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This was Zander. A boy I thought I could fall in love with who'd broken my heart by cheating on me. What the hell was he doing?
"I won't call him. What are you doing? What's wrong with you?" The horrible truth started to dawn on me. Had it been Zander, all this time? But they'd arrested the group of people who wanted my father to resign.
"Don't take it personally, Cal. None of this was ever about you. It's your father we want."
None of it was about me? So not even dating me, cheating on me, was about me? "I was just a means to an end for you all along?"
"Yes. Collateral damage. This is a war against the powers that be, and sometimes innocent people get hurt in the crossfire. For what it's worth, I'm sorry. Now call him." He pressed the muzzle of the gun to my temple.
"You won't shoot me."
"I'll shoot you and text him from your phone. That'll work just as well for our purposes. But there's no need for you to get hurt if you cooperate."
How had I ever looked at him and thought he could have been for me?
The only thing that convinced me to call was the sense that Zander's threat was very real. I wanted to live to see Blake again. And I believed there was still a way for everyone to be okay in the end.
Dad's cell went to his secretary, and I explained that no matter what he was doing, I needed to speak to him. It only took a few minutes for him to answer. Zander fed me exactly what to say. Then he grabbed the phone and said, "Be there on time or she dies. No cops or she dies."
I could hear my father shouting to speak to me when Zander hung up and dug the pistol into my side.
"Drive."
I touched my pendant again, sure either Dad was calling Blake already or he'd seen the tracking device activate in his driveway.
Hurry, my love. Hurry, Blake.
Despite having a man in the car with me who seemed ready to end my life at a moment's notice, I felt stronger than ever that I had to tell Blake how much I loved him, no matter what happened.
38
BLAKE
I'd just listenedto a ten-minute rant from Cathy about how the local pancake house wasn't as good as it used to be when my phone buzzed in my pocket.
Thank God, I thought. I didn't care what it was as long as it changed the subject.
I'd come in early so I wouldn't have to sit at home and think. I didn't tell Cathy anything about my surprise trip to see Callie and how that had gone to hell. Apparently, I didn't need to. That woman could read me like a large-print book. She didn't know what was wrong. Just that something was.
And she hadn't stopped trying to distract me from whatever it was since I'd walked in the door.
I glanced at my phone to see the tracking device I'd given Callie. The one she'd turned off after her father called and told us the perpetrators had been arrested. Now it was on again. And it was pinging her…at my house.
"What the–"
For a moment, I thought maybe this was some type of apology. Callie, surprising me by showing up and signaling me with the tracker. Then I realized that it couldn't be. She would call my phone when she found me not home. Or she'd come to town.
She would never turn on that tracker for anything that wasn't serious. Because she knew how seriously I'd taken it when I'd given it to her.In case you're taken...
Her signal started moving, leaving my house, and heading back out of town.
"Cathy, Callie's in trouble."
My deputy went from someone bitching about overcooked pancakes to a woman on a mission just that fast. She stood. "Full gear?"
Sure in the knowledge that Callie wouldn't use that tracker for anything but the direst circumstances, I nodded. "Full gear. Let's go."
We took separate cars, riding with our lights off, to follow the signal. I was in the lead, Cathy taking her directions from me. What the hell was Callie doing in Elm Grove? A hopeful part of me thought maybe she'd come after our blowup the night before. But to show up and then this, whatever this was, didn't make any sense.
