her dark eyes flashed, and then I felt my skin give way beneath her blade, and a small trickle of blood began to trail down my neck.
“Oops. I didn’t mean to do that either,” she said. Her breath fluttered over my cheeks smelling of mint. She took the tip of the knife coated in my blood and licked. My cock was fully throbbing now. I liked this side of her. All in charge and dangerous. Fuck me. She could tie me up any day.
“I mean it. I thought if I kept my job from you, it would keep you safe. They found out about you anyway.”
“What do you mean?” Her eyes narrowed.
“I’ve been working for the Underwoods since I was twelve. They trained me to kill people for them.” I felt her legs flex over mine and her breath catch. “For the last five years, I was traveling all over Europe and Asia, carrying out their orders.”
“Like a James Bond villain.”
I swallowed around the tip of her knife that was still pressed tightly against my throat.
“I’ve seen what they do to people who cross them.
How they use those closest to them to manipulate people to fall in line.
When I didn’t tell you who I worked for, it was because I didn’t want you anywhere near these people. ”
“And so, I’m just supposed to believe you didn’t know about me? About my family? My sister?”
“I didn’t. Not until Carmine knocked me out and beat me for not finding Kenneth Carlisle’s killer fast enough.”
Her face twitched.
“That was your assignment?”
“Yeah, and—”
She started laughing. I watched her, trying to figure out what was so funny.
“Oh my God. So, not only were you working for the Underwoods, but your assignment was to kill me. Wow. Fuck.”
Everything inside me stilled. She killed Kenneth? What the fuck?
“You did that?”
“Don’t sound so surprised. You think a woman can’t do what you do, Mr. Hitman?”
She shoved herself off me, using my chest to help. It made my ribs ache since they were still unhealed from Carmine’s ‘lesson’. I coughed. “No, I just… I didn’t have any leads at all.”
Her eyebrow raised, the one with the piercing, as she looked down at me.
“And what about my sister?”
I nodded, feeling a wave of dizziness hit me as I moved my head. When was the last time I’d eaten anything? “Carmine and Simon were talking about it. They mentioned a compound.”
Her eyes flash with recognition. “Do you know what they were talking about?”
“Oh yeah. I do.” She spun around on her heel and then let out a tortured sounding scream. “Fuck!” Her knives went flying then. A steady thwack, thwack, thwack, slicing through the air and missing my head by mere millimeters. Had I flinched, I would have gotten stabbed.
“So, you didn’t know about the compound until recently? How convenient.” She sounded like she didn’t believe me, but I’d only just heard about it for the first time.
“I didn’t. They don’t tell me their plans. Just how to execute their enemies.”
She stared at me, trying to decide if I was telling the truth or not. I knew I’d given her no reason to trust me. I‘d lied. I worked for the worst people imaginable. And on top of all that, I was apparently assigned to kill her. I’d be lucky if she let me walk out of here alive.
“Let me help you,” I said, watching her pace back and forth.
“You want to help me? With what? Getting my sister back? How do I know you won’t go running right back to your boss?”
“Because I hate him as much as you do. And I want out. I have for a long time. Let me help get your sister and the others they’re keeping there too. You can keep hating me if that helps?”
She smiled. “I was going to keep hating you regardless.”
“That’s fair.”
Stella let out a humorless laugh. “Nothing about this is fucking fair. Our lives have been altered irrevocably by the whims of a madman with too much fucking power and no one that will stand up and stop him. But at the end of the day, he’s just a man.
And all that money and power can’t stop him from being just as vulnerable as the next guy.
All men bleed. And all men die. And Carmine Underwood has an overdue appointment with the fucking reaper. ”