Page 34 of Then and Now (The Edge of Retaliation 3)
Maybe it’s from Jo?
She does enjoy leaving me special things, sometimes she brings me muffins or cakes, sometimes she makes coffee before I wake up and she’s on her way to work.
I breathe a sigh of relief, wondering what it is she got me.
I walk over, placing my purse down and picking up the package, opening it. I stick my hand inside without looking and my fingers graze against something almost rubbery in its texture. Narrowing my eyes, I pick it up and pull it out. The moment my eyes fix on what I have in my hand, I scream and launch it across the room.
No.
It can’t be.
It isn’t real.
My heart races as I stare where it landed, lying on the floor. I just touched it. Oh god, who would do something like this? With trembling hands, I glance down at the note I now know is not from Jo, but if it’s not from her who in the hell is it from and how the hell do they know where I live?
I pick up the note and unfold it, reading the lines written in scrawling handwriting.
You didn’t think you could hide, did you? You’re part of this. There is nowhere I can’t find you. Chase looks good without a finger. I wonder who will be next?
No.
No.
This isn’t happening.
My heart slams against my chest, an angry beat that has my head spinning and my whole body working out of control.
How did they find me?
Why do they want me?
I moved away. I left it all. Tanner is the one they wanted, Tanner is the one who caused the problems. They only took Jo and Tatum as a way to get him to come forward. Why would they go to so much effort to send me something so horrible? Do they have Chase? Is Tanner and Tatum okay?
God dammit.
No.
Why is this happening now?
Was I honestly stupid enough to believe that they wouldn’t come after us?
I mean, we all put them away. A group effort. We made sure they got what we believed was coming to them, only that plan didn’t work and they’re coming after us.
I don’t know what to do.
I have no idea where to go or who to tell.
Do I tell Jo, and mess up her whole world?
Do I ignore it and pray it goes away?
Do I call Tanner?
No.
I can’t do that.
I do know one person I can call, though.
One person who I’m hoping won’t hate me enough to tell me what’s going on.
I pull out my phone, and dial Ethan’s number. I kept all the numbers from my old phone, though I never made contact with any of them. I guess part of me, somewhere deep down, wondered if I’d ever need to speak to them again.
I guess that time has come.
“Hello?” a familiar voice answers, a voice I’ve missed for years now. A voice I came to become so familiar with when I was in prison, hell, I used to look forward to the moments where I’d get to hear it.
Ethan.
“Ethan?” I say, my voice soft and nervous.
He goes quiet for a moment, for a long, long moment. “Callie?”
“It’s me.”
More silence.
“You’re joking, right?” he mutters, and I can hear the anger in his voice immediately cloud the line.
Of course he’s angry, why wouldn’t he be?
I left him without saying goodbye.
He was my best friend and I ran away.
“I know you’re angry, I have a lot of explaining to do but …”
“Explaining?” he laughs, bitterly. “Oh, you mean how you just left everything behind and disappeared? That explaining? By all means, Callie, explain. Then tell me why the fuck you’re calling after how many years? Two?”
“Ethan, look,” I start, and then close my eyes and exhale, “no words are going to make you not hate me, I get that. I did what I thought was right, and I’m sorry if I hurt you. I… couldn’t take it anymore. I couldn’t breathe anymore. It was too hard. That’s not an excuse, but it’s the truth. I needed to start fresh, and I did that, but …”
“But now they’ve found you too, right?”
I jerk back a little. “You know why I’m calling?”
“Course I know why you’re fuckin’ calling. You think we haven’t been dealing with this shit here? We’ve been wonderin’ just how long it would take them to track you down, didn’t take long at all, it would seem.”
“We?” I whisper, my heart pounding against my chest.
“Yeah, we. Tanner, Tatum and me. The people you two fucked over when you ran without an explanation. You left us to clean up this fuckin’ mess alone and we did. Until now.”
Tanner is still there. Tatum, too. My heart races.
“I’m sorry, Ethan. I am.”
“Sorry means fuck all to me now, Callie, what do you want?”
I clench my eyes closed, knowing I deserve that, but still standing by my decision to leave, because at the time, it was honestly what I thought I had to do. Tanner and his family were going through enough without our complicated relationship coming in and ruining everything.
