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The tears escape my eyes, the saltiness burning the raw skin around my eyes from crying so much. I never meant to cause him more grief in his life, but I’ll never regret meeting him or loving him. I just hope he believes I died, it’ll be better than knowing the alternative. The harshness of what faces me will probably be worse than death, something I don’t want him to live with. That burden can stay with me.
The exhaustion is too much, my panic attack has depleted my last energy reserves, and I feel the blanket of sleep closing in on me. My eyes refuse to open anymore, so I let my conscious mind fade, welcoming the escape from reality and this nightmare.
Chapter Forty-Nine
Nathan
It’s a cold night, I can see my breath in the dim light of the full moon. It’s just enough light to illuminate the hunting cabin, the darkened windows sharply reflecting the moonlight. From my spot in the tree line, I’m blanketed in darkness, assessing my surroundings. Part of me wants to rush the front door, go in guns blazing, and put a bullet in anyone who stands in my way, but I know that it’s not the smart move. If I act irrationally, letting my emotions cloud my judgment, I could get Callie killed. She doesn’t need the erratic version of me that would burn the world down for her, she needs the cold and calculated Special Forces veteran. The years of training and experience that’s been ingrained in my blood.
So here I sit, giving myself five more seconds to pull my head out of my ass and breathe. Clearing away my fear for Callie, and my hatred for the men I’m about to face, and putting on my impervious mask to get the job done.
I stalk quietly towards the lit windows of the cabin, hoping to get a visual inside, assess, and make my plan. The window has a film of grime over it, weathered from years of neglect, making the glass foggy. I use the heel of my hand to swipe at the corner of the window sill, clearing a smudge to see through.
I take in a blurry view of the living room. Even though it’s dimly lit, I can make out the bottom half of a body lying in the center of the floor. It’s a bad angle and I can’t see the top half, but my gut is telling me it’s Callie. My Callie. My stomach twists violently, and flashbacks of the girl in South America torment my brain. The first thing I saw then was her legs, before being met with the gruesomeness that still haunts me.
What if that’s the case now? Am I already too late?
I squeeze my eyes shut, refusing to see the girl from my nightmares, refusing to let that become the reality right now. I don’t open my eyes again until I’m back in the present, back in control of myself. Taking another deep breath, I look back in the window, looking for any sign of life from her. A toe twitch, anything.
She still doesn’t move, the sweat rolls down my neck making me achingly aware of how terrified I am to lose her. My muscles are tense, and my body is ready to spring into action, but I know I need to refrain. Assess. Plan. Engage. Anything out of that order can cause chaos and casualties, something I can’t risk. Not with her.
I scan the rest of the space, looking for her captors. I can’t see anyone, but I can faintly make out voices coming from the inside by the front door. Two voices. And it sounds like they’re arguing. With my gun ready, I edge closer to the front door, losing the visual inside but picking up their words through the gaps in the siding.
“I’m done. I want out. Don’t call me for help anymore, because I’m not doing it!” The voice that sounds like Sheriff Donahue booms.
“You’re done when I say you’re done. I haven’t been keeping all your dirty little secrets from my sister for nothin’. You’re mine until I decide I don’t need you anymore.” Tony, I assume, spits back at him.
“Tell her, I don’t care. She’s planning on going through with the divorce anyway! Get rid of the girl, then lay low. I’m not bailing you out if you get arrested!” The door flings open, and I hardly have enough time to dive back behind the side of the house before the Sheriff storms outside.
I hold my breath, staying completely still so I don’t make a noise and blow my cover. I hear him mumbling and cursing under his breath, then kicking rocks across the gravel driveway.
“DAMMIT!” He yells into the black night, before getting in his car, whipping it into reverse, then accelerating towards the road.
As much as I wanted to confront him tonight, his being gone means there is one less threat to Callie inside. I know Tony’s in there, and I can only assume Benjamin, Bub, is somewhere in there too.
I tense when loud music starts playing from inside, the noise is out of place in the dead quiet of night. Slinking back over to the front window, I curse when I don’t see Callie on the floor anymore. Fuck.
Using the volume from the grunge metal playing to cover the sound of my entry, I slip inside with my gun raised, sweeping the living room. I confirm that she’s no longer in this part of the cabin. Tony must’ve taken her down the hall, the only other direction he could’ve gone while I was watching the front.
I don’t hesitate, if he’s taking her back there for nefarious reasons, or to escape out the back, I’m not going to give him a chance. I keep my gun trained ahead of me as I creep down the hallway. Another curse falls silently from my lips as I approach three closed doors, the music from the living room is still drowning out any noises coming from inside. I’ll have to clear each room until I find her. Fuck, I don’t have time for this, he could be doing anything to her right now.
I slowly turn the handle to the first door on my right, throwing the door open. A closet. Just dusty shelves and old mason jars filled with spent bullet casings. None of it looks fresh like it’s all been sitting here for a while. Hopefully, it’s not an indicator of how much firepower they have on them. One door down, two to go.
Next is the middle door on the left. A small stream of light is coming from the crack at the bottom, I take a deep breath, hoping Callie’s behind this door. I want to get a hold of her and get her the hell out of here. Then I’m never letting her go.
A shadow passes through the light, someone’s definitely in here. I twist the handle, pushing the door open simultaneously, not giving whoever is inside any type of warning that I’m coming.
The sight in front of me is unexpected. Benjamin is standing in front of the bathroom sink naked, aside from some ratty boxers, scraping lines of coke onto the countertop. He’s wide-eyed upon seeing me, his skin so white you’d think he was seeing a ghost. Unfortunately for him, he’d be better off if I was a phantom, and not a man hell-bent on retribution.
I grab him by the neck, smashing his face into the sink bowl. His clammy skin is disgusting and I don’t want to touch him any longer than necessary. “You thought you could take my girl? And I wouldn’t come for you?” I whisper next to his head, his large body is trembling but he doesn’t dare fight me.
He whimpers like a little kid, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, it was Tony’s idea.”
I grit my teeth, annoyed by him and his cowardice. I push him off the sink so he flops onto the toilet, his busted nose from the sink is pouring blood into his mouth, and cocaine residue is smeared across his face.
Two more good thwacks against the sink and he would have had a cracked cranium and brain matter oozing out, but I want him to see it coming when I shoot him between the eyes.
To enunciate my plan, I push the barrel of my gun right between his eyebrows, “Any last words?” I ask, pressing harder into his skull after each word.
