Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
Callum
In all my days, I’d never been so scared, mad, and in a complete panic as I was now.
In all my days of being overseas, in firefights, being attacked by men trying to kill me for the simple fact that I was trying to save innocent lives. None of that compared to the feelings running through me right now.
Kara was being manhandled by her stalker. No one had seen any sign of him being here, and yet, here we were. We were completely helpless until we could find her. I stood behind the bathrooms, my gaze taking in every single square inch of space surrounding me. There were tents, open stalls, and a few rides back behind them. She could be anywhere.
“Kara!”
I turned at the shout.
Dan took off running, the phone clutched in his hand.
“Where is she?” I barked out.
“Fun house!”
My head snapped around. How in the hell? Why would she go into the fun house? Of all the places to run—to hide, she chose the one place guaranteed to give her nightmares? That made zero sense to me. Guess it didn’t matter though.
I caught sight of the curtained door, the black fabric blending in with the darkness of the doorway. The huge sign above the entrance gave me a second’s pause. I still didn’t want to believe she’d gone inside. The creepy ass clown sign announcing the ‘Fun House,’ the fact that there were mirrors everywhere. What had happened to her when we were kids. This was going to be a mind fuck of epic proportions.
We pushed past the people rushing out. It was then I heard the unmistakable sound of gunfire. The noise of the fair around us made it hard to hear, but being this close, there was no doubt what it was.
My hand was at my earpiece within the beat of my heart. “Shots fired. Fun house, twenty yards west of the bathrooms. Call the local PD; they should have someone out here to monitor things. Tell them to not shoot us, will you?”
“On it. Berkley is at your six. Norton is coming in from the northeast; he’ll come in the back way.”
I pulled my concealed carry, a Sig Sauer P226, from the holster at my back. I took each step as if walking through a minefield. Mirrors filled my vision. The fake fog only added to the creep factor here. As a kid, a young teen even, this place wouldn’t have bothered me in the slightest. Something about knowing my girl was trapped in here with a threat suddenly made it my worst nightmare.
I still didn’t understand why she would have run in here. Of all the places—she hated, and I mean that word in its strongest, most harsh way. She hated fun houses, hated closed spaces and mirrors.
For fuck sake, the only mirror in her house was the one in the bathroom. And now she’s here.
Dan tried to push past me, but I held him back. “Don’t!” I hissed. The last thing I needed was him to go and get lost on me.
This fun house seemed a lot bigger than the last time I’d been in one, yet it was claustrophobic as hell.
“Kara, where are you?” Dan whispered into the phone. His eyes were wide with worry.
I kept myself in check and slowly made it around the first turn. Nothing. No reflections of my girl.
“The phone went dead. I lost her,” he snarled.
I hit my earpiece. “We lost the call; we’re going in blind. Stay on my heels,” I instructed, glancing back at Dan before picking up my pace.
“This is all your fault, you stupid bitch!” a man’s voice echoed off the mirrored walls.
I pushed myself to move faster, my eyes scanning left to right as we made our way through the maze of mirrors.
Shots rang out.
Kara screamed.
My heart stopped.
The miserable sound of my ragged breathing was all I could hear. Silence filled the space around us. It felt like I’d been running for a year before another turn finally brought me to a stop. I could see Kara on the ground, her body unmoving. A tall figure stood over her, his hand clutching a gun. If I moved any closer, the stupid mirrors would give me away.
“Kara!” Dan yelled, pushing past me.
The figure with the gun turned; I called out, “Dan, get down!”
He dropped, and I opened fire. Triple shot to the chest and the figure collapsed to the glass strewn floor. I cautiously made my way closer, kicking the gun away. The body was unmoving—dead. I snatched the hood back to find Ian Sterling’s bruised and bloody face staring back at me. I thumped his head against the floor and turned to find Kara, crying against Dan’s chest.
“Shh, it’s okay, sis. We got you.”
I put my gun away and knelt beside them. “Kara, love, look at me.” I took her face in my hands, looking her over. She had a bruise forming on her jaw and across her cheek.
“He—I tried…to…get…away…” She started to sob.
I scooped her up, holding her against my chest, and stood.
“Salem Police Department, don’t move. Put your hands up.” Dan followed their orders, but I could not. I would not. I was not letting go of Kara.
“My name’s Callum Asher; I work for Rizer Security. The woman in my arms is our client. She was being stalked by that man. He had a gun on her when we came in. He turned that gun toward me, and I took him down. My credentials and my carry permit are in my back left pocket; my wallet is in the right. My gun is secured in a lower back holster.”
“Hey, hold up, these are my guys.” Laurence Berkley came barreling into the corridor. His bulk pushed the men back. It was a pretty stupid move on his part, but hey, that was how he did things.
“Sir, get back. We had calls for shots fired and of a woman being dragged from a bathroom.”
“No shit, Deputy. I made the call.”
“Deputy.”
“Sheriff Randolph,” the younger man nodded to the older gent who came in, his hand resting on the butt of his revolver
The big man looked over at us. “You the men from Rizer Security?
“Yes, sir.”
“I just got off the phone with your boss. Deputy Marx, secure your weapon. Secure the scene. There is an ambulance out front. I will ride with you all to the hospital. You will not leave my side until we have full statements on the events of today.”
“Cal, we got the security—Sheriff, Deputy, we got a copy of the security vids. It shows Sterling pulling Ms. McGee from the bathrooms. She put up a fight, too,” Maurice Norton said as he came in holding up a flash drive.
“I’d like a copy of that.”
“Yes, of course. I have two copies.”
“Great. You’ll be accompanying us to the hospital. My team will be in to get statements.”
I moved across the open space and walked out of the fun house with Kara. She had stopped crying, but she was shaking. I was afraid shock was setting in. I needed to check her for injuries.
“Is she injured?”
“I don’t know.” I walked toward the front gate; the flashing lights of the ambulance drew everyone’s attention. The EMT’s rushed our way.
“Injuries?”
“I don’t know. She was found face down on the ground. I’m sure she’s in shock.”
“Get her inside.”
Once in the ambulance, Kara was looked over; there were only minor injuries. Cuts on her arms and cheek, bruising on her jaw and face and across her ribs. Her blood pressure was sky high, both numbers in the triple digits, but her O2 showed a normal amount of oxygen. Her heart rate was coming down since she’d been removed from the situation.
The ride to the hospital was one of the hardest of my life.
“Let me see my granddaughter, you fiend.”
“Grammy, stop it. Good grief. I told you, Kara is asleep. You have to keep your voice down. There are other patients here.”
“Oh God, who called Grammy?” Kara grumbled against my chest.
I chuckled. She sounded drunk—and in a way, with the combo of pain meds, something to help with her anxiety, and another to help lower her blood pressure, my girl was a little baked.
“I think Dan did,” I responded, placing a kiss atop her head. “She needed to know there was an accident before it hit the five o’clock news. One of my guys drove her up. She’s been a bit of a handful. The nurses have been trying to keep her placated until you were settled in.”
Kara tugged the blankets over her head just as the door to the room opened. “Where is she? Where is my Karebear?”
“Grammy, for God’s sake.” Dan stumbled in behind her, looking completely over all of this. “I swear, you’ll wake the dead someday.”
“Grammy Jen, she’s okay, a bit sore and a few bruises.”
“Callum, sweetheart, thank you for taking care of my baby girl.”
“My pleasure, really.”
“What did they say?” she asked, taking a seat in the chair beside the bed. Dan made sure she was steady before taking a seat at the end of the bed.
“I’m fine,” Kara’s muffled voice came from under the covers.
Shaking my head, I gently folded the blanket down, giving Jen a full rundown of what had happened. She had bruised ribs, a bruised kidney, and a possible fracture in her hand. Her elbow and shoulder apparently took the brunt of her fall. We know the asshole had kicked her while she was down though, so honestly, that could have been him too. The only place his boot left a mark was on her back, over her kidney.
“I hope he’s dead.”
“Grammy, don’t say that…”
“The Lord will have to forgive me for the ill thoughts, but that man hurt you. He wanted to do worse. Sick bastard.”
“Grammy!” Kara snort-laughed and winced at the rush of pain moving her bruised body caused. I could attest: bruised ribs, chest, and back muscles plus laughing—yeah, it kinda sucked.
“He’s dead, Grammy. Cal put three bullets in his heart.”
She reached her wrinkled, age-spotted hand out, and I clasped it in mine. “Thank you.”
“Stop, I would do it again a hundred times if it meant Kara was safe. Just wish we could have gotten to her sooner. He shouldn’t have ever gotten that close to her.”
“No offense, sonny, but you’re no superhero with eyes all over and superpowers that let you be in three places at once. You got to her and ended the person threatening her, that’s what’s important.”
“He’s my hero,” Kara said, her eyes tearing up.
“Gag me now…” Dan muttered.
Jen, not missing a beat, picked up her handbag and thumped him with it. The look on his face was priceless.
“Ow, hey, Grammy, what the heck, lady.” He rubbed his elbow.
“You stop that.” Her scowl had him holding his hands up. He was far from repentant though. No one was fooled by the display. “Your sister has always had a soft spot for Cal. Your dad used to fret over the day they’d figure out they liked each other.”
“What?” I asked, shocked.
“Boy, don’t you know the night you took her to prom, that man followed you the whole way, spying in windows and through bushes.” Her laughter was contagious.
“Well, I didn’t, but honestly, I’m not surprised.”
I’d taken her to her senior prom after the idiot she was supposed to go with decided the head cheerleader would be a better bet. We’d laughed, made fun of a few people, the cheerleader and the asshole for starters, and had a genuinely good night. Dinner and dancing. It had been the start of something more; I’d just been too stupid to figure it all out before I’d let it fall apart.
I would forever be thankful to the fates that brought us back together. Kara and I’d talked it all over a few times now, reassuring each other and ourselves that we wanted this. We’d always wanted this.
She’d been that missing piece that now made me whole. I was never letting her go again.
“Can I go home? Please? I’m so sleepy.” Her tired voice pulled me from my own thoughts.
“Once the doctor gets a look at your CT scan, if all’s clear, then yes, you’ll be discharged, and we can go home.” I ran my fingers through her hair, massaging her scalp gently.
A few hours later, I was pulling a sleeping Kara from my truck. Her head rested on my shoulder as we walked up to her small house. All of her tests had come back fine. Her bruising would heal, we just had to watch for anything out of the norm for the next few hours, but I predicted they would be uneventful.
Sleep, food, and rest would have her back on her feet in no time. Until she was back up and running on all cylinders, Dan would be taking over her classes so her students didn’t get behind. Kara would be taking a week or so to figure out what was next.
Did she want to stay here? Would she go to another school, one that didn’t remind her of what had happened today?
No matter what she chose, I’d be right here with her. My eyes roamed the front yard, and I smiled. The quiet swallowed me as I carried her inside. We liked quiet.
Tomorrow would start a new day, a new way of life for us all. I, for one, couldn’t wait to see where it led us.