Page 64 of Dark Succession
Her laugh was filled to the brim with hopelessness. “I did it. I killed Brendan. It wasn’t… I didn’t go in there planning to do it, but I was the one who pulled the trigger. This is all my fault. Your brotherdiedbecause of what I did.”
Teague flinched. He might have been willing to lay the blame at the faceless killer’s feet, but the truth was that there was plenty of blame to spread around. “If we’re going to blame you, then let’s heap a load onto the Hallorans because they gave the order, and my older brother because he knew war was a distinct possibility when he and my father agreed to marry me off to you. And, fuck, let’s blame me, too. Because I knew what the danger was and I didn’t get Devlin and the girls out of town.”
“If I hadn’t gone to that club, none of this would have happened, and you know it.”
Maybe not, butshe’dbe dead. He knew enough about Brendan to know that. Maybe not right away, but he would have killed Callie at some point. “Come here. We’ll talk about this.”
Her sigh was so faint, he barely heard it. “I can’t. You’ll convince me there’s another way, and I won’t do what needs to be done. I won’t let another person be hurt because I’m too much of a coward to step forward.”
“Where are you? I’ll come get you.”
“No, Teague. I didn’t call for that.” It sounded like a car door opened and background noise whispered through the line as she must have stepped onto the street. “You’ll be okay without me. This was… God, being with you was like being in a dream I never wanted to wake up from. Even though the world’s been falling apart around us, I’ve been happier in the last two weeks than I have in a very long time. Because of you.”
His throat burned, but he swallowed past it. “Callie, don’t do this.”
“You’ll be okay, Teague. I promise. This isn’t the end for you. You’ll survive and your family will be safe. I’m only sorry I didn’t do this a week ago.”
Before Devlin died.
His brother was gone. There was no getting him back. Teague couldn’t lose Callie, too. “Angel, please.”
“Promise me it stops here. Promise me that you and James will sit down and do whatever it takes to make peace.”
He couldn’t do it. If she died, he’d set the world on fire in retaliation. “Callie, goddamn it, it doesn’t have to be this way. We’ll get James here. We’ll figure this shit out. Just give me some fuckingtimeto find a way around this.”
“I—” Her voice caught. “I have to go. I love you.” And then she ended the call.
Teague redialed, gripping the phone so tight he was afraid it’d crack as the call rang and rang. It went to voice mail, and he redialed again. This time it didn’t even ring. “Fuck!”
“What’s going on?”
He turned to find that Aiden had paused the security footage with the woman in the middle of the screen. He pointed. “That’s my wife.”
Aiden swung around so fast, it was a wonder he didn’t fall out of his chair. “That’sCallista Sheridan?” He shook his head. “Wait,wife?”
“I married her last night.” He frowned at the screen. He should have seen this coming. Hadn’t there been bruises on her throat less than twenty-four hours after Brendanwas killed? Hadn’t she been reluctant to talk about it time and time again, changing the subject every time he brought it up?Goddamn it. He’d thought that it was an ex-boyfriend or that she’d gotten into a rough situation. In what reality would he have connected the dots to guess thatshewas the one to put Brendan out of his misery?
Even now, with her confession ringing in his ears and her grainy image on a tape in front of him, he was still trying to wrap his mind around it. Every cell of his being rejected the idea that she could kill someone in cold blood. He dialed her again, already knowing that it’d go straight to voice mail. Her phone was off. She wasn’t going to give him a chance to talk her out of this.
“I never would have guessed.”
“You and me both.” He stared at the image, half-sure that it’d morph into one less familiar. “She had bruises on her throat the night we announced our engagement. He choked her.”
“I’ve heard that’s how Brendan got his kicks.”
Had he… Fuck, Teague couldn’t think the words. Callie hadn’t acted like a woman hurt in that way. Not that he was an expert. But even taking into account people dealing with that kind of assault in different ways, he didn’t think she’d have let him near her if she’d been hurt likethat. He released a breath he hadn’t been aware he was holding. “What if it was self-defense?”
“Do you really think Victor Halloran cares? His son is dead, and it sounds like she’s responsible.”
Victor might not care but Teague cared. He looked at his brother. Aiden had aged years in the last few days. The hard exterior he presented the world was cracked and flawed, and the exhaustion was starting to leak through.If Teague had half a brain in his head, he’d go to the FBI and throw both himself and Callie on their mercy.
But they hadn’t done shit to help him before now, and he couldn’t trust her life in their hands.
He never thought he’d trust Aiden again—not after what he’d done to put them all in danger—but desperate times called for desperate measures, and twenty-seven years of looking up to his older brother weren’t something he could shake off in the space of two weeks. “I need your help.”
Aiden didn’t hesitate. “Anything.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
