Chapter Thirteen
Callie hated this. It seemed in the last twenty-four, or was it forty-eight hours, she had stepped into a terrible mess that only seemed to get worse with every passing second. Nothing was going right.
She couldn’t help but feel scared to even breathe because Evander had left her again. It felt like there was danger around every corner, and she feared walking into something worse.
Nothing bad was going to happen if she stayed absolutely still. That’s what she convinced herself. She didn’t even want to breathe. All she wanted right now was to get out of the line of fire. She would gladly be back in her old rundown apartment, enjoying her time with Evander.
Why did she have to open that blasted door? Why did she have to follow Violet? It wasn’t like it wasn’t obvious. That other woman had never liked her.
Callie continued to berate herself, unable to stop, as she got angrier at her own stupidity.
What did Evander even see in her? She was never this accident-prone, but then again, he did have to save her from being nearly raped in the back of the freaking strip club. Was she really this big of a mess?
She kept her hands clenched tight and stayed perfectly still.
Even as she breathed in and out and took her time, she also tried not to be too loud.
Her heart felt like it was pounding inside her chest. She couldn’t erase that sick feeling in the pit of her stomach, or the horrible feeling that no matter what she did, this was going to end in disaster.
She had no idea where she was, what was happening, or what she should do. All she could do was wait. After this, would Evander even want her? He said he loved her, but could he love someone who seemed to always be in danger?
She heard the sound of scuffling, and she froze, hoping it was Evander coming back to let her know all the danger was gone and they were going home.
It shouldn’t be this hard to stay safe. She tried not to panic, but nothing was helping.
It’s fine. It’s fine. It’s going to be Evander again and we’re going to leave, and everything will be more then fine.
She didn’t even dare speak aloud, for fear of jinxing herself.
“Well, lookie, lookie, what do I have here?”
Callie cried out as she turned, only to be hit across the face. Stars burst across her vision and she collapsed to the ground, attempting to guard her head, but her assailant only went on to kick her hard. She cried out from the sudden pain.
“I’m going to enjoy this,” he said. “Your mother made a mistake trying to blackmail me. I just wish she was here to witness what’s going to happen to you.”
What was he talking about? Callie didn’t know how Byron had been able to escape from Evander, but he grabbed her hair and started to pull. She couldn’t contain her scream, and she let it out.
She had tried to stop making him angry, but nothing worked.
This man was pure evil. He was going to hurt her, possibly even kill her.
She thought his issues were with Evander, but he was talking about her mother.
If she didn’t do something now, she was going to die, and then Evander would have done all of this for nothing. He didn’t deserve that.
Filling her lungs with all the air she was going to need, Callie rent out a scream, and she didn’t stop until she got slapped across the face, spun around, and a foot slammed onto her stomach, making her gasp.
This was not going to stop her. She hadn’t suddenly become immune to the pain, but she was not going to allow herself to be taken by this monster.
She was done making this easy. Even as she coughed up some blood from his kick, she didn’t allow herself to stay down for long.
She breathed in again, screamed, and she didn’t stop.
Even as he went to kick her, she didn’t just lay there and take it, she attempted to dodge it, and at one point even reached out to grab his ankle. She sunk her nails into his skin, tearing at his flesh. He let out a growl and tried to hit her, but she pulled hard, making him stumble to his back.
Callie got to her feet and ran. Even though every fiber of her being was telling her to get to Evander, she took off running. She couldn’t make out the location. There were broken metal and car frames absolutely everywhere.
Callie didn’t know how long she was going to be able to evade him. She just needed long enough to make it to safety. Tears ran down her cheeks, and she didn’t even feel like she was crying. She was just trying to survive. Her heart raced and she felt sick to her stomach.
She rounded a corner and cried as a gunshot rang out, and without checking to see if she had been hit, she just kept running in the opposite direction. All she wanted to do was live.
She was tired of people trying to hurt her, or kill her, or constantly tell her she was nothing.
Every single person but Evander had told her how useless she was, that she should just accept her lot in life.
Well, that was over, and it ended now. She was done playing this way, or being this way.
She was not going to take this lying down. Byron was not going to kill her.
Callie didn’t know if it was stupidity, plain luck, or she was truly at the end of her tether, but glancing down at the floor, she saw a metal rod. She had never used one in her life, but she picked it up. She was done with this game of cat-and-mouse. She was done being hit and kicked.
It was time for Byron to understand he had messed with the wrong woman.
****
Evander looked down at the bodies and he wasn’t happy. None of them were Byron. The slippery little weasel had managed to evade him, and it was pissing him off. He wanted to kill him. Actually, he wanted to make it slow, to erase him from existence.
“Fuck me, there is no way he escaped,” Bastian said, standing up after being crouched over several of the bodies, and he scratched his head.
He ran a hand down his face, as he attempted to think of the best way to locate Byron. Only, he heard a scream, and he knew instantly it was Callie.
“What the ever-loving fuck?” Bastian asked.
“It’s Callie!” He didn’t stop as he suddenly took off, making his way outside, and of course, Callie wasn’t where he fucking put her.
The screaming had lasted for a few seconds, or had it been minutes? He didn’t know. The sound kept going off inside his head, and he kept trying to figure it out, but nothing was helping him right now.
He locked and loaded his gun while running, because Byron was not leaving these grounds. This ended tonight. Bastian was at his back, and he heard footfalls close behind.
There was the sound of a gunshot and several screams. He kept going, knowing saving Callie was all that mattered. A least she was still alive, but Byron must be the one shooting at her.
He pulled up his gun, using the scope to try and figure out what he heard and where. Evander zoomed in on each area he pointed at, but he couldn’t find Callie. There was movement past some piled-up cars, but by the time he focused, they had gone.
Callie was not a fighter. Why did he have to leave her alone? He was getting angrier with himself with each passing second. Anyone else who had ever dealt with Byron knew what he was capable of, how easily he was able to slip through the cracks. This was all his fault.
Anger coursed through him. He was pissed off.
And then, he caught sight of Callie. It hit him right in the heart to see her in the flesh again.
She held a bar in her hand, and she happened to turn the corner, looking right at him.
Her eyes were wide, but they were not filled with fear.
No, the woman looking at him was angry. She held that bar as if her life depended on it.
She breathed deeply, and he lowered his gun.
Evander saw the moment it registered that she recognized him, and she smiled, but he noticed she didn’t drop her weapon.
He held his gun to his side, and she started walking toward him, and just as she was about to get close, Byron stepped out from a hiding spot and grabbed Callie.
Evander raised his weapon in an instant and couldn’t believe he had let his guard down for even a second when it came to this evil fucker.
Callie let out a scream as he grabbed her hair and tugged her back. Another scream fell from her lips, and he saw as she gritted her teeth. She still held the bar in her hands, and he had the gun poised. Only Byron had a knife in his hand, and it looked pretty damn sharp.
He let out a tut. “I don’t think you’re going to use that gun.
Be a good little boy and put that on the ground, because if you don’t, I’m going to slit her throat.
You’re not going to get to play happy family with a dead girl, are you?
But that’s not even what you want, is it?
You wanted the power from what she gave you. ”
“Well, if you hurt her, I guarantee you’ll never have it.”
Evander had no choice but to play along.
There was no way he was going to risk her life. He knew firsthand how fast a person could bleed out. His only hope was that Byron was going to enjoy this moment, relish it even, and in doing so, give Bastian the perfect opportunity to finally end this waste of space.
He lifted up, and Byron did that annoying little tut again. It pissed him off, but he made a gesture with his hands, and Evander lifted his own and placed them behind his head.
“Who would have thought the great Evander would end up here? Never thought we’d cross paths like this.” Byron did another freaking tut. “Weakened by your greed for power. You could have already cut and run. She must have a real special pussy or something.”
“You have a real hard-on for this flash drive. I wonder what’s on it?”
“Nobody’s going to know because you’re going to hand it over,” Byron said.
Evander didn’t say a word. The knife was pressed to Callie’s neck, and he was checking to make sure it wasn’t drawing blood. So far, he couldn’t tell, but she still had the metal bar within her grasp.
“I mean, if you were going to be weakened by any woman, the least you could have done was pick a prettier one,” Byron said.
Evander stared at Bryon, and his anger was boiling at the surface. Where the fuck was Bastian? There was no way Byron would have the upper hand between the two of them, but they could not hurt Callie. She had nothing to do with this.
The knife at her neck was not leaving blood.
It either meant his knife was blunt, or he wasn’t pressing hard.
Evander didn’t know if he wanted to risk it.
What if this was all a ploy to get him to attack?
Byron was a fucking idiot, a piece of shit, but he was also a master manipulator, and the reason he had survived this long was his ability to outmaneuver his opponents.
Any wrong move now, and Callie was dead.
His only play right now was Callie. That was all that was keeping him alive. Evander had tried not to look at her, because the moment he saw the fear in her eyes, he knew it was going to kill a part of him. He had done this by not getting her to safety for the second time.
Only, as he finally looked into Callie’s eyes, he didn’t see fear, he saw anger. His woman was angry, and it was one of the most beautiful, it not the sexiest look he had ever seen. His woman was a fighter, and Byron’s life would be over within moments.