Page 21 of Only The Strong

I take the tire iron hesitantly as Machine Gun Kelly’s “The Break Up” starts playing out of the pickup speakers. Not loud enough to draw attention, just enough for us to hear it. “This is insane.” I stare at the tire iron in my hand. “We can’t do this.”

“Why not?” Callum asks, already beside Noah’s Camry.

My brows pull together. “Um, it's illegal.”

Cale shakes his head. “You won't get in any trouble. I promise.” He crosses over to me and angles my face to his with his hand on my chin. “Do you trust me?”

I hesitate. Yes, no. “Kind of.” I finally answer.

Callum chuckles. “Close enough.” He switches the tire iron out for the sledgehammer and moves to stand behind me, wrapping around me and placing his hands on my arms. He raises our arms and smashes the hammer down onto the windshield. The screen smashes and Ronan’s laughter can be heard over the car alarm. I glance back to see Ronan and Saint passing the bottle between them with lazy, drunk smiles. “Hurry. Smash whatever you want!” Callum yells to be heard and hands me the tire iron again.

The music and laughter set me off, the adrenaline pumping and I no longer care about the law. Callum and I set to work smashing all of the windows and lights, and putting dents into several places on the car. The smashing and smacking, remembering the messages and pictures I found on Noah’s phone, spurs me on and every hit gets harder and harder. I finally stop when the one place I was hitting over and over is too dented to do anything more. Callum is standing off to the side and Ronan, Saint, and Jack are still on the tailgate. They all watch me.

“That’s the fucking spirit, Princess!” Ronan hands the bottle to Saint and hops off of the truck. Saint downs the rest of the liquor in one long gulp. “But one last thing.” He pulls a butterfly knife out of his back pocket and flicks it open.

“Hey!” A man yells as he runs over to us. I drop the tire iron, my eyes going wide, It’s practically daylight out here with how many streetlights are around the parking lot, there’s no way he doesn’t know what we were doing. Jack slides off of the tailgate and steps into the path and the man abruptly stops. “Oh shit. Sorry, man,” He stutters out and turns to walk away quickly.

Jack turns to face us. “We’d probably better wrap this up, the woman he was with was on the phone.” Just as he’s finishing his sentence, police sirens sound in the distance.

“Not the best place to trash someone’s car, Cale,” Ronan says as he bends down to stab a hole into both tires on our side and walk around to the other side.

“You getting too old for a little chase?” Callum counters, ever the presence of calm, despite the sirens getting closer.

Ronan barks a deep laugh. “Yeah right, just worried about the Prospect's ability to get us away.” He stabs one tire on the passenger side and then motions to Jack. “Get us back to the clubhouse without getting us pulled over alright?”

Callum grabs my hand and pulls me towards his bike, tossing the tools back into the bed of the pickup before Ronan, Saint, and Jack speed away. We quickly fasten our helmets, the sirens only a few blocks away now. “Hold on tight, Red,” Callum says with an unmistakable grin in his voice.

20

REESE

I’m wokenup by Callum lightly brushing my hair out of my face, with my eyes still closed I start to place my hand over his. We made it back to my apartment last night without being stopped and I immediately crashed from my adrenaline high. I vaguely remember scooting close to Callum and when I felt his heavy breaths on the top of my head, I didn't jump to get away. I just enjoyed his presence and the warmth of his embrace. Before I can reach his hand, I hear the bathroom toilet flush, and the featherlight touch on my face is immediately gone. My eyes snap open and I scan the room, my heart beating out of my chest, but I don't see anything. The bathroom door is mostly closed, only a sliver of light leaking through the small opening. The barely rising sun doesn't let a lot of light into the room, so I sit up and turn on the bedside light, there's no one here. The bathroom light turns off and Callum shuffles back into the bedroom.

“I’m sorry, babe, did I wake you?” His voice is rough with sleep, his eyes are still half closed.

Shaking my head I turn the light off and lay back on my bed. “Come back to bed.” He hums his agreement and falls back into the bed. He pulls me to his side and I rest my head on his big chest. Callum getting out of bed must have shifted the bed and my hair fell over my face. I fall asleep knowing I'm safe and feeling adored. I should move, I know I should, but it feels too good to be in his arms right now. I’ll worry about why that feeling doesn't scare me when I wake up, right now I’m not going to let it ruin the night we had together.

* * *

This timewhen I’m woken up it’s by the sunlight streaming right into my eyes. Groaning, I roll over and check the time on my phone, it's late morning. Callum’s voice startles me in the doorway.

“Good morning, sleepyhead, I was just about to come wake you.” He sits on the bed and holds out a glass of orange juice for me. I accept it and take a big drink. Callum stares at my lips as I lick the juice off of my bottom lip. “I was going to wake you with my face buried between your thighs, but I guess we’ll have to take a rain check until tonight. Our presence is requested for a day of drinking with Finn and his girl.”

My cheeks flame red at the thought, I’ve never had someone be so blunt with their attraction to me, or so damn smooth. “I don't know if I could have taken that, I’m pretty sore after all of our activities last night.” Callum smirks over the lid of a Starbucks coffee. “Did you go out to get that?” I smile, imagining this tattooed bad boy pulling through a Starbucks drive-thru and ordering a Pumpkin Spice Latte and the cute barista almost fainting when he pulls up to the window.

He shakes his head, swallowing his drink. “I had Mason bring it. You don't have a coffee machine.” He smiles at me.

“I don’t like coffee,” I say sweetly. Callum looks at me with his eyebrows pulled tightly together, but before he can say anything about my dislike of coffee, I remember the rest of his previous statement that was clouded in my sex hazed brain. “Why are we going day drinking with Finn?”

Callum lets his argument go and shrugs. “He said he wants you to meet Huntley. I’m sure he just wants to fulfill some girly teenage dream of going on a double date.” Callum takes another drink and leans against my headboard, stretching his long legs out in front of him. “We’re meeting them in a few hours, but I wanted to take you somewhere first.” I stare at him wide-eyed and scramble to get out of bed quickly to get a shower in before we have to leave. Callum smacks my butt as I hurry past him to the bathroom. “Hurry that sexy ass up, babe.”

A while later, I’m ready with my makeup done, hair pulled into a ponytail, and dressed in white jean shorts, a thin tan belt, and a jean-looking-button-up. I tucked part of it into my shorts and it's hanging off of one shoulder. I grab a small shoulder bag to slip my phone and wallet in and slip on some nude sandals. Callum is still sitting on the edge of my bed, but now he’s showered and dressed in jeans, a charcoal tee shirt, leather cut, and boots. When I walk out of the bathroom he looks up from his phone and shakes his head while smiling. “What?” I lean back into the bathroom and check my reflection.

He stands up from the bed and strides over to me. “You look damn good, Red.” He reaches out for my hand. “Let's go.” I place my hand in his and he guides me in front of him to walk out of the bedroom.

It turns out Callum’s surprise stop was a shooting range. I let him take my hand and lead me into the storefront because I’m truthfully scared. I’ve never shot a gun before, never even held one. I’ve never felt the inclination, but I guess with everything going on it wouldn't be a bad idea to have an understanding of how to handle one. When I tell him of my weapons skills, or lack thereof, he shakes his head and asks for a few handguns. I miss the names because I tuned into “Moonlight” by Chase Atlantic playing through the speakers in the ceiling of the store. The girl lounging behind the counter on her phone must be the one controlling the playlist. Callum leads me through a set of double doors into the shooting range. Several long lanes are set up with targets at the end, and a few are occupied by older gentlemen. We walk all the way across and to another door. In the room are another two lanes with an employee setting up the guns Callum asked for. “I reserved the private lanes since you’ve never shot before.” He walks to the back of the room and starts grabbing clear eyeglasses and headphones for us. “I wanted to be able to teach you without the distractions of the other people.”

“Oh, okay.” I nervously walk over to the lane where three small black guns are laying on the table. “Are you qualified to be teaching me?”

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