Page 40 of Cautious

“Callie? Talk to me. Where’s Kel?” he asks, and I can hear voices in the background but not what they’re saying.

“We are at the hospital. We just pulled into the parking lot when someone plowed into us from behind. We’re okay, but Kellen lost his shit when he saw I was bleeding, and now he’s about to get into a fight with two humongous guys who look like they eat steroids for breakfast,” I say all in one breath.

“You’re bleeding?” Marcus roars, making me realize belatedly that I should have left that part out.

“It’s just a bump, but if you don’t get someone down here soon, there will be a lot more blood to deal with,” I snap, wincing when one of the guys throws a punch. The back doors of the truck open at the same time, and two more guys climb down, looking almost like clones of the other two meatheads Kellen is already facing off against.

“Shit, fuck, shit,” I curse, fumbling to free myself from my seat belt before swinging my door open and climbing out.

“What? What’s happening?” Marcus barks as I hear the sounds of a car starting. Hopefully, it’s heading our way.

“There’s four of them now. I have to do something.” I look around for something to use as a weapon when Kellen’s head rocks back from an uppercut to his jaw.

“No, absolutely not. Do not engage them. Callie, do you hear me? I want you to go inside the building and stay there until one of us comes for you.”

“But—”

“No, I know you want to help, but Callie, you’ll only distract him, and he will end up hurt worse trying to protect you. Go. We’ll be there in ten minutes, and the cops are en route.”

I hesitate a moment longer until one of the guys spots me, then smiles in a very not nice way, and I realize Marcus is right. They’ll use me against Kellen, and that will hurt him more than a few punches to the face.

I take off at a dead run to the hospital’s main entrance, pushing past people waiting to be seen. The lady with a scowl on her face sitting at the large desk doesn’t seem bothered at all about the fight in the parking lot. But when she realizes I won’t go away until she does something about it, she relents and finally agrees to call hospital security, but not before I lose my shit and end up getting sent on my way.

I take a deep breath to calm my frazzled nerves and decide to head up to my mother’s room, knowing that’s where the guys will look for me first. Besides, I’d rather get this over without an audience.

I take the elevator up to the fourth floor and head down the corridor to the nurses’ station. One of the two nurses points me in the direction of her room, so I head that way, promising to fill out any paperwork she needs afterward.

It’s quiet when I enter. The only noise is the intermittent beeping of the machine beside the bed.

“Mom,” I call softly. I don’t know if she’s asleep or ignoring me, but she doesn’t turn to face me. I leave the door open and walk over to the bed. I’m ready to tell her I’m leaving, that I’ll fill out whatever paperwork needs taking care of, but that’s where my role in her recovery ends. Only something else comes out instead.

“I love him. Every single instinct I have tells me to run to keep him safe, but that’s just my fear talking. Blake’s a fighter, strong, fair, and protective. He knows all about Christian and yet I held back telling him the truth about you. I let you get in my head again, questioning how he would react because I didn’t trust him enough to believe me. That stops now. In a moment,I’m going to walk out of this room, and you’ll never see me again. I’m going to tell Blake everything. I’m tired of running, I’m tired of being afraid of my own shadow, and I’m so fucking done giving you any power over me.”

She rolls toward me. One of her eyes is so swollen she can’t open it, but she doesn’t need to. I know it will be the same blue color as the left one blinking rapidly as tears fall down her cheeks.

I suck in a sharp startled breath and take a step back as I stare into the eye that should be the same copper color as mine. I don’t know what’s happening, but one thing is clear, whoever this woman is, she isn’t my mother.

“Hello, Callie.”

I spin around at the sound of my name, gasping when I feel a sharp pinch on my neck. I can feel the blood draining from my face when my eyes connect with the icy cold blue ones of Christian.

I spot a syringe in his hand. The image becomes hazy, fading in and out as I try to comprehend what that means. Then the floor rushes up to meet me, sending me into oblivion.

Blake

I sigh with relief as Banner and I wave goodbye to Tommy, the five-year-old boy heading off to live on his grandfather’s ranch in Colorado.

Tommy’s mother, Ellen, hired Price Security as a protection detail to get her to and from the courthouse safely while she battled her abusive soon-to-be ex-husband for sole custody of her son. A son who had been sent to the emergency room six times already in his young life. Despite both Tommy and Ellen telling hospital staff and the police that Edward, Tommy’s father, was the one responsible for Tommy’s injuries, Edward had walked free. Not because he was innocent but because he was loaded and had a judge or two in his pocket, meaning everything got swept under the rug.

When Tommy found Ellen dead one morning in a pool of her own blood after a so-called botched robbery, Tommy was sent to live with his father. A father who didn’t know that Ellen had security cameras installed by yours truly in every room of her house.

Thanks to the footage I pulled, Edward is now facing a life sentence, and Tommy gets to live with his grandfather, who seems like a good man who adores his grandson. Despitemy frustration at not being able to save Ellen, I’m happy we managed to get Tommy out of his father’s evil clutches.

“Think he’ll be okay?” Banner asks as they pull away.

“Yeah, I do. He has a rough road ahead of him, but he’s safe now, and that’s half the battle.”

“Plus, you can see the grandfather adores him,” Banner adds.

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