Page 26 of You for Her (The Edge of Retaliation 2)
I’m not here to be attacked, I’m here to forget.
For five seconds, I just want to forget.
“You should be ashamed of yourself, coming in here like you belong,” the man growls at me when he turns back around. “You’re a killer. You should have rotted in that prison.”
“I’m leaving,” I say, turning without the drinks and trying to push my way through the crowd. My knees tremble and my body shakes as I try to shove past people, who are less than willing to move for me. Some even try to trip me up as I got past.
“Leave, killer!” he yells after me. “You don’t deserve to be alive!”
My chest clenches and pain shoots through my body as shame takes over. People are staring at me, muttering under their breath. I reach Jo, who is already on her feet, halfway to me. She grabs my arm and pulls me to her side, saying, “Let’s get you out of here,” then she turns to the crowd and screams, “You should all be ashamed of yourselves!”
We hurry out of the bar, with people shoving into me as I pass, muttering killer and bitch under their breaths. When we hit the sidewalk, I stop, leaning over and putting my hands on my knees, then I gasp, trying to catch my breath, pain radiating through my body. To my very core. It hurts, it hurts so damned bad. My throat burns as vomit threatens to come up.
“It’s okay, honey. Breathe.”
Through my panting, I whisper, “How did they know who I am?”
“You know exactly how.”
I look up at her, a lone tear rolls down my cheek. “Tanner,” I whisper.
She nods.
How could he? How could he do something like that to me? Did he set those people up to say those things? Did he pay them? Does he know them? Did he follow me? I look around, frantically, my eyes scanning all the people lining the streets and even the ones sitting in their cars. I can’t see him, but somehow I know Jo is right. They did this to me.
They tormented me once again.
I can’t deal with it anymore.
I’m not going to live my life like this forever.
I turn to Jo and, in a staggered breath, I whisper, “Let’s do this. Let’s take them down.”
She smiles. “Finally.”
Yeah, finally.
9
“I CAN TURN AROUND,” Jo says as we both stare out the car window at Ethan who is waiting on my sidewalk, his eyes on us. “You do not have to see him after the night you’ve had. Hell, he was probably behind it.”
“I don’t think he was,” I tell her, and it’s the truth. It doesn’t mean I’m on his side, I just don’t think he’s part of it now. “And I can deal with Ethan.”
She nods, and we get out of the car. We walk up toward the front of the apartment, and as she reaches Ethan, Jo says to him, “You should be ashamed of yourself, Ethan. You’re the worst kind of man there is. If you hurt her again, you’ll have me to deal with.”
Then she walks past, shoving her shoulder into his as she does.
I love my best friend. I love her more than life.
She disappears inside, and I look to Ethan, saying, “I’m not in the mood for you tonight, Ethan. I’m really not.”
His face twists, like my words pain him, and he says, “Let me talk to you. Five minutes, it’s all I’m asking.”
I stare at him. “Do you know what happened to me tonight?”
He studies me, really taking me in, and his face hardens. “What did they do?”
“They sent people into the bar I was in to call me killer and other horrible names and torment me about Celia in front of everyone. That’s what they did. They’re not going to stop until I crumble. But you already know that, don’t you?”
His fists clench with anger. “I had nothing to do with that, or anything they’ve done to you since you left that prison.”
“You expect me to believe that?” I snap.
“If you let me speak with you, I can explain it …”
“You mean explain how you used me to help out with their sick little plan. How you pretended to be my friend so they could torment me?”
“I am your friend, Callie,” he argues.
I lean in close to him. “Don’t you fucking ever use that word to me again. You don’t know the meaning of the word friend.”
He looks like I’ve slapped him, but I don’t care.
I don’t care because that’s how I feel every second of every day.
“Give me five minutes, and then, if you never want to speak to me again, I’ll leave you alone.”
I stare at him, rage coursing through my body like a god damned hurricane just building, waiting to explode and destroy everything in its path.
