Page 67 of Jacked and Jaded

Uh oh. The jig was up. Time to put on her game face. She descended the remaining stairs, not bothering to be stealthy now. All eyes turned their direction as they reached the bottom.

“Yeah. Never mind. They’re already here, Tulsa.” He disconnected, his expression grim. Jackson didn’t appear to be happy to see them either.

Race held the phone up and waved it back and forth. “I guess this belongs to you since the caller ID came up Calliope calling,” he addressed Bellamy. Calliope glanced at her friend and found her smiling. Huge. When she turned back to Race, he didn’t look the least bit amused. In fact, he looked like he wanted to strangle her or turn her over his knee.

Calliope noticed Jackson was looking at her the same way. Yeah, her man was not happy with her right now.

“Calliope. What the fuck are you doing here?” Jackson growled. “I told you to stay home. That the club was going to take care of this.”

“I know what you said, but I told you, Ineedthis.” She took a couple of steps his direction, her eyes pinned on Jackson. His brothers parted to allow her through. She knew that they only did that because Jackson hadn’t given them the word to stop her.

“Liope.” Clint tried to get her attention. No doubt, wanting her to help him. He never showed her any mercy, there was no way in hell she would show him any.

She stopped toe to toe with Jackson. “I’m doing this. I hope this doesn’t end things between us because I really love you and it would break my heart to lose you again, but I have to do this.”

“Calliope, I’m trying to spare you. Once you do something like this, purposely inflict pain on someone, you don’t walk away unscathed. I don’t want that for you.” Jackson cupped the uninjured side of her face.

“I can handle it. I’m stronger than you think.”

“Liope.” Clint tried again.

Calliope’s arm shot out and she backhanded her ex across the face, snapping his head to the side. “Don’t ever say my name again.” She turned her full attention on the man who loved to beat on her. She punched him in the stomach, knocking his breath from him. He actually looked surprised that she’d done that. Calliope wasn’t the kind of person who could torture another human being. Jackson was right about that. But she could pretend she was.

“When did they get here?” Dagger asked Race as he reached the bottom of the stairs.

“I don’t know. Sometime while you were taking a shit.” Race’s tone suggested he wasn’t happy with Dagger allowing two women to slip past him and make their way down here.

“What’d I miss?” Dagger either ignored Race’s tone or didn’t appear to be the least bit bothered by it. He rubbed his hands together.

“She backhanded him and punched him in the stomach.” Race smiled behind his hand.

Jackson shot them a look that said “you’re not helping.”

“Give me a bat.” She shouted out to anyone who was listening. She was going to teach Clint a lesson before they ended him. Every single time he’d hurt her played through her memories like a movie reel. She was going to show him she wasn’t broken despite his best efforts.

“What are going to do with a bat, Calliope?” She was making Jackson nervous, but it couldn’t be helped.

“Shove up his ass, so he knows what it feels like to be raped,” she answered, staring at Clint the whole time. With her back to the brothers, she didn’t see all the worried looks they exchanged

“Baby,” Jackson started. “I don’t think you want to do that.”

“Yes, I do.”

Bellamy walked toward her carrying a bat. Calliope was reaching for it, when Jackson shouted at Bellamy, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“Helping my friend beat her demons.” Bellamy stood strong under his glare, not the least bit frightened.

“Give me that.” Jackson jerked it out of her hand. He handed it off to Jed and felt something pull at the back of his jeans. Oh shit. He spun around quickly, but not fast enough to stop Calliope.

She felt no fear, and her hand was steady. She raised the gun, put the barrel to Clint’s forehead and pulled the trigger. She was shocked at how loud the sound was in the small enclosed room. Shit. She wouldn’t be able to hear for days after that. Jackson pulled her away from Clint’s lifeless body and shook her by the arms.

“What the fuck was that?!”

“That,” she handed him back his gun, “is closure.”

Jackson stoodwith his mouth open as he watched his woman and her friend climb back up the stairs as if nothing life changing just happened. He looked around and saw the same expression on all his brothers’ faces, too. He motioned for his dad to follow them.

“Did that just happen?” Tuck scratched his chin.

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