Page 49 of Cautious

“One favor and it better be legal,” he snaps, listening to whoever has the phone now. “Fuck you, Bates. Put my sister back on.”

It’s quiet again for a moment as he waits. Finally, he relaxes and offers me a nod.

“Thanks, Raindrop, we’ll get there as soon as we can. Make sure when they find her that everyone knows to keep their hands to themselves. She’s been through enough, and her man here is looking for a reason to kill.” He listens for a moment more before mumbling, “I love you too,” and hanging up. Tate sighs. “Desperate times call for desperate measures. I can’t come officially, but I can take a personal day and visit my sister.”

“What—” I’m cut off when Arlo interrupts from behind me.

“Jackson says to tell you, you’re lucky his wife likes you and that they had a situation nearby that needed some attention. He has someone bringing two birds over. He should be here in ten. We need to move to the pasture out back where there is enough space for them to land.”

“Everything okay with Jackson?” Jackson is one of five guys who owns Dante’s, London’s premier nightclub, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg of what they do. Jackson and the guys have their fingers in so many pies. I’m surprised they manage to keep their shit straight or their wife happy. Maybe that’s why it takes five of them. I brush that thought away. Gracie is a sweetheart, and if they make her happy, who the fuck am I to judge?

“Yeah, they’re all good. Just looking at buying some property over here,” Arlo answers without hesitation.

“Thank fuck for that at least.” They had already had their share of bad luck. It’s about time they caught a break.

I turn back to Tate and watch him pack up his shit as he talks quietly to his guys. They listen to whatever he has to say before nodding and walking away, leaving just Tate and Gunner behind.

“All those contacts at your disposal and you have to call your sister?” I comment as we all make our way through the house to the pasture out back. “It’s not that I’m not grateful, but Christianwon’t be alone, and I don’t want your sister getting caught up in the crossfire.”

Tate laughs at that, but I don’t find anything funny about it. Underestimating Christian is what got us to this point in the first place.

“Reign is safe, don’t you worry about that. She has the protection of a whole MC behind her,” he tells me, making me blink.

“What?” How does that work when Tate comes from a family of cops?

“You heard of the Kings of Carnage?”

I nod. Everyone’s heard of the Kings of Carnage. They have chapters all over the country. The mother chapter, in particular, has a brutal reputation of dealing with their own in the harshest ways possible.

“Tell me Callie will be safe and I’m not throwing her from the frying pan into the fire,” I bark at him.

“If there is one thing those guys won’t tolerate, it’s harm coming to women or children. I might not like their methods, but Callie won’t find herself anywhere safer until you get there.”

“And you trust these guys?” I question as I spot two choppers approaching.

“To keep her safe, yes,” he hedges. “Look, they love my sister and would kill anyone who so much as breathed on her. They might live by a set of rules I don’t always agree with, but with this, yes, I trust them completely.”

We don’t talk after that, the propeller blades whirling through the air making it too difficult to hear anything else.

I climb into the backseat of the chopper closest to me, letting Marcus take the front as Arlo and Felix climb in beside me. Once we are all strapped in and wearing headsets, we take off, watching as Tate and Gunner climb into the second chopper. I’m going to owe that man and his whole team a beer when this isover. I look down at the monstrosity of a house as it gets smaller the farther we climb, and say a quick prayer.

Part of me is terrified, imagining what Callie is going through at the hands of that sick fuck. The other part of me refuses to think about the what-ifs and focuses on what matters. Callie won’t give up, and I’ll be damned if I do either. I won’t stop until she’s home, back in my bed and my heart, where she belongs.

I let my pride hold me back before, my ignorance stopping me from telling Callie how much I love her. My reasoning, which seemed so sound at the time, now seems stupid and weak. I vow to myself here and now, when I finally get her back in my arms, I’m going to make her my wife and the mother of my children. I just pray to God I’m not too late.

Losing everyone I cared about left me a broken man, but I know losing Callie will destroy me.

Callie

I smooth down the front of the flimsy lace dress, wondering how pissed Christian will be if I puke all over it. Taking in the puffiness and the red discoloration across my cheekbone from the last time I made him mad, it’s not something I want to test out.

A banging on the door makes me jump, and the nausea swells enough for me to have to take some deep breaths before I pass out again.Keep calm, Callie, you can make a run for it when you’re somewhere more crowded.

“It’s time,” a voice I don’t recognize shouts through the door.

I don’t want to push my luck, so I pull it open and stand meekly, waiting for my next set of instructions.

The guy collecting me looks every bit like the clichéd hired goon you’d see in a B-rated gangster movie. With his cheap, ill-fitting black suit, crooked black tie, and greasy, slicked-back dark hair, he looks like a discount store version of Christian. He looks like every other one of Christian’s many minions I’ve seen over the years as if he cranks them out of his own personal cloning machine. Each one is more expendable than the next. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t a threat to me.

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