Page 2 of You for Her (The Edge of Retaliation 2)
I take it, feeling the warmth penetrate my skin and bring heat to my cold hands right away. I exhale and lean down, breathing in the sweet scent and closing my eyes. My heart is still pounding—it feels like it’ll never stop. It all feels like it’ll never end. I can claw my way out, but someone is always going to throw a new layer of dirt over my grave, making sure I’m forever stuck in hell.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Jo asks, sitting down across from me, her own face pale, her voice shaky.
“What is there to say? It’s all pretty obvious, isn’t it?”
“Not to me,” she says. “Ethan protected you, Callie. He made sure you were always safe inside. I can’t see him doing that if he wanted to harm you.”
I look up at her. Jo has an innocent way of thinking. It could be because she’s spent no time seeing what I’ve seen, or it could be that she wants to see the best in people. Either way, sometimes it clouds what’s right in front of her. The truth. The cold, hard truth.
“Ethan was making sure I got out of prison safely so they could act out their little revenge plan. Ethan was making sure I trusted him. Ethan played his part perfectly.”
My heart, the pure raw pain that flashes through it when I say those words has me fighting back the tears again.
“I’m so sorry, honey.”
“I understand what they’re doing,” I whisper, “I just don’t understand what they were hoping to gain out of it. Were they hoping to send me over the edge until I killed myself? Were they hoping I’d confess everything to them and change my story about Celia stepping in front of my car, or were they pushing me toward something even more dangerous? Were they going to hurt me? I have so many questions, but there are no answers to any of them.”
“The only people that could tell you that are Tanner and Ethan.”
I look to her and say in a low tone, “Tanner and Ethan won’t be finding out that I know.”
Jo shakes her head in confusion. “Callie, you could be in danger. You need to go to the police, or at least tell them you know so they no longer have the upper hand. They quite literally created a whole world of lies and dropped you right into it to seek out their revenge. Nobody goes to that much effort if they’re not planning something bad. I’d like to believe the best, too, but I don’t know anything anymore. You might not be safe.”
“I’m not going to the police,” I say, sipping my tea. “I’m not going to tell them I know. You’re right, Jo, they did go to an extreme effort to put themselves into my life. Everything from my friends to my job was orchestrated by them. They’ve had the upper hand. Tanner has been made to look like the hero, always being there to help me when I’m in danger. Ethan has been made to look like my one loyal friend, always there when I’ve needed him. Andrea has been made to look like she’s giving me a chance, like she’s a fun-loving woman I can rely on. None of it is true. They had an end game. I want to know what that end game is.”
“Callie …”
“I want to know what they had planned for me. I want to know everything that I’ve missed. I’m not going to just tell them I know, or go to the police who won’t believe a damned word I say because I have no actual proof they did anything to me. No, I’m going to play their little game. Only I’m going to play it harder, smarter, better.”
Jo shakes her head. “You can’t be serious. That’s the worst idea I’ve ever heard.”
Frustration bubbles in my chest. She doesn’t understand, nobody does. How could they? It almost seem so unbelievable that it’s hard to wrap your mind around. “This is my life they’re playing with, Jo. They’ve twisted me in a way nobody can understand. They’ve made sure I’ve suffered at their hand. I’m not going down without a fight. I will find out what they were planning for me. I will uncover their secrets. I will find out what happened to Celia Yates. I’ll crush each and every one of them.”
Jo stands, looking down at me. “You’re hurting. I know you are. What you found out tonight must be harder than anything I could possibly imagine. Because of that, I’m going to hope you’re just angry and reacting out of rage. Go get some sleep, and we’ll talk in the morning. I don’t know if I can let you put yourself at risk, Callie. I don’t know if I can watch you go through hell and back again. Because this time, there simply might be no way out. You may get stuck in there. I don’t know if I can live with that.”
