Chapter Eleven
Was she insane?
Callie breathed deeply, her breaths being drawn inward and outward. Her heart raced, and she couldn’t help herself from constantly replaying what she’d just witnessed in that bar. It was strange, that bar had always felt like a prison, never home, and yet she always felt safe there. Not anymore.
She’d known evil existed in the world, and today she got a nice little taste of it, and she didn’t like it.
It was scary. What made her feel even more insane was the fact she still felt something for Evander.
She wanted to be with him. The moment his arms went around her, she felt safe, warm, comforted.
Yet, he’d just killed so many people with ease, and when it came to those people, she didn’t have any feelings. It didn’t matter to her. They were bad people.
Evander was a bad person, but he’d come for her, so it meant something to her. She couldn’t forget that.
Callie couldn’t hear any more sound, and she didn’t realize she’d closed her eyes for so long, yet as she opened them, she stared down the barrel of a gun.
Was this the man Evander had called Byron?
She looked at him, feeling that fear grip her so acutely.
She couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. Here was death.
“You know, Evander’s pride will be the death of him, or it could be the death of you. He should have given me what I wanted. Or do you still have it?” He let out a little tut. “I’ll find out one way or another.”
She had no idea what to do. Panic gripped her. The fear traveled down her spine, and she felt sick to her stomach.
“Get to your feet! Come on, move it,” he said. “You don’t look anything like your mother.”
“What?”
“You’ll tell me everything I need to know,” he said, prodding her.
Callie tried to take her time, but as he kicked her in the thigh, hard with his steel-toe-capped boot, she couldn’t help but scream.
It hurt like hell, but she attempted to scream as loud as she could to alert Evander to the danger she was in.
She’d done exactly what he said, and still, this Byron was about to take her.
She got to her feet, and Byron didn’t grab her arm but twisted her hair. Each touch he had on her body made it even harder than the one before. They walked down the street, it was getting dark, and she should have known no one was going to come out to stop him.
Some of the streetlights were out, casting growing shadows in the factory district. They were getting further away from Guy’s Titties. Callie didn’t know what was holding up Evander.
She went to reach out for the nearest streetlight and wrapped her arms around it.
Byron was ready for that and punched her in the gut.
It was hard, sharp, and it stole her breath away.
She had no choice but to cough and wheeze as it rushed through her body.
The pain was instant, and Byron moved her along. Tears sprang to her eyes.
“Please stop. He’s going to kill you.”
“Do you see me dead? I know Evander better than he knows himself. And if I don’t get what I want, you’re both going to die.”
The side of a black van opened, with a few more men.
“Where’s Charlie?” one of the guys said.
“Dead. You can thank her for that.” She was shoved into the van, and the guy who asked for Charlie pushed her to the far corner. She gasped.
The door slid closed, plunging them all into darkness. Callie stayed in her corner, feeling the fear like a living force. This was not good. These men were on a warpath, and Evander was their target. She needed to find a way to prolong her life, or stop them from killing her.
None of them spoke. The car moved, and she had no choice but to reach out toward either side of the van, to hold herself steady. She tried not to make too many sudden movements in case it drew their attention her way.
They were silent. Why were they silent? It made no sense to her. Men they had known were now dead. Don’t bring that up, and don’t remind them that you’re important to Evander. Try to stay alive. Try to figure this out. You’ve gotten this far without ending up dead.
The van slowed down, and Callie tried to listen to what was happening. Were they stopping? Did she need them to keep driving? She had no idea what she was supposed to do.
Callie closed her eyes and counted to ten. She didn’t make a single sound, just kept counting. Each time the van came to a stop, she was close to throwing up. If this van stopped, it would be the end of her.
“What do you have planned for her?” one of the guys asked.
“Are you wanting to have some fun with her, is that it?” Byron asked.
There was silence. That sickness was swirling in her gut.
“Fuck me, man, you’re right. I like the way you think.”
Callie didn’t like this. She opened her eyes and immediately wished she hadn’t, because even though it was dark, she knew the man who asked about Charlie was standing right in front of her.
“She’s pretty,” he said.
This was definitely not good. Callie didn’t know what the hell to do.
“You want to fuck her, it’s going to cost you. The longer we keep her alive, the more dangerous it’s going to be.”
“I’ll give you ten grand, and I want to film it. That way, when I’m done with her, I’ll send it to Evander, and he can watch how his slut died.”
“He doesn’t care about her. He just wanted the flash drive.”
Callie was so confused, but she saw the threat in the man’s eyes. He was going to rape her.
She didn’t know how she felt so bold, but she spat in his face. “Fuck you!”
There was no way she was going to let them use her like this, to taunt Evander.
If it meant she was going to have to take a beating, she would do whatever it took to make them wish they had never even heard her name.
All her life, she had been treated as if she didn’t matter, as if she wasn’t important, and that ended today.
She was done being the victim, even if it meant she was going to die today, so be it, but it would be on her terms.
She cried out as he suddenly reached out and grabbed the back of her neck.
“Do you think that scares me?” he asked. “You think a little spit is going to stop me! Let’s hope when I get to fucking you, I’m kind enough to use a little spit, otherwise it’s going to fucking hurt, and right now, Princess, I want it to hurt a hell of a lot.”
****
The guys in the bar were all dead, and Evander put the call through for the cleanup crew to come and deal with that shit.
Guy and Leah, and whoever else Callie wanted to see saved, were saved. They were not going to get hurt. He’d taken care of everything, and then he made his way outside, going toward the location where he told Callie to sit.
She had to have been afraid. There was one thing knowing he was a hitman, and quite another finally seeing it with her own two eyes. It hadn’t been his intention.
Rounding the vehicles, he stopped where he told Callie to wait, which was empty.
He looked up and down the street, but there was absolutely no sign of her, and it wasn’t like she could just randomly go anyplace and settle for the night.
The street was all but dead as it was a deserted area.
They tended to tuck away shitholes like Guy’s Titties.
He knew Callie didn’t wander away. He wasn’t fucking stupid. Something happened to her. And his anger went up another notch, because he hadn’t been able to find Byron. That slippery bastard had gotten away without so much as a scratch.
Pulling out his cell phone, he called Bastian.
“Dude, you do realize we’re not the kind of friends that call each other at night.”
“I need you to check the security cameras.” He was not about to start with pleasantries. His woman was missing, and he had a horrible suspicion Byron had taken her. He gave Bastian the location.
“What the fuck, man?” Bastian asked.
“Look, Callie’s life depends on it.”
“What have you got her dragged into now?”
Evander heard some scuffling, so he hoped it was Bastian moving toward a computer. Time was fucking ticking and he didn’t know how long ago she had been taken, and fear raced through him. Byron wanted something from him, but he didn’t know what.
He ran fingers through his hair, as he looked left and right. Byron was a sneaky little shit. He took a left and walked several yards as he heard Bastian typing away.
Evander should have known better, but all he could think about was getting her to safety and far away from the evidence of what he was capable of.
“Byron got to her. He took her and then climbed into a car.”
“Can you see the plates?”
“Look, I’ll run the security feed and call you back as soon as I know how far they went.”
Evander stared at the cigarette butts on the ground, which told him Byron had a back-up plan. It meant that no matter where he fucking went, there was always going to be some way of him getting the fuck out of Dodge.
Evander needed a car. He found one abandoned on the side of the road, so he smashed in the window and climbed into it. He’d hot-wired quite a few cars in his time, and within a few seconds, he had this baby purring to life, but he also heard how loud the engine was, which wasn’t fucking ideal.
His patience was wearing thin. He needed Bastian to get back to him with a location. The longer it took, the more danger Callie could be in, and there was no way he would allow anything to happen to her.
Time was running out and he didn’t have the first clue where Byron was going to take her or what he wanted. He was pretty sure he was waiting for any news for well over an hour.
Finally, Bastian called.
“Man, I don’t like the look of this. Byron wasn’t alone. I don’t think you should go in there. His crew have been hunting for something for weeks now. Information.”
“For what? He has Callie, and there’s only one place I’m going. You already know that.”
“Not Callie. Her mother.”
“Her mother’s dead,” said Bastien.
“Well, she has something he wants. Maybe he thinks Callie has it. He’s got a hard-on for this, Evander. You need to think with your head. She have something he wants?”
“She’s innocent. Everything the girl owns is in a couple of cardboard boxes. She doesn’t have enemies.”
“I think she does. Byron has his entire crew looking for her.”
“He wants me.”
“I don’t think so.”
He hung up the cell phone, because he didn’t need anyone talking him out of what he was about to do. First, he needed to be sure there wasn’t more to this. He had to go back to Callie’s apartment.
He used his master landlord key and opened her apartment. What the fuck could he want from her? Evander looked at the boxes and cheap furniture. Byron was a big fish so it didn’t make sense he’d waste his time and resources on a young girl.
After sifting through the boxes a bit, he spotted the jewelry box.
He remembered she told him it was her mothers, and she wasn’t even supposed to touch it.
Without a second thought, he picked it up and smashed it on the ground.
He used the tip of his boot to root through the pieces.
Sure enough, there was a false bottom, and a small flash drive.
He bent over and picked it up, grasping it in his fist.
His sweet girl had no clue what she’d been carrying around all these years, but Byron had recently found out. How? What was on the flash drive?
Right now, he didn’t give a fuck about anything but getting Callie back safe and sound.
He put his foot to the gas and didn’t care about the speed limits.
There was only one focus on his mind—Callie.
She didn’t deserve this. He should have kept her with him, but he didn’t want to expose her to the kind of guy he was, and now she might get killed for it.
He couldn’t bring himself to think of what could happen to her. He refused to believe it.
As he drove, he thought about Callie, how special she was. He shouldn’t have stuck around, but the very thought of letting her go was not an option.
He was not going to allow her life to end this way. If it wasn’t already too late.