Page 16 of Bride Unwanted

“What? I can’t even come around to eat?” he retorts.

Great. Turning to Callie, I take her hand, making sure she is looking at me.

“Babe, why don’t you go ahead to the car. I’ll be along shortly, and we’ll head back home,” I say, smiling. “I need to talk to this guy from work, okay?”

Her brows furrow, and she gives me a puzzled look.

“Is everything all right?” she whispers.

“Everything is fine.” I smile. Giving her a wink and a gentle push toward the car. She relents and starts walking.

“What are you doing here?” I demand, turning toward Tony.

A chuckle escapes his lips that makes my blood boil. Keeping my composure, I stare at him, waiting for an answer.

“Just to let you know that shit is about to change. It’s time for another family to sit at the head of the table.”

“Are you done?” I say calmly. “The only thing about to change here is your heart rate. Go back to that shit hole you call a home and don’t come back.”

“Nice new wife you got there.”

I pull the gun from my shoulder and point it at his head.

“Don’t even look at her. If she’s around, you look at the ground. Or I’ll put a bullet in your head.” The venom in my voice is evident.

“Why wait?” he challenges.

If I kill him, it will start a war. He knows that as well.

“Maybe another time,” I promise.

“I suppose I found a soft spot, after all.”

I glare as he turns and gets into a BMW. He speeds off. The sound of tires screeching following him. Shaking my head, I start toward the car. I swear I am going to kill him one day.

I round the corner and immediately see a hole in the windshield of a car. As I get closer, my heart starts to pound. That’s my car. I break into a full-on sprint. Pumping my legs as fast as they will go. Please no.

As I get to the front bumper, I can see the driver slumped over with a bullet hole in his head. Ripping the back door open, I am convinced I’ll find Callie dead. Somehow, I have my gun out, pointing it inside in case someone has her.

My gut sinks as I find the back empty. Doing the only thing I know to do, I take out my phone and call my old man.

“Hey, Pop, listen. They took her. They took Callie.”

9

CALLIE

I have never been so scared in my life. Fear is all I can think about as the two burly men on either side of me drag me into an abandoned warehouse. My hands are tied behind my back and there is duct tape over my mouth, rendering me even more helpless than I already am.

Everything happened so quickly, I didn’t even have a chance to scream. When I rounded the corner at the restaurant and saw the driver dead, someone grabbed me from behind before a scream could rip from my throat.

Why would anyone do this, and why in the world did they take me?

The worst possible scenarios run rampant in my mind. Human trafficking is on the very top of that list.

“Move it, slut,” one of the men growls when I can’t keep up with their long strides.

We stop at the end of a wide hallway, in front of a door, which the man to the right of me unlocks and opens. They push me into the dark room, and I barely manage to stay on my feet. I stumble into the dingy space just as the door slams shut behind me. The lock engages with a loud click that echoes through the room eerily.

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